President Donald Trump has named Mark Morgan, the former Board Patrol chief in President Barack Obama’s administration, to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Trump announced his decision on Twitter on Sunday, calling Morgan a “true believer and American Patriot.”
Trump did not make clear in his tweet whether he was formally nominating Morgan, which requires Senate confirmation, or naming him as acting head of the agency.
Morgan, a former FBI agent, led the Border Patrol in the final months of Obama’s presidency. He was removed shortly after Trump took office.
Despite his ouster, in January he voiced support for Trump’s pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and in an interview with The Fix he urged Trump “to stay the course.”
“I’m standing up and saying, ‘I should have disdain for them, but I don’t because they are right,’” he said. “I can stand up and say they are right because it’s the right thing to do for this country.”
In April, speaking to The Epoch Times, Morgan called the migration situation “the worst in our history along the southwest border.”
Trump’s appointment follows him pulling his previous nomination of Ronald D. Vitiello to serve as ICE chief in April. The former Border Patrol official had been leading the immigration agency since June.
A controversial agency, ICE is known for arresting and detaining immigrants as well as handling immigration proceedings.
Trump, speaking of his decision, said he wanted to go in a “tougher direction.”
Morgan’s nomination comes amid a major shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security, including the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April. Acting Deputy Secretary Claire Grady also left her post, and Tex Alles, who recently stepped down as head of the Secret Service, rejoined DHS as a top undersecretary last week.