Top immigration officials are set to testify on Tuesday at a congressional hearing in which they are likely to face sharp questions about the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement operation in Minnesota.
The heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services are expected to testify. The hearing comes more than two months after the Trump administration began an immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region that drew criticism for sweeping up people without criminal records and after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.
The hearing also comes as lawmakers are negotiating over what restrictions, if any, should be placed on immigration enforcement operations. Democrats have said they will not support any bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security unless it imposes new restrictions and guardrails on federal immigration agents, a position that hardened after federal officers killed Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, on Jan. 24.
Lawmakers have been locked in a stalemate for weeks over the negotiations, with Republicans rejecting most of Democrats’ demands. If Congress does not reach a deal, funding for the department will lapse on Saturday.
Representative Andrew Garbarino, Republican of New York and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, formally requested that the immigration officials testify in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Pretti’s killing. His death came about two weeks after an ICE officer shot Renee Good in Minneapolis.
“Transparency and communication are needed to turn the temperature down,” Mr. Garbarino said in a statement announcing the hearing last month.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE; Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; and Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are also set to testify before the Senate on Thursday.
Outrage over the Minnesota operation intensified last month after Mr. Pretti was killed during an encounter with federal agents. Even some Republicans who favor President Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement criticized the administration’s operation and said federal officials should consider pulling agents out of Minneapolis.
Clashes between protesters and immigration officers have been frequent since the Minnesota operation began. Protesters have blown whistles, honked car horns and shouted profanities at immigration agents. Federal officers have deployed pepper spray and responded violently at times, shattering car windows and tackling people to the ground.
Some immigrants who are lawfully in the country have also been targeted. At least 100 refugees with no criminal record were arrested in Minnesota by immigration officers and flown to detention centers in Texas for interviews, according to lawyers, family members and faith leaders. In late January, a federal judge ordered federal agents to stop detaining and deporting refugees in the state who were lawfully admitted to the country, and to immediately release those currently held.
Tuesday’s hearing comes after the Trump administration scaled back its operation in Minnesota last week, pulling 700 officers from the region. Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said that roughly 2,000 officers and agents remain in the state.
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Democrat, said that the reduction in officers was “a step in the right direction” but did not go far enough, and that the operation “needs to end immediately.”
The Department of Homeland Security said the operation had resulted in more than 4,000 arrests, which it said included murderers, gang members and sex offenders. The department has not detailed how many of those people had criminal convictions.
Madeleine Ngo covers immigration and economic policy for The Times.
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