{"id":588897,"date":"2026-04-17T02:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588897\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:22:12","slug":"acting-ice-director-todd-lyons-is-leaving-the-department-of-homeland-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588897\/","title":{"rendered":"Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons is leaving the Department of Homeland Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons is leaving the Department of Homeland Security, the new head of the DHS said Thursday.<\/p>\n

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“Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector.”<\/p>\n

Lyons’ last day will be May 31, Mullin said. He did not say why Lyons is leaving.<\/p>\n

Lyons has been the acting head during ICE\u2019s controversial mass immigration crackdowns that targeted Democratic-run cities during the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The crackdowns generated furious protests, and federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump appointed Lyons acting director in March 2025, succeeding Caleb Vitello, who was reassigned<\/a>. He appointed Mullin, a U.S. senator from Oklahoma and political ally, last month after he fired Kristi Noem<\/a>. The Senate confirmed Mullin<\/a> on March 23.<\/p>\n

Trump promised large-scale deportations of people in the country illegally during his presidential campaign, but the mass crackdowns angered some who said agents were sweeping up long-standing residents rather than violent criminals.<\/p>\n

At a congressional hearing in February<\/a>, Lyons said ICE made 379,000 arrests during the first year of the Trump administration and removed over 475,000 people from the U.S.<\/p>\n

Lyons declined at the hearing to apologize for the fatal shootings of the two U.S. citizens, Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a>, who were killed in separate incidents in Minneapolis in January.<\/p>\n

White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that under Lyons\u2019 leadership, \u201cICE achieved a record number of removals in the first year of this Administration, despite unprecedented challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI commend him for a distinguished law enforcement career and the countless contributions he has made to protect our country and advance its interests,\u201d Homan said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

White House adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, said in a statement: \u201cTodd is a phenomenal patriot and dedicated leader who has been at the center of President Trump\u2019s historic efforts to secure our homeland and reverse the Democrats\u2019 sinister border invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullin did not say in his statement who will lead ICE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons is leaving the Department of Homeland Security, the new head of the DHS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-588897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}