President Trump said Saturday he intends to nominate Lance Schroyer, an Oklahoma law-enforcement veteran, to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, moving to install a permanent, Senate-confirmed chief atop an agency central to his immigration agenda.
Who Schroyer is
Schroyer served as a major in the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, with more than 29 years in state law enforcement, and previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps, according to CBS News. He currently works as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, where he has helped coordinate immigration-enforcement strategy and served as a liaison among local, state and federal agencies, including work with the federal "287(g)" program that lets state and local officers carry out some immigration functions.
Trump praised Schroyer as "a PATRIOT with real operational experience," and Mullin said he is "coming straight from the operational field," according to a Homeland Security statement. Supporters of 287(g) partnerships call them a force-multiplier for enforcement; critics argue they can erode trust between police and immigrant communities. Analysts expect Schroyer's primarily state-level background to draw scrutiny in confirmation hearings.
A long-vacant post
If confirmed by the Senate, Schroyer would become the first Senate-confirmed ICE director since Sarah Saldaña, who left in early 2017, NBC News reported. In the years since, the roughly 20,000-employee agency has been run by a series of acting officials. Most recently, David Venturella took over on an interim basis on June 1 after Todd Lyons — who oversaw much of the administration's deportation surge — departed in April. No confirmation-hearing date has been set.
The backdrop
ICE has been at the center of the administration's expanded immigration enforcement since 2025, with stepped-up arrests in cities across the country. In Los Angeles, ICE arrests surged in 2025 before later declining, and human-rights groups have raised concerns about detention conditions and due process during the operations; the administration has defended the enforcement as carrying out existing law. The leadership has turned over repeatedly: the first acting director under Trump's second term, Caleb Vitello, was reassigned in early 2025 amid reported White House pressure to increase arrests.
With the nomination, the administration is seeking a confirmed, longer-term leader to sustain those enforcement priorities. Whether and when the Senate takes up Schroyer's nomination remains to be seen.
