(UnitedVoice.com) – The US border with Mexico is in crisis and has been for two years. Millions of asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants have crossed the borders. As the problem rages, the head of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is leaving the agency.
On June 5, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced ICE Acting Chief Tae Johnson is retiring. He will be leaving his post at the end of June.
Johnson has served in the role of acting director since the end of former President Donald Trump’s administration in January 2021. Prior to that, the 45th POTUS appointed him the deputy director of ICE. He’s filled various positions in the immigration services since 1992, when he was just a student trainee at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Mayorkas expressed gratitude to Johnson for “his service to ICE, the Department, and the nation.” He said the acting director has been an important member of the agency’s leadership team across multiple administrations. The secretary said he had “personally benefitted from [Johnson’s] frank assessments, solid judgment, and his deep expertise.” He congratulated him on his 31 years of service.
President Joe Biden will now have to choose a new person to head the position. Johnson was the ninth acting director to serve the agency in seven years. Trump never had a permanent director fill the position throughout his four years in office. In fact, the last time the Senate approved someone to fill that position was in 2014, when then-President Barack Obama nominated Sarah Saldaña to head the agency.
Biden previously nominated Ed Gonzalez, the sheriff of Harris County, Texas, but he withdrew his nomination after failing to gain enough support in the Senate. Getting an official confirmed to fill the position is expected to be incredibly difficult, given the polarization surrounding immigration enforcement right now.
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