Oversight Hearing – Department of Homeland Security

We can't hold it longer. We want everyone in our dorms are being terrorized and OK. We're all shamed and please exit the building. Thank you. Is it time? Well, we're actually two minutes late, Mister Secretary. Well, we're actually two minutes late, Mister Secretary. Huh. Well, you know Mister Secretary, you're a young guy. I'm a senior, I'm a senior. I'm an old guy. Um um Homeland Security is uh is now called to order. Uh welcome back to the house, Mister Secretary. It has been our uh uh it's been our tradition to have the Secretary of Homeland Secur- Security appear before the committee once uh about once a year on average and so since it's been i think uh a year ago last may since your predecessor was in front of the committee um and we're uh and and we're right in the middle of the fiscal year uh uh uh process for for twenty twenty six we are going to uh to have a uh we're gonna have a little visit with you as is the tradition um And so I would like to start out by uh recognizing members for opening statements. I'm gonna waive my opening statement. Uh I reserve the right to do a uh a closing statement if I see fit. But with that and moving right along to the gentleman from Laredo, the floor is yours for your opening statement.

Mr. Chairman, uh thank you so much and again uh we wanna thank you for your leadership. As you know you'll be leaving Congress at the end of the year and I just have to say it's been a pleasure working with you and your staff. along with our staff so thank you again for the many years of experience. uh like to welcome uh the secretary again it was a pleasure talking to you yesterday and the deputy secretary also mister edgar also and we look forward for your testimony in the dialogue as we start here this morning. you know there is many issues that we wanna uh talk about but before i get started i i like to take this time to acknowledge the bravery of a border patrol agent uh, Alex Medellin, who while he was off duty, he responded to a fatal plane crash in Laredo, Texas. Uh, on June sixteenth, uh, he joined first responders and good Samaritans, uh, to rescue people from the flames of a, of a airplane that crashed there in Laredo. I, uh, understand that his bravery is a reflection of the courage and the commitment of those that serve not only Laredo, but all across the, uh, nation, but I just wanted to say thank you uh for that individual that uh border patrol agent as i move forward uh you know we certainly wanna look at hearings that we've had in the past and i think it's uh we know the work that homeland does it's uh critical to the national uh economic security uh safeguarding physical and technological infrastructure and networks encourage and making sure that we counter the foreign threats Uh, and again I appreciate all the work and we understand the way threats have been evolving, and the way this committee uh has been working with their department. Uh, let me start off with the uh two hundred and sixty billion dollars for reconciliation. Uh, despite the efforts of the chairman, myself, we tried to finalize uh the funding for all of DHS in fiscal year twenty twenty six. Uh, we tried, uh didn't get to that, uh, but uh we do know that uh there was a reconciliation that added two hundred and sixty billion dollars uh to the department i'm a big supporter of the department but i'm big supporter of article one of the constitution uh and that two hundred and sixty billion dollars is four it's more than four times that congress usually allocates to the department in one fiscal year uh including uh not including the disaster relief uh uh this funds never were never considered by the members of this subcommittee nor did the reconsideration uh include a a single safeguard to keep the funding accountable to the taxpayer uh that should concern every member of this appropriations uh panel the power of the purse and the duty of oversight uh are inseparable not because congress is entitled to this authority but because the american people uh deserve accountability uh we attempted uh during the mark up to add uh add additional oversight uh to the reconciliation through various amendments but we were not able to to do that uh uh we did have a few of those uh uh amendments uh that were put in the chairman's mark and i certainly wanna thank the uh chairman for adding uh some of that um a lot of the language that we were trying to add have been there for many many many years uh but were lost when the border patrol and the ice uh removal uh were removed uh from the fi twenty six and i'm a big supporter of ice of border patrol but i wanna see those uh safeguards and they've been common sense measures like reporting deaths in federal custody's minimum standards for detention contracts partnership agreements uh and And certainly, uh, protections as we talked yesterday about the Riverland in my, uh, district. I, I do wanna say that I am, uh, thankful to the chairman because he did reserve some, uh, some of that, uh, some of those protections in the chairman's mark. And I certainly wanna say thank you for that. Uh, I believe in strong border, uh, security, but it's gotta be more than fiscal barriers. uh especially to the border communities where we've had historical uh lows. i think uh the numbers have gone down by ninety six percent and i congratulate uh all of you all i do not support open borders and i do not support open borders but again we gotta have the right measures at the border and keep in mind the numbers went down without a single foot a border wall being constructed without a single foot a border wall constructed in my opinion it's something that i have advocated for many years you gotta have repercussions at the border you can't slap people on their hands and say you know come into but bienvenidos a los estados unidos you gotta have repercussions at the border and then at the same time you gotta work with our neighbors mexico and other countries and again numbers one down i believe that your numbers are ninety six percent without a single foot of a border wall Uh, but again, uh, we gotta look at what's important and uh technology, intelligence, well-trained uh personnel. I think we have reached twenty one thousand, almost twenty one thousand five hundred Border Patrol agents, which I support and I supported funding for our Border Patrol. But we gotta include uh our communities when we talk about uh border securities. Uh, the right policies matter, and as I mentioned, repercussions at the border for anybody that enters the border uh the united states illegally we gotta have those repercussions uh the you know the reality is the two hundred and sixty billion dollars that we added it's gonna run out it's gonna run out in three years and and uh and when we talk about uh hiring you know the twenty one thousand five hundred border patrol agents and as you know uh the reconciliation added three thousand agents uh to to uh to this but at the end of this we gotta annualize their salary so again we got a lot of issues that we certainly wanna look at and i look forward to asking some of the questions to mister secretary so it's a pleasure seeing you again uh uh and the uh assistant secretary look forward working with uh both of you all with that i yield back the balance of my time

