The White House withdrew its nominee to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, according to multiple reports, ending a bid that had stalled amid Republican resistance and reported concerns inside the Department of Homeland Security.
Lance Schroyer, an Oklahoma state trooper, was tapped by President Donald Trump to run the agency. His path to confirmation effectively closed when Republicans blocked his confirmation hearing, Politico reported.
The White House has not offered a detailed explanation for the withdrawal. Some reports indicate officials within DHS were worried that Schroyer lacked sufficient experience both in enforcing immigration law and in navigating the federal government, per the Daily Wire’s account of the reporting.
A stalled hearing and unanswered questions
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, held up Schroyer’s confirmation hearing over requests for information about the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers in Minneapolis earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, also opposed Schroyer’s nomination, the outlet reported.
Those two factors — a committee chairman withholding a hearing and opposition from a prominent figure inside the administration’s immigration apparatus — left the nomination without a viable route to the floor.
The résumé behind the pick
Schroyer’s rise to the nomination ran through his relationship with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Schroyer previously led the security detail for Mullin when Mullin served in the U.S. Senate, and Mullin later brought him to DHS as a senior adviser.
His immigration enforcement credentials were built largely in Oklahoma, where he led the Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s partnership with ICE, training its force in immigration law so troopers could make arrests alongside federal immigration agents, according to The Washington Post.
The former trooper was deputized to make arrests for ICE last year after completing a 40-hour online training program, the Post reported.
When Trump nominated Schroyer, Mullin publicly praised the choice, citing “Lance’s strong leadership and firsthand experience” that he said “will empower the men and women of ICE to deport criminal illegal aliens, secure the homeland, and protect the American people.”
In the same statement, Mullin acknowledged that ICE has gone more than a decade without a confirmed director and urged the Senate to move quickly on the nomination.
A decade-long vacancy, again unfilled
The withdrawal returns ICE to a status it has occupied for years: an agency carrying out one of the administration’s most visible priorities without a Senate-confirmed leader at the top.
The broader context is a confirmation environment in which a single senator’s hold can be enough to end a nomination. Paul’s information requests tied to the Minneapolis shootings — which have drawn scrutiny — proved to be that obstacle here, while Homan’s reported opposition signaled trouble from within the administration’s own immigration ranks.
Neither the White House nor DHS immediately commented on the withdrawal, according to the reporting, and it remains unclear who the administration might put forward next.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-withdraws-ice-director-nominee