WASHINGTON — Simmering tensions in the Capitol about President Donald Trump's immigration executive orders boiled over Thursday, as several members of the Hispanic Caucus were kicked out of a meeting with a top immigration official by staffers of Speaker Paul Ryan.

Those who were allowed in described a combative encounter with promises of many more arrests and deportations to come.

"There's never been a meeting like this," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, who has served in Congress for almost three decades. "I've never seen anything like it."

The hourlong meeting with acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan covered a range of concerns about recent arrests and deportations around the country, though caucus members said they left the meeting with many questions unanswered.

Ten Democrats were allowed into the meeting, including Pelosi, but members who were removed were left fuming outside the closed doors.

"I'm really shocked, bewildered, that the speaker of the House would act as a gatekeeper for the president of the United States and deny fellow members of the House the ability to attend meetings that they called for," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. "I know that there's a dictatorial spirit at the White House. Apparently it's infected the speaker's office here in the Capitol, and I think it's really, really sad."

The Trump administration — either the White House or Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly — was given authority over which Democrats would be able to attend the meeting, said Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M.

Homan told the members that 683 people have been rounded up in five primary target cities and deported since Trump signed his executive order, including in Austin and San Antonio, attendees said. Of those 683 detained, Homan said they have identified 176 who have no criminal issues, according to Lujan Grisham -- but he would not tell her whether those 176 have been released.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat and former chairwoman of the caucus, said they were told they "can and should expect more arrests and removals this year." The only factor constraining ICE from mass deportations on an unprecedented scale, she said, was that they do not have enough resources to do so.

If not for that, all 11 million undocumented immigrants could be subject to deportation, Lujan Grisham said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat and vice chairman of the caucus, was allowed into the meeting and came away saying it was clear that "the Trump administration is going to target as many people as possible."

“The only hesitation they seemed to have was whether they would go after DACA recipients,” Castro said, referring to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama administration program allowing the children of unauthorized immigrants who were brought here as minors to remain in the U.S.

1. After attending the ICE meeting it's hard not to conclude that President Trump has started his mass deportation plan. — Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) February 16, 2017

On Tuesday, Homan canceled a meeting with the Hispanic Caucus at the last minute, explaining that too many attendees had signed up and that the Trump administration would allow the meeting only if it were bipartisan. As a result, ICE worked with Ryan’s office to schedule a smaller meeting with a select group of members from both parties.

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said the meeting was limited at the request of the Department of Homeland Security to members with “jurisdictional interests in immigration enforcement.” Because the Hispanic Caucus wanted to be involved in the meeting — which it had initially called for — Strong said Lujan Grisham was allowed to attend on behalf of the caucus.

“We are confident that the [caucus] chair is capable of representing the views of her caucus, and this arrangement was made very clear to the [caucus] ahead of time,” Strong said in a written statement.

Initially, no Hispanic Caucus members were going to be allowed at the meeting, Pelosi said, “until we explained to them that that was not going to qualify as a meeting.”

ICE sent written responses earlier this week to a series of questions submitted by the caucus, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for ICE, said in a statement that the meeting focused on the agency's "targeted enforcement efforts conducted across the nation last week."

"Mr. Homan emphasized that ICE does not conduct arrests indiscriminately and does not establish checkpoints," Elzea said. "Rather, the agency's deportation officers target pre-identified individuals for arrest at specific locations based on law enforcement leads."

Homan told the lawmakers that ICE officers "frequently encounter additional individuals in the pursuit of their targets," Elzea said, and those individuals are also arrested on a case-by-case basis if they are determined to be in the country illegally.

In addition to Castro, two other Texans were at the meeting: Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, who serves as chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee.

Hispanic Caucus leaders said they are demanding a full group meeting with Homan as soon as possible, but they have not yet been able to set a date. Lujan Grisham said the group spent about the first third of the meeting haggling over who would be allowed in to the room in the basement of the Capitol.

"When I ask for a meeting and other members want to join me, since when does the majority party tell you you can't do that," she said. "That's a big, big shift."

Javier Gamboa, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called it “wildly insulting” that Ryan’s staff would remove Hispanic members from a “critical meeting that greatly concerns their community.”

“What’s even more shocking is that the speaker delivered this insult to his colleagues apparently at President Trump's command,” he said.