1 month ago
Todd Lyons, nan acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is stepping down aft a turbulent twelvemonth carrying retired Donald Trump’s migration agenda.
Lyons, who has been starring nan agency since March 2025, will resign astatine nan extremity of May and move to nan backstage sector, Markwayne Mullin, nan Department of Homeland Security secretary, said successful a connection connected Thursday.
Mullin’s connection did not see specifications astir who will win Lyons, and DHS and nan White House did not instantly respond to inquiries.
Lyons’ departure comes arsenic ICE faces escalating backlash complete its convulsive and fierce strategies crossed nan country, including nan caller shooting of a California man during a postulation stop, which Lyons defended.
Lyons, who started pinch ICE arsenic an supplier successful Texas successful 2007, has been nether increasing unit since migration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti successful Minneapolis successful January. When Lyons was testifying earlier Congress aft nan shootings, he declined to apologize to Good’s and Pretti’s families aliases opportunity whether he agreed pinch nan Trump administration’s wide criticized claims that nan US citizens changeable by officers were “domestic terrorists”.
In January, Minnesota’s apical national judge summoned Lyons to look earlier his tribunal and warned nan acting ICE caput could beryllium held successful contempt for defying orders. The judge accused nan Trump management of ignoring tribunal orders successful Minnesota amid a surge successful lawsuits claiming unlawful migration arrests, though Lyons yet did not person to testify.
Lyons oversaw nan tremendous description of ICE, which said successful January it had hired astir 12,000 officers and agents successful little than a year. He besides defended his officers’ authorities to deterioration masks contempt wide concerns astir nan nationalist information risks posed by agents being unidentifiable.
Lyons has further faced questions astir conditions successful ICE detention centers, including increasing concerns astir nan sprawling Dilley installation successful Texas, which holds families and children.
Under Lyons, ICE has touted its grounds of arresting “the worst of nan worst”, but a Guardian study successful February recovered that nan immense mostly of group entering deportation proceedings for nan first clip successful 2025 had nary criminal conviction.
Polls person shown increasing anti-ICE sentiment successful nan US. A February canvass found that astir two-thirds of Americans said ICE had gone excessively far, and a March poll reported that half of Americans would for illustration to spot ICE abolished. A Fox News poll reported six successful 10 voters disapproved of ICE’s performance.
Mullins’ connection praised Lyons, saying he “jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its occupation for 4 years”. The White House besides released statements of praise connected Thursday from Tom Homan, Trump’s separator czar, and Stephen Miller, nan architect of Trump’s migration policies.
