A senior Border Patrol Officer as Acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Agency

WASHINGTON – Ronald D. Vitiello, a senior border patrol officer, will act as acting director of the immigration and customs agency, Trump administration announced Saturday. calls by activists and politicians. agency to abolish.

Vitiello is currently Acting Deputy Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection and previously served as Chief of the Border Patrol.

He will replace Thomas D. Homan, current interim chief of ICE, who retired this month. The Senate must approve a full-time director for ICE, with Mr. Vitiello now considered the leading candidate.

"I am pleased that ICE will continue to be led by an experienced and well-respected law enforcement officer who will be a strong advocate of the agency's work force," he said. Kirstjen M. Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement announcing the appointment.

Vitiello's position at the head of the immigration agency arrives at a critical turning point

Many Democrats called for the abolition of the agency and protesters across the country gathered in front of the regional offices of the CIE and its national headquarters for the arrest of undocumented migrants who lay their children at school and for the detention and expulsion of those who were arrested for minor offenses.

The new head of the agency must also occupy divisions Investigators of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement o nt wrote to the Secretary of Homeland Security to dissolve the agency, fearing that the Trump administration's zero-tolerance crackdown on illegal immigrants limited their ability to pursue threats to national security, pornography Infant and transnational crime. Special agents proposed to establish an independent investigation unit and another agency to manage the detention and expulsion of immigrants.