Matt Albence, the acting director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will leave his post by Labor Day, the Washington Examiner was first to report Thursday.
Albence informed senior ICE officials in a private phone call Thursday evening that he plans to retire after serving a year in his position. He released a statement confirming the news Friday morning.
“After more than 25 years as a federal law enforcement officer, I am announcing my retirement from federal service,” said Albence. “This was an exceptionally hard decision to make, a decision prolonged due to the uncertainty of a global pandemic and the essential role ICE continues to play in our nation’s response.”
Albence, a 26-year law enforcement veteran, was appointed as head of ICE instead of being nominated or Senate-confirmed for the job. He assumed the position in April 2019 after working as deputy director of its deportation operations, was replaced for two months by then-acting ICE Director Mark Morgan, then resumed leadership over ICE after Morgan moved to head Customs and Border Protection.
Albence will phase out in the next month, he said. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf thanked Albence in a statement issued Friday.
“As the senior law enforcement official for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he successfully led ICE to record-breaking criminal arrests and seizures in furtherance of ICE’s critical national security and public safety missions, and helped restore integrity to this country’s immigration system,” said Wolf. “He has been a tireless advocate for the more than 21,000 dedicated professionals of ICE and a critical member of the DHS leadership team. I personally want to thank him for his integrity and steadfast commitment– a legacy he will leave behind with the men and women who perform admirably under the most dangerous and complex of circumstances every day.”
One source, a senior administration official, described being “afraid” about whom President Trump may tap to replace Albence, describing Albence as someone who knows the agency inside out and was a barrier between ICE and pressures from the White House to impose more immigration reforms.
“There’s concern because we don’t know who’s going to be put in it,” the official said during a phone call. “Matt has been — he’s not only a great guy, he’s been such a defender. He’s not a political appointee. Matt’s a guy who has done the job. Our fear is that they’re going to put a political appointee who’s never done the job and doesn’t know the difficulty we have in enforcing immigration law.”
Albence made headlines in 2018 when he told lawmakers at a congressional hearing that family immigration detention centers were “more like summer camp” than jail.
Albence is the fourth acting director of ICE since Trump took office in January 2017. The Trump administration selected Tom Homan as acting director in early 2017. Homan was nominated for the job in November 2017 but retired in June 2018 after the Senate did not move to confirm him.
After Homan retired, Trump picked Ronald Vitiello, then-acting deputy commissioner at CBP, to oversee ICE temporarily while he waited for Senate confirmation. After seven months of waiting, the Senate moved on his nomination and approved him in a March committee vote. But the White House unexpectedly pulled Vitiello’s nomination in early April, leaving the agency’s 20,000 personnel without a leader. Morgan was installed shortly after.
