Stephen Miller ally expected to join Ken Cuccinelli at USCIS

By TED HESSON and ANITA KUMAR 06/13/2019 12:05 PM EDT Updated 06/13/2019 01:28 PM EDT

John Zadrozny, an ally to White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, is expected to head to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to four people familiar with the plan.

Zadrozny is an official at the State Department; he previously worked for the Domestic Policy Council. At USCIS he may become deputy chief of staff, two current and former Homeland Security Department officials briefed on the move told POLITICO.

Zadrozny will join the team of newly installed USCIS acting Director Ken Cuccinelli, a vocal immigration hard-liner. As Virginia attorney general earlier this decade, Cuccinelli backed measures to end birthright citizenship and to deny unemployment benefits to workers who didn’t speak English.

The addition of Zadrozny at USCIS comes after Miller — chief White House architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda — agitated to remove former USCIS Director Francis Cissna, who resigned in May. USCIS administers the legal immigration system, and Miller and other officials have pushed for changes that could make it harder to seek asylum and other immigration benefits.

Before joining the Trump administration, Zadrozny worked as counsel to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, according to a LinkedIn page. In 2009, he worked as legislative counsel for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that backs lower levels of immigration.

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