Meet 4 Of The People Who Could Be The Next Ice Director

Successors to retiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Todd Lyons are already being floated within the Department of Homeland Security, as the Trump administration seeks steady leadership atop the controversial agency.

Lyons, who has served as acting ICE director for the past year, plans to retire from the agency at the end of May. Names being tossed around inside the department include one of Lyons’ deputies, a former acting ICE director and two senior advisers to DHS and the White House. That’s based on conversations with eight people, including people close to the administration and administration officials. Many were granted anonymity to speak freely about the internal discussions around replacing Lyons.

There’s no clear frontrunner to replace Lyons at this point, and it’s always possible that President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin could go with an out-of-the-box selection. And as one administration official noted, being floated isn’t the same as being willing. Some potential contenders have turned the gig down before, wary of a highly scrutinized, high-pressure role, especially now as ICE faces declining public approval and low internal morale.

Immigration hardliners in particular are watching closely to see what the administration prioritizes in picking Lyons’ replacement. Mark Krikorian, who leads the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank in Washington which backs restrictions on legal immigration to the United States, said it’s vital that the next ICE director has experience with removal operations and enjoys a good relationship with White House border czar Tom Homan.

“If it’s someone he’s not getting along with, and not singing from the same songbook, it’s going to be a problem,” Krikorian said. Homan oversaw ICE early in Trump’s first term and is seen as a defender of the agency he once led.

While the post requires Senate confirmation, it’s unlikely that Trump’s pick for ICE chief will actually go through that process. Lyons and many of his predecessors have done the job in an acting capacity. The last time the Senate confirmed an ICE director was in 2014, under former President Barack Obama. Homan was nominated to the role in the first Trump administration but never came up for a vote.

Asked to comment on potential successors to Lyons, the Department of Homeland Security said it has “no personnel announcements” at this time.

Here are a few of the names being floated as potential replacements for Lyons.

The visible deputy: Marcos Charles

Marcos Charles, currently the head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations divisions, has been a driving force behind the Trump administration’s ambitious efforts to remove unauthorized immigrants from the United States.

Elevating Charles, who formerly led ICE’s Dallas field office, would signal a renewed commitment from the Trump administration in ICE’s tactics at a time when many Americans want changes to ICE operations after immigration agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis.

Charles was one of the more visible figures during the Trump administration’s Minneapolis crackdown. He defended the agency when the White House surged thousands of agents into Minneapolis to combat alleged immigration fraud.

In an interview with CBS News in January, Charles blamed politicians critical of ICE for stoking tensions against immigration enforcement agents and said those worried about ICE tactics needed to “become educated on what we do and how we do it and what our authorizations are and the laws in general.”

Charles fits into the category of officials who may not want the job, said the first administration official, explaining that Charles has considered retirement. A former DHS official familiar with the thinking within DHS added that Minneapolis may drag Charles down.

The contracting veteran: David Venturella

David Venturella, currently tasked with overseeing DHS’ contracts for immigrant detention centers, returned to government service in 2025 from GEO Group, one of the major contractors that works with ICE and other immigration agencies to run detention facilities.

He previously worked for ICE during the Bush and Obama administrations and ran the agency’s Secure Communities program, which helped local, state and federal law enforcement agencies share information and better coordinate operations to remove unauthorized immigrants from the United States.

Venturella is seen as a close ally of Homan. Homan worked at GEO Group as a consultant between both Trump administrations and was said to have played a role in Venturella’s hiring to a senior role within the second Trump administration.

Picking Venturella, however, would potentially raise new conflicts of interest questions at the Department of Homeland Security. Government watchdogs have already highlighted Venturella and Homan’s past work at GEO Group, as the contractor has tried to secure additional contracts for immigrant detention centers. Given that the tenure of Mullin’s predecessor as Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, was marked by allegations of self-dealing at the department and micromanagement of department contracting, naming Venturella could potentially also stymy Mullin’s efforts to clean up DHS’ image.

“ICE has always had a revolving door problem and GEO Group is the big classic example of that,” said a second former DHS official familiar with conversations. “Especially as ICE is embarking on the largest expansion of immigration detention, it at minimum raises the appearance of conflicts of interest to have someone like Venturella at the helm.”

Still, Venturella’s past work at GEO Group could serve to smooth relations with major department partners, who experienced significant disruption under Noem.

The HSI veteran: Tony Salisbury

Naming Tony Salisbury, currently the president’s deputy homeland security adviser, as ICE director would put a top lieutenant to deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller in the role — and suggest further endorsement of Miller’s hardline approach to immigration enforcement.

“If it is somebody close to Miller, that would signal that there will be an iron first from Stephen Miller on immigration enforcement policy to come,” said Doris Meissner, an analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute think tank in Washington who led Immigration and Naturalization Services under former President Bill Clinton.

Salisbury also would come to the role with more of a background at ICE’s investigative arm than some other candidates. In addition to his role as a White House adviser, Salisbury earlier in the Trump administration served as acting deputy executive associate director at Homeland Security Investigations. That’s the division of ICE that prosecutes major criminal activity including transnational criminal networks, counterfeiting and possession of child sexual abuse material. He has spent the bulk of his career at the agency. A former U.S. Marshal who joined the predecessor of Customs and Border Protection two decades ago, Salisbury previously led HSI offices in Miami and St. Louis.

Salisbury’s appointment could mean a return to basics for Homeland Security Investigations, which has been increasingly roped into enforcement operations. Since Mullin took the reins at DHS, Homeland Security Investigations has promoted its work investigating the serious crimes under its remit and its efforts to apprehend those accused of criminal wrongdoing.

The first former official said that Salisbury is Miller’s pick to be the next ICE chief. But a second administration official voiced skepticism about Salisbury. The official said “Tony is too valuable as Miller’s deputy” and would likely remain as deputy homeland security adviser.

The second-tour director: Mark Morgan

One of the contenders — Mark Morgan — has a unique qualification for the role: he previously led ICE. Morgan, an FBI agent for most of his career, served as the acting ICE Director as well as acting Border Patrol Commissioner during Trump’s first term in office.

Per Meissner, Morgan’s past experience at Border Patrol would potentially be a signal that under Mullin’s leadership, ICE and Border Patrol will continue working closely on interior immigration enforcement operations.

His return to the agency in Trump 2.0 would also be welcomed by hardliners. Morgan is a member of the Mass Deportations Coalition, an organization led by prominent Trumpworld veterans, immigration restrictionist groups and immigration hawks. The group has warned against a focus only removing immigrants who have committed violent crimes and has called on the Trump administration to ramp up large-scale deportations, with an emphasis on worksite enforcement.

But Morgan, the second administration official said, is a “big personality” and could be difficult to work with for some other top-level figures in the administration.

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.