The Trump administration plans to name longtime immigration official David Venturella as the interim head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, replacing acting director Todd Lyons, who is leaving the agency at the end of the month, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson and two U.S. officials told CBS News.
Venturella has worked at ICE under Republican and Democratic administrations, and rejoined the agency last year, after President Trump returned to the White House.Â
Before rejoining ICE, Venturella worked at GEO Group, one of the main for-profit prison companies that operates immigration detention centers across the U.S.
Venturella — who also worked at the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS —is considered an ally of White House border czar Tom Homan. His expected appointment was first reported by The New York Times earlier Tuesday.
As the federal agency at the forefront of Mr. Trump’s deportation crackdown, ICE has faced mounting scrutiny over the past year, including accusations that some of its operations have been heavy-handed. ICE officers have also faced withering criticism for using masks, a practice Trump administration officials have defended as a necessary safeguard against doxxing.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News last weekHoman said ICE has shifted to a “smarter” immigration enforcement strategy since the controversial Minneapolis crackdown, during which two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal immigration agents.Â
Homan said that approach has focused on “targeted” operations that prioritize the arrest of individuals who have committed crimes in addition to being in the U.S. illegally.
During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005, Venturella noted he is the son of an immigrant and said he understood “why so many people have risked their lives, leaving their families, homes, and everything they know to come to the United States,” according to prepared remarks.
But he said the U.S. is also known as “a nation where law and justice prevail.”
“Without strict and fair enforcement of our immigration statues, our country will remain vulnerable to the threats that arise from individuals who willingly exploit gaps in our immigration system,” Venturella said.
