DHS Budget Hearing: CBP, ICE, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

ma'am

thank you thank you

ma'am you're more than welcome to stay and participate

mmm

but like everybody else in the room you must be recognized and this is for these folks today so if you wanna make a statement and go from a to z please feel free to go out in the hall and do that

exactly

but we're on a very compressed schedule today exactly so can you can you bring that listen i want to see the part of it trying to solve problems elsewhere in the country for instance and because we're on that we have to we're not going to be susceptible to disruption of what is a phenomenally tight schedule we gotta get it all done in one day Thank you, sir. I don't mean to be insensitive. Thank you. Super, super smart. Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate your help. And with that. Good morning. Morning, Mister Chairman. Hi, sweetheart. How are you? Good. Good. Anyway, so sweet. Nice to meet you. Henry's pissed because he's not the only one that gets called sweet. That was interesting. Hey. Here. henry did you steal the gavel

yeah yeah it was a it was a bad day

i called this meeting of the homeland security subcommittee on on appropriations to order that's nice um and and and as we start as i've just indicated to to the young lady in the audience there um this is not ideal but it is what we're dealing with so this is our this is our turn to take lemons and turn them into lemonade in terms of scheduling we are doing all the ice agencies today the first panel with you three gentlemen is this morning and the second one is this afternoon and so we're gonna do one round of questioning uh for the panel um in an attempt to to get through this meaningfully and so i know you guys are thinking oh great man i hope they ask the other two guys all the questions um because we're compressed and because the committee's work product is is you know due when it's due uh i wanna say this we are going to you know the standard stuff where if if anybody has any additional questions please let uh the agencies know for for uh we will let we will let the minority know when worse what questions we've sent in and we would ask that you give us some indication of what's out there so we can track the tickle file i know everybody is fully employed but we are gonna ask for your responses in forty eight hours from when they're received and you're like holy mackerel we got plenty to do if you can get it done in forty eight hours then we want a response in forty eight hours saying we can get it done and here's why and here's when we'll have it to you time and date certain not my first pick on how to operate but i i've got the situation that i've got um so uh and and and and if it's like if if somebody's like it it it disappears and it's crickets then we're going to be aggressively following up saying what the heck we need the answer to that um i also i i also would note that there was a request that went out mister lyons it was for a contract at the montana facility and it came out from from the committee staff and i believe it was mrs. eskebar that did it we don't have anything and so if you guys think there's some reason why it shouldn't be given to us i wanna know that in writing by the end of the day and if there isn't then we wanna copy the contract in forty eight hours so it can be evaluated for whatever purposes are appropriate i'm unaware of anything that makes that uh classified or anything like that so please and thank you in advance uh we're in order um i've i've already done my my cry thing about the the compressed schedule uh and and i think everybody here is well aware of what's going on with dh dhs and and the different uh talking points and all that so i won't bore you with that um i'm just gonna uh turn to uh to my distinguished ranking member mister cuillard for his opening comments

uh mr. chairman thank you so much uh for holding this hearing and welcome to the uh three witnesses that we have here well i'm happy that we kick off the fy twenty twenty seven hearing season for the department doing so under circumstances of a uh government shutdown uh is something that we need to recognize. i recognize the department has been shut down for over two months now while utilizing funds from the reconciliation to support pay for personnel. uh work on fi twenty six still remains unfinished. i know there's a lot of ideas on how best to fund the department for the remainder of this year and next but i will be remiss that uh that if i did not express my opposition to the approach that that abandons the funding for the department annually the work we do on this committee is critical to national security but no two fiscal years are alike in challenges that the agencies face are always evolving limiting our ability to respond and demonstrate oversight over federal funding for the department on a annual basis not only abandons our article one obligations, but it will be irresponsible to the taxpayer. The collective budget for these three agencies before us this morning make over almost half of the department's this uh discretionary funding. Their underlying missions are at the heart of immigration policy, a debate that Congress has wrestled for over uh several decades. Uh, these policies that impact lives, our economy and our community at large Very important, what we do up here in Washington. As a member from a border state, and actually I live just about a mile away from the border, um, we know that these three agencies play a very important role in my backyard and a critical role in uh to the constituents in everyday lives. The border is not just a place that I visit, but it is a home. The men and women of CBP, ICE, USCIS are my neighbors, uh, and as a ranking member, I recognize toughest parts of this bill rest in finding an agreement on how best to address the funding and adjacent policy changes across c b p ice and uscis earlier this year when two american citizens were killed during the federal immigration enforcement operations uh in minnesota it brought many questions to the forefront for the american people not only how this happened but what comes next what comes next and at uh at that time i demanded a independent investigation will be done into these events uh but it remains unclear what if any progress has been made on this front i don't think it's possible for us to recognize that these events are the reason why fy twenty twenty-six ths bill remains uh unfinished again absent a final bill for fy twenty twenty-six we also must recognize the funding windfall for cbp is uscis received uh during the reconciliation through both direct funding and fee adjustments. I suspect we will have many questions about how this funding, uh specifically the seventy five billion dollars appropriated for ICE, uh how that's been executed. I also think it's important that we recognize who did not benefit from reconciliation, such as the men and women, homeland security investigation, HSI, uh within ICE. The role that they play in criminal investigations and fighting drug trafficking, human, uh child pornographers and all of that is critical to our national security uh moving on when we talk about border we must focus on immigration and security there's no doubt that it's important but we often forget about how important the border is to our economy uh and our livelihoods trying to find the balance between security trade and tourism is important especially to our border communities uh so i look forward to talking about some of these issues that we're seeing at the ports of entries checkpoints that we're seeing and finally uh uscis i hope we're able to discuss the utility of of this new law enforcement uh arm that's involving uh that involves hiring training maintaining two hundred new law enforcement uh something that uscis has never done uh before and how this would not be uh duplicative of the work that ice is doing already there is uh a lot of things that we need to cover today. Uh, I wanna thank uh the witnesses for being here, look forward uh I think I've talked to uh most of you all, uh and look forward to uh spending a little bit of time after this committee. So with that, I wanna say to all the three witnesses, thank you Mister Chairman, thank you so much for holding this meeting.

Thank you to the gentleman from Texas, the gentlelady from Connecticut is recognized for her opening statement.

Thank you very much, Mister Chairman and Ranking Member Cuellar, uh and I wanna welcome our uh witnesses this morning and thank you for for being here. Uh, I wanna begin by noting the absurdity of holding a hearing on funding for these agencies when Republican leadership has openly decided to pursue a partisan funding process outside of the Appropriations Committee. Slush funding the government through a series of partisan budget bills that are written in back rooms by republican leadership driven only by political interest is a recipe

will the will the gentlelady suspend

for catastrophe i will

we're gonna mute music somewhere ok the floor is yours again

thank you thank you i were gonna repeat that slush funding the government through a series of bipartisan budget bills that are written in back rooms by Republican leadership, driven only by political interest, is a recipe for catastrophe. My colleagues across the aisle have loudly hailed the work that we were able to accomplish in passing eleven of the twelve appropriations bills. They are right to do so. It is important and it, yes, it is difficult work of governing. That's what governing is about. But the very fact that it is difficult ensures that it will endure. Abandoning the appropriations process in favor of partisan reconciliation bills will come back to haunt this institution. If we go down this road, there is a cliff at the end, and I strongly encourage my colleagues not to do this. The most direct reason that the entire Department of Homeland Security is still shut down after more than sixty days is because Republican leadership refused to pass the bill that the United States Senate unanimously passed twice. They agreed to this. We have uh uh uh the the the Congress votes House and Senate. You get unanimous consent. We can't get unanimous consent to say that the sky is blue. But you had twice vote in the Senate on unanimous consent basis. And they have passed it twice. It is now still being blocked. They blocking this bill because they will not allow any funding. any funding for the Department of Homeland Security to move forward unless it also includes funding for ICE and CBP without any new protections against the misconduct that the American people are demanding. They are demanding these protections. These agencies are in dire need of serious reform to build back public trust that has been lost. We all have seen the footage. of the brutal and senseless killings of Rene, Nicole Good and Alex Pretty. We have seen our cities terrorized, communities afraid and terrorized by ICE and CBP. Forty-four detainees have died in ICE custody since President Trump took office, including twenty-five in this fiscal year alone. That is twenty year high for an agency that was only formed in tw- uh uh twenty uh in two thousand three. In January of this year, ICE violated nearly one hundred federal court orders, which the chief federal judge in the state of Minnesota estimated was more violations than some federal agencies have committed during their entire existence.

Uh-huh.

Law enforcement in Minnesota is investigating two ICE officers for kidnapping, false imprisonment after they kicked in the door of an American citizen, without a warrant, forced him outside at gunpoint, threw him in the back of their car, and then drove him around until they realized They had nothing to charge him with. ICE officers in Minnesota tear gassed a family on their way home from a basketball game, which caused their six month old daughter's heart to stop beating before she was rushed to the hospital. A detention officer in an ICE facility recently pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a detainee over the course of several months in twenty twenty five. There was an ongoing investigation into two immigration officers for potentially lying under oath after they shot a Venezuelan man. in the lake. A Cuban man died by homicide due to excessive force at a nice run facility in El Paso. I could go on, but I trust I've made my point. It is abundantly clear that significant reforms are needed. I have been very clear on my own position. We need border security. I do not favor abolishing ICE. But significant reforms are needed. This is the United States of America. Officers should be required to get a warrant from a judge before they kick in someone's door. Agents should not be able to hide their faces and conceal their identities from the public to evade accountability for misconduct. American citizens should not be detained and deported. And when there are cases of misconduct, there should be mandatory independent investigations. I understand that reforming these agencies will be the product of lengthy negotiations. I understand that negotiating is hard work. I understand that it can be tempting to just try to just give up, to try to go it alone. But I promise you, that is not a sustainable or responsible way to govern.

