


The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday pushed back against claims that the agency is underfunded or falling behind on deportations, telling lawmakers that ICE is operating “daily” removal flights and remains on track to meet its aggressive enforcement targets.
Todd Lyons, testifying before the House Appropriations Committee, said ICE conducted more than 55 international missions just a day earlier and is “swiftly and humanely” removing people with final deportation orders as part of President Donald Trump‘s immigration agenda.
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“ICE daily is doing flights,” Lyons said, adding he is “ensuring that we do not have a bottleneck on our attention that we are not clogging up detention space.”
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) — whose district includes Fort Bliss, a key hub for ICE operations — praised the agency’s coordination with the Defense Department and pushed Lyons to confirm that enforcement remains robust.
“It’s working,” Gonzales said. “I want to make sure ICE and [Enforcement and Removal Operations] have all the resources, personnel, and policy they need,” he said.
When asked about specific flight numbers, Lyons promised to get back to Gonzales’s office.
The exchange came as some Democratic lawmakers raised alarm over ICE’s financial practices and detention conditions under the Trump administration.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), the top Democrat on the subcommittee, accused the administration of promising a lofty goal of deporting 1 million people per year, saying the strategy “sets you up for failure.”
“This administration is cashing checks it does not have to reach questionable goals it cannot meet,” Underwood said.
“ICE will not run out of money,” Lyons told the panel, countering Underwood’s concerns. Congress has approved funding for about 41,500 detention beds, versus the roughly 52,000 detainees held currently.
“We are not clogging up detention space. … We are swiftly and humanely returning those individuals back to the country,” he said.
Lyons maintained the agency could draw from other DHS resources to fund a targeted expansion to 60,000 beds, including possible transfers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
When pressed about the number of detainee deaths in ICE custody, Lyons acknowledged there had been nine and said the agency “has nothing to hide” while pledging transparency.
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He added that all deaths are fully investigated and that ICE will publicly post information about the cases, as required by law. “We do conduct a thorough investigation of all of those,” he said.
ICE has arrested 88,000 people so far this year, with nearly two-thirds occurring since Trump’s inauguration in January, Lyons told lawmakers Wednesday.