What to Expect from the Biden Administration on Immigration: Insights from Former Key Officials
As President Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas continue to build their immigration team and move forward on their ambitious agenda, they must balance competing priorities and navigate among competing stakeholders and political currents. We speak with veterans of that process from both Republican and Democratic administrations, and seek their insights:
- What can we expect from the Biden administration on workplace immigration issues?
- What will determine if the Administration is able to realize its priorities?
- How can the HR community make sure that it has a place at the table on these important issues?
Learning Objectives:
1. Gain an understanding of the priorities of the Biden Administration and the future of employment-based immigration policy.
2. Learn how to elevate the voice of HR and advocate for employment-based immigration policies that will ensure employers have access to global talent.
Leon Rodriguez
As former federal prosecutor and leader of multiple federal and local agencies, clients look to Leon to give them direct advice on the risks related to investigations, to give them guidance on responding to investigations, to advocate for an optimal resolution, or to aggressively litigate their matters to positive outcomes.
Leon is a founding member of the firm's Immigration and Compliance specialty team. He has helped clients understand this rapidly changing and increasingly risk-laden area. Leon has assisted a number of clients with I-9 audits, training on best I-9 practices, and negotiating with government authorities when enforcement events arise. When clients have difficulties obtaining visas to travel to or remain in the US, he assists them either by negotiating with government authorities or by bringing litigation to secure a positive outcome to their case.
In his practice, Leon draws upon his foundational training and experience as a litigator and investigator, primarily gained as a federal and state prosecutor, along with his wide variety of substantive experiences secured through high-level government leaderships posts. From 2014 to 2017, Leon served as the Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), following a more than two decade career as a prosecutor, law firm partner, and government agency leader. From 2011 to 2014, Leon served as the Director of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. This diverse range of experiences make him most effective for multidisciplinary matters involving multiple and serious risk vectors for clients.
Leon serves as chair of Seyfarth Government Relations Policy Group and works with clients to develop multifaceted strategies to achieve desired public policy outcomes. A veteran of many congressional hearings, he also assists clients who either have been summoned to testify or provide documents before congressional committees. Leon has also handled interdisciplinary problems requiring an attorney with extensive and diverse experience in litigation and investigations, in interacting with the government at all levels, and interacting with media and external stakeholders.
Leon is also chair of the firm's Health Care Regulatory and Compliance group, and a co-chair of the Health Care Privacy, Security and HIPAA group. He assists firm clients with complex and novel HIPAA questions. Leon also counsels and assists clients who have experienced data breaches or otherwise under investigation by the Department of Health and Human Service Office for Civil Rights.
Leon enjoys Seyfarth's collegial environment across its international services, and the firm's commitment to using innovative delivery and pricing approaches to deliver consistently positive outcomes for clients.
Maddy Fain Ellis
Maddy Fain Ellis is a director and assistant counsel on immigration law in the Office of the General Counsel at PwC LLP. Before joining PwC, Maddy was an associate counsel with the Adjudications Law Division at U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services where she advised on complex business immigration law matters. In addition, Maddy served as acting branch chief and wrote business immigration appeals decisions as an appeals officer for the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office. Prior to that, she was a professional associate in human resources for the U.S. Department of State in Amman, Jordan. Maddy also worked as a director and senior associate focusing on business immigration law at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and as an attorney at several boutique immigration firms. Maddy received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Leon Fresco
Leon Fresco is an immigration attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office where he focuses his practice on providing global immigration representation to businesses and individuals. He also represents clients in administrative law matters, and has extensive appellate, commercial litigation and legislation experience. Mr. Fresco was the primary drafter of S.744, the U.S. Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill of 2013. He uses his broad range of experience to develop creative solutions to achieve his clients' objectives, which often may involve multistage representation before administrative agencies and federal courts and the development of policy solutions.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Fresco was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Immigration Litigation at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division. In this position, Mr. Fresco provided litigation risk assessments to cabinet members in Executive Branch agencies. He also oversaw all civil immigration litigation on behalf of the federal government, including representation of the DOJ, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Department of State (DOS). This involved supervision of more than 350 attorneys working on nearly 10,000 cases per year. He also advised and assisted client agencies in drafting immigration regulations. In this capacity, and prior to entering government service, Mr. Fresco argued extensively in six of the federal appellate circuit courts, including several en banc arguments.
Prior to joining the DOJ, Mr. Fresco was the staff director for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, handling matters involving immigration, refugees and border security, including managing the subcommittee's oversight functions involving the DOJ, DHS, HHS, DOL and DOS. He was the principal advisor to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), former chairman of the subcommittee, on all aspects of immigration law and policy.
