Tae D. Johnson is serving as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Prior to his current position, Mr. Johnson served as the ICE ERO Deputy Executive Associate Director. In this role, Mr. Johnson is responsible for the oversight, direction, and coordination of ERO in its mission to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws. Mr. Johnson manages a budget of approximately $4.4 billion and leads an organization of more than 7,900 employees assigned to 24 ERO field offices and six headquarters divisions, in more than 200 domestic locations and 25 overseas locations.
Prior to that position, Mr. Johnson served as the Assistant Director for ERO’s Custody Management Division, which provides policy and oversight for the administrative custody of about 40,000 detainees daily and roughly 500,000 detainees annually, at approximately 250 facilities nationwide.
Mr. Johnson began his federal career in Salisbury, Maryland, in 1992 with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as a co-op student trainee. Over the past more than 25 years, Mr. Johnson has served as a detention enforcement officer, supervisory detention enforcement officer, supervisory immigration enforcement agent, and deportation officer with INS and ICE.
Mr. Johnson transferred to ICE headquarters in 2007 where he served in many roles to include detention and deportation officer, and subsequently, Unit Chief of the Detention Standards Compliance Unit. Mr. Johnson also served as Chief of Staff for the Office of Detention Policy and Planning, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for ICE, and Deputy Chief of Staff for the Executive Associate Director for ERO prior to becoming the Assistant Director for ERO’s Custody Management Division.
Mr. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Salisbury University. He is a member of the Senior Executive Service.
Tae D. Johnson currently serves as Deputy Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Prior to his current position, Mr. Johnson served as the ICE ERO Deputy Executive Associate Director. In this role, Mr. Johnson is responsible for the oversight, direction, and coordination of ERO in its mission to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws. Mr. Johnson manages a budget of approximately $4.4 billion and leads an organization of more than 7,900 employees assigned to 24 ERO field offices and six headquarters divisions, in more than 200 domestic locations and 25 overseas locations.
Prior to that position, Mr. Johnson served as the Assistant Director for ERO’s Custody Management Division, which provides policy and oversight for the administrative custody of about 40,000 detainees daily and roughly 500,000 detainees annually, at approximately 250 facilities nationwide.
Mr. Johnson began his federal career in Salisbury, Maryland, in 1992 with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as a co-op student trainee. Over the past more than 25 years, Mr. Johnson has served as a detention enforcement officer, supervisory detention enforcement officer, supervisory immigration enforcement agent, and deportation officer with INS and ICE.
Mr. Johnson transferred to ICE headquarters in 2007 where he served in many roles to include detention and deportation officer, and subsequently, Unit Chief of the Detention Standards Compliance Unit. Mr. Johnson also served as Chief of Staff for the Office of Detention Policy and Planning, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for ICE, and Deputy Chief of Staff for the Executive Associate Director for ERO prior to becoming the Assistant Director for ERO’s Custody Management Division.
Mr. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Salisbury University. He is a member of the Senior Executive Service.
Kathy Nuebel Kovarik began serving as the chief of staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on August 2, 2020. Ms. Nuebel Kovarik previously served as the chief of staff for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and as the chief for the USCIS Office of Policy and Strategy. She also previously served as an advisor to DHS Secretary John F. Kelly.
Ms. Nuebel Kovarik worked for the U.S. Senate for more than 17 years, most recently as professional staff on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary under Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa. During that time, she worked on immigration legislation and oversight.
She also was the staff director of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth to help advance policies affecting foster youth and families. Before moving to the Judiciary Committee, she served in Sen. Grassley’s personal office, working on an array of policy issues.
Ms. Nuebel Kovarik is from Le Mars, Iowa. She graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1998. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Henry Lucero is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Executive Associate Director. In this role, Mr. Lucero leads ERO in its mission to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws. He is responsible for a budget of approximately $4.4 billion and leads more than 7,900 employees assigned to 24 ERO field offices and headquarters, in more than 200 domestic locations and 25 overseas locations.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Lucero served as ERO’s Acting Deputy Executive Associate Director where he oversaw the execution of ERO’s interior immigration enforcement operations.
