Trump nominates former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to lead ICE

President Trump said on June 27 that he will nominate Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If the Senate confirms him, Schroyer would be the agency's first Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration.

ICE has gone years without a confirmed director. Todd Lyons resigned as acting director at the end of May. David Venturella, a longtime ICE official and a former executive at a private prison company, has led the agency in an acting capacity since June, according to NPR.

Who Schroyer is

Schroyer works as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and coordinates immigration enforcement, according to a DHS statement. He spent more than 29 years in law enforcement in Oklahoma and served in the U.S. Marines. As a major in the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety's Emergency Services Unit, he directed units that handled disaster response, civil disturbance, and immigration enforcement. Mullin said Schroyer ran operations under the federal 287(g) program, which lets state and local officers carry out some immigration duties, to remove people who were in the country illegally from Oklahoma.

Mullin, a former U.S. representative for Oklahoma, comes from the same state as Schroyer. If confirmed, Schroyer would report to him.

What the administration said

On Truth Social, Trump called Schroyer a "PATRIOT with real operational experience, and proven leader with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst," and added, "He LOVES the men and women of ICE."

Mullin praised the nomination on X. "With over 29 years of law enforcement experience, Lance will play a vital role in helping deliver on the President's mandate from the American people to target, arrest, and deport illegal aliens," he wrote. Both men called on the Senate to confirm Schroyer quickly.

The backdrop

The nomination follows months of scrutiny of ICE's enforcement tactics, NPR reported. Earlier in June, the Supreme Court issued rulings that widened the administration's immigration authority, including a 6-3 decision that let it end Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians and 4,000 Syrians.

The director of ICE is a Senate-confirmed position. The nomination now goes to the Senate, which has filled the job only with acting officials since the Obama administration.