Top immigration officials to testify in Senate

Several top Department of Homeland Security immigration (DHS) officials have agreed to publicly testify in the Senate next month. 

The Heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) agreed to a request from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to testify in the upper chamber on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the lawmaker demanded they appear. 

Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, credited DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for the swift response. 

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“Update: All three have agreed to testify on Thursday, February 12,” Paul said on X. “Thank you to [Noem] for making this happen.”

Their agreement to appear before the Senate panel comes at a turbulent time for the agency and Noem following the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during immigration operations in Minneapolis, Minn. 

Those shootings, and broader ICE and DHS actions in states across the country, have mobilized Senate Democrats to reject funding the agency. 

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Paul on Monday demanded in three separate letters to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, that they appear before his committee. He noted DHS had received “an exceptional amount of funding to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.”

The lawmaker’s demand was not specifically geared toward the shootings, but rather the billions in funding that Republicans approved under President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” last year. 

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“Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of those tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish the mission, provide proper support for our law enforcement, and, most importantly, protect the American people,” Paul wrote to each immigration head. 

Still, Senate Democrats on the committee are likely to pepper the trio with questions on the agency’s actions across the country in the wake of the fatal shootings. 

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And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus are currently gearing up to thrust the government into yet another shutdown, in their bid to strip the DHS funding bill from the broader, six-bill funding package making its way through the Senate. 

Republicans, however, aren’t keen on relenting, given that the deadline to fund the government is Friday, and any modifications to the package would throw a procedural wrench into keeping the lights on in Washington, D.C.