A former executive at a private prison contractor will be the new leader of the agency at the center of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday that David Venturella, who has been overseeing contracts for detention centers at the agency, will serve as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He replaces Todd Lyons, who will retire at the end of the month after leading ICE as it conducted deportation sweeps across the country that drew widespread outrage and ultimately forced the administration to dial back its efforts.
It is the first significant appointment by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took the role following the removal of Kristi Noem in a shakeup of Trump’s immigration policy team.
The White House has sought to reduce the prominence of its immigration campaign after federal immigration agents killed two U.S. citizens during an extended deportation operation in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The New York Times first reported Venturella’s appointment.
Venturella most recently oversaw DHS contracts for immigration detention centers. He worked for ICE during the Obama and Bush administrations, and ran the agency’s Secure Communities program, which helped law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal level to coordinate on deportation operations.
Venturella returned to the public sector last year after working for GEO Group, which contracts with the government to run detention facilities.
His appointment could raise new conflict of interest questions for Venturella and White House border czar Tom Homan, an ally who also worked at GEO Group, amid allegations of self-dealing during Noem’s tenure at DHS.
It’s common for recent ICE directors to ascend to the role on an acting basis without Senate confirmation. The last time the Senate confirmed a new ICE director was during the Obama administration in 2014.
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