Leadership

Principal Legal Advisor,
William J. Howard

Bill Howard became Principal Legal Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 15, 2004. As Principal Legal Advisor, Mr. Howard oversees more than 600 attorneys across the country who are responsible for representing the DHS in removal proceedings before immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals, and advising ICE’s numerous enforcement components on everything from labor law to Fourth Amendment search and seizure issues.

Prior to his selection, Mr. Howard served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. As an AUSA, he was principally responsible for immigration and national security litigation, the latter involving cases where intelligence agencies invoke the state secrets privilege against disclosure of classified information.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Howard was the Senior Litigation Counsel to the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Immigration Litigation in the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. In this capacity, he handled litigation in the federal district courts and all federal courts of appeals. His most significant cases included the Elian Gonzalez litigation, where he was lead trial counsel and appellate co-counsel for the United States, and class actions involving use of Guantanamo Naval Base to stem mass migration from Haiti or Cuba. During his tenure with the Office of Immigration Litigation, he also served two years with the counter-terrorism team.

Mr. Howard served as General Counsel to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in the late 1980s. He is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School and received his bachelor of arts degree from Thomas Aquinas College, near Los Angeles.