Leon Rodriguez Sworn In as USCIS Director

Leon Rodriguez was sworn in on July 9, 2014, as the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The agency has nearly 18,000 employees.

The Senate confirmed Mr. Rodriguez in June 2014. He previously served as the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a position he held from 2011 to 2014. From 2010 to 2011, he served as chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Previously, Mr. Rodriguez was county attorney for Montgomery County, Maryland, from 2007 to 2010. He was a principal at Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver in Washington, DC, from 2001 to 2007.

Mr. Rodriguez served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2001, first as chief of the White Collar Crimes Section from 1998 to 1999 and then as first assistant U.S. Attorney until his departure. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Rodriguez was a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division at DOJ from 1994 to 1997 and a senior assistant district attorney at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in New York from 1988 to 1994. He received a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

See also: The Official Announcement