Miguel Vergara selected as ERO Harlingen field office director

SAN ANTONIO — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) announced Miguel Vergara’s selection to the Senior Executive Service April 25. Vergara will serve as the field office director (FOD) for the Harlingen field office.

ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson announced the selection.

Vergara has over 21 years of federal law enforcement experience and expertise. Most recently, he served as the acting FOD for the ERO Harlingen field office, providing managerial oversight of all immigration enforcement activities and programs throughout 15 counties in the southernmost part of Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley. Prior to serving as the acting FOD, Vergara was the deputy field office director of the ERO Harlingen field office.

Vergara began his federal law enforcement career in 2002 as an immigration inspector with the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service in Massena, New York. He has held numerous leadership positions throughout his career, including supervisory detention and deportation officer in the ERO Dallas field office, where he oversaw the Criminal Apprehension Program, detention standards compliance, detained and non-detained case management, and fugitive operations. He was later promoted to the position of assistant field office director for ERO Dallas in 2017 and oversaw the field office’s Operational Support Unit.

Vergara holds two bachelor’s degrees from American InterContinental University and Champlain College and a master’s degree from Liberty University. In July 2022, he graduated from the DHS Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program. He also proudly served in the United States Army, where he earned the rank of staff sergeant.

As one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) three operational directorates, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.