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Immigration Unmasked Newsletter

A series of contradictions: Getting to know Todd Lyons, the head of ICE

Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons watches a video of ICE operations in Minneapolis that lead to the killing of Alex Pretti during a hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on February 12, 2026 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Hi there, and welcome back to Immigration Unmasked! I’m Emma Platoff, a reporter and editor at the Globe, joining the newsletter this week to bring you the story of one of the most important figures in the country’s immigration leadership: Todd Lyons, the head of ICE for the Trump administration.

For the last month, Giulia — this newsletter’s regular coauthor — and I have been learning everything we can about Lyons, a Southie native who has led the controversial federal agency for more than a year now. We interviewed more than two dozen people who know him, including family, friends, and colleagues; got our hands on his high school yearbook (hello, early ’90s haircuts); pored over hundreds of pages of personnel records and legal documents; and even had the opportunity to interview Lyons ourselves, twice.

We wanted to know: How did this “regular guy” go from humble Southie, where he dreamed of becoming a Boston cop or firefighter, to leading a major federal agency and one of the president’s top issues?

Some people might expect that Donald Trump’s ICE head would be a hard-line MAGA activist, or a fire-breathing partisan who’s long crusaded to deport as many immigrants as possible — a kindred soul with, say, Greg Bovino, the controversial CBP leader who was sidelined after his leading role in the Minneapolis crackdowns.

We quickly learned that’s not Lyons. Instead, we uncovered a series of contradictions. While a reliable Republican voter, Lyons is not particularly political, those who know him say. Immigration wasn’t always an animating passion; he ended up at ICE because he wanted a federal law enforcement job, and applied to several agencies after serving in the Air Force and working as a cop in Florida. And far from taking a hard line across the board, Lyons, earlier in his career, stepped in to shield some immigrants from deportation. Even some very liberal sources I interviewed — people who staunchly oppose everything Trump is doing — said they think Lyons is a good man.

For some, it was hard to square the person they know with the actions Lyons is taking now. Others believe he has changed, adapting to Trump’s harsher approach for political expediency.

Here are some highlights from our story:

  • Lyons once personally intervened to stave off a potential deportation. During Trump’s first term, when Lyons was a leader in the Boston ICE office, he called a congressman’s office to help an immigrant in his district avoid detention and possible deportation. Make yourself scarce, was the message from Lyons, go to the emergency room and you won’t get detained.
  • Lyons lost a cousin to a fentanyl overdose — an experience his family said made the work of immigration enforcement feel all the more personal. In 2019, the close-knit “Lyons Den” lost one of its own, a loss that rocked the family, Lyons’s uncle told us. In past interviews, Lyons has blamed his cousin’s death on drugs sold by an illegal immigrant in Lawrence, who he claimed was free because local police ignored a custody request from ICE. Lawrence police told us they had no records of such a suspect, and when we asked ICE for more details, they said only that it was an “ongoing investigation.”
  • Lyons suggested the agency may change under new leadership. Lyons said the new Department of Homeland Security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, “told us that he’s going to let us run the agency the way we think it needs to be run.” That means focusing on “the worst of the worst,” Lyons said. “Not like Minneapolis. Not like before.”

Then he mentioned Bovino, who was in charge of the disastrous Minneapolis operation where federal agents killed two civilians.

“We won’t see anything like that again,” Lyons vowed.

Immigration Unmasked Survey: Since our story was published earlier this week, we’ve heard from a number of local readers who met Lyons at one time or another. One retired religious leader told me about a time Lyons agreed to stay an immigrant woman’s deportation. One of Lyons’s high school classmates remembered him being part of a boy band. We want to know: What do you think of Todd Lyons? Tell us what we missed.

Last week, we asked how readers are feeling the impact of Trump’s immigration policies on the ground. Here’s what Matt Early said.

It’s a disgrace! This is white Christian Nationalists at their finest. They really should spend some time in the Bible. This is not what Jesus would do. It really is that simple! Treat people the way you would like to be treated.

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In Focus
 
Augustin (center) a Babson College student led a chant as he marched beside Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau (left), and fellow students and faculty from Babson and Olin Colleges to demand the immediate return of Any Lucia Lopez Belloza to the United States in Wellesley last month. Lopez Belloza was abruptly deported before Thanksgiving. She was at Logan Airport, preparing to board a flight to Texas to surprise her parents for the holiday, when she was taken into custody by immigration officials. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

You can read the latest about Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s situation, and how her deportation has rattled the larger international student community, here.

Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.