Life-long Border Patrol agent Ronald Vitiello picked to lead ICE
Life-long Border Patrol agent Ronald Vitiello picked to lead ICE
June 30, 2018
Anna Giaritelli
Ronald Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has been picked to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the Saturday retirement of acting Director Thomas Homan, according to an internal email sent to Department of Homeland Security personnel Saturday.
"I am pleased to announce that Ronald D. Vitiello has been named the Deputy Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), effective Saturday, June 30. As of today he will also take on the role as the Acting Director of U.S. ICE," DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen wrote in an email.
President Trump is expected to formally nominate Vitiello in the coming week, a Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Examiner.
Vitiello has served in his current CBP role since April 2017, and he previously led U.S. Border Patrol as its chief operating officer for a year. He signed on as a Border Patrol officer 34 years ago and has worked in Texas, Arizona, Washington, D.C., and Vermont.
Vitiello, 54, started his federal career within the Department of Homeland Security in 1985 at Border Patrol’s Laredo Station within the Laredo Sector in south-central Texas. The Chicago native began working his way through the ranks and in 1997 became deputy assistant regional director of Border Patrol’s Central Region Office in Dallas.
In 2007, Vitiello was transferred down to the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas to serve as chief patrol agent of what is now the country’s highest-traffic sector for illegal immigration. He oversaw 12,000 Border Patrol personnel in that role.
He served as Border Patrol deputy chief from 2010 through July 2016 then was promoted to the executive assistant commissioner of operations support.
Homan announced in the spring that he would retire in late June. He originally retired in January 2017, but was asked by then-DHS Secretary John Kelly the day of his retirement party to stay on until a replacement could be found. Homan agreed.
A replacement was never found and Homan told DHS leadership this past January he intended to leave his post in June.
"At the same time, we must bid farewell to the current Acting Director of ICE, Tom Homan. Acting Director Homan has been a part of the DHS community since he entered on duty as a Border Patrol Agent more than 30 years ago," Nielsen wrote. "Acting Director Homan will be greatly missed in his well-earned (second) retirement. We wish Tom and his family all the best and know they will remain part of the DHS family."
If confirmed, Vitiello, who is second-in-command of a 60,000-person agency will technically be taking a promotion to fully oversee ICE’s 20,000 personnel. He’ll also be joining ICE in the midst of a turbulent time in the agency's existence as politicians and candidates continue to call for it to be abolished.
But Homan told the Washington Examiner in a phone call Thursday the current controversy is “ridiculous.”
Last month, ICE came under fire when Attorney General Jeff Sessions said all illegal immigrants who were apprehended entering the U.S. between ports of entry, including first-time illegal entrants who arrived with children, should be referred from CBP to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Minors were subsequently turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services who would then place them with a parent or family friend in the U.S. until the parent who brought them into the country either had his or her charges dropped or served jail time.
Over the last two weeks, groups advocating for the migrant families have held protests outside ICE offices over this issue, including outside ICE's Washington headquarters on Wednesday, and marches in various cities. Organizations have called for families to be reunited and ICE to be abolished.
But Homan said his agency, which handles deportations and homeland security investigations, is not relevant to this specific issue.
"I think a lot of the public is misinformed," he said. "For instance, you shouldn’t be protesting ICE about family separation because that happens on the border."
Homan added he was "not vilifying Border Patrol," but attempting to explain that public frustration against ICE was being wrongly directed.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...ed-to-lead-ice
