A top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee demanded Wednesday that the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) appear before the panel.

His request comes after lower-ranking officials refused to answer most questions during testimony before the committee earlier this month.

Rep. Jamie Raskin Jamin (Jamie) Ben RaskinOVERNIGHT ENERGY: House passes sweeping clean energy bill | Pebble Mine CEO resigns over secretly recorded comments about government officials | Corporations roll out climate goals amid growing pressure to deliver On The Money: House panel pulls Powell into partisan battles | New York considers hiking taxes on the rich | Treasury: Trump's payroll tax deferral won't hurt Social Security House panel pulls Powell into partisan battles over pandemic MORE (D-Md.), chairman of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, wrote to Ken Cuccinelli and Matthew Albence, the acting heads of USCIS and ICE, respectively, formally requesting they testify before the subcommittee on Sept. 26.

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Raskin panned what he called a "flagrant, last-minute breach of the agreement" to avoid committee subpoenas in exchange for making officials available to testify.

Cuccinelli and Albence had previously been requested to appear before the committee, but had reached an agreement to send lower-ranking officials instead.

But at the hearing this month, called in response to the administration's decision to end deportation deferrals for critically ill children and their families, the officials sent by the two agencies repeatedly refused to answer member questions, citing ongoing litigation.

In his letter, Raskin cited an exchange he had with Daniel Renaud, the associate director of the Field Operations Directorate at USCIS.

"You can't tell me there's a new policy. You can't tell me what motivated the new policy, and you can't tell me what the new policy is. Is that a correct assessment of the situation?" asked Raskin.

"That is my testimony, sir, yes," replied Renaud.

Raskin further complained that the administration officials failed to comply with requests made in a letter signed by Oversight Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene CummingsBlack GOP candidate accuses Behar of wearing black face in heated interview Overnight Health Care: US won't join global coronavirus vaccine initiative | Federal panel lays out initial priorities for COVID-19 vaccine distribution | NIH panel: 'Insufficient data' to show treatment touted by Trump works House Oversight Democrats to subpoena AbbVie in drug pricing probe MORE (D-Md.) and more than 100 members of the House to follow up with their committee testimony.

"The Department's actions are a clear breach of its agreement with the Committee," wrote Raskin. "The Department's rationale for refusing to answer questions from Congress has been rejected by the Supreme Court, and the Department's stonewalling is obstructing our investigation."