Senior ICE official resigns amid sex allegations
WASHINGTON — A senior official in the Homeland Security Department resigned Saturday while denying allegations that she had made inappropriate sexual advances to several male employees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Suzanne Barr was chief of staff to John Morton, who directs ICE, which is the second-largest law enforcement division in the federal government.
Barr was longtime aide to Janet Napolitano when she was Arizona’s governor. Barr came to Washington in early 2009 when President Obama appointed Napolitano as secretary of Homeland Security.
In her resignation letter, Barr told Morton that she had been the focus of “unfounded allegations designed to destroy my reputation.”
She said her larger concern was the threat the allegations posed to the agency’s reputation, so she was stepping down “with great regret.”
Barr was named in a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit in May filed by a senior ICE agent. Later, other agency employees stepped forward with complaints of inappropriate sexual behavior.
Barr said the allegations against her “are unfounded and without any merit, and I am confident that my reputation will be restored.”
She has been on a leave of absence from the agency.
Barr helped direct operations, activities and policies for ICE, which has 20,000 employees in 670 domestic and international offices and a budget of more than $5.7 billion, according to its website.