The first Latino to run the largest FBI field office in New York City nearly turned the job down in order to continue teaching middle school.

Diego Rodriguez is the assistant director in charge of the NYC field office overseeing all operations and personnel in five boroughs, eight counties and two New York airports: La Guardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation website.

Rodriguez was a school teacher in the 1980s before starting a career with the FBI. He was first asked to join the team as part of a diversity initiative but said, "I'm really happy teaching. Thanks, but no thanks," Newser reports.

He eventually took the job and started his FBI career in 1990, working on the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. He was also a member of the SWAT team.

"I genuinely care about their cases, but I'm not a micro-manager," Rodriguez said in a recent interview in his lower Manhattan office. "They've got their own chain of command. The head of the office doesn't need to be meddling in certain things."

The 50 year old scored a high-profile role within 25 years of working with the FBI. Now, he oversees about 2,000 agents and some of the nation's most important terrorism, cyber fraud and public corruption cases.

Rodriguez arrived at the office at a time when the U.S. is dealing with the Islamic State militant group, which is trying to use the Internet to reach recruits. He'll be managing agents as they try to crack down an evolving terror threat.

"You're already looking for needles in a haystack, but it becomes much more difficult when those you are looking for slowly disappear in the haystack," he said.

Rodriguez's agents and NYPD detectives have recently made more than a half dozen arrests of suspected Islamic State sympathizers.

Check out the photo of Rodriguez on Voto Latino's Twitter page.