Leon Fresco currently serves as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice, where he is in charge of overseeing the Office of Immigration Litigation. In this role, he supervises over 300 attorneys and oversees all civil immigration litigation, both affirmative and defensive, and is responsible for coordinating national immigration matters before the federal district courts and circuit courts of appeals.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, he served as the Staff Director for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security. In that capacity, he served as the principal advisor to Senator Charles E. Schumer, Chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, on all aspects of immigration law and policy. He managed all activities of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, including its oversight functions over the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of Health and Human Services. He also served as the primary drafter of S.744, the Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill of 2013.
Prior to working with Senator Schumer, Mr. Fresco worked as a Chesterfield Smith fellow at Holland & Knight LLP in Miami, Florida, where he practiced in the areas of immigration, nationality, and consular law. His experience included successfully representing hundreds of clients before the United States Courts of Appeals, the federal district courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Administrative Appeals Office of the Department of Homeland Security.
He was named as South Florida’s Most Effective Pro Bono Lawyer by the South Florida Daily Business Review in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.