JUST IN: Immigration Experts Testify To House Judiciary Committee About 'Border Crisis'

subcommittee will come to order without objection the chair will be authorized to declare a recess at any time the subcommittee convenes today to examine the enforcement of our immigration laws prior to the inauguration day that the Border was Secure the laws were being enforced the border wall was nearing completion the remain in Mexico policy had slowed illegal immigration to a trickle and court ordered deportations were being enforced of course all of that changed when the new Administration took office and immediately canceled the border wall ended the remain in Mexico policy and ordered ice to stop enforcing deportation orders since then we've seen more than 2 million illegal immigrants deliberately released into this country a population the size of the entire state of Nebraska meanwhile more than a million and a half known godaways have also entered illegally and additional illegal population the size of Hawaii our previous hearings have documented the unfolding human tragedy of the Border crisis for Americans it means classrooms flooded with non-english speaking students hospitals overwhelmed with illegal immigrants demanding care fentanyl poisoning our young people catastrophic strains on the social safety net meant to help Americans in need criminal cartels and their Affiliated gangs introduced into our communities working wages suppressed by a flood of cheap illegal labor now we observe the irony of officials in so-called Sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago in sanctuary States like California warning that they cannot handle this influx for the illegal immigrants it means a harrowing ordeal subjecting them to exploitation by the criminal cartels including sex trafficking drug trafficking and labor trafficking even of small children many arrive in physical distress destitute and deeply in debt to their human Smugglers thousands never make it they die horrific deaths along the way well now we raise the question why clearly our immigration laws are not being enforced by this Administration that fact is self-evident when we compare this Administration to the last one the law specifically provides that any Asylum claimant shall be detained while their claim is hurt this is now routinely ignored the law specifically provides that parole is to be granted only on a case-by-case basis for Urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit this law is now being ignored while parole is granted in Mass to release many tens of thousands of immigrants illegally into our country the law requires deportation orders to be enforced yet despite record numbers of illegal entries we see the lowest rate of deportations in our history with more than a million deportation orders simply ignored federal courts have ordered this Administration to enforce the law yet time and again the administration seems reluctant to do so without enforcement there is no immigration law without immigration law there are no borders and Without Borders we have no country this crisis now reaches into every community and constitutes a clear and present danger to our national sovereignty prosperity and security we Americans have always prided ourselves as being a nation of laws and not of men and yet it appears that our immigration laws are now routinely ignored altered or perverted by the whims of individuals within this Administration it's important in the inquiry today that we separate out policy differences from actual violations of law the founders anticipated that foolish people would sometimes occupy the offices of our government and they left it to voters to correct Mal administration at The Ballot Box Lincoln put it this way the devoters are everything if the voters get their backsides too close to the fire they'll just have to sit on the blisters a while Amir Eric Adams of New York City seems to be a poster child for this phenomenon the more troubling question arises if this unprecedented illegal migration results not from incompetence and folly but rather from a deliberate and calculated violation and subversion of the laws of the land we need to determine what laws have allowed This calamity to befall our nation as a legislative branch of government it's our duty to correct them and we also need to determine what laws are being willfully violated by those commanded to Faithfully execute them in that case we need to identify who is responsible and what remedies are available within our system of checks and balances with that I am now pleased to recognize the ranking member for her opening statement thank you Mr chairman well another week another immigration hearing on the border after using harmful rhetoric and fear-mongering that ending the title 42 Public Health policy would result in a high number of migrants coming to the Border we have seen a month where border numbers are down over 70 percent from their Peak as Politico put it it is quote the migrant crisis that still hasn't arrived unable to stoke media fears any further around the end of title 42 it appears that my Republican colleagues have shifted their focus to the next attention-grabbing headline laying the groundwork for the impeachment of secretary mayorkas despite this being our fifth immigration Hearing in about five months the majority is yet to call any witness from the current Administration to testify before this committee it is no surprise that my colleagues have shifted to discussing if secretary mayorka should be impeached after all extreme Mega Republican representative Marjorie Taylor green said just last week in exchange for voting for The Debt limit deal she wanted some quote sides and desserts her quote beautiful dessert was that and this is a quote from her somebody needs to be impeached and she specifically singled out secretary mayorkas as the lowest hanging fruit of course my colleagues jumped at the chance to cater to the extreme Mega Republicans in their party and before the vote on the debt ceiling had even occurred they noticed this hearing according to a report from CNN just a few weeks ago the chairman of this committee which would be tasked with launching impeachment proceedings and GOP leadership have an understanding that the impeachment of mallorcas is inevitable according to the article quote it is not a matter of if it is a matter of when anyone who tuned into last April's Judiciary Committee hearing where secretary mayorkas testified as part of his oversight duties would not be at all surprised Republicans on this committee made their intentions quite clear Mr Johnson of Louisiana stated that secretary mayorkas had committed quote impeachable offenses he went on to say quote my advice to you is to begin your search for a different career very soon because there will be an election and Mr Biggs of Arizona stated you should be impeached earlier this year Mr Biggs followed through on that statement and became the second Republican to file articles of impeachment against secretary mayorkas that resolution is co-sponsored by multiple members of this committee including Mr Gates and Mr Nels Mr Roy of Texas who is not one of those co-sponsors even has a 13-page memo from October of 2021 entitled case for impeachment of secretary mayorkas representative Ben Klein from Virginia who serves on the full committee told CNN that he has communicated to Chairman Jordan that quote we need to start the process as soon as possible lastly when our chairman Mr Jordan was asked an interview in October of last year if the secretary should be impeached he said mallorcas deserves it and more recently said the committee thinks it is quote warranted now of course the idea of impeaching the secretary is ridiculous you do not impeach a cabinet secretary over policy disagreements the border is not quote open no Administration has ever had complete quote operational control of the Border detained every Asylum Seeker or not use Parole in some form as the former chairman of the house committee on homeland security chairman McCall of Texas said well we talk a lot about operational control and that's having a better understanding of who's coming in and who's leaving and what that threat really is we're never really going to get that the Biden Administration is continuing to try to clean up the mess left by the previous administration they are putting forward real workable solutions to manage migration and expand legal pathways on top of the parole programs created by the Biden Administration earlier this year the administration announced the creation of additional legal Pathways that are intended to relieve pressure at the border now it's not all perfect in fact some of my colleagues would argue that some of the administration's policies are too heavy-handed recently the administration put forward a regulation which limits Asylum something many people within our Democratic caucus are justifiably concerned about unfortunately today's hearing appears to be the start of a sad new chapter for this committee but certainly I look forward to hearing from all of our Witnesses today and the perspectives they bring on this issue and I yield back and a lady yields back the chair notes the presence of the ranking member of the full committee Mr Nadler and recognizes him for an opening statement thank you Mr chairman Mr chairman it took just over five months but the day that so many of my Republican colleagues have waited for has finally arrived today Judiciary Republicans are laying the groundwork to impeach the homeland security secretary Alejandro mayorcas be clear they do not allow drong doing or malfeasance of any kind they are simply catering to the most extreme members of their caucus who have demanded impeachment of somebody anybody as the price of their support for the speaker and they have decided to make their first Target secretary mariorkis why because they have policy disagreements but no matter how much they may dislike him that is not a basis for impeachment the Republicans are so desperate to begin impeachment however that they are even jockeying for position on who gets to take the lead today's hearing just like the first immigration hearing will be held appears to be the latest spat in the ongoing turf war between chairman Jordan and chairman Greene of the homeland security committee just a couple of weeks ago Homeland Security noted that they are taking a lead role in building the case of impeachment through a quote five face accountability plan before handing it off to the Judiciary Committee in furtherness of this plan just this morning they noticed the full Committee hearing entitled quote open borders closed case secretary mayork is dereliction of Duty On the Border crisis close quote not to be outdone chairman Jordan raced to announce this hearing to ensure that we beat the homeland security committee by a few days but this is not a serious process as ranking member jayapal noted we have still not had a single government witness come before the committee on the issue of immigration instead my Republican colleagues continue to hide behind the use of transcribed interviews to talk to agency officials seemingly afraid to have public hearings and despite all the evidence to the contrary we are still hearing the same claims that we heard and our first immigration hearing this year that the southern border is open that President Biden and secretary mayorkas opened it deliberately that it is mostly migrants who are smuggling drugs across our Southern border yet as my colleagues and I have discussed for months none of these statements are true far from having an open border by the Administration use title 42 to expel migrants with no due process for significantly longer than many of my colleagues on the committee felt was appropriate the administration also has recently enacted a new Asylum regulation that we are concerned limits access to Asylum that regulation even earned the administration rare praise from chairman Jordan these are not the policies of an open border they are the opposite my Republican colleagues are not one to let facts get in the way of their Fox News talking points certainly not the fact that encounters On the Border have plummeted by 70 percent in recent weeks thanks to new policies put in place there is a lot that the Biden Administration is doing in Immigration that I support for example the use of parole expansion of legal Pathways revamping of the refugee program and opening up new Regional processing centers in the hemisphere are all positive steps to repairing our broken immigration system and there are some policies I do not like but that is not the but that is the point we have policy disagreements but you do not impeach a cabinet secretary because you do not like his policies you work to pass legislation you conduct oversight you try to work in a constructive manner to convince your colleagues that you have the better argument we need to work in a bipartisan way to fix our immigration system not best messaging bills that have no chance of being enacted into law and embark on a purely political impeachment process I would note that we now know for certain that the Republicans extreme cruel and unworkable Border Bill cannot pass the Senate as part of the time agreement to ensure that we did not default for the first time in history Senate Republicans demanded a vote on hr-2 the Republicans border bill the bill got 46 yes votes and 51 no votes encountering bipartisan opposition that bill is a non-starter are my colleagues on the other side ready to sit down and discuss how we move forward with bipartisan immigration legislation as I noted in our first hearing Judiciary Committee Democrats stand ready to work on meaningful solutions to serious problems unfortunately instead it appears that the next Sideshow is beginning today and make no mistake as the ranking member noted it is clear that chairman Jordan and members of the committee have already made up their minds instead of serious solutions to solve complex problems we will simply engage in more political theater I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses today I yield back the balance of my time I could