MIGRANT CHILDREN: Border Agent SLAMS Democrat Over "False" Statements

and ranking member Peters for this hearing thank you to all of our witnesses for being here to testify as well as for your service to our country and please thank all the men and women you work with on our behalf as well we all want to make sure that those of you on the front lines have the resources you need we also want to make sure that you are doing your jobs consistent with American values and I think that's something we all share mr. hower I wanted to start with a question to you it would be great if we could have a brief update on drug seizures at our land ports of entry along the us-mexico border have we seen an increase in trafficking of any particular narcotic over the past six months Thank You senator for the question and thank you for visiting McAllen and may our narcotics users are on track for our to match our numbers from last year year-to-date we've seized more than 39,000 pounds of methamphetamine which is tracking a little bit higher than normal 38,000 pounds of cocaine 3,200 pounds of heroin and nearly 2,000 2,000 pounds of fentanyl and thank you in particular have fentanyl seizures increased or decreased over the past six months and what does that tell you about the drug cartels plans for the trade of fentanyl I think we're seeing less through our mouth facilities and it is trending up slightly at on the southern border okay I'm through with the fentanyl right and of course while the the size of the seizures of fentanyl that you just recounted sounds smaller than the other drugs 2,000 pounds of fentanyl is an awful lot of fentanyl given its lethality absolutely mr. Hastings how do Border Patrol's drug seizure numbers compare with CBP seizures at ports of entry thank you for the question so we've noticed the hard narcotics generally trending up and by what I mean specifically cocaine seizures are up methamphetamine seizures are up and heroin seizures are up cocaine and about ninety seven thousand pounds cocaine seized so far this fiscal year between the ports of entry about ninety eight hundred pounds of methamphetamine seized between the ports of entry heroin 448 pounds of heroin seized so far between the ports of entry marijuana is slightly down at about two hundred thousand pounds and fentanyl although down a little bit at 149 pounds still obviously very highly concerning well thank you for the information mr. Hastings I want to turn to another topic I understand very clearly from my visits to the border the one I just did with senators Johnson and Peter and the one I did last year that we are facing a humanitarian and security crisis along the southwestern border and I agree with you that we need comprehensive immigration reform in order to help relieve some of the flow of migrants into the United States however there is absolutely no excuse for the reported conditions at Border Patrol facilities that has child migrants outside lawyers recently visited a Border Patrol facility in Clint Texas where they reported widespread instances of children living in squalor being denied the ability to shower for weeks at a time caring for infants just a few years younger than themselves and being locked in cages for the vast majority of the day similar reports of gross mismanagement and horrible conditions have come to light at the Border Patrol facilities at McAllen and El Paso as well as private a private facility in Homestead Florida I truly understand how overwhelmed border patrol is I think you've done a very good job of highlighting it in your testimony I certainly saw a great deal of it when I was down at the border just last month I also understand that CBP needs funding to address this crisis hopefully we will be able to take action here in the Senate on an emergency aid package in the coming days however when dealing with children you're first and foremost priority is to ensure that the children in the federal government's custody are treated with the same kind of care dignity and support that we would want and expect for any child to that end mr. Hastings I would like a very clear answer on these questions first does CBP have an obligation to provide toothpaste and soap to children in your custody yes or no we're providing that in El Paso in Clinch station the news reports say otherwise but you now say you do have an obligation to do that we have been at the Clinch station and generally all of our stations across the southwest border are provided with a variety of hygiene products and even though our facilities were not constructed for the Democrats I understand that and my time is limited so I'm going to cut I do understand that you are dealing with difficult facilities I do understand that there is a backup with HHS which I think HHS could do more to solve but at the end of the day what I'm hearing you say is that you agree that children should be provided soap and toothbrush if they are in your custody which is a different position than what the administration has been saying in court we are providing those things now we have been and we will continue to do you have an obligation to feed clothe and clean the children in your custody we provide three meals hot meals a day and snacks are unlimited to those in our you do understand that that is in direct contradiction with the news reports that we have been reading and from what lawyers who have been visiting these children and interviewing them are telling us and I would ask that you understand that those are the plaintiffs attorneys who have a case against the government and you should understand that I am a member of the bar of Massachusetts in New Hampshire and I have hold attorneys to very high standards and I doubt very strongly that any attorney would be fabricating this information understand ma'am what steps is the Border Patrol taking right now to ensure that the mismanagement of child migrants in Clinton Texas is not occurring at every other Border Patrol facility along the southern border so all of the allegations that you've mentioned above that were made have all been reported to the office of the Inspector General and will be thoroughly investigated they've also been reported to the Office of Professional Responsibility within CBP they will be thoroughly investigated I'm I'm pleased that they will be investigated but my question is what are you actually doing to make sure that as you are dealing with an unprecedented number of migrant children that you are ensuring that there is enough soap and toothbrushes that there is enough food and enough time for them to be outside and out of very confined spaces what I'm asking is what are you operationally doing to change the circumstances we are hearing reports not just from one facility not just from two facilities not just from one source that these children are living in terrible conditions that would violate any standard of any institution that we all would expect in this country what are you doing to actually make sure that children are getting the the care and the sanitary conditions and the food that they need so we we have done a great deal as I mentioned earlier we have brought in shower facilities just for for this population for others due to the new demographic and how long we're holding them we've increased our medical contract across the southwest border for medical assessments and medical care we've increased as I mentioned in my oral statement the amount of operational funding that we're spending on consumables diapers food formula all of those things if you walk into many of our locations on the southwest border including Clint you will see an area a storeroom that frankly looks like Costco with these supplies that are available and when agents are providing this of these supplies they're documenting what they're providing so we have those supplies readily available and we are offering and providing those supplies now I am over time I thank the chairman for his indulgence there is a huge disconnect between your testimony in between what we are getting as reports from the facilities I hope very much that we can just focus on making sure the children are clean well cared for safe and released as quickly as possible thank you mr. Hasson will work with you to get those answers one thing I do know that Border Patrol is doing for example in El Paso instead of 28 or

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Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 26 2019