White House Withdraws Lance Schroyer's Nomination to Lead ICE

The nomination is over without a Senate vote

WASHINGTON — The White House has withdrawn Richard “Lance” Schroyer's nomination to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending his bid for Senate confirmation before the Senate held a confirmation vote.

The administration's September 17 list of withdrawals identifies Richard Schroyer of Oklahoma as the nominee for assistant secretary of Homeland Security whose name was pulled from the Senate. Reuters and the Associated Press confirmed that the position was the Senate-confirmed ICE director's post.

The White House gave no reason for the withdrawal. No replacement nominee was announced in the sources reviewed for this report, and the action does not amount to a Senate rejection because senators never voted on Schroyer.

His confirmation hearing had not been scheduled

President Donald Trump nominated Schroyer in June. The former Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer and Marine later served as a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a fellow Oklahoman with whom Schroyer had worked closely.

Schroyer's nomination never reached a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Associated Press reported that committee chair Rand Paul had declined to move ahead until the Department of Homeland Security provided information about internal investigations into fatal shootings involving federal immigration officers.

That dispute formed the public backdrop to the stalled nomination, but neither the White House withdrawal notice nor the reviewed reporting establishes it as the administration's stated reason for pulling Schroyer's name. Claims about the motive should therefore be treated as inference, not confirmed fact.

Questions centered on experience and independence

Schroyer brought nearly three decades of state law-enforcement experience, according to supporters, but little direct immigration-enforcement experience and no record of leading a federal agency the size of ICE. His closeness to Mullin also drew scrutiny during the nomination fight.

Those criticisms were political and evaluative; they were not criminal allegations and did not result in a Senate finding that Schroyer was unqualified. The confirmed institutional fact is narrower: the nomination stalled without a hearing and was then withdrawn by the White House.

The withdrawal leaves the administration free to nominate someone else. A future nominee would still need Senate confirmation to become the agency's permanent director.

ICE remains under acting leadership

David Venturella continues to lead ICE in an acting capacity, according to the Associated Press and Reuters. The withdrawal does not shut down the agency, suspend arrests or deportations, invalidate existing operations, or change immigration law by itself.

It does extend an extraordinary leadership gap. ICE has operated without a Senate-confirmed director since the first Trump administration, leaving one of the federal government's most powerful domestic enforcement agencies in the hands of successive acting officials.

A confirmed director would face responsibility for detention, removal, investigations, recruitment, officer training and oversight while the agency carries out the administration's mass-deportation agenda. Those operations have generated intense scrutiny over tactics, hiring and the use of force.

What is confirmed—and what is not

Confirmed: the White House sent Schroyer's withdrawal to the Senate on September 17; his confirmation hearing never occurred; the administration supplied no public reason in the withdrawal notice; the Senate did not reject him in a vote; and no replacement nominee was announced in the sources reviewed.

Not confirmed: that any single dispute forced the withdrawal, that Schroyer was fired from every government role, or that the personnel decision changes ICE enforcement policy. The reviewed sources do not establish those claims.

What’s the Scoop With Broach will update this report if the White House names a replacement, the Senate schedules a hearing for a new nominee or the administration explains why Schroyer's nomination was withdrawn.

About the image

The accompanying photograph shows an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer in Philadelphia in January 2018. Charles Reed of ICE Public Affairs made the image as part of official federal duties, and Wikimedia Commons records it as public domain in the United States.

It is an authentic contextual photograph of the agency. It does not depict Schroyer, Venturella, the White House withdrawal, a Senate proceeding or any current enforcement operation.