In separate but identical letters dated January 24, 2026, Committee Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino invited ICE’s Senior Official Performing the Duties of Director, Todd M. Lyons, and CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott to testify before the committee at the earliest possible date.
The House Committee on Homeland Security has formally asked the heads of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to appear before Congress for an oversight hearing on border security and immigration enforcement.
In separate but identical letters dated January 24, 2026, Committee Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino invited ICE’s Senior Official Performing the Duties of Director, Todd M. Lyons, and CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott to testify before the committee at the earliest possible date.
According to the letters, committee staff initially extended the invitation on January 15, but the January 24 correspondence was issued to formally document, or “memorialize,” the request.
The hearing will focus on oversight of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) components responsible for border security and immigration enforcement.
Garbarino asked both officials to confirm their availability for any of six proposed hearing dates: February 10 or 24, March 4 or 5, or March 17 or 18, with all sessions scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Citing Rules X and XI of the U.S. House of Representatives, the chairman emphasized the committee’s jurisdiction over homeland security matters, including its authority to oversee “all Government activities relating to homeland security, including the interaction of all departments and agencies with the Department of Homeland Security.”
The letters direct the ICE and CBP leadership to coordinate with the committee’s majority staff to confirm attendance. While the correspondence does not specify the issues to be addressed at the hearing, it comes amid heightened scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement operations and broader DHS activities.
On Saturday, another U.S. citizen was shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in what authorities confirmed as the latest fatal incident linked to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement operations in the city.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters that the victim, a 37-year-old man, died in the hospital on Saturday after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds.
He confirmed that the deceased was a Minneapolis resident and a US citizen.
The man was later identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse.
The killing occurred amid a weeks-long deployment of immigration enforcement and other federal agents to Minneapolis, where raids have intensified as part of Trump’s anti-immigration push.
The city has also witnessed daily protests following the January 7 shooting of another 37-year-old resident, Renee Good, who was killed after an ICE officer fired into her vehicle.
US security operatives also shot a Venezuelan man in a separate incident in Minneapolis last week.
Reacting to Saturday’s killing, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described the federal operation as a campaign of violence.
“This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement,” Walz said at a news conference in Saint Paul. “It’s a campaign of organised brutality against the people of our state. And today, that campaign claimed another life.”
Walz added that Minnesota would handle the investigation into Pretti’s death.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, claimed that a Border Patrol agent shot a person who had a handgun and resisted efforts to be disarmed.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the agent fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached officers and “violently resisted” when they attempted to disarm him. Federal officials said the agent involved is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran.
President Trump responded on social media, attacking Governor Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Sharing images of a gun that immigration officials said was recovered at the scene, Trump wrote, “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
Trump further accused the Democratic governor and mayor of “inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric”.
However, bystander videos circulating online contradict the official narrative.
In the footage, Pretti is seen standing in the street filming federal agents with his mobile phone. One agent appears to deploy pepper spray at Pretti and other protesters. As Pretti tries to block the spray and assist others, several agents wrestle him to the ground and strike him repeatedly on the head and body.
While agents pin him to the ground, one officer draws a weapon and multiple shots are fired. Pretti’s body is later seen lying motionless in the street.