President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he is nominating retired Oklahoma State Trooper and former U.S. Marine Lance Schroyer to serve as director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding another piece to the administration’s broader immigration enforcement agenda.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump praised Schroyer’s nearly three decades of law enforcement experience and urged the Senate to confirm him as soon as lawmakers return from the July 4 recess.
“Lance has over 29 years of law enforcement experience in Oklahoma,” Trump wrote, describing the nominee as “a patriot with real operational experience” who helped develop partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE through the agency’s 287(g) program.
Schroyer would become the agency’s first Senate-confirmed director since 2017 if approved. ICE has been led by a series of acting directors in recent years, including Todd Lyons, who stepped down earlier this year.
The nomination comes as the administration continues emphasizing interior immigration enforcement and cooperation between federal, state and local authorities.
The 287(g) program allows participating state and local law enforcement agencies to perform certain immigration enforcement functions under ICE supervision after receiving federal training.
According to the administration, Schroyer’s background as a longtime Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and former Marine made him a strong candidate to oversee the agency’s detention, investigations and removal operations.
The nomination follows a week of major immigration developments, including a Supreme Court decision allowing the administration to move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants after ruling that lower courts lacked authority to block the executive branch’s action.
The administration also announced personnel changes at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where Acting Director Bill Pulte began restructuring the agency by removing several political appointees and returning dozens of career intelligence officers to their home agencies.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had identified billions of dollars in alleged improper Affordable Care Act enrollment payments and reported removing millions of questionable marketplace enrollments while continuing additional investigations.
Trump also defended his administration’s immigration record during public remarks and on social media, arguing federal immigration authorities have achieved record enforcement levels while criticizing media coverage of the issue, per Trending Politics.
Democratic officials have continued pushing back against several administration policies. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently criticized the Supreme Court’s TPS decision and announced a $15 million city initiative expanding transgender healthcare programs while pledging to challenge additional federal actions.
Abroad, tensions also remained elevated after Iran reported launching drone attacks against U.S.-linked targets following recent American airstrikes, while maritime security agencies warned commercial vessels of continued risks in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
Schroyer’s nomination now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers will decide whether to confirm him to lead one of the federal government’s primary immigration enforcement agencies as the administration continues pursuing its broader border security priorities.