just put my Democratic colleagues at ease Administration Witnesses could be called by the committee Democrats uh to date they have chosen not to do so I believe Mr mayorkas is scheduled to appear before the full Committee in Late July but it is a very very big leap for merely asking why our laws are not being enforced to advocating something like impeachment um I would remind my friends that they are not our teachers I for one would not seek to invent grounds for impeachment as the majority or the the former majority did in several proceedings we are here to ask a very simple question why are our laws not being enforced on today and I'll introduce today's Witnesses The Honorable Chad Wolfe is the executive director and chief strategy officer at America First policy Institute he's also chair of the center for Homeland Security and immigration at afpi secretary wolf was the acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security he's also a veteran of both Capitol Hill and the private sector secretary wolf is a recipient of the U.S Secretary of Transportation 911 medal the U.S Secretary of Homeland Security distinguished service medal and the National Intelligence distinguished service medal Mr Joseph edlow is the founder of the edlow group a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former acting director of the U.S citizenship and Immigration Services prior to that he served as the USCIS Chief counsel and a deputy Assistant Attorney General in the office of legal policy at the Department of Justice he's a veteran of Capitol Hill serving his Counsel on this subcommittee and Council to Congressman raw Labrador he began his immigration related career as a trial attorney in the Baltimore Immigration Court Mr edlow is a JD from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and completed his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University in Waltham Massachusetts Mr Stephen Bradbury is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation and was the general counsel of the U.S department of transportation from November 2017 until January 2021 where he oversaw all of Dot's rulemaking and enforcement actions he is also acting deputy secretary of transportation and briefly serves the acting Secretary of Transportation he was the principal deputy and acting Assistant Attorney General for the office of legal counsel at the U.S department of justice during the George W Bush Administration Mr Bradbury is a veteran of Private Practice and served as a clerk on the Supreme Court of the United States as well as on the U.S court of appeals for the D.C circuit he earned a JD at Michigan law school and a ba from Stanford University finally Mr Aaron reichlen Melnick is currently the policy director at the American Immigration Council where he has also served as policy Council and a staff attorney prior to that he was a Justice fellow on the Immigrant Justice Corps and the Legal Aid Society in New York he earned a JD from Georgetown University Law Center And a ba from Brandeis University I'd like to welcome all of our Witnesses today thank them for appearing here and we'll Begin by swearing you in would you please rise and raise your right hand do you swear or a firm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you are about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and beliefs so help you God let the record reflect the witnesses have answered in the affirmative thank you please be seated please know that your written testimony will be entered in the record in its entirety accordingly we'd ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes and Mr Wolf will begin with you well chairman McClintock ranking member jayapal thank you for the opportunity to testify today today's hearing is titled the Border crisis is the law being Faithfully executed unfortunately the answer by any objective measure or metric is a resounding no I understand the difficulty and the complexity of running the Department of Homeland Security so I do not say this lightly the U.S Constitution requires the administration to quote take care that the immigration and border security laws be Faithfully executed end quote it's clear to me and to millions of Americans that the Biden Administration has failed to do so today's border security system is unrecognizable from the America First policies of the Trump Administration or even what was in place during the administrations of President Clinton Bush or Obama in all Candor the Biden Administration is the first administration of either political party to deliberately take steps to diminish the security along our Southern border therefore it is my opinion that new leadership is needed at the department in contrast under President Trump's leadership the department established the most secure Southern Border in my lifetime by building the most advanced border wall system reaching historic diplomatic agreements with Nations and putting in place across-the-board policies that deter illegal immigration disrupted the Mexican cartels disincentivized the deadly flow of Fentanyl and enforce the laws enacted by Congress I think the results are clear during the Trump Administration fraudulent Asylum claims declined those who qualified for humanitarian relief faster lives were saved as migrants stopped taking that dangerous Journey North when they realized they would not be allowed and released into American communities in stark contrast today we see a border not only in chaos but in crisis because the Biden Administration has dismantled all of the proven policies recommendations and concerns by career border patrol experts were ignored and political correctness and rank ideologies supplemented common sense and adherence to our immigration laws to be clear these laws did not change between the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration just the decision by this one not to follow those laws they have embraced destructive and unlawful policies that have made American communities dangerous and have enriched the Mexican drug cartels here are about a few examples Nationwide Catch and Release the Biden Administration has intentionally decided to ignore its legal mandate to detain illegal aliens or to make them wait in Mexico throughout their Immigration Court proceedings in a federal district judge has struck down this practice DHS was then unable to process the volume of illegal aliens fast enough under this catch and release scheme so it resorted to issuing notices to report these are essentially an honored system document that ask illegal aliens to self-report to a local ice office when they reach their final destination again the courts have blocked the Implement implementation of this practice next a de facto Amnesty on day one the Biden Administration issued a 100-day deportation freeze on all illegal aliens including those with criminal convictions let me say that again including those with criminal convictions again a federal judge has blocked the Nullification of this interior enforcement another de facto amnesty of this Administration is when the DHS secretary's enforcement priorities exempt 99 of illegal aliens from the threat of deportation including the Declaration that being here unlawfully is no longer grounds for removal but perhaps the most egregious example of violating the law is the use is the unlawful use of Parole Authority the Ina could not be clear the parole is a remarkably narrow Authority and only allowable on a case-by-case basis the numerous unlawful categorical parole programs by the department that the department has implemented are not new safe or legal pathways but a diversion of illegal aliens between ports of Entry to Ports of Entry it is very clear that the current Administration is lying to the American people about the severity of the problem so here's the reality large-scale Catch and Release policy has resulted in more than 4.5 illegal aliens million illegal aliens including 1.5 million godaways being allowed into American communities that is a population larger than every major U.S city except for New York City there have been more than 200 known or suspected terrorists apprehended at the southern Border in the last two years compared to just 11 during the four years of the Trump Administration the border is effectively controlled by the Mexican cartels who crave these open border policies to further their business model and more migrants have been found dead in the desert or have drowned in the river during the journey than ever before and according to the New York Times the Biden Administration has lost contact with more than 85 thousand children after releasing them to sponsors here in the U.S these are the results of a process that the administration calls safe orderly and humane but to whom exactly not to the migrants being abused extorted or dying along the journey not to the American communities that have been overrun and not to border patrol officers who have been assaulted instead the process that has been created over the last two years can be more accurately described as dangerous corrupt and inhumane these policies are no awful and this is a crisis by Design thank you look forward to the question thank you for Testimony next is Mr ricklin Melnick chairman McClintock ranking member jayapal and distinguished members of the subcommittee my name is Aaron reichland Melnick and I am policy director at the American Immigration Council a non-profit organization dedicated to the belief that immigrants are part of our national Fabric and to ensuring that the United States provides a fair process for all immigrants including those seeking protection I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here today to help provide some perspective on the complicated reality of the application of immigration law at the border at the council we have long brought attention through research advocacy and litigation to ways in which the executive branch carries out immigration enforcement we are intimately familiar with the complex legal and practical considerations involved in the processing of migrants and have brought successful litigation against both Democratic and Republican administrations to ensure that DHS is following the law the Constitution charges the president with Faithfully executing the laws unfortunately for the president Congress often passes laws which impose competing legal requirements on the executive branch and some laws are easier to execute than others especially in a world of limited resources these challenges are readily apparent for immigration enforcement as Justice Kavanaugh noted that oral arguments in Texas V U.S last November there are Never Enough resources to detain every person who should be detained arrest every person who should be arrested or prosecute every person who's violated the law because of this hard reality immigration officials have always been imbued with broad legal Authority and with broad discretion in carrying out immigration enforcement none other than Justice Scalia said in 1999 that at each stage of the removal process the executive has discretion to abandon the Endeavor at the border these countervailing concerns are critical CBP officers are charged with simultaneously carrying out enforcement laws and humanitarian laws such as Asylum and not every person can be treated the same there is no one-size-fits-all legal process for migrants for example the options available for processing a single adult arriving from Mexico arriving alone are different than those available for processing an asylum Seeker from Cuba arriving with a baby some people can be rapidly issued an order of removal and deported others may require a full Asylum screening which takes time and resources and Beyond the law Congressional Appropriations are finite so there are logistical limits that are just as important as legal mandates the use of detention is a perfect example of this despite laws which on their face seemingly mandate attention Congress has never provided sufficient resources to detain every person who might be subject to mandatory detention as a result if there are 10 people who the law says should be detained and only five ice detention beds available CBP must buy necessity release the other five thus immigration officials under Republican and Democratic administrations alike have released some migrants because while a single law might suggest they be detained the laws in total provide alternate options these limitations apply to all Administrations for example data produced by the Department of Homeland Security reveals that over 1.1 million migrants were released under the Trump Administration in total including over 500 000 released at the border by CBP like today these releases do not represent a failure to execute the law rather they are a natural and lawful byproduct of competing legal and logistical considerations that all law enforcement agencies grapple with faced with a growing Global displacement crisis the Biden Administration has undoubtedly struggled to manage with the resources they have but this struggle is not unique to the bind Administration nor is it a sign of an Administration undermining the law instead it is a result of outdated laws and a funding model that is badly out of balance there are two million cases in the Immigration Court backlog yet today we spend eight dollars on immigration enforcement for every one dollar we spend on immigration adjudication the last Administration spent 15 billion dollars on border wall that's enough to pay for 17.5 years of the current Immigration Court budget so it's not a surprise then that the system is not functioning as designed and that it takes years for the government to determine who qualifies for Asylum and who does not moving forward I urge Congress to undertake the difficult challenge of updating our immigration laws and providing enough resources to our adjudication systems to ensure that chaos at the border becomes a thing of the past but Congress cannot tell the executive branch to do three things give them enough money to do none of them adequately and then blame the executive if it doesn't like the result thank you and I look forward to your questions