Lance Schroyer ICE Director Nomination: US President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Lance Schroyer, a former police officer from Oklahoma, to be the next director of the controversial US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE. Schroyer would succeed Todd Lyons, appointed acting director of ICE in March 2025. Lyons stepped down from the position in May, a few weeks after the dismissal of then secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem. Lyons, Noem and Gregory Bovino, the former head of Customs and Border Control, were the face of Trump's mass deportation campaign when it was at its most visible and controversial point some months ago.
Individuals nominated to head federal agencies are supposed to be confirmed by the Senate, but that has not happened with ICE since 2017. Since then, its leaders have served in that capacity as interim directors.
Who is Lance Schroyer?
President Trump said Schroyer was a former state trooper and United States Marine "with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst."
Schroyer hails from the same home state as the new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former congressman. Earlier this month, Mullin brought Schroyer onstage at a National Sheriffs' Association event, calling him a “good friend of mine" and noting DHS had recently hired him.
On Saturday, Mullin quickly praised Schroyer in a statement highlighting the former trooper's 29-year career and his work with federal and state partners on a U.S. immigration enforcement program.
Schroyer's nomination comes after former ICE director Todd Lyons resigned at the end of May. David Venturella, a former executive at a private prison operator, has been serving as the acting head of the agency. Venturella is expected to stay on as the acting director until Schroyer is Senate confirmed, according to a DHS official speaking on condition of anonymity.
ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration, a result of polarizing politics around the agency and immigration policy.