Mm-hmm.

I encourage Republican leadership, stop blocking the bill, that passed the Senate unanimously twice, so we can fund the vast majority of the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, Cybersecurity, Secret Service, and while we continue to negotiate with regard to ICE, I encourage my Republican colleagues to join us in the difficult work of forging agreements rather than abandoning the process in favor of a strictly bipartisan path. I thank the Chair and Ranking Member and I yield back.

Without objection, the witness's full written testimony will be entered into the record. With that in mind, we would ask you to please summarize your opening statements in five minutes. Mister Scott, the floor is yours.

Chair Bonamedi, Frankie, member Cuellar, members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear here before you today to discuss the President's fiscal year twenty twenty-seven budget for US Customs and Border Protection. As America's unified border agency, CBP is responsible for knowing and controlling everything and everyone that crosses our international borders. CBP serves Americans every day by keeping bad things and bad people out of our homeland and for protecting our international supply chains to empower our economy. I'm incredibly proud to represent more than sixty-eight thousand dedicated men and women of CBP who continue to perform this vital mission every day even though they count on even being paid right now. It's bewildering to me that we are here today discussing a FISC- a budget for twenty twenty seven when Congress has yet to enact a budget for twenty twenty six. Seven months into the fiscal year, CBP has been shut down more than we have been open. One obvious impact of this funding lapse is the thousands of personnel that have gone without pay for extended periods of time. And until Congress acts, I can't even promise them when they're gonna get their next paycheck. But the damage goes beyond the missing wages, and it cannot be fixed by merely doing a back pay uh restoration. Today, many of the services or the service providers uh that we use have not been paid. In plain terms, that means aircraft, patrol boats, patrol vehicles that need service, they're being parked. Border surveillance equipment that requires maintenance is off-line until funding is appropriated. Our confidential human sources are not being paid. and we're at risk of losing some of our intelligence tools that help us secure the border. As World Cup approaches, CBP is unable to provide our personnel the advanced training that we had planned for this event. The negative impacts are not limited to border security. Many of our contractors are small, family-run businesses, and now they face the prospect of laying off their employees or going out of business, because we can't pay them, as we had promised. The problems will compound until this body takes action and funds DHS. Sorry. I've talked about some of the bad stuff, our current challenges, let me talk about some of the amazing things that we've done over the last year. Because of President Trump's leadership and the support from Congress through the Working Families Tax Cut Act and the commitment of our personnel, CDP has fundamentally transformed the border, and we have shut down or we have stopped the open borders of the past. As a result, illegal entries between the ports of entry are at record lows, and we have reclaimed control of our borders. The President's budget is designed to build on that progress. It prioritizes critical investments in our personnel, advances in technology, additional assets, and it strengthens our front-line operations, including our counter-narcotics efforts. Our adversaries, though, are increasingly using sophisticated methods like drones, to coordinate smuggling of dangerous contraband into the US. Our budget provides critical funding for counter unmanned aircraft systems to detect and mitigate these drone threats. It also invests in vital port hardening measures and the modernization of our labs to - to - so that we can uh trace fentanyl and we can do scientific analysis of other contraband. CBP's automated commercial environment, or ACE, is the backbone of US import and export processing. This budget invests in upgrading ACE to significantly improve efficiency, transparency, and enforcement. CBP's workforce, though, is our greatest strength. Building on a year of substantial advances in recruitment and hiring, the President's budget reinforces our commitment sorry, to attracting the most qualified candidates we can for CBP. The budget sustains our workforce care programs so that we can take care of the personnel that are under immense pressure in the demands of their job. In closing, President's- the President's fiscal twenty twenty-seven budget clearly recognizes the challenges confronting CBP in our nation and provides the resources we need to address them. It builds on historic investments allowing CBP to enhance vital operations and pursue new initiatives that support the safety of this great nation. However, the impacts of the continued DHS shutdown are real and they're compounding. The longer this continues, the more those impacts will cascade across our operations, our workforce, and the American public. Despite these challenges, CBP will never forget that we were formed out of the ashes of nine eleven, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to secure the borders of the United States. I implore Congress to do the same, pass the Senate DHS funding bill, and work expeditiously to enact a second reconciliation measure by June first and provide CBP and ICE the funding that we desperately need. Thank you for your continued support of our mission and our personnel, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you.

Mister Lyons, the floor is yours for your opening statement.

Thank you, sir. Good morning. Chairman, I'm a day, Ranked Member of QIAR and distinguished members of the committee. I wanna thank you for the opportunity to testify today and to discuss the vital work of ICE as well as the importance of sustained funding for our agency. I am deeply proud to stand alongside the dedicated men and women of ICE, who work tirelessly every day to enforce our nation's immigration laws and safeguard our communities. Our officers and agents are being villainized for simply upholding and enforcing law. But the bottom line is that they risk their lives every day to serve our nation and protect our families, friends and neighbors. In recognition of their service and sacrifice, one of my top priorities is to ensure that ICE operates efficiently. I can do that by working with you to ensure we have the resources we need to keep our workforce safe, the promises made by President Trump and meet our obligations to the American people. The ICE workforce is depending on you and I to insure those resources. ICE is at a pivotal moment. The Working Families Tax Cut Act has fundamentally transformed our agency's approach to immigration enforcement. This historic bill enabled ICE to hire a thousand new personnel, expand our detention and removal capabilities, and invest in the tools necessary to meet the administration's ambitious goals. these upfront large-scale investors investments allow us to surge our operations today and lay the groundwork for more efficient and effective processes in the future while this funding is transformational it's not a substitute for annual appropriations the limitations congress placed on these funds preclude ice from using reconciliation funding for basic needs such as paying non-law enforcement personnel operating basic services within ice and conducting criminal investigations into human trafficking child exploitation and more. Therefore, the annual budget process remains critical to sustaining ICE base operations in ensuring we meet the emerging challenges the reconciliation funding does not authorize us to do. Under President Trump's administration, we've significantly increased our operational tempo. Since January twentieth, we've arrested nearly four hundred and fifty-seven thousand aliens, including two hundred and eighty-one thousand aliens with criminal histories, eight thousand four hundred suspected gang members and over one thousand six hundred known as suspected terrorists we've removed roughly seven uh five hundred seventy individuals this result is because of your support with annual appropriations combined with the search capabilities afforded by the working families tax cut-out therefore to achieve the president's objectives we request your support for the five point four billion for enforced removal operations in the fy twenty seven budget As we expand our operations, we remain steadfast in our commitment to detaining safety and well-being. ICE ensures all individuals in our custody are housed in safe, secure and humane conditions. Our Office of Professional Responsibility conducts regular compliance inspections and oversight to ensure that our facilities meet the highest standards, and that we remain fully compliant with our legal and policy requirements. This oversight is funded through the event of the annual appropriations process, not the big beautiful bill and fy twenty five home and security investigations has conducted more has conducted more than four thousand eight hundred arrests related to child exploitation and rescued nearly one thousand five hundred child victims from ongoing sexual abuse they've also dismantled more than two thousand four hundred human smuggling operations including thirty one hundred convictions the fy twenty seven budget will provide two point six billion to continue hsi s critical investigations Equally important is the training and professionalism of our workforce. Officer training is and always will be the most important to ICE. We have implemented rigorous training programs to focus on our use of force, de-escalation, and detainee care. Our officers and agents are well-trained, well-equipped, and deeply committed to carry out their duties with integrity and respect to the law. Our attorneys are also working around the clock to preserve the rule of law. In FY twenty-five, ICE attorneys represented DHS in more than two million removal hearings. They've managed more than one thousand nine hundred human rights violation cases and over four thousand national security cases nationwide. The FY twenty-seven budget includes eight point seven million to address the workload administrative needs. ICE is also looking for one point six billion for our mission support staff. These dedicated professionals maintain our infrastructure, ensure our workforce has the support they need, and are stewards of all ICE resources. In closing, I'm sitting before you today Asking for your support for our FY twenty seven budget. The combined resources provided in the working family tax cut act and our annual appropriations are essential to ensuring ICES' capable of executing its critical mission both now and in the future. Again, thank you for allowing me this time to speak with you today. I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Mister Edlow, the floor is yours for your opening statement.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Chairman Amadei, Ranking Member Quayer, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget request for US citizenship and immigration services. I am honored to represent the dedicated men and women of USCIS, and appreciate your partnership as we work to protect American citizens, uphold the rule of law, and safeguard our homeland. Under President Trump's leadership, USCIS has made historic progress in restoring accountability and security to our legal immigration system. Excuse me. Over the past year, we have focused on combating fraud, ending exploitation of immigration programs, upholding the integrity of the naturalization process, and protecting American communities and workers. I am thrilled to continue this work with Secretary Mullen at the helm of the department now. USCIS's fiscal health is strong. In fiscal year twenty twenty five, we collected seven point five billion dollars in fee revenue, exceeding forecasts, and our carryover balance is well above targeted levels. We continue to manage resources responsibly, ensuring uninterrupted operations and supporting mission-critical programs. A key component of these efforts is E-verify, which helps employers nationwide confirm work eligibility and support national security. E-verify has more than one point four million employers enrolled, and nearly forty-four million cases were run through the system last year alone. In fiscal year twenty twenty five, it prevented fraudulent use of over ten thousand social security numbers, and issued twenty five thousand not-employee authorized confirmations. Employer satisfaction remains high, and we are requesting a hundred and thirteen million to maintain and enhance this essential system. We have also implemented the Working Families Tax Cut Act, signed into law by President Trump in July twenty twenty five. This legislation introduced fees and provisions to strengthen the integrity of our legal immigration system. Through its implementation, USCIS has closed loopholes, limited improper fee waivers, and reinforced accountability. In closing, our commitment to integrity, security, and service remains unwavering. But I would be remiss if I did not mention that as the longest shutdown in history continues, USCIS strongly asked the House to pass the Senate DHS funding bill and work expeditiously to enact a second reconciliation measure, by June first to provide sustained funding to our partners at ICE and CBP. We are dedicated to deterring and disrupting fraud, optimizing resources, and strictly adhering to immigration law. I thank the committee for its attention to our mission and for its ongoing support of USCIS. On a personal note, I wanna thank, Mister Chairman, you for your uh work and your support to the nation and to USCIS, and congratulate you on your upcoming retirement. i welcome your questions and look forward to continue collaboration

