Ice Chief Defends His Officers To Congress As Lawmakers Mull Dhs Funding

ICE’s acting director on Tuesday defended his agency’s approach to removing unauthorized immigrants, as Democrats pushed top Department of Homeland Security officials to justify last month’s shootings of two American citizens by immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons insisted the agency is properly enforcing U.S. immigration laws and that ICE officers are receiving adequate training before deploying into the field. He also said ICE officers would not back down in the face of threats against them by opponents of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase deportations.

“Despite these perils, our officers continue to execute their mission with unwavering resolve,” Lyons said. “And we are only getting started.”

The hearing comes as Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill race against the clock to secure a compromise that would fund DHS and provide for changes to the practices immigration officers use to remove unauthorized immigrants. Democrats have signaled their willingness to allow a partial government shutdown affecting only DHS if the administration does not enact changes at ICE and Border Patrol following the shootings.

Funding for DHS will expire on Feb. 13 if Congress does not pass a funding bill.

House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said the hearing came at an “inflection point” for the Department of Homeland Security.

“Public trust and public safety go hand in hand,” Garbarino said. “Transparency and communication are needed now more than ever. The department's no-fail mission hangs in the balance.”

The testimony and exchanges between lawmakers and officials seemed to have little effect on members’ views of the immigration agency, as Democrats argued recent events necessitate serious changes at ICE and Border Patrol and some Republicans accused Democrats of trying to score political points at the expense of the individual safety of immigration officers.

Lyons maintained in response to questioning that the priority for ICE is to remove unauthorized immigrants with violent criminal records and argued most people detained and removed over the past year fit under those parameters.

But Democrats were not satisfied with Lyons’ explanations, pushing Lyons and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott for more information about the investigations into the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Scott and Lyons both declined to comment on the specifics of the Pretti and Good cases, noting that investigations are ongoing. Lyons, however, did rule out resigning over the shootings and argued that rhetoric from Democrats is causing incidents, not the tactics ICE and other immigration officers are using in the field.

Lyons and Scott, as well as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow, all said that a shutdown would cause serious disruptions to their agencies’ operations and warned it would impair U.S. national security.

Edlow, whose agency is funded through the fees that the federal government charges on immigration applications, said that “while we may be able to continue without our partners being paid and them being furloughed, it's going to make America significantly less safe.”

Most Republicans opted to defend ICE and Border Patrol, arguing that Democrats were trying to disrupt the agencies’ efforts to remove unauthorized immigrants convicted or accused of committing violent crimes.

Rep. Sherri Biggs (R-S.C.) said Democrats were stoking “hysteria” about what she described as routine immigration enforcement operations. Meanwhile, Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) accused Democrats of wanting unauthorized immigrants in the country to vote for them in violation of U.S. law.

But even some moderate Republicans on the panel acknowledged that DHS had fallen short in Minneapolis before the White House directed changes to the surge in immigration officers there.

Garbarino subtly criticized Homeland Security Kristi Noem for her speedy evaluation of the Minneapolis shootings, saying “when officials or elected leaders rush to conclusions about law enforcement or their fellow Americans, public trust suffers.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) lavished praise on border czar Tom Homan, who has sparred with Noem over how ICE should approach operations, and slammed former Border Patrol commander at-large Gregory Bovino, who Noem elevated to a prominent role leading many nationwide operations.

“Bovino came into the picture and I would argue in fairness that he escalated the situation by the way that was handled,” McCaul said. “Since Mr. Homan came into the job, we now have targeted law enforcement operations. He's returning the original mission of ICE.”

Finya Swai contributed to this report.