“Looking back Georgetown, would you have admitted me? Would you have had different policies?” he said to chuckles from an audience attending an immigration law and policy conference.

Rodríguez’s agency will be front and center once President Barack Obama announces the executive action he’ll take on immigration. Obama said he would take executive action after the elections but before the end of the year.

“We’re going to be ready,” Rodríguez said. “Our agency will be shouldering the primary responsibility for executing whatever it is.”