thank you uh thank you mister quay or um So I'm gonna go to you now for questions. Shall I deduct a minute forty four from your questioning?

Uh no sir, you should add an additional uh minute and a half with my time.

Thank you for your advice. Um, I wanna let the committee members know that uh we had a couple of ways to go with this um and so I thought it would be especially with uh what's going on or not going on on the floor or that we don't know for sure what's going on on the floor. We're not gonna do two rounds of questioning but, mister guest would you like to come grab your seat or you sitting by the door for reasons the rest of us should know about

we won't interrupt

if there's a problem we'd like to go too but anyhow so we're gonna do one round of eight minutes per person to to allow you since it's been over a year to allow everybody to to have a good shot at at having a discussion with with the secretary but that's it one of eight and so uh and and i'm going to attempt to be fairly uh disciplined about the eight minutes Um, but with that said, we're gonna uh turn right around. Oh yeah, that's right. Mister Secretary, would you like to do an opening statement?

Well, for the sake of time, and I think you're pushing pretty quick to get in and out, I will do what you did in way of opening statement. Um, I think the ranking member is gonna ask me the questions that he talked about, so I'd be happy to address all those. I wrote them down here and and discuss them. And I can discuss them to the opening market, or opening, or if it's part of your questions I'll just defer to you to when you ask the questions. Cuz there's several of them here I want, I want to address.

As, as you can see, the secretary's training as a member of the House of Representatives is still strong in his ether.

Well, I think it's part of the Senate that taught me best, but I'm, no I'm kidding.

Well,

No, go for it.

OK those eight, those eight minute questions are split to twenty.

I was the House Mayor first, that's right.

Uh, so with that we're gonna start with questions. I don't see uh Miss Deloro here yet for her opening statement. where the floor is yours for eight minutes for questions of the secretary

yeah uh

yeah thank you sir uh again on the oversight provisions that we've had detention uh uh all all that that we had eh look right now we know we look next year there might be a different chairman here and we are certainly gonna put in the chairman's mark on this but you voted on this i assume uh uh when you were in the house and the senate uh cause we've had a lot of those uh provisions you know standards and detentions uh the protections we talked about yesterday you know we added under what i call the trump one administration uh six protections spacex uh the uh chapel and all those uh uh protections we have down there uh in the valley they they have been there since trump one we negotiated with uh under the trump one uh the secretary that was there in your place uh and we added those protections but then when the reconciliation came in some folks are saying well you know those dollars are outside congress so we gonna go ahead and do that in the chairman's market the way i understand it we did put language there uh in the chairman's market saying that those areas will be protected uh texas has one thousand two hundred miles of border and we just want those one mile here one mile here one mile here be protected i'm hoping you can work with us uh dealing with those reconciliation dollars

so um

uh thank you thank you member the reconciliation dollars and appropriation dollars are are by statute two separate funding it has two separate regulations same thing with detention centers and uh and and and reporting language um we know the difference and honestly it's it's kind of a quagmire because we have to deal with so many different statutory's it would be easy if we just had one

Yeah.

