ICE Leadership

Caleb Vitello is a member of the Senior Executive Service with more than 23 years of service to ICE. As acting director, Mr. Vitello leads, directs and oversees a workforce more than 20,000 people strong that includes federal law enforcement officers, attorneys and mission support personnel. Through their work, he guides an agency tasked with enforcing more than 400 federal statutes related to immigration enforcement, combating transnational crime and terrorism, and fighting the illegal movement of people and goods.

Mr. Vitello served as deputy assistant director, directed the National Fugitive Operations Program and led the Fugitive Operations Academy, providing policy guidance, strategic planning and operational oversight for efforts to locate, arrest and remove at-large, dangerous criminals and illegal aliens from the United States.

Mr. Vitello most recently served as the assistant director for the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs. He led OFTP in providing specialized firearms and tactical training, as well as all equipment, support and policy guidance necessary to promote officer and public safety while enabling effective execution of the agency’s law enforcement mission.

Prior to joining OFTP, Mr. Vitello served as the Enforcement and Removal Operations chief of staff, overseeing daily operations and communications impacting an organization with a budget of $4.7 billion and a workforce of approximately 8,000 employees. Prior to his appointment as ERO’s chief of staff, Mr. Vitello served on the White House National Security Council as the director for Interior Enforcement, where he headed the child and welfare safety initiative and ensured enforcement efforts focused on the greatest threats to national security and public safety.

Mr. Vitello also served as unit chief and deputy assistant director of the National Fugitive Operations Program in ERO’s Enforcement Division.

Between 2015 and 2020, Mr. Vitello earned four ICE Director’s Awards in Meritorious Service, Core Value, Protecting the Homeland and Efficiency Through Innovation. He also earned the ICE Health Service Corps Life Saving Award.

In 2001, Mr. Vitello began his career with the ERO New York City field office, where he was a founding member of its Special Response Team program and a senior Defensive Tactics instructor. Mr. Vitello went on to lead the SRT national training and certification program at Ft. Moore (formerly Ft. Benning), Georgia, and later managed the national SRT program in ERO’s Enforcement Division.

Mr. Vitello was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Kenneth Genalo is a member of the Senior Executive Service and the acting deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Genalo oversees ICE’s daily operations, leading over 20,000 employees—including over 6,800 criminal investigators in Homeland Security Investigations and 6,000 officers in Enforcement and Removal Operations. He oversees personnel assigned to more than 400 domestic and international offices and administers an annual budget greater than $8 billion.

Prior to serving as ICE’s acting deputy director, Mr. Genalo served as the ERO New York City field office director. In that role, he maintained operational responsibility for the five boroughs of New York City and Long Island, and seven upstate counties in New York. He also oversaw a workforce of 369 full-time employees and contractors spread between the ERO New York City field office and several satellite offices, and he directed operations at one Intergovernmental Service Agreement facility.

Mr. Genalo has held numerous leadership positions within ERO, including the serving as the acting field office director for the ERO El Paso field offices and as the deputy field office director in the New York City and Newark field offices. He’s also served as an assistant field office director, supervisory detention and deportation officer, deportation officer, supervisory senior immigration inspector, senior immigration inspector, immigration inspector and Special Response Team deputy commander.

Mr. Genalo began his federal career with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1992. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pace University in New York City.

Jon Feere is the Chief of Staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Mr. Hott 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. Responsible for a budget of approximately $4.7 billion, Mr. Hott directs the operations of more than 7,600 employees assigned to 25 ERO field offices and headquarters, in more than 200 domestic locations and 30 overseas locations.

Robert J. Hammer serves as the acting executive associate director for Homeland Security Investigations and oversees over 10,000 employees, including special agents, criminal analysts, mission support personnel and contract staff assigned to over 237 offices throughout the United States and over 56 countries around the world.

In his previous role, Mr. Hammer served as the Cyber and Operational Technology assistant director, where he managed information technology programs and developed major technology advancements in support of HSI’s law enforcement mission. He directed a workforce of 600 employees and managed an annual budget of nearly $275 million.

Prior to that, Mr. Hammer served as the special agent in charge of HSI Seattle, where he was responsible for all HSI investigations across the entire Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska. He oversaw a workforce of over 250 employees, including special agents, criminal analysts and mission support personnel assigned to more than 10 offices throughout the region.

Throughout his career, Mr. Hammer has served in several other key leadership positions for HSI. He was formerly the deputy special agent in charge of HSI Atlanta, where he was responsible for all HSI investigations and field operations in Georgia and Alabama. He was also the assistant special agent in charge in Nashville, overseeing all HSI offices across Tennessee.

