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United States President Donald Trump has appointed a former Oklahoma state trooper to be the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), one of the main agencies accused of mass deportations.
On Saturday, Trump unveiled Lance Schroyer as his pick, praising his 29 years of law enforcement experience and his service in the US Navy.
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“Like ME and our Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, they LOVE ICE men and women,” Trump said. he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Most importantly, Lance Schroyer has what it takes to SERVE and ESCAPE Illegal Aliens, including murder (sic), rapists, and drug traffickers on a scale never seen before!
But Schroyer is a front-runner for the federal agency, and his expertise will be scrutinized when his nomination goes to Congress for confirmation.
Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, however, denied that Mr. Schroyer’s compliance was sufficient for the job.
“Lance is coming directly from a career where he has worked on major projects and worked with federal and state agencies to remove illegal aliens from Oklahoma under the 287g program,” Mullin wrote, referring to the provision that allows state and local officials to do some immigration.
Although immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, Section 287 of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows ICE to remove state and local officials to perform other duties under its supervision.
If confirmed, Schroyer would replace ICE Director David Venturellawhose work in immigration authorities dates back to the 1980s.
Venturella, who previously worked with the prison firm Geo Group, has served on a temporary basis since May, after leaving an ICE official, Todd Lyons.
Lyons, whose tenure with ICE began in 2007, announced in April that he would resign at the end of the following month.
He mentioned a desire to “spend more time with (his family)”. But his departure came as ICE came under increasing scrutiny for its policies, including allegations that it overused force and circumvented civil rights protections.
In January, for example, an ICE operation in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, led to the death of Renee Nicole Good.
Other incidents caused unrest throughout the country. In one case, immigration officers broke down the door of a house in Minnesota without a warrant and wrongfully arrested a US citizen, Chongly Scott Thao, and rolled him out in the snow in his underwear.
An ICE agent was arrested again following the fatal shooting of Venezuelan national Julio Sosa-Celis, as prosecutors in Minneapolis accused the agent of perjury.
Lyons himself admitted that the agent appeared to be “lying” and opened an investigation into the incident, saying that lying is “a serious crime”.
Trump’s crackdown on immigration, in Minnesota and elsewhere, has prompted critics to call for changes to ICE practices.
At least 19 people have died in ICE custody so far this year. On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called the authorities “blamed” for such deaths.
Separately, Democrats in Congress refused earlier this year to fund ICE and its sister agency, US Customs and Border Protection, unless they took action.
It also included a requirement for immigration workers to properly identify themselves, adhere to policies against excessive use of force, monitor and stop discrimination.
That change was never passed, but Congressional impasse led to a months-long delay in new funding for ICE and CBP.
Only on June 9 was such a bill approved, votes in both houses of Congress falling along party lines.
Lyons’ decision to step down this year came amid major upheaval in the Trump administration. Within a few months, many cabinet secretaries and agency officials were fired or left.
They included Kristi Noem, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who led the Department of Justice and spoke in support of ICE’s operations.
In a statement Saturday, Mullin, who was confirmed as Noem’s replacement in March, noted that ICE has not had a director approved by the Senate in more than a decade.
The last person to be confirmed for the position was Sarah Saldaña, an appointee of President Barack Obama, whose term expired in 2017.
Since the beginning of the first Trump administration, it is the administration that has led the agency.
“It’s been 11 years since the (Department of Homeland Security) confirmed the Director of @ICEgov,” Mullins, a fellow Oklahoman, he wrote in the post. “The Senate should quickly confirm Lance Schroyer.”
Trump repeated the call in his social media post. “The Senate needs to ACT Lance, IMMEDIATELY – Don’t delay. Together, we will make AMERICA SAFE again,” he said.