Sharvari Dalal-Dheini
Sharvari (Shev) Dalal-Dheini is the Director of Government Relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), a voluntary nonpartisan bar association of more than 15,000 attorneys and law professors practicing, researching, and teaching in the field of immigration and nationality law. In her role, Ms. Dalal-Dheini directs the association’s administrative and congressional advocacy efforts with a focus on employment-based immigration, immigration benefits, and the legal immigration system to develop practice resources for members, review policy developments, regulations, and legislative proposals.
Prior to joining AILA in May 2019, Ms. Dalal-Dheini worked for eleven years with the Office of the Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. Most recently with USCIS, she served as Special Counsel and was responsible for coordinating the legal review of various policy and regulatory initiatives and providing subject matter expertise and advice to senior agency leaders on employment-based immigration adjudication matters. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Chief, where she delivered on key Presidential objectives and initiatives, advised senior leadership at USCIS, DHS and the White House to guide decision making on important legal issues, projects and policies, and optimized operational efficiency by providing guidance to clients for process improvement and the reduction of litigation risk. Other roles she held at USCIS include Special Counsel to the Chief Counsel, a role in which she developed and spearheaded USCIS implementation of President Obama’s Executive Actions to support high-skilled immigration. In addition, she served as Associate Counsel on the Adjudications Law Division and the Litigation Coordination Division where she advised on adjudication and litigation matters. As a college student, she interned with legacy Immigration and Naturalization Services Office of International Affairs for multiple summers. She received numerous awards during her service with USCIS, including the USCIS Director’s Award (2016), Secretary’s Award for Excellence (2015), and Manager of the Year Award (2015).
Prior to joining government service, Ms. Dalal-Dheini worked for several years at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, LLP, in Baltimore, MD as a Labor and Employment and Immigration Associate representing employers, individuals, families and asylum applicants on a wide variety of immigration matters. Ms. Dalal-Dheini holds a J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law, in Washington, DC, as well as a M.A. in International Relations from American University and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Richmond. Prior to law school, she served in the Peace Corps in Benin, West Africa.
Julie Myers Wood
Julie Myers Wood has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sector working on regulatory and enforcement issues from many perspectives, including as defense counsel, consultant, government investigator, federal prosecutor, and compliance consultant. Ms. Wood is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Guidepost Solutions, a leading investigations, compliance and security firm with offices throughout the United States, as well as England, Colombia and Singapore.
At Guidepost, Ms. Wood focuses on regulatory compliance and investigative work. Ms. Wood regularly serves as an Independent Monitor/Consultant appointed by the U.S. government. Most recently, she served as the Third-Party auditor for a global security firm and was responsible for evaluating the firm’s compliance with EAR and OFAC for the Department of Commerce. Ms. Wood also served as the Department of Justice-appointed Independent Consultant for a global energy services firm relating to OFAC issues and the company’s compliance culture. Additional monitoring assignments included serving as Independent Consultant relating to a global bank’s AML, OFAC, and KYC remediation, and as Monitoring Trustee responsible for evaluating divestiture of various business units for a global security firm.
Ms. Wood also regularly assists companies in a proactive matter, assisting with culture and process changes across a wide range of organizations and industries. She has conducted trade compliance reviews for several consulting/technology companies with a worldwide footprint, assisting with classification, recordkeeping, technology, denied party screening and monitoring of activities.
Before joining Guidepost, Ms. Wood started a consulting and software firm, ICS Consulting. ICS Consulting built software products to assist the private sector in meeting regulatory requirements for immigration and trade compliance. ICS Consulting also provided specialized immigration and customs consulting services. Guidepost Solutions acquired ICS Consulting in 2010.
Prior to joining the private sector, Ms. Wood held several high-level positions with the U.S. government including at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury, and Commerce, as well as at the White House. She has significant experience with compliance culture, internal controls and anti-fraud measures across a wide range of industries. In one of her most significant government roles, Ms. Wood served as Head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Department of Homeland Security, the largest investigative component and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government. ICE prosecutes violations of trade compliance and customs laws, among other laws and regulations. While at ICE, Ms. Wood led the creation of Trade Transparency Units focused on combatting trade-based money laundering, including under and over-invoicing.
Ms. Wood also served as the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce, where she oversaw all Export Enforcement Special Agents enforcing criminal and civil violations of export enforcement laws, including violations involving telecommunications companies and encryption issues. In this role, she also assisted in policy development relating to enhancements to the EAR and export control reform and supervised the Office of Enforcement Analysis. Ms. Wood also served as the Chief of Staff for the Criminal Division and a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury where she had policy supervision relating to customs enforcement matters. Ms. Wood also prosecuted cases as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, including customs fraud and money laundering.
Ms. Wood began her legal career at the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt in Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Cornell Law School.