A. Ashley Tabaddor, Chief Counsel, Office of Chief Counsel

Experience and Achievements

A. Ashley Tabaddor was appointed as the USCIS chief counsel on Jan. 25, 2021.

Prior to her appointment as chief counsel, Tabaddor served as an immigration judge. She was appointed to the bench in November 2005 where she presided over the detained, nondetained, juvenile and mental competency dockets. Prior to her appointment, she served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. She also served as a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Civil Division in Washington D.C., and as a law clerk and attorney advisor for the immigration court and the Chief Immigration Judge.

From 2017 until her appointment as chief counsel, Tabaddor served as the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

Tabaddor is the recipient of judicial excellence awards by the Mexican-American Bar Association (2019), Armenian-American Bar Association (2014), the Arab American Lawyers’ Association of Southern California (2014), and the Iranian American Bar Association (2013). She is actively involved with the legal and the non-legal community, mentoring and speaking regularly before bar associations, conferences, symposiums, organizations and schools.

Education

Tabaddor received her B.A., cum laude, from UCLA, and her law degree from UC, Hastings College of the Law. In addition to her duties as a judge, she was an adjunct professor with a number of law schools, including George Washington law school and the UCLA school of law.