Hearings to examine fraud in Minnesota.

Good afternoon. Thank you for all the witnesses for being here. The the uh title of this hearing is Somali Fraud in Minnesota, the tip of the iceberg. When the news broke about the level of child care service fraud in by Somali nationals in Minnesota, the American people were rightly shocked and outraged. The loss to the federal government, meaning the loss to American taxpayers, is estimated to be at nine billion dollars or more. That estimate only covers what the US government has discovered in one state, the state of Minnesota. There are also credible allegations that the Minnesota government knew about the fraud as early as two thousand and eleven, and that Governor Walz and Mayor Fry not only were aware of the fraud as early as twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen, but did nothing to stop it. Some of the individuals involved in the recent Minnesota fraud scandal were US citizens of Somali descent, but there were also some Somali nationals who were not US citizens. To date, the US Department of Justice has charged ninety-eight defendants in the Minnesota fraud rel- in in Minnesota fraud-related cases, eighty-five of whom are of Somali descent. So ninety-eight have been charged, eighty-five are of Somali descent. Sixty-four have been convicted. The Department of Justice has also issued more than one thousand seven hundred and fifty subpoenas, executed more than one hundred and thirty search warrants and conducted more than one thousand witness interviews. Sadly, as soon as the magnitude of the fraud was identified and amplified by an independent investigator, following an appropriate surge of DHS immigration resources into Minnesota, the mainstream media and the radical left immediately began to call the US government's actions racist. Claiming that the Trump administration was unlawfully targeting Somali nationals. Not surprisingly, the ACLU rushed out to sue the Trump administration for simply enforcing the immigration laws as written. But fraud is fraud. And this recent episode, unfortunately, appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. I expect to hear more as the Department of Justice continues its investigations into fraud not only in Minnesota but also in states like California. Recently, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the federal government loses between two hundred and thirty-three billion and five hundred and twenty-one billion annually due to fraud and improper payments. Let me say that again. Two hundred and thirty-three billion to five hundred and twenty-one billion is lost every year y- year due to fraud or and improper payments of federal benefits and other public funds. Our national debt has surpassed thirty-eight trillion dollars and continues to climb. If the United States could recoup these hundreds of billions of dollars lost to fraud every year, we might actually have some hope of getting our fiscal situation on a sustainable trajectory. I imagine that the one in four American households who live paycheck to paycheck would love to have even a fraction of that money to pay down their bills, to buy groceries and even treat their family to a dinner or a movie. Now, eliminating fraud is more than just a matter of fiscal solvency. It also directly affects the safety and security of American citizens. Much of the fraud is committed by aliens, many of them criminal aliens, and we don't know what they're doing with those stolen funds. In two thousand and twenty-three, the Federation of American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, estimated that Medicaid lost approximately eight billion dollars in funding annually due to fraud attributable to illegal aliens. Similarly, FAIR estimated that the illegal aliens have obtained more than three billion dollars in earned income tax credits with the average filer receiving more than four thousand dollars over the last two years seven hundred million dollars in cash largely tied to Somali couriers, has been flown out of the Minneapolis airport via suitcase, according to DHS officials. DHS officials say this cash transfer has been occurring for close to a decade, but the practice has increased in recent years. There are two major problems with this type of large cash transfer. First, we don't know whether what this whether the source of this cash is from any federal, state or local benefit program. And second, the money could be used to fund Somali terrorist organizations like Al Shabaab. Taking cash out of the country is not necessarily illegal. Any individual departing the country with more than ten thousand dollars in cash must file a customs declaration form about the amount of cash before they take off. The Somali couriers are in fact legally declaring the cash they're taking out of the country, ironically. From a fraud and national security perspective, the current customs form is not expansive enough to disclose the source of the cash these couriers are taking out of the country or the ultimate recipient of the cash. Later this week, I plan to introduce a bill to address this issue. This bill, called the Stop Somali Currency Airport Smuggling through Hawala's Cash Fraud Act, or Stop Somali Cash Fraud Act will strengthen the customs form for non-citizens only who are taking more than ten thousand dollars in cash out of the country. This bill will require disclosure of whether the cash is from any federal, state or local government contract or benefit, additional background information on the individual transporting the cash and additional background information on the ultimate recipient. of the cash. More importantly, most importantly, it will require filing the customs form seventy-two hours in advance, which will give Customs and Border Protection more time to fully vet the form before allowing non-citizens to leave the country with suitcases full of cash. In addition to those smuggling money out of the country to potentially supporting terrorists, those who commit fraud while staying in the country also pose a threat. President Trump's team at the White House has uncovered numerous examples of illegal aliens arrested for crimes who've also been receiving Medicaid. These individuals have been arrested for a variety of crimes, ranging from child abuse to domestic battery to burglary to murder. During deliberations for the working family tax cuts, which strengthened guardrails against illegal