Commemorating Ten Years of DACA with Felicia Escobar, Former Special Assistant to President Barack Obama for Immigration Policy

Felicia Escobar

Former Special Assistant to President Barack Obama for Immigration Policy

Felicia Escobar Carrillo was appointed as the chief of staff for USCIS on Jan. 28, 2021. Prior to joining USCIS, Escobar Carrillo served as the Director of Immigration at The Beacon Fund since 2017. Previously, she was a consultant for the California Community Foundation helping to implement the Los Angeles Justice Fund. From 2010 - 2017, Escobar Carrillo served in several positions in the White House Domestic Policy Council, including as special assistant to the president for immigration policy (2014- 2017), senior policy director (2012 – 2014), and senior policy advisor (2010-2012). She also served in the U.S. Senate as senior legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Ken Salazar from 2004 to 2007 and associate director of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee from 2003 to 2005.



Escobar Carrillo is a native of San Antonio, TX. In 2016, she received a Director’s Partnership Award from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She has also received awards from the Latina Lawyers Bar Association of Los Angeles (2015) and UCLA La Raza Law Students Association (2015). She received an undergraduate degree from Yale University, a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and her Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law.

Katharine Donato

Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration, Georgetown University

Katharine Donato is the Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration and former Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She has examined many research questions related to migration, including the economic consequences of U.S. immigration policy; health consequences of migration; immigrant parent involvement in schools in New York, Chicago, and Nashville; deportation and its effects for immigrants; the great recession and its consequences for Mexican workers; U.S. legal visa system; and refugee and migrant integration.



Her first book, Gender and International Migration: From Slavery to Present, was co-authored with Donna Gabaccia and published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 2015. Several years later, together with Elizabeth Ferris, she co-authored a second book, Refugees, Migration and Global Governance: Negotiating the Global Compacts, published by Routledge in 2019. Professor Donato has also co-edited 8 refereed journal issues and published more than 90 refereed journal articles and book chapters.