Betsy Lawrence is a senior fellow for Immigration Policy at American Progress. From February 2022 to January 2025, Lawrence served as deputy assistant to the president for immigration with the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she drove the implementation of the president’s domestic immigration policy agenda. From 2021 to 2022, she was chief counsel on the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, after serving as counsel for the subcommittee for the two years prior. In that capacity, Lawrence worked with committee leaders and staff to develop and execute the Democratic majority’s legislative agenda, including the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. She also drafted and solicited support for original legislation, including measures to facilitate STEM immigration, create a visa pathway for founders of startup companies, and reform the U.S. immigration court system.
Prior to her time with the House Judiciary Committee, Lawrence served as director of government relations with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, where she directed the association’s administrative and legislative advocacy efforts, with a focus on immigration benefits and employment-based immigration.
Lawrence began her career as an attorney at a full-service law firm in San Francisco, where she represented and advised individual clients and companies with respect to all matters involving immigration and naturalization.
Lawrence holds a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.