Felicia Escobar Carrillo

Felicia Escobar Carrillo served as chief of staff at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), from 2021 to 2025. During her tenure, USCIS restored its fiscal health, improved customer experience and implemented numerous policies and regulations to better serve the American public, and reduced the agency’s backlog for the first time in over a decade. Her extensive experience includes leading groundbreaking immigration initiatives in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, including serving as the director of Immigration at the Beacon Fund, principal consultant for the L.A. Justice Fund, and advisor to the Weingart Foundation on immigration grantmaking. From 2009 to 2017, Escobar Carrillo served in the White House Domestic Policy Council as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama for Immigration Policy, where she played a key role in implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, White House Task Force on New Americans, and efforts to advance bipartisan immigration reform legislation. She also worked on Capitol Hill as a senior legislative assistant for Senator Ken Salazar and an associate director for the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, under the leadership of Senators Tom Daschle and Hilary Clinton. Felicia received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and her Juris Doctorate degree from UCLA School of Law.