ICE?s Controversial Leader Plans To Resign

The acting leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who oversaw an effort to plaster billboards with the faces of immigrants along highways in Pennsylvania, plans to resign at the end of the year.Tony Pham, a refugee from Vietnam, has been leading the agency since late August.Under the Trump administration, ICE has seen multiple leaders come and go, including the current acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Mark Morgan, but none of them have ever been confirmed by the Senate.“I am grateful for the Trump Administration for providing me the single highest honor of my career in serving my adopted country as both the Principal Legal Advisor and the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Pham said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. However, at the end of the year, I will be returning home to Richmond, VA to be closer to my family.”Pham, who continued that trend in running the agency as the “senior official performing the duties of the director,” has had a short, controversial tenure.During Pham's time as leader, ICE installed bold black-and-red billboards along highways across the key swing state of Pennsylvania, depicting the faces of “at-large immigration violators who may pose a public safety threat,” as the agency put it.