- Overview
- Leadership
- Office of Public Affairs
- Office of Congressional Relations
- Office of the Principal Legal Advisor
- Office of Professional Responsibility
- Office of Detention Policy & Planning
- Office of State, Local and Tribal Coordination
- Enforcement & Removal Operations
- Homeland Security Investigations
- Management &
Administration - Detention Facilities
- Contact ICE
- Careers
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA)
ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) is the largest legal program in the Department of Homeland Security, providing legal advice, training and services in cases related to the ICE mission.
OPLA also is the exclusive legal representative for the U.S. government in exclusion, deportation and removal proceedings before the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. Moreover, OPLA attorneys litigate immigration-related hearings that involve criminal aliens, terrorists and human rights abusers.
OPLA also provides critical legal support to ICE components focusing on customs, worksite enforcement, ethics, employment law, tort claims and administrative law issues.
OPLA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 26 offices throughout the country, each headed by a chief counsel.
Mission
OPLA protects the homeland by diligently litigating cases while adhering to the highest standards of professional conduct, and providing timely and accurate legal advice in support of the agency's mission.
Leadership
Peter S. Vincent
Principal Legal Advisor
Peter S. Vincent is the principal legal advisor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In this position, he oversees the largest legal program in DHS. Mr. Vincent supervises more than 900 attorneys who represent ICE in removal proceedings before immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals. In addition, he advises ICE’s numerous enforcement components on issues ranging from customs law to Fourth Amendment search and seizure issues.
In July 2002, following a successful career as a litigator in private practice, Mr. Vincent joined the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. He later served on the National Security Litigation Team in the San Francisco Office of the Chief Counsel for ICE. As a trial attorney, he represented the government in immigration proceedings involving terrorists and individuals who had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations. In addition, Mr. Vincent advised the local Joint Terrorism Task Force on issues relating to counterterrorism and foreign counterintelligence.
In November 2006, Mr. Vincent was appointed to serve as the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) assistant judicial attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. In December 2008, he was promoted to judicial attaché. In those capacities, Mr. Vincent advised DOJ, the U.S. Department of State and various law enforcement and intelligence-gathering agencies on matters concerning extradition, terrorist organizations and narco-trafficking. During his tenure at the U.S. Embassy, he coordinated nearly 500 extraditions to the United States, including the extradition requests for dozens of high-profile leaders of designated foreign terrorist organizations such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Mr. Vincent graduated with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Virginia Journal of International Law.