aliens receiving Medicaid, Democrats repeatedly assured Republicans that illegal aliens are already ineligible for Medicaid and that we are simply barking up the wrong tree. But I'm grateful to President Trump and his team for showing the American people the truth about what is actually happening. Fraud takes many different forms, but the harm to Americans is real. and can even have life-threatening consequences. A quick internet search will reveal numerous instances of foreign nationals who've been convicted for fraud, everything from wire fraud, manufacturing and selling f- selling counterfeit documents, fraudulently obtaining mass numbers of H two B visas, and much more. None of these crimes are victimless. Consider the damage done to countless US citizens whose identities are stolen. According to one report, over nineteen billion dollars is lost to identity theft annually. And many of the individuals who've been defrauded have to spend their own hard-earned money and countless hours and headaches to fix a mess that came about through no fault of their own. Which brings me to another point. I'd like to remind the public of something that's hardly ever reported on by the mainstream media. Too often we hear that ICE and CBP are arresting who supposedly have no criminal record. But the fact that an alien has no criminal record, that is, has never been arrested, charged or convicted, doesn't mean that this individual has not broken the law. Consider what it takes an illegal alien to continue living in the United States, not to mention the fact that entering the country without authorization is a crime. To work, an illegal alien has to obtain some sort of identity document. In many instances, the identity documents are fraudulent or altered documents of real US citizens, and the alien has assumed that person's identity. Stealing a US citizen's identity or social security number is a crime. But that isn't where the criminal activity stops. Once an alien has acquired a false identification, how would this person commute to work every day? Often by driving without a license, also a crime in most jurisdictions, or driving without insurance, also likely a crime. Whether someone entered the country illegally or overstayed a visa, there are certainly crimes that all aliens have committed against our immigration laws, even though they may not have yet been caught and the offenses may seem minor. But nay, make no mistake, criminal aliens not only prey on but they also prey on their own people, stealing the identities of other aliens lawfully in the United States to stay in the United States, work illegally or in some instances just defraud the US government. So what can we do about it? What can Congress, what can the government do about it? First, we can begin by prioritizing thoroughness of security vetting. rather than speed with the sp- rather than speed and efficiency like the Biden administration did as they waived hundreds of thousands even millions of people into the country during the four years of the Biden administration without adequate vetting. We can invest in fraud prevention and detection mechanisms that will allow federal, state and local government agencies to quickly identify those who are attempting to fraud. We can also require agencies to require biometric identification and verify the each alien's identity before the they may be granted any federal, state, or local public benefit loan or grant. Furthermore, we can require automated and recurrent identif- verification, random audits, and in-person identity verification for all federal and state programs that provide funds for public services or programs. Finally, one thing I find surprising is that the American citizens in blue and red states are not demanding more accountability for the millions of Americans who've been defrauded. It seems that they are more interested in going out on the street to actively protest against federal law enforcement officers, who are not only doing the job they've been sworn to do, but enforcing the laws Congress has passed. It is our responsibility as a U. S. government to protect the American people. It's also our duty to protect the American people and preserve the integrity of our republic. If we fail in those duties, we won't have a country any longer. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses, and I'll yield to my friend, Senator Padilla, for his opening statement.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, thank you for uh everybody who is here today. Uh, unfortunately now for the second week in a row, to allegedly talk about fraud cases in the state of Minnesota. The majority has titled this hearing, quote, " the tip of the iceberg", a clear nod to one of the majority witnesses' articles. So let me be clear from the outset. First, fraud of any kind is wrong. And second, no one is here to defend fraud. When fraud occurs, it should be investigated thoroughly. And the people responsible should be held accountable, just as the law requires. We all agree on that. And that's what's happening. In fact, it's happening in Minnesota. Many of the cases being referenced have thoroughly been investigated by the Department of Justice dating back to twenty twenty two, under the Biden administration. More than ninety arrests have been made. Uh, updated numbers that you shared, Mr. Chairman. Ninety-eight defendants have been charged. Prosecutions are ongoing and the people at fault are being held accountable. Mr. Chairman, you're citing that sixty-four people have been convicted. Fraud indeed has occurred under both Republican and Democratic administrations. For decades, agencies responsible for reviewing immigration and visa applications have had systems in place to detect and to address it. The Immigration and Nationality Act includes strict penalties for fraud along with criminal enforcement mechanisms that are being used. This is current law, existing law, existing law in practice, existing law being applied. So the real question is, what's this hearing really about? It's about something far too familiar and far more troubling. It's about choosing to point to a few isolated incidents and using them to cast suspicion on entire communities. We've seen this far too often throughout American history. using isolated criminal cases as a pretext to paint entire immigrant communities with the broadest and most damaging brush possible. It's an old playbook.

