Daniel Smulow
Bio
Dan is a former Immigration Judge and veteran litigator with over 25 years of first-chair trial and appellate experience in federal, state, and administrative courts.
Most recently, Dan served as Immigration Judge in the Baltimore Immigration Court where he completed more than 2,000 cases.
Dan was previously Senior Counsel for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation. In that role, Dan briefed and argued some of the most complicated and pressing immigration matters in the United States Courts of Appeals including cases involving national security threats and human rights violators. He litigated more than 100 cases across every federal circuit, appearing for argument in dozens of those cases. Dan also counseled the Federal Bureau of Investigation on immigration matters and served on numerous interagency committees to advise on immigration legislation and policy. Dan routinely supervised the work of other Justice Department attorneys including planning litigation strategy, editing written work product, and preparing attorneys for oral argument.
While at the Department of Justice, Dan also worked in the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. There, he joined a team of attorneys, historians, and special agents investigating a suspected human rights violator during both of Liberia’s civil wars and travelled to Liberia to interview witnesses and further investigate those crimes.
Prior to moving to the Baltimore/Washington area, Dan was a state and federal prosecutor in Massachusetts. In those roles, he briefed and argued in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court constitutional matters of first impression and multiple first-degree murder cases. He was also an adjunct professor in the writing program at Boston University School of Law.
Dan’s representative experience includes:
First chairing a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals case resulting in removal from the United States of former Nazi concentration camp guard. The case is understood to be the last removal of a participant in the Nazi regime’s crimes against humanity.
Persuading Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss challenge to Board of Immigration Appeals final removal order against a Rwandan citizen who actively participated in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide by facilitating rapes and murders of countless ethnic Tutsis.
Negotiating directly with foreign officials to secure the removal from the United States of three members of a designated terrorist organization. The U.S. President and the foreign country’s Prime Minister were aware of the deal resulting in the removal.
Counseling the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to apply a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to obtain lawful permanent resident status for a foreign intelligence source who was at risk of being persecuted by the source’s home country.
Identifying significant policy concern in pending legislation pertaining to vetting of Afghan refugees resulting in Administration recommending and Congress adopting amended legislation.
Awards and Recognition
- Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service
- Civil Division Special Commendation Award
- Special Act Award
Education
- Case Western Reserve University, JD
- Tufts University, BA