Principal Legal Advisor

Charles Wall is the Principal Legal Advisor (PLA) for the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As PLA, Mr. Wall oversees a staff of over 2,000 attorneys and support personnel who represent DHS in removal proceedings and provide accurate, timely, and complete legal advice and counsel to the agency’s senior officials and workforce.

From 2016 until his appointment as PLA, Mr. Wall served as Deputy Chief Counsel for OPLA New Orleans, where he oversaw the work of a team of Assistant Chief Counsel (ACC); managed the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Employment Law portfolios across multiple states; and supervised the worksite enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) certified undercover teams.

Mr. Wall began his career with ICE as an ACC in Louisiana in 2012. As an ACC, Mr. Wall prosecuted non-detained removal cases at the New Orleans office, served as an HSI embedded attorney, and traveled extensively throughout OPLA New Orleans’s area of responsibility, providing training, presentations, and legal advice to ERO and HSI. Mr. Wall also prosecuted detained removal cases at the Oakdale sub-office, where he served as an OPLA national security-designated attorney, securing removal orders in complex and high-profile national security immigration cases.

Prior to joining OPLA, Mr. Wall served as a prosecutor and Senior Assistant District Attorney at the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office from 2009 to 2012. In this role, Mr. Wall and his team were responsible for securing countless major felony convictions against dangerous and violent criminals.

Mr. Wall holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctor from Tulane Law School.