And uh, and just move forward. I would prefer that because it'd be an easier way for us to report, but bureaucracy gets in his way, we understand that. Um, the the wall, my number one job is to protect the homeland. And I'm telling you, uh, ranking member, I I love my job. I love that President uh Trump gave me this opportunity. I wake up every single day and I get to protect my yard just like I protect your backyard, people in California, people in New York, people in Oklahoma. I look at all the same, it's part of homeland. And we strive every single day. Uh, my deputy, Troy Egger, um, who is, who is, uh, truly, uh, uh, invaluable to me, we talk on a daily basis on the best way to deliver this. Rodney Scott, the head of CBP, um, we're meeting, um, almost daily on the wall. Our, our thing that we're seeing with the wall is the cartels are always changing. And they're a threat. There's not one inch of Mexico's northern border that isn't covered by a plaza. Plaza is cartels, nine cartels that control it. And they have plaza centers, they call it plazas, that they have plaza bosses, and they're always looking for vulnerabilities to push human trafficking and drug trafficking across our border. And they're getting very good at it. They're even using UAS now. Um, they, we just discovered our first tunnel in years because our wall is being effective. We are pushing them and to, to what we consider choke points. So the more walls we put, the more we can focus on traffic areas. And we take a hard look at this, and eh eh there's members on this committee that has called me about it, and there's committee, and other people throughout the House and the Senate, that when you call, I answer the phone. If we gotta go out there and take a look at the specific areas, we will do that. I've been on uh helos, traveling those borders, we have been on on uh in vehicles traveling those borders to see where are the most sensitive areas because we wanna be cognitive of the surrounding areas. But we also gotta take in first and foremost the safety of the homeland. And those are always something that we take in consideration when we're looking for any type of corridor.

Yes, sir. And and I'm with you. I live there. I don't just go visit the border and and I I I would love to have you go down to Laredo.

Yes, sir.

And if you would allow me, we'll find a time uh to go visit.

Will do it.

And Mexican food is pretty good down there.

I I agree, but I just found out that queso is like maybe like an Oklahoma thing,

Hey hey we'll we'll take any import uh from there.

Yeah.

But uh but i'd love to uh have you down there if if if you make the time and we'll invite the chairman down there.

Sure i'll do it, we can do it as a committee, with the chair, with however you wanna do it i'll absolutely do that.

Yeah eh now look eh and let me just talk about a couple of things uh on the border. And and again i'm i'm with you on security uh on the border. Problem is the river goes this way, this is the border wall, what happens is imagine if you were in oklahoma had property here and they would take all this away the the middle of the river is uh is actually the boundary we're not gonna put a uh uh a fence in the middle of the river we're not gonna put it at the river banks cause they all get washed off the thing is this is the uh the um where they put the actual fence at if you look at it uh and i've taken planes just following down here with michael maccoll this is the way the river is and when you put a fence over here you're just taking things away from property that's been there laredo for example was built in seventeen fifty five uh little older than our our country and all we want is go down there let's look at the best way to provide security uh down there and that's all we're asking when you go down there is just sit down with uh the folks there uh you know we we you know we're patriots down there so you know we've been around for a long time we live there we just want you to come down and sit and spend a little bit of time with us there

right remember actually the deputy just got back from there yesterday he spent a day and a half down there um the issue that we that we run into is the the people look at the river as being the exact location of the border. It's not. The river is moved. And when we're talking about putting a barrier, we fought this in Trump forty five, when we first started looking at surveying this. And do we, and the question was, is do we follow what we consider the natural barrier is the river, or what actually the lines were, uh, when we draw them, you know, back two hundred years ago. Um, it, it was because of some of the court rulings, it came to that we we have to look at where our actual border is, and that goes back to the Roosevelt line. So when we start looking at the Roosevelt line is where we try to put it at. Um, and there's some circumstances where we can't always run the Roosevelt line, uh, but where we can, we do. But that's the, that's where we try to run is our true our true border line.

