Todd Bensman is Senior Advisor to the Office of ICE Director and Department of Homelandn Security leadership to include Border Czar Tom Homan. He accepted his appointment by swearing in on June 2, 2025. Prior to his White House Management appointment, Bensman served as Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington D.C.-based research institute that examines the impact of immigration on American society. He provided information, research and expertise to American policy leaders, major national and international media outlets, and the general public regarding the nexus between national security and immigration. He was a regular contributor to The New York Post, The Daily Mail, Claremont Institute's The American Mind, The Daily Wire and many other publications.
For nearly a decade prior to joining CIS in August 2018, Bensman led counterterrorism intelligence operations for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. While there, he managed a large team of intelligence analysts that worked in close concert with federal homeland security and U.S. Intelligence Community agencies. He created and implemented unique collection programs while working to identify and mitigate terrorism threats throughout the region and the United States.
Prior to his intelligence work, Bensman served for more than 20 years as a journalist covering national security after 9/11. Bensman worked on staff for The Dallas Morning News, CBS, and Hearst Newspapers, covering the FBI, federal law enforcement and serving on investigative teams. He reported extensively on national security issues after 9/11 and worked from more than 25 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
In Texas, his work earned two National Press Club awards and an Inter-American Press Association award, among others. The Texas Institute of Letters twice recognized him for high excellence for his reporting on illegal immigration and border security.
During the early 1990s, he reported on the Gulf War and a year of warfare in Bosnia, where he provided frequent dispatches from the siege of Sarajevo.
Bensman holds two master’s degrees. One is from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security. He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University.