thank you very much next is Mr edlow thank you chairman McClintock ranking member jayapal and distinguished members of this subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to present testimony regarding the ongoing crisis threatening the Integrity of our immigration system as this committee explores the underlying causes of the crisis the question posed today can be answered only with a resounding no the Biden Administration has seen fit to ignore the law instead favoring poorly conceived and poorly executed policy decisions their actions through executive orders departmental memos and rules upend the Ina and Congressional intent have eroded our immigration system and propelled the crisis to current levels Section 102 of the Ina charges the Secretary of Homeland Security with Administration and enforcement of the act and further vests in the secretary the power and duty to control and guard the boundaries and borders of the United States against the illegal entry of aliens the massive number of encounters recorded by CBP the small number of alien removals by ice and the ever-increasing USCIS backlog however suggested this secretary has failed to Faithfully execute the laws entrusted to him the sharp rise in unlawful entries and attempts along the Southwest border provide a critical litmus test of the crisis's scope but it's an outgrowth of the departmental actions additionally media often focuses on the border to the detriment of the other actions in an action by ice and USCIS which we also must focus on since day one of the administration the department has taken aggressive action to undermine immigration enforcement nowhere is that clearer than the SEC than secretary mayorkas's September 30th 2021 memorandum which outlined the appropriate instances in which DHS was authorized to take action against aliens either unlawfully present or lawfully present but removable secretary America has outlined three main budgets for removal threats to National Security threats to Public Safety threats to border security while in theory this would seem to Encompass many aliens in reality the numerous carve-outs loose definitions and required factors for consideration made it nearly impossible for ice to move forward with most enforcement actions these poorly defined categories gave even some of the most serious of criminal aliens a free pass in the interest of equity this and other memos sought to redefine immigration enforcement by creating fictional priorities with no basis in law categorical prosecutorial discretion is not discretion at all the Department's failure to enforce the full Ina in the name of prioritization and discretion is a dereliction of Duty so too the Department's regulatory agenda seeks to upend the credible fear process in the name of orderly processing starting with the presumption that every economic migrant is entitled to production in 2022 DHS issued an interim final rule on credible fear screening under the new process a positive credible fear determination by an asylum officer will lead to a non-adversarial Asylum interview before another DHS Asylum officer this impermissibly changes the process and undermines congressional action by shifting adjudication Authority from doj to DHS even more concerning written summary of the original Credible fear interview doubles as an aliens Asylum application rendering the requirement that an alien file one moot this shifts the burden and also provides a path for fraud and renders anti-asylum fraud measures moot a second final rule issued last month appears to be tough on illegal border crossers making them ineligible for Asylum however the number of exceptions and the easily rebuttable presumption below its stated purpose this rule will have the opposite effect as it will ultimately incentivize aliens to make the dangerous Trek northward with families in tow I would be remiss to not mention parole abuse regardless of the plain language of the statute limiting parole to case-by-case matters parole has become a favorite tool of this Administration while first used as an alternative to detention parole programs have subsequently played a large role in artificially decreasing border numbers the expanded categorical parole programs that we're seeing now are wholly unlawful lastly vast number of pending matters presently before USCIS will only increase if border prioritization for adjudicators is not stopped while the agency claims to want to reduce this number actions speak louder than words it was recently reported that USCIS adjudicators were being shifted from their assigned work in order to support operations along the Southwest border the Biden Administration has taken many measures in the past two and a half years aimed at addressing the Border crisis however it appears that no one thought to Simply enforce the law as it is written instead the department has through its own actions created the worst border crisis in American history a return to the rule of law is the only cure at this point and it is incumbent upon Congress to use its oversight and lawmaking authority to repair the Damage Done by the department thank you and I look forward to your questions great thank you for Testimony uh finally Mr Bradbury thank you chairman McClintock ranking member jayapal Mr Nadler and distinguished members of the committee far from Faithfully carrying out its enforcement duties the Biden Administration with secretary mayorkas at the point is flagrantly violating numerous provisions of our immigration laws laws critical to the Safety and Security of the American people here are some specific examples of the secretary's violations of law the use of parole to release tens of thousands of inadmissible aliens on mass into the U.S each month violates Ina section 212's Express restrictions on parole and it unlawfully circumvents the established procedures for Refugee admissions under Section 207. further because of lacks vetting at our ports and an overstretched border Force there's no way to know how many of the millions allowed into the U.S let alone the huge volume of gotaways who have evaded our border patrol fall within the categories of dangerous aliens prohibited entry under Section 212. secretary mayorkas has also ignored the mandatory detention and removal requirements of Ina section 235 and his directions to ice not to take enforcement action against most deportable aliens defies section 237. under his watch deportations have fallen to Historic lows while illegal immigration it is is at a record high in recent months DHS has shifted to a new process equally unlawful of pre-registering aliens outside the U.S for fast-track entry and release using the cbp-1 mobile app the cbp-1 escort service is a shell game it's a device for funneling the flow of illegal immigration through our ports of Entry instead of between them meanwhile unlawful entry overall remains unabated the claim that illegal border crossings have fallen 70 percent is a manipulated distorted figure it's a comparison to the highest week in the history of our country for illegal Crossings the week before the title 41 program ended when 10 000 illegals were encountered at the border that's the comparison that gets to the 70 figure it's false in some the secretary is asserting power to overturn the laws Congress has enacted and replaced them with new immigration Pathways as he calls them of his own design entirely new visa-like pipelines through which is streaming into our country an Ever Rising flood of illegal immigration this is a vast usurpation of Law and of congressional power by the executive these policies cannot be justified as an exercise of enforcement discretion secretary mayorkas's own actions have caused the crisis and he's refused to employ the full scope of resources available to him shuttering detention facilities ending cooperation with border states and abandoning the remain in Mexico program not to be overlooked he has also flouted his statutory Duty as secretary to protect the most vulnerable of Migrant children from the scourge of human trafficking and abuse together these violations of law have produced a colossal humanitarian disaster and a catastrophe for America the victims include a sea of vulnerable migrants caught up in the horrendous grip of the cartels the exploited children who are enslaved and abused within our own neighborhoods and the everyday Americans across our land whose communities are ravaged by violence and crime strained to the Breaking Point by unforeseen economic burdens and infested with fentanyl it's a grim picture for sure but one the American people must see we should all be grateful to you Mr chairman for shining a bright light on these violations of law thank you I will now proceed to questions from the members and we'll begin under the five-minute rule with Mr Biggs thank you Mr chairman I have to go fast because I think there's just so much that secretary mayorkers is responsible for and culpable for so I'll start with you Mr Bradberry at the direction of secretary mayorkas DHS is released and continues to release tens of thousands of aliens every month into the U.S through Mass parole and now categorical parole is this a violation of law yes it violates Ina section 212 d5a secretary mayorkas is also mass-proving aliens he himself characterizes as refugees or Asylum Seekers without demonstrating that there are compelling reasons requiring that that particular alien may be emitted by parole rather than going through the US rap process for Refugee admissions is that a violation of law yes it's a violation of Ina section 212 d5b because he's not conducting adequate individualized vetting of the huge volume of mass released aliens there's simply no way of knowing how many of the millions of aliens majorcus has released in the U.S fall into these categories of dangerous aliens is that a violation of law yes of section 212 a secretary mayorkas's Institute as you've talked about and all of you have mentioned is the CBP one pre-registration uh trying to funnel these uh illegal migrants to the U.S supports of Entry along our Southern borders that a violation of law 207 all right so um what's happened here of course is that uh just in this past week the U.S court of appeals for the 11th circuit halted two DHS efforts to release massive numbers of illegal migrants into the U.S on parole so uh this is what one of the judges said this opinion right here that what his violations of the law secretary mayorcus's violations of the law are quote akin to posting a flashing come in we're open sign on the southern border the unprecedented surge of aliens that started arriving at the Southwest border almost immediately after President Biden took office that has continued unabated over the past two years was a predictable consequence of these actions indeed former now say former former border patrol Chief Raul Ortiz incredibly testified based on his experience that there have been increases in migration when there are no consequences and migrant populations believe they will be released into the country close quote and I won't go into the the additional case as well but I'm going to ask Mr Wolf this question we've established that secretary mayorkas has engaged in in conduct violates his oath of office and the law my question for you is do you believe secretary mayorkas is violating the law intentionally willfully or is it just some oversight on his part so I'm gonna have to guess um I I think it's all the above I think um they know exactly what they're doing they be in the department uh this construct that they have put in place is not by happenstance or by chance it's by Design and I think it's been very clear over the last two years so everything that's going on at the border and and the crisis that we see unfolding there is was completely predictable and we had talked about to the incoming Administration about some of the challenges that we had in the Trump Administration and warned them that if they did half of what was campaigned on during 2020 that they would see a crisis at the border and so presumably they knew that presumably they heard that so that it still went forward the secretary in the new Administration heard that incoming secretary right uh numerous briefings uh again mainly with uh transition staff okay um Mr edlow um I wanted to ask you this question and it's related to um testimony we heard yesterday about what's going on the border and the impact on Border Patrol agents and morale Etc uh what are you hearing about what's going on because of the uh Arrangements of this of this secretary yeah sir I've I've heard that morale is at an all-time low uh throughout border patrol and throughout other uh enforcement entities um you know I I've spoken to some people who have who have been at the border recently they've seen that exact same thing that people are just very unhappy they don't know whether they should be doing the job or whether they are supposed to be ignoring the law and a lot of it's being run by memos that are or or just oral uh guidance being passed on I want to ask you the same question that I asked and this is with regard to secretary mayorkas and that is do you believe that what he's doing is intentional willful or is it just uh he's just an incompetent buffoon and there's can't learn his lessons I I don't think he's in comp attend Congressman uh you know looking at the memos looking at the departmental actions the regulatory actions this is all part and parcel of a of an intentional uh action yeah I agree with that and I think it's long past time for him to be impeached now yield back um chair recognizes uh the general lady from Washington State Miss child Paul for five minutes thank you uh thank you Mr chairman um clearly there is an agenda here and it is about impeaching secretary mayorkas I want to take a step back and just say that it is quite stunning uh to have some of the witnesses here today uh that have the audacity to come before this subcommittee and attack the current Homeland Security secretary Mr Wolf who was Chief of Staff to secretary Kirsten Nielsen was a key architect of the universally panned by majorities of Americans across the political spectrum that very cruel