David Venturella to serve as acting ICE director
By Priscilla Alvarez, Aleena Fayaz, CNN
(CNN) — Longtime immigration official David Venturella is expected to serve as the next acting ICE director, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.
The former private prison firm executive will assume leadership of the agency as the Trump administration tries to take a different approach to its immigration crackdown following a turbulent year. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he wants agents to take a “quiet” approach while remaining aggressive on arrests.
Venturella will take over the role from acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Todd Lyons, whose last day is set for May 31. The agency has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since the Obama administration.
Lyons, a veteran of the federal agency who was tasked with overseeing the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan, faced immense scrutiny as the agency ramped up arrests last year and on the heels of the shootings of two US citizens by federal agents in January.
The New York Times first reported on Venturella’s expected elevation.
Venturella has worked at the agency on and off for more than two decades. He departed in 2012 to join the Geo Group, a private prison company and one of ICE’s biggest detention contractors, before returning to the agency last year.
Some Democrats pointed to his return to the agency last year when raising concerns about the relationship between ICE and private prison companies as President Donald Trump has expanded their use to hold undocumented immigrants.
Venturella’s promotion to lead the agency will also likely encounter criticism stemming from those concerns.
The move comes after a chaotic year for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
Mullin, who took the reigns of DHS in March after Trump fired his first Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has begun to make some policy changes but faces pressure from lawmakers, including Republicans, to go further in seeking to right the embattled department.
Mullin has long been a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown. But during his confirmation hearing, he said there should be some changes as to how ICE is deployed around the country, telling senators, “I would love to see ICE become more a transport than on the front line,” and pledged to require ICE officers to obtain judicial warrants before entering private property, with limited exceptions.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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