Published on 6/28/2026
US President Donald Trump announced the appointment of Lance Schroer, a former Oklahoma policeman and former US Marine, to head the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is under severe criticism in the United States for arrests and deportations of immigrants.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform yesterday, Saturday, “I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Lance Schroer as director of ACE,” adding that he is “a patriot with real field experience, a leader who has proven his competence, and has decades of experience in arresting the most dangerous criminals.”
This appointment comes after the resignation of the former director of the authority, Todd Lyons, at the end of last May, and David Venturella, a former executive in a private prison management company, assumes the acting presidency of the authority.
Schroyer currently works as an advisor to the Secretary of the Interior, and is scheduled to succeed Todd Lyons, who was appointed by Trump as acting director in March 2025, before leaving his position last May, weeks after the dismissal of former Interior Secretary Kristi Noem.
Interior Minister Markwyn Mullen welcomed the appointment, saying Schroer “will play an essential role in helping the president target, arrest and deport irregular migrants.”
“For 11 years, since December 2014, the Department of Homeland Security has not had an ACE director approved by the Senate,” Mullen said on the X platform, calling on the Senate to expedite approval of Schroer’s appointment.
In theory, the Senate should approve Schroer’s appointment to the position. But all Immigration Directors have been appointed to the agency since 2017.
This agency is responsible for implementing the anti-immigration campaign that Trump wants. His methods, which critics consider violent, in addition to the killing of Americans Rene Goode and Alex Peretti, who were shot by federal agents in Minneapolis in January while protesting their presence in the city, sparked widespread shock in the United States.