Well, this is something we would like to do.

And it's a shameful one. We've seen it with Irish immigrants and the "no Irish need apply" signs in the windows of businesses. Italian immigrants suffered the same. You remember the Chinese Exclusion Act. Again and again, immigrants have been scapegoated for society's problems whenever it's been politically convenient. Today, the target is Somali Americans, lawfully admitted refugees and US citizens and more broadly, anyone whose application was approved under a president that this administration does not like. Republicans wanna take specific, well-documented cases, and again, cases that are already being investigated and prosecuted and stretch them into a narrative of widespread abuse by immigrant communities more broadly. And we know where this leads. It becomes justification for targeting and expelling entire communities. Something that I'm not speculating about. It's happening in real time. Just yesterday we learned that the asylum cases of hundreds of Somali immigrants in Minnesota Illinois and Nebraska were suddenly rescheduled or recategorized, accelerated by months and in some cases years to be heard by the end of next month. Why? to target a specific ethnic group and place them on a fast track to deportation without meaningful due process. But that narrative simply does not hold up against the facts, because the evidence tells a different story. Study after study shows that immigrants, both legal and undocumented, are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States. One analysis from the American Immigration Council found that undocumented immigrants specifically are about half as likely to be arrested for violent crimes and property crimes. Another from the Cato Institute found that immigrants overall are thirty-three percent less likely to be incarcerated than US-born individuals. And if we look specifically at fraud, the very subject of this hearing, the numbers are even clearer. According to United States Sentencing Commission, non-citizens were responsible for just a little over six percent of benefit fraud convictions in twenty twenty four. These aren't anecdotes, folks. This is verifiable data. And the economic data is just as clear. Far from bringing a drain on our economy, immigrants are among its strongest contributors. So if we're not engaging honestly with these facts, then this hearing is not honestly about rooting out fraud. It seems to me that this hearing is really about demonizing immigrants, especially immigrants of color, an advancing a narrative that does not hold up to scrutiny. If this committee truly wanted to have a serious conversation about fraud, there are far more pressing concerns about fraud that we could and should be examining. We should be talking about how this administration is actively weakening the systems designed to detect and deter fraud, hollowing out enforcement agencies, undermining consumer protections, Accepting financial investments and gifts from foreign entities. Stripping resources from those charged with going after real wrongdoers, including inspectors general. And most glaringly, the President continually pardoning wealthy individuals who have been convicted of massive fraud, and cancelling the restitution to victims. Why is it that At the same time immigrants are being targeted for mass deportation, the president unveiled a million dollar gold card, closing the door on doctors, engineers and teachers while opening it to the highest bidders, with little scrutiny. Mr. Chairman, you talked about the uh bill you're planning to introduce in a few days, uh demanding uh where the money comes from and where the money is going. I hope you're calling on that same disclosure for all Gold Card applicants. Where is their money coming from? But this Gold Card proposal? That's what systemic fraud looks like. Fraud that this committee under this majority refuses to examine. Instead, they're seeking to perpetuate a tired myth that all immigrants bring crime with them, when they come to this country despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. So let's be honest about what this hearing is and what it is not. This hearing is not about facts, it's not about accountability, and it's not about protecting taxpayers. It is about fear. It is about scapegoating. It is about demonizing immigrants for political gain. And that may make for a convenient talking point, but it's wrong. And it does not make for responsible governance, or policy making. Mister Chairman, it's certainly not what the American people expect or deserve from the United States Senate.

