President Trump Withdraws Nomination of Ronald Vitiello for Director of ICE

Eliza Grinberg's picture
Submitted by Eliza Grinberg on April 7, 2019 - 8:43pm

On April 5, 2019, President Donald Trump announced that he had withdrawn the nomination of Ronald D. Vitiello for director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).1 Vitiello is currently serving as Acting Director of ICE. We discussed his nomination when it was initially announced [see blog].

President Trump stated: “Ron's a good man but we're going in a tougher direction. We want to go in a tougher direction.”

The Washington Times notes that after having his nomination stymied for months, Vitiello had been voted out of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and was scheduled for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. In light of these events, the timing of President Trump's announcement is surprising.

There are no updates yet on who President Trump will now nominate to be the next Director of ICE or whether Vitiello will continue to serve as Acting Director. We will update the site when more information becomes available.

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  1. Dinan, Stephen. “Trump says ICE chief wasn't tough enough.” The Washington Times. Apr. 5, 2019. https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/apr/5/trump-says-ice-chief-wasnt-tough-enough/
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President Trump Withdraws Nomination of Ronald Vitiello for Director of ICE