New DHS head 'whitewashing ICE's illegal conduct' with sweeping change: analysis

Department of Homeland Security head Markwayne Mullin has been accused of covering up the failings of Kristi Noem's tenure as the agency's head.

Joyce Vance, who served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017, suggested the recent resignation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Todd Lyons is a sign of the DHS sweeping controversial issues under the rug.

Mullin said of Lyons' resignation, "Thanks to his leadership, American communities are safer. We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector." Lyons was named ICE's acting head by Trump in March 2025, and the search for a replacement is now underway.

It marks one of several high-profile departures from the agency, which Vance believes is a sign of the Trump administration attempting to save face.

Vance, writing in her Civil Discourse Substack, claimed the departures are a statement from the admin to suggest reformation of the DHS is underway.

"Lyons’ departure is one more step toward whitewashing ICE’s illegal conduct during this administration," she wrote. "Greg Bovino, who strode the streets of Minneapolis in his trench coat surrounded by heavily armed men who looked more like thugs than federal agents, is gone."

"He, too, retired from the agency. ICE is (supposedly) out of Minneapolis, and out of Maine. Protests and mayhem are no longer front-page news. But that doesn’t mean ICE has somehow been magically reformed.

"ICE has grown dramatically under Trump. Ten years ago, the agency had an annual budget that was less than $6 billion, making it one of the smaller agencies at DHS. In just one year under Trump, it has become the federal law enforcement agency with the biggest budget at $85 billion.

"That includes not just DHS law enforcement agencies, but all of them, including the ones within the Justice Department, including the FBI, whose budget request for 2026 was just over $10 billion.

"The Brennan Center’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen put those numbers in context: ICE is now funded at a level “larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.” What precisely is Trump building there?"

Vance went on to suggest that, despite ICE presence on the streets of US cities, the controversies were now predominantly found in the holding prisons.

She wrote, "Almost every day, there is still a new story about ICE. But events are no longer unfolding in front of us on American streets. They’re happening behind bars where summary reports can gloss over the truth."