Leaders of three immigration agencies will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on Feb. 10, Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) announced on Tuesday.
The committee will hear from Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow.
Garbarino said in a statement, “Transparency and communication are needed to turn the temperature down.” The hearing announcement said the testimony will “provide an opportunity to conduct oversight of each agency and ensure they are fulfilling their duty” to protect the United States, as stated in the Department of Homeland Security’s “core mission.”
The hearing comes after the death of Alex Pretti, who was shot by a Border Patrol agent while immigration officials were conducting operations in Minneapolis. His death, which happened Saturday, came just a few weeks after the fatal shooting of another Minnesota resident, Renee Good, by an ICE officer. Both Good and Pretti were U.S. citizens, but Trump officials have insisted their deaths were due to their interference with federal law enforcement.
Both Democrats and Republicans have condemned the deaths, with several members of both parties calling for an independent investigation into the situation. A handful have also called on the administration to reassess its tactics when enforcing immigration laws, including creating a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants to avoid the increasing number of conflicts between protesters and officials.
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In addition to appearing before the committee, Lyons was ordered by a federal judge in Minnesota to appear in court on Friday for a hearing on the detention of Juan Tobay Robles.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) was invited to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 10 for a separate hearing on state-wide fraud allegations in Minnesota, but he requested more time, according to the committee’s spokesperson. The spokesperson said he was “willing to testify” but needed additional time to prepare a testimony, “citing the ongoing unrest in Minnesota that his own decisions and rhetoric have helped fuel.”