Mr. Lucero has held numerous other leadership positions within ICE including Assistant Director for Field Operations, Field Office Director for the Phoenix, San Antonio and Washington Field Offices, Deputy Assistant Director for the Headquarters Compliance Enforcement Division, Unit Chief for the ERO Criminal Alien Program Operations Unit, and National Program Manager for the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit.
Mr. Lucero started his federal career in 1993, proudly serving as an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army. He has more than two decades of federal law enforcement experience. He began his law enforcement career as a Border Patrol Agent with the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service before being selected as Senior Patrol Agent. Subsequently, Mr. Lucero transitioned to the ICE Office of Investigations, serving as both a Special Agent and Senior Special Agent.
Mr. Lucero is a recipient of the ICE Director’s Award for International Achievement and the ICE Assistant Secretary’s Award for Protecting the Homeland. He received the Director’s Award in 2014 for the implementation of initiatives that resulted in a total cost avoidance of more than $75 million annually. He received the Assistant Secretary’s Award in 2007 for his work on a major investigation that resulted in multiple felony convictions and a criminal forfeiture of $4.7 million.
Mr. Lucero has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since 2012. He holds a Master of Science in Management from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from National University. Additionally, Mr. Lucero has been an adjunct professor of management and leadership courses at the undergraduate level.
Derek N. Benner is currently the Executive Associate Director (EAD) for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an organization with more than 10,400 positions, which includes more than 7,100 special agents who are assigned to 30 Special Agent in Charge (SAC) offices in major cities, over 250 other field offices throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in more than 50 countries. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Benner served as the Deputy EAD for HSI. As the investigative component of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), HSI’s investigative and enforcement initiatives and operations target cross-border criminal organizations that exploit America's legitimate trade, travel, financial and immigration systems for their illicit purposes.
Prior to this position, Mr. Benner served as the Assistant Director of Domestic Operations with oversight of HSI’s domestic field offices. Mr. Benner also served as SAC for HSI in San Diego,. In this position, he oversaw one of HSI’s largest investigative offices in the nation, which includes a diverse cadre of federal agents, intelligence analysts, and professional administrative staff throughout San Diego and Imperial counties. He also oversaw a number of HSI-led multiagency tasks forces, which included state, local and federal law enforcement members working together to target cross-border criminal organizations that exploit the legitimate commercial trade, travel, and financial systems in the California/Mexico border region.
Prior to this assignment, Mr. Benner served in several key leadership positions at ICE Headquarters. As the Deputy Assistant Director of HSI’s Financial, Narcotics and Special Operations Division in Washington, D.C., he was responsible for the agency’s national financial fraud and narcotics smuggling programs. He also served as Chief of Staff to the Director of HSI and provided management oversight at the national level.
Mr. Benner began his law enforcement career with the U.S. Customs Service in 1991 as a co-op student. He worked at the San Ysidro Port of Entry as a Customs Inspector for two years before becoming a Marine Enforcement Officer and a Special Agent with the U.S. Customs Service’s Office of Investigations in San Diego. In 2002, Mr. Benner was promoted to the management ranks where he supervised agents assigned to the local maritime smuggling task force and managed the asset forfeiture, intelligence and administration programs as an Assistant SAC in San Diego.
Mr. Benner holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from George Mason University.
Ms. Staci A. Barrera is the Executive Associate Director (EAD) for Management and Administration (M&A) for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). M&A oversees ICE's budget, expenditures, accounting and finance, procurement, human resources and personnel, workforce recruitment, equal employment opportunity, information technology systems, facilities, property and equipment needs. In addition, Management and Administration identifies and tracks the agency's performance measurements.
Prior to this assignment, Ms. Barrera – a member of the Senior Executive Service – served as Assistant Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Mission Support, where she has acted as the primary advisor to the HSI EAD on all administrative and management matters since January 2008. In that capacity, she was also responsible for a budget of more than $2 billion (from multiple sources) and approximately 150 employees.
In addition to Ms. Barrera’s HSI responsibilities, she also accepted two detail assignments: Acting Deputy EAD for M&A (July 2017 to October 2017) and Acting Human Capital Officer (October 2014 to September 2015). In both those detail assignments, Ms. Barrera demonstrated strong leadership, sound judgement, and expertise in overseeing a myriad of administrative programs supporting an ICE workforce of nearly 20,000 employees around the world.
