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The Situation Room
Congress Grills Immigration Officials. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired February 10, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Because state and locals will not cooperate with federal law enforcement.
In fact, Mr. Lyons, is it not true that they were not honoring ICE detainers that were put on dangerous felons in prison so that you could remove them from the United States?
TODD LYONS, ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: That is correct, sir. The detainers were not honored at the local level in Minneapolis.
MCCAUL: This is the number one violation. In addition, the rhetoric on the left led to over 1000 percent increase in assault on ICE officers, an increase of over 8,000 of death threats to them.
All this created a perfect storm for our officers being thrown into this situation. And then agent Bovino came into the picture, and I would argue, in fairness, that he escalated the situation by the way that was handled.
Your officers are not trained to effectuate crowd control. They are trained to move in surgically, go in and remove these dangerous, violent criminals from the United States of America.
I have called for de-escalation after the two deaths, the two shootings that took place. I believe that these roving patrols should be done at the border, rather than in the major cities of the United States.
So when the president decided to remove agent Bovino and put in Tom Homan, who I have known for years, a consummate professional, law enforcement professional, I commended the president. And what has been done since Mr. Homan came into the job?
We now have targeted law enforcement operations. He is returning to the original mission of ICE. He is working with state and locals to do the crowd control. He is getting them to honor the ICE detainers. He is also getting the body cameras put on them.
And the roving patrols, in his words to me, should be done at the border, not in major cities. My question to you, Mr. Lyons, is Mr. Homan now, are his operations in Minneapolis now bringing the situation under control? LYONS: So we have seen a de-escalation, in the fact that the
protests, while they still go on, have subsided and ICE has been allowed to do their targeted intelligence-driven enforcement operation.
Just the other night, local authorities arrested 54 protesters at the local level where ICE officers did not have to be engaged in that.
MCCAUL: My final question, do you believe the model that Mr. Homan is now setting in Minneapolis should be a model for the nation?
REP. ANDREW GARBARINO (R-NY): The gentleman's time has expired.
MCCAUL: If he -- I could allow the witness...
GARBARINO: I understand that, but I'm holding it to the five minutes.
MCCAUL: I like on the record an answer, Mr. Chairman. Do you agree that Mr. Homan's model is one for the nation?
GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.
MCCAUL: Yes or no?
GARBARINO: I now recognize a gentleman from California, Mr. Swalwell, for five minutes.
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): A couple nights ago, I met with a woman who works as a cashier at a grocery store, and I told her I was coming to see you, Mr. Lyons, and she said: "Will you ask him" -- and she didn't want to give her name. She was terrified to give her name.
But she said: "When I get off my shift around midnight and I walk through the parking lot to my car, she said, if somebody rolls up in an unidentified van and gets out wearing all black and their face is covered and they don't have any identification, and they ask me to get into the van, how do I know who they are?"
How does she know, Mr. Lyons? How does she know if they're an ICE agent or bad guys?
LYONS: Sir, ICE agents have identified placards on their uniforms as well as their badges, Representative, but you won't see ICE agents rolling through the parking lots and just snatching someone up.
ICE does intelligence-driven, targeted enforcement operations.
SWALWELL: Well, Mr. Homan and others have said that they target individuals based on the color of their skin and the accents that they speak, and that's why people are running through the fields and factories where they work.
Director Lyons, last year you said in Phoenix at the border security expo that you wanted to see a deportation process that was like -- quote -- "Amazon Prime but with human beings."
Mr. Lyons, how many times does Amazon Prime shot a mom three times in the face?
LYONS: None, sir, but you're also...
SWALWELL: It's the square root of zero, that's right.
LYONS: Yes, sir. But if we're going to go down that route of my comment, I did say that comment. However, that comment was taken out -- if you go back and watch the video, I did say that we need to be more efficient when it comes to removing individuals from the United States because ICE doesn't detain punitively.
We detain to remove. I don't want to see people in custody. At the end of my statement was -- and, again, to your point, it was a industry day for A.I. and efficiencies, but I did say at the end of it, but we deal with human beings so we can't be like them.
[11:05:06]
SWALWELL: And speaking of human...
LYONS: That's the key part that you're leaving out.
SWALWELL: Well, speaking of human beings, how many times has Amazon Prime shot a nurse 10 times in the back?
LYONS: None.
SWALWELL: How many times has Amazon Prime dragged a woman out of her car by her hair and then dragged her down the street?
LYONS: None.
SWALWELL: How many ICE agents have been fired for their conduct under your leadership?
LYONS: Sir, I can get you that data. I will get that back to you.
SWALWELL: Is it more than one?
LYONS: I'm not going to speak about personnel actions, but I will get you that data.
SWALWELL: Can you tell us if at least -- God, I hope at least one person has been fired for their conduct since these operations have begun. Are you telling us you can't even say one person's been fired?
