Former INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar Selected as Chairman of MPI Board of Trustees

WASHINGTON — James W. Ziglar, who was Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the George W. Bush administration, has been selected as chairman of the Migration Policy Institute’s Board of Trustees.

Ziglar, who served as INS commissioner in 2001-2002 until the agency was dissolved and its missions transferred to the new Department of Homeland Security, succeeds Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who served as chairman of the Board of Trustees for 10 years. Bishop DiMarzio remains on the board.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have the wise counsel of Jim Ziglar, who has distinguished himself across the fields of government, law, public policy, business, finance and education,” said MPI President Andrew Selee. “And we are so thankful to Bishop DiMarzio for his stewardship of the board and guidance to senior leadership for so many years, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with him.”

Lidia Soto-Harmon, who is CEO of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, remains vice chair of the board. Kathleen Newland, MPI’s co-founder and senior fellow, is board secretary. And Warren R. Leiden, a partner emeritus of Berry, Appleman & Leiden and member of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (1992-1997), remains treasurer.

Ziglar, who is senior counsel at the law firm of Van Ness Feldman, said: “I am honored to assume leadership of the Board of Trustees during a period of evolution and dynamism for MPI, with Andrew as its new president, an expanding footprint in Europe and significant opportunities for MPI to provide its thought leadership and independent, evidence-based research on the most important immigration and immigrant integration issues confronting society.”

Ziglar was president and CEO of Cross Match Technologies from 2005-2008. Prior to his INS appointment, he served as Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate (1998-2001), a position in which he served as the Senate’s chief operating officer, top protocol officer and chief law enforcement officer. He was Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science in the Reagan administration, and spent 17 years as an investment banker and 16 years as a practicing lawyer. He began his law career as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. He later was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, where he taught immigration law, and was a fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics.

He currently serves as executive councilor (chairman) of the Board of Councilors of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (Hiroshima, Japan); a member of the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine; a member of the Presidents’ Circle of the National Academies; an honorary director of the National Water Resources Association; a trustee of the Harry A. Blackmun Scholarship Foundation; a director of Integrated Biometrics, Inc.; an emeritus director of Human Rights First; and an advisory board member of the National Foundation for American Policy.

For more on Ziglar and the Board of Trustees, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/about/trustees.

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The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at local, national and international levels.