WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump withdrew the nomination of Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement less than three months after announcing his nomination for the role.

The decision to withdraw the nomination was not explained by the Trump administration in a short statement posted on the White House website.

The agency has not had a confirmed director since 2017. David Venturella, a former ICE official who also had worked at a private prison company, is the acting chief of the agency.

“Lance has firsthand experience getting Illegal Aliens OFF our streets and, just like ME and our Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, he LOVES the men and women of ICE,” Trump wrote on social media when the pick was first announced in late June.

Schroyer was considered a close ally of Mullin who has served as a senior adviser at the department and had previously been a part of Mullin’s security detail when he was in the Senate. Schroyer had not previously worked at ICE.

The agency has come under increasing scrutiny, with its operations across the United States facing protests and pushback from local leaders. During Mullin’s tenure, ICE has seen record levels of arrests, including a five-day stretch in the summer in which 10,000 immigrants were apprehended.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Hamed Aleaziz/Michelle V. Agins
c. 2026 The New York Times Company