LYONS: Sir, I'm not going to talk about personal actions, but we will get back to you.
SWALWELL: But two people have been killed so far. Is that right, a nurse named Pretti and a mom named Good? Two people have been killed so far?
LYONS: Yes, sir.
SWALWELL: Mr. Lyons, will you apologize to the family of Renee Good for being called a domestic terrorist by the president and his leadership?
LYONS: No, sir.
SWALWELL: Why not?
LYONS: Sir, I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private, but I'm not going to comment on any active investigation.
SWALWELL: Is she a domestic terrorist?
LYONS: Sir, I'm not going to comment on the investigation. And the president and Secretary Noem, our elected officials, that's their right to their comments.
But, as law enforcement, career law enforcement, we won't speak to any...
SWALWELL: Do you agree with their comments?
LYONS: Sir, I'm not going to go ahead and talk about any ongoing investigation.
SWALWELL: Will you apologize to the family of Alex Pretti for also being called a domestic terrorist?
LYONS: Sir, again, I'm not going to speak to any ongoing investigation.
SWALWELL: Mr. Lyons, you're staying to lead ICE is a decision.
LYONS: Sir, I'm sorry.
SWALWELL: Your staying on to lead ICE is a decision. And I have read your background. You have a decorated career. You have served in the military. You are what I would call otherwise employable.
I think most people would agree this is not the only job that you can get. But since you have been on this job, women have been dragged by their hair through our streets. A 6-year-old child battling stage four cancer has been deported. And it turns out he was a U.S. citizen.
People are running through the fields where they work. People who've gone to the streets as allies have been shot and publicly executed. It's a decision to stay on at this point.
And considering your honorable service in the past and the dishonorable acts that those who have worked for you have conducted and the disgraceful statements that the leadership above you have said, you now have a decision.
Will you stand with the kids who you're supposed to protect or will you side with the killers bringing terror to our streets?
Mr. Lyons, will you resign from ICE?
LYONS: No, sir, I won't. SWALWELL: Why not?
LYONS: Because, sir, that child that you're showing right there, the men and women of ICE took care of him when his father abandoned him in random law enforcement.
GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.
SWALWELL: He never should have gone into custody.
GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.
I recognize the gentleman from Mississippi.
SWALWELL: I yield back.
GARBARINO: ... Mr. Guest, for five minutes.
REP. MICHAEL GUEST (R-MS): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, we stand on the verge of a second Democrat shutdown of the United States Department of Homeland Security just within the last 90 days. The Department of Homeland Security employs 260,000 men and women across 22 different agencies.
Those agencies include 63,000 men and women who work for CBP, 60,000 who work for TSA, 22000 for FEMA, 18,000 who works for USCIS, almost 50,000 civilian and military employees with the United States Coast Guard, 7,800 Secret Service employees, 2,500 CISA employees, and over 8,000 agents and analysts with the Department of Homeland Security Investigation, who perform a crucial function, a crucial function to protect and serve this country.
This second government shutdown led by my friends on the Democrat side of the aisle will leave our country less safe. Don't just take my word for it. Let's look at the words of the Biden administration. President Biden and Kamala Harris's Department of Homeland Security in September of 2023, as the nation faced a potential government shutdown, they issued a fact sheet.
That fact sheet is entitled "the Impact of Government Shutdown on the DHS Work Force." This fact sheet says this. It says: "DHS work force is comprised of extraordinary public servants who safeguard this nation."
[11:10:09]
It goes on to say: "Any lapse in federal funding would disrupt this vital work, leaving Americans less safe as a result. Those working without pay include law enforcement, conducting such acts as seizing illegal narcotics like fentanyl, combating child exploitation and child predators, identifying and arresting human trafficking, responding to natural disasters, preventing cyberattacks, and protecting U.S. government leaders."
And so I ask you, gentlemen, as we are once again on the verge of a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, if the Democrats take us to the edge, if they refuse to sign a C.R., if once again the men and women who serve under your leadership, if they are once again not paid, I ask you, how will that impact our nation?
Will America be more safe, or will America be less safe if we are once again led into a government shutdown by the Democrat Party?
Mr. Scott?
RODNEY SCOTT, COMMISSIONER, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: I believe consistency and seeing support from the leadership of -- on both sides of this building and the president is very important to border security.
I think the rhetoric and the back-and-forth, the politicizing of law enforcement in general detracts from the general morale of our personnel.
GUEST: Is it not important that we pay the men and women who serve under your command?
SCOTT: It's critically important.
GUEST: And, in a government shutdown, the bills don't stop, do they not? The bills continue to accrue?
SCOTT: Correct.
GUEST: And the deployment of technology ceases in many cases, and America becomes less safe. Would you agree with that statement?
SCOTT: I would agree America becomes less safe.
