John R. Sandweg (born 1975) is an American attorney who served as an acting director of

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the Un ...

from August 1, 2013 to February 21, 2014. He is a partner of Nixon Peabody leading the Cross-Border Risks team.

Biography

2002–2009: Defense attorney

From 2002 to 2009, Sandweg was a defense attorney at Quarles & Brady LLP. In 2008, he defended Arizona House of Representative Mark DeSimone from accusations of spousal abuse, and had told reporters that he would be resigning. He also raised funds for

Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic administrator. She served as president of the University of California from 2013 to 2020, on the faculty at the Goldman School of Public Policy at t ...

's campaigns in 2009.

2013–2014: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

In August 2013, Sandweg was named as the Acting Director of

following the resignation of John T. Morton. The decision was met with criticism, with critics questioning his credentials due to having no experience in law enforcement. In September, Sandweg was probed for pushing Homeland Security Inspector General Charles K. Edwards to stall his report on a scandal involving the U.S. Secret Service. During his tenure, illegal immigrant removals fell in December 2013, which Sandweg attributed to identifying more criminals and a change in composition for removals. That same month, Senator

Chuck Grassley Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate since 2025, a role he also held from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Re ...

gave security concerns about the EB-5 Immigration Program. On February 17, 2014, Sandweg resigned from the position with no explanation. He was replaced by

Thomas S. Winkowski Thomas S. Winkowski (born 1954) is a retired former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was previously Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Winkowski has been aw ...

2014–present: Post-ICE and Nixon Peabody

In 2017, Sandweg criticized the elimination of the

DACA Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals who, on June 15, 2012, were physically present in the United States with no lawful immigration status after having entered the cou ...

program as it would clog the immigration system. In 2019, Sandweg joined Nixon Peabody as a partner to head the group's cross-border risks practice. In 2020, Sandweg joined doctors, lawyers, asylum-seekers and other former officials for ICE and the Trump administration to release immigrants due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He wanted to release nonviolent detainees to stall the spread of COVID-19. He also criticized Trump for using ICE as his personal "goon squad," and saying that the raids were a failure of leadership in the Trump administration. During the

2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 election. The primaries and caucuses took p ...

, Sandweg criticized

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who was the List of mayors of New York City, 109th mayor of New York City, mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of t ...

and

Cory Booker Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democ ...

after they had pressed

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

on Obama-era policies. During the

presidential transition of Joe Biden The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7, 2020, and ended on January 20, 2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions, which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week ...

, Sandweg expressed excitement about how the Biden administration would handle the pandemic and the return of

Alejandro Mayorkas Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas (born November 24, 1959) is an American attorney and government official who was the seventh United States secretary of homeland security, serving from 2021 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Mayorkas previ ...

after his leave as the

United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security The deputy secretary of homeland security is the chief operating officer of the United States Department of Homeland Security, with responsibility for managing day-to-day operations. The department has over 208,000 employees and an annual budge ...

in 2016. He also praised the fewer arrests and deportations. As an immigration lawyer in private practice, his clients have included Anna Sorokin; Sandweg said in an interview that he took her case because it demonstrated the government's "overreliance on detention."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandweg, John Arizona State University alumni Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law alumni American lawyers U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Obama administration personnel 1975 births Living people