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Mario Christopher Grant

Lecturer; Retired Senior Trial Judge, U.S. Immigration Court
J.D., Ohio State University
B.A., Ohio State University

Mario Christopher Grant received his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from the Ohio State University. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1974 and began his career with the United States Department of Justice, Justice Management Division, in March 1975. Grant joined the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 1976, and was stationed at various INS District Offices, including Miami, San Antonio, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Over a period of seven years, he served progressively in the positions of general attorney, trial attorney, supervisory general attorney and as the last acting assistant commissioner for naturalization in the INS central office, prior to that division’s merger with the adjudications division in 1983.

Subsequent to the elimination of the INS Naturalization Division, Grant joined the newly created Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the Department of Justice as a senior attorney-advisor to the board of immigration appeals and then served as counsel to EOIR’s first chief immigration judge. EOIR combined the Board of Immigration Appeals with the immigration judge function previously contained within the INS, thereby creating the modern immigration court.

In 1986, in response to the rapid growth of the immigration courts, Grant was appointed by the attorney general to the newly created position of assistant chief immigration judge and given regional supervisory authority over the immigration courts along the southern border of the United States. Grant also served briefly as the acting chief immigration judge.

From June 1996 until his retirement in January 2008, Grant served as the senior trial judge in the United States Immigration Court at Arlington, Va. During his tenure as an immigration judge, Grant also sat by designation on numerous occasions as a temporary board member on the Board of Immigration Appeals, the United States’ highest administrative body for interpreting and applying the immigration laws.

Grant remains an active member of the Ohio Bar. He is married and has two children. He currently resides near Charlottesville, Va., and is an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and advisor to the Law School’s Immigration Clinic. Grant also serves as a board member of the nonprofit Harvey Foundation, which assists U.S. military personnel and their families with the naturalization process.

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