thank you mister let me translate that you guys are happier in hell to see me in the rearview mirror but at this point i don't have any feelings or any pride left so can't do anything to me huh uh i'm gonna turn to mister for his questioning initially but i do wanna put this little footnote in since i'm sure there are other people watching i know the omb language where people who are the agency's most directly affected saying please pass a bill that has a zero in front of your agency and your agency and pass a reconciliation bill which has no oversight reforms for the lessons that we've learned from the last one is phenomenally interesting for my part not personally directed at any of you but i hope somebody's you know listen on on the interweb or whatever the heck you new people call that stuff mister quayrar the floor is yours

thank you uh mr. chairman um uh uh mr. scott uh first of all thank you for your service and your men and women that work for you all i have a couple of questions uh dealing with uh border wall uh back under what i call trump one i was able to get uh about six exceptions uh down there for border wall now uh you know i'm also suggesting that we add certain exceptions to the loretto area to the zapata area and to big bend i understand that you all put a pause on uh But there are certain areas that are very sensitive, and by that I'm talking about, you know, we do know that the numbers went down and congratulations, ninety-six percent uh gone down. Laredo before that was the second lowest crossing that we had uh uh during those high numbers uh so the numbers went down and all of that happened without a single foot of border wall or even a buoy uh it was policy repercussions at the border that helped in working with our partners. now that we're looking at forty six point five billion dollars of border wall money uh i do have uh certain concerns you know first of all the waivers that we're saying late last year they use buying era my uh migration stats for their justification not current ones but past numbers with you know i disagree i don't uh did not approve of open borders i was very strong against it now my communities are concerned about the construction and the potential flood risk impact to drinking water and threats to public lands that we have uh mr. chairman uh with uh with your i would ask for unanimous uh support to enter uh into the record the executive summary report by doctor mark uh tompkins uh released on march tenth uh twenty twenty six which analyzes the the threat to human life property critical um uh infrastructure by the proposed wildland buoy system to the laredo and the communities along uh the zapata area i would ask uh for unanimous support seeing no objection so order thank you mr chairman so couple of things one uh i don't know if you all have seen that report i would ask uh if you can work with your partners uh international boundary water commission the army corps and get us a response uh to that if you disagree that there is no threats uh to it uh tell us why on that and then the other thing i would ask uh uh uh this is true god is um what is the current operational justification for border wall and laredo and zapata even big bend also uh when congress can see and when can we expect to see an updated border security improvement plan as you know in the other times we used to go on what you all wanted uh i would ask for for that also and then more importantly uh would ask if you would commit work in with myself i know there's a gentleman i think his name is paul enriquez i don't know if i met him before but he's doing a lot of it we just want some input uh with it uh like i said last time i asked for certain exceptions we got them uh under what i called trump one and uh even space x uh got an exception to that as uh also so i just wanna uh ask if you can commit with us uh to sit down and i know you're very hands-on and appreciate your relationship and Ron's relationship and look forward working with the uh on those border wall I won't call them exceptions, but concerns that we have.

Well, first and foremost, thank you for your willingness to communicate and work with us over the last I don't know how many years. Uh, those partnerships have and those conversations have added a lot of value, and I'm fully committed to continuing that going on going forward. And we do work with the local communities, we look at the environment. We work with the agencies you just mentioned and even more. As a matter of fact, after this hearing later today, I'm flying down to the border to have some of these specific types conversations, not in Laredo, but another specific border area. I'm firmly committed to making sure that we continue that going forward. I do, I would be remiss though if I didn't highlight that border security is an endearing an enduring requirement. The illegal immigration ebbs and flows with the foreign terrorist organizations just south of our border that are bringing threats into use illegal immigration to create gaps to bring people into united states that border wall going back into the nineties cbp border patrol has worked on it perfected it that is critical because the reason the the numbers have gone down now it is a lot of it is policy but we have almost eleven thousand department of war personnel on the border helping us create a level of deterrence and that is not a sustainable model that the personnel salaries that's the most expensive part of the border security Building the border wall is actually an investment that saves American taxpayers money. But we're we're gonna do it smartly, and I commit to uh having conversations with you and others on how we do that.

Thank you. Uh, by the way, where are the border patrol agents, are they still doing interior enforcement? Cuz I've talked to a lot of them. They wanna be border patrol, not interior. I would assume those folks are back uh in the at the border?

So border security, as you know, uh is a team sport. we have to have consequences you can't just let somebody run across the river and then get away so we continue to work with ice and our other partners but our those are targeted enforcement operations the vast majority of cbp personnel are border and border patrol agents are actually on the border and or airports at ports of entry uh but we still do support ice operations in targeted uh manner

yes and uh we'll talk about how many numbers are still away from the border later time uh the other thing uh i have is the um the questions on um uh checkpoints i know you know the checkpoint laredo i know there's money there and we're gonna work on that we did talk to your team uh couple of things i said you know they don't put enough commercial lanes there that uh that checkpoint would be the fourth largest port in the whole country i know there's an expansion there's money there i wanna work with you but the only thing i ask and you know this very well you gotta get um the risk analysis the the equipment that are used at the ports of entry border patrol has a different mindset but the more we can do that and we talk to your team i would ask you uh to do that because as we expand the world trade bridge from eight lanes commercial lanes to eighteen lanes and columbia from eight to sixteen we're the largest port of entry eighteen thousand trailers you can put all the trucks from el paso down to brownsville they don't even match what they do in laredo uh we would ask you to just do this once in a generation checkpoint and we'll follow up i don't wanna go i just wanna get your commitment that you'll work with us on that

uh you have my commitment sir

alright thank you and uh i'm glad you got ron with you also he's a good one too i like career people uh mr. lyons uh again thank you uh for your men and women i also don't believe in dim funding uh isa but i think we need to have some uh some reforms and we talked about it yesterday uh first of all i wanna thank you uh chairman uh you and yourself and myself we sat down with some of the ice folks when we brought the south texas builders uh mario guerrero and the other folks that came in uh we wanna thank you because it looks like now instead of focusing the work site uh right now in south texas and other areas like laredo you're focusing on criminals and criminal elements so i wanna say that because that affected the housing uh situation in laredo so i wanna start off with uh thank you so much um the other thing i wanna uh bring up is what we talked about is uh and i know i don't know what term to use uh you don't like ice warehouses but i do have one that's uh is coming up uh or they're looking at san antonio and another one maybe in macallan um you know what we need i just need a commitment that you will work with us in the local community cause you gotta have local community you know in laredo we're building a two hundred and eighty million dollar um immigration processing center in the community has worked with us but in other other areas san antonio the mayor the county judge everybody the county commissioner all up in arms uh same thing in macallan i need your commitment that you'll work with us

mmm

uh to address those uh immigration i won't call them ice uh i'll still call them ice warehouses but whatever term you want to use

sure yes sir no yeah you have my commitment and first uh let me just say thank you again for the partnership on the with the south texas builders um you know working with yourself and your office so they're able to expand the the hsi image program to insure that uh builders and you know business owners are hiring the correct people and also helping us identify criminal organizations has been huge for south texas uh in regards to the san antonio facility we did purchase one it's actually not a detention center it's a processing center so it's only gonna be housed uh hold up to five hundred to a thousand people scalable so it's not gonna be a long-term detention center it's gonna be a processing center that'll just have uh processing stations availability to have immigration court there etcetera um we are gonna we are working with local and state now uh unfortunately a lot of the people that have been working with us those elected officials and the uh buyers and sellers they're also having threat stocks we've had several sites that have already been um you know off-line because of arson and things like that um and in regards to laredo uh secretary mullins taken a direct approach in looking at all options so

yeah you mean uh mcallen

i'm sorry mcallen

yeah

um so we are going

laredo we're doing that uh processing center uh and it's we're good

right

we're good on that

yeah no mcallen so um secretary mullins is looking over the whole detention plan and he's gonna make a informed decision on where he wants to move forward on locations but we have purchased that one in santonio yes sir

ok thank you i know my time solver i'll just ask one question um uh sir why you know we've hired a whole bunch of ice agents hsi uh border patrol over the years that i supported uh uh hiring more of those agents why do we need two hundred agents specifically for your agency what is it that ice uh or other folks uh are telling you know that you feel there is a need to create a new law enforcement part of it in your agency

thank you uh mister quayar no one's selling us no but uh with all due respect to my to my colleague mr. lyons uh hsi has a very large portfolio what i am trying to create here is a very narrow uh criminal investigation branch that is going to focus specifically on immigration fraud uh and and entitlement fraud that falls within our purview it is specific for criminal investigators it's to build up that relationship with us attorneys we have for the amount of immigration fraud that that we have seen, that we have uncovered, that i know has been in the system for many many years, uh there is a very small number, uh hardly any prosecutions we've ever seen, this is to to to really focus on that, it's very very narrow.

