Ur Mendoza Jaddou (born 1974)United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Non-Judicial Nominees: Ur Mendoza Jaddou
/ref> is an American attorney who is the current director of

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...

in the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

Early life and education

Jaddou was born and raised in Chula Vista, California. Her mother is from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and her father is from

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, of Chaldean heritage."President Biden Announces His Intent to Nominate Key Members for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security", White House, April 12, 2021
/ref> Jaddou earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

in philosophy from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor from the

UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...

Career

From 2002 to 2007, Jaddou was senior counsel to Congresswoman

Zoe Lofgren Susan Ellen "Zoe" Lofgren ( ; born December 21, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a U.S. representative from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Lofgren is in her 13th term in Congress, having been first elected in ...

. From 2007 to 2011, she was majority chief counsel to the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. From 2012 to 2014, she was deputy assistant secretary of the

Bureau of Legislative Affairs The Bureau of Legislative Affairs, also known as the "H Bureau", is the office of the United States Department of State that coordinates legislative activity for the Department of State and advises the Secretary, the Deputy, as well as the unde ...

for regional, global, and functional affairs. Jaddou then joined the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

, serving as chief counsel for Citizenship and Immigration Services. Since 2017, Jaddou has also been an adjunct law professor at the

Washington College of Law The American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL or WCL) is the law school of American University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It is located on the western side of Tenley Circle in the Tenleytown section of nort ...

. Since 2018, Jaddou has been the director of DHS Watch, a watchdog group operated by America's Voice.

Nomination as director of USCIS

On April 12, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Jaddou to be the director of the

. On April 15, 2021, her nomination was sent to the Senate. The Senate confirmed her, by a vote of 47 to 34, on July 30, 2021.

Leadership of USCIS

Under Jaddou, USCIS changed its mission statement in February 2022 to include words like "welcome" and "respect" for immigrants, after the Trump administration moved to emphasize that the agency's work included "securing the homeland." The Trump administration also had removed the phrase, "nation of immigrants," from the agency's mission statement, prompting backlash from immigrant rights groups, but Jaddou did not restore the phrase. Jaddou has called for USCIS to hire thousands of additional staff to address record case backlogs. She testified in Congress in April 2022 that the agency was still dealing with vacancies and morale problems experienced during the Trump administration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaddou, Ur 1974 births Biden administration personnel Living people People from Chula Vista, California Stanford University alumni UCLA School of Law alumni Washington College of Law faculty United States Department of Homeland Security officials American people of Iraqi descent American people of Mexican descent Catholics from California Middle Eastern Christians Chaldean Americans