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.
On Saturday, Trump revealed Lance Schroyer as his pick, praising his 29 years of law enforcement experience, as well as his service as a US Marine.
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“Just like ME and our Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, he LOVES the men and women of ICE,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Importantly, Lance Schroyer has what it takes to DETAIN AND DEPORT Illegal Alien Criminals, including murders [sic], rapists, and drug traffickers at a rate never seen before!”
But Schroyer is a newcomer to leading a federal agency, and his degree of experience is likely to be scrutinised when his nomination goes before Congress for a confirmation hearing.
Both Trump and Mullin, however, touted Schroyer’s law enforcement background as qualification for the job.
“Lance is coming straight from the operational field where he ran large scale operations and worked alongside state and federal partners to remove illegal aliens from Oklahoma under the 287g program,” Mullin wrote, referencing an immigration enforcement partnership initiative.
While implementing immigration laws is primarily a federal responsibility, Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows ICE to deputise state and local officers to perform certain duties under its supervision.
If successfully confirmed, Schroyer would replace acting ICE Director David Venturella, whose career in government immigration services stretches back to the 1980s.
Venturella, who formerly worked with the private prison firm Geo Group, has served in an interim capacity since May, following the departure of another acting ICE director, Todd Lyons.
Lyons, whose career with ICE stretched back to 2007, had announced in April that he was stepping down at the end of the following month.
He cited a desire to “spend more time with [his] family”. But his departure came as ICE faced intense scrutiny over its tactics, including allegations that it had used excessive force and circumvented civil liberty protections.
In January, for instance, ICE enforcement activity in Minnesota, conducted under the name Operation Metro Surge, resulted in the shooting death of protester Renee Nicole Good.
Other incidents also sparked nationwide outcry. In one instance, federal immigration agents allegedly broke down the door of a Minnesota home without a warrant and wrongfully detained a US citizen, ChongLy Scott Thao, marching him outside in the snow in his underwear.
An ICE agent was also arrested following the non-fatal shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis, after Minneapolis prosecutors accused the agent of falsely reporting a crime.
Lyons himself acknowledged the agent had appeared to make “untruthful statements” and opened a probe into the incident, noting that lying under oath “is a serious federal offense”.
Trump’s immigration crackdown, in Minnesota and elsewhere, has prompted critics to call for reforms to ICE operations.
At least 19 people have died in ICE custody so far this year. On Friday, the high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, Volker Turk, called for authorities to be “held to account” for such deaths.
Separately, Democrats in Congress refused earlier this year to pass funding for ICE and its sister agency, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), unless certain measures were taken.
They included a requirement that immigration agents clearly identify themselves, uphold standards against excessive use of force, submit to oversight, and stop racial profiling.
The reforms were not passed, but the congressional impasse resulted in a months-long delay for new funding for ICE and CBP.
Only on June 9 did such funding get approved, with votes in both chambers of Congress falling along party lines.
Lyons’s decision to step down this year came amid a broader shake-up in the Trump administration. In the span of several months, multiple cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies have been fired or have left.
They included Kristi Noem, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who led the Department of Justice and was vocal in her support for ICE’s operations.
In his statement on Saturday, Mullin, who was confirmed as Noem’s replacement in March, noted that ICE has not had a Senate-approved director in more than a decade.
The last person to be confirmed to the role was Sarah Saldaña, an appointee of President Barack Obama, whose term ended in 2017.
Since the start of Trump’s first presidency, only acting directors have led the agency.
“It has been 11 years since [the Department of Homeland Security] has had a Senate confirmed @ICEgov Director,” Mullins, a fellow Oklahoman, wrote in a post. “The Senate must quickly confirm Lance Schroyer.”
Trump echoed that call in his own social media post. “The Senate must CONFIRM Lance, IMMEDIATELY — Do not delay. Together, we will MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN,” he said.