By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – The acting head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has been at the heart of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, will leave the federal government at the end of May, the Trump administration said on Thursday.
Todd Lyons’ last day is May 31 and he will move to the private sector, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.
Rights groups say Trump’s immigration crackdown led by ICE, which is part of DHS, has violated free speech and due process rights.
ICE’s fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota – Alex Pretti and Renee Good – in January sparked nationwide protests and human rights experts said the agency’s actions have created an unsafe environment, particularly for minorities.
Trump says the crackdown is necessary to improve domestic security and curb illegal immigration.
Trump fired former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in early March and tapped Mullin as the new DHS chief. The DHS has been shut down for over two months, with lawmakers in Congress unable to agree on legislation to fund the agency in the wake of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Earlier on Thursday, prosecutors in Minnesota charged an ICE agent with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car along a highway in Minneapolis in February.
Prosecutors said those marked the first charges against an ICE officer over actions related to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year. The accused agent told state investigators he had “feared for his safety.”
Before being appointed acting chief of ICE in March 2025, Lyons was the executive associate director of the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations directorate. In that role, he led efforts to arrest and remove migrants who came to the U.S. illegally, according to his official biography.
Lyons held other roles at the Enforcement and Removal Operations directorate, including assistant director of field operations and deputy assistant director of western operations and the southwest border, among other positions. He started with the directorate as an immigration enforcement agent in Dallas.
Mullin called Lyons “a great leader.”
Separately, U.S. media reported late on Thursday that Trump planned to nominate Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is also part of DHS.
Hamilton was ousted from his position as FEMA’s acting director last year after he appeared to break with Trump and Noem on the agency’s future. FEMA has seen significant staff cuts since Trump took office in January 2025. FEMA could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, additonal reporting by Ismail Shakil and Christian Martinez; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Nick Zieminski and Lincoln Feast.)
