Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leaders defended their agencies’ enforcement tactics in front of Congress in the first oversight hearing since the deadly Minneapolis shootings, amid a broader budget standoff and rising scrutiny of federal immigration operations.
ICE Acting Chief Todd Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow testified Tuesday before the House Homeland Security Committee, where Democrats pressed for comprehensive reforms.
The three heads of the agencies will also testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Feb. 12. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees all three agencies, is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3.
Read more: ICE Is Seeking to Build New Detention Centers Around the U.S. Here’s How Communities Are Battling to Stop It
Here are five things lawmakers and the public learned from the hearing.
Shorter training timelines for new agents
Democrats pressed Lyons on the duration of training for ICE agents, particularly as ICE has moved to accelerate recruitment. Lyon said candidates without any law enforcement experience undergo three months of training before becoming an agent. Those with prior experience now complete just 47 days of training at a federal training center. The agency had previously said it would usually take more than 4 months to complete training to become a deportation officer.
During the hearing, Lyons also told the committee that agents are trained in “defensive tactics and personal safety,” as well as constitutional rights, laws and protections before being deployed in the field.
CBP Commissioner Scott said the schedules for CBP officers remain unchanged. Border Patrol agents typically go through 117 days of training at the academy, while CBP officers go through 103 days of training, according to Scott.
Read more: How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Sparked a Crisis of Trust
Most agents still do not have body cameras
Democrats have made the installation of body cameras on ICE agents a central demand in their push for ICE reform. Pressed by the top Democrat of the committee Rep. Bennie Thompson, Lyons said “around 3,000” ICE agents out of 13,000 have been equipped with body cameras in the field while 6,000 additional cameras are being deployed. All body camera footage on ICE agents will be released, Lyon insisted.
Scott said “about 10,000” out of 67,000 CBP agents have body cameras equipped on their uniform, adding that more funding is needed in order for CBP officers to be transparent, which some Democrats have pushed back.
“There needs to be major reforms before we vote to give any of you more funding,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island. “Your agencies need to act like other law enforcement agencies.”
ICE denies US citizens are under surveillance
The question of ICE’s surveillance on American citizens was also raised during the hearing. Multiple outlets have reported on watchlists that the DHS and FBI use to track what they label as “domestic terrorists” as a part of the law enforcement crackdown on protesters nationwide.
Lyons denied that there was any such database tracking US citizens. Asked about a social media video in which an ICE agent in Maine threatened to put an observer on “a nice little database,” Lyons said he “can’t speak for that individual.”
ICE chief rules out resignation
When pressed by Rep. Eric Swalwell of California with a photo of 5-year-old Liam Ramos, who was detained by ICE in Minnesota, Lyons said he would not resign, reiterating that the agency’s position is that Ramos’ father “abandoned” him.
Throughout the hearing, neither Lyons nor Scott answered any questions regarding the deaths of Good and Pretti, citing ongoing investigations. They also declined to say how many agents at CBP or ICE were dismissed or fired from their positions for their misconduct.
Republicans increasingly receptive to Democrats’ demands
The hearing also came against the backdrop of DHS funding negotiations between the White House and Democrats. It remains unclear if any of the key demands that the Democrats raised, including banning agents from wearing masks, and obtaining a judicial warrant before entering a private property, will be in the final version of the bill.
But some Republicans like McCaul, who was the former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, echoed some of the demands that Democrats raised for law enforcement reform, including body cam installations, obtaining a warrant before entering a private property, and no roving patrol.
“The roving patrols should be down at the border, not in our major cities,” he said during the hearing.
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