Los Angeles .- The resignation of the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), Todd Lyons, has once again put the public spotlight on the immigration agency, which has been under the direction of chiefs who have not been approved by the U.S. Senate for almost a decade.
Lyons has been in charge of overseeing the deportation plan of the Donald Trump Administration, since March 2025.
The announcement by the interim director, who will officially leave his post on May 31, came weeks after the specialized media outlet Politico reported on his health problems, which forced him to go to the hospital.
Lyons is the eighth head in charge of the immigration agency who held his position on an interim basis. Sarah Saldaña was the last ICE director approved by the Senate, who held the position from December 2014 to January 2017 with the Barack Obama Administration (2009-2017).
Thomas Homan (current border czar), Ronald Vitiello, Matthew Albence, and Tony Pham held the position of ICE chiefs on an interim basis during Donald Trump’s first presidency (2017-2021).
Criticism of immigration raids
The government of former President Joe Biden (2021-2025) also failed to get the Upper House to approve a head for the immigration agency, which then had Tae D. Johnson and Patrick J. Lechleitner as interim directors.
Caleb Vitello was chosen to fill the position on an interim basis after Trump’s return to the White House, but he was in office for two months due to the few results in the deportation campaign.
Lyons replaced Vitello and has had to face criticism for the deaths of two Americans, Nicole Renée Good and Alex Pretti, in the Minnesota immigration raids last January and the record of deaths of immigrants who were detained by ICE.
Since President Trump took office in January 2025, the USA Today record shows that at least 48 people have died in ICE detention centers.
Lyons announced his resignation after testifying before a U.S. Congressional committee about the number of deaths in ICE custody.
