Potts briefed National Press Foundation fellows in March 2022: Don’t Call Them ‘Swarms.’

LeRoy Potts is Chief of the Research Office in the Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He leads a highly-skilled research team that delivers a variety of unclassified research products, which support more than 1200 officers in adjudicating complex refugee and asylum cases.

Before joining DHS, he served over 15 years in the U.S. Department of State as a foreign affairs officer. He worked as an advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. He communicated U.S. positions on complex budgetary and management issues, including the U.N.’s $4.5 billion budget as a U.S. delegate on the U.N. Fifth Committee. In addition, he represented U.S. interests as the action officer for the U.N. Capital Master Plan, a $1.9 billion multi-year renovation of the historic U.N. headquarters complex in N.Y. Potts also oversaw budgetary matters related to human rights, humanitarian affairs and special political missions.

At State, he was deputy office director for the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs, deputy office director of the Country Reports and Asylum Affairs office and managing editor of the Department’s annual human rights report.

In 2021, he was awarded The Council on Foreign Relations 2021–2022 International Affairs Fellowship in Canada. Potts will research immigration, race, and national identity. In November 2021, Potts participated in the Global Security Forum (GSF), the flagship annual conference of the CSIS International Security Program. He was selected for the 2021 CSIS-DINSN Power 50 list of U.S. National Security and Foreign Affairs leaders.

Potts received his B.A. (1985) from Colgate University, an MPA (1990) from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a J.D. (2002) from The George Washington University School of Law. He was an associate articles editor of the George Washington International Law Review. He enjoys scuba diving, travel and genealogical research.