Top federal immigration officials answer lawmaker questions
On Capitol Hill, leaders for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will answer questions from the House homeland security committee.
“We sit here today at an inflection point,” said committee chair Andrew Garbarino, a Republican congressman from New York. After the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Nicole Good in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers, fervent outrage at the excessive use of force by ICE and border patrol agents has spread across the country.
“This is all unacceptable and preventable. The safety and law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect must also always come first,” Garbarino said in his opening remarks. “When officials or elected leaders rush to conclusions about law enforcement or their fellow Americans, public trust suffers. There must be complete and impartial investigation.”
This hearing comes as members of Congress continue to negotiate guardrails for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ahead of another possible partial shutdown when funding for the department lapses in three days. “Shutting down DHS makes America less safe,” Garbarino said, while noting that other agencies like Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also fall under DHS’s mandate.
Key events
Magaziner turns to an incident from last year in which an Illinois man and his US citizen family – including his one-year-old daughter – were pepper-sprayed in their car by federal immigration agents during a shopping trip in a Chicago suburb.
Is it proper procedure to aim pepper spray into the window of a moving vehicle, he asks.
At first, Rodney Scott, commissioner of CBP, says he’s not familiar with all the details on this and it’s an ongoing investigation, before conceding, “we try to avoid that – no, it’s not proper procedure.”
Scott begins to talk about intentional vs unintentional, before Magaziner says that “from the video, this was clearly intentional”.
Asked if any of the agents involved were ever investigated and disciplined, Scott says the investigation is ongoing.
Todd Lyons is asked by Rhode Island Democrat Seth Magaziner whether ICE has hired anyone who was charged with a crime related to the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
After a brief pause, Lyons says he doesn’t have that information, “but I would say no.”
Magaziner asks if him to find out and please report back, to which Lyons agrees.
Asked if he would hire someone who had attacked police officers on January 6, even if they were “unfortunately” pardoned by the president, Lyons replies:
Sir, we take assault on law enforcement very serious and we have a good, strenuous vetting program.
In response to a line of questioning by California Democrat Lou Correa, Todd Lyons said that an American citizen “shouldn’t feel the need” to carry a passport to prove their legal status in the country. This comes amid several instances of US citizens being profiled, searched and detained by federal immigration officers during the crackdown in Minnesota and across the country.
“The number of cases of Americans being detained, being taken in, some being held for five days …What do we do with those people in that situation? What do we tell them?” Correa said.
Lyons was resolute that he was unaware of any examples of Americans detained by ICE.
Correa pushed Lyons on whether immigration enforcement is surveilling citizens, particularly protesters. “I can assure you, there is no database that’s tracking United States citizens,” Lyons replied.
Asked if there were plans to release any footage from body cameras worn by federal agents in Minnesota, in the spirit of transparency to regain public trust, Todd Lyons said:
100%, sir. One thing I’m committed to is full transparency, and I fully welcome body cameras all across the spectrum and all of our law enforcement activities. Yes sir, body camera footage will be released.
ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, did not confirm how many agents have been fired under his leadership when probed by Democratic lawmaker Eric Swalwell.
“I’m not going to speak about personnel actions, but I’ll get you that data,” Lyons said.
“Are you telling us you can’t even say one person’s been fired?” Swalwell pushed back.
Later, Lyons refused to comment when Swalwell asked if the he would apologize to the family of Renee Good, after Trump administration officials labelled her a “domestic terrorist”, after she was fatally shot by an ICE agent. The president, for his part, called Good a “professional agitator” and “very violent”, despite video footage showing her driving away from law enforcement when she was killed.
“I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private, but I’m not going to comment on any active investigation,” Lyons said at today’s oversight hearing.
Lyons responded to questions from Andrew Garbarino about the training that ICE agents and officers receive.
“They are taught in defensive tactics, personal safety, but as well as laws to include first, second, fourth, fifth, 10th, 14th amendment,” Lyons said. “The officers are trained before they go out into the field. And then while they’re in the field, there are specialized training when disturbance control and other special tactics.”
Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that agents go through a 117 day Academy, while officers attend a 103 day training program.
Bennie Thompson pressed both Lyons and Scott about the body-warn cameras by federal immigration enforcement. The acting ICE director said that roughly 3,000 officers out of around 13,000 wear cameras. While Scott said around half of CBP’s 20,000 agents are fitted with cameras.
Acting ICE director says officers are facing ‘deadliest operating environment’ in agency’s history
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, spoke about “the dangers that ICE agents and officers face nationwide” during his opening remarks today.
