Meeting of NACo’S Immigration Reform Task Force
Monday, February 22, 10:45AM – 12:00PM | Marriott Wardman Park Hotel | Room: Roosevelt 1-3
Task Force Leadership
Chair:
Vice Chair:
Vice Chair:
Vice Chair:
Hon. Lenore Stuart, Supervisor, Yuma County, Ariz.
Hon. Sean Conway, Commissioner, Weld County, Colo.
Hon. Marc Hamlin, District Clerk, Brazos County, Texas
Hon. Liz Stefanics, Commissioner, Santa Fe County, N.M.
Meeting Agenda
Call to Order and Welcome
Introductions
The Federal Refugee Admissions and Resettlement Process
As numerous international disasters have unfolded throughout modern history, the United States has
admitted and resettled millions of individuals fleeing from war-torn or oppressive nations. Congress
enacted the first refugee legislation after World War II, in 1948, and later passed the Refugee Act of 1980,
which created a standardized resettlement process and established the Office of Refugee Resettlement
(ORR) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Today, the United States continues to
admit and resettle individuals from around the world who are fleeing war or persecution, and various
federal agencies, including ORR, play a role in carrying out this process. In this session, we will be joined by
representatives from these agencies, who will discuss the federal government’s refugee admission and
resettlement process and engage with NACo members on the role of counties in this process.
Moderator:
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Ms. Theresa Cardinal Brown, Director of Immigration Policy, Bipartisan Policy Center
Panelists:
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Ms. Felicia Escobar, Special Assistant to the President for Immigration Policy, the White House
Ms. Hillary Ingraham, Director, Refugee Processing Center, Bureau of Population, Refugees
and Migration, Office of Admissions, U.S. Department of State
Mr. Leon Rodriguez, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of
Homeland Security
Mr. Bob Carey, Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and
Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Meeting Concludes
NACo staff contact: Hadi Sedigh at [email protected] or 202.942.4213
Theresa Cardinal Brown is the director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was
founded in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George
Mitchell. Theresa has more than twenty years of experience in immigration law, policy and
government relations. She has served as director of immigration and border policy at the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, associate director of business immigration advocacy at the American Immigration
Lawyers Association, and also served as a member and later director of the Immigration Legislation
Task Force for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Policy, overseeing a group of
senior officials to develop and coordinate policy responses and advice to the secretary and the White
House to legislative proposals and amendments in Congress on comprehensive immigration reform.
Felicia Escobar is a Special Assistant to President Obama for Immigration Policy. In this role, she
develops the President’s strategy for building a 21st century immigration system. This work involves
coordinating efforts across the Executive branch to strengthen the current system and working toward
passage of meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Before joining the White
House, Felicia served on U.S. Senator Ken Salazar’s legislative team, working with him to develop his
legislative agenda on a host of issues including labor, civil rights, judicial nominations and immigration.
Felicia advised Senator Salazar during the comprehensive immigration reform debates of 2006 and
2007 in which Senator Salazar was a key member of the bipartisan group pressing for reform. Prior to
this, Felicia was Associate Director of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee.
Hillary Ingraham is the Director of the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) for the Department of State’s
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). The RPC provides the technical and refugee
processing support to enable the U.S. Government to resettle tens of thousands of refugees to the
United States each year. Ms. Ingraham has over 15 years of experience working on refugee and
migration issues in a wide variety of governmental and non-governmental positions. Prior to her time
at the State Department, Hilary was a Presidential Management Fellow for the USCIS Refugee, Asylum
and International Operations Directorate where she gained experience with policy analysis and
refugee/asylee adjudication. She started her refugee-related work at Catholic Charities Refugee
Resettlement Program in Boston, Mass.
León Rodríguez is the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the government agency
that oversees lawful immigration and provides immigration, protection and humanitarian services for
people who are fleeing oppression, persecution or torture or facing urgent humanitarian situations.
Director Rodriguez has years of experience as a federal official and also as a county official, having
served as attorney in both King County, N.Y. and Montgomery County, Md. During his lengthy federal
tenure, he has served as the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, as the chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ), as a U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and as a trial
attorney in the Civil Rights Division at DOJ.
Robert "Bob" Carey is the Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of
Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which provides new populations in need with critical resources to assist
them in becoming integrated members of American society. Prior to joining ORR, Bob served as the
Vice President of Resettlement and Migration Policy at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and
served for ten years at the IRC as Vice President of Resettlement, where he oversaw IRC’s assistance to
refugees, helping thousands establish new lives in the U.S. and become self-sufficient, productive
citizens. Bob has also served as the chair of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of NGOs working on issues
affecting refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, victims of trafficking and victims of torture.