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President Donald Trump is expected to appoint longtime immigration official David Venturella as the next interim head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after current acting director Todd Lyons departs at the end of May.
Lyons is expected to leave the agency on May 31 for a private-sector position after helping to oversee the administration’s immigration enforcement and deportation efforts since taking over as acting director earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Venturella’s expected promotion. Venturella has served in immigration enforcement roles under both Republican and Democratic administrations and is viewed as an ally of White House border adviser Tom Homan.
Before returning to ICE, Venturella spent more than a decade working for GEO Group, a major private detention contractor that operates immigration detention facilities for the federal government. His ties to the detention industry are expected to draw scrutiny from critics of the administration’s immigration policies.
He began his career in 1986 with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and later served as acting director and assistant director of ICE’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations.
As Republicans work to advance a roughly $70 billion reconciliation package to fund ICE and CBP, Democrats are expected to scrutinize Venturella’s previous work with GEO, a company that has faced numerous complaints over the years.
Questions are also expected regarding Venturella’s former financial ties to GEO and whether any conflicts of interest exist, particularly because reports indicate he previously held a senior position within the ICE division overseeing detention center contracts that could involve his former employer. ICE has stated that Venturella has divested from GEO, no longer maintains financial ties to the company, and is not involved in reviewing, approving, or recommending contracts, Fox News reported.
Venturella previously worked with ICE’s Secure Communities program and has decades of experience dating back to the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since 2017, with multiple administrations relying on acting leadership to run the agency.
