John Miano

IRLI Legal Counsel and Fellow for CIS

Miano is tied to a number of anti-immigrant groups, serving as a fellow for CIS and as counsel for IRLI. In a 2016 CIS blog, “The Coming End of DACA and DAPA,” Miano, one of the primary architects behind legal strategies designed to dismantle employment authorization channels for immigrants, floated the idea of using contact information provided by DACA applicants to find and deport them. On August 26, 2019, Miano filed a legal brief challenging work authorization for DACA recipients at the U.S. Supreme Court for IRLI, on behalf of SaveJobs USA and the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers.

  • Miano has spent a number of years at both CIS and IRLI, working alongside Mark Krikorian, Kris Kobach, Jessica Vaughan, Steve Camarota, Dale Wilcox, Ian Smith and Ronald Mortensen, among others.
  • Miano who is a constant critic of high skilled immigrant workers and other legal immigration channels is the chief lawyer representing Save Jobs USA and Wash Tech in their lawsuits filed against the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama Administration related to their decision to grant work authorization for spouses of H-1B holders, and extend work permission for some students. Litigation related to these cases has carried over into the Trump Administration.
  • In recent years IRLI has worked to dismantle birthright citizenship, employment based immigration, the DACA and DAPA programs, and supported the Georgia higher education system’s decision to deny DACA recipients access to certain universities in the state.
  • IRLI, an ardent supporter of the Trump Administration, has filed friend of the court briefs in support of many of their policies such as the Muslim Ban, dismantling of asylum law, declaring a national emergency to fund a wall along the Southern border, the 2020 Census citizenship question and ending DACA.