In a mostly soporific Tuesday House Homeland Committee hearing called amid the widespread public outcry over Customs and Border Protection agents’ killing of Alex Pretti, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) managed to set the whole room astir.
She asked acting ICE Chief Todd Lyons whether he’s religious, reacting with surprise when he responded that he is.
“How do you think Judgment Day will work for you, with so much blood on your hands?” she asked.
“I’m not gonna entertain that question, ma’am,” he responded, shaking his head.
“Of course not,” McIver retorted, then: “Do you think you’re going to hell, Mr. Lyons?” she asked, prompting an audible reaction in the room.
Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) jumped in at that point, reminding McIver of hearing decorum rules.
“You guys are always talking about religion here and the Bible, I mean it’s okay for me to ask a question right?” she said, quipping: “But let me continue on, I got your notes.”
“How many government agencies, Mr. Lyons, are you aware of that routinely kill American citizens and still get funding?” she asked.
He wouldn’t answer.
McIver was indicted by the Trump Justice Department for allegedly assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers following her May 2025 attempt to conduct oversight at a New Jersey detention center. McIver was one of a handful of other elected Democrats trying to tour the center at the time. Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was also arrested on trespassing claims, but the Justice Department later dropped the charges against him. McIver has pleaded not guilty, citing congressional immunity.
The exchange between McIver and Lyons was one of the few tense moments in a hearing dominated by Republicans expressing support for the agency and Democrats rehashing now-famous news stories of ICE abuses.
Very few Republicans expressed criticism of ICE and CBP; the most, still very mild, pushback came from Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) and Gabe Evans (R-CO), swing-district frontliners who are both running for reelection. Evans asked what he should tell his documented, Hispanic constituents who are worried; Mackenzie pressed Lyons (lightly) on detentions of American citizens.
In one chilling moment, Lyons praised the ICE agents who took five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos.
“The officers who actually placed him in one of our vehicles played his favorite song, his favorite music, then they took him to McDonalds,” Lyons said.
“You all got him McDonalds?!” Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC) asked in delighted astonishment. “You all did not abduct him, you did not use him as bait — any characterization of that is a lie.”
Here’s Liam Conejo Ramos’ father this week to MPR News: “The truth is, he’s not the same boy he was before. Ever since he went in there, he’s suffered psychological trauma; he’s very scared. He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’”
This is the way. Hold them up to a mirror every chance you get.
Good on Rep. McIver.
It’s past time the right’s sanctimoniousness got turned back on them.
But the soundbite that will be played from the last exchange was that they took Liam to McDonalds and that will make everything alright.
ICE is the Republican Party’s ‘dream team’.
An anonymous, unaccountable instrument of domestic tyranny.
A force of brutes meant to cement tyrannical power over the political opposition and erase the 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments of the Constitution. It’s no coincidence that ICE uses masks, like Middle Ages hangmen and executioners. Faceless, nameless agents of fear and terror.
Ice usually floats on top of the water. But ICE is the scum of society at the bottom of the pond. And the Trump minions have given them money and guns and turned them loose on American society. If you know history, you know what’s next.