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How the head of ICE responded to questions in Congress over Trump's immigration policies

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How the head of ICE responded to questions in Congress over Trump's immigration policies
News

News

How the head of ICE responded to questions in Congress over Trump's immigration policies

2026-02-11 07:07 Last Updated At:07:21

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's top immigration officials appeared before Congress Tuesday for the first time since the shooting deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis, seeking to defend their officers' actions as their agencies face intensifying scrutiny over nationwide immigration enforcement operations.

Todd Lyons, who is the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, came in for some of the sharpest questioning during a more than 3-hour-long hearing in front of the House Homeland Security Committee. He appeared alongside Rodney Scott, who heads Customs and Border Protection, and Joseph Edlow, who leads U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Lawmakers asked them about issues that have dominated the public discourse since Trump launched his mass deportations agenda at the start of his second term. Here are some of their answers.

Lyons and Scott faced scrutiny over the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti but they repeatedly declined to answer questions, citing active investigations.

Lyons was asked if he would apologize for the way some Trump administration officials characterized Good as an agitator, which he declined to do.

“I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private. But I’m not going to comment on any active investigation,” Lyons said.

Lyons said he had seen the video that captured Pretti's shooting but said he could not comment because of the ongoing investigation.

Democrats painted masked officers as lawless and unaccountable. Republicans said masks are needed to protect officers from doxing.

Asked if he would commit to making his officers take off their masks and requiring them to wear “standard uniforms with identifiable badges," Lyons answered with one word: “No.”

Lyons has said repeatedly that he supports officers who feel that they need to wear masks to protect their identities and their families.

Lyons and Scott said thousands of federal immigration officers are already outfitted with body cameras, with more to come.

Lyons said the body camera footage caught in Minneapolis would be released to the public.

“That’s one thing that I’m committed to is full transparency. And I fully welcome body cameras all across the spectrum in all of our law enforcement activities,” Lyons said.

The case of Liam Conejo Ramos, who was wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack while he was surrounded by immigration officers, has sparked controversy over the administration’s crackdown in Minnesota.

The boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who originally is from Ecuador, were detained in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20.

Asked about the case, Lyons denied that the boy was used as bait to get one of the parents out of the house, as neighbors and school officials have alleged.

“He was obviously upset. We comforted him. The officers actually placed him in one of our vehicles, played his favorite song, favorite music. Then they took him to McDonald’s,” Lyons said.

The congressional hearing took place in the shadow of a looming government shutdown that would only affect the Department of Homeland Security.

Democrats are threatening to block funding for the department when it expires unless there are more restraints for ICE and other law enforcement agencies carrying out Trump’s federal immigration agenda.

Republican Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi blamed Democrats for a possible shutdown and asked the agency heads whether such a shutdown would make the country less safe. They all answered that it would.

“It will have a great impact,” said Lyons. He said a shutdown would particularly harm the department’s task forces on transnational crimes and terrorism.

Lyons was asked if he would agree to pausing ICE operations during this year’s FIFA World Cup.

A Democratic lawmaker said visitors were concerned by ICE’s tactics. But Lyons declined to commit to a pause.

“ICE is dedicated to ensuring that everyone that visits the facilities will have a safe and secure event,” Lyons said.

With Trump’s call for the federal government to “take over” elections, the ranking member of the committee, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, asked the officials to answer if they are involved in any efforts to guard voting precincts, with the midterms set for later this year.

“You’ve not been asked to start deploying people for areas anywhere?” Thompson asked.

Lyon and Scott each replied, “No, sir.”

From left: Rodney Scott, Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, (CBP) Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Todd Lyons, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) testify during a House Committee on Homeland Security oversight hearing of the Department of Homeland Security: ICE CBP and USCIS, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

From left: Rodney Scott, Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, (CBP) Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Todd Lyons, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) testify during a House Committee on Homeland Security oversight hearing of the Department of Homeland Security: ICE CBP and USCIS, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) testifies during a House Committee on Homeland Security oversight hearing of the Department of Homeland Security: ICE CBP and USCIS, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

Todd Lyons, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) testifies during a House Committee on Homeland Security oversight hearing of the Department of Homeland Security: ICE CBP and USCIS, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI relied on years-old claims of fraud, many of them thoroughly investigated, to obtain a search warrant to seize ballots from election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, according to an affidavit unsealed Tuesday that shows the investigation began with a referral from an administration official who tried to help President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss.

The affidavit provides the first public justification for an FBI search last month that targeted a county Trump and his allies have long seen as central to their false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. It cites claims that for years have been made by people who assert widespread fraud in the contest even though audits, state officials, courts and Trump's own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the outcome.

The investigation was initiated by a referral from Kurt Olsen, who served as Trump’s 2020 campaign lawyer when it lost dozens of lawsuits challenging the election and now serves as an administration official overseeing the attempt to investigate Trump’s loss, according to the affidavit.

