June 26, 2009

Longest serving DHS employee honored for her federal service

WASHINGTON - Top officials of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gathered at ICE headquarters this afternoon to honor an employee who is retiring after 67 years in federal service.

Ms. Erma Paliani, the secretary to the ICE deputy assistant director of the Critical Infrastructure and Fraud Division, is the longest serving employee of the Department of Homeland Security. She is retiring on July 3.

"Ms. Paliani is a cherished member of the ICE team," said ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton in honoring her today. "Even though she plans to try retirement in a week or so, the example of her service and dedication to duty will continue to be the gold standard for employees of this agency."

Ms. Paliani has worked for 13 presidential administrations, served assistant commissioners and met U.S. attorneys general. She began her federal career as a records clerk with the Army Signal Corps in Philadelphia just weeks before Pearl Harbor in 1941, when the Defense department was known as the War Department and Franklin Roosevelt was president.

After the war, when the Signal Corps moved from Philadelphia, Ms. Paliani chose to work for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an organization that would become ICE when DHS was formed in 2003. She was a member of the INS stenographers' pool and answered the call for stenographers in Washington in 1947. She eventually became a secretary in the investigations division, which handled some of the most high-profile cases in INS history.

Ms. Paliani's division helped dismantle organized crime and investigated subversive activity in the post-war era. When Ms. Paliani - known as Ms. Erma to her colleagues - reached her 50th year of working for INS in 1997, she was awarded an honorary credential as an senior special agent.

Her dedication to public service was also recognized in November 2008 when she received the DHS Secretary's Award for Exemplary Service.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE comprises four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.

  Last Modified: