John Zadrozny

USCIS Official, Former Official at the State Department, Former Legislative Counsel for FAIR, Former Counsel for Sen. Ted Cruz

A former legislative counsel with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), John Zadrozny is one of the many former staffers of established anti-immigrant groups to take up a position in the Trump Administration. He currently serves as an official with USCIS.

  • Zadrozny attended Fordham and Catholic Universities before taking up a number of roles at the White House and State Department. In 2009, Zadrozny joined the anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), founded by white nationalist John Tanton, where he worked as legislative counsel.
  • Zadrozny worked for FAIR under Dan Stein’s leadership for less than a year before leaving to join a legal consulting group and then taking up positions at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
  • In 2015, he joined Senator Ted Cruz’s team as counsel, and joined President Trump’s State Department after he took office.
  • According to multiple reports, Zadrozny is an ally of Stephen Miller, President Trump’s chief immigration strategist who is responsible for the bulk of the draconian immigration policies that Trump has enacted since taking office, including family separation, the Muslim ban, dramatic cuts to the refugee resettlement program and ending DACA.
  • Vanity Fair described Zadrozny as a “veteran” of Miller’s influential Domestic Policy Council who was expected to oversee the Administration’s refugee policy in the State Department.
  • Many credit Miller for the mass shakeup of at USCIS in 2019, in which Lee Francis Cissna resigned from his position as USCIS head. Cissna, like Miller and Zadrozny, has strong ties to anti-immigrant groups, but it is widely reported that Miller wanted Cissna out and replaced him with someone even more hardline.
  • Ken Cuccinelli, the former Attorney General of Virginia, replaced Cissna, and John Zadrozny joined his team.
  • Zadrozny has said very little publicly regarding his views about immigrants, but R.J. Hauman, the current government relations director at FAIR, told Politico, “Not only does John Zadrozny have extensive immigration experience in the Senate, White House, and State Department, but he’s a firm believer in the administration’s agenda. He’ll be a fantastic addition at USCIS under Ken Cuccinelli.”
  • According to Foreign Policy, “Zadrozny is also close to Andrew Veprek, the deputy assistant secretary of state for the embattled refugee bureau, according to former officials. Veprek has most recently come under fire for pushing to soften language on a United Nations resolution condemning racism…”