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Lawmakers grill immigration officials

Leaders defend tactics at committee hearing

By: Christopher Cann
Bart Jansen
Lauren Villagran
and Zachary Schermele
USA Today

..... Sparks flew at a House Homeland Security Committee meeting February 10 [2026] in a push-and-pull between lawmakers demanding answers about the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement and immigration officials defending their employees' conduct.
..... The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and agents' tactics in Minnesota have alienated a growing share of Americans and caused friction in the Republican Party. Congress faces a February 13 [2026] deadline to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, with lawmakers deadlocked over potential reforms.
..... Committee Chair Andrew R. Garbarino, R-New York, in his opening statement, applauded some of the Trump administration's immigration efforts but said "the credibility of these successes is on the line."
..... "We must take the temperature down," he said, calling the fatal shootings of Pretti and Good "unacceptable and preventable."
..... Garbarino demanded "complete and impartial" investigations, criticizing officials who chose to "rush to judgment" after the shootings.
..... "Public trust and public safety go hand and hand," he said. "We cannot have one without the other."
..... In his opening statement, ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, said DHS' "reckless, careless" acts and decision to initially block independent investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti are the stuff of "dictatorship, not democracy."
..... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "has blood on her hands," he said.
..... He asked for a moment of silence to honor Pretti.
..... Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not apologize to the families of good and Protti for President Donald Trump and his ads calling them domestic terrorists.
..... Asked by Representative Eric Swalwell, D-California, if he agreed with the much-criticized labels, Lyons said the president and his homeland security Secretary have a "right to their comments."
..... However, he said, "I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private."
..... He and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodeney Scott committed to releasing the full report and findings of investigators into both fatal shootings.
..... Pretti's killing is being investigated by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice's civil rights division. the Department of Justice and the FBI initially declined to investigate Good's death.
..... Both immigration leaders then stood up for their employees,, who, they said, are in danger.
..... Scott defended Border Patrol agents operating in the interior of the country and said they're facing "aggressive interference and intimidation."
..... "These attacks on federal law enforcement personnel are coordinated ans well-funded," he said, echoing previous claims by Trump administration officials. "This is not peaceful protests.
..... Scott thanked Trump and Noem for enabling the agency to establish "the most secure border in our nation;s history," while criticizing the Biden administration's immigration enforcement.
..... Lyons said death threats against personnel last year [2025] were up 8,0000% and assaults on officers skyrocketed 1,400%.
..... "We are facing the deadliest operation environment in our agency's history," Lyons said. "One officer in Minnesota had his finer bitten off by a protester edged on by elected officials characterizing our officers as gestapo or secret police."
..... His message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate ICE: "You will fall."
..... Lyons' defense of offices included those who detained a 5-year-old boy, Liam Ramos, and his father in Minnesota.
..... "The men and women of ICE took care of him when his father abandoned him and ran from law enforcement," he said of Ramos.
..... The boy and his father were returned home form a Texas detention facility in late January [2026] after a federal judge in Texas blasted the Trump administration for what he described as an "ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas."
..... Several representatives grilled the officials about specific tactics, protections and promises.
..... Regarding training, Loons said immigration agents now undergo a condensed training academy that packs in lessons 12 hours a day, six days a week.
..... Previously trainees attended the academy five days a week, eight hours a day, he said. Current law enforcement officers who apply to join ICE receive reduced training that focuses on enforcing immigration law.
..... "The meat of the training was never removed," said Lyons. "the timeline was."
..... Scott said Border Patrol agents continue to attend a 117-day academy.
..... Thompson asked how many agents were wearing body cameras. Noen had said on February 2 [2026] that agents would begin immediately wearing them.
..... About 13,000, the officials said, 10,000 of whom are Border Patrol agents. More than half the staff in the field don't have them yet, they acknowledged.
..... "We're building that camera out as we speak," Scott said.
..... Representative Lou Correa, D-California, said U.S. citizens in his district are worried about being mistaken for undocumented immigrants.
..... They're asking, Correa said," "what do I have to carry with me? Is carrying a passport enough?"
..... Lyons said U.S. citizens don't have to carry a passport. he added hat he didn't know of a single case of an American being detained.
..... Several citizens have sued ICE for wrongful detainment over the past year. [2025]
..... And Representative Seth Magaziner, D-Rhode Island, played videos of-two incidents where Border Patrol agents sued pepper spray during enforcement actions.
..... In one case, the spray went into the window of a car of U.S. citizens, including a 1-year-old child, in a Chicago grocery store parking lot. In another case, a man in Minneapolis was sprayed in the face while already pinned to the ground.
..... "Your agents are being unnecessarily violent," Magaziner said.

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