White House Withdraws Nomination for ICE Chief

The White House on Thursday withdrew the nomination of Marine veteran and former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Schroyer, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the agency, was nominated in June.

The White House made the announcement when it published a list of withdrawals it had sent to the Senate.

It provided no explanation for the withdrawal and didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Schroyer’s nomination never received a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

Paul had pressed for greater transparency into the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minnesota.

He said unreleased officers’ camera footage should be made public and questioned whether the federal investigation would be credible in comments he made to the CBS show “60 Minutes.”

Paul’s office didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

“The last time ICE had a Senate-confirmed Director was January 2017,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, posted on X on Thursday. “It seems we’re likely to reach a decade of Acting officials now.”

At the time of the announcement, Schroyer was a senior adviser to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, who has been in office since March.

In June, the president said Schroyer’s law enforcement background spans 29 years and includes working with ICE.

“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 wrote on Truth Social in June. “Importantly, Lance Schroyer has what it takes to DETAIN AND DEPORT Illegal Alien Criminals, including [murderers], rapists, and drug traffickers at a rate never seen before!”

This is a developing story that will be updated.