Department of Homeland Security officials are reportedly up in arms over President Donald Trump’s controversial choice to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement — as his nomination remains in limbo over the fatal shootings of two American protesters in Minneapolis.
Critics inside DHS question the qualifications of former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer and want ICE’s acting director, Dave Veturella, to keep running the agency, Politico reported Sunday, citing six unidentified officials and others familiar with the matter.
“We don’t want [Schroyer]. We don’t need him. Leave us alone. We are running better than ever,” one official said. “People need to stop telling us how to do what we do best.”
Some inside the department are also glad that Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has held up a confirmation hearing for Schroyer, who now works as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Politico said.
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paul told senior Homeland Security officials he would delay Schroyer’s hearing until he got more information about the January slayings of anti-ICE activists and American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
open image in galleryIn a statement to The Independent, a White House official said, “Lance Schroyer remains President Trump’s nominee to lead ICE. Congressional scheduling should not be interpreted as any personnel announcements.”
A DHS spokesperson also told The Independent that Mullin and the department “stand firmly behind President Trump’s nominee, Lance Schroyer, and look forward to him bringing nearly 30 years of law enforcement experience to lead the men and women of ICE.”
Schroyer, who served in the Marine Corps from 1992 to 1996, ran the security detail at Mullin’s house when he represented Oklahoma in the U.S. Senate. The pair struck up a friendship after Mullin invited Schroyer inside for dinner, the WSJ reported in July.
But Schroyer, who retired as a state police major, has no federal government experience beyond having been deputized to make immigration arrests, according to the WSJ.
Under Trump, ICE has become the most well-funded federal law enforcement agency, with an $85 billion budget that was boosted by Trump-backed legislation known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
open image in galleryVenturella, ICE’s acting director, is an ally of White House border czar Tom Homan, and both he and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, who oversees immigration matters, were “blindsided” by Schroyer’s nomination, according to a report by the Daily Beast and PunchUp. The White House said the reports were “fake news.”
The WSJ later reported that Homan only learned Schroyer had been nominated when Trump announced it on social media.
In the post, Trump called Schroyer a “PATRIOT with real operational experience” and touted him as a “proven leader with DECADES of experience locking up the worst of the worst.”
Trump campaigned for re-election on a pledge to carry out the largest mass-deportation operation in U.S. history, and the White House has reportedly set a goal of 1 million deportations annually.
But ICE arrests haven’t come anywhere near that figure, and CBS News reported in February that an internal DHS document showed less than 14 percent of nearly 400,000 people arrested during Trump’s first year back in the White House had been convicted of or even charged with violent criminal offenses.
Mullin has reportedly drawn the ire of MAGA influencers and White House officials who are furious that he hasn’t boosted the arrest numbers, and Politico said Sunday that Schroyer’s stalled nomination has done little to bridge the divide.
ICE hasn’t had a Senate-approved director since Sarah Saldaña left the post at the end of President Barack Obama’s second term in January 2017.