WASHINGTON, D.C. — David Venturella will become acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on June 1, 2026, following the resignation of acting director Todd Lyons, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said. Venturella most recently worked at DHS overseeing contracts between ICE and various detention facilities.

Venturella previously served at ICE during the Obama and George W. Bush administrations before leaving the agency in 2012 to join GEO Group, a private prison company that contracts with the federal government for immigration detention. He worked at GEO Group for a little over a decade before returning to government.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote to White House border czar Tom Homan last year raising concern that Venturella's return to ICE to oversee contracts for companies like GEO Group presented a conflict of interest. The committee members also wrote to Homan complaining that he became a White House official after being a paid consultant to GEO Group.

Venturella will take over an agency that has grown in workforce and financial resources since the start of President Trump's second term. Under Lyons, ICE hired 12,000 new employees and increased arrests nationwide to implement Trump's deportation policies. Lyons faced pressure to carry out administration deportation goals that included 3,000 arrests per day.

"ICE is currently arresting about 1,200 people per day," said Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. ICE has deported more than 570,000 people, while Trump set a goal of one million deportations per year.

Congress funded $75 billion for DHS last summer, with about half dedicated to expanding detention space. ICE is preparing to spend the remaining funds from that appropriation. Separately, ICE and U.S. Border Patrol were excluded from regular appropriations, resulting in a funding lapse. Congress ended the longest agency shutdown in DHS history and agreed to fund the rest of the department. Republicans are considering using budget reconciliation to fund all of DHS, including ICE, for the remainder of Trump's term without requiring Democratic support.