President Donald Trump’s pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is off the table. The White House pulled the nomination of Lance Schroyer on Thursday, leaving the agency without a confirmed leader as it carries out the administration’s immigration agenda.
Donald Trump administration’s ICE leadership change explained
The White House has scrapped its choice to lead ICE. Officials withdrew Lance Schroyer’s nomination on Thursday and offered no explanation for the decision. Donald Trump had tapped Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, in June. But the nomination stalled in the Senate and never reached a hearing.
Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, had held up the process. He wanted the Department of Homeland Security to hand over details of an internal investigation into civilian deaths during ICE operations before he would schedule a hearing.
“I don’t have a concern with who the nominee was. I had asked them to give me an update on the internal investigation into civilian deaths,” Paul told The Associated Press. Paul said he only found out about the withdrawal once the White House went public with it.
Schroyer brought little immigration experience to the table. He had never worked at ICE or run a large law enforcement agency. Two U.S. officials told Reuters at the time of his nomination that he was an unexpected pick. However, Lance Schroyer had been serving as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin (via Al Jazeera).
When he announced the choice in June, Donald Trump praised Schroyer on Truth Social as someone with “firsthand experience getting Illegal Aliens OFF our streets” and pressed the Senate to confirm him “IMMEDIATELY.” The withdrawal lands as ICE is under heavy scrutiny. The agency has grown its workforce fast, and critics question how it recruits and trains new officers. Federal agents have fatally shot several people during operations, including two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The White House has not said when it will put forward another nominee.
