White House withdraws nomination of Lance Schroyer as ICE director

Critics from both parties said Schroyer wasn't qualified for the job.

September 17, 2026, 4:26 PM

The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Lance Schroyer to be the next Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, according to a notice posted on the White House website Thursday. 

The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since 2017. Former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons retired in May and David Venturella, a former private prisons executive, has been running the agency since then.

Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper and close confidant of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, was nominated in June but faced pushback from the president's base and Democrats over what they said was his lack of qualifications for the job. His nomination had stalled in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The White House did not give a reason for withdrawing Schroyer's nomination. ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment.

ICE's more than $75 billion budget is the largest of any law enforcement agency in the country.

The agency has become a focal point of the president's second-term deportation push and the Republican-controlled Congress has given the agency the resources to carry out the administration's agenda.

ICE has come under scrutiny during its push to deport those in the country illegally for what some Democrats say are heavy-handed tactics and a rush to hire candidates that weren't qualified for the job.

In nominating Schroyer in June, Trump touted his 29 years of service as a law enforcement officer in Oklahoma and said Schroyer will enforce the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Schroyer, who served in the Marine Corps, is currently a senior adviser to Mullin, a former senator from Oklahoma. Schroyer was Mullin's pick to lead ICE, a source with knowledge of the decision told ABC News.