Ms. Barrera has more than 26 years of government service. Prior to joining ICE in 2008, Ms. Barrera held a number of key leadership positions in the federal government. She served in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Executive Office for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, first as Associate Director and then as the Deputy Director, overseeing OCDETF’s national efforts, including budget, strategic planning and performance activities, the Attorney General’s Consolidated Priority Organization Target list, the State and Local Overtime program, and the Strike Force program. Ms. Barrera was also responsible for spearheading OCDETF’s efforts to create the OCDETF Fusion Center (OFC), a multi-agency, intelligence center focused on supporting drug and money laundering investigations.
Ms. Barrera holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University.
As the Associate Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), Mr. Rodriguez is responsible for OPR’s efforts to ensure ICE’s organizational integrity through a multi-layered approach of investigations, security operations, inspections and detention oversight. He leads a unique organization that is equal parts law enforcement and security, internal affairs and inspections, and a vital service provider to ICE’s workforce, stakeholders and leadership. He is also the ICE Chief Security Officer.
Mr. Rodriguez strongly believes in his teams’ ability to meet and exceed mission requirements by anticipating needs and adapting to change. He cultivates a climate of respect and diversity of ideas to advance the organization, and values agility, honesty, courage and resolve. To promote a common vision and shared values, he challenges the status quo and strategically drives results and innovation, by developing and involving people in the decisions that impact their work. Mr. Rodriguez consistently mentors, advises and coaches others within and outside his organization, while he strives to develop his own skills and gain new perspectives.
Mr. Rodriguez has led enterprise-wide, intensive reviews of all OPR programs, each of which have resulted in significant organizational transformation that has modernized and enhanced OPR’s service to stakeholders within and outside of ICE. Among other accomplishments, these efforts have led to the development and deployment of the first ever Inspection and Detention Oversight case management system, the creation of mission-specific workload staffing models and performance reporting dashboards, as well as comprehensive resources to improve operational performance and mission support within and outside OPR.
Mr. Rodriguez entered the Senior Executive Service in 2011 and has over 29 years of law enforcement experience. He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, where he serves as ex-officio member of the Police Standards, Ethics and Image Committee and has helped develop model policies to improve policing globally. Mr. Rodriguez holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences and a Master of Public Administration.
Prior to OPR, he was the Special Agent in Charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, Texas; in that capacity, he was responsible for operations throughout West Texas and New Mexico. Mr. Rodriguez began his law enforcement career in 1991 as a Puerto Rico Police Officer, working as a criminal investigator in the Criminal Intelligence Bureau and task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration. In 1997, he began his federal service as a Special Agent with the Office of the Inspector General, Federal Emergency Management Agency. In 2001, he transferred to the former U.S. Customs Service.
Michael P. Davis is the Executive Deputy Principal Legal Advisor for the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor(OPLA) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He currently serves as the Acting Principal Legal Advisor.
In his role, Mr. Davis maintains oversight of OPLA’s vast legal program, which represents DHS in removal proceedings before the immigration courts and Board of Immigration Appeals, provides legal advice and training to ICE law enforcement personnel and support professionals on a wide range of administrative and operational law issues, and coordinates with the Department of Justice to defend ICE’s interests in complex federal litigation.
Mr. Davis began his legal career with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles in 2000, through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. Prior to his promotion to Executive Deputy Principal Legal Advisor in 2016, Mr. Davis served as OPLA’s Director of Enforcement and Litigation, overseeing four headquarters divisions responsible for advising Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and guiding the agency’s trial and appellate advocacy efforts in immigration proceedings. Prior to that, Mr. Davis served as Chief of OPLA’s Immigration Law and Practice Division, and completed temporary duty assignments at DHS’s Office of General Counsel, the ICE Office of the Director, ERO, and HSI.
Mr. Davis is a graduate of Cleveland, Ohio’s John Carroll University and the University of Illinois College of Law, and a member of the California State Bar. He is also a member of the Senior Executive Service.