Now I'll introduce the majority witnesses and turn to uh Senator Padilla to introduce the minority witnesses and then we'll administer the oath. Rebecca Gambler is Chief Quality Officer and Managing Director of Audit Policy and Quality Assurance at the Government Accountability Office. Miss Gambler currently serves Uh, in that capacity, she's previous ser- previously served as a Director in GAO's Homeland Security and Justice team, where she's led GAO's work on border security, immigration and election issues. She joined GAO in two thousand two and has worked on a wide range of issues related to homeland and justice. She has a master's degree in national security and strategic studies from the US Naval War College. A Master's Degree in International Relations from Syracuse University, and a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Messiah College. Simon Hankinson is Senior Research Fellow in the Board of Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. Mister Hankinson recently testified before this committee on President Biden's parole program and the vetting or LACA vetting of Vec- Afghan nationals. He served as a foreign service officer from nineteen ninety nine to twenty twenty two in India, Fiji, Ghana, Slovakia, Togo, Washington, DC, Marseille and Nairobi. Prior to his work as a foreign service officer, mister Hankinson worked as a lawyer in London and then taught history, English and drama at a private school in Miami. He holds a master's degree in modern history from St. Andrews, Scotland, a degree from the College of Law in London, and a master's degree in international security affairs from the National Defense University in Washington DC. Philip Linderman with the Center for Immigration Studies and the Ben Franklin Fellowship. Mister Lindeman is a retired State Department Foreign Service Officer as well. Over a three decade career, he served abroad in U. S. Embassy and consulates in Belgium, Mexico, Ecuador, Germany, Cuba, Chile, and Trinidad. He also represented US interests at the Organization of American States and the EU. Mister Linderman's diplomatic duties all often focused on internat- international travel security and protecting national borders. He collaborated with friendly foreign governments and worked with US law enforcement and intelligence agencies on visa and passport fraud. human trafficking, and terrorist travel and watch listing. Matt O'Brien is the Deputy Executive Director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He's responsible for overseeing FAIR's investigation, legislation and education activities. Previously, Mister O'Brien served as the Director of Research at FAIR and as the Director of Investigation at FAIR's affiliate, the Immigration Reform Law. Institute. Mister O'Brien has three decades of front-line experience in government having held multiple senior positions, including as an Assistant Chief Immigration Judge, overseeing the US Immigration Court in Annandale, Virginia, as the Chief of the National Security Division at USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate and as Assistant Chief Counsel with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I'll turn to Senator Padilla to introduce the remaining witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to uh welcome and briefly introduce the minorities witnesses today, Mr. Eric Schwartz and Mr. David Beer. Professor Eric Schwartz is chair of the global policy area at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Mr. Schwartz is a former director of Refugees International and also has an extensive background in government work. Having served as an assistant secretary of state populations refugees and migration at the State Department the senior human rights and humanitarian official at the National Security Council and as a staff consultant to the House Representative's Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. His extensive work in the field of humanitarian efforts make him one of the most preeminent experts in this area and we thank him for being with us today uh Mr. David Bier is the Director of Immigration Studies at the Sales Foundation, Chair in Immigration Policy at the Cato Institute. He is an expert on legal immigration, border security and interior enforcement, and served as a Senior Policy Advisor to former Republican Congressman, Raul Labrador. In that capacity, he drafted immigration legislation for Representative Labrador, then the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. Mister Beer has been published in numerous prominent national publications and has been cited on multiple occasions by the United States Supreme Court and federal circuit courts Mister Beer is a political science graduate from the Grove City College in Pennsylvania and in his ex- and his experience in the field of immigration makes him a great source of knowledge for our hearing today and I thank them both for their participation.

But the what Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Chairman Cornyn, Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member Padilla, Ranking Member Padilla, and members of the subcommittee. and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify at today's hearing to discuss GAO's work on US citizenship and immigration services' efforts to address fraud risks. in immigration benefit programs. USCIS processes millions of applications and petitions each year for persons seeking to visit the US for temporary activities, to reside in the US on a permanent basis, or to become US citizens. To ensure the integrity of the immigration system, USCIS reviews applications and petitions for potential fraud. Immigration benefit fraud is the act of willfully or knowingly misrepresenting material facts to obtain an immigration benefit for which the individual would otherwise be ineligible. Benefit fraud can occur in a number of ways, and is often facilitated by document or identity fraud. Today I'll be highlighting two recent GAO reports on USCIS's efforts to manage fraud risks across immigration benefits it adjudicates, and in three humanitarian parole processes for non-citizens with US-based supporters. First, in September two thousand twenty-two, we reported that USCIS could better insure its anti-fraud efforts are effective and efficient by taking a more strategic and risk-based based approach to managing fraud risks. For example, at the time of our report, USCIS had conducted fraud risk assessments for a small number of specific immigration benefits but did not plan to conduct additional assessments. We also found that USCIS had not developed anti-fraud strategy or evaluated its anti-fraud activities for effectiveness and efficiency. We recommended that USCIS develop and implement a process for regularly conducting fraud risk assessments developing and updating an anti-fraud strategy, and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of anti-fraud activities. USCIS agreed with these recommendations and has taken some steps toward addressing them. However, USCIS needs to take additional action to fully implement these recommendations. Second, in December of last year we reported on humanitarian parole processes for non-citizens with US-based supporters. The particular processes we were reviewed were one, the processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, known as CHNV, uh two, uniting for Ukraine, and three, family reunification parole. the Department of Homeland Security data found that from May two thousand twenty-two through September two thousand twenty-four, the department granted parole to about seven hundred and seventy-four thousand non-citizens under these processes. In implementing the processes, USCIS was responsible for reviewing supporter applications. If USCIS confirmed the application, US Customs and Border Protection was responsible for vetting the prospective beneficiary, determining whether to authorize them to travel to the US and considering them for a discretionary grant of parole upon their revival. Shortly after the processes began, USCIS began receiving referrals of potential fraud and in two thousand twenty four conducted an analysis of supporter applications. Based on this analysis, USCIS found that fraud indicators were widespread in Uniting for Ukraine and CHNV. Fraud indicators among the applications included supporter information belonging to deceased individuals counterfeit or altered documents and thousands of applications with at least one piece of fictitious supporter information. The Department of Homeland Security suspended the CHNV and Uniting for Ukraine processes in two thousand twenty four due to the fraud risks and subsequently terminated CHNV in March two thousand twenty five. USCIS assessments attributed the risks identified in the parole processes to insufficient internal control activities. We concluded that although DHS has ended the supporter-based parole processes, USCIS could still benefit from having an internal control plan in place for future situations that may introduce new or increased fraud risks, and we recommended that USCIS develop such a plan. implementing our recommendations would help USCIS USCIS take a more strategic and risk-based approach to managing fraud risks. We will continue to follow up on USCIS's actions to implement our recommendations. Um, this concludes my prepared statement, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that members may have.