Mr. Edlow, what about you?
JOSEPH EDLOW, DIRECTOR, U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES: Well, Congressman, as I'm sure you're aware, USCIS is a little different in that we are fee-funded, so during a shutdown, the men and women working for USCIS will continue to be paid.
However, in terms of our screening and vetting enterprises, as well as everything else we do, we have formed very, very strong working relationships with the other components, and that's critical for us to be able to do our work.
While we may be there able to continue without our partners being paid and with them being furloughed, it's going to make America significantly less safe.
GUEST: And Mr. Lyons?
LYONS: Yes, sir. It will have a great impact, especially on the Homeland Security task forces and the men and women that are focused on the transnational crime and foreign terrorist organizations.
GUEST: Mr. Lyons, very quickly, we have had many members of this committee who have made allegations that Democrats have once again taken the mantle of the party to defund the police and abolish ICE. Do you wish to take my last few seconds to speak about the consequences that has on the men and women that you serve?
LYONS: The men and women of ICE are sworn law enforcement officers who are dedicated to do the mission of protecting the United States.
GUEST: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
GARBARINO: The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize a gentleman from California, Mr. Correa for five minutes of questions.
REP. LOU CORREA (D-CA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to welcome our witnesses today.
Gentlemen, I wanted to start out by talking a little bit about my district, Southern California, Disneyland. Southern California is the center of manufacturing for the United States, California biggest (INAUDIBLE) state union, California also big donor taxpayer dollars to the United States.
President Trump got elected on the promise to deport the worst of the worst. Your numbers, Mr. Lyons, less than 14 percent of those arrested by ICE first year, 2025, had charges or convictions of violent -- violence; 70 percent of those deported had not even a traffic ticket.
Mr. Lyons, I think we're all patriots, but I'm trying to figure out how -- this is a question to you, sir -- how deporting a nanny makes our nation safer, stronger, how trying to deport the father of three Marines make this country stronger, how deporting the parents of a number of Marines at Camp Pendleton makes this nation stronger.
LYONS: Sir, thank you for your welcome, first off.
Just to address your -- the numbers with the 14 percent, sir, that's 14 percent that are listed as violent criminal felonies. However, what's left out of that is the fact that what's left off that list...
(CROSSTALK)
[11:15:00]
CORREA: Those 70 percent that don't have a traffic ticket deported, how has that made our nation stronger?
LYONS: Sir, if you look at what ICE has done, more than 60 percent of every individual that is in ICE custody has a pending or a conviction on a criminal charge, not to...
(CROSSTALK)
CORREA: Sir, let me move ahead. I only have three minutes and...
(CROSSTALK)
CORREA: ... talk later.
LYONS: Sure.
CORREA: Let's talk about American citizens, again, back home.
People, young people asking me, what do I have to carry with me so I won't be deported? Is -- Mr. Lyons, carrying a passport, is that enough so they won't be detained or deported in my district?
LYONS: Sir, an American citizen shouldn't carry or shouldn't feel the need to carry...
(CROSSTALK)
CORREA: Let me tell you what some of your ICE agents have done.
They pulled over a gentleman in a pickup truck, showed his passport, they threw it to the side, detained him. What do we have to do to show that we're American citizens? What do we...
LYONS: Sir, no American citizen falls onto Title 8. No American citizen will be arrested for being American citizen.
CORREA: But you just said to my colleague that nobody has been fired because of violations of the law for disciplinary actions, yet this is happening in my district.
Mr. Lyons, we're a very boring district. We work hard, mind our own business. ICE on our streets now. People are terrorized, American citizens, number of cases of Americans being detained, being taken in, some being held for five days.
Sir, what do we do with those people in that situation? What do we tell them?
LYONS: Sir, I don't know of any particular case that you're speaking of an American citizen being held.
CORREA: I'm more than happy to provide you a list, sir.
LYONS: One hundred percent, sir.
CORREA: So let me ask you, sir. Are you surveilling U.S. citizens today?
LYONS: No, sir.
CORREA: Those people protesting, practicing the First Amendment right, photos of them, they're not taken, they're not being placed in any kind of a database?
LYONS: There is no database for protesters, sir.
CORREA: One of your officers in Maine said to one of the individuals protesting: "We're going to put your face in the little database."
What does that mean? Do you have a little database of Americans?
LYONS: No, sir. No, sir, we don't.
CORREA: Then what do you think your ICE agent was doing to this individual when he said those statements?
LYONS: I can't speak for that individual, sir, but I can assure you there is no database that's tracking United States citizens.
CORREA: Sir, California, we're a sanctuary state. Does that cause you problem picking up individuals?
LYONS: Yes, sir.
CORREA: I have with me today some data from Sheriff Barnes, Orange County sheriff, very good friend. He's been here to testify a number of times.
