ICE’s acting director to go as controversial, funding questions continue to swirl around the agency
The acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced his pending departure on Thursday, the same day he was grilled by Democrats in Congress over the number of deaths in immigration detention centers across the US.
Although the two events were not related, they highlight just one problem facing the agency and its governing body – Homeland Security – amid US President Donald Trump’s impeachment campaign. What the Trump administration has done since last year has been viewed negatively by the growing number of Americans, according to many studies.
Todd Lyons will leave ICE on May 31 and move into the private sector, new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. Mullin said Lyons “skipped a company that was not allowed to do his job for four years,” and White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson praised him as “an American patriot who made our country safe.”
Thirty-two people are known to have died in the custody of ICE or the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) last year, the highest number since 2004, when the agency was replaced – inspired by the attacks of September 11, 2001 – by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). So far this year, there have been 16 deaths in ICE custody or custody.
Lyons, questioned by Democratic House Rep. Lauren Underwood on the committee Thursday, said it is the highest number in decades “because we have the highest number of arrests that ICE has had since it was established in 2003.”
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The response did not satisfy Underwood, who represents the state of Illinois.
“When I say that there are many arrested, I mean that you have many officers, you have many resources,” he said. “That, in my opinion, is not a valid reason why the death rate is going up.”
ICE officer indicted in Minnesota
There is some support for Underwood’s argument. As admissions to immigration detention rose to more than 400,000 people a year in the first two decades of this century, the death toll in several of those years was in the single digits or low double digits, before a significant bump in 2020, a year in which COVID-19 emerged but vaccines were not yet approved.
The 16 people who died this year include people from 10 countries, four people from Mexico. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said it will file a brief in support of a lawsuit brought by inmates who allege poor conditions in detention centers, including inadequate health care, unsanitary conditions and punishing solitary confinement.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will refer the matter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Trump has said that crackdowns on unauthorized US citizens are necessary to improve homeland security and curb illegal immigration. While it is true that the US has an undocumented population that is about one-third of Canada’s population, this week a report by the libertarian Cato Institute, co-founded by longtime Republican Party donor Charles Koch, revealed that the second Trump administration is also cracking down on immigration laws.
The Trump administration announced deportation nets in several American cities last year, operations that are often opposed by the Democratic elected officials who lead those cities and states. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker criticized Lyons on social media Thursday for overseeing “Trump’s secret police force where masked men have invaded our American streets, violated Constitutional rights, and shot our citizens.”
Grassroots activists also opposed the deployment, and in Minnesota in January, two of them lost their lives protesting a deportation campaign against Somali-American residents. Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer, and Alex Pretti was hit multiple times when two CBP officers fired their weapons.
Since then, Trump and the administration have backed away from announcing large deployments, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has been ousted after facing questions about the department’s spending under her leadership.
Lyons on Thursday refused to apologize to officials, including Noem, who portrayed Good and Pretti, American citizens, as heroes and terrorists.
“I welcome the opportunity to speak with the family privately. But I will not comment on the ongoing investigation,” he said.
The brothers of Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis last month, testified at a congressional hearing on Tuesday. Luke Ganger said what was happening in the city was ‘absolutely surreal,’ adding: ‘This is not just a bad day or a bad week or isolated incidents.’
But it’s not clear from previous comments by Todd Blanche, who is now acting attorney general, that the Good killing is being investigated at all. Minnesota officials expressed frustration with the lack of transparency from state officials following the shootings, although the Justice Department said the FBI was conducting a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing, while CBP was conducting an internal investigation into the fatal incident.
Another battle between the state and the Trump administration is likely to continue after officials in Hennepin County, Minnesota on Thursday announced charges against ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., accusing him of pointing his gun at a moving car. A local prosecutor said it was the first criminal case against a government official involved in an attack on immigrants in Minnesota, although it was unclear whether they had jurisdiction over their prosecution.
Suspicious arrest
Mullin told CNBC on Thursday that the layoffs are now being done “quietly, because my goal in six months is to not have DHS leading the charge.” [news] story every day.”
Mullin said the organization remains focused on the “worst” that should not be happening in the country, but news continues to emerge of questionable arrests, including that of a middle-aged Indo-American court interpreter, an 85-year-old widow from France, and cases involving Canadian citizens.
Tania Warner said she is looking for ways to take legal action against those involved in her arrest for the way they treat her seven-year-old daughter, Ayla. Both Warner and Ayla were held in ICE facilities for more than two weeks in Texas, despite Warner’s insistence that they were living in the United States legally.
ICE has not had a permanent director since Trump took office for the second time. Lyons took office in March 2025 after the interim administration of Caleb Vitello, and acting agency heads are only supposed to serve 210 days, although Trump exceeded that limit from his first term.
Whoever succeeds Lyons will run the agency for money, despite the protests of many Democrats in Congress.
This year’s funding for ICE and CBP has been held up amid disagreements between the two parties. In an effort to get new money approved without Democratic support, Republicans as soon as next week could use a special Senate process that allows bills to pass with a simple majority, instead of the support of at least 60 senators in the 100-member body.
The annual funding adds up to more than $100 billion in multi-year funding that Republicans won last July.
