The White House on Sept. 17 withdrew the nomination of Marine veteran and former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Schroyer, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the agency, was nominated in June.
The White House made the announcement when it published a list of withdrawals it had sent to the Senate.
It provided no explanation for the withdrawal and didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Schroyer’s nomination never received a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
Paul had pressed for greater transparency into the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minnesota.
He said unreleased officer camera footage should be made public and questioned whether the federal investigation would be credible in comments he made to CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
Paul’s office said in an email to The Epoch Times: “Our understanding is that the White House pulled the nomination. Senator Paul has not expressed opposition to the nominee.”
The last Senate-confirmed ICE director was Sarah R. Saldaña, who left office in 2017.
“The last time ICE had a Senate-confirmed Director was January 2017,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, posted on X on Sept. 17. “It seems we’re likely to reach a decade of Acting officials now.”
At the time of the announcement, Schroyer was a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who has been in office since March.
In June, the president said Schroyer’s law enforcement background spans 29 years and includes working with ICE.
“Lance has firsthand experience getting Illegal Aliens OFF our streets and, just like ME and our Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, he LOVES the men and women of ICE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in June. “Importantly, Lance Schroyer has what it takes to DETAIN AND DEPORT Illegal Alien Criminals, including [murderers], rapists, and drug traffickers at a rate never seen before!”
The withdrawal comes as ICE has intensified immigration enforcement and lawmakers have debated many of its tactics.
White House border czar Tom Homan said on Sept. 16 that ICE arrests have increased for four consecutive months.
“ICE is making a record number of arrests,” Homan said. “June—record arrests. July beat June. August blew both those months out of the water. And September is looking pretty damn good, too.”
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