Meet the Top ICE Official Resigning to Run for Congress

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Madison Sheahan is stepping away from her post to run for Congress in Ohio. 

Sheahan, a 28-year-old self-described “Trump conservative,” has worked closely with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and helped lead the President’s aggressive immigration crackdown and deportation campaign in his second term.

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In a video on Thursday, Sheahan announced her bid to challenge 22-term Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, highlighting her work deporting undocumented immigrants under ICE and her Ohio roots.

“In just one year, we’ve made history, recruiting 12,000 new ICE officers and agents, and deporting over 2.5 million illegal aliens. Ohio neighborhoods are safer thanks to President Trump and ICE,” Sheahan said. “At ICE, I returned security to our communities. I’m ready to take that same mindset to Congress.”

She also attacked Kaptur—who has been in her seat since 1983, making her the longest-serving woman in the House—in her campaign video, accusing the congresswoman of voting against funding Trump’s border wall while sending “billions in tax payers handouts to illegals.” 

Sheahan posted her letter of resignation from ICE on Thursday, in which she described her time at the agency as “the honor of my life” and thanked Noem and the President. 

Sheahan grew up in Ohio and attended Ohio State University. Prior to her time at ICE, she was the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. She previously worked for the Ohio Republican Party and later, while Noem was governor of South Dakota, served as her political director. She joined ICE last March as the Trump Administration was ramping up its efforts to restrict immigration and carry out mass deportations.

Noem issued a statement on Thursday supporting her longtime confidante.

“I’ve known her for years, she loves her family, Ohio and her country,” Noem wrote, calling Sheahan a “work horse, strong executor, and terrific leader who led the men and women of ICE to achieve the American people’s mandate to target, arrest, and deport criminal illegal aliens.”

“She will be a great defender of freedom when she goes to Congress,” Noem added.

At ICE, Sheahan presided over day-to-day operations at the agency and oversaw a massive expansion in its workforce under Trump. ICE’s recruitment methods have drawn criticism amid that expansion as it has worked to hire thousands of new immigration officers. And the agency has faced widespread backlash over its role in Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Sheahan’s departure from ICE comes as that backlash has erupted into nationwide protests and calls to impeach Noem and abolish the agency following the shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis last week. On the same day of Sheahan’s resignation, amid escalating clashes between protestors and law enforcement in the Minnesota city, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in the state. 

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the patriots of ICE, who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the Insurrection Act,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Sheahan did not mention the controversy or protests surrounding the agency when announcing her campaign.

Though Kaptur has been elected and reelected in her Ohio district many times over, it went for Trump in the 2024 presidential election and is now more favorable for Republicans after being redrawn last year amid the ongoing redistricting battle. The Cook Political Report currently lists the seat among the most competitive in the country in the upcoming midterms, deeming it a toss-up.