Thread: ICE Director Lyons Resigns Hours After Announcing Largest Chinese Illegal Alien Gift

ICE Director Lyons Resigns Hours After Announcing Largest Chinese Illegal Alien Gift Card Fraud in History



om Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

by Bob Price 17 Apr 2026

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons submitted a letter of resignation to the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday. The announcement followed his testimony before the House Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security regarding the ICE budget, where he announced the bust of Chinese illegal aliens allegedly involved in the largest gift card fraud scheme in history.

In a letter revealed by the New York Times, Lyons cited family issues as his reason for resigning. He said leading the agency he served for 20 years a “tremendous honor.”

“My sons are both reaching a pivotal point in their lives, and my wife and I wish to spend as much time as possible with them,” Lyons wrote in his resignation letter. “This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one for me and my family at this time.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded to the resignation, calling Lyons a “great leader of ICE and a key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities.”

Secretary Markwayne Mullin



@SecMullinDHS
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Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE and key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities. He jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years. Thanks

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9:37 PM · Apr 16, 2026

Trump administration border czar Tom Homan called Lyons a selfless servant who achieved a “record number of removals in the first year of the administration,” according to a post on X by Fox News’ Bill Melugin.

Bill Melugin
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Apr 16, 2026

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Replying to @BillMelugin_Statement to @FoxNewsvia DHS Secretary Mullin:

“Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE and key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities. He jumpstarted an agency that had not

Bill Melugin
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Statements to FOX via Tom Homan & Stephen Miller:

Tom Homan: “Todd has served selflessly as a highly respected and effective acting Director of U.S. ICE. Under his leadership, ICE achieved a record number of removals in the first year of this Administration, despite

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9:13 PM · Apr 16, 2026

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller added, “Todd is a phenomenal patriot and dedicated leader who has been at the center of President Trump’s historic efforts to secure our homeland and reverse the Democrats’ sinister border invasion.”

His resignation came hours after his testimony before the House Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security, where he disclosed that his ICE Homeland Security Investigations team broke the largest gift card fraud case in history. He said the scheme was carried out by transnational gangs within the Chinese Communist Party who entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. He said the money was sent back to military units in China, according to a post on the White House Rapid Response 47 team’s social media account.
Rapid Response 47



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LYONS: "HSI actually broke the largest gift card fraud case ever, and it was from transnational gangs within the CCP that were sending that money back to military units in China...and it was unfortunately military age Chinese males that entered under the last administration."



https://twitter.com/i/status/2044808338890756397

12:01 PM · Apr 16, 2026

Breitbart News reported extensively on the success of ICE in rounding up the worst of the worst criminal aliens during Lyons’ tenure as director. Lyons led the arrest and removal of violent criminal illegal aliens, the U.S. efforts to combat Mexican and Venezuelan drug cartels and criminal gangs, and the fight against sanctuary city policies that make the country less safe.

Lyons will continue to serve as director of ICE through the end of May.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/202...ud-in-history/

1. Lyons said, "... it was unfortunately military age Chinese males that entered under the last administration."

[Just what we thought: a bunch of military aged Chinese men entered the US illegally.]

2. [Lyons] His resignation came hours after his testimony before the House Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Homeland Security, where he disclosed that his ICE Homeland Security Investigations team broke the largest gift card fraud case in history. He said the scheme was carried out by transnational gangs within the Chinese Communist Party who entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration.

3. Breitbart News reported extensively on the success of ICE in rounding up the worst of the worst criminal aliens during Lyons’ tenure as director. Lyons led the arrest and removal of violent criminal illegal aliens, the U.S. efforts to combat Mexican and Venezuelan drug cartels and criminal gangs, and the fight against sanctuary city policies that make the country less safe.

[So, WHY is he leaving?!]