Doris Meissner

Doris Meissner, former Commissioner of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, where she directs MPI’s work on US immigration policy. She also contributes to MPI’s work on international immigration policymaking in an era of globalization and national security, the politics of immigration, administering immigration systems and government agencies, and migration management cooperation with other countries.

She recently served as director of MPI’s Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future, a bipartisan group of distinguished leaders. The group’s report and recommendations address how to harness the advantages of immigration for a 21st century economy and society.

In 1993, President Clinton tapped her to serve as Commissioner of the INS, then a bureau in the US Department of Justice. She held the post through 2000. Her accomplishments included reforming the nation's asylum system, creating new strategies for managing US borders, improving naturalization and other services for immigrants, shaping new responses to migration and humanitarian emergencies, and strengthening cooperation and joint initiatives with Mexico, Canada, and other countries.

She first joined the Department of Justice in 1973 as a White House Fellow, serving as a special assistant to the Attorney General. She then became assistant director of the Office of Policy and Planning, executive director of the Cabinet Committee on Illegal Aliens, and deputy associate attorney general. She served as acting commissioner of INS in 1981 and executive associate commissioner until 1986 when she left government to join the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a senior associate. In 1988, Meissner created the Endowment's Immigration Policy Project, which evolved into the Migration Policy Institute in 2001.

Meissner has authored and co-authored numerous reports, articles, and op-eds and is frequently quoted in the media. Her board memberships include CARE-USA, the U.S.-New Zealand Council, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Pacific Council on International Diplomacy. She is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned BA and MA degrees. She began her professional career as assistant director of student financial aid at UW-Madison and then became the first executive director of the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) in Washington, DC.