Wasting little time after the election before jumping ship, Julie L. Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will leave the Bush administration on Nov. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announcement today.

Myers, 39, did not say if she planned to re-enter private practice after 12 years in government, but ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said, "She is very passionate about these [immigration] issues and will carry that passion into future endeavors." (...)

Myers has presided over a dramatic increase in enforcement activities and spending at the $5 billion agency, setting records for three fiscal years in arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal records and those violating administrative deportation orders. Actual deportations also soared to record levels during her tenure.

ICE helped drive the political debate over immigration. However, its heavily publicized raids also drew condemnations from civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups, which say ICE violated humanitarian standards and trampled on due process rights by using criminal-style tactics and charges in massive roundups of workers. Myers also oversaw a burgeoning detention system whose growth has led to noncriminal immigrant detainees often being medically neglected. (...)

Myers's deputy, John P. Torres, a career law enforcement official and former head of ICE's detention and removal operations, has been designated to serve as acting head of ICE through the presidential transition.