Right. And we have fences down there in the valley, with the exceptions of those six exemptions that i talked about these are numbers from uh border patrol even with the fences look at the heat maps uh you still have people uh uh addressing and if you ask any border patrol chief i haven't asked this border patrol but i've asked border patrol chiefs from uh from uh boshwan uh all the way up to um uh to to except for this current one um and i've asked them how long does a border fence uh slow down somebody and they have always said from uh from uh a few seconds to a few minutes so again i'm for border security i got about uh twenty seconds left cause i will make sure we follow this but eh eh look we we can talk about it i'm for border security you're for border all i ask you is go down there i understand tom homan was down there also laredo uh appreciate notifications before instead of hearing from my mayor and other folks but i ask you to go down there and spend a little bit of time with our community

we we will do that and we are addressing a primary wall that's why we're putting the wall system now which is called the secondary wall two because the cartels have expen exposing it we're putting in smart fences which is allows us to respond when they're tampering with the wall the second wall which is a primary wall which will still be within our footprint we are constructing it sometimes at the same time uh partially we're gonna have to come back and do it but we're all have it done before uh trump president trump is out office we'll have the complete primary and secondary wall done. And that gives us time when they cut the fence, we can react, cuz they're doing it in very rural areas, we can react before they can get past the secondary wall. And we know how many we're dealing with, plus we're using UAS now to put up with heat sensors to be able to track them and see what we're dealing with.

Yeah.

So, well you're absolutely correct. The cartels have got really good, but that's what they do, they're criminals. And so every time you do something, they try to figure out a way to get around it. And we're gonna defeat them at every turn.

Yeah. Uh, my time is up. Thank you. By the way, according to FBI statistics, Laredo is the safest city in Texas. Thank you. Look forward to seeing you in Laredo.

Thank you, Mister Ranking Member. Next, we're gonna go to the gentleman from Florida. Mister Rutherford, the floor is yours for eight minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, Mister Secretary. It's great to see you, particularly in this position as a former law enforcement officer, myself. Uh, it's great to have somebody in there that understands law and order um we wouldn't need the wall like he said if every administration would enforce the current law as it is uh but they won't and so we need this wall uh it is the first one is an impediment the second one gives you time to get there and uh and and great great plan uh i i wanna speak a little bit about organized retail crime and cargo theft because they are no longer isolated property crimes. Uh, they are sophisticated, they are interstate, and they are often transnational criminal enterprises that threaten the integrity of the US supply chain. They impose higher cost on consumers and generate illicit proceeds to support these cartels who are running these things. and other criminal enterprises. I would also mention that these are the non-domicile CDL drivers that are killing our American public out on our roadways because they don't know how to drive. Um, last month, the house overwhelmingly passed the combating organized retail crime act, Corka. Uh, this committee also passed the FY twenty-seven homeland security appropriations bill which we included language in that bill for the four million dollars to establish the organized retail and supply chain crime center that would be created through Corka so we're we're funding it in advance hoping that uh you you know the senate will do the right thing we have to start fighting these cartels who are absolutely taking over our trucking industry um uh first i'd i'd like to know uh would you agree that combating cargo theft and disorganized crime is imperative to our national security and from a homeland security perspective how important is it that congress provides DHS with the tools and statutory direction that Corka gives uh to treat organized retail crime and supply chain crime truly as a as a national security threat

uh thank you sheriff er er carstman for the um I've called you sheriff for so long.

Yeah, please.

Yes, OK.

Yeah.

Uh, sheriff, thank you for that, um, question. It is something that we're seeing organized crime, uh, expanding into. Unfortunately, underneath a, a Biden administration that four years to build a network, because there was just no enforcement on this.

Mm-hmm.

Um, the Trump administration has had a zero policy and we're, uh, we're kicking all the networks. We're going from the cities on down to the borders. Uh, that's part of the president's enforcement and going by city by city. Because they do have networks there. And what we're seeing is cartels and, and, and, and, or, and other organizations that are, because the drugs that we are having a strong ef- uh, effect on, because the human trafficking that we have taken away from the borders, from the middle to traffic humans a- and, uh, uh, across. They're moving towards, more towards retail theft. Um, there's been a kind of hands-off, off policy. We're seeing this really bad in sanctuary cities. Uh, we're seeing, uh, CDLs drivers that they're not required to have the same amount of training, um, or hours in a truck, or, uh, or months or years of service. They can just simply switch their their their DOT number out and move right on. And we're seeing that they're directly tied to it. And we're seeing CDLs come out where it just simply says no name. Oklahoma, uh, I would, uh, say we're one of the strongest to enforce this, but the more cooperation we have with the two eighty seven G program, we can combat this. Cuz ICE, even though people, consider them just rounding up illegals, ISIS immigration custom enforcement, HSI who falls underneath ISIS is also part of that. They combat human trafficking, retail theft all the time. For Congress to to convey their interest in this, we have the authorities already to do it, but to convey it helps us get more cooperation from sanctuary states and sanctuary cities, saying that this is different. Because when you have these sanctuary governors uh and sanctuary mayors that go out and say, " You Cooperate at all with ICE.

