Noem Taps New Leadership at ICE, Moves to Identify Leakers Within DHS

Noem named Todd Lyons as the acting ICE director, and Madison Sheahan as the deputy director.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks in Washington in a file photograph. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday appointed new leadership at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and said that they would continue to use polygraph tests to identify information leakers within the department.

Noem named Todd Lyons as the acting ICE director, and Madison Sheahan as the deputy director. Lyons currently serves as the acting executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.

“Todd Lyons and Madison Sheahan are work horses, strong executors, and accountable leaders who will lead the men and women of ICE to achieve the American people’s mandate to target, arrest and deport illegal aliens,” Noem said in a statement.

According to DHS, Lyons was a former assistant director of field operations for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations unit, where he oversaw 25 field office and domestic operations across the United States.

He also served as the field office director in the Boston field office, where he oversaw ICE’s enforcement activities in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont.

Prior to joining ICE, Lyons served in the U.S. Air Force in 1993 and began his civilian law enforcement career in Florida in 1999. He became an immigration enforcement agent in Dallas in 2007.

Sheahan currently serves as the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and advises Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a member of the state’s cabinet and Unified Command Group in this role.

Sheahan had previously worked for Noem when the DHS secretary was governor of South Dakota.

DHS to Identify Information Leakers

The new leadership appointments come as Noem vowed to find and prosecute those who may be leaking information to the media about immigration enforcement operations.

Noem told CBS on Sunday that DHS will continue to use polygraph tests to identify those responsible for leaking information and putting law enforcement officers’ safety at risk.

“The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive, and I plan to use every single one of them to make sure that we’re following the law, that we are following the procedures in place to keep people safe, and that we’re making sure we’re following through on what President Trump has promised, that he’s going to make America safe again,” she told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

DHS identified two leakers within the department last week. Noem said on March 8 that the individuals will be prosecuted and could face up to 10 years in prison.

In her interview with CBS, Noem said the two were leaking plans about enforcement operations “in several cities,” a move that she said would expose law enforcement officers to danger.

The number of illegal immigrant arrests in the country has jumped significantly under the Trump administration. Noem announced on Feb. 26 that over 20,000 illegal immigrants were arrested inside the country in a single month, marking “a 627% increase in monthly arrests compared to just 33,000 at large arrests under Biden for ALL of last year.”

DHS also announced last month that Border Patrol agents apprehended just 200 illegal immigrants at the southern border on Feb. 22; the lowest number of apprehensions in a single day in more than 15 years.

The department has ramped up its crackdown on illegal immigration following President Donald Trump’s executive actions aimed at deterring illegal immigration in the country.

Trump also ordered to terminate the CBP One app service, which was established by the former Biden administration to allow those without legal entry papers to schedule appointments at U.S. ports of entry.

DHS announced on Feb. 26 that aliens in the country could face fines, potential imprisonment, or both if they failed to register with the federal government. The move aims to allow law enforcement to track and compel illegal immigrants to self-deport.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.