Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons suggested that Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman take a trip to the Holocaust Museum for likening federal immigration agents to Nazis.
The two sparred during a House Homeland Security hearing Tuesday with top Trump administration immigration officials. It comes after the fatal shootings of two anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis.
One of the shootings involved ICE agents, including one who was seen on video appearing to be hit by a car before he fired shots, killing the driver, Renee Good. Weeks later, a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, who was seen on video days before, kicking in the taillight of federal agents’ car and spitting on one of the officers.
Goldman compared ICE agents to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, sparking Lyons to condemn the premise of his question in tying it back to his agency.
The Democratic congressman demanded more time to question Lyons, saying he spoke “unnecessarily.”
That’s when Lyons intervened and told him to go to the nearby Holocaust Museum.
“Sir, the Holocaust Museum is down at 14th and Independence, if you wanna go see Nazis, that’s what it is, not the men and women of ICE that are out there doing it everyday,” Lyons said, adding: “So to say that the men and women of ICE are gestapos is wrong.”
Lyons said that terms like “gestapo” and “secret police” are contributing to a surge in attacks on ICE.
“The problem is you have it backwards, sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are unAmerican and outright fascist,” Goldman said. “So I have a simple suggestion: if you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”
Rep. Goldman tells Acting ICE Director Lyons that Democrats calling ICE the “Gestapo” and “secret police” is justified because it is what they are seeing.
“People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are unAmerican and outright fascist.”
Lyons told… pic.twitter.com/myJ9xaZ02l
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 10, 2026
ICE currently faces a more than 1,000% increase in assaults and a roughly 8,000% surge in death threats, Lyons said.
Most recently, federal immigration agents have faced violent attacks from anti-ICE agitators in the streets of Minneapolis. Overnight, local authorities arrested 54 protestors, according to Lyons.
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