Rodney Scott, Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Joseph Edlow, Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and Todd Lyons, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), look at a TV screen as they testify during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., Tuesday. AFP-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — Democrats in the U.S. Congress pressed President Donald Trump's top immigration officials on Tuesday over the Republican president's crackdown, the first such hearing since two U.S. citizens were killed in Minnesota amid mounting opposition to Trump’s mass deportation push.
The officials — the highest-ranking at three agencies overseeing immigration enforcement and legal immigration — faced repeated criticism from Democrats on the committee after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Trump escalated his aggressive immigration enforcement push in Minneapolis in January, leading to clashes between masked immigration officers and residents opposed to broad immigration sweeps that have picked up many people with no criminal record, including families and children.
Top Trump officials swiftly portrayed Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” and aggressors after they were killed by federal immigration officers, but video evidence contradicted those statements. The fallout over the killing became a tipping point for Democrats after months of intensifying immigration enforcement and led them to hold up funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in January, agreeing to a short-term funding extension that expires on Friday.
Democrats say ICE must be reformed and have demanded they remove masks, wear body cameras and prioritize enforcement to focus on criminal offenders.
U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, a Republican, called for a full investigation into the killings of the two U.S. citizens in Minnesota in opening remarks, a departure from Trump officials who blamed Good and Pretti.
"There must be a complete and impartial investigation," said Garbarino, who represents a district on Long Island in New York. "I expect each of our witnesses to keep this committee fully informed as the investigations run their course ... While these investigations are ongoing, officials and elected leaders cannot rush to judgment."
Source: Korea Times News
