Principal Legal Advisor
Adam V. Loiacono is a member of the Senior Executive Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Acting Principal Legal Advisor, overseeing 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 2017 until his appointment as acting principal legal advisor, Mr. Loiacono served as the deputy principal legal advisor for Enforcement and Litigation in ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where he oversaw the work of nearly 150 attorneys and support personnel across six OPLA headquarters divisions: the District Court Litigation Division, the Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division, the Homeland Security Investigations Law Division, the Human Rights Violator Law Division, the National Security Law Division, and the Immigration Law and Practice Division. These divisions are responsible for advising Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and ICE leadership and personnel on a range of matters, including the agency’s criminal, customs and immigration law enforcement authorities. In that role, Mr. Loiacono formulated legal strategies and developed ICE’s positions in national security, human rights and public safety matters pending before the nation’s immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals. He also coordinated with the Department of Justice to address federal court litigation concerning ICE equities.
Mr. Loiacono has served in various positions in DHS and the private sector. Following a successful private practice career in immigration law, he joined ICE as an assistant chief counsel in New York City. He then became an attorney advisor with the DHS Office of the General Counsel, where he advised DHS leadership on high-profile immigration enforcement matters affecting ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He also served as chief of OPLA’s Detention and Removal Law Section and OPLA’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division, where he served as a vital legal advisor to ERO on some of the most complex and challenging issues facing ICE, including detainers, detention authorities, family detention and repatriation.
He has also taught immigration law as an adjunct professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Mr. Loiacono holds a Bachelor of Arts from Binghamton University, a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School and a Master of Laws from American University’s Washington College of Law.