Well, and i know my time and i wanna thank the chairman, uh could you follow up because we're concerned about training, uh we're concerned uh you know we don't want the same thing, you know but we'll have some other training, there's a lot of questions that we have and and my time's up and i wanna thank the chairman uh but i i do wanna follow up with some of those questions

mister i'm happy to follow up i will just say very briefly on training every special agent that we will be hiring will either have gone or is presently going through the criminal investigator training program which every special agent in the federal government goes through and then we have a i don't wanna get the number of weeks wrong i think it's about a nine week special agent training specific to the work that's gonna be done at uscis so there is uh yeah but i i'm happy to follow up with you on that

will follow up thank you uh three gentleman thank you anything else mr. cuero

no sir

well i i do have a uh oh just kidding no

so so in full disclosure mr. cuero just used miss deloro's time

i didn't see

and since i didn't ask any questions he used about half of mine too

so that means i got seven half minutes

and so he said before pardon me you're not recognized he says before hey since we're only doing one round can i have an extra minute and i'm like sure you know henry whatever you want and so because he is a leader by the way you guys need to work on the end of your testimony thank you again for pretending like you're sorry to see me go we're only gonna do one round still um but everybody is gonna get eight minutes for the round

oh yeah

now i know if i did that before mister quayar talked that'd be a twenty minute deal so sheriff you're recognized for questions

sheriff thank you mr. chairman i'll make this quick uh first i wanna set the record straight um the the reason we are here talking about the twenty six budget is not because of the house of representatives we passed twelve appropriation this body passed twelve appropriation bills uh before the end of the year uh and then sent it to the senate The Senate was unable to do their job because we couldn't find seven Democrats in the Senate that would vote to overcome the cloture rule of needing sixty votes in the Senate to pass a bill. That's why DHS is unfunded. Not because of this body. We passed a bipartisan bill across the House floor to fund you all and the men and women that work for you. And to protect country particularly looking at the upcoming year with fifa uh the american two-fifties celebrations are gonna be going on all of these events that they are gonna be that you all are gonna be responsible for protecting us from along with secret service tsa coast guard the whole dhs so wanna make sure we understand that that's where the responsibility for this lies is in the senate and and i call on uh senator thun to jettison that sixty vote cloture rule and just take up our appropriations bill and vote it across with a simple majority that's what we need to do we need to quit playing this filibuster uh game that they play over there in the senate they could have passed a uh what we passed here which was a a bipartisan appropriation bill

hmm

in fact we passed it four times now uh the idea that we're gonna leverage public safety uh and defund ice and and uh ice and cbp and tsa and others um so that we can negotiate on ice uh policy and procedures is atrocious to me as a former law enforcement agent uh uh uh officer now one thing that i am very happy about mister lyons uh i i know you all have gone full bore into the two eighty seven g program and and i wanna make this point two eighty seven g which i ran when i had a uh uh you know i not only had the police side of the organization but i had the correction side we had a great jail enforcement program under two eighty seven g we safely took individuals off of our streets and handed them over to ice for deportation in Jacksonville florida it's a great program all so we didn't have to have ice officers out in the community being confronted by not the not the uh immigrant the illegal immigrants that they're going after but by these paid provocateurs i don't even call them protesters they're paid provocateurs they they're going out there and causing all this disruption thirty nine states you guys are in now over sixteen hundred uh agencies that are working with you and guess what no violence problems in those areas and and so i wanna make that point that this is a great program in fact one of your predecessors actually said it was the best thing since sliced bread so my question is i wanna make sure that we have the funding that we need to continue i uh is uh two eighty seven g processes or can you talk a little bit about that and what do you think you're gonna need in twenty seven

well sir first off i just wanna say thank you for recognizing twenty seven g program cause like you said it is a force multiplier and we would much rather have individuals arrested detained taken into custody inside a safe security location with the help of our federal partners and the jail enforcement model does exactly that so for our under appropriations for uh with ob three funding we had approximately one point one billion for two eighty seven g um a lot of that does go for staffing right we're able to assist a lot of the small jurisdictions small municipalities and sheriffs that have budget shortfalls in their area we can provide them with overtime funding for new officers as well as vehicles and equipment

mmm

which is a huge piece of that partnership is the fact that since they are taking the steps to work with ice and help us work in the community then we're gonna make sure that they're whole as well so we've been able to do that for the obligated for year to date we're at three hundred and five million now so we are doing good for two eighty seven g but one thing really sorta highlights the fact that we're up over one thousand and eighty eight percent increased um mous that have been signed with local jurisdictions

mmm

um and if if we learn anything it's that the cooperation with state and local agencies is a game changer to your point locations that don't have any protests or problems it's because we we have the local corporation we don't have to be on the street they're out there in the jails

absolutely thank you and and and i wanna follow up on that with the the idea of the detention facilities um i wanna know what the mix is between facility and permanent structures that we're building and scalable what what i think is a scalable program that that that you all have which is accessing local jails uh in in state prisons for these folks um to to house them instead of building big permanent structures the uh because we're we're not always gonna have this problem eventually we will uh deport uh the majority of the illegals and we'll get back to normal uh needs

yes sir

and so i think it's more important that we have something that's scalable versus building a big infrastructure that uh to take care of the millions and millions of illegals that we now have in the country uh once we've gotten rid of them deported them uh we need something scalable i i i think and so can can you tell me what the mix is on that and where do you where do you see this going in the future

yes sir well the the very first thing on that is the beginning of your statement was the fact that we rely heavily upon our sheriffs and local jurisdictions that do support us in those uh cooperative areas so we're gonna continue to keep those um two eight seven g partners to include uh intergovernment intergovernmental agency agreements with them

mmm

um the reason for the larger scale of infrastructure for the attention was the fact that there are so many jurisdictions like in new york and new jersey we we don't have any partnerships and it's not because local leadership doesn't wanna engage with ice is the fact that a lot of times by state law they're not allowed to work with us the new facilities that are being built are actually scaled

so these are sanctuary states

yes sir so the the new facilities that are being built are actually scalable they're not fixed they we have the ability to to

right

bring them down or bring them back up dependent on the action but one of the when i was here testifying last year one of the commitments i had was to reduce the footprint when it came to the amount of exorbitant contracts that we have out there right now with a lot of our private facilities and what we're looking for is a more sensible approach when it comes to being self-sufficient and be able to control our own standards within that but control the price point and unfortunately a lot of the um smaller sheriffs um i'm sure someone's told you to come up to ice standard it's just too expensive for them to retrofit their facilities that were built in the eighties and nineties so through the um the larger program

right

we gonna be able to scale those down based on what the actual needs are

ok and those and those dollars are uh the reconciliation dollars are they being used for this program as well

we use the we use the reconciliation ob-three funding to for the initial front-load startup

right

but then for what we're asking for in fy twenty seven is be funded for forty one thousand five hundred beds and that we'll be able to scale up and down with the detention uh facilities

ok and and we're keeping we're keeping up with adp you know average daily population needs now

yes sir so uh we're we're actually in a surplus right now because we've um our partners at the department of state have been really helpful with us

ok

on expediting removals especially when it comes to recalcitrant countries where we have problems with travel documents so our removal process and our increase uh in our removal proceedings have led to that um no longer having a shortfall on beds but have it up

ok

a stockpile

thank you it it affected um it very briefly uh mr. edlow uh uscis back in october we we had delays in getting h two a uh workers into the country

wow

um and we had crops that were literally being uh turned under in the field uh because we didn't have people to pick them uh and i know that was a labor backup because of the shutdown and then that backed you up and um have have we resolved that uh now the the the backlog

congressman excuse me i'm not aware of any backlog at uscis with regard to h two a my understanding is processing time remains around five to seven days once we get

ok

the information from labor and the application is filed with us we turn it around within five to seven days if you're hearing something else please let me know and we'd love to work with you on it

ok thank you i'll get get with you But with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

The gentlelady from Texas, Miss Escobar, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, thank you, ranking member, and thanks to our witnesses for being here today. Before um I get into my questions, I would be remiss if I didn't say that I am very glad that Christy Noem, Corey Lewandowski and Greg Bovino are no longer a part of the Department of Homeland Security. the way that they engaged in our communities has been an abomination and it is my hope that the wreckage which they created which is immeasurable can be addressed and that we can go forward in a different way um so i i had to get that off my chest um mister scott i've asked for a meeting with you and i know this is a tough week but i really would appreciate a one-on-one meeting with you my team your team can we make that happen in the next week or so

uh yes ma'am within this next week i'll be out of town after this meeting until tuesday but i'll get with you

ok

yes

and we're happy to work with you um just would really appreciate the opportunity to sit down with you

of course

thank you acting director lyons i wanna thank you for the time that you gave me and my team yesterday um i i think it was a a productive and fruitful conversation and um much of what we talked about is camp east montana it is the largest immigration detention facility in the country it is privately run it's one point two four billion dollars and i have been sounding the alarm about facility and that contractor for some time now i'm i am glad that acquisition logistics will no longer be the contractor going forward we are hoping to continue our oversight our work on oversight as the new contractor situates itself um and to the chairman's point um thank you for committing to get us the contract with acquisition logistics i'd like it if if the chair the ranking member and i could have the contract the new contract with amentum please

yes ma'am a hundred percent

ok

and um just yeah we're committed to making sure that we get you that um that contract will be fully in place by april seventeenth

ok

fully staffed um but just to uh the original statement of work we inherited that from the um department of war uh and unfortunately under the uh the far act part two there was they listed proprietary information so i just would refer any questions on the original contract back to the department of war was the reason for the delay on the original

will

if i if i might if you wanna redact it we're not going to the pentagon to get answers about ice stuff

we'll take care of that for you sir

ok

yes sir

thank you

yup

thank you chairman will there be a there um i'm assuming there will not be a similar issue with the momentum contract

no ma'am

ok and we can get that in a timely manner

Yes, ma'am.

OK, thank you. And we have started to receive the answers to our letters from last fall and earlier this year. So I appreciate that we're we're starting to get those answers. But as we continue our oversight responsibilities and have more questions, can we expect responses to our questions in a more timely manner, uh, than existed under secretary Noem?