Right.

What they're doing is the same time saying you can't cooperate not just with immigration but with other investigations that ICE does which is much more than that. And so it really handcuffs us from being able to do it. So what we're doing is we're playing, we're hitting all the red states, we're hitting the blue states that will cooperate with us, but we're just pushing them then into these high sanctuary cities, which is why you're seeing retail leave on a constant basis, which is not good for the economy. It's not good for anybody to do that. So the more you guys can help us and can they um, your interest, especially, this should be a bipartisan issue. This be something that no one is looking at, Oh, absolutely. this is a blue or red issue. This is across the state because when we lose Right. a a a uh a pharmacy, or you lose a grocery store, or you lose a mama pop shop, or you lose a jewelry store because they're getting robbed to death, literally, and no one's enforcing it, that's not good for anybody. That affects all of our, all your all's constituents. I said almost said all of ours, but I guess they're all your guys's constituents now. And we just simply wanna enforce laws. what we what what we don't do at DHS is pick and choose which law to enforce we enforce the laws that Congress passed

right and and i think it's important that uh DHS and DOT that we come together on this uh because part of part of the enforcement i can tell you if you wanna end this let's start seizing some of those trucks instead of giving the you know passing the cargo on and when we stop these uh drivers who are violating cabotage

right we have the authority

Let's let's start some seizures and forfeitures on these vehicles and that'll stop.

We we actually have that authority through the two eighty seven G program. And when I go back to Oklahoma,

Exactly.

Oklahoma, even though we have four point three million people in the state, we have more arrests than the two eighty seven G program, and we've revoked and confiscated more uh illegal CDL drivers than any other state. The only one that has more arrests is Florida. Their population is quite different. Oklahoma has has has stopped uh revoked uh license and arrested and confiscated vehicles more than any other state because we have complete cooperation with the two eighty seven g program.

you know i i'm glad you brought up two eighty seven g cause that leads right into my next issue uh because when when i was sheriff we i started a two eighty seven g program within my within my jail

i didn't know it was that old.

we oh yeah i'm kidding sir um but but here's the thing uh we've we've made significant investments in the program and i wanna say thank you you all have done so much in in expanding the two eighty seven g program um across the country uh i'm i think there is now over two thousand uh state and local agencies involved in the program that's phenomenal uh so can you talk a little bit about that and and how important that is i can tell you the the former uh ice chief who retired To- told me in the hearing it's the best thing since sliced bread. And we can't get these darn um sanctuary cities and states to - to participate in this program. And - and I like your idea, Mr. Secretary. We - we need to find a way to hold them accountable.

Yeah. So the two eighty-seven G has been super successful for us. One of the things that I wanna kinda tie back to because uh again that's allowing us to have the partnerships with all the sheriff organizations the secretary has been very focused on recovering UACs. children that it made it across the border four hundred and fifty thousand uh through the secretary's leadership and uh working with the white house we've been able to use the two eighty seven g program we've been using big beautiful bill money to actually work and fund that basically helping the sheriff's department and going out and and working with us to to help us locate these kids we've located over about what is it a hundred and eighty yeah

hundred forty

hundred forty seven thousand

hundred and forty seven thousand and and again it really thinks to you guys funding the big beautiful bill being able to give us the money and really with the partnerships with the sheriffs this also helps build your local communities this money goes directly to them that helps them build up their facilities their capital their cars all of that stuff so thank you

mmm thank you very much and uh mr. chairman i see my time is up and i yield back

thank you to the thank you to the gentleman from florida you are now tied with the gentleman from laredo sorry i'm sorry for best timekeeping skills Um, it is my understanding that the distinguished uh ranking member of the full committee wants unanimous consent to enter her opening statement in the record, so if that's true, without objection, so ordered, and the floor is yours for eight minutes, for questioning.

