The acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is resigning just two weeks after taking on the role, an agency official confirmed to The Hill.
CNN and BuzzFeed News first reported Jonathan Fahey’s resignation Wednesday evening, citing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official and a source with knowledge of the situation, respectively.
ICE Press Secretary Jenny Burke confirmed to The Hill that Fahey had stepped down, though the agency did not give a reason behind the resignation.
Fahey’s departure comes after acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced Monday he was stepping down after serving in the role for 14 months and with just over a week left until President Trump leaves office.
In a letter to DHS colleagues that was obtained by The Hill, Wolf cited ongoing litigation challenging the validity of his position as the reason for his sooner-than-planned departure.
Fahey had taken over ICE from Tony Pham, who left last month after assuming the post in August.
ICE has had six directors under the Trump administration, though the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director during the past four years.
The leadership changes at DHS come amid growing concerns about potential security risks surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, especially following last week’s deadly pro-Trump raid on the Capitol in opposition to Congress’s official count of Biden’s Electoral College win.
News of Wolf’s resignation came roughly an hour after he announced that the Secret Service would begin implementing security measures tied to the inauguration on Wednesday, six days earlier than planned. The FBI is said to have warned of the potential for armed protests across the country beginning this weekend.
Other members of Trump’s administration have also resigned in the past week after the Capitol riot, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Both cited the violence at the Capitol as the reason behind their departures.