“I’m encouraged that some Minnesota officials are finally signaling the willingness to cooperate with ICE. Let me be clear, promises are not enough,” he said. “We need action in the wake of the unprecedented border crisis of the previous administration. ICE stepped into the breach to enforce the law. This commitment has a cost. We’re facing the deadliest operating environment our agents agencies history.”
Top Democrat reignites calls for Noem to resign
In his opening remarks today, Bennie Thompson, the homeland security committee’s ranking member, said that Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security has the “blood of American citizens on its hand”. Thompson is one of several Democrats who have called on Noem to resign or risk impeachment.
The Democratic lawmaker also listed, what he sees, as several examples of indiscriminate use of force and profiling by federal law enforcement as the immigration crackdown continues in Minnesota. This included the detention of five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father – who were taken from Minneapolis, and sent to a facility in Texas.
“DHS personnel are now forcing their way into private homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of the fourth amendment,” Thompson said. “Secretary Noem is a liar with no concern for the lives of Americans killed by the department she runs. She must go.”
Top federal immigration officials answer lawmaker questions
On Capitol Hill, leaders for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will answer questions from the House homeland security committee.
“We sit here today at an inflection point,” said committee chair Andrew Garbarino, a Republican congressman from New York. After the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Nicole Good in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers, fervent outrage at the excessive use of force by ICE and border patrol agents has spread across the country.
“This is all unacceptable and preventable. The safety and law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect must also always come first,” Garbarino said in his opening remarks. “When officials or elected leaders rush to conclusions about law enforcement or their fellow Americans, public trust suffers. There must be complete and impartial investigation.”
This hearing comes as members of Congress continue to negotiate guardrails for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ahead of another possible partial shutdown when funding for the department lapses in three days. “Shutting down DHS makes America less safe,” Garbarino said, while noting that other agencies like Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also fall under DHS’s mandate.
One note for today, the Rules committee will take up the SAVE America act, paving the way for a possible House floor vote. A reminder, this is the legislation – backed by the president and many Republican members of Congress – that would require proof of citizenship in order to vote.
Voting rights experts have long warned this requirement would act as a barrier to participating in elections, and noncitizens voting is both illegal and extremely rare.
Donald Trump has spent recent weeks reviving his baseless claims that US elections are “rigged,” even urging GOP lawmakers to “nationalize” voting, despite states running election administration, not the federal government.
Melody Schreiber
The Trump administration has launched TrumpRx, but there are other sites offering discounts on more medications, and the new government site will appeal to a very limited group of patients, experts say.
Trump has promised reforms on the unusually high drug prices in the US, and he called the announcement “the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history” at a press conference on Thursday. Yet the site only lists 43 medications, more than half of which are available in generic form at significantly cheaper prices elsewhere.
The site may make some weight loss and fertility drugs not covered by insurance more accessible, but overall “it is not a solution for high drug prices in the United States”, said Sean Sullivan, professor of health economics and policy and former dean of pharmacy at the University of Washington.
“Consumers can probably get a cheaper version of these medicines through insurance and their pharmacies, or via cash pay services like Cost Plus Drugs than by the deals offered through TrumpRx,” Sullivan said.
“Healthcare is really complicated in America, and even the supply of prescription drugs is really complicated in America, and this has added to the complexity, instead of reducing complexity,” said Rena Conti, associate professor of markets, public policy, and law at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
The best course is likely still to “ask your local pharmacist what the best deal is”, Conti said.
Read Melody’s full report here:
DHS funding bill negotiations stall on Capitol Hill
On Capitol Hill, negotiations on a full year funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continue with little success in sight.
A reminder, short of passing another continuing resolution, DHS funding lapses after 13 February.
In order to prevent a shutdown in the coming days, Republicans would need seven Democrats on board for either another stopgap measure, or to agree to a full appropriations bill.
Later today we’ll hear from both House GOP and Democratic leaders at their respective press conferences to get a sense of how this back-and-forth is playing out.
Earlier, we reported that House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the initial GOP response to Democrats’ demands – which includes the need for judicial warrants and for immigration officers to no longer wear masks – is “both incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct”. We’ve yet to see the memo or document outlining what the Republicans’ counter offer actually looks like.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. As of now, he’ll have time signing time in the Oval Office, followed by a policy meeting. However, none of these events will be open to the press. We will hear from press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who will brief reporters at 1pm ET.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as it happens.