General Attorney (Enforcement and Removal)

Join the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) as Counsel for the Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division (EROLD) to leverage your legal experience to serve your country.

Selected attorneys will collaborate within a dynamic team of enforcement attorneys to provide legal advice and guidance to Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers and other stakeholders on high-profile agency matters in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications:

Unless otherwise noted, you must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements by 11:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time on 04/27/2026. Please note that qualification claims will be subject to verification.

Applicants should be able to efficiently produce quality legal analyses of complex and novel issues, exercise sound legal judgment, prioritize competing assignments, and work effectively independently, as part of a team, and across work units. Applicants should be detail-oriented and have a strong interest in supporting and providing stellar client services to program offices, including law enforcement officers, policymakers, attorneys, and agency senior leadership, and must be able to tailor communications to a particular audience. Applicants should be able to take initiative and work in a reliable, decisive, and professional manner.

Applicants should possess the following characteristics and competencies: integrity, sound professional judgment, organizational skills, decisiveness, initiative, stellar client services, the ability to function independently and cooperatively, and superior written and oral advocacy skills.

Bar Membership: You must be an active member in good standing of the bar of a state, territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

The Department of Homeland Security encourages persons with disabilities to apply, to include persons with intellectual, severe physical or psychiatric disabilities, as defined by 5 C.F.R. § 213.3102(u), and/or Disabled Veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more as defined by 5 C.F.R. § 315.707. Veterans, Peace Corps/VISTA volunteers, and persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs.

Responsibilities:

OPLA is the largest legal program in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), employing over 3,000 attorneys nationwide to provide a full range of legal services to all ICE programs and offices. OPLA's Enforcement, General Law, and Litigation (EG&L) divisions, through close client engagement, advance ICE's homeland security and public safety mission by providing expert legal advice and guidance to ICE personnel enforcing our nation's immigration, customs, and criminal laws and policies. Counsel for EG&L also defend the operational authorities and decisions of ICE officers and agents in the federal courts, and support the advocacy of ICE attorneys before the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), with special emphasis on cases involving criminal aliens, human rights violators, and aliens who threaten our national security.

EROLD attorneys serve as agency counsel to ERO at the headquarters level, providing guidance and timely legal counsel on a variety of law enforcement authorities and functions, including civil immigration arrest; detention and release authorities; conditions of confinement; detainers; alternative processing pathways (e.g., expedited removal); fugitive operations; juvenile and family unit issues; repatriation initiatives; and the 287(g) Program. EROLD attorneys develop legal opinions and review and draft policy directives, legislation, regulations, and other materials for DHS, ICE, and OPLA leadership on the legal and policy aspects of ERO immigration enforcement functions. EROLD attorneys frequently engage with ICE leadership, the DHS Office of the General Counsel Headquarters attorneys, other DHS component legal offices, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to coordinate the successful resolution of federal litigation and immigration enforcement matters impacting ERO equities.
EROLD also houses ICE's regulatory program consisting of regulatory attorneys, analysts, and economists.

Selected attorneys will be given significant responsibilities and will be expected to research and craft persuasive, legally supportable positions to address the needs of agency operational components. Selected attorneys will be expected to routinely provide timely legal opinions to ICE officers and agents, division management, and leadership within OPLA, ICE, and the DHS Office of the General Counsel Headquarters. Selected attorneys will also provide litigation support to DOJ.

OPLA will ensure that applicants with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations when appropriate. If reasonable accommodation is required for any part of the application process, please contact the OPLA representative listed on this announcement.

Salary : $85,447