US immigration agency interim head Todd Lyons to step down
Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that Todd Lyons “is a great leader of ICE,” adding that his last day will be May 31 and wishing him luck in his “next opportunity in the private sector.”
Lyons was appointed by Trump as acting director of ICE in March 2025. Mullin said he was a “key player” in the US president’s anti-immigration drive.
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Mullin, who was appointed a few weeks ago after the firing of her predecessor, Kristi Noem, did not give a reason for Lyon’s departure or announce a replacement.
Federal police have come under fire for carrying out brutal anti-immigrant raids; This year, two US citizens were shot and killed by protesting federal agents in Minneapolis.
Lyons’ departure comes a month after Gregory Bovino, the face of Trump’s immigration raids, resigned from the U.S. Border Patrol following an outcry over violent raids in Minneapolis. At a Department of Homeland Security oversight hearing in February, Lyons defended the work of law enforcement.
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“The President gave us the mandate to carry out mass deportations, and we are carrying out that mandate,” he told Congress.
Campaigns against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but the killings of two Americans, videos of masked agents snatching people off the streets and reports of people being targeted with weak evidence contributed to a steep decline in Trump’s approval ratings.
