Todd Lyons
Todd Lyons is a law enforcement officer who served as acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from 2025 to 2026. Entries naming him record agency- wide directives issued during his tenure, including notice requirements attached to enforcement operations.
2026 Events (6)
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons issued nationwide memo requiring 48-hour notice and named-detainee ID for congressional oversight visits
On May 12, 2026, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons issued a nationwide policy memo requiring members of Congress to identify detainees by name and submit signed consent forms at least two business days before interviewing them during oversight visits to ICE detention facilities. Lawmakers learned of the policy when California Representatives Mike Levin and Sara Jacobs made a surprise oversight visit to San Diego's Otay Mesa Detention Center and were handed the memo after asking to speak with detainees. Because lawmakers cannot learn who is held before they arrive, the rule effectively limits oversight visits to inspections of physical infrastructure.
Acting ICE Director Lyons acknowledged agency missed 48-hour death-notice requirement in two-thirds of in-custody deaths since 2025
On April 16, 2026, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told a congressional hearing that ICE had issued the required interim death notice within 48 hours in only 15 of 49 in-custody deaths since January 2025, after Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock flagged the shortfall in an April 13 letter to Lyons and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Lyons could not say how many staff remained in ICE's Office of Detention Oversight and submitted his resignation hours after the hearing.
ICE acting director confirmed to Congress the agency uses Paragon's Graphite spyware without disclosing permitted domestic targets or legal basis
In a letter dated April 1, 2026, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons informed three House Oversight Committee members that Homeland Security Investigations is using Graphite, a zero-click spyware made by Israeli company Paragon Solutions capable of accessing encrypted messages without user interaction. The letter, a belated response to an October 2025 inquiry, did not specify who could be targeted domestically or the legal basis for the tool's use inside the United States. Civil-liberties groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and EPIC warned the tool could be deployed against protesters and journalists, not only the fentanyl traffickers cited as the primary justification.
DHS and ICE barred clergy from providing pastoral care to detainees at Minneapolis's Whipple building during Metro Surge
Since Operation Metro Surge began in December 2025, Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis systematically barred clergy from providing pastoral care to immigration detainees, citing shifting "security" and "safety" justifications with no written policy. Documented incidents include Father Christopher Collins being blocked from praying with a detained woman in December 2025 and a reverend being denied entry on Ash Wednesday 2026 while attempting to administer ashes to detainees. The pattern was publicly disclosed in detail on February 23, 2026, when the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ, and Father Collins sued DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, alleging First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act violations.
USCIS and ICE directed agents to detain refugees who miss one-year green-card deadline
On February 18, 2026, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued a joint memo directing immigration agents to arrest and detain refugees who have not obtained a green card within one year of admission to the United States, rescinding 2010 ICE guidance under which that delay was not grounds for detention. The memo, disclosed in a federal court filing tied to refugee detentions in Minnesota, lets agents hold affected refugees in immigration detention while their green-card applications are pending.
Chief Judge Schiltz found ICE, DHS Secretary Noem, and Acting Director Lyons defied 'dozens' of court orders; summoned Lyons over contempt
On January 26, 2026, Minnesota Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz ordered Todd Lyons, ICE's acting director, to personally appear in federal court to explain why he should not be held in contempt, finding that Lyons, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and the acting ICE director of the agency's St. Paul field office had failed to comply with "dozens of court orders" in recent weeks. The order arose from ICE's failure to hold a court-ordered bond hearing for detainee Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, or release him, within seven days as a January 14, 2026 order had required. DHS called Schiltz an "activist judge" and did not address the specific findings of noncompliance.
2025 Events (1)
ICE Acting Director Lyons issued classified memo authorizing warrantless home entry for immigration arrests
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued an internal memo on May 12, 2025, directing agents to forcibly enter private homes using administrative warrants signed by ICE supervisors rather than judges, departing from longstanding Fourth Amendment practice and prior DHS policy requiring judicial warrants for home entry. The memo was classified for restricted internal distribution—agents were required to return it and take no notes—and was reportedly used to train new ICE agents. Whistleblowers disclosed the memo to Senator Blumenthal in January 2026; NBC News published the full account.