MPI Announces Appointment of Former INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar as Senior Fellow

WASHINGTON – James W. Ziglar, the last Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, is joining the Migration Policy Institute as a Senior Fellow, MPI President Demetrios Papademetriou announced today.

Mr. Ziglar, who has more than 40 years experience in management, finance, law and public policy, will assume his new role next month upon his retirement as President and CEO of Cross Match Technologies, a global provider of biometric identity solutions.

From 1998-2001, Mr. Ziglar served as Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, a position which made him the Senate’s business manager, chief law enforcement officer and head of protocol. He left that post in 2001 when President George W. Bush appointed him INS Commissioner, a position he held until December 2002 when the agency was dissolved and its missions transferred to the new Department of Homeland Security.

“Jim is a distinguished public servant, and we are delighted that MPI will be able to draw on his invaluable expertise in the public and private sectors,’’ Dr. Papademetriou said.

In coming to MPI, Mr. Ziglar joins his predecessor as INS Commissioner, Senior Fellow and U.S. Immigration Policy Program Director Doris Meissner, who headed the agency during the Clinton administration.

“It is further evidence of MPI’s long tradition of nonpartisan research and policy approaches that the Institute is bringing under one roof the last two INS leaders – one a Democratic appointee, the other a Republican,” Dr. Papademetriou said.

At MPI, Mr. Ziglar will focus on the design and promotion of analytically-driven policy research that emphasizes good governance and pragmatic responses to the serious deficiencies of the U.S. immigration system as well as re-examine the country’s border-control and security initiatives.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to be associated with the Migration Policy Institute,” Mr. Ziglar said. “The integrity and value of MPI’s work and its strong reputation in the international community are reflective of its practical, non-partisan, independent and holistic approach to public policy analysis and implementation. I look forward to contributing to MPI’s important mission.”

Mr. Ziglar spent eight years as a practicing lawyer, beginning his career as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun; and 17 years as an investment banker, 12 of them as a Managing Director at PaineWebber Inc. (now UBS Financial Services Inc.). He also was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, where he taught immigration and constitutional law, and was a Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics. During the Reagan administration, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, a position from which he directed the operations of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines.

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