and unlawful family separation that was perpetuated by the Trump Administration further according to a federal judge and the government accountability office Mr Wolf served unlawfully as the acting Homeland Security secretary Mr edlow as acting director of U.S citizenship and Immigration Services helped to run that agency into the ground to the point that it almost had to furlough over 13 000 USCIS employees on his watch USCIS also ignored the Supreme Court's decision in June of 2020 stating that the Trump administration's attempt to rescind DACA was unlawful holding new DACA applications at processing facilities even after the Supreme Court mandate was formally entered and these are the witnesses that the majority brings to this subcommittee to discuss if quote the laws are being Faithfully executed forgive my skepticism or more bluntly give me a break Mr reichlen uh Melnick let me turn to you I want to discuss mandatory detention as discussed in your testimony section 235 b-1b of the immigration and nationality act states that if an officer determines an individual has credible fear of persecution that person quote shall be detained for further consideration of the application for Asylum that makes it sound like Asylum Seekers must be detained can you explain why all Asylum Seekers are in fact not detained thank you congresswoman I think the main reason is resource based but there's both resource and legal authorities I should note but the biggest issue here is resources for example if 50 000 Asylum Seekers show up at the Border in any given month and every one of them asks for protection there are not 50 000 detention beds I and under in 2019 when detention was at its highest there were 55 000 detention beds and that year 891 000 people were encountered by the border patrol and if even half of those were seeking Asylum it would not have been physically possible to detain all of them which is why under the Trump Administration hundreds of thousands of Asylum Seekers were released straight to court without going through the credible fear process so this is at the end of the day it is a resource issue and I will also note it is a legal issue because there are always exceptions to mandatory detention because Congress generally speaking can't force the executive to enforce the law in certain circumstances where that is literally impossible has any Administration Democratic Republican ever been able to detain every single individual as required by the section of the immigration nationality Act no and in fact when Congress first passed that provision in 1996 there were actually fewer than 10 000 detention beds and this is at a time when there were routinely 1.6 to 1.7 million a border patrol apprehensions a year so it was not possible when Congress passed the law it's not been possible any time over the last 27 years and it's still not possible today and it's correct isn't it that even at our highest levels of detention under the Trump Administration it was never close that's right I'm you know in 2019 the Trump Administration maxed out detention beds about 55 000 in August 2019 um that month there were more than 55 000 people who arrived and we also have to note that the average time that a person spent in detention was uh over a month so the average detention bed and Ice detention only turned over about 10.7 times a year so there was a Max Capacity that they could hold even at 55 000 beds of less than half a million and that year about 900 000 people showed up so that's why the Trump Administration in fact released hundreds of thousands of people so that's a lot of numbers let me just ask you bluntly many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to claim the Trump Administration ended what they call Catch and Release and detained all Asylum Seekers or sent them back to Mexico let me just ask you again is that accurate and just a simple yes or no answer is fine and if not you've already given us some of the reasons but is that accurate it's not accurate and even in 2020 after title 42 went into a fact several thousand people were released according to data from DHS from your testimony it appears there is a detailed chart which shows that the Trump Administration released over 500 000 migrants at the border during his four years as president is that correct that is correct that's directly from the border and additional were released were held in ice detention and then released thank you Mr chairman uh Mr van Drew thank you Mr chairman thank you all for being here today you know there's a very very old saying of wisdom you reap what you sow God help us what we have reaped uh it all started with the sanctuary cities and they were wonderful everybody loved them they were not everybody for God's sake but you know all these big City Mayors and other folks thought yeah this is a great idea to have Sanctuary cities not So Much Anymore we don't even know what to do in our big cities from Portland Maine to San Francisco California the lack of leadership and having these Sanctuary cities has now created huge problems that even Democrats will recognize but what else what else has it that we've reaped well we've done catch and release all throughout our nation and then the people who are listening here who are not in this room but are around literally the country they know that around the country there are people being released we're paying for transportation we're playing for health care we're paying for a great deal of things that we don't even take care of our own people in the United States of America well enough and you know Mr Melnick you said you know I respect it but you said that this that immigration is part of the fabric of the United States of America it is legal immigration I don't understand what is so difficult to understand about the difference of legal and illegal illegal means it's not true and we talk about Mr mayorcus and I you could spend an hour and a half on his case but you know what I remember I remember asking him when he was under oath and behind him it was almost like a green screen one of these screens and I said is everything okay at the border is everything good do we have our borders intact and he said absolutely Congressman you looked at the pictures you looked at the video and you saw little kids being thrown over to try to get them into the United States so that these adults would also be able to make their way in you saw a huge line you saw a disease you heard about fentanyl coming into our country which it has what are we doing to our country man obviously sit down and think about this what are we doing to the United States of America we use no more no more do we immediately expedite people back when you can no Lord do we have remain in Mexico no we misuse Asylum for things that was never meant to be used for Asylum doesn't mean gee I don't like where I live and I don't make as much money as I would like and it's a little bit tough going I feel bad for those people I feel bad for most of the world if that's going to be our standard then let's open every border everywhere in the United States of America and accept every human being who doesn't like their country if you really want to do it if you think that's right and we talked about him teaching may work us well you know what he didn't tell the truth under the oath he committed perjury that alone really truly means something he should be impeached you're supposed to tell the truth or for God's sake that you at least want to tell the truth try to tell the truth no more title 42 and we didn't do a damn thing to try to save it or change it or make it more applicable if it wasn't good the way that it was what's happening to these children and babies not only our families not only our children are dying of fentanyl the kids that are being brought across and now are beholden to the drug cartel forever and the drug cartels establishing facilities establishing a presence in the United States of America this is all true nobody's making this up the statistics show it we know we have millions upon Millions upon millions and what is it 5 million plus I mean just some articles I'd like for the record influx of migrants in Massachusetts continues to overwhelm State resourcesboston.com 1500 miles from the southern border immigration fights disrupt Michigan town Portland overwhelmed my growing number of Asylum Seekers and the new center main.com Chattanooga Texas overwhelmed by migrant Surge from Texas California decides unannounced illegal immigrant arrivals aren't so much fun aren't so easy and maybe it's not such a good idea to have Sanctuary cities after all come on everybody let's really look at this in the eye and see what we've got here we are out of control yes we should review our immigration laws and we should make them better and yes we should do more work and I want to ask Mr Wolf a question I'm going to ask it real really quickly no no I'm not sorry man I'm mad and I'm tired of it how about that that's how I'm going to end thank you Mr chair I recognizes the ranking member Mr Nadler thank you Mr chairman I I want to follow up on the ranking member's comment earlier and just note not only did Mr Wolf serve unlawfully as acting Homeland Security secretary and as the Chief Architect of the unlawful family separation policy which literally kidnap children from their parents he also unlawfully defied a congressional subpoena in September of 2020 and refused to testify before the house Homeland Security committee it is just shocking that my Republican colleagues who claim to believe so strongly in congressional oversight would invite a witness who has so brazenly violated the law and so flagrantly violates our Authority but Mr reichlen Melnick I want to turn to you to discuss the issue of parole the use of parole has become a big topic among my Republican colleagues can you discuss the history of Parole in this bipartisan use over the last 70 plus years and where is the Authority for the executive branch to use parole so parole has been part of the immigration law since 1952. so uh it has been around for decades and for many years especially prior to the passage of the refugee act parole was the primary Way by which the U.S admitted refugees so for example um from 1962 to 1969 more than 690 000 people came to the United States under parole uh from Cuba through various different parole programs since then Republican and Democratic administrations alike have used parole to allow people to come to the United States in various categories that fit the national interest these have been nearly every presidential Administration including the Bush Administration the Obama Administration and even under the Trump Administration tens of thousands of people were admitted under various parole programs that were then extant when he took office some have criticized the by the administration for its use of parole saying it's not being done on a case-by-case basis would you agree with that statement and if not why not I don't agree with that statement for the primary reason that I think they misunderstand what case by case means case-by-case adjudication just means taking every application on its own it doesn't mean that you can only give it to a few people and in fact in 1996 when Congress passed Ira Ira which included the case-by-case requirement the Congress actually rejected an amendment which would have made parole into a much more narrow program and I think the best example of this is to sort of look at this as a metaphor if I want to create a scholarship program and I say this scholarship program is open to every person whose child whose parents earn less than a hundred thousand dollars who can show compelling need for it that is Case by case because each student has to individually show that they have a compelling need whereas if it just said this program is open to every person who earns less than a hundred thousand dollars that would be categorical there would be no case by case involved so it appears that the administration is merely saying that certain categories of people are eligible to be considered for parole is that correct that's right and I think very similarly the wetfoot dry foot parole program that ran from 1995 to 2017 under which about 40 000 Cubans came in through the border that was also a similar circumstance but they still undergo a case-by-case determination to see if parole is appropriate that's right and every parole memo has required it to be Case by case and both Republican and Democratic administrations have made use of category gold parole programs in the past well I wouldn't call them categorical but I would say parole programs that were open to certain individuals you know based on for example their nationality or their job the Trump Administration use parole yes I think the most prominent one is the military family's parole in place program which operated under the Trump Administration now the Trump Administration continued the use of parole as part of the Cuban family reunification parole program that sounds like a categorical program that my colleagues on the other side of the island complained about yeah and Cuba has in particular had multiple parole programs in for their Nationals over the last 20 years is this Pro program similar to other family reunification programs recently announced by the by the administration for Colombia El Salvador Guatemala and Honduras my understanding per dhs's announcements last week is that the new parole programs will be virtually the same as the Cuban family reunification parole program and can you explain how those pro programs work who is eligible and are these individuals still granted Pro on a case-by-case basis as the law requires programs are open to individuals from certain countries who have family members who have pending immigrant Visa applications already so they've been approved for a Visa but they're just in a backlog and so there if those individuals are invited to apply for the program from the national visa center then they have to submit an application they have to go through a vetting process and then it is the exercise of discretion of the United States to determine whether or not to admit the person