Yes, ma'am. Uh, it was uh and i think yesterday as we talked i think my team was actually sending over responses in real time so we've have increased our legislative fair staff and we are expediting answering and getting those all back in a more timely fashion so you do have the commitment that you'll receive those answers

ok i appreciate that and as i mentioned um both on the phone in my letters to members of this committee to the chairman to the ranking member the the issues at camp east montana have been horrific and frequently staff on the ground is very dismissive when i raise those issues directly with them um and we have an obligation to uh treat people in a humane manner and to make sure that we are living up to federal standards and the the challenges with camp east montana have been laid out by our own federal oversight agency so i am not the only one who has seen these issues and who has sounded the alarm um but we now have in my community another set of ice facilities that are going up the department of homeland uh uh security has purchased three warehouses in the city of socorro texas a population of thirty six thousand people those three warehouses are going to house eighty five hundred human beings those structures are meant to hold goods um those structures are meant to held hold things not people and the city of socorro has their city council has passed a moratorium on any dhs facilities they do not have the water infrastructure the wastewater infrastructure the emergency services infrastructure they don't have enough for their own community but now to have facilities potentially have facilities for eighty six hundred human beings and staff they are very alarmed um there were hundreds of of members of their community who attended the city council meeting to oppose these new facilities um local leaders are uniformly opposed to any new facilities and mister lyons the county of el paso has struggled to get any information from ice they've had to sue in order to try to get information is ice or dhs still planning on proceeding with the the three warehouses

well ma'am uh secretary mullin is like i said in my uh statement before he is looking at our whole detention plan we're making decisions based on if we're gonna move forward with those locations um but what i can tell you is and hopefully when we do go on our trip down to camp east uh to take the opportunity to show you exactly what those facilities will be um i know uh i've said i don't like when people use the term warehouse but it's if you once you see what the layout will be it's not gonna be any type of cages it's actually to be retro fitted to become a detention facility one that we'll actually be proud of one that actually have standards within a held in a humane way so i welcome the chance when we go down there to show you exactly what we actually plan to do

mister lyons i'm going to urge you to reconsider um the community is uniformly opposed to this as i mentioned uh a city of thirty six thousand people does not have the infrastructure for a facility of the magnitude that DHS is wanting to build and there has been zero community consultation, zero community involvement, community engagement, before there are any um, before there is any forward movement would you commit to meeting with local leaders to hear directly from them?

Yes ma'am, and we have Secretary Malin is committed to ensuring that we have um, not only interaction with yourself and other members of this committee, but local leadership on the ground, state, local municipality level, to have that community engagement, to have those discussions.

I appreciate that. I'm eager to see that happen. One last question. There have been multiple deaths at Camp East Montana. One of those deaths, Geraldo Lunas Campos died in ice custody on January third of this year. The El Paso County Medical Examiner determined that was a homicide. i've read the details of the report it's pretty horrific what is the status of that investigation

so ma'am once we had that information provided to us we went ahead and referred that case that case now is with the fbi

as as you are

so i can't speak to an after investigation but the fbi is investigating that

ok so it's no longer at opr

it's with it's with the fbi ma'am yes ma'am

ok and um the the i hope that you will evaluate the fact as as you

yes ma'am you're welcome and your time wasn't as far up as mr. was so you're you're being a leader on that mister newhouse the floor is yours mr. newhouse

uh thank you mr. chairman and thanks for your generosity in allowing people to go for time it's very important stuff gentlemen thank you mr. scott mr. lyons mr. edlow thanks for being here and uh uh appearing before this committee but also um before the american public to talk about some very important issues that everybody is thinking about uh mr. edlow welcome back to the house it's good to have you here um my first question i would ask direct to you director um at the end of fiscal year twenty twenty uh uscis reported a net backlog of uh six point two nine million cases uh an increase of more than sixty five percent from the previous year with expectations that additional enhanced screening requirements for all visa applicants may further strain processing times um this is a concern particularly as it relates to our american farmers and businesses that rely on foreign workers to work during peak seasons to fill their labor needs so couple of question there if i may uh what assessments did dhs make before implementing these policies about the likely impact on visa processing times and seasonal labor flows uh could you describe what resources uscis is allocating to address this potential backlog and ensure timely processing of visa applications and then on top of that do you have plans to review and utilize authorities available to your agency to streamline visa processing such as waiving in-person interviews or for returning workers could could you briefly touch on what you've done to date to help uh expedite visa processing

certainly mr. Nuhalsen thank you so much um when i got back to uscis this time around the asylum backlog if i may was one point five million cases when i had left in twenty twenty at the end of trump one uh i thought we had a bad backlog at about four hundred and four hundred thousand cases so the increase on the backlog over the time that the biden administration is something that we are still trying to deal with but also trying to address understanding who these individuals were and and kind of making sure that we have all that done

true

we are utilizing new uh screening and vetting through technology we're we're working on some ai tools as well as other things in order to better streamline the screening and vetting i will say in with the asylum backlog i know it's not exactly what you asked but the asylum backlog while it was one point five when i got here it is now one point four so we have actually made some progress in the last year it's a little but um as far as the uh the

with the right right yeah

workers especially the farm workers as i said to mister rutherford i am not tracking a backlog in that group at all in fact we are processing uh h two a visas within a five to seven day window from the time that the application is filed um and as i said if you're hearing something else please let me know so that we can address that but ultimately my my charge here is to make sure that we are not cutting corners that we are taking the uh the adjudication seriously and not getting i've made it very clear i believe there was a get to yes policy before run to the bottom my policy is not get to yes it's not get to no it's get to the right decision with all of the facts that we have in front of us and so we are absolutely taking uh into consideration the the needs of those that are petitioning as well as um the the general economic needs of But at the end of the day, screening and vetting will be the primary focus of what we're doing. I don't see that as incompatible with getting these applications done timely. I agree, application times, processing times on certain applications have gone up over the last uh fiscal year. What I would say, and I've been saying it a lot recently, is I consider this to be short-term pain, which is going to really lead to long-term gain in the in the fair and proper processing of immigration.

No, I appreciate that. I'm not asking you to cut corners. And I do look forward to working with your office as we have heard of some instances where there's been what seemed to be unduly delays and so on. But

Let's discuss it after this.

absolutely.

I'm happy to talk to you about it.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, turning to uh, Mister Lyons, Mister Scott. The what I would characterize the previous administration's disastrous border policies exacerbated the fentanyl crisis. that's plagued the united states including communities in my district in central washington we know that the agencies at the department of homeland security including c b p and ice and the coast guard have played a critical role in seizing illicit fentanyl and cracking down on drug trafficking trafficking organizations so commissioner scott uh and director lyons or acting director lyons to be precise your your your respective testimonies highlighted that cbp seized i believe it was seven hundred twenty one thousand pounds of illicit drugs i seized nearly a million pounds of fentanyl and precursor chemicals in the last year um this is just phenomenal work and i i applaud you and i stand ready to work with you to help your agency to continue this kind of successful effort so but the question i have could you briefly speak uh further to how your budget request enhance initiatives to so to keep our communities uh safe from fentanyl and other illicit drugs.

I'll go first. Yeah, I'll touch on it real quickly. Part of that re- the actual weight is almost irrelevant. We're talking about keeping it off the streets. So it shouldn't be the higher the number the more success. What we're looking at is improving our inspections and we have. The reduction in illegal immigration has resulted in tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands by now, of increased hours of enforcement time. The border wall that we're building out allows every single agent to be more effective and it allows us to shift personnel to the coast to look for tunnels and to take out the drones that are coming across. We wanna prevent illegal narcotics from getting into the United States, not just seize them when they come. And I would argue, just if you look at our ports of entry, our inspection, the percentage of vehicles and baggage and commercial vehicles that were is increasing on a daily basis, and that's a win for America.

Great. Just real quickly, Mister Lanz, I got one more thing I wanna ask you.

So, uh, just really quickly. If you look, um, again, Mister Scott said it earlier that it's a team sport. Um, CBP secured the border, so it allows HSI homeless security investigations to really work with our international partners. And that's who we're focused on. Especially states like yours and California, we do see the impact of the flow of precursor drugs coming from the Indo-Pacific region. and we're committed with the countries of australia and new zealand to really focus on that specifically on uh working with the coast guard to intercept those um before they even get to the port so what we're looking for is that you know having a robust homeland security task force which we've now established in almost every state working with state and local partners in streamlining that to make sure we focus not only just here domestically but internationally with our partners where we know where that's coming from

oh thank you uh if i could get to one more question mister chairman um

yes mister quay or please proceed

just following precedent um

thank you

so as as many of us on this committee are aware uh beyond immigration enforcement uh ice also serves as a critical federal asset to detecting and dismantling the transnational criminal networks targeting narcotics smuggling human trafficking gang violence and cyber financial crimes. isis homeland security investigations. operations also have been a leading agency target targeting child exploitation. uh which according to your testimony director has led to more than. uh i think almost five thousand. arrests related to child expectations nearly. fifteen hundred. child victims rescued and over thirty one hundred convictions. related. to human trafficking so. has the shutdown director impacted your operations in in detecting uh dismantling arresting convicting um the bad actors involved in this heinous operation of child trafficking and exploitation

yes sir it does and there's a there's a misinformation that with the big useful bill ice is completely funded but there are specifically uh through regulation that can only be used for certain task it doesn't involve home and security investigations um everything from having vehicles with gas in the vehicles to deploying agents tdy that's an impact cause we just don't have that funding on top of that our critical intelligence network uh is like is like contract based and we're just not able to pay for those contracts right now our victim advocates victim specialists we just don't have that so while we always hear that ice is flush with money maybe for detention and removal but not for the critical things that actually protecting americans everyday and one of the most vital uh things we do is child exploitation

yeah appreciate that i think we'll do what we can to help you thank you mister chairman uh yield back the balance of my you don't have any yield back but thank you anyhow the gentlelady from illinois floor is yours

thank you mister chairman i'm so glad that we're finally having this oversight hearing because the american people need to understand what's going on at dhs so i'll jump right in mister lyons How many people have died in ICE custody on your watch?

