Todd Lyons is stepping down as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Thursday. Lyons will depart the Department of Homeland Security on May 31.
Mullin offered no explanation for Lyons' exit, saying only that he was moving into the private sector. "Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer," Mullin said in a statement.
Lyons' tenure has been defined by the Trump administration's aggressive mass deportation operations, which have sparked national controversy. The crackdowns, concentrated in Democratic-led cities, faced fierce public opposition and attracted the scrutiny of federal lawmakers. The intensity of enforcement raised questions about the tactics being used, particularly after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year.
During a February congressional hearing, Lyons disclosed that ICE made 379,000 arrests and removed over 475,000 people from the country during the first year of the Trump administration. When pressed on the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in separate January incidents, Lyons declined to apologize.
Trump appointed Lyons to the acting role in March 2025 after Caleb Vitello was reassigned. Mullin himself arrived at the DHS helm last month following Trump's removal of Kristi Noem. The Senate confirmed Mullin on March 23.
White House border czar Tom Homan praised Lyons' record of removals as a "distinguished law enforcement career." Stephen Miller, the administration's immigration architect, called him "a phenomenal patriot and dedicated leader" central to Trump's border security agenda.
Mullin did not name a successor to lead the agency.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Lyons leaves as the public face of enforcement policies that have divided the country and sparked deadly incidents, but the administration isn't offering any real accounting of what went wrong."
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