through this parole program thank you I yield back uh Mr Tiffany uh Mr reichling Melnick so the expansion of parole is legal in my opinion yes Mr Wolf um uh it says you served unlawfully you want to share with us whether you serve this country unlawfully so I've spent seven and a half years at the Department of Homeland Security I was there shortly after 9 11 when they stood it up I was there all four years during the Trump Administration I've held eight executive positions at the department including an assistant Secretary of position an under secretary position confirmed by the U.S Senate a deputy chief of staff position a chief of staff position and enacting secretary position so I've been to the Border dozens and dozens and dozens of times I've talked to the men and women of the border patrol of ice agents USCIS personnel and so my expertise in this whether you want to call me an acting secretary you want to call me a dog catcher my expertise is what it is and I was also very proudly part of a Administration that actually secured the Border put policies in place to bring back the rule of law and to secure the border so we just heard that the Trump Administration paroled people into this country did you parole over a million people into this country during the Trump years no we did not I'm Mr Bradberry I believe we have the largest human trafficking operation perhaps in the history in the world that is going on at this point and um do you think the American people are aware of the role of ngos um driving these running the pipeline to our border no and I think that role has been sort of surreptitiously concealed by the way the Administration has handled this but they are Contracting with non-governmental organizations to transport illegal aliens from the border to every District in the country do you think do you think some people that donate to some of these sometimes faith-based organizations ngos do you think they're aware that they're actually their money is being used as an accessory for human exploitation and trafficking I seriously doubt most people are aware they should be yeah I would urge people that um um that contribute to faith-based organizations you should ask them in fact I would say to you Mr chairman I think we should have the head of Catholic Charities come before this committee and explain what they're doing down on the border to facilitate this illegal immigration that's going on in this country um great work has been done by many of these faith-based organizations but I think the American people should fully understand what's going on there um Mr Bradberry recent Florida lawsuits against the Biden Administration have shed couldn't several light on DHS but also the office of refugee resettlement and what they're doing can you briefly explain how the ngos and or are facilitating this unprecedented human trafficking especially of Migrant children well of course under the trafficking victim protection reauthorization act there are special duties that the Secretary of Homeland Security has to ensure that migrant children who are brought into the country from not from Mexico but from other countries are placed with Guardians in a way through HHS that ensures that they're not abused they don't become the victims of sex trafficking or forced labor but unfortunately we know that that's happening are you familiar with the yes it is happening are you familiar with the um uh let's see here the third presentment of the 21st Statewide grand jury in Florida where they talked about trafficking children I'm not I'm sorry I'd like to enter this into the record if we may uh Mr chairman um everyone should read this about the horrific human trafficking that's going on that the State of Florida has identified without objection had the court order it's been followed by this Administration when they've been told they need to follow the law Mr Wolf I think in several instances they have not so um Mr chairman I would just um close with this the um we heard from the other side that these are just policy differences that we have between the two sides tell that to Aaron Rockwall from Pewaukee Wisconsin who was here a couple months ago remember her remember her son took I think it was like a Percocet pill something like that Mr chairman died in his dorm room tell that to Kayla Hamilton's mother she was just here in the last month wasn't she Mr chairman strangled to death autistic young woman by someone who is here illegally tell that to all the angel families out there I urge everyone here a Democrat candidate for president Justin uh was at the Border in the last couple days in Yuma Arizona and stood with farmers and said this cannot go on I urge Democrats who are of good faith across the United States of America to join us in supporting the secure the Border act you can do that it turns out there actually is a presidential candidate you can follow at this board if this issue um is important to you to secure the Border you do have a candidate that will help us do it inspired Mr chair member has a unanimous consent request thank you Mr chairman I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record to uh District Court decisions and a decision from the U.S government accountability office stating that Mr Wolf served unlawfully as acting Secretary of Homeland Security well you've lived down to all of my expectations my dear friend your ad hominem attacks have become quite common here but uh Mr chairman Mr chairman since you were there is no objection since since you did reference my behavior I would like to say that that was unanimous consent request to enter into the record factual documents this is not a matter of opinion this was a matter of fact thank you Mr chairman we'll enter them into the record Ms Lofgren I I think it it looks to me that this hearing has been uh hell to come up with a some rationale for an impeachment that of the uh act the secretary for doing his job you know if if the Congress it's never been the case that every single person who's entered the United States without inspection is incarcerated it's never happened and if that's what the Congress wants to do they'll look in the mirror because the estimate is it would cost 35.7 billion dollars to do that and the Trump Administration requests 3.1 billion for detention so uh you know we have the I immigration nationality act which is a law but the Appropriations process that yields a bill that's also the law and so if it's impossible to accomplish something if Congress needs to address that itself getting back to the issue of parole which I think is very interesting that's been a part of the law for a very long time and I I was um thinking about its use and sometimes its use depends on what's happening in the world and I remember when Saigon fell hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled communism they had been our allies in the war and the bulk of them were admitted using Parole Authority it was Case by case but it was a class of people who were escaping from communism is that correct Mr Mr Melnick that's right I believe the ultimate total is about 360 000 indo-chinese came following the fall of Vietnam and thinking back on other uses and against its categories that you look at each case within a broad category but we have tended and I think appropriately so to want to protect people or fleeing from communism and if you take a look at the Cuban family reunification parole program those were people who had applications made for family members who were suffering under the Yoke of Communism and one by one there was a determination on whether they should be given Advance parole to escape from that Communist Regime and and join mainly American spouses is that correct Mr Melody that's right um parole has often been in fact a response to Cuba because of course with Cuba they do not accept deportations so um we have had very little option for when Cubans arrived at our borders but to parole them in and we have created multiple parole programs under um the Clinton Administration the Bush Administration and prior administrations for Cubans in particular and we have individuals even today we have a totalitarian regimes in Central America including you know communist regimes in El Salvador um and uh in in Venezuela I mean and people are fleeing from communist depression now not every person who is leaving you know is that's the reason so it has to be Case by case but you would agree with me that what's going on in Venezuela is a communist light totalitarian regime is it not in Venezuela and Nicaragua both with I believe is what you're referring to are both countries as well that do not accept generally speaking the returns of their Nationals and um one in four people of left Venezuela in the last decade and so if we were looking at it on a case-by-case basis of people who were fleeing those regimes it would really be in keeping with the proud tradition of this country of helping people who are fleeing from communist oppression wouldn't that be correct I believe so yes I just wanted to go mention one other thing you know there was um parole in place for certain military families and as I recall that was really stimulated by an American soldier who was killed in Afghanistan and then his mother was going to be deported along with his wife and people especially in the veterans community became outraged at that that the mother of the soldier who died for our country would be removed wouldn't even be able to visit the grave of her son and I think every uh recent Administration including the Trump Administration has utilized the Parole Authority to take a look at the family members of American soldiers so is isn't that the case that that's been the modern tradition that's right since 2010 the military family parole in place program has been in effect um 20 000 people we believe under the Trump administration were paroled in under that program or sorry were granted Parole in place under that program and crucially in 2020 in the National Defense authorization Act Congress said it was the sense of Congress that that program was valid and lawful I I my time is uh by yields expired uh without objection the chair would ask unanimous consent uh to include in the record the homeland security letter August 17 2020 refuting claims that acting secretary wolf was acting uh or was appointed unlawfully and providing the legal justification for his appointment without objection uh chair now recognizes Mr Roy for five minutes I think the chairman um Mr Reichel Melnick let me ask you a question is Joe manchin senator from West Virginia is he a racist I can't comment on that okay what about Mark Kelly from Arizona similarly cannot comment on that Maggie hessen.com New Hampshire okay can't comment on there being a racist or not how about Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia similarly I'm not familiar okay how about Catherine Cortez masso from Nevada likewise Mr okay can't comment on whether they're racist or not I don't have an opinions as to the matter okay because you called me a racist and you called me a racist because I said that title 42 should be enforced something by the by the way that this Administration did to the tune of over a million people I believe is about 2.5 million people uh right so this Administration is racist I believe this Administration has made a number of failures in the racial Justice front so the bite Administration is racist I can't comment is interesting good to know good to know that the bite Administration is racist and get that on the record uh the fact is people who want to enforce title 42 believe that there was a reason that title 42 was put in place but they also recognize that title 42 is in fact a Band-Aid on a very broken system where the laws were not being forced otherwise but to throw around words like racist let me ask you a question is my friend uh Henry Cuellar is he a racist I can't comment on that right because Henry Cuellar said the Border Community is very concerned about title 42 being lifted this message of lifting title Force going straight to the criminal organizations he stood up and said the title 40 who should be enforced the administration stood up the Senators I just listed said that title 42 should have stayed in place now my personal view is the title 42 wasn't the thing that needed to stay in place then what ought to be in place is an actual border security that secures the Border Mr Wolf in your position at the head of the Department of Homeland Security notwithstanding what my colleagues want to throw around with the ad hominem attacks uh you were in fact charged with securing the Homeland right that was actually your task securing the Homeland at the Department of Homeland Security that's correct right and did you do that yes right and is the current Administration securing the Homeland no no in any measure in any way shape or form is the current Secretary of Homeland Security carrying out his duty Faithfully under the Constitution to secure the homeland of the United States he is not as I've outlined in my written testimony in oral testimony there's numerous instances where he has not Faithfully executing the law I think I thank you secretary wolf what I would say is uh if you go back to April of 2022 in a Judiciary Committee here I read word for word the statutory definition of operational control under the secure offense act I read it sitting right over here there was a chart and I put up the chart I put up the text and the text says operational control means the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States including entries by terrorists other unlawful aliens instruments of terrorism narcotics and other Contraband I asked secretary mayorkas do you have operational control and his response was I do and Congressman I think the Secretary of Homeland Security would have said the same thing in 2020 and 2019. in March of 2023 however in a senate hearing secretary Marcus said quote with respect to the definition of operational control I do not use the definition that appears in the secure offense Act and the secure fence act provides statutorily that operational control is defined as preventing all unlawful