A woman who served as an official in Joe Biden&#8217;s White House and on Kamala Harris&#8217;s transition team, whom bureaucrats tried to hide in the Department of Labor&#8217;s non-political workforce after the election, has been terminated after The Daily Wire exposed her scheme.
“Elizabeth Peña was terminated, effective today. The Administration is actively working to ensure no other political operatives from the Biden-Harris administration were secretly burrowed into the government,” an individual with direct knowledge of staffing decisions told The Daily Wire.
The firing suggests the Trump team is hitting the ground running with attention to detail when it comes to the federal workforce, prepared to detect and respond to tricks and evasion that at times thwarted the president&#8217;s administration in his first term.
There are strict rules around political appointees converting to career employees to stay in the government after their president&#8217;s term ends, designed to prevent the subversion of the new administration. Conversions must be approved by the Office of Personnel Management and reported to Congress.
But between the election and Inauguration Day, the Biden Department of Labor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-biden-admin-uses-loophole-to-put-kamala-transition-aide-in-trump-workforce">skirted that process</a> by creating a three-year position and appointing Peña to it, The Daily Wire revealed on January 15. It contended that because it wasn&#8217;t a permanent position, the rules didn&#8217;t apply, even though that would place her in the workforce for the majority of Trump&#8217;s term.
Peña had been a Biden political appointee to the Labor Department before leaving to work for the Harris transition team, which would have positioned her for a top political slot had Harris won the presidency. Instead, she was left unemployed — but in between Harris&#8217; election loss and Trump&#8217;s inauguration, the Labor Department tried to sneak her into a non-political role.
The maneuver was especially jarring because Peña&#8217;s whole career involved strategically placing political operatives into roles. According to her LinkedIn, she previously worked for the Biden White House&#8217;s Presidential Personnel Office, the nerve center for recruiting and dispatching political operatives across the government. Before that, she worked for the Joe Biden presidential transition team, which prepares lists of political operatives to install in key roles to take over the government.
Prior to that, she worked for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, where she “authored over 500 vetting reports analyzing employees.”
Democrats maintain that Trump&#8217;s concern that a &#8220;deep state&#8221; has attempted to subvert him is a conspiracy theory, but the move only seemed to corroborate those suspicions.
In a LinkedIn post announcing her new position on January 15, Peña said she planned to use her new job working for Trump&#8217;s Labor Department to promote “equity,” a left-wing policy opposed by the incoming president.
“I’m thrilled to announce that I have returned to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) as an International Relations Officer! This new role marks a continuation of my journey to protect and promote labor rights globally. Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of working on issues that matter deeply to me and at ILAB, I look forward to collaborating with partners at home and abroad to uphold the principles of dignity, equity, and justice in the workplace,” she wrote.
The Biden administration also lauded Peña as a DEI hire, quoting her on its website that &#8220;My Latina/Hispanic identity shapes my work by providing me with the core values that are embedded in me, like a strong work ethic, compassion, and resilience.&#8221;
Although the now-aborted &#8220;non-political&#8221; job had an end date in three years, it carried a salary of up to $153,354, and a Labor Department spokesperson under the Biden administration said she would be able to apply for a permanent job then.
He declined to say whether the job was created especially for her, but a Daily Wire review of job listings found that hers was the only position of its type to use a &#8220;term&#8221; rather than permanent status, and a similar job with the permanent status was canceled the same month the term job was advertised.
In a post to LinkedIn after publication of this article, Peña confirmed that she was terminated and blamed coverage in The Daily Wire.
&#8220;Yesterday, I was terminated from my position at the Department of Labor,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;This decision appears to have been influenced by an article published in a conservative outlet, which alleged that I had &#8216;burrowed&#8217; into the position. The article insinuated that the role was simply handed to me. Let me be clear: nothing in my life has ever been handed to me.&#8221;
&#8220;I am both surprised and, in some ways, flattered that my work would draw such attention and concern from the current administration,&#8221; the post said.
Peña also said that she didn&#8217;t believe she was hired due to DEI, but &#8220;would take pride&#8221; in it if that was the case.
&#8220;The article also misrepresented comments I previously made about my identity as a Latina during Hispanic heritage month, claiming I was a &#8216;diversity, equity, and inclusion&#8217; hire. This statement was taken out of context. But even if I had been hired as part of DEI efforts, I would take pride in that,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;While this chapter may have closed, it only strengthens my resolve to continue advocating for a brighter, more inclusive future for this country.&#8221; 
There are signs that the vigilance over Peña may also be present when it comes to enforcing Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-to-put-all-federal-dei-officials-on-leave-by-end-of-day-tomorrow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order abolishing DEI roles</a>, where bureaucrats may try to change or obscure their titles to avoid the axe.
A memo sent to all employees of most federal agencies on Wednesday said DEI positions would abolished because they &#8220;divide Americans by race, waste taxpayer dollars, and result in shameful discrimination,&#8221; and also that &#8220;We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.&#8221;
It said employees with knowledge of such maneuvers had 10 days to come forward without facing repercussions.
This piece was updated on Friday, January 24 with additional comment from Peña.

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Labor Department Fires Kamala Aide Exposed By The Daily Wire For ‘Burrowing’ In Trump Workforce