Who We Are

At Frontier, our experts bring decades of experience gained in the toughest environments at the highest levels.

John Sandweg

John R. Sandweg previously served as the Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and as the Acting General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. 

As the Acting Director, Mr. Sandweg led approximately 20,000 employees in every state and 47 countries in the agency's mission to enhance public safety and border security through the enforcement of federal border control, customs, trade and immigration laws. While at ICE, Mr. Sandweg prioritized ICE’s intellectual property enforcement and cybersecurity efforts and worked to improve statistical transparency regarding immigration enforcement.

As the Acting General Counsel, Mr. Sandweg served as the chief legal officer for the Department, advising the Secretary and the Department’s senior leadership on all significant legal, policy, and operational issues and overseeing more than 1,800 lawyers in the Department’s headquarters and operating components. Mr. Sandweg played an instrumental role in Departmental policies, programs, and legislative efforts, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, pre-clearance operations, customs compliance and export controls, cybersecurity, and the SAFETY Act.

Prior to his service as Acting General Counsel, Mr. Sandweg served as Counselor at the Department of Homeland Security where he provided strategic advice and counsel on operational and policy direction and was a principal architect of the Department’s immigration, border security, and law enforcement policy. Mr. Sandweg is a recognized expert, frequently quoted in the New York Times, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, NPR, and many other publications.

Prior to his service at the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Sandweg was an attorney in private practice. 

Matt Chandler

From 2009 to 2014, Matt Chandler served in a number of senior roles at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Deputy Chief of Staff and acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. 

As Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Chandler supported the Secretary of Homeland Security in managing the daily operations of the third largest Department in the Federal Government with 240,000 employees, 22 component agencies, and a $59 billion annual budget. He provided strategic advice on the formulation of policy and on major issues affecting operations, long and short-term programs, and cross-cutting, homeland security enterprise initiatives. He managed issues and programs related to counter-terrorism, intelligence, law enforcement, and immigration in coordination with the White House, DHS component agencies and other federal, state and local partners. Mr. Chandler oversaw Secretarial communications as well as outreach with Congress, state and local partners and other stakeholders involving key Departmental priorities. 

Mr. Chandler served in numerous positions within the DHS Office of Public Affairs, including as acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Director of Communications, and Press Secretary. In these roles, he managed Office of Public Affairs’ operations, staff, and budget. Mr. Chandler was the Department’s chief spokesperson and communications strategist on counter-terrorism, border security, immigration, and federal law enforcement-related issues in addition to cybersecurity, emergency management and response, and multi-billion dollar grant programs. Mr. Chandler managed the Department’s crisis communications efforts during major incidents and events such as the Boston Marathon bombing, several attempted terrorist attacks, dozens of aviation threats and accidents, and natural disasters including Hurricane Sandy.

Mr. Chandler served as a spokesperson for the Obama for America presidential campaign in the battleground state of Colorado, and others in the West, in 2008. He previously worked for a consulting firm in Denver, Colorado, where he worked on various international, federal, and state political and public policy campaigns. He also served as Director, Anti-Money Laundering Compliance at Western Union.

Mr. Chandler is a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, a member of the Truman National Security Project Defense Council and a graduate of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He resides in Denver, Colorado. 

Erick Sanchez

Erick Sanchez is a senior advisor to Frontier Public Affairs and communications/PR professional with over eight years of communications experience. Mr. Sanchez previously worked in the communications department at the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In his role as a strategic communications specialist, Mr. Sanchez served as the communications lead on multiple campaigns and led message trainings for various councils within AFSCME’s 1.6 million union membership. In Florida, Mr. Sanchez crafted the message strategy that successfully defeated prison privatization in Florida in 2012. Additionally, Mr. Sanchez served as AFSCME’s political communications lead in Ohio in 2012, New Jersey in 2013, and Illinois in 2014.

Prior to that, Mr. Sanchez served as Press Secretary to Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-6) from 2009-2011. In that role, Mr. Sanchez was charged with creating and executing strategic earned, paid, and digital media plans. He started on the Hill in 2008 in a position created by Former Congressman Kendrick Meek of Florida and Congressman Ryan to spearhead efforts to introduce emerging social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) to personal Hill offices, a new venture for Capitol Hill at that time. Additionally, he was charged with managing the social media presence for Speaker Pelosi’s ’30 Something Working Group,’ a group of young members who used special order hours to address college students and young professionals with age-specific messaging. Mr. Sanchez worked directly with representatives of the platforms and the members he worked for served as “best practice” models for other offices, with his work featured in The Hill and National Journal.

Additionally, Mr. Sanchez has served in various roles on campaigns all across the country. In 2011, Sanchez served as the Field Communications Manager for the ‘Vote No on Issue 2’ campaign in Ohio, where he led a team of 11 regional communications directors to execute over 500 earned media events in six months. In 2010, he served as the Deputy Communications Director at the Ohio Democratic Party. Prior to that, he worked as a field organizer for Chap Petersen for Virginia State Senate [2007], Robin Weirauch for Congress in Bowling Green, Ohio [2007], and Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress in Columbus, Ohio [2008]. 

Rachel Winkler

Rachel Winkler serves as Senior Counsel for Frontier Public Affairs. She is a former Immigration Law Analyst with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where she focused on policies impacting the delivery of immigration benefits and services by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, including employment-based immigration programs, family-reunification benefits, as well as humanitarian protections for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and other serious crimes. In this role, Rachel helped establish the Department's Council on Combating Violence Against Women and served as a Senior Advisor on the DHS Blue Campaign to combat human trafficking. 

During her time at the Department, Rachel also served as a Special Advisor in the Office of the Secretary where she provided strategic guidance on efforts to implement comprehensive immigration reform, issues impacting immigration enforcement and border security, and also contributed to the roll-out and implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Rachel is a founding member and Past-President of the Military Spouse JD Network, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and a member of the Arizona State Bar. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and the University of Arizona College of Law.