entries in the United States by that definition no Administration has ever had operational control just two weeks prior United States border patrol Chief Raul Ortiz answered no sir when asked by Homeland Security chairman Mark Greene does DHS have operational control of the entire Southwest border so the United States border patrol Chief Raul Ortiz says we do not have operational control of the Border he answered straight up truthfully no sir why was it that the Secretary of Homeland Security when I asked him that question he said yes we have operational control he said I do to be more precise but then in the Senate he comes back and says oh but no I'm sorry if you use that definition you know the one in the statute uh no no one has ever had operation control what is your response to that how would you characterize having operational control of the Border as you uh would say in the previous administration compared to current well I would certainly talk about my time in the Trump Administration and if I were to get asked that question whether we had operation control the answer was no we did not neither was the border secure and I think words matter here those are very definitive statements I always talked about how we were making the Border more secure or it was the most secure In Our Lifetime but to say that you have complete operational control to say that the border is closed to say that it is secure you're hiding the ball from the American people you're not being transparent and it's for a purpose I think you can only guess so political purpose but it also defies what the men and women of the Border Patrol and others are doing down there when they see their political leadership make these sorts of statements it it it's it I it's so bad it's hard to find words they don't know what to think because they are on the line they are on that border every single day watching the hundreds of thousands of individuals walk past them that they have to process and they see that someone is saying that this border is secure or you see the 200 known or suspected terrorists that have come across this Border in the last two years but somehow that border is closed it's secure I don't understand it yeah kind of like accusing people of whipping migrants at the border I yield back time's up uh Mr Korea thank you Mr chairman uh Mr Melnick just um the secretary doing his job Mr mayorkas before you answer that let me just say that uh General Kelly former secretary Homeland Security heard him say a couple of times that border security does not end or begin at the border in today's you look at the world it's pretty safe to say post covid economies around the world are devastated the only real game in town is the United States our economy world record low unemployment rate shortage of workers and even China I must say is struggling to get back on their feet economically we have a worldwide Refugee crisis if you look at this chart behind me from the U.N Refugee agency it shows the number of displaced people just in the Americas alone you can see countries across the region struggling it's not a U.S problem it's a regional problem Mexico is dealing with this problem Canada is dealing with this problem Guatemala is feeling the effects and of course Europe further south Columbia if you look at this chart Colombia is really struggling and I must say refugees are braving that trip North perilous situation I want to show you the picture of a little girl struggling to continue North through the Darion Gap this little girl lost her mother and another Refugee going north is trying to help her survive if refugees are willing to do this you can imagine the challenges at home let me say title 42. we all talk about title 42. I have to remind folks here title 42 the party in charge in Congress today House of represented voted to end the covid-19 pandemic and by operation of law they lifted title 42. let me repeat party in charge voted to lift title 42. and let me say I agree with him title 42 should not be an immigration tool but a health issue the Administration has taken steps to prepare for title 42's lifting I was at the border numerous times before title 42 was lifted I would ask those officers in green and blue are you ready they would tell me where is ready as can be and it wasn't just CBP it was DHS state department and the administration who did a pretty good job in anticipation of the lifting of total 42. and in fact if you look at the next chart these are the numbers reported publicly by border patrol Chief Raul Ortiz 50 percent dropped 50 percent drop in the encounters after 42 was lifted unexpected it's not over folks the world is still suffering for major economic challenges and these numbers may be temporary but the fact of the matter is we've got to focus on getting economies around the world back on their feet and we also have to focus on the other issue which is immigration reform whether you like it or not America is a massive draw a big draw for workers from around the world 50 percent of our Farm Workers are undocumented every time one of those undocumented goes to a farm to a ranch they find a job we are also part of the problem meaning we must pass immigration reform otherwise we'll continue to be in the same situation Mr Melnick I asked you earlier is the secretary doing their job we hear about operational control of the Border what does that mean well there's a colloquial definition of operational control which I think is and then there's a legal statutory definition under the secure offense Act of 2006 and as Mr Wolf just noted it's not anything that any Administration has ever reached in fact at the way Congress wrote the statute it is physically impossible for any Administration to ever get operational control selling so when we ask is there operational control at the border the answer is there never has been operational control at the border statutorily no uh there are obviously opinions that some people may have as to on their own views from a colloquial sense but under the statutory definition no no Administration has ever had it a political conclusion based on the times again this is I think it's it's the reality is that in the job of DHS secretary is extraordinarily complicated and difficult especially today with more people arriving from countries further away as you noted with Colombia and other migrants coming you know under the Trump Administration three out of every four migrants arriving came from four countries Mexico Guatemala Honduras El Salvador um today uh in fiscal year 2023 less than half came from those countries and that is a hugely difficult challenge for any presidential Administration regardless of party thank you Mr chairman I yield thank you Mr chairman I appreciate the witnesses being here today I've said it before and I'll say it again control borders and compassionate border we had Sheriff Daniels actually testify here in this committee and he said in four decades Mr Wolf that he had never seen the Border as secure as it was in 2018 and never as broken as it is now so tell me in just a few months 24 25 months what changed dramatically and what do you think the the reason we're having such an influx of encounters and and others across the board well I think the easy answer congressman is everything everything changed and it started really from day one of this Administration where they had a very successful border security regime in place that we had perfected over four years we didn't get everything right the first time uh but over four years we put a regime in place that held individuals accountable for illegally breaking the law that got those who needed those Asylum protections under U.S law we got them those protections quicker than they have ever gotten before uh this Administration for a variety of different reasons said nope we don't like it so what did they do they stopped border wall construction which I should just mention when you talk about operational control that's actually in the secure fence act so Congress back in 2006 thought that you would gain operational control by putting physical infrastructure along the border but nevertheless uh you would also uh they uh tore down MPP or the remain in Mexico program our Asylum Cooperative agreements and the list goes on and on and on and so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens when you tear down those programs and you had the former Chief of the border patrol telling the administration at the time this is what's going to happen when you tear down these programs and you don't put other deterrent immigration border security programs in place so the answer is what's going to happen they gave them a heads up they said this is what's going to happen if you if you undo the policies in place I think numerous individuals did yes you know I say if you've got a water leak you don't turn the pressure on to the house and it seems like in a lot of ways we had some problems with immigration and we have turned a tremendous amount of pressure on our border agents and really now they're concierge they're not really I mean they're they're there but they're just processing people through and they can't keep up um Mr Bradberry I've heard that people South of the Border are paying the cartel from you know four to five six thousand just South of the Border or syrians were twenty thousand Russians were paying 19 000 and I think Chinese Nationals were paying eighty thousand dollars but the administration in my opinion has basically created two-fold for people coming across the border that's why I say it's compassionate to have it controlled because you're either a drug mule you're trafficking heroin cocaine or fentanyl you're wearing carpet shoes that's how you pay your passage into this country are you becoming an injured servant and you make installment payments have you heard that as well yes from some of the experts on immigration at uh uh in the Heritage Center for border security and um what I understand is the cartels really effectively control our border at this point certainly everything up up to the board so the operational control is actually of the cartel has operations be that in our government and and they are making as much or more money off human trafficking now than the drug trafficking that's my understanding and so Mr Edler I got one question for you as well sir um considering this Administration do you think they're using the prosecutorial discretion correctly I I do not um you know my colleague up here talked about how Justice Scalia in in an opinion talked about prosecutorial discretion and how that is something that is useful in that every prosecutor and every police agency has that is true however it's done on a case-by-case basis we're back to talking about case-by-case basis a price control discretion done as a categorical prosecutorial discretion is not actual discretion that's categorically saying we're not going to go after a group of people that's not a case-by-case determination when Justice Scalia was talking about he was talking about at any at any stage in the process for an individual not for a group of people Mr Melody do you do your does your organization plan on suing the Biden Administration we have sued the Biden Administration as we've sued every Administration going back 30 years thank you thank you with that Mr chairman I yield back thank you Mr chairman um I'd like to inform the witnesses that I am the only member of Congress on this subcommittee that actually lives on the border I represent El Paso Texas I'm a third generation border resident my children are fourth generation border residents I don't live hundreds of miles from the border I live on the border literally and nobody wants an orderly immigration process more than those of us who have built Our Lives On the Border but I'll tell you one way we're not gonna get there it's with performative hearings such as these if we truly want to address our nation's immigration Challenge and opportunity we would do that through reasonable legislation through compromise and through comprehensive immigration reform and I'd like to invite all of my colleagues on this subcommittee to look at a bipartisan immigration Bill the dignity act that my colleague Republican Maria Elvira Salazar and I introduced that would be a first a good way to to begin talking about this but instead here we are engaging in what is the uh uh my Republican colleague's first step in impeaching Secretary mayorkas not because of any reason that they've laid out but simply because this is Speaker McCarthy's gift to the extremists in his conference let's let's look realistically at the numbers and uh Mr reicheland Melnick thank you so much because the American Immigration Council actually has uh produced this great chart I've altered it a little bit but what I'd like for the public for the American public and our panelists to note is that actually numbers started increasing long before President Biden took office long before the election even and there was only one time when there was a precipitous drop in Immigration in apprehension and that was right when covid-19 hit and that's when the Border was shut down but the chart that the American Immigration Council put together shows and and Mr rushland Melnick I believe you got these numbers directly from the Department of Homeland Security and it demonstrates that not any of the deterrence measures that were put forth by the Trump Administration actually deterred immigration covid did but shortly after the Border was reopened those numbers started climbing right back up that would tell us that we should be acting together in a bipartisan way on reasonable Solutions but instead again here we are focused on perform sense um Mr chair I'd like unanimous consent to enter into the record a propublica article about family separation yes without objection and I'd actually like to play the audio included in this article you're welcome to do with your time as you please okay all right well I'll play it from my phone [Music] [Music] [Music] Mr Wolf Mr Wolf do you recognize this audio I recall that audio yes and you were working at DHS at the time that this audio was taken is that correct I was