Of forty four ma'am. Twenty five this fiscal year.

OK. Um, we understand that ICE records list forty five under your leadership and forty nine total since President Trump took office. I would encourage you to remain current on those uh lists.

Yes, sir.

And how does that death rate on your watch compare to your predecessors?

So ma'am, it's to your point, it's it is the highest because we do have the highest amount

ok so what i hear you testifying before your committee is before this committee is that isis never had a deadlier year um since twenty twenty five and more people are dying than ever before and with the death rate so far this year you're in track to break that record um and yet we've not had a real explanation in the congress or the american people why where people are dying. Just simply saying that there's more detainees, I mean, you have more officers, you have more resources. And so that's not, in my opinion, a valid uh rationale for why the death rate would be increasing. So the San Francisco Chronicle really recently worked with medical experts to review the deaths and found that quote " people routinely died in custody without ever being seen by doctors, even as they begged for help." Uh, Mister Lyons, does ICE have any specific internal goals or policies regarding death and custody

yes ma'am we do and ice alone has spent almost half a billion dollars last fiscal year that this committee has given us to insure that people have the proper medical care everyone has a complete physical within fourteen days and is seen by a medical profession in the first twenty four hours so

right that's about medical treatment my question is about policies or goals regarding deaths

well so as far as what ma'am we do

do you have any internal policies or goals regarding the number of deaths in custody

yeah well we don't no death is what we want we don't want anyone to die in custody

is that an official policy of ice

so no one die in custody i hope that's a policy of anyone that has to be tasked with detaining somebody

yes i hope it's not a policy i'm just asking are there any policies within your agency no

no

ok so that's something that perhaps we can work on together because i believe particularly given the death rate that that should be codified maybe a memorandum from your office to all ice employees uh maybe a memorandum to your grantees you know core civic and the geo group you know what i mean they we are seeing significant numbers coming out of those contracted ice facilities and that should be something that's communicated from you as ice leadership to those under your watch we're familiar with nbc news reporting from this week calling out the decreased transparency regarding circumstances of immigrant deaths in custody nbc news reports that ice has chosen not to

no ma'am we are reporting um we are working on that timeline we are reporting up to uh congress as well as to put it on our public website when we are

ok so when's the most recent report that you're aware of

wait i'll give it to and get you that ma'am

ok because as you can tell this committee is only aware

but if

of the NBC News reporting, which on the public website lists mid-feb mid-february. And in my opinion, it is unacceptable that this transparency is being deemed non-essential. When an NBC News reporter asked why you had stopped posting information about your investigations into deaths in custody, a department spokesperson said that the delay was in quote " due to non-essential reporting". Mister Lyons, is there a legal basis for that claim that investigating deaths

No, ma'am.

OK. Um. Let's work together to change that and to update that public reporting as soon as possible, perhaps by the end of the week.

Yes, ma'am.

Excellent. Now, one man died when his HIV was left untreated for months. Another man died after detention staff saw him have seizures, yet waited over an hour to call an ambulance. Mister Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the San Francisco Chronicle article titled, and ice custody medical delays drive record deaths

without objection we can take the gun to the sword

thank you thank you uh we understand that under the trump administration uh detention watchdog agencies have been gutted how many staff are employed at ice s office of detention oversight

i can get you that specific number ma'am one thing that we have increased though is we have gone back to increasing what are we have for our detention standards so if i could go back to uh

so mister mister uh mister acting director yes um

li

we are familiar with the detention standards those have been widely publicized what is not publicized is what's going on at the watchdog agencies who are in charge of enforcing said standards and listen if the office exists on paper and there are no staff well then we know that that accountability is not being provided to the officers um and so please do get back that information and our office would be delighted to offer the american people that transparency yeah ok so perhaps you might just wanna put out a press release with that information ok ok so um the san francisco chronicle's analysis confirms what we've witnessed firsthand on my oversight visits a few months ago i went to the miami correctional facility in bunker hill indiana where i met individuals who told me it took months to receive medication refills including life threatening illnesses like diabetes others reported being left unattended with infected boils and others uh really serious conditions. Mister Lyons, these are things that we saw with our own eyes. And as a nurse, I know what medical negligence looks like. I was devastated, but I wasn't surprised when I learned that a detainee at that facility died shortly after my visit. And ICE is not the only DHS agency with chilling disregard for human life. So Mister Scott, uh your border patrol agents abandoned a nearly blind refugee alone on the street in the middle of winter in upstate New York, and a medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Mister Scott, has CBP or Border Patrol launched any internal investigation of the actions of these Border Patrol officers implicated in this homicide?

I'm aware of that incident. Uh, the facts are a little bit in dispute, but yes, that is being investigated, I believe by OPR and I believe OIG, but I'll have to get back to you on the OIG piece.

So, so the OIG is the department.

I believe so.

Of, oh right, OK, but nothing internally within CBP.

No, that's OPR, I'm sorry. Office of Professional Responsibilities is CBP.

OK.

they will always do the administrative procedural investigation piece,

ok

but anything criminal uh goes to oig or to fbi

which a homicide would be criminal

correct

ok uh but the fbi is not involved as mister lyons testified with respect to their alleged homicide so for this case i'm i'm confirming

i can't i can't state on what he's what he testified to you i'm just telling you that internally it's opr

yes

and in this case i believe it's oig but i'm not gonna testify on behalf of oig so i'll have to get back

no no no no OK, but you're saying that to your knowledge the FBI is not involved in the CBP.

In this specific case, I do not believe that.

OK, excellent. Um, well actu at the end of the day, it is clear that the American people, American citizens are not safe from your agents. During Operation Midway Blitz, which happened in my home state of Illinois, CBP deployed specialized tactical units called Boar Tack and Boar Star into residential areas in Illinois. These units are equipped for military style counterterrorism. operations they're untrained and totally unfit for civilian law enforcement in densely populated areas with families schools and churches and your agents use tear gas pepper balls tasers and physical force against civilians including protesters journalists and clergy dozens of people including us citizens like renee goode and alex preddy have been shot or killed by ice and border patrol agents since you both took office and in many cases body cam footage and other forensic evidence often contradicts your agency's versions of events. And over and over, we've seen no consequences. You can't or won't rein in your agents, and you are obstructing state and local uh investigations. From record-breaking deaths in custody to the killing of US citizens at the hands of federal agents, it could not possibly be clearer that your agencies are out of control. The patterns of reckless, incompetent, cruel, illegal, corrupt, an unconstitutional behavior across your agencies and the total lack of accountability to congress the american people and the constitution in my opinion these are leadership problems not funding problems last summer your agencies got a hundred and forty billion dollars in the big ugly bill and you're obviously not using it to surge any kind of basic medical care to detainees or adequate training to your agents meanwhile i'm still waiting for answers to basic

mister guest the floor is yours

thank you mr. chairman uh to our witnesses uh thank you for being here uh thank you for the men and women that serve under your command uh thank you for your dedication uh during uh a very difficult time uh and let me apologize to you uh for the dysfunction of congress let me apologize for the fact that my friends on the other side of the aisle refused to vote to support the funding of dhs that they refuse to recognize the important mission that you serve, that they refuse to support the men and women of law enforcement who stand watch on that wall each and every day, protecting the American citizens. Uh, and so I just personally want you to know uh that there are people in Congress, there are people across this country who view what you do is admirable. They view what you do as heroic. Uh, they thank you for your service. Uh, and so I would ask that when you leave here, uh, when you return, uh, to the men and women that you serve with, uh, you please, uh, express on my behalf, uh, and the constituents of the third congressional district of Mississippi, uh, how much we appreciate what they do. Uh, Mister Scott, wanna ask you a question, uh, as it relates to budget reconciliation, um, you know, was proud in the budget reconciliation that that we made what i believe was a a a generational investment in border security um two things in particular wall and barriers construction uh and then technology uh those are areas that i think we'll continue to pay dividends uh long after those monies are expended and and long after we are are no longer in congress and so i just wanna talk to you very briefly about uh where we are on the rollout of of some of those uh first as it relates to barrier uh wall construction um can you talk a little bit about the progress uh that your agency uh has made uh knowing that there are um i'm gonna have to say challenges at times uh sometimes court challenges uh sometimes environmental challenges can you kinda walk me through and walk the committee through of where we are uh as it relates to wall and barrier construction

Yes, sir. Thank you for that question. I'm gonna say something that you rarely hear in these hearings or anywhere in the federal government. And as far as the border wall construction goes, we're ahead of schedule and we're below budget.

Amen.

It We're we're doing a great job. I'll just give you t-

Thank you for yielding back. Next question.