Mr. Hammer previously served as the chief of staff of DHS Joint Task Force Investigations and as the operations chief of Domestic Operations. Mr. Hammer has held several key positions in support of the Department of Homeland Security through several joint duty assignments, including one as senior advisor to the undersecretary of Intelligence and Analysis and one as a branch chief in the DHS Office of Operations and Coordination.

Mr. Hammer holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in computer information systems from Georgia State University in Atlanta.

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Ms. Barrera serves as the ICE Executive Associate Director (EAD) for Management and Administration (M&A). Ms. Barrera, supported by a geographically dispersed team of approximately 1,600 professional support staff (including 14 subordinate Senior Executives) and an annual operating budget of nearly $1.5B, delivers enterprise services to ICE’s workforce of over 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices across the United States and around the world. Ms. Barrera provides oversight to acquisition management processes and procurements; human resources, workforce recruitment and hiring; information technology systems and tactical communications support; management, sharing, disclosure, and protection of ICE data and information; real property and asset management; and ICE’s leadership and career development training.

From July 2023 – January 2025 Ms. Barrera served as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Director at ICE, overseeing ICE’s day-to-day operations, leading approximately 20,000 employees including more than 6,800 criminal investigators in HSI and 6,000 officers in ERO with an annual budget of more than $9B.

During her time at ICE, Ms. Barrera has also previously served as ICE’s acting Deputy EAD For M&A, acting Chief Human Capital Officer and the HSI Assistant Director for Mission Support.

Ms. Barrera has more than 34 years of government service. Prior to joining ICE in 2008, Ms. Barrera held key leadership positions in the Federal Government. She served in the Department of Justice’s 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. She was spearheaded OCDETF’s efforts to create the OCDETF Fusion Center, 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 of Science degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University.

Jennifer M. Fenton is the Associate Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).

Ms. Fenton most recently served as the Deputy Associate Director of OPR for the past 5 years. In this capacity, she was responsible for providing oversight and direction of OPR’s budget and increasing programmatic transparency. Ms. Fenton joined OPR in 2015 as the Assistant Director of ICE Inspections and was responsible for ensuring that ICE’s immigration detention facilities, certified undercover operations, and other programs were compliant with policies and procedures.

Ms. Fenton began her career in ICE in 2007 in the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where she served in several capacities, including as the Chief of the Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division. Ms. Fenton holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics from George Mason University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Ms. Fenton is a member of the Senior Executive Service and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics from George Mason University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Adam V. Loiacono is a member of the Senior Executive Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting principal legal advisor, overseeing a staff of over 2,000 attorneys and support personnel who represent DHS in removal proceedings and provide accurate, timely and complete legal advice and counsel to the agency’s senior officials and workforce.

From 2017 until his appointment as acting principal legal advisor, Mr. Loiacono served as the deputy principal legal advisor for Enforcement and Litigation in ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where he oversaw the work of nearly 150 attorneys and support personnel across six OPLA headquarters divisions: the District Court Litigation Division, the Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division, the Homeland Security Investigations Law Division, the Human Rights Violator Law Division, the National Security Law Division, and the Immigration Law and Practice Division. These divisions are responsible for advising Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, the Office of Professional Responsibility, and ICE leadership and personnel on a range of matters, including the agency’s criminal, customs and immigration law enforcement authorities. In that role, Mr. Loiacono formulated legal strategies and developed ICE’s positions in national security, human rights and public safety matters pending before the nation’s immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals. He also coordinated with the Department of Justice to address federal court litigation concerning ICE equities.

Mr. Loiacono has served in various positions in DHS and the private sector. Following a successful private practice career in immigration law, he joined ICE as an assistant chief counsel in New York City. He then became an attorney advisor with the DHS Office of the General Counsel, where he advised DHS leadership on high-profile immigration enforcement matters affecting ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He also served as chief of OPLA’s Detention and Removal Law Section and OPLA’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division, where he served as a vital legal advisor to ERO on some of the most complex and challenging issues facing ICE, including detainers, detention authorities, family detention and repatriation.

He has also taught immigration law as an adjunct professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Mr. Loiacono holds a Bachelor of Arts from Binghamton University, a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School and a Master of Laws from American University’s Washington College of Law.

Ms. Jennifer Cleary is the Chief Financial Officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ms. Cleary leads a team of 350 personnel, including three subordinate Senior Executives, and is responsible for budgetary, accounting, and financial oversight for the agency’s $8 billion budget, and serves as the liaison for Congressional Appropriations engagement.