at the department yes this is audio from the horrific Trump Administration policy of separating children from their parents at the border a policy that has caused immeasurable trauma on children and Mr Wolf was Ms Nielsen when she was the secretary and implemented this horrific policy did the Republican Party attempt to impeach her uh so I would disagree with the premise of that question yes or no it's not a policy so I so I will Proclaim my time no the Republican party never tried to impeach her nor did they try to impeach you despite the fact that you were an architect of this policy despite the fact that you were in place when the insurrectionist took over uh our Capital you resigned um because of the illegitimacy of the acting secretary role that that you uh were playing on behalf of the Trump Administration yet no one tried to anybody's times expired since that was an ad hominem attack Mr Wolf can I respond to that yes so uh I I think it's a useful conversation so let's talk about children let's talk about protecting children let's talk about the 360 000 children that have come across this border going to border and whose time point of order and whose time is Mr Wolf speaking uh Miss eskopar's time she she made it yielded backward time on Mr Wolf and I thought it was important time he can speak on someone else's time the gentleman I I will recognize the gentleman's Point well taken thank you and uh proceed to Mr Nels uh thank you Mr chairman I just want everybody in this room to know everybody every member on this panel this committee to know that I'm the only one I'm the only one that has arrested an illegal alien that has been deported six previous times for killing one of my senior citizens when I was here for Fort Bend County Texas I just want everybody to know that all right I have several different things I would like to discuss in my five minutes uh Mr Melnick I'm paraphrasing some of your testimony you said that that in order to effectively execute our immigration laws Congress must provide additional resources is that correct that's right especially when it comes to adjudication with a 2 million case backlog we are not funding the immigration courts enough today I believe how paraphrase again I'm here to talk about complicated reality of enforcing immigration laws at the border that's right what's complicated about 212 f well 212f in particular is quite complicated because it cannot be applied to the border to turn away Asylum Seekers the Trump Administration tried that in Fall of 2018 uh that was struck down by a court in California upheld by the ninth circuit in the Supreme Court uh declined to overturn that decision wow I we talk a lot about title 42 and we talk about on title 42 went away it's my understanding anybody on the panel can pipe in if you'd like title 42 dealt with the covid the pandemic Public Health Emergency is that right uh that's right title 42 was a CDC policy invoked in March of 2020 when the pandemic when I look at 212f and I guess I'm just a simple man when I look at 212f it's been around since I guess 1956. it's been used many many times actually 1952 every president since 1981 has used it at least once Trump used it they be beat up on Trump when he did his little travel ban but the Supreme Court upheld that and said he can do that and he did it's been used by Trump he used it in the first week of office Obama used it 19 times bush used it six Clinton used it 12. Bush before he used it once Reagan used it five times and when you look at what that 212 f is and it seemed like or 212 f is this is it everybody need to take a look at it let me read it section 212f of the Ina whenever the president finds that the entry of any aliens or any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States he may buy Proclamation and for such period as he seemed deemed necessary suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants or impose on the entry of any aliens or restrictions that he may deem appropriate it was used several times 69 times in the past several years stating back to 1980 Mr Wolf what how do you feel about 212f are we not to instead of providing all these resources and asking for more support why can't we just say let's get 212f the Supreme Court has ruled that Trump used it when he had his travel ban let's just shut down the Border use 212f until we can get some operational control well Congressman uh the Trump Administration particularly when we talked about the travel restrictions use 212f effectively uh to make sure that we got more information sharing than we ever got from basically every other country around the world look I think the the conversation that I continue to hear is we need more resources and we need Congress to fix this crisis and that is just not correct this Administration has all the authority and all the power that it needs to secure the Border today and I know that because we did it during the Trump Administration it wasn't perfect I'm not saying that it was but we did it effectively and it became the most secure Border in our lifetime and so they can talk about more resources you can talk about how it's difficult and how it's hard and how we don't have enough resources that do does not mean that you exempt whole classes of individuals from law or you categorically parole individuals into the country if all of these individuals that they're paroding in really need Asylum protections why aren't they bringing them in as asylees or refugees yeah they're bringing them in as parole 10 seconds thank you Mr Wolf I will say this Donald Trump has been the best president in my lifetime and when he comes back in 2024 212 F needs to be used we need to shut down our Southern border until we have operational control and save America are you back I thank the chairman I have a lot of friends in this room and some are all are on one side and many are on the other side but I've heard some shocking things in here that will literally take my breath away adding to the Canadian fires literally take my breath away someone offered up the Catholic Charities and the Republicans are known to introduce legislation and try to pass legislation to penalize the Pope Catholic Charities and other non-profits for simply doing what the scriptures in their faith tell them to do in addition the kind of self-righteous testimony that I've heard and is not ad hominem of anybody I've said it generically it's unbelievable it is simply unbelievable I've been a Homeland Security since 9 11. help create the committee and the department I could turn around and blame the victims who jumped out of the building that's how outrageous this testimony has been as it relates to title 42 since it was lifted the number of unlawful cup Crossings at the Southwest border has dropped nearly 65 percent from the Biden Administration the administration lasts two fiscal years DHS has seized more Fentanyl and arrested more criminals for committing crimes related to Fentanyl and precursor chemicals than any previous five years combined then in all seizures are even higher in FY 2023 I really don't know what you're talking about the Administration has strategically placed more than 24 000 border patrol agents officers thousands of troops and contractors to the uh concern of many various positions and over a thousand Asylum officers along the border let me be very clear chairman of this committee said as relates to the impeachment of the secretary it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when someone tell me how we're going to in a bipartisan way do the job that the American people want us to do we are all concerned but the misrepresentation of what border patrol agents are saying I don't know what you all are hearing when I go they are both congenial con they're both collegiate the genial factual compassionate and reasonable they love their job and they believe that a lot of work is being done by Congress to give them resources and someone just said they need no resources and when there are issues that need to be addressed we do need to address them in a bipartisan way as opposed to condemnation but for every visit you've been to the Border I probably doubled it and I've walked the streets and seen the despair I've been in the non-profits and yes I have seen the horrors of the Trump Administration snatching children away from their parents and the complete disconnect that the children got in only months of separation when they tried to reunite them and the children were looking in shock at the mother and would not even go to the parent that's how dysfunctional they have become I have a short time uh Mr forgive me Mel Nick I know you have three names but forgive me give me uh just a quick snippet of the fact that the world has changed with the amount of migration and people moving I even as well and it is enormous just quickly because I have another question quickly for you yeah this is the big difference between the Biden Administration the Trump Administration is who is coming um the Biden the Trump Administration it was mostly Mexicans and Central Americans now we are seeing far greater flows from other parts of the western hemisphere in particular Venezuela Cuba and Nicaragua which pose very different challenges to processing for those who say we're doing nothing I know that the American Immigration Council has done some work on this can you discuss what you found as it relates to arrest by Customs and Border Protection of individuals trafficking Fentanyl and can you quickly distinguish there is something called human smuggling which is what the bulk of activity is going on with the cartels and the Smugglers it is different from human trafficking I am a champion against human trafficking please explain the fentanyl issue that you've been able to determine and how smugly and trafficking is different and how it is human smuggling that is going on at the border and that the Administration has its hand on trafficking yes sir yeah really let me say right Glenn Miller thank you really quickly smuggling is usually people pay a Smuggler to smuggle themselves trafficking is people who are being trafficked involuntarily against their own will and when it comes to fentanyl I think there I Look to what the law enforcement agencies say CBP icehsi the F the DEA and the FBI all say the overwhelming majority of hard drugs such as fentanyl come into the U.S at ports of Entry smuggled usually in passenger cars and most often by U.S citizens and they're catching them uh the fentanyl seizures have increased every year and I've heard these deployment of non-intrusive inspection technology increases thank you I yield back Mr chairman we are a nation of laws or we or not a nation at all we already have laws in the books that can prevent the catastrophic border crisis that we are seeing every single day today and we know they work and do you know how we know they work because they worked under President Trump and they worked because he in his administration and you Mr Wolf chose to enforce those laws now is this merely a failure to act or is this intentional President Biden and mayorkas act as if their hands are tied like nothing can be done to fix this border crisis but interestingly enough almost every policy this Administration has attempted to implement has been roughly a failure binds Afghan withdrawal Biden's foreign policy Biden's economic agenda failures except for the Border crisis the Border crisis is their only success and I say that because they have successfully created a chaotic situation to carry out a radical agenda problem reaction solution the administration created this problem listen to the reaction and I suspect they will present a solution in that solution ladies and gentlemen in the future will be an attempt at Mass amnesty there I said it the real solution would have been to prevent this crisis from happening in the first place and the bite Administration could have done just that if we'd have kept simple laws on the books and enforce the laws of this country simple as that do you know that over 200 people on the terrorist watch list have been arrested at the border since President Biden took office verifying for you to hear ones that we know of how many have escaped into the interior of the United States now I served my country in combat and I was actually a West Point Cadet when 9 11 happened and my classmates and I stood about 60 miles north just up the Hudson River New York City and watched 3 000 innocent lives evaporate from our world in 90 minutes and my fear is that with our poorest border another 911 is imminent and it will happen because this Administration won't fulfill its basic responsibility to secure our homeland the bind Administration is making a deliberate choice to not secure our border and do you know how I know this is a fact because three years ago we weren't having this conversation my first question is for you Mr Wolf what has changed between these administrations that has caused this crisis to explode to what we've seen lately it gets the intentional destruction of a lot of effective policies that were put in place during the Trump Administration happy to name those one by one by one but we've heard a lot of talk about detention capability uh and what I will say is yes it's difficult it's hard to detain individuals but if you actually want to remove individuals from this country you need to detain them and under the Biden Administration they have removed the lowest number of individuals uh in I would say decades 39 000 removals of criminal illegal aliens that is a drop of over 62 percent from FY 20 which was during covet so there's a lot of different policies that they have decided to tear down very effective policies and they did that without any analysis they did it because they didn't like it they didn't like the president they didn't like whoever at the time let's forget about whether they were actually protecting Americans where they were protecting American communities and I think lost in this whole discussion is what is best for Americans on our border security policy or our immigration policy it's not what is best for illegal Millions it's what is best for Americans that should be our first Duty