Robert Law

Senior Policy Advisor, USCIS, Former FAIR Government Relations Director

See Trump Administration Past & Present
Robert Law

Connections

Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Dan Stein Julie Kirchner Gene Hamilton Lee Francis Cissna Elizabeth Jacobs

Before joining the Trump Administration, Robert Law served as government relations director at the anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) where he set the policy agenda for the organization and advocated for harsh immigration policies such as ending DACA and eliminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Law co-authored FAIR’s major policy report: Immigration Priorities for the 2017 Presidential Transition, in which he proposed indefinite family detention, the repeal of DACA, and an elimination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Weeks into Law’s job in the Trump Administration, the former FAIR staffer rewrote a recommendation memo on Haiti in an effort to terminate TPS for the country.

  • Law is one of a number of individuals who have moved into the Trump Administration from anti-immigrant groups founded by white nationalist John Tanton. His former colleagues at FAIR, Julie Kirchner and Elizabeth Jacobs, who also served under Dan Stein’s leadership, are just a few of the political appointees in the Administration who have advocated for policies designed to shrink the immigrant and refugee population of the United States.
  • Before moving into the Trump Administration, the Senior Policy Advisor to USCIS served as FAIR’s Director of Government Relations and in other roles from 2013-2017. Law helped to set the policy agenda for the organization, maintained the group’s congressional relationships and assisted with drafting legislation.
  • While at FAIR, Law co-authored the group’s major policy report: Immigration Priorities for the 2017 Presidential Transition, in which he proposed a myriad of draconian immigration policies, many of which the Administration has enacted.
  • Documents made public as part of ongoing litigation on the Trump Administration’s decision to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, demonstrated an effort by administration officials including Law, DOJ Senior Advisor Gene Hamilton, and former USCIS Director Lee Cissna, to rewrite TPS recommendation memos in order to terminate the program for many. According to these documents, Law rewrote a TPS recommendation memo on Haiti in order to get the conclusion “we are looking for.”
  • While still working for FAIR, Law praised the anti-immigrant agenda put forth by the Trump Administration, stating, “Every single component of it is basically what we have fought for, for a very long time.”
  • In an op-ed for The Hill, Law railed against The Succeed Act, an immigration proposal offered as a DACA fix by Sens. Lankford, Tillis and Hatch, calling it a “massive amnesty proposal” and derided Senator Hatch as “the cheap labor lobby’s favorite senator.”
  • Law has disparaged DACA recipients in several opinion pieces for The Hill. In one, he said that a repeal of DACA “is a win for young Americans who have struggled to find decent work over the last five years.” Law called the repeal “welcome news to the hundreds of thousands of recent college graduates stuck living at home because they couldn’t find decent employment after graduation.”
  • In a radio interview while still with FAIR, Law claimed that DACA was, “[R]ewarding their parents for their lawless behavior. Their parents made a choice to bring them here and defy our immigration laws and just because you have children doesn’t mean that you have a human shield that exempts you from any form of enforcement.”
  • While at FAIR, Law advocated for DACA’s rescission. In a policy paper he co-authored, he and his colleagues urged the incoming Trump Administration: “The president must immediately revoke the orders authorizing the DACA, DACA+ and DAPA schemes; and revoke all work, identity, and immigration status documents issued pursuant thereto. These unconstitutional programs reward illegal aliens and encourage additional illegal immigration.”
  • In the same report Law and his colleagues called for a drastic reduction to the TPS program, “The president must order significant reductions in the numbers of aliens admitted to the United States each year pursuant to programs under Executive Branch control, such as: Temporary Protected Status, also know [sic] as TPS, the refugee and asylum programs, humanitarian parole and Transit Without Visa. DHS should monitor individuals admitted under these categories and their status should be terminated where no longer justified.”
  • According to The Nation, while at USCIS, Law “was urging the administration to end TPS designations for any country whose former residents had been protected by it for more than three years, regardless of the current conditions.”

Trump Administration Past & Present

Robert Law
Stephen Miller Jeff Sessions Steve Bannon Julie Kirchner Jon Feere Gene Hamilton Lee Francis Cissna Ken Cuccinelli Elizabeth Jacobs Ian Smith John Zadrozny Ronald Mortensen

Connections

Robert Law
Federation for American Immigration Reform Dan Stein Julie Kirchner Gene Hamilton Lee Francis Cissna Elizabeth Jacobs