Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons is leaving the Department of Homeland Security, the new head of the DHS said Thursday.
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“Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector.”
Lyons’ last day will be May 31, Mullin said.
Mullin did not state a reason for Lyons’ departure in his statement.
Lyons has been the acting head of ICE during the agency’s controversial mass immigration crackdowns that targeted Democrat-run cities under the Trump administration.
The crackdowns generated furious protests, and two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Trump appointed Lyons as acting director of the agency in March of 2025, succeeding Caleb Vitello who was reassigned.
President Donald Trump appointed Mullin, a U.S. senator and political ally, in March after firing Kristi Noem from the role. Mullin was confirmed by the Senate on March 23.
Trump promised large-scale deportations of people in the country illegally during his presidential campaign, but the mass crackdowns angered some who said agents were sweeping up longstanding residents rather than violent criminals.
At a congressional hearing in February, Lyons said ICE made 379,000 arrests during the first year of the Trump administration and removed over 475,000 people from the U.S.
Lyons at that hearing declined to apologize for the fatal shootings of the two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis. They were killed in separate incidents in January.
