Top immigration agency officials appear before Congress

The heads of US immigration agencies began appearing before Congress on Tuesday after the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis sparked widespread protests against the campaign of removals ordered by the Trump administration.

Amid the outrage sparked by those deaths, President Trump admitted that a "softer touch" in immigration policy may be necessary. Later, the administration announced measures such as the withdrawal of some 700 immigration agents deployed in Minnesota, reducing the deployment from a peak of nearly 2,700 to around 2,000.

But the issue is far from resolved: Democrats are calling for changes to the way the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducts its raids, while the Trump administration insists on keeping its promise to deport undocumented migrants.

Historically low levels

Before the Homeland Security Committee of the House of Representatives, the heads of three DHS agencies defended the Trump administration's record.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Director Rodney Scott stressed that the Republican leader has succeeded in bringing irregular migrant entries into the United States to historically low levels.

"CBP spent the last year rebuilding what was an intentionally broken border," Scott declared in a criticism of former Democratic President Joe Biden's immigration policy. In statements reported by AFP, the official also added that "the United States... enjoys the most secure border in our nation's history."

"The president has tasked us with mass deportation, and we are fulfilling that mandate," said Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Thanks to the resources provided by Congress, we are ramping up detention (capacity) and removal flights daily. In the last year alone, we conducted over 475,000 removals," he added.

Questions about violence in raids

These appearances come as Republicans and Democrats negotiate DHS funding, the only point still pending in the budget deal reached last week that brought an end to a three-day partial federal government shutdown.

After the speeches by immigration officials, lawmakers moved on to questions focused on the violence exercised by federal agents during raids, especially in the wake of the deaths of the two protesters in Minneapolis.

When Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell asked Tuesday if Lyons would apologize to Good and Pretti's families over the Trump administration's initial description of them as "domestic terrorists," he declined, saying he would not comment on active investigations.