Thank you, Mr. Gambler. Mr. Hankinson.

Chairman Corwin, um, Ranking Member Padilla, members of the committee. I'm hoping we're here today to examine the issues posed by immigration benefits, applicants from Somalia. Somalia's very person to person. The most famous Somali Americans I know of are Congressman Ilhan Omar and the writer Ayan Hirsi Ali. Now their views are very far apart, yet both have been accused of immigration fraud. But the question before us is not about race and it's not about religion. The question is how we calculate risks and rewards across migrant populations so we can decide who to let into our country. Last year, DHS looked at immigration benefit applications in Minnesota, and they found evidence of fraud or national security concerns in forty-four percent of cases. USCIS Chief Joe Edlow said, "That should shock all of America." It doesn't shock me, because in my consular assignments I was lied to many times a day about every aspect of applicants' cases including their age, name, identity, occupation, marital status, purpose of travel, wealth, income, relatives in the US, and intent to return home. It's an unfortunate fact, people lie to get visas and immigration benefits. An interview with US consular officers, the first line of vetting for visa applicants. And the second line of vetting is through automatic checks of US databases. If a foreigner has a record in the United States, we can see it, but the great weakness of vetting is what I call the nine O rule, nothing in, nothing out. Let's assume a visa applicant has committed a serious crime, but his home country has little law enforcement and no centralized records. Well, if his country is incapable of recording or unwilling to share this criminal record, then we have no way of knowing the truth unless the individual self-reports on his application form. And in my experience, many applicants with adverse histories don't volunteer this information. Typically, the more corrupt and poor a country is, the more visa fraud. Somalia is as poor and corrupt as countries get. In twenty twenty five, the UN ranked Somalia one hundred and ninety-two out of one hundred and ninety-three countries on its human development index. Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Somalia one hundred and seventy-ninth out of one hundred and eighty. At the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, I supervised consular operations for Somalia since we had no consular presence there, and here are some examples of the routine fraud that we saw. Fraudulent claims to marriages and family relationships, fraudulent or unauthorized letters of support from the Somali government, fraudulent employment letters, educational qualifications, civil documents, letters of invitation from Somalis in America, who had sponsored other individuals who claimed asylum and so on. This hearing's about visa fraud, not welfare fraud, but they are connected. Like crime, corruption rates seem to follow immigrant populations into host countries at least in the first generation. Refugees in the US can be eligible with no waiting period for federal benefits including Medicaid, cash and medical assistance, social services, social security, supplemental security income, supplemental nutrition assistance program, temporary assistance for needy families, and federal student aid. Now, all Americans or Americans of all background have been known to commit fraud, but the concentration and the scale of the welfare benefit fraud committed by people of Somali descent in Minnesota, is still notable with losses estimated in the billions. The US asylum system is also easy to defraud because there are too many cases and we lack the resources to verify every applicant's claim in their home country. There are over one point five million cases pending at USCIS, and that back backlog encourages more fraud because aliens know that they can stay here for years before their cases get decided. And if they obtain US visas by fraud, they usually go on to become American citizens, all on the foundations of an original lie. And once citizens, they can petition to bring in their relatives. In two thousand seventeen, the US prosecuted a fake family of five Somalis in Minnesota, who fraudulently obtained US citizenship after winning the green card lottery, under false names and relationships. But I'd call that a rare win among many fraudulent cases that are never discovered. And in addition, Somalia's perpetual violence makes it quite likely that some asylum applicants have persecuted others in the past, which should render them ineligible, but we would have no way of knowing without being able to vet them and having accurate records. Uh, some Somalis have gotten a second nationality, including in the US, and yet they go back to Somalia regularly to do business. Others based in the US have financed terrorist activity, or recruited others to fight for Al-Shabaab. And these activities are obviously incompatible with asylum status, let alone citizenship. DHS recently launched operation an operation in Minnesota to review thousands of refugee cases through background checks and verification, which I think is a great start. They should apply the growing power of artificial intelligence and to look at fraud patterns in all immigration benefits from visas all the way through to naturalization. We have to do that to restore integrity into our system and to punish those who abuse our generosity. And we should not be giving immigration benefits to people from countries, in general, whose identities we cannot verify and whose documents are unreliable, and whose criminal records cannot be checked adequately. Thank you very much. I'd be happy to take questions.

