A new documentary peers inside the secretive world of immigration enforcement. The filmmakers faced demands to delete scenes and delay broadcast until after the election.

In heated phone calls and emails, they said, the official pushed to delay publication of the series, currently set to air on Netflix next month. He warned that the federal government would use its “full weight” to veto scenes it found objectionable. Several times, the filmmakers said, the official pointed out that it was their “little production company,” not the film’s $125 billion distributor, that would face consequences.

The filmmakers said they were told that the administration’s anger over the project came from “all the way to the top.”

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“Is a government agency evil? No. Is every single person inside ICE evil? No,” Ms. Heller told the filmmakers. “The brilliance of the system is that their job has been siphoned off in such a way that maybe what they see day to day seems justified, but when you add it up, all of the people just doing their job, it becomes this crazy terrorizing system.”