Oh gosh, OK, well I was just going to say because Mike, I was late and my colleagues have been sitting here as I would, uh I do want to put my statement in the record but let me just, have my colleagues go, first and then I'll come back, OK? Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, ma'am. Your statement will be entered in the record and we now recognize Thank you very much. the gentlelady from Illinois for eight minutes for her questions.

Secretary Mullen, I wanna discuss FEMA's denial of disaster assistance for families in Illinois. You and I both come from communities that deal with tornadoes. Just last week northern Illinois was under a tornado watch, a severe storm swept through the region, downing trees, disrupting flights in and out of Chicago, and leaving thousands without power. And between August sixteenth and nineteenth of last year, severe thunderstorms extreme rainfall flooding and damaging winds impacted communities across northern illinois homes were damaged roads were flooded power lines were downed and families suffered significant losses illinois requested a major disaster declaration that included individual assistance which helps affected families pay for home repairs property losses child care temporary housing moving assistance moving expenses and recovery costs fema denied illinois's request in october Illinois appealed in November. Then on February seventh, twenty twenty six, FEMA denied the appeal and reaffirmed its decision. Unfortunately, Illinois is not alone. Since President Trump took office, the number of disaster declarations approved has been thirty percent lower than the historical average. And there's reason to be concerned that they're being politicized. An analysis from March of this year found that FEMA approved just twenty three percent of disaster requests from Democratic-led states, compared to eighty nine percent from republican led states don't get me wrong concerns about fema's response are coming from both sides of the aisle including from your former republican colleagues in the senate this should not be a partisan issue americans expect timely disaster assistance decisions that follow the law and not politics what makes this even harder to understand is that republicans have provided dhs with tens of billions of dollars through reconciliation funding twice on top of annual appropriations. Your department has repeatedly stated that this funding could support operations for years, yet families in my district were told there was no assistance or funds available to help them recover. On top of that, this committee does not have a comprehensive spend plan explaining how these funds are being used, despite my repeated requests over the last several months. Secretary Mullen, will you commit to a member-level meeting with my colleagues and I to discuss why illinois disaster declaration was denied and to see how we can support my constituents

uh ma'am we haven't denied anybody a meeting with us if you reach out we'll meet with you uh uh just i mean and we'll do it in a timely fashion maybe not the next day but we'll get to as soon as possible but i do wanna address

thank you

what if you don't mind what you talked about here on politicizing it cause i i i don't

i actually don't wanna talk about politicizing it i want to i want to meet with you to discuss this again

well but if you but i mean but you made some accusations here about president trump

this is my time mr. chauvin

because

mr. chairman go for it

uh if you're gonna make accusations though you have to let us respond back to them

mr. chairman reclaiming my time mr. claren- mr. chairman go for it go ahead

ok so you're lying about it then

mr. chairman

cause you don't wanna hear the truth

mr. chairman this week president trump's nominee

this is this mr. secretary the record will reflect that you have agreed to meet with with i'm on character loss the lady and her folks and since i'm trying to keep people in eight minutes i'm on character loss for the comments it's live please proceed

thank you this week president trump's nominee to head fema karen hamilton appeared for the senate homeland security and government affairs committee and pledged that fema would be fair and reasonable when evaluating requests for disaster aid um secretary mullen will you make the same commitment as mister hamilton to evaluate disaster requests fairly reasonably and with out regard to politics yes or no

it's it's interesting that you wanna allow me to answer those questions i explain it to you because i don't look at states different between blue or red i look at them across the across the country as a whole

Thank you.

And if you actually wanna know what we're doing, I'll be happy to, so you're not worried about this. I I don't I don't look at this any different, ma'am, and I'm not here to argue with you, I'm not here to fight with you. I like facts.

Great.

Accusations doesn't help anybody.

I appreciate that commitment.

The more you're informed the better you know,

And I will hold you to that commitment.

because you're saying some stuff that's not true.

And I hope that Illinois receives the same fair consideration as any other state. Now I'd also like to address another deeply concerning matter, detainees who died while in your custody. secretary mullin since donald trump took office dhs immigration detention set system has been plagued by medical neglect abuse overcrowding and historically high death rate i saw these dangerous conditions with my own eyes when i visited the miami correctional facility in bunker hill indiana where i met with individuals who told me that it takes months to receive medication refills including for life threatening illnesses like diabetes others reported being left unattended with infected boils and other serious conditions so it's no surprise that a detainee at that facility died shortly after my visit or that more detainees died in ice custody in twenty twenty five than ever before secretary mullin does dhs have any official specific internal goals or policies to reduce deaths in custody

ma'am your numbers just aren't accurate we've had zero point zero zero nine percent

i didn't ask i didn't mr. secretary i didn't ask i asked a specific question

i you're asking about this it's zero point zero nine percent of deaths mr. chairman

Mister Chairman.

