President Donald Trump nominated Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to serve as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the White House announced on June 27, 2026.

Schroyer's law enforcement background is in state policing rather than federal immigration enforcement — a profile that sets him apart from the career ICE and DHS officials who have historically cycled through the director's chair. The nomination was praised by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mullin, who said in a DHS statement that Schroyer was the right choice to lead the agency.

The ICE directorship is a Senate-confirmed position. Schroyer will face a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where members will scrutinize his operational depth on immigration law, detention standards, and the interagency coordination that defines ICE's day-to-day enforcement mission.

ICE has operated without a Senate-confirmed permanent director for extended stretches in recent administrations, relying instead on acting officials. A confirmed director carries more institutional authority in budget negotiations and in setting enforcement priorities across the agency's Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations divisions.

The nomination arrives as the Trump administration has placed interior enforcement at the center of its immigration agenda, expanding deportation operations and seeking increased detention capacity. Schroyer, if confirmed, would inherit an agency managing record caseloads and sustained scrutiny from both congressional overseers and federal courts over detention conditions and removal procedures.

His state trooper background could cut in more than one direction on Capitol Hill. Supporters are likely to frame it as boots-on-the-ground credibility — the kind of street-level enforcement experience that career bureaucrats lack. Critics may press him on whether that résumé prepares him for the legal and administrative complexity of running a federal agency with roughly 20,000 employees, a multi-billion-dollar annual budget, and jurisdiction spanning criminal immigration enforcement and transnational crime investigations.

PBS NewsHour first reported Trump's announcement on June 27. No timeline for a confirmation hearing has been publicly set.