Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by immigration agents in Chicago, testifies during a public forum on the employ of force by Department of Homeland Security officers at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 3, 2026 in Washington, DC. She also testified at an official congressional hearing on April 22, 2026. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Nearly all Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee failed to show up Wednesday for a hearing called by Democrats to highlight President Donald Trump’s aggressive tactics in his mass deportation campaign that are trapping U.S. citizens.
It was a scarce full committee hearing that Democrats were allowed to hold because of Minority Day in the House.
Democrats used the opportunity to call witnesses who are U.S. citizens and who were injured or, in some cases, shot by federal immigration agents. Lawmakers also focused on two U.S. citizens killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis: Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
After the deadly shootings in January, Democrats refused to approve additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, leading to the Department of Homeland Security being shuttered since mid-February.
“Under President Trump, ICE and CBP cold-bloodedly killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti and shot, beat, harassed, arrested or detained countless other innocent people,” said the committee’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. “Congress cannot stand idly by while Americans are hurt and killed by their own government.”
Democrats also invited Trump officials tasked with crafting and implementing the president’s immigration agenda: Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, and Tom Homan, the border czar.
Neither Miller nor Homan showed up. The White House did not respond to questions from the State newsroom regarding Miller or Homan’s absence from the hearing.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson blamed Democrats for “keeping the Department of Homeland Security closed and not caring that vital services — like TSA, FEMA and ICE — were unfunded.”
“Instead of lying about President Trump’s highly successful deportation operations of criminal illegal immigrants, House Democrats should fully reopen the Department of Homeland Security and stop prioritizing illegal immigrants over American citizens,” Jackson said.
Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino called Wednesday’s hearing “a distraction from the fact that DHS has been closed for over 65 days and the security implications are real.”
Garbarino, a New York Republican, and the other Republican lawmakers on the committee did not ask any questions of any of the witnesses.
Americans under attack
Americans harmed by federal immigration agents include:
- Marimar Martinez, a preschool worker from Chicago who is a border patrol agent shot five times.
- Rev. David Black, ICE officer shot in the face with pepper ball bullets while protesting outside a detention center in Illinois.
- George Retes Jr., an Army veteran in California who was arrested by immigration agents on his way to work, tear-gassed, and detained for three days.
- Ryan Ecklund, a real estate agent in Minnesota Federal agents arrested after filming her in a grocery store.
Martinez has appeared before Congress at unofficial Democratic events in the past share their story about how she was shot five times on October 4th Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum.
DHS shared her photo onlineShe falsely claimed she rammed her car into the border patrol and called her a domestic terrorist. The Trump administration tried to indict her on federal charges but ultimately dismissed the case against her.
“On Friday I was teaching the little children at the Montessori school and we were singing and dancing and getting ready for spooky season and preparing fall activities for the following week, and on Saturday my own government called me a ‘domestic terrorist’ and I was in a federal prison with bullet holes all over my body,” she told the committee. “There were times when I didn’t believe it was all real, and then I touched my bullet wounds and knew it was real for sure.”
She said she was worried that other people like Pretti and Good would be shot by immigration officials.
“This will happen sooner or later if we don’t hold these agents accountable for their actions,” she said.
No excuse
After the two fatal shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, leaders of ICE and CBP appeared before the Senate and House committees that oversee DHS.
During their stay, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and Acting ICE Chief Todd Lyons refused to apologize to Good and Pretti’s families. Lyons announced his retirement at the end of May, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
The aggressive campaign to deport immigrants in Minneapolis, where there are many Somali refugees, also sparked calls from Republicans to force then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign. She resigned last month after Senate Republicans she grilled via an advertising campaign and tardy response to providing disaster relief.
The President tapped Former Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin will lead the department. The Senate last month confirmed Mullin.
One of the witnesses, Retes, said his goal is for Congress to pass legislation to hold federal immigration officials accountable.
“Federal officials generally cannot be sued,” Retes said. “Federal agents generally enjoy immunity.”
He added that he wants Congress to take action and expressed frustration that “change is not moving fast enough.”
Ecklund criticized federal officials at DHS, pointing out the irony of the department’s unofficial slogan of pursuing “the worst of the worst” in immigration enforcement.
“‘Your best’ and ‘DHS’s best’ is the least the American public deserves,” he said. “You didn’t give us your best.”
Martinez said agents will not be held accountable.
“I’ve been through hell and back,” she said. “These agents – Charles Exum – have not even been held accountable for their actions.”
She added that she didn’t even know if Exum still worked for CBP.
Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green asked Martinez if she would feel comfortable showing lawmakers where she was shot. She agreed and rolled up her sleeve, revealing a gloomy scar on her upper arm, and pulled up her pants to reveal another wound on her thigh.
“It’s hard to come to terms with all of this, to even process what happened,” she said. “I was shot because I protect your community. I want the world to see my pain and my trauma. This is not a joke. This is my life.”
Green thanked her and told her that “you deserve justice.”
Minister shot with pepper balls
Black told the committee he was “appalled by the radical evil my administration is perpetrating.”
He said he was outside a Chicago detention center praying when he was shot with pepper balls by federal agents.
“I am outraged by the blasphemy of those who support the brutal tactics of ICE and CBP and yet call themselves Christians,” he said. “They mock the sacrifice of God’s love for the world.
“However, instead of living out Christ’s rich promise of a kingdom of peace, freedom and prosperity, many of those who call themselves Christians blindly support institutions like ICE and CBP even as they dominate, coerce and terrorize American communities,” he continued.
The only way forward, he argued to lawmakers, was to dismantle ICE and CBP and redirect those funds to “support programs that feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and care for the unwell – for in the words of Jesus, ‘As you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’
