For the first time since federal agents killed two Americans on the streets of Minneapolis, the officials overseeing President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign testified before Congress on Tuesday.
“The American people are angry,” said Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-New York), “and they’re demanding accountability and justice from those giving the orders.”
The immigration leaders were largely defiant.
“Let me send a message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate us,” said Todd M. Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “You will fail.”
Lyons faced particular scrutiny given that ICE is unpopular with Americans, and immigration agencies are now facing bipartisan calls for reform.
Here are five takeaways from the hearing.
1. At least some Republicans want ICE to tone it down
At the start of the hearing, Homeland Security Committee chairman Andrew R. Garbarino (R-New York) appeared to criticize Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem for saying those killed by immigration agents were “domestic terrorists.”
“Officials and elected leaders should not rush to judgment,” he said. He also asked ICE and other agencies for details about how much it trains new hires as it works to quickly build up its force.
Other Republicans urged immigration officials to focus on deporting people with criminal records — “Deport gangs, not grandmas,” said Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colorado) — and to let local police handle protesters.
“Your officers are not trained to effectively crowd-control,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said.
McCaul also said he wanted immigration agents to be concentrated more at the border than in cities far away from it. “I believe these roving patrols should be done at the border rather than the major cities of the United States,” he said.
2. ICE officials say Americans don’t risk arrest or surveillance
“We don’t walk around on the streets asking people about their American citizenship,” Lyons said.
Lyons did say officials will ask someone their nationality. (The Supreme Court gave the Trump administration temporary permission to use “apparent race” as a factor in determining whom to stop in its Los Angeles-area operations.) But he said Americans shouldn’t have to carry their passports and there is no database they use to surveil protesters.
At least some Americans — including in Chicago and Minneapolis — appear to have been detained by immigration officials. Tuesday, several Democrats shared some of their stories. Rep. Lou Correa (D-California) said ICE agents pulled over one of his constituents, asked to see his passport, “threw it aside and detained him.”
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-Rhode Island) showed a video of a family of U.S. citizens getting groceries at a Sam’s Club in Chicago when they saw a commotion.
“They turned to their vehicle to leave, at which point your agents sprayed pepper spray into their vehicle,” he said. Their 1-year-old daughter also was hit by the chemicals, according to the family.
3. Immigration agents defended their tactics
Several times, Democrats asked immigration officials to denounce the killings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good and the executive branch’s subsequent denunciation of them as domestic terrorists.
The officials repeatedly declined to do so, pointing to the fact that there are now active investigations into the killings.
Democrats also raised concerns about immigration officers wearing masks while on duty, a practice they hope to outlaw. Lyons said there have been assaults on ICE officers and a massive increase in death threats, making masks necessary. He blamed Democratic officials for inflaming the situation by criticizing ICE.
“For decades, ICE has always been in Minneapolis, ICE has always been in every single city and state,” he said. “So it’s not like this is a new thing.”
The scale is new, however.
Trump promised “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” a pledge immigration officials are working to fulfill. Republicans in Congress have given immigration agencies tens of billions of dollars to help.
Agents have raided big-box store parking lots and country clubs, separated a mother from her baby at a routine immigration hearing and made arrests near schools and in people’s homes. Many of the people detained — including children — have no criminal records. (Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Virginia) read letters from children detained for weeks or months.)
Lyons maintained that near 60 percent of those detained have pending criminal charges, and he defended the particularly controversial detention of a 5-year-old and his father in Minneapolis as they returned home from preschool.
“He was obviously upset,” Lyons said of the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, whom a judge recently ordered released. “We comforted him. The officers actually placed him in one of our vehicles, played his favorite song. And they took him to McDonald’s.”
4. It’s not clear what more accountability there will be
Immigration officials said Tuesday that they will share the results from their investigations of the two fatal Minneapolis shootings with Congress and that they are working to issue more body cameras to agents.
No official would say whether agents who have been accused of using unnecessary force face disciplinary action. Each time officers have fired shots since July, Trump administration leaders declared their actions justified.
5. There’s a partial shutdown looming over all this
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and other agencies, including the Coast Guard, runs out Friday. If Congress doesn’t fund the agency by then, it will have to largely shut down. (ICE would actually be able to continue operations, thanks to billions it received in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.)
Democrats are demanding major changes to ICE in exchange for their votes to fund Homeland Security. “Your agencies need to act like other law enforcement agencies, take off the masks, wear badge numbers and enforce discipline with real standards of conduct,” said Magaziner.
Negotiations on those changes are ongoing this week.
