**David Venturella Named Interim Director of ICE**

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be led by longtime agency official David Venturella as interim director, replacing acting director Todd Lyons. Officials confirmed the decision on Tuesday evening, May 12, 2026. The expected appointment was first reported by The New York Times earlier that day. Venturella will take over after Lyons’ last day on May 31.

Lyons was appointed to the interim role in March 2025. The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since an Obama administration official resigned in 2017. The last time an ICE director was confirmed by the Senate was in 2014 when Sarah Saldaña was confirmed.

Venturella has worked for ICE during former President George W. Bush’s administration and the Obama administration, and he also worked at the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service. He rejoined the agency last year after President Trump returned to the White House.

Venturella served as executive director of ICE’s Secure Communities program. Under the program, authorities shared digital fingerprints from everyone booked into jail with federal authorities, who used the data to identify people in the country without authorization.

President Barack Obama ended the Secure Communities program in 2014. Then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a memo that the Secure Communities program alienated immigrant communities from local law enforcement. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reinstitute the Secure Communities program in 2017 during his first term.

Venturella served at the private prison company GEO Group as a senior vice president of client relations until 2023. GEO Group has over $1 billion worth of contracts with ICE according to public records. After he retired from GEO, Venturella was a consultant for the company, advising on new and existing contracts, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005, Venturella noted he is the son of an immigrant. “Without strict and fair enforcement of our immigration statutes, our country will remain vulnerable to the threats that arise from individuals who willingly exploit gaps in our immigration system,” Venturella said in the 2005 testimony.

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., objected to Venturella’s selection. “Let’s be clear: his appointment is to ensure Trump’s corporate bosses continue profiting from our communities’ pain,” she wrote on X Tuesday night.