House Hearing Will Show How Far Republicans Go in Uneasiness over ICE Killings

UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 11: Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., ranking member Rep. Bennie Thom... UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 11: Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, attend the House Homeland Security Committee hearing titled "Worldwide Threats to the Homeland," in Cannon building on Wednesday, December 11, 2025. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Michael Glasheen, operations director, National Security Branch, FBI, and Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, testified. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) MORE LESS

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Tuesday’s hearing is one of the first chances congressional Republicans will have to back up their tweets and statements expressing discomfort with agents’ highly publicized killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

House Republicans are hardly united in those disavowals, and some of the President’s most steadfast supporters will certainly express full-throated support of the administration’s actions. But House Homeland Security chair Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) called the hearing amid the outpouring of disgust after the Pretti killing, suggesting that at least some members might break with the party line.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow are set to testify.

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  1. CBP Commissioner Scott even said that agents should “not be put at personal risk” while enforcing the law

    Same holds true for citizens, legal residents, observers, peaceful protesters and bystanders who are not identified as targets of immigration enforcement. No?

  2. Rep Veronica Escobar is the Democratic representative from El Paso, TX, she is NOT a Republican as you noted.

  3. You know, the Democrats are utterly failing to hit the simple, low-hanging fruit here.

    “You say it’s not appropriate to refer to your agencies as secret police, is that correct?”
    [The answer will be yes.]
    “You won’t commit to unmasking your officers. Does that make their identities public, or secret?”
    "You oppose the use of apps for organizing protests before police actions begin. So are you saying you’d prefer the locations of planned police actions should be public, or secret?

    We all know what the answers will be.

    “Given your clear preference for police operations and identities to remain a secret, do you still maintain this is not a ‘secret police’?”

  4. Avatar for RAP RAP says:

    A pretty consistent theme Scott, Lyons and plenty of House Republicans seemed to hit on for why any ICE actions of concern were necessary is that state and local law enforcement weren’t assisting (some might say, aiding and abetting) ICE.

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