WATCH LIVE: The heads of ICE and immigration agencies testify as funding deadline approaches

WASHINGTON (AP) — The heads of agencies implementing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda will testify in Congress on Tuesday and face questions about how immigration enforcement is pursued within American cities.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST. Watch the event live in the player above.

Trump’s immigration campaign has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, after two protesters were shot and killed in Minneapolis by Homeland Security officers. The agencies have also faced criticism for a wave of policies that critics say trample the rights of immigrants facing detention and Americans protesting enforcement actions.

Todd Lyons, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Rodney Scott, who heads US Customs and Border Protection, and Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, will speak before the House Committee on Homeland Security.

The officials will speak at a time of declining public support for how their agencies implement Trump’s immigration vision, but with ample money from a spending bill passed last year that helped expand immigration enforcement activities across the country.

The department says it is activists and protesters opposed to its operations who are escalating attacks on its officers, not the other way around, and that its immigration enforcement operations make the country safer by finding and removing people who have committed crimes or pose a threat to the country.

Under Lyons’ leadership, ICE saw a massive congressionally funded hiring boom last summer, and immigration officers deployed in enhanced enforcement operations in cities across the country aimed at increasing arrests and deportations. His appearance before Congress comes as lawmakers battle over whether the Department of Homeland Security should be funded without restrictions on the behavior of its officers.

Read more: Here’s what to know about the constitutional right to record immigration agents in public

Lyons will likely face questioning over a memorandum he signed last year telling ICE officers they did not need a warrant to force entry into a home to arrest a deportee, a memorandum that conflicted with years of ICE practices and Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful searches.

During Scott’s tenure, his agency played an important role in the arrest and removal of illegal immigrants from within the country. This increased activity has become a flashpoint for controversy and represents a departure from the agency’s traditional function of protecting the border and controlling who and what enters the country.

Under the leadership of Commander Gregory Bovino, a group of Border Patrol agents set out across the country conducting operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and New Orleans, where they were often accused of randomly interrogating and arresting people on suspicion of being in the country illegally. Bovino says his targets are legitimate and identified through intelligence, and he says if his officers use force to arrest someone, it’s because it’s justified.

A Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer opened fire during the shooting death of Alex Peretti, one of two protesters killed in Minneapolis in January. Another protester, Rene Judd, was shot and killed by an ICE officer.

After Pretty’s shooting, Bovino was reassigned and Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to take control.

USCIS has also faced criticism for steps it has taken including subjecting refugees already admitted to the United States to another round of vetting and pausing decisions on all asylum cases.