Administration

Acting ICE chief to exit agency: DHS secretary

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by Sarah Davis - 04/16/26 10:55 PM ET

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by Sarah Davis - 04/16/26 10:55 PM ET

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The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will leave his role at the end of next month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed on Thursday evening.

Todd Lyons will be departing for a new role in the private sector on May 31, Mullin announced in a post on the social platform X.

“Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE and key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities,” Mullin wrote.

“He jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years,” the secretary continued. “Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer.”

Lyons has worked for ICE for nearly two decades, after first joining as an agent in 2007. In a letter to Mullin on Thursday, the acting director called the role a “tremendous honor” and said he was leaving to “spend more time with my family,” The New York Times reported.

It is not immediately apparent who will fill the role in June. Mullin will be responsible for finding Lyons’s replacement, marking his first major decision after replacing Kristi Noem atop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the end of March.

The Senate has not confirmed a director for ICE since 2017, resulting in almost a decade’s worth of acting leaders at the agency.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

In a statement shared with CBS News, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Lyons “a phenomenal patriot and dedicated leader who has been at the center of President Trump’s historic efforts to secure our homeland and reverse the Democrats’ sinister border invasion.”

Lyons oversaw a turbulent period at the agency during the Trump administration’s controversial deployment of thousands of federal agents to states like California, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine and Illinois to crack down on illegal immigration.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) vowed to hold Lyons “accountable” on Thursday after the Trump administration deployed ICE agents to Chicago last year.

“Todd Lyons led a secret police force for Trump where masked agents attacked our own American streets, violated Constitutional rights, and shot our own citizens,” the governor wrote on X in response to the news of Lyons’s resignation.

DHS’s largest-ever immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota sparked outrage across the country after federal agents shot and killed two people in Minneapolis earlier this year. Protesters led nationwide demonstrations after ICE agents fatally shot 37-year-old mother Renee Good on Jan. 7.

Lyons refused to apologize for the killing of Good during a congressional hearing in February, citing an ongoing investigation into her death.

Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) celebrated the news of the Lyons’s exit on Thursday evening.

“Lyons, don’t let the door hit you on your way out,” Ramirez wrote on X. “You will still be held accountable by the American people.”

The acting director’s decision to step down also comes amid an ongoing shutdown at DHS, which has now stretched for over two months.

ICE received $75 billion under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, but other agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been significantly impacted by the lapse in funding.

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