The Trump administration withdrew on Thursday the nomination of Richard Schroyer to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The White House published a brief statement on its website without providing any explanation regarding the decision.
Richard Schroyer, former Marine and former patrolman from the state of Oklahoma, had been appointed by President Donald Trump in late June to become the next permanent director of the agency responsible for enforcing immigration policy in the United States.
Her nomination was stalled in the Senate for months without even a confirmation hearing taking place.
El futuro de ICE y los cambios en la política migratoria de EE.UU. siguen generando novedades. Mantente informado en nuestra sección de
The main obstacle was Senator Rand Paul, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, who refused to move the process forward until the Department of Homeland Security provided information regarding an internal investigation related to civilian deaths during operations by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, between August 17 and 23.
Paul publicly clarified that he had no personal objections to Schroyer, but he demanded transparency regarding that case before proceeding with the nomination.
While awaiting confirmation from the Senate, Schroyer served as an advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin.
ICE still does not have a director confirmed by the Senate, a situation that has persisted since 2017. All agency heads since then have held the position on an interim basis.
Currently, David Venturella serves as the interim director following the resignation of Todd Lyons, effective at the end of May, amid controversies regarding the agency's operations.
All of this is happening during a peak operational period for ICE. In August, the agency reported nearly 51,000 arrests of migrants in irregular status, a historic monthly record that surpassed the previous high of just over 50,200 reached in July, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump arrived at the White House with the promise of expelling millions of undocumented migrants and, since taking office, has implemented a series of measures aimed at accelerating deportations and reducing illegal border crossings.
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