ICE Plumber Markwayne Mullin Touting Scandal-Hit MAGA Sheriff as New Director
EXCLUSIVE: Vic Regalado bought his rank, shared a stage with conspiracy theorists, and warmed up a Trump rally—and the DHS Secretary “wants” him running ICE.
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is pushing for his hometown, scandal-prone MAGA sheriff to be the new ICE director, PunchUp can reveal.
There are several names being floated inside the department to replace Todd Lyons, 52, whose last day at the agency is May 31, Politico reported on Thursday.
They include Marcos Charles, who runs ICE’s enforcement and removal operations division and was a visible defender of the Minneapolis crackdown, former GEO Group executive David Venturella, now in charge of DHS detention contracts, Tony Salisbury, deputy Homeland Security adviser and a Stephen Miller protégé, and Mark Morgan, the FBI veteran who ran ICE in an acting capacity during Trump’s first term.
But one name not on the list is the man said by multiple senior DHS sources to be Mullin’s favorite—Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado, 54. While President Donald Trump, 79, will have the ultimate sign-off, one told PunchUp: “S1 [Secretary of State] wants him.”
It would be the 48-year-old former Oklahoma senator’s first major appointment since he took over from Kristi Noem at the end of March, and the ex-plumber’s first chance to reshape an immigration agency rocked by January’s fatal shootings of unarmed Americans, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In an intriguing development, on March 11, six days after Trump named Mullin his pick for DHS secretary, Regalado announced he had decided not to run for Congress.
At first glance, Regalado looks like the rebrand a beleaguered ICE has been crying out for. The Hispanic, Spanish-speaking former Tulsa Police homicide detective is the son of a Mexican immigrant who served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Air Force.
Regalado has spent his entire decade as sheriff aggressively defending the controversial 287(g) program that turns local cops into immigration enforcers. He has called critics of the program “anti what’s right” and described concerns about racial profiling as “simply silly,” according to Tulsa World.
He is also a fierce defender of ICE. In January, after the deaths of unarmed mom Good and VA ICU nurse Pretti, both 37, Regalado launched a public Facebook attack—not on the federal agents pulling the triggers, but on Tulsa’s first Black mayor, Monroe Nichols, accusing him of “raising the temperature” for daring to criticize an ICE killing.
But scratch below the surface, and PunchUp can reveal Regalado comes with baggage—and a lot of it.
In March 2016, Regalado told The Frontier and NewsOn6 that he had paid a superior officer at the Tulsa Police Department to retire early so he could be promoted to sergeant. The practice—known internally as “buying rank”—involved cops paying $20,000 to $50,000 to clear a path up the ladder.
A subsequent investigation by the City of Tulsa found the arrangement violated the city’s ethics code, charter, and personnel policies.
Regalado, the only Tulsa cop ever to publicly admit doing it, escaped discipline because he had already left the force. He has insisted he did “nothing illegal or immoral.”
As sheriff, Regalado has presided over more than $16 million in payouts and verdicts tied to the Tulsa County Jail. Tulsa County settled the Eric Harris excessive-force lawsuit in 2018 for $6 million, three years after the unarmed 44-year-old Black man was fatally shot by 73-year-old reserve deputy Robert Bates during a 2015 sting. Bates claimed he had grabbed his pistol instead of his Taser by mistake.
In 2017, a federal jury hit Regalado’s office with a $10.25 million verdict over the death of Elliott Williams, a 37-year-old U.S. Army veteran left paralyzed on a Tulsa jail cell floor for five days while staff tossed food trays at his feet and placed a cup of water out of his reach. Regalado was named in both lawsuits in his official capacity.
What is likely to count in Regalado’s favor in getting the Trump thumbs-up is that his MAGA credentials run deep.
In April 2021—just three months after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack—Regalado, dressed in his sheriff’s uniform, spoke at the so-called “Health and Freedom Conference” at Rhema Bible College in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, which was chock-full of conspiracy theorists.
The lineup, Public Radio Tulsa reported, included MyPillow CEO and 2020 election denier Mike Lindell, lawyer Lin Wood—who has called for the execution of former Vice President Mike Pence—pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, Jan. 6 defendant Dr. Simone Gold, and disgraced former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom Regalado later said was a “great guy.”
Also speaking at the event was Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel, who used his slot to push the QAnon adrenochrome conspiracy theory.
The conference closed with a COVID-19 mask-burning ceremony.
Regalado also warmed up the crowd at Trump’s notorious 2020 Tulsa rally—the only local elected official granted a primetime speaking slot—and starred in television ads for Trump-aligned Sen. Jim Inhofe.
He has refused to call the Jan. 6 attack an insurrection. He told the Tulsa World editorial board in 2021 that he didn’t know whether the 2020 presidential election had been “free and fair.”
Mullin said last month that his goal at DHS was to carry out deportations “in a more quiet way,” and to no longer be the lead story in the news every day.
Installing a sheriff who has shared a stage with QAnon believers, bought his promotion, and presides over the most expensive jail-death tab in Tulsa County history would be a curious way to deliver on that promise.
PunchUp contacted the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and Regalado for comment. A DHS spokesperson said it had “no personnel announcements to make at this time,” while a White House official said the president was “considering multiple candidates for the role.” Neither denied that Regalado was among them. Regalado did not respond.