Trump Nominates Former Oklahoma State Trooper Lance Schroyer as ICE Director

Trump just tapped a new person to run ICE — and if you've been paying attention to the immigration debate, this pick is worth knowing about.

On Saturday, President Trump announced he's nominating Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper and U.S. Marine, to be the next director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That's the federal agency responsible for tracking down, detaining, and deporting undocumented immigrants — the tip of the spear for Trump's mass deportation agenda.

So who is this guy? Schroyer spent nearly three decades in Oklahoma law enforcement. He rose to the rank of Major at Oklahoma's Department of Public Safety, where he oversaw a unit that handled everything from disaster response to immigration enforcement. He's also been working inside the Trump administration already, serving as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — another Oklahoman. In fact, sources told NBC News that Mullin has been quietly pushing for Schroyer to get this job for a while. Earlier this month, Mullin brought Schroyer onstage at a National Sheriffs' Association event, publicly calling him a "good friend."

Here's the important context: ICE hasn't had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration — nearly a decade of acting directors and revolving-door leadership. The last confirmed head left in early 2017. That's a long time for such a powerful agency to operate without permanent, Senate-approved leadership, especially given everything that's happened since.

The previous acting director, Todd Lyons, resigned at the end of May after intense scrutiny over ICE's aggressive tactics — including the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year. Since June 1, David Venturella — a former executive at a private prison company — has been holding down the fort. He's expected to stay on in an acting capacity until Schroyer clears the Senate.

Now here's why this nomination surprised some people: Schroyer has no direct ICE or federal law enforcement experience. Former ICE officials noted the pick came as a surprise to people inside the agency. A former senior ICE official said past confirmed directors have often been attorneys, and that Schroyer's Oklahoma roots strongly suggest Mullin drove this selection. Another former ICE official said Schroyer actually faces "an uphill climb" toward Senate confirmation — but added that not having a federal career history might paradoxically work in his favor, since senators won't be able to pin specific past decisions on him.

Trump, for his part, wasn't subtle about what he expects from Schroyer. "The Senate must CONFIRM Lance, IMMEDIATELY," he wrote on Truth Social. The nomination landed just days after the Supreme Court handed the administration two major immigration wins — one stripping legal protections from thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants, and another making it easier to restrict asylum seekers at the southern border.

The DHS inspector general also announced this week it's launching two new reviews into ICE — one on the spike in detainee deaths (20 so far this year) and one on use-of-force standards inside detention facilities.

Bottom line: If you care about immigration policy — whether you think enforcement needs to get tougher or pull back — the person running ICE matters enormously. Schroyer is an unknown quantity at the federal level, he's a close ally of the man who oversees him, and he's being handed the wheel of one of the most scrutinized agencies in the country right now.