Factbox-Who is Todd Lyons, acting chief of ICE?
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons looks at his notes before giving a television interview on the West Wing driveway at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has complied with a Minnesota federal judge’s order to release a wrongly detained Ecuadorean man, likely averting an in-person contempt of court hearing for its acting director.
The release means acting ICE director Todd Lyons is no longer required to make an extraordinary appearance in Minnesota federal court to explain his agency's failure to comply with dozens of court orders during President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge, which has led to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.
* As acting ICE director, Lyons oversees an agency with morethan 27,400 people, an annual budget of nearly $10 billion andmore than $74 billion in funding from the "One Big BeautifulBill" that Trump signed into law last year, according to the ICEwebsite. The bill funds Trump's immigration crackdown, amongother measures. * Before being appointed acting chief of ICE in March 2025,Lyons served as the executive associate director of the agency'sEnforcement and Removal Operations directorate. In that role, heled efforts to arrest and remove migrants who came to the U.S.illegally, according to his official biography. * Lyons held other roles at the Enforcement and RemovalOperations directorate, including assistant director of fieldoperations and deputy assistant director of western operationsand the southwest border, among other positions. He started withthe directorate as an immigration enforcement agent in Dallas. * Lyons joined the federal service in 1993 with the U.S. AirForce and served in South Korea, Southeast Asia and Europe. Hemoved to law enforcement in 1999 before being recalled to activeduty after September 11, 2001, according to his biography.(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Rod Nickel)
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