The Hill’s Changemakers: Blas Nuñez-Neto, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security

Blas Nuñez-Neto, 49, has become one of the administration’s chief border architects, as well as one of its main faces in communicating those policies to a sometimes-combative Congress and the public in both the U.S. and Latin America. 

The assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security has been central to helping the Biden White House navigate a topic he sees as so often dominated by the extremes. 

“I feel like these days in the world of immigration, that’s actually not a bad place to be, when both sides are kind of upset, because it means that you’re actually doing something that is middle of the road,” Nuñez-Neto previously told The Hill. 

“This is one of those issues where the ends of the political spectrum tend to dominate the debate. But I think most Americans are actually somewhere in the middle.”  

For Nuñez-Neto, his approach is influenced by his background as an immigrant himself — and as someone deeply steeped in policy, working his way up from his days as a congressional staffer.  

From his position, he has helped craft policies he sees as a middle ground, ones that the White House likes to say combine carrots and sticks.   

He was the point person for a new program placing new conditions on asylum at the border that was coupled with another allowing some nationalities to apply to temporarily come to the U.S. if they could secure a financial sponsor. He also helped the U.S. resume deportation flights to Venezuela.

“The border is like a Rorschach test, right? You can look at the exact same thing and just arrive at diametrically different conclusions based on your preconceived notions about what’s happening at the border,” he said. “I’m hoping to get through to some of the people that have not already made up their minds about what’s happening.”  

—Updated at 9:03 p.m.