I'll give you today's numbers. Uh, we're at about almost fifty miles of new construction of primary border wall, about five point five of buoy barrier, and we're at about thirteen point two of secondary barrier. But the important thing there, the big difference is, we put a team together that had done this before. So a lot of the issues that we dealt with during Trump forty five, land acquisition, different challenges, uh we we know how to get past those now, which the team is basically a high speed, low drag team. And it's not just CBP. It's working with Department of War, it's working with Department of Justice, and we're we're doing a lot of good. Every foot of that border wall system, and it's a smart wall, it's not just a barrier, I think a lot of people miss. that has technology built into it so we know when somebody approaches it it maximizes the use of our most valuable resources which is our agents and our personnel

and and wanna talk to you talk a little bit about the the technology uh and um the fact that it's not necessarily just completely a physical barrier you know one of the things that there was money uh uh in the reconciliation bill was for for towers uh and uh towers are equipped to help detect individuals uh approaching the border uh and part of the provision that we as congress placed uh in that uh was we wanted those systems to be autonomous uh to uh be able to maximize the resources that you have uh to be able to uh alert uh someone who could then um uh serve as a force multiplier so you wouldn't have an agent sitting there looking at uh that we could uh use uh the technology that exists and is being rolled out uh to make that more efficient uh and so i think there was about one point two billion dollars uh if i'm not mistaken uh that we put in there for uh the the tower system and so my question as it relates to the tower system is one uh can you talk a little bit about the testing and the vetting process for uh potential vendors uh of this uh and then second can you also give me a little bit uh of information if you have it about when we would expect the majority of those funds to be put to contract

sure so the the the autonomy piece it goes beyond the towers so we're building that into the ports of entry into the scans but we're leveraging ai and thank you for writing it into the bill but we are doing it anyway because it's the right thing to do so the towers themselves uh a little bit like the border wall competition is actually driving its dramatic improvements in the capabilities and it's driving the the cost point down. Trump forty five, we had one vendor, we have five vendors, I'm sorry, we have four vendors now that have passed the autonomy test. They provided us equipment, we've used the agents. Uh, we we articulated specific requirements to be able to identify something, uh, the uh, a movement to classify it and then to continue to track it. And when I say that early in my career, I thought it was great when somebody could call an to me on a radio but what i mean now is that's going to a device that the agents have with them in the field in real time if a agent wants to take over that tower they can but those are the requirements we built in we're already fielding some of those we're going through a second testing uh just in about a month or two that makes double check everyone of those towers or those companies can integrate into what we call a cop but basically they can integrate into a system that it doesn't matter which tower it is it goes to that that syst that phone if you will the atac so that the agents can see it better um i'll get back with you on the actual rollout of the timing cause we're rolling it out in three different phases and honestly right now it's not about signing the contract it's about making sure that the vendors can buy and and get the equipment that they need to build the towers

and last question mr. scott as it relates to um the the testing of these uh systems uh is that something that your agents are there part of that testing process because uh what i wanna make sure is whatever contract uh that you ultimately decide to enter into uh that it is something that is user-friendly to your agents uh that we are providing them the information that they need often i've seen i won't say often occasionally i've seen systems uh that aren't really operable uh and not in in your agency particularly but not really optimal to what is needed by the men and women the boots on the ground it's the system that's been provided to them and then they are forced to use that system but what i wanna make sure and uh since we are making what i consider to be a generational hopefully once in a lifetime investment uh that the system that ultimately is chosen is a system that mmm your agents uh want that it meets their needs uh and that we are designing the system if you will around them instead of telling them to perform their work around the system

Short, so the short answer is yes, I think you already know this, but I'd highlight, I get it. I spent thirty years as a Border Patrol agent, I suffered through some of that. The the text sheet that the vendors gave us, said it was the answer to world hunger, and we deployed it to the field, it, it was a joke. We're leveraging those lessons and again it's a lot of the same team from Trump forty five that helped like build out some of these concepts are looking at it now, but we have not, we have third party validators. and more importantly, we have agents who are testing the stuff out in the field, getting immediate feedback, and that is built into the test process. I refuse to deploy anything to the field that the, that doesn't help our agents, let alone waste taxpayer money doing it.

Well, thank you, and I'll close with this quote as it relates to working with vendors uh to provide what they say a quote from my favorite president of Ronald Reagan uh, trust but verify. With that I yield back.

mr. schicamonte the floor is yours

thank you mr. chairman and uh thank you all for being here you know when you sit this far down the table and the chairman this is generous as he's been with the time for everyone it's one of those cases that um everything has been said but not everybody has said it right so i my some of my questions may seem a little repetitive but uh i i do wanna dig into a little more on some of the some of these issues uh i'm from arizona sixth district this is in the eastern corner of the state this is a border district this has been a a big issue for us uh from my from my first time from my first term here and i wanna uh just looking at where we were three years ago uh to today it's an amazing um it's amazing progress that we have made in this area so i wanna commend uh not not only the three of you for that work but all the men and women in your department yeah that have done that and you've made tremendous strides and even along the way in adapting to the different demands that that uh this uh this approach has brought to all the people involved uh the the order is tall in terms of having to um not even sure that we could ever undo what the biden administration did in terms of an open border policy but uh really trying to uh rescue our nation from what happened in those four years and trying to find people

mmm

that um should be uh deported from this country that are committing crimes here in the united states so i i wanna thank you for that and and also uh my perspective is unique and i'll and i'll mention this as i get to my last question but i i'm a naturalized citizen so i've gone through the process i i've i know what that is like so i have some questions for you here towards um the last part of it but uh the first one i would like to start with commissioner skye in terms of um uh the the the fentanyl and i think this was also brought up by one of my colleagues when we look at what the the progress that we've made has been very much on the human trafficking side and in the uh even in arizona you have different parts of the border and we saw different traffic over on the west side in the yuma area was a lot of the family units coming in over in the coachies county area on the eastern side you saw a lot of the people that were avoiding law enforcement uh uh overall in in those biden years and then in the kinda like center you have the the the santa cruz county nogales area where the the main port of entry is and we know that fentanyl is being crossed through uh all three but but really the ports of entry play a key role in intercepting a lot of this so can you tell me and i have one question for each and and i would rather not go over although that seems to be the popular thing to do but i if i if i could get away with that uh i i can you just uh tell me real quick on the fentanyl site and the port of entry what's what's the latest there

sure so i i would say that illegal immigration by the way is a distraction you see it but the narcotic smuggling is always going on. The ports of entry specifically, thank you for the funding in prior and going forward. The NII equipment, the non-intrusive equipment allows us to improve the scanning. But it's more than that. We have a national targeting center here in DC, and we work with the Homeland Security Task Forces to make sure that when, to, we have all the information we possibly can about the smuggling networks, about what they're doing, so that we can actually aim our personnel at the right target at the right time. But, the the NII is a part of it but I wanna remind the committee to thank you for it but it always takes an officer or an agent at the end of the day to decide what's there the technology just identifies an anomaly it's really working with the homeland security task forces building the intelligence on these on these networks and then actually putting an officer and agent on target and we're doing that more and more on a daily basis

I I agree with that and uh I think there is technology that we can continue to support nothing beats obviously the the boots on the ground and the the the men and women actually doing that job and the training for that which comes with recruitment as well and challenges in that area so love to talk to you more about that um uh off-line as well uh director lyons you know what we we have heard some of this here and uh regarding the the the holding facilities that the with the the that you all have and i visited um one of my district and you know i i i saw a very different picture of them from what some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to pay these um apparently surprise visits and come out with new findings of uh all that's going on in there that that uh they claim to be extremely alarming that's uh not what i saw when i was when i was there and i made an appointment like people do and and i showed up and and and i got um and i got a a uh a view from from the inside and and i asked a lot of questions we spent hours there so uh can you just run through with me and for me what what is what is the status of of these facilities and what are we seeing give me the the truth on that

so sir first off just uh thank you for saying that it uh you know i can tell you from my time as being a field office director in the field um i've had a occasion where i have hosted uh leadership congressional senate to come in and review our facilities and um have it be a great trip great and formal for the member and then they go out and they say how horrible we are um uh what we took what we did with our reconciliation money is we are we are revamping how we do detention you know for so long we've always heard that the cost of um ice's contracting how much we're actually spending on these facilities that aren't isn't up to par if you will we're totally game changing that so these new facilities they'll be scalable in the fact that how many people we can actually put in the facility if we need it if we don't we can move it back um it's gonna be a cost saving to government because it's gonna be a whole of dhs building where we gonna have immigration courts cis border patrol needs space secret service tsa all in one location so while we have while we knew we had a need to revamp and revitalize how we do long-term retention we wanted to make sure that we use that money in a smart way to benefit all the partners here at the table

i appreciate that and uh yeah what i saw was obviously uh people living conditions they were um outside recreational activities they were involved in there was uh i i visited the medical facility as well within the the facility and saw people getting medical care so my my uh off-line more that i wanna have with you as well as regarding uh additional training and and and what has changed throughout this last year for for uh agents uh out in in in the country conducting these operations we'll have to have more on that but i wanna close off with uh director edlow thank you for being here as well as i stated earlier i'm a a naturalized citizen uh i became a citizen in two thousand and six this year i celebrate my twentieth year as a us citizen and i and i happen to be sitting here as a united states congressman uh in this committee being able to to work with you on on this process you know i visit the the naturalization ceremonies i think we naturalize close to a million people a year uh of becoming new citizens i know the process well i know that it was long i know that it was somewhat uh uh bureaucratic and expensive to to go through and and i am all for the the right vetting and and and making sure that the right people are in this country as they go through the naturalization process what what have you seen in terms of uh you said there is the the the um the wait time for uh h one a visas uh is is five to seven days tell me little more about the the actual process of people receiving a a a permanent work permit or a green card and then uh citizenship as well what's that process like and what resources do you need to improve uh that system

well uh congressman thank you and congratulations on the twenty years as a as a citizen you embody what it means to actually take this uh this privilege and this honor seriously and so i'm i'm thrilled to have you say that um

thank you

in terms of the process it's very it's very case-by-case specific it depends on what the person what the basis is for them getting a visa whether it's through work or through uh through family member but the the wait times have increased uh to get through that initial step to get the green card as well as then to get after the five year or the three year wait depending on the situation to get to the naturalization uh naturalization times are also up slightly than they were previously but that is largely because i have gone through the process now and have really determined that the last several years we saw a um cheapening i would say of the process and of the way that it was administered uh the way that the good moral character questions were asked or truncated into one question uh is not acceptable we've had to reestablish uh and reteach our adjudicators what good moral character is what attachment to the constitution is what is exactly what was congress looking for in naturalization and that's what we're getting to right now so yes times have increased But I think we are making sure that the people that are being naturalized are in fact the ones who understand, who appreciate, and who are eligible for the privilege of citizenship based on what Congress has intended.