For 2025, he referred about 300 individuals for your office to pick up; 250 were picked up; 50 were never picked up. We had a long conversation, saying, what is going on? If these are the worst of the worst, you have called ICE to pick them up and you didn't pick them up. Can you explain to us why you didn't pick up all these individuals that were referred to your office to pick up?
LYONS: Yes, sir. That's -- the key part of that is the referral. We make sure that those individuals are eligible to be placed in detention for movability.
(CROSSTALK)
CORREA: You never even looked at those individuals.
GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.
CORREA: I would like to talk to you about this issue later on, Mr. Lyons.
GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.
CORREA: Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
GARBARINO: I now recognize the gentleman from Texas.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, we're going to continue to monitor this very important hearing. You just heard Democratic Congressman Lou Correa ask the head of ICE some very, very important, serious questions.
We will continue our special coverage right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:23:26]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, let's dip back into this House Homeland Security Committee hearing with top immigration officials in the administration.
Right there is Texas Congressman and Republican August Pfluger. Let's listen in.
REP. AUGUST PFLUGER (R-TX): ... that you will have the courage to call it domestic terrorism if it is that way. And I yield back.
GARBARINO: the gentleman yields back.
And I now recognize the gentleman from Michigan Mr. Thanedar for five minutes of questions.
REP. SHRI THANEDAR (D-MI): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And good morning to our witnesses.
Commissioner Scott, did the ICU nurse Alex Pretti deserve to die?
SCOTT: I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation, sir.
THANEDAR: Do you believe that he deserved to die? Should he be killed by your agents?
SCOTT: I'm not going to comment on an ongoing investigation, sir, before it's concluded and all the facts are available.
THANEDAR: Do you agree with CBP Commander Bovino's statement that Alex Pretti was planning to massacre law enforcement agents?
SCOTT: I'm not going to comment on an ongoing investigation, sir.
THANEDAR: Director Lyons, did Renee Good deserve to die?
LYONS: Sir, I can't comment on ongoing investigations.
THANEDAR: Director Lyons, do you agree with Secretary Noem and Vice President Vance's characterization of Renee Good as a domestic terrorist?
[11:25:00]
LYONS: Sir, I can't speak to their comments, as they're their own, but as an ongoing investigation, I can't speak to that.
THANEDAR: Director Lyons, what did your agents mean when he said, "You raise your voice, I erase your voice" in the video just that we have seen, all of us have seen?
LYONS: Sir, I'm not aware of that video that you have, sir. I can't comment on what that officer said. THANEDAR: Does that statement, if that statement -- if I show you the video of that, does that statement reflect the value of your agency? And does ICE respect and adhere to the First Amendment?
LYONS: Yes, sir, ICE does respect and refer to the First Amendment, but that doesn't respect that -- your statement you said doesn't represent the values of the men and women of ICE.
THANEDAR: Commissioner Scott, does CBP respect and adhere to the First and Second Amendment?
SCOTT: Yes, we do.
THANEDAR: Don't you agree that Alex Pretti had every right to exercise his First and Second Amendment freedoms before being shot in the streets by one of your agents?
SCOTT: I believe every person in the United States has a right to their constitutional rights.
THANEDAR: Look, I have heard and seen enough.
I'm just sick and tired of your agents running around in our cities, in our streets causing illegal activities. ICE and CBP thugs are roaming our streets, attacking our communities, using our children as bait, referring to people as bodies and numbers, targeting people for their accents and the color of their skin, and killing American citizens, all while showing zero remorse for their actions.
Director Lyons and Commissioner Scott, do you think President Trump will pardon you and your boss, Kristi Noem, before he leaves office, just like he has for insurrectionists and his political allies? Do you believe President Trump will pardon you?
(CROSSTALK)
THANEDAR: Because -- go ahead.
SCOTT: I'm not going to speak on behalf of President Trump, but I will tell you, I signed up for this job to protect America, and I'm very proud of the service that I provide, and I don't need a pardon from anybody.
THANEDAR: Well, you better hope so. You better hope you get -- being pardoned, because you will be held accountable for the absolute disregard of the law your agencies have shown over the past year.
Your agencies have lost the trust of the American people, with millions taking to the streets to protect (sic) the illegal actions of your agencies. And that's why I introduced a bill in the United States Congress to abolish ICE.
ICE must be abolished. I also co-sponsored a bill to impeach Secretary Kristi Noem, and I believe Kristi Noem must be impeached and this Congress must do everything in its power to carry out oversight actions against these rogue departments, including... GARBARINO: The gentleman's time has expired.
A witness has requested a break. The committee will recess for five minutes. Members of the audience will remain seated.
BLITZER: All right, more tough questioning for the immigration officials testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee.
We're going to continue to monitor this important hearing. Much more coming up right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