The search of the heavily Democratic county stirred immediate concerns among Democrats that Trump was marshaling the powers of the FBI and Justice Department to pursue retribution over his persistent claims of a stolen election and because of the unusual presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the country's director of national intelligence. The affidavit makes no mention of any evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election even though the possibility of such meddling has been a longstanding conspiracy theory among Trump supporters who question the vote count.

Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia by about 11,800 votes in an election overseen by a Republican secretary of state and certified by a Republican governor.

Georgia officials fighting in court for the return of the ballots have decried the search, with Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts on Tuesday calling the allegations “recycled rumors, lies, untruths and unproven conspiracy theories.”

“These accusations have already been debunked, but here we go again on a merry-go-round,” Pitts said. “Fulton County will fight. We’ll fight this with every resource that’s at our disposal and we will not stop fighting.”

The affidavit says the FBI is examining possible “deficiencies or defects” in the Fulton County vote count, including its admission that it does not have scanned images of all the ballots counted during the original count or the recount. Fulton County has also confirmed that some ballots were scanned multiple times during the recount, the affidavit says.

“If these deficiencies were the result of intentional action, it would be a violation of federal law regardless of whether the failure to retain records or the deprivation of a fair tabulation of a vote was outcome determinative for any particular election or race,” the document says.

The affidavit says seizure of the election records was necessary to determine whether any records "were destroyed and or the tabulation of votes included materially false votes.” It cites potential violations of a law regarding the preservation and retention of election records, a misdemeanor. It also cites a law that makes it a crime to “knowingly and willfully” deprive residents of a “fair and impartially conducted election process,” which is a felony.

But the document also expresses uncertainty about whether the potential defects constitute a crime, noting that elections in Fulton County have already been the subject of multiple reviews.

Investigations into complaints by the secretary of state’s office, an independent monitor and a performance review by the state elections board, which came at the urging of the Republican-controlled legislature, reached similar conclusions.

After a particularly disastrous primary election in 2020, an independent monitor was hired to observe the general election that year as part of an agreement between the county and the State Election Board. He documented “sloppy processes” and “systemic disorganization” but found no evidence of illegality or fraud.

Republican state lawmakers in 2021 used a provision of a new law to initiate a performance review of the county’s election practices. That review found that the county’s elections had been characterized by “disorganization and a lack of a sense of urgency in resolving issues.” But it also found the county had shown marked improvement.

According to the affidavit, the review board stated, “we do not see any evidence of fraud, intentional misconduct, or large systematic issues that would have affected the result of the November 2020 election.”

One of the central allegations is that someone inserted 17,852 “duplicate” ballot images into the Fulton County file. But the affidavit quotes one witness as noting that those potentially fake images were actually more pro-Trump than the confirmed Fulton County votes. This indicated to the witness, the affidavit states, “that the introduction of duplicate ballots was intended to make the recount numbers match more than to affect the outcome of the election.”

That was a similar conclusion as that of investigators with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, the affidavit adds, saying the Republican-run office found the error “not intentional misconduct.”

Another allegation focuses on “pristine” absentee ballots that an unnamed poll manager said she saw when the ballots were counted by hand. She said the ballots were not folded as they would have been if they were put in an envelope, felt different from the other ballots and were all filled in the same, the affidavit says.

A former official with the secretary of state’s office told the FBI that there would be unfolded absentee ballots in every election because they would be generated by vote review panel members when they examined damaged ballots.

Investigators with the secretary of state’s office looked into claims of pristine ballots in 2021, pulling boxes and batches identified by a woman who had worked as an auditor during the hand count, and found no evidence to support her claims.

Agents armed with a warrant spent hours on Jan. 28 at the county elections hub, just south of Atlanta, before driving off with trucks loaded with hundreds of cartons of election materials.

A week after the seizure, Fulton County officials filed a motion seeking the return of the materials that had been taken and the unsealing of the sworn statement presented to the judge who signed off on the search. The warrant sought the seizure of the following documents related to the 2020 election in the county: all ballots, tabulator tapes from the scanners that tally the votes, electronic ballot images created when the ballots were counted and then recounted, and all voter rolls.

“Claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent or otherwise invalid have been exhaustively reviewed and, without exception, refuted,” the county argued in a court filing.

Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, left, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, enter a command vehicle as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, left, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, enter a command vehicle as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

An FBI employee stands inside the Fulton County Election HUB as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

An FBI employee stands inside the Fulton County Election HUB as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Equipment is loaded into a truck inside the Fulton County Election HUB as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Equipment is loaded into a truck inside the Fulton County Election HUB as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, is seen Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta, as FBI agents search at the main election facility. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, is seen Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta, as FBI agents search at the main election facility. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

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