Thank you. Last thing I'll say, Mr. Chairman, is uh in Arizona about ten years ago now we passed a law that um requires uh high school students to pass the same citizenship test that US citizens have to pass in order to graduate high school and uh at that time that we did that not not a lot could pass that test. Uh, but naturalized citizens, we studied for that test, we passed that test, and now high school students, at least in Arizona and many other states since then, uh, passed that test as well. So, thank you for that, Mr. Chairman. I yield back a ton that I don't have.

Miss Henson, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, um, and to my colleague, I'm sure members of Congress probably need to review some of us on, uh, on that test as well. To our witnesses, thank you so much for being here. Um, you all are leading the front lines in in keeping our country safe, and I know that it's been a tumultuous time for you, and I'd echo what my my colleague mister guest said about um you know it's it's a pity that we're in this pickle and that congress has put you in this pickle but thank you for standing the line and continuing this good work in reforming um a lot of these uh antiquated processes that that need a new look um and need a new look to keep our country safe. Uh director edlow i wanna start with you um thank you for your testimony and i'm interested in your work combating fraud across the system you talked a little bit about making sure we're we're making sure the right people are becoming citizens but making sure we're holding people accountable when they're um perpetuating fraud here in the united states is critical and just last week uh uscis arrested man from south korea that had uh been living in california misuse of visas medical fraud more fraud with green card applications uh fraud does nothing but waste those taxpayer dollars that are so precious and um we need to make sure that people who are applying for legal status the right way um get that process um but it's just such a slap in the face to those who um who are taking advantage of the system so can you talk about the importance of full funding for fraud prevention, specifically in the detection account underneath your agency, and the progress you've made in combating that fraud.

Well, thank you, Congresswoman, and uh, no, I I appreciate what you're saying. We are working very, very hard to look at every visa category that we administer to determine what changes need to be done to really uh clamp down on the entitlement fraud, on the visa fraud. And that's why uh to the point that I raised earlier with Mister Cuellar, why it is so critical, we have a small, dedicated group of criminal investigators in our ranks to to dig into that in a different way and to bring those cases to the US Attorney's Office, so that people realize that it's not a free pass. There is no entitlement. And you're right, it does waste public benefits, but it also it it's a uh it's a tax it's a drain on taxpayers all all around. Uh, in terms of the monies that we are using right now for it, the fees that we take in, we are fairly fully funded when it comes to our immigration uh examination fee account and our fraud accounts for the purpose of conducting fraud all of that has been considered as part of our um our yearly budget that we do as we as you know we don't get a yearly appropriation so our carryover has to include that and we are in a very good spot for that but what i would say congresswoman is we can't look at the immigration system as being in a vacuum so the work that i do at uscis and that our agents and directly is impacted by and impacts the work that mister lyons officers and agents do and commissioner scott's uh we need the full immigration apparatus to be funded and working in order to fully address the fraud the entitlement fraud the immigration visa fraud that we are seeing here and yes we are making loads of progress and i would say the relationship i've been in immigration for a long time Uh, the relationships that we have right now developed between the three agencies that you see before you, is the best relationship, the best working relationship that these agencies have had in the, in my opinion, since the founding of the department.

Yeah, and you have to be working in tandem. It's very, very clear. And I, I think about, um, you know, and ICE being able to do its job as well in, in concert with what you're doing, Director Edlow. And, um, Director Lyons, I wanna thank you for your leadership. Um, I, I followed the, the website, the worst of the worst, right? And some of those people in Iowa, it's mortifying to me that uh allowed to to fester in our community so we need to make sure you have the resources to be able to to get these bad people out of our country and hold them accountable um and i wanted to focus on uh some of the on the ground investigations through hsi specifically i see that hsi has dismantled three hundred fifty major criminal organizations which is incredible the target was i think one hundred thirty one so it just blew that out of the water and undoubtedly that keeps americans safer than ever before as uh we know that those dangerous cartels were pouring uh drugs into our communities trafficking women and children and posing both physical and of course cyber threats as well so um i'm focused on a lot of these things especially tackling them related to the chinese communist party um and knowing the work that hsi has done to fight against the fentanyl trade and other illicit drugs can you talk to the threat landscape a little bit and how bad actors like the ccp and others are involved here

yes ma'am well thank you for the support for homeland security investigations and unfortunately the great work of the special agents and the men and women of hsi gets overlooked unfortunately because of that stigma of being a part of immigration and customs enforcement but they play a huge portion in that especially in the customs portion um what we've found is that it's key for hsi to have the ability to work international and that is with our partnership again as i spoke earlier about in the in the indo-pacific region that is key right now um the ccp is a huge threat as as well as their uh transnational criminal organizations that have come over here um to just wreak havoc i'll give you uh uh an example hsi actually broke the largest um gift card fraud case ever and it was from transnational gangs within the ccp that were sending that back money back to uh military units in china and all that all came from gift card fraud here in the united states

so we're literally funding our own adversaries through that fraud

yes yes

yeah

and it was unfortunately a military age chinese males that entered under the last administration through the poorest border they were able to go as something as simple as credit uh gift card fraud um we're just supplying small amounts whether it be twenty dollars fifteen dollars back to the people of public of china and that was huge

and that's all coming from people who can afford Right. I've talked to some of these people who've been victims of fraud and it is, uh, incredible what these transnational organizations are doing to take advantage of our most vulnerable many of them senior citizens in places like Iowa who, uh, are taking advantage of. Um, Commissioner Scott, with the time I have left, cuz I know I'm running out here and they've called votes, um, we're, we're really in a unique position, uh, here on the committee to, to really, um, help with those historic investments already made in the working families tax cut, uh, with the agency and we all wanna make sure that those are executed as efficiently as

sir so we're having uh a tremendous success in rolling out and obligating the funds out of the big beautiful bill i'd be glad to get with you off-line and give you a a a line by line uh as you know cbp got significant uh funding out of that forty six point five billion was for the wall system but the rest of the the money that we got um i'd be very happy to share that with you cause it went everything from aircraft as we talked about the towers already uh some n i i equipment all the above all of which will play in into it that is still going forward despite the fact that we're not funded now so we are still having some significant challenges internally with everything else i'm looking i can buy new aircraft right now but i can't pay to maintain the ones that I currently have. So

That seems backwards, right? I mean

It seems totally backwards.

we should be able to use those resources. So um I think that it it goes without saying this committee has d- done its work, we've gotten our bills through, um our colleagues on the other side of the aisle need to make sure you all at CBP ICE and USCIS can do your job. Thank you.

Thank you.

I yield back, Mister Chairman.

Thank you, ma'am. Uh Listen folks, uh first of all thank you, I appreciate it. Um the last year hasn't been great for for the dhs congressional relationship it's not personal it's not individually directed we we we got a new secretary former colleague of course that was true the last one um so anyhow as far as i'm concerned we're going forward but as we go forward we have learned some lessons and so uh information sharing to put it kindly was terrible and and so you know i remember saying all through the last round last year we won't surprise you don't surprise us i might as well have been whistling dixie no i don't think it was because any of you sat down and said i'm not answering those guys is or whatever or talk to the hand cause the face isn't listening but we've learned things from that too and so um uh i'm i i hope we have a better relationship i'm not gonna tell you i expect it because we're getting really good at ok if you don't answer us then guess what you know and fill in the blank there's no reason we should we should be at that point in time um we expect more prompt answers to legitimate questions now that we have new leadership and i think some of the shackles are have probably been taken off um for the get back questions i already told you it's like listen forty eight hours and you're like hey we got other stuff to do we can't just stand down and answer then within forty eight hours say here's what we're working on it here's what we expect to give you here's when we think we'll get it crickets won't work um as you know there'll be other questions and and that sort of stuff and and listen that's all just communication um so uh we're all on a compressed timeline but i can give you a couple of hints right now to take back to your folks voting for anything no disrespect to the geniuses on the north side of the building that has goose eggs for you and you that's that dog's gonna find a real hard time hunting over it um i don't speak for the speaker and i don't speak for chairman cole i'm just telling you that everybody learns from their stuff leaving somebody behind on the battlefield and you guys were left we're sorry we passed your bill we passed it off the floor job isn't done nobody say you know hang up that banner mission accomplished but nonetheless when the omb says tell congress to pull their head out it's like you you know what i'd say if i wasn't trying to imitate a mature young adult. So, having said that, um, and it's like, ok, reconciliation is the answer, right now we're supposed to pass this bill out of the full committee on June tenth. You wanna solve a lot of problems? Send this message back to your advisors down the street. A home a house homeland bill which will be passed on a partisan basis most likely, or a a mildly bipartisan basis, is supposed to be done by June tenth. but you know what that has that has all the traditional stuff it doesn't have any zeros for anybody and it's got all that thing that maybe the the the the congress does once in a while which is called oversight and it's not like we broke anybody's legs doing oversight lately that might be something that somebody ought to consider because i can tell you that a reconciliation bill just here we're plugging in different numbers like like two years ago or last year whenever it was um we've learned a few things in that and quite frankly the track record maybe not at your levels but above your level on responding to that has been nonrobust how's that for us nicest see that makes you not feel too bad about saying i'm still glad to see you go but you can go little slower now so anyhow thank you folks very much please pass that on um we're off to the races but you're going with us you know that we won't surprise you think so we say hey we want answers from you we are going to be uh

yeah

discussing with you and secretary mullen ok what about this how about that how do we fix the deal i think you've already fixed some of them you just need somebody to stand up for your fixes and you know like hey how do we identify people well if there's a better mouse trap for how to identify agent xyz by number whatever then we're happy to look at that so anyhow um thanks again i know you've had enough fun for today congratulations and enjoy the rest of your day