On Friday, May 24, US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna announced his resignation via email to agency employees. “At the request of the President, I submitted my resignation today effective June 1, 2019,” he wrote.
Cissna served for 20 months as the Director of the agency. By training, Cissna is an immigration attorney and has worked at the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer and in legal and policy roles within USCIS and DHS.
With Cissna’s upcoming departure, the three major federal immigration agencies do not have permanent leaders in place.
Earlier last week, we shared that President Trump was reportedly planning to create a new role within his administration for an individual to oversee the administration’s immigration policies, for which former Virginia AG Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II was being considered. It is now expected that President Trump will nominate Cuccinelli for the Director role.