Officials inside the Department of Homeland Security are pushing back against President Donald Trump's choice to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and are pleased that the nomination of Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer has stalled in the Senate, Politico reported Sunday.

"We don't need him," one official told Politico. "Leave us alone... people need to stop telling us how to do what we do best."

Six officials and other sources told the outlet that their preferred candidate is acting ICE director Dave Venturella, an ally of border czar Tom Homan, who ran ICE in an acting capacity during Trump's first term and has served as a leading public face of the administration's deportation agenda.

Schroyer's nomination currently stands in limbo because Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-KY) is demanding that the administration share information about probes into the violent deaths of two American citizens at ICE's hands. The ICE director post requires Senate confirmation, and as chairman of the committee that handles the nomination, Paul has the power to keep it from coming to a vote.

Despite those challenges, the White House told Politico that Schroyer remains the president's nominee to lead ICE.

Trump's decision in June to nominate Schroyer, a longtime associate of Secretary Markwayne Mullin, spurred a backlash from immigration hawks, according to the report. Mike Howell, president of The Oversight Project and a former DHS official, told Politico that the criticism stems from Schroyer's lack of a record on deportations.

"If the whole point was to have someone with no immigration enforcement background either ideologically, politically or operationally as secretary, then it's kind of odd to have a similar person as the head of ICE," Howell said.

Another official characterized Mullin's pushing of Schroyer into the position as a misstep.

"[That] shows how out of touch Mullin is," the official told Politico. "That's not even JV level for literally the most important job in the admin that remains unfilled."

ICE, the agency responsible for immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior, including arrests and deportations, has been led by acting directors for much of the past decade. The immediate decision point in the current standoff is whether the administration turns over the documents Paul has demanded and the nomination proceeds toward a vote.

Source: Raw Story