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David Venturella, a veteran official with over 20 years of experience in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a former executive at a private prison company, was appointed as the new acting director of ICE by the Trump administration, as confirmed by a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.
Venturella will succeed Todd Lyons, who will officially leave the position on May 31 after announcing his resignation on April 17 for family reasons, amid a deep image crisis for the agency.
Lyons is the eighth consecutive acting director of ICE, as since 2017 neither the Trump administration during its first term nor the Biden administration has managed to secure Senate confirmation for a permanent head of the agency.
Venturella began his career in 1986 in Chicago at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he worked as a deportation officer before advancing to positions as deputy director and associate district director.
During the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, he held positions related to deportations and immigration detention, including roles in the "Secure Communities" program, which coordinated cooperation between local police and immigration authorities.
In 2012, he temporarily left ICE to join Geo Group, one of the largest private prison companies and a leading contractor of migrant detention centers in the United States, where he became the executive vice president of corporate development.
According to documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Venturella received more than six million dollars in compensation during his 12 years at Geo Group, a company that reported record revenues exceeding 2 billion dollars in 2025, driven largely by contracts with ICE.
His direct connection to that private company has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, although he received a federal ethical exemption that allows him to advise on detention policies.
Venturella left Geo Group in early 2023 and returned to ICE in 2025 with Trump's return to the White House, handling hiring and internal matters, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal.
The new director takes charge of an agency under intense public scrutiny following the massive raids carried out in cities across the country during Lyons' tenure.
The peak of the crisis was the death of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE agents: Renée Nicole Macklin Good, 37, on January 7, 2026, and Alex Prey, an intensive care nurse, on January 24, 2026.
These incidents led to the departure of Secretary Kristi Noem in March 2026, and her replacement by former Senator Markwayne Mullin, who took office on March 24 promising a more subdued tone, while still aligned with Trump's goals of mass deportation.
Since January 2025, ICE has recorded more than 160,000 arrests, peaking at 72,000 detainees in January 2026, amid Trump's promise to deport a million migrants per year, a target that was not met in the first year of his second term.
Venturella holds a degree in Science from Bradley University and completed leadership programs at Harvard and MIT. Throughout his career, he has also represented the United States in immigration meetings with Cuba and participated in negotiations for the repatriation of migrants with various countries.
The border czar, Tom Homan, predicted this week the direction the agency will take under the new leadership: "Mass deportations are coming. This will be a good year."
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