Washington, Feb 11 (.) The heads of three key US immigration agencies appeared before Congress on Tuesday for their first public reckoning, since the notorious immigration crackdown in Minneapolis triggered mass protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policy, unrestrained shootings by federal agents, and a renewed call for greater public oversight of federal enforcement operations.
Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee were Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner Rodney Scott, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) director Joseph Edlow. All three agencies operate under the Department of Homeland Security.
The hearing came in the shadow of the two fatal incidents in Minneapolis, which have led to mass protests in the state, and calls against the administration nationwide.
These incidents include the January 7 shooting of Renee Good, and the January 24 killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents, leading to intensified calls from Democrats and civil liberties groups for greater congressional scrutiny of immigration enforcement. The officials declined to comment on either case, citing ongoing investigations.
The testimony unfolded as Congress remains locked in a standoff over how to fund DHS. Lawmakers have until Saturday to pass a full funding bill. In the interim, Congress approved a two-week stopgap measure to keep DHS operating while funding the rest of the government through September, buying time for negotiations over immigration enforcement reforms.
Despite some bipartisan overlap, including support for mandating body cameras, and curbing roving patrols, talks have been stalled. Senate Democrats submitted draft DHS funding legislation to Republicans, but Democratic leaders said Monday that a White House counterproposal was “incomplete and insufficient.”
Lyons and Scott were the highlight of the hearing, as the two chiefs fully defended the GOP administration’s extreme hardline stance on curbing illegal immigration.
Stating that ICE had carried out more than 475,000 removals in the past year, he said that the number was a direct fulfilment of President Donald Trump’s mandate.
“The president tasked us with mass deportations, and we are fulfilling that mandate,” Lyons said in his opening statement, adding that congressional funding had allowed ICE to expand detention capacity and increase removal flights daily.
According to Lyons, ICE made nearly 379,000 arrests during the first year of Trump’s second term, including more than 7,000 suspected gang members and 1,400 individuals described as known or suspected terrorists.
However, as per a report by CBS News, which citing DHS data, revealed that fewer than 14% of those arrested in the past year were charged with or convicted of violent crimes.
Lyons also scorned the public criticism of ICE, stating that the massive badmouthing of the agency had created a dangerous climate for agents to operate in.
“We are facing the deadliest operating environment in our agency’s history,” he told lawmakers, condemning what he described as rhetoric that has “fomented violence against dedicated American patriots defending our homeland.”
He also highlighted a sharp expansion of ICE’s workforce, saying the agency had hired more than 12,000 officers and agents in less than a year, with over 220,000 applicants seeking jobs.
Echoing similar concerns, Scott said that CBP officers were now increasingly confronting hostile crowds during enforcement actions.
“These situations are unprecedented in scale and intensity,” he said in his testimony, adding that the current environment places officers and even their families at “tremendous personal risk of violence.”
“This is not peaceful protest,” Scott told the committee, alleging that attacks on officers were “coordinated and well-funded.”
Scott said CBP has also seen a surge in recruitment, with an 84% increase in monthly Border Patrol hires compared with the previous year.
He further pointed to the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, under which additional funding has been allocated to the three agencies, including resources for 5,000 additional CBP officers, 3,000 Border Patrol agents and 200 air and marine agents, alongside recruitment and retention incentives.
As lawmakers raced against the funding deadline, the hearing underscored the gravity of the disillusionment against immigration enforcement authorities, following the fallout from Minneapolis, which has become the central fault line in negotiations over DHS’s future. . . .