Tae Johnson, the acting leader of the embattled federal agency U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will leave his post at the end of the month, setting up yet another high-level vacancy within the Department of Homeland Security.
Johnson’s forthcoming departure was first reported by the Washington Examiner in late April and publicly disclosed Monday afternoon.
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“After more than 30 years of dedicated service to our nation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson will retire from federal law enforcement at the end of the month,” ICE said in a statement.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Johnson had been faced with a slew of challenges during his tenure atop the agency during a global pandemic and the burgeoning fentanyl crisis.
“As ICE’s leader since 2021, he has overseen some of the nation’s most critical investigations, including Operation Stolen Promise to combat the new threats related to counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, and Operation Blue Lotus to curtail the flow of fentanyl smuggled into the United States from Mexico,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
Johnson is a career law enforcement official who has worked as deputy director carrying out the duties of acting director for nearly 2 1/2 years.
The loss of the agency’s head more than halfway into President Joe Biden’s term will continue a five-year period the agency has not had a confirmed leader — all as Congress attempts to overhaul border security and immigration laws that affect ICE’s work.
ICE has not disclosed who will succeed him, though it could fall to the next-in-line senior official performing the duties of the deputy director, Patrick J. Lechleitner.
ICE has struggled to find a permanent leader since Biden took office in January 2021. Biden nominated Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who failed to get a confirmation vote by the Senate and withdrew his name in July 2022 after reports that he was the suspect in a domestic abuse case. Biden has not nominated anyone else since Gonzalez.
Biden took office amid calls from progressive Democrats to abolish the agency, whose responsibility it is to enforce immigration laws that Congress has enacted. Biden immediately paused deportations, and his administration quickly shifted protocols for which illegal immigrants in the United States would be eligible for arrest and removal.
In fiscal 2021, which began in September 2020, arrests and deportations of illegal immigrants bottomed out under Biden, dropping more than 75% compared to the record-high numbers seen during the Obama administration.
ICE removed 59,011 noncitizens from October 2020 through September 2021, with most being under the Biden administration’s more rigid criteria for who could be taken into custody. In 2011, nearly 400,000 noncitizens were deported — meaning the numbers were down 85% under Biden.
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ICE has also overwhelmingly chosen not to detain illegal immigrants in government facilities through court proceedings. This year, the Biden administration has requested funding for 25,000 beds in detention facilities, while more than 5 million people have been encountered illegally entering the country over the past two years, more than half of whom have been released into the U.S. and either tracked digitally or not at all.
Johnson was the ninth consecutive acting director of ICE in the last five years. The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed leader since the Obama administration.
