Leon Fresco

Leon Fresco is an immigration attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office, where he focuses his practice on providing global immigration representation to businesses, universities and individuals.

Mr. Fresco has extensive experience representing clients in the following types of governmental investigations relating to compliance with U.S. immigration laws, including:

• worksite enforcement actions and raids performed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• investigations of employers conducted by the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
• investigations conducted by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
• administrative visa investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of State (DOS)
• representation of educational institutions before the ICE Student and Exchange Visitor Program
• proceedings before the Executive Office of Immigration Review, Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer
• obtaining waivers for grounds of inadmissibility for foreign national clients

Mr. Fresco also represents clients in administrative law matters and appeals, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, mandamus litigation and asylum litigation. His experience includes extensive appellate and district court litigation, as well as legislative and regulatory drafting.

Mr. Fresco was the primary drafter of S.744, the U.S. Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill of 2013. He uses his broad range of experience to develop creative solutions to achieve his clients' objectives, which often may involve multistage representation before administrative agencies and federal courts and the development of policy solutions.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Fresco was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Immigration Litigation at the DOJ's Civil Division. In this position, Mr. Fresco provided litigation risk assessments to cabinet members in executive branch agencies. He also oversaw all civil immigration litigation on behalf of the federal government, including representation of the DOJ, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and State Department. This involved supervision of more than 350 attorneys working on nearly 10,000 cases per year. He also advised and assisted client agencies in drafting immigration regulations. In this capacity, and prior to entering government service, Mr. Fresco argued extensively in six of the federal appellate circuit courts, including several en banc arguments.

Prior to joining the DOJ, Mr. Fresco was the staff director for the Senate Committee of the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Immigration, handling matters involving immigration, refugees and border security, including managing the subcommittee's oversight functions involving the DOJ, DHS, HHS, DOL and DOS. He was the principal advisor to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), former chair of the subcommittee, on all aspects of immigration law and policy.

During his time on the subcommittee, Mr. Fresco drafted several pieces of legislation, including the 1) Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, 2) the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act, 3) the Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act and 4) the Israel E-2 Visa Bill.

Prior to his work in Washington, D.C., Mr. Fresco was an associate and a Chesterfield Smith Fellow in Holland & Knight's Miami office. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Daniel T.K. Hurley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

From May 2019 to March 2021, Mr. Fresco served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. He is a frequent commentator on the Bloomberg Law Podcast and ABC News regarding all immigration matters in the news and in the courts.

He has taught various courses on both immigration law and legal ethics as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School and American University, Washington College of Law.

In Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers, Mr. Fresco was recognized for Immigration in the 2018-2025 guides. One market source comments:

He is "incredibly responsive, hard-working and has an encyclopedic knowledge of matters within his specialty."