“Do you think you’re going to hell, Mr. Lyons?”
That question was put to Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who, along with Rodney Scott, head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security Tuesday.
The trio went before Congress in the wake of the recent shooting deaths of two protestors by Homeland Security officers.
It was a chance for clarity, for transparency, but for too many Democratic lawmakers, it was a chance for grand political theater.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) took that ball and ran with it.
As the New York Post reported, McIver, indicted on charges of assaulting law enforcement during a visit to a Newark immigration facility last year, first got Lyons to confirm that he’s religious.
“How do you think Judgment Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?” McIver asked.
Committee chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) intervened to remind members of the rules of decorum. He had to do that a lot.
We can’t, of course, speak to Lyons’ destiny in the hereafter, but we can reflect on some of his actions during his tenure as director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations’ Boston field office.
Three years ago, ICE agents in Boston arrested Hever Alexander Chim, a Guatemalan citizen, on charges related to the rape of a child by force.
“I’m proud of our ERO Boston officers who show their commitment daily to protecting public safety. It’s because of their dedication that this suspected predator was located and apprehended,” Lyons said at the time.
In 2024, ICE Boston agents arrested three illegal immigrants who were charged in connection with the death of an infant, according to officials.
ERO Boston agents arrested three unlawfully present Portuguese nationals who were charged with child endangerment following the death of a 1-year-old child in Pawtucket, R.I.
“The alleged crimes of these unlawfully present individuals resulted in the death of an innocent child,” Lyons said in a statement.
“Those who commit crimes against children must be held accountable,” Lyons added. “Unlawfully present foreign nationals posing a danger to our New England communities cannot expect to escape the consequences of their actions.”
Back in 2021, one of America’s Top 10 most wanted illegal immigrants, drug trafficker Friendly Grandoit, was busted by Boston ICE agents.
Grandoit’s rap sheet included selling oxycontin, fentanyl and cocaine.
That’s just a small highlight reel of some of the arrests under Lyons’ watch. Did his Congressional questioners do any research into his work in Boston, or the illegal immigrants arrested and what they were charged with?
The shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti should never have happened, and the concerns over aggressive ICE tactics are real. But they shouldn’t allow grandstanders to erase the steps ICE agents have taken to keep communities safe from sex offenders, child predators and drug traffickers.
