Acting Secretary Todd Lyons will resign on May 31, DHS said. The announcement came within hours of a hearing on the record number of detainee deaths in ICE custody.
Some Americans feel targeted by President Trump’s immigration policies
A Chicago childcare worker reflects on a year of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on April 16 that Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director who oversaw immigration enforcement operations related to murders in Minnesota and Illinois, announced his intention to resign at the end of May.
“Secretary Lyons is a great leader at ICE and a central figure in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American society. He revitalized an agency that had not been allowed to work for four years. Because of his leadership, American society is safer,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement Thursday night. “We wish him all the best in his next opportunity in the private sector. His last day will be May 31, 2026.”
Lyons’ resignation came within hours of a hearing on Capitol Hill. There, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told lawmakers that at least 44 people have died in agency custody since he took office in March 2025. The number of people who died in ICE custody during President Trump’s second term is the highest in the agency’s lifetime.
The resignations of controversial Department of Homeland Security officials are the latest departmental shake-up. Mullin, a former senator from Oklahoma, replaced Lyons’ former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after President Trump fired her in March.
Noem’s firing also came after she faced tough questions in a congressional hearing about her professional conduct, including a $220 million ad campaign that featured her prominently.
Lyons could not be reached for comment.