Thank you, Mister Linderman.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I thank the committee for this opportunity. As a US diplomat who dealt with consular issues during my postings in Trinidad, Cuba, Ecuador and Mexico, I came into regular contact with widespread fraudulent activities related to obtaining a US visa. The fraud took place at many levels. Sometimes it involves simple cases of altered documents, and other times it involved organized criminal networks that it linked back to the United States. The most challenging and pernicious aspect of sophisticated fraud involved corrupt host government authorities who provided bogus official documents to crooked visa applicants This unscrupulous practice is common in countries, with widespread government corruption. The US visa process is driven by a documentation by documentation presented by applicants particularly those that show their family relationships, educational and work history, police and medical records. In conspiracy with corrupt government offici officials, malfeasant visa applicants can obtain falsified birth, marriage, divorce, or police documents, among others. Years ago, the Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act to set the standards for US Consular officers to adjudicate visas. The INA rightly puts the burden of proof on visa applicants to demonstrate their bona fides to receive a visa benefit. This process, however, is fundamentally complicated when applicants can procure from local corrupt government authorities through bribes or illicit favors official documentation that falsely attests to vital information. When visa applicants present such falsified documentation, the burden of proof in effect has been flipped back on the consular officer to demonstrate that the government-issued document is bogus. Demonstrating such fraud is a supreme challenge for consular officers. Only so, only so much information can be extracted during a short visa interview. Consular field investigations are costly and time-consuming, and very few can be rigorously followed up. In addition, for many years, State Department had prioritized issuing visas over investigating fraud. Consular officers were given interview quotas, Posts were ordered to avoid visa backlogs and waiting times, and plus there were always powerful voices in Washington constantly insisting that all visas be issued, and fast. Over the decades of my career, almost nobody spoke up for those consular officers who did not want to issue visas because they had fraud concerns. So what can be done? My recommendation is to make the host governments where our embassies operate, take responsibilities for their citizens, who present fraudulent documents. Right now, these governments typically ignore the fraud. The number of criminal prosecutions that host governments undertake against local fraud rings and their own corrupt bureaucrats are very, very few. Each US embassy writes an annual report on the visa fraud in the host country where they work. These reports are a wealth of information on visa fraud in that country and across the world. But State Department does not rep- keeps these documents as internal, they do not make them public, and they do almost nothing with them. This is a big mistake. These reports should be made part of the bilateral agenda in all countries where the fraud is high. Unofficially, consular officers speak of many high visa fraud countries, such as Bangladesh, Brazil, China, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, India, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines and Vietnam to name just some. Unfortunately, the State Department almost never raises this issue on the bilateral agenda. Now is the moment for State Department to use these reports to take the diplomatic offensive against high-fraud countries. Instead of dealing with each visa fraud applicant as an endless series series of isolated problems, US policy should curtail visa services in those countries that tolerate or are complicit in high levels of fraud. The lesson is that visa fraud must be addressed overseas. Host governments cannot be allowed to turn a blind eye to what their unscrupulous citizens do to obtain a U S visa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Linderman. Mr. O'Brien.

Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member Padilla, and members of the subcommittee. Fraud in the United States has increased dramatically. driven in a large part by electronic systems that make it easy to hide one's true identity. The Federal Trade Commission reports that financial losses tied to fraud in the United States rose twenty five percent from the period twenty twenty-three to twenty-twenty-four over twelve point five billion dollars. But what many Americans don't realize is that immigration related fraud represents a large and largely unacknowledged share of the problem. Now we've heard about immigration benefit fraud, there is another type of fraud that accompanies immigration, which we refer to at USCIS as immigration related fraud. And that consists of crimes committed to maintain life in the United States when someone lacks lawful status, identity theft, false claims to US citizenship, social security fraud, tax fraud, and more. Many migrants face strong pressures to succeed, recognize opportunities created by weak oversight, and may rationalize fraudulent conduct based on ideological narratives common in their home countries. The result is widespread repeated fraud that touches nearly every part of our government systems. Despite this, reliable data about fraud is remarkably scarce. Agencies release occasional program-specific reports, but there is no consistent government-wide picture. The most comprehensive historical data, nearly two decades old, showed immigration fraud prosecutions more than doubling between two thousand four and two thousand six. But even then, those cases represented only the fraud that we caught. Today, with dramatically higher migration flows, the true scale is unquestionably far larger. A central problem is a lack of a coordinated federal strategy. Responsibility for detecting and prosecuting immigration fraud is scattered across the USCIS, ICE, CBP, the State Department, DOJ, SSA, IRS, and state agencies. And that multiplicity of agencies often comes with poor communication and overlapping jurisdictions that cause problems. Within USCIS, fraud detection has long been treated as a secondary to rapid benefit approval. Uh, the Fraud Detection National Security Directorate was created only in two thousand four and for years its work was viewed internally as an impediment rather than a core mission. In some cases, senior officials even pressured adjudicators to overlook questionable applications for politically connected individuals. The cost of this systemic neglect is enormous, although no official estimate exists for immigration-specific fraud. The fiscal cost of illegal immigration, which is driven in large part by fraudulent access to taxpayer-funded programs, has been estimated at roughly one hundred and fifty billion annually. And that figure does not capture the everyday identity theft, tax evasion, and document fraud that ripple through our communities and institutions. Now, the good news is the problem is largely solvable. Immigration benefit fraud can be sharply reduced by refusing to admit applicants whose identities cannot be reliably verified. Effective vetting requires records, school files, property records, financial histories, and other documentations. Many migrants currently arriving in the United States come from countries with poor record-keeping systems or governments that are unwilling to share information. When we cannot verify an applicant's background, we cannot responsibly assess whether that applicant poses a threat or is engaged in thro fraud where verification is impossible, denial must be the default. Immigration related fraud is even easier to address. Systems like E verify and save allow us to detect identity fraud, unlawful employment and fraudulent claims for public benefits quickly and efficiently, making these systems mandatory nationwide, paired with laws to prevent issuing licenses or identity documents to individuals whose identities and intentions cannot be confirmed, would eliminate millions of opportunities for fraud. A false statement on an immigration form often leads to identity theft illegal employment. fraudulent tax filings and illicit financial activity. These crimes undermine the integrity of our institutions and erode trust within our communities. They're also tools used by criminal networks, foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations to conceal their activities in the United States. Thank you, and I'll look forward to your questions.

Thank you. We're gonna pause here for a moment. I know Senator Durbin is here, the ranking member. And Senator Durbin, do you uh have any opening remarks you'd like to make?

I do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the troubling first weeks of this year, federal immigration agents shot and killed two of our fellow Americans in Minneapolis. These killings followed other instances of brutal violence and arrests in Minneapolis, Chicago and cities around our country. Under the Trump administration, we've seen an unprecedented number of deaths in federal immigration detention. one of which was recently ruled a homicide. Desperate families are waiting for answers to many others. These are the devastating impacts of this administration's reckless aggressive masked deportation campaign. As members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it's our responsibility, committee and legal responsibility, to conduct much needed oversight of the Trump administration and to have a reasoned bipartisan discussion on how to stop these abuses of power and fix the broken immigration system. Instead, we're having our second hearing in two weeks, demonizing an entire community based on a few individuals' misconduct. Quite simply, the Republicans on this committee are working overtime for the Trump administration's attacks on lawfully admitted refugees. This administration shot down refugee admissions on day one, except for white Afrikaners. They've justified this decision based on alleged fraud. To be clear, under the Biden administration, refugees went through multilayered, rigorous vetting processes, considered the gold standard of vetting. In contrast, under this administration, from the comfort of their homes in South Africa, Afrikaners can apply for a refugee program using a Google form. This processing takes less than a month in South Africa, and it shows Consi consider one recently arrived Afrikaner refugee. He made disgusting anti-semitic posts in twenty twenty three before he was admitted to this country as a refugee. Yet he was approved in record time by this administration. Even his administration claims it will revoke visas for quote anti-semitic activity. At the same time, this administration is rounding up lawfully admitted refugees. In recent weeks, immigration agents have arrested over a hundred refugees with no criminal record in Minnesota and flew them to detention centers in Texas for quote " interviews" close quote. Some were released in the middle of the night, thousands of miles from home. They had no idea where they were. They were not even given paperwork id- or identification. These individuals had immigrated the right way to the United States. Many waited for years in refugee camps overseas. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies. They arrived on flights coordinated by the US government. It is wrong to treat these refugees like they're fraudsters. So why is the government putting these highly vetted refugees in shackles, transporting them thousands of miles from home, and interviewing them in detention? We only have to look to the president's own words. He has repeatedly made bigoted and racist attacks on Somali immigrants, calling them, quote, garbage. Close quote. He has said repeatedly he doesn't want immigrants from, I'm not gonna use the word that he used, asshole countries. How do I know he said that? I was sitting in the Oval Office with him when he said it. The racist attacks have not stopped with immigrants. Just last week Trump posted a disgusting racist image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. They are my personal friends. Barack was my colleague. I was the first senator to endorse him for president. I resent what President Trump m- created an image that was so demeaning to this man and his wife. His staff took the image down, but he refuses to apologize. The words " I'm sorry" are not in the president's vocabulary. This racism should have no place in our society or in our immigration system. And it should have no place in this committee. Let's be clear. Fraud is a crime and it should be prosecuted. I will remind e- everyone that it was the Biden Justice Department that opened the Minnesota fraud investigation and brought the first prosecution. And it is the Trump Justice Department that has diverted prosecutors and FBI agents away from fraud investigations to focus on the President's mass deportation campaign. Refugees are some of the most vulnerable and most vetted individuals in the United States. We can target fraud without shackling and detaining them in the dead of night. It is time we reject these racist attacks and restore order and humanity in our immigration system. I yield.

Mr. Beer.

Chairman Cornyn, Ranking Member Padilla, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. For nearly half a century, the Cato Institute's research has shown that people of any ancestry, background or birthplace, can be assets in a free society. America's imber immigrants exemplify this truth. Despite often leaving terrible conditions i abroad, immigrants work, start businesses, and invent at higher rates than the US born population. Cato's recent analysis shows that immigrants reduced deficits by eleven and a half trillion dollars over the last thirty years, including about a hundred and forty billion in Minnesota. Although welfare fraud is a serious problem, immigrants aren't to blame. Non-citizens account for just five percent of welfare fraud losses, thirty-one percent less per capita than US citizens. Rather than targeting entire ethnic groups, Congress should end the broken welfare systems, namely the oversight-free aid to states that led to all the fraud in Minnesota. But let's be clear, DHS is an anti-fraud. DHS is itself openly carrying out the largest fraud in the history of the US immigration system. DHS and the State Department are raking in billions of dollars in immigration fees and not providing the adjudications that applicants are entitled to. For individuals for over ninety countries, half of all legal immigrants, the administration is simply not processing their applications. The burden of proof is already on these applicants. DHS and State can deny anyone who fails to make their case. Instead, this administration is pocketing thousands of dollars from hardworking Americans and their relatives, including spouses and minor children of US citizens, and then not even looking at their applications. D- this is a scam. It is fraud. DHS's entire Minnesota operation is another kind of scam sold to the public on lies. DHS hasn't criminally charged anyone with fraud there, and sixty percent of its immigrant arrests in Minnesota have no criminal convictions or charges. DHS itself classifies just eight percent of its arrests in Minnesota as the highest threat level. and three quarters of arrests, it classifies as not being a threat at all. Instead of arresting fraudsters, it's seeking to jail five thousand six hundred legal vetted refugees, nursing mothers, single parents, long-term residents, already dragged away from their families without any evidence of fraud at all. Rather than a law enforcer, DHS has become the biggest law breaker in America today. In less than a year, DHS has attacked the first, the second, the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, tenth, fourteenth amendments to the US Constitution, the writ of habeas corpus, the independent judiciary, and much more. Every day masked DHS agents detain Americans based on their race and demographics. They arrest legal immigrants for criticizing their foreign policy and Americans for recording them doing it. They threaten, assault, and even shoot people for exercising their first and their second amendment rights. They break into our homes without judicial warrants. They sentence legal immigrants to foreign prisons without trials. They are trying to strip the citizenship of Americans born in this country. They detain people without lawful basis, and they ignore court orders to release them. And of course, they lie about all of it. Combating fraud and upholding the rule of law is important, but the public cannot have faith in that effort by the administration that regularly gets away with fraud, lies, and lawlessness. Even the FBI supervisor and the fourteen US attorneys in Minnesota who were responsible for leading the welfare fraud effort there lost faith. They quit because of DHS's operation there. We need accountability. The Supreme Court has said Congress hasn't authorized Americans to sue immigration agents for constitutional violations. So fix it. No more absolute immunity, as the White House says. The new standard? Absolute accountability. Anything less would be a fraud. Thank you.