And and we've had fifty-four total in the President's uh President's time.

This may be my time, Mister Chairman.

If I if I if I Mister Secretary Mister Secretary. You those are dangerous accusations you're making, which those are dangerous accusations that she's making, I get that. because instead of Illinois they're twice the time, But we are not

This is my time.

We are not doing any talk over here. they're twice the time to die in the state penitentiary in Illinois than they are in

This is my time. You are invited to this committee.

detention centers.

This is my time.

And you need to be informed by what you're saying.

You are a guest. I am informed.

No, you're not, ma'am.

Mister Secretary, does DHS have any official specific protocols for,

Do you realize that and do you do you realize that we have one doctor per thousand,

Mister Chairman?

in uh for detention centers in the in and uh for our federal detention centers and the state only needs to have one per eighteen hundred Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is my time. but yet she wants to focus on our detention centers

I understand that you'll get your time.

Thank you.

You're welcome. So so I guess this is a good place to stop. We are trying to keep members to eight minutes. Mister Secretary you know that too, that's fine. So we all know how the clock runs here. The idea is to get together to forward questions. I'm gonna have you repeat your question when we start up again.

Thank you. Thank you.

But I can tell you this. if this format won't work then we'll reschedule the meeting for later when we can keep it to all all the issues accordingly so this is the efficient way to do it but if we can't do it the efficient way then we'll go to plan b which will not be today um and i don't mean that as a threat to anybody i'm just saying this is not meet the press or fox news or whatever for anybody involved it's what's the question what's the answer mr. secretary if you need more time to respond to that the committee will make any of your comments part of the record and we will endeavor to make sure that you get a meet with whoever wants more time but while we've got the whole committee sitting here we're not gonna do the xyz debate whatever the heck so ma'am please repeat your question and as near as i can figure you got about four minutes left

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You're welcome.

Secretary Mullen, does DHS have any specific internal document, policies or goals to reduce deaths in custody?

And we do a wonderful job on supra providing medical too.

That's a question of question, sir.

We're doing a wonderful job at it.

Okay.

We have zero point zero zero nine percent of deaths in our prison.

Is it your testimony that you do not know whether the department that you lead has a policy?

Which is a lot better than the state of Illinois.

Is it your testimony that you do not know whether or not the department that you lead has a policy to reduce deaths in custody?

No, I did not say that, ma'am. We we

You didn't answer my question.

Y- yes, I did. You're making accusations and you're not even looking at your own state.

Did you? OK. I'll take that as a no. You have no policy or plan to reduce death and custody.

That's not true.

Now, two months ago, I asked ICE and the acting director Todd Lyons the same question.

Our medical chef does a phenomenal job. In fact, every detainee sees a doctor or a or a uh or a nurse with every two weeks.

He said that I reclaim my time.

Can I ask you next question?

OK. Two months ago, I asked ICE director Todd Lyons the same question. He said that ICE " hopes" that there will be no deaths in custody, but admitted that the agency had no actual policy in place to prevent them. Rather than implement one, he resigned just a few hours later. Secretary, since that hearing, three more people have died in ISIS custody. And those are the only deaths we know about based on your agency's public reporting. So, Mister Chairman, I would like to request unanimous consent to enter into the record a report that came out today from Human Rights Watch and physicians for Human Rights, titled " Dying in Detention, Rising Deaths in an Expanding US Immigration Detention System". Drawing on, I'm sorry.

Without objection, so ordered.

Thank you so much, Mister Chairman. Drawing on government records, detention data, and expert medical reviews, this report outlines fifty-two deaths in ICE custody during President Trump's second term and highlights the concerns we've been raising to your department, regarding the lack of access to medical care, suicide prevention, transparency, and accountability in detention facilities. Secretary Mullen, ICE's detainee death reporting has not been updated since April twenty eighth of twenty twenty six. The death rate in ICE custody has doubled during President Trump's second term. Will you commit to reporting detainee deaths as required by law?