Trump Nominates Lance Schroyer To Lead U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement

President Donald Trump said Saturday he plans to nominate Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to be the next director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency at the center of the administration’s mass deportation effort.

“United States President Donald Trump has nominated a former Oklahoma state trooper to serve as the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), one of the primary agencies charged with carrying out his mass deportation campaign”

Al Jazeera

Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, “I am very pleased to announce that I have nominated Lance Schroyer to be our next ICE Director,” and NBC News reported Schroyer has “over 29 YEARS of Law Enforcement experience in Oklahoma.”

Al Jazeera

NBC News said Schroyer will replace Todd Lyons, who took over in March 2025 and left the post last month, and it reported that acting director David Venturella will continue until Schroyer is confirmed.

The nomination comes as Trump highlighted Schroyer’s expected role in carrying out large-scale deportations after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday to remove legal protections from thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants and to make it easier to regulate asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

CNN described Schroyer as “a little-known candidate” in line to lead an agency that has spurred controversy amid ramped-up deportation efforts, with Schroyer currently serving as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement on X that Schroyer “will play a vital role in helping deliver on the President’s mandate from the American people to target, arrest, and deport illegal aliens.”

NBC News reported that three sources familiar with Trump’s choice told the outlet that Mullin has been pushing for Schroyer to lead the agency for some time, while two sources said Schroyer has local law enforcement experience but not specifically with ICE.

CBS News

The DHS website said Mullin praised Trump’s nomination and quoted, “It has been 11 years since DHS has had a Senate confirmed ICE Director,” adding that “The Senate must quickly confirm Lance Schroyer.”

CNN reported Mullin told senators during his confirmation hearing, “I would love to see ICE become more a transport than on the front line,” and it said Mullin is a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

NBC News said Trump and Mullin urged the Senate to swiftly confirm Schroyer, and it noted no acting ICE director has been confirmed by the Senate since the second Obama administration.

The nomination is tied to ongoing scrutiny of ICE detention practices, with NBC News reporting that on Thursday the watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security announced it was launching two new reviews related to ICE’s handling of detained migrants.

“President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will nominate former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, putting a little-known candidate in line to lead an agency that has spurred controversy amid the administration’s ramped-up deportation efforts”

CNN

NBC News said the reviews would examine both an increase in deaths of ICE detainees and whether ICE facilities are following proper use-of-force standards, and it reported the reviews come after there were 20 deaths in ICE detention so far this year.

Al Jazeera said Trump’s pick faces scrutiny when it goes before Congress for a confirmation hearing, and it described Schroyer as a newcomer to leading a federal agency.

Al Jazeera also tied the broader controversy to Minnesota incidents, including the shooting death of protester Renee Nicole Good during ICE enforcement activity in Minnesota conducted under the name Operation Metro Surge.

In addition, Al Jazeera reported that at least 19 people have died in ICE custody so far this year, and it said UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk called for authorities to be “held to account” for such deaths.