President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he has officially nominated Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to serve as the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In a post on Truth Social, the president expressed his satisfaction with the choice, highlighting Schroyer’s more than 29 years of law enforcement experience within Oklahoma.
Schroyer currently holds the position of senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. He is slated to replace Todd Lyons, who had assumed the role in March 2025 during the initiation of the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts before departing the post last month. Three sources familiar with the nomination process indicated that Secretary Mullin has been advocating for Schroyer to lead the agency for some time.
While Schroyer possesses extensive experience in local law enforcement, he does not have a background specifically within ICE. According to two sources, this lack of agency-specific experience may come as a surprise to ICE agents and rank-and-file officers. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the current acting director, David Venturella, will remain in the role until Schroyer is officially confirmed.
Secretary Mullin released a statement on Saturday praising the nomination as an excellent decision. He emphasized that given Schroyer’s nearly three decades of law enforcement work, he will be instrumental in executing the president’s mandate to identify, apprehend, and deport illegal aliens. Both Trump and Mullin have called on the Senate to confirm Schroyer without delay, noting that no acting ICE director has received Senate confirmation since the second Obama administration.
The announcement follows a significant week for the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, marked by two favorable Supreme Court rulings. On Thursday, the court decided to remove legal protections for thousands of Syrian and Haitian immigrants and separately ruled to simplify the process for regulating asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump emphasized that Schroyer is expected to be a central figure in carrying out large-scale deportation efforts, describing him as a patriot with deep operational experience in managing criminals.
The nomination comes amid ongoing scrutiny of agency tactics. Under the current administration, ICE and Border Patrol operations have led to intense confrontations in various U.S. cities, including incidents in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security watchdog recently announced two new reviews regarding the agency’s treatment of detainees, following 20 reported deaths in ICE custody so far this year. These reviews aim to evaluate both the rise in detainee mortality and whether facilities are adhering to established use-of-force protocols.
