Acting ICE chief to depart
Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Todd Lyons plans to leave the agency at the end of May, according to reporting on his planned exit. (srnnews.com)
Todd Lyons, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, plans to leave the agency on May 31, according to CBS News and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. (cbsnews.com) Mullin said on April 16 that Lyons is departing for a private-sector job after more than a year leading ICE during President Donald Trump’s deportation push. (thehill.com) Lyons told colleagues he wanted to spend more time with family in Massachusetts, CBS reported, and the Department of Homeland Security has not named a successor. (cbsnews.com) ICE has operated for years without a Senate-confirmed leader. CBS reported Lyons will become roughly the agency’s 12th acting director since early 2017. (cbsnews.com) The leadership change lands as ICE remains central to Trump’s second-term immigration agenda. Internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS showed the detained population topped 70,000 in January, the highest level in the agency’s 23-year history. (cbsnews.com) It also comes the same day Lyons testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee on ICE’s fiscal 2027 budget request. USA Today reported Lyons said deaths in ICE detention had reached a record high under the current administration. (docs.house.gov) (usatoday.com) Lyons is a career ICE official and Air Force veteran who joined the agency in 2007 after earlier law-enforcement work in Florida. Homeland Security named him acting director on March 9, 2025, after he had led Enforcement and Removal Operations, the arm that handles arrests, detention and deportations. (dhs.gov) (ice.gov) Before taking the top job, Lyons ran ICE’s Boston field office, which covers all six New England states, and later oversaw field operations nationwide. ICE says the agency now has more than 27,400 personnel and an annual budget of nearly $10 billion. (ice.gov) Mullin praised Lyons as “a great leader of ICE,” while White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called him “a phenomenal patriot” in statements reported by CBS. (cbsnews.com) Whoever replaces Lyons will inherit an agency with a larger detention system, a high-profile deportation mission and no permanent director in sight. Lyons is set to leave at the end of May. (cbsnews.com)
