The top officials carrying out Donald Trump's mass deportation plan have come under fiery questioning from Democrats, who have levelled a litany of complaints against their agencies and accused them of using their power for evil.
But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bosses vowed to press on with the immigration crackdown in the US, arguing they were properly enforcing the law despite facing the "deadliest operating environment" in history.
After a series of controversies involving their agencies, the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) faced a committee of Congress for the first time since their agencies received a major funding boost for the crackdown.
"We are only getting started," ICE acting director Todd Lyons said. "We are ramping up detention facilities and removal flights daily."
The agency heads refused to answer questions about the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, citing ongoing investigations. Mr Lyons also would not apologise for the government labelling the activists as "domestic terrorists".
But Democrats raised a range of other complaints too, including ICE's violation of court orders to release or give hearings to detainees, profiling and targeting of Spanish-speaking Americans, aggressive interrogation and arrest tactics in city streets, mistaken arrests of US citizens, and trauma inflicted on children caught in crackdown operations.
"This hearing is just the start of a reckoning for the Trump administration and its weaponisation of DHS against American citizens and the principles our country stands for," the committee's top Democrat, Bennie Thompson, said.
"DHS, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, must be held accountable for this lawless immigration operation. They are reckless, creating chaos in our communities, terrorising adults and children alike."
Shutdown looms as Democrats demand ICE changes
The hearing took place as Democrats in Congress threatened to block DHS funding unless Republicans agreed to changes to ICE's operations.
The two parties are continuing to negotiate, but another partial government shutdown will take effect at the weekend if an agreement is not reached.
Democrats' demands include a ban on face masks, an end to "roving patrols", and a code of conduct for agents similar to that for other law enforcement officers.
The government has already agreed to a demand to mandate body cameras for agents. Mr Lyons told the hearing that more than 3,000 ICE agents now had cameras and another 6,000 were being deployed.
Republicans on the committee mostly spoke in full-throated support of the agencies. They blamed Democrats for creating the immigration problem through historical border enforcement failures, and worsening the problem with "sanctuary city" policies and anti-ICE rhetoric.
Republican committee chair Andrew Garbarino praised the results of the immigration crackdown but conceded the "credibility of these successes is on the line".
"We must take the temperature down," he said.
Fellow Republican Michael McCaul said he was pleased the Minnesota operation, where Mr Pretti and Ms Good were killed, was no longer being led by Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino.
"I would argue, in fairness, that he escalated the situation by the way that was handled," Mr McCaul said.
"When the president decided to remove Agent Bovino and put in Tom Homan, who I've known for years as a consummate law enforcement professional, I commended the president," he said.
Mr Homan has said he will run a more "targeted" operation in the state.
The agency heads lauded the results of their operations.
Mr Lyons said ICE had made 379,000 arrests in a year. "Among those arrests were more than 7,000 suspected gang members and over 1,400 known or suspected terrorists," he said.
CBP commissioner Rodney Scott said his agency "spent the last year rebuilding what was an intentionally broken border".
He said apprehensions along the US-Mexico border fell to 90,000 last year — "a number that used to represent a single month under the Biden administration".
At times, the hearings got personal. Democratic congresswoman LaMonica McIver asked Mr Lyons if he was religious. "How do you think Judgement Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?" she asked him. "Do you think you're going to hell?"
Fellow Democrat Delia Ramirez told the men: "You are using your power to perpetrate great evil."