yes we need to make sure that those that are coming here seeking protections that qualify for our protections under law get those protections absolutely we need to think about Americans first and I think that's where this Administration is falling short no question for you sir if you were running the Department of Homeland Security right now the same way that secretary mayorkas is doing right now what do you think president Trump would have done to your job I would no longer be there I kind of tend to agree with you on that sir and I want people to understand this we've had over 6 million people illegal aliens enter our country says Biden's taken office 6 million with conceded our border to the cartels fentanyl has killed enough enough fentanyl has brought into this country to kill every single American five times we have sworn enemies on the terrorists watch us in the United States and we don't even know where they are if President Biden does not secure this border we're going to have another 911 that's how serious this is and we must do our job and protect the American citizens thank you all for being here and God bless you I think thank you Ms Ross thank you Mr chairman um I just want to do a little reset here uh to be very clear President Biden inherited a disaster of a border from former president Trump we all watched it on TV aghast and he did it in the middle of a global pandemic now the Biden Administration is not perfect and I'm not here to defend every single thing that they've done but what they have done is work to correct course to tighten security while also expanding Pathways to Legal immigration these have been good faith attempts to enforce the law which former president Trump rarely tried to do in a way that helped our immigration policy it was the Trump Administration that allowed unaccompanied children to cruelly be held in detention far longer than Allowed by the law it was his administration that designed and boasted about family separation it was his administration that wasted resources illegally on inefficient enforcement mechanisms like the construction of the border wall countless reports have demonstrated how the militarization of border security increases the number of unauthorized immigrants who remain in the United States because it disrupts historically circular flowing migration and results in a net undocumented inflow this hearing is yet another example of my Republican colleagues preference for partisan political hearings over engaging in good faith discussions about solutions that could actually work and there are bipartisan proposals for this on both the House and Senate side yet we've had zero hearings on those as we've heard in the days after title 42 ended border patrol encounters have gone down so it is particularly ironic that we are having this hearing now now is the time that we should be working together on Solutions we need legislation that enhances border security several of us recently visited the border and we got lots of great suggestions about how to do that from the people who deal with this every single day we also need legislation that expands Pathways to legal residency and citizenship and strengthens our economy you might have seen me step out briefly about a half an hour ago to meet with the home builders from North Carolina one of their priorities for their legislative agenda is comprehensive immigration reform same priority for most of the businesses in my district in North Carolina same priority for the agricultural Community same priority for the hospitality industry yet we haven't had one hearing on doing that for two sessions of Congress I've introduced bipartisan bicameral legislation to help people who came to this country legally as dependents of Visa holders and because we have such a broken immigration system they're being forced to self-deport and leave their families in the only country that they know because this Congress does not have the will to take that bill up now to the credit of the last Congress it passed the house in two different vehicles we have a broken immigration system on many levels it is time to get about the business of having hearings on real legislation that will solve real problems and help real people thank you Mr chairman and I yield back thank you um Mr Wolf when you were acting DHS secretary the Border was Secure was it not for all intents and purposes uh we worked every day to secure it every day every week every month and and we had reached a very low uh a number of illegal border crossings had we not I think by a number of different metrics and that's certainly one the number of uh apprehensions uh fell and since then of course we've seen uh Mass migration of unprecedented uh proportions uh millions and millions flooding into the country um where there are changes in law that occurred to account for this or or is it entirely a matter of not enforcing the law there's been no changes in law that I'm aware of a lot of instances now when the Administration has been called out by the courts for failing to enforce the law what's been the administration's response to these court orders well uh you know they've with with the exception of the September 30th memo which did uh which wasn't joined and vacated on in June of 2022 to the extent that uh the Administration has been able to get around the court orders they have has anybody challenged them on that in court has there been any uh some some states have filed uh have challenged them yes has any Court come back and issued a criminal contempt Citation for uh are there are there any pending I I couldn't answer that sir all right Mr Wolf and he any thoughts on that Mr Bradbury I don't believe there are any pending if obviously Mr chairman is difficult for a court to impose contempt right what I'm trying to do is determine the difference between simple maladministration uh and deliberate violation of law I think that that's a very bright line that that uh that we need to Define uh we spoke of the detention I think Mr ricklin Melnick made a very uh good point you've got uh 10 illegal aliens so you have beds to detain five what do you do with the other five uh is that what's actually going on uh Mr Wolf so not only should you be detaining but if you're not able to detain then you can certainly uh have them wait such as what we did under MPP I think that's an interesting point that was missed in this whole debate right we started talking about detention and how that's never achievable and I'm not here saying that you can detain everyone but there is another option that Congress in the Ina tells you to do so if you can't do that then you can hold them in a third country as we did under the migrant protection protocols again interesting that that was not brought up so there are other ways that you can enforce the law this idea that if you can't detain them that simply they're released into American communities is not the law and we shouldn't pretend that it is but yet that is what is occurring what's been occurring for the last several years actually a violation of law or is it just a very poor decision I would say it's both Mr edlaw uh you know I'm told that uh uh all the capacity that we have right now isn't being used and yet uh illegal aliens are being released into the country I don't believe it is being used Congressman I I think uh for the most part there uh are more more interest right now in it was in paroling people and now it's giving notices to appear at the border and letting people go along their way there's not an interest in detaining as far as I can see let's talk about uh Parole Authority uh uh Congress did tighten the criteria for paroles back in the mid-1990s precisely because it was being abused in the manner that Mr ricklin Melnick outlined um [Music] is it true that twenty thousand uh Mass paroles were done under the Trump Administration Mr Wolf so there are a number of uh parole programs that we administered obviously that we began or we continue to administer that was going on during the Obama Administration and alike but I think again the important Point here is are you trying to secure the border and are you trying to hold people accountable and are you trying to get them the protections they need so as they parole people into the United States there's no Asylum protections for them they're not in Asylum proceedings so if they truly need Asylum why aren't they being put into Asylum proceedings instead they're simply paroleing them in to the country to again to have this uh the status for a year perhaps even two years at a time it doesn't make any sense it's it's a little smoke and mirrors of what the administration is trying to do at the border okay uh Asylum hearings are designed to be adversarial in nature they're presided over by immigration judges Bound by the law how does that differ from the administration's replacement of this process with USCIS Asylum officers Mr Bradbury it's completely different now because they're reviewing their own appeals of their own decisions it's not an adversary is there a provision of law that gives them this Authority no it's in violation of section 103 of the Ina it's the attorney general and the immigration judges that have to hear those appeals well I see my time has expired and I see Mr swallows arrived recognize him for five minutes why is this hearing happening within the same week that we just learned that the Department of Homeland Security announces the average daily unlawful border crossings are down sharply relative to the period before title 42 ended we're seeing record number of fentanyl being seized by border patrol seized not getting past them but successes because our law enforcement are doing their job and showing up every day and we don't congratulate them instead we use that as a political tool to try and hit the by demonstration why is this hearing happening it's because it's a part of a corrupt bargain a dirty deal that allows speaker McCarthy to stay in power he's on an installment plan he's got to pay a installment every week he's got to give Tucker Carlson the January 6th sensitive police footage he has to put Marjorie Taylor green on the committee of Homeland Security even though she said January 6 was a 1776 for our country and she goes and visits the terrorists of January 6 at the DC jail and dishonors the police officers another installment is we have to defund the effort to help Ukraine to satisfy the Putin block that is across the aisle and this is an installment that Miss Taylor green openly admitted when she said she's voting for the crazy idea that we'd pay America's bills to lift the debt ceiling because she's going to get some dessert out of it that's what she said she said I'm gonna get some dessert out of this sandwich those are her words this is her dessert we all have to sit here uh for her dessert gentleman this has been for a moment the gentleman is is warned not to use vulgarities in this committee room and the gentleman is warned to restrain from from making attacks on the motivations of members will proceed in order I apologize for quoting your College Point of order no chairman I apologize the gentle lady will stay at the point of order no no chairman I apologize for quoting your colleague I won't quote her again that's offensive you will refrain from questioning the motives of members so we're here because that was a promise that my colleague told the public was made that we get to impeach my orchest so this is the predicate to bring impeachment proceedings against the Secretary of Homeland Security who just announced last week that daily unlawful border crossings are down sharply look Kevin McCarthy may have the title of speaker but it's clear to me because of this hearing today he doesn't have the job the job is by the person who's getting her dessert here today I also think chairman it's quite Rich that the title of today's hearing is whether the law is being Faithfully executed because your principal Witness was declared to have been an unlawful acting Secretary of Homeland Security and on September 17 2020 failed to honor his own subpoena which puts him in Good Company because the chairman of our committee is 400 Days into not honoring his own subpoena but we're calling this hearing a question of whether the laws are being Faithfully executed with the witness who didn't honor a subpoena chaired by a committee chairman who did not honor his subpoena very rich so my question Mr reichlen messnick is considering that border crossings are down we're trying our best with a party that doesn't want competence at the border they want chaos they want to declare there's open borders to try and incite people to come to the United States do you see grounds at all any predicate that would summarize why an impeachment of secretary Marcus would be justified Congressman I'm not an expert on impeachment but what I do know is that it's been 33 years since we last updated our legal immigration laws and 27 years since we last updated our Asylum laws we are operating a 20th century system A system that in some cases came around before the world wide web and it's not a surprise that in a 21st century Global displacement crisis the United States is struggling very hard to keep up and so I think what this shows is that we need to fix and update our laws give the system the resources it needs to work and ensure that the DHS can actually carry out the laws in a way that today in many ways it struggles with thank you and I think the summary here is people want competence they don't want Chaos on immigration on the debt ceiling on anything else I yield back thank you and I think they also would like civility uh this concludes today's hearing I want to thank all of our Witnesses for appearing before the committee I want to apologize on behalf of the committee for the ad hominem attacks that were directed at several of our guests today without objections all members will have five legislative days to submit additional written questions for the witnesses or additional materials for the records I know I will

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Length: 124min 32sec (7472 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023