Donald Trump’s pick to lead ICE was dragged to court by his ex-wife for allegedly failing to pay a single cent of child support for over four years.
Richard “Lance” Schroyer, 54, is the little-known former Oklahoma state trooper and buddy of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, 48, who was tapped by Trump, 80, on June 27 to take command of the agency at the heart of his deadly mass-deportation blitz.
PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s sister investigations outlet, has obtained the family court file hanging over his nomination.
The court papers show Schroyer’s second wife, Andrea, went after him in Rogers County, Oklahoma, on July 27, 2021, asking a judge to hold him in contempt. When the pair divorced on January 12, 2017, he was ordered to pay her $304.37 a month in child support for their children. Instead, her application claims, he “refused” and “has never made a child support payment.”
The existence of the case was first reported by The Oklahoman.
The filing accuses Schroyer of “willful and contemptuous actions” that allegedly left his ex covering “food, utilities, buying supplies for school, extra curricular activities and clothing” for the kids on her own. It claims he told her he was “refusing to pay for the children while they are in her care,” and that he “has never taken the minor children for routine check ups or doctor’s appointments while they were in his care.” She also claimed he left her name on a jointly held Best Buy credit card, denting her credit.
The dispute ended quietly. In 2022, his ex dropped the case and wrote off the money owed, with the couple’s custody arrangement reworked. Schroyer—who has been married three times and has two adult children from the marriage—did not respond when asked about the case, and neither did his ex-wife or their lawyers.
As one immigration source told PunchUp, “How can he be expected to oversee billions of dollars and tens of thousands of agents when he can’t even provide child support to his kids?”
The disclosure comes at a delicate moment. Schroyer, a former Marine sergeant who spent a quarter of a century with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol before retiring as a major on May 9, faces a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Rand Paul, 63, expected imminently. If approved, he would be the first ICE boss confirmed by the Senate since early 2017.
He would take over an agency in meltdown after its agents shot dead unarmed mom Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January, and which has seen a raft of ICE-related killings in the past two weeks alone.
His own future troops are already in revolt, as PunchUp revealed after Trump’s announcement. “No experience. He was a trooper. But that’s it. Never a boss. Never a leader. Never had to manage a budget,” one senior ICE source scoffed, with insiders warning of a wave of retirements.
Sources branded Schroyer “Markwayne’s guy”—a nod to Mullin, who liked him so much he would have him over for dinner. Border czar Tom Homan, 64, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, 40, were blindsided by the choice, sources said.
One agency veteran predicted the newcomer would simply be “the new Noem”—a dig at Kristi Noem, 54, the DHS secretary Trump fired on March 5 after a run of catastrophes at the agency.
Back home, allies are sticking by him. Donnie Anderson, Oklahoma’s narcotics bureau chief, told The Oklahoman that Schroyer is “a man of character.” One serving trooper saw it differently: “He’ll act the way that he needs to to survive, and we’ve already got enough politicians like that.”
PunchUp has contacted the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and Schroyer for comment. They did not immediately respond.
Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.
