Todd Lyons, who has been the acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2025, submitted his resignation on Thursday.
According to reports:
Lyons, a two-decade ICE veteran, told colleagues that he's planning to depart the agency in June to spend more time with family, including his sons, in Massachusetts, the officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss a move that has not been publicly announced. Lyons is expected to join the private sector after leaving ICE.
[...]
It's not immediately clear who would replace Lyons. For nearly a decade, ICE has had a dozen acting directors, lacking a Senate-confirmed head since early 2017, at the end of the Obama administration. Lyons was named acting ICE director in March 2025.
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin praised the 20-year ICE veteran for his service and wished him well:
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. He jump-started an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years. Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer.
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. He jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years. Thanks…
— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) April 17, 2026
Border czar Tom Homan, responding to the news, called Lyons a "highly respected" leader who "served selflessly" and under whose leadership "ICE achieved a record number of removals in the first year of this Administration, despite unprecedented challenges, delivering on the President’s promise to deport illegal aliens who have no right to be in the U.S., especially those that are public safety risks or pose a threat to our national security."
SEE ALSO: 'This Is Our Why': Acting ICE Director Holds Powerful Ceremony With the Families of the Victims
Similarly, Stephen Miller, Trump White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, said in a statement to Fox News that "Todd is 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."
In addition to submitting his resignation, here's what Lyons was doing on Thursday:
LYONS: "HSI actually broke the largest gift card fraud case ever, and it was from transnational gangs within the CCP that were sending that money back to military units in China...and it was unfortunately military age Chinese males that entered under the last administration." pic.twitter.com/t5zyZSk3Ht
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 16, 2026
According to Mullin, Lyons' last day will be May 31st.
Editor’s Note: ICE and CBP continue to put themselves in harm's way in order to protect America’s sovereignty and to keep our streets safe.
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