Lance Schroyer, who is a 29-year veteran of law enforcement and has been working as a senior advisor to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, was nominated on Saturday by President Donald Trump to be director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Photo by Department of Homeland Security
President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that he nominated former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to be director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Schroyer, a senior advisor at the Department of Homeland Security and retired U.S. Marine, will replace former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who announced in April that he would leave the agency on May 31.
Trump announced that he is nominating Schroyer for the position in a post on Truth Social, touting his 29 years in law enforcement, including in previous partnership roles with ICE.
“He is a PATRIOT with real operational experience, and proven leader with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst,” Trump said in the post.
“Lance has firsthand experience getting Illegal Aliens OFF our streets and, just like ME and our Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, he LOVES the men and women of ICE!” Trump said.
DHS said in a press release endorsing the nomination that Schroyer’s role as senior advisor to Mullin has included overseeing coordination of immigration enforcement and serving as a liaison between involved law enforcement agencies.
Before his position at DHS, Schroyer was a major in the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety with responsibility for its Emergency Services Unit and a longtime Oklahoma state trooper.
In a statement, Mullin noted that ICE has not had a Senate confirmed director in more than a decade and, echoing Trump’s post, said the Senate needs to quickly confirm Schroyer.
“Lance will play a vital role in helping deliver on the President’s mandate from the American people to target, arrest and deport illegal aliens,” Mullin said.
“Lance is coming straight from the operational field where he ran large scale operations and worked alongside state and federal partners to remove illegal aliens from Oklahoma under the 287g program,” he said.
Lyons was appointed by Trump in March 2025 after his predecessor, Caleb Vitello, did not start removing people from the United States who allegedly were illegally in the country.
In his roughly one year in the job, Lyons oversaw more than 475,000 removals of people from the country and nearly 379,000 arrests.
Protestors rally at ICE detention center in Newark, N.J.
Protestors and federal agents clash outside Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, N.J., on May 27, 2026. Photo by Angelina Katsanis/UPI | License Photo
