Believe child separation is effective, and no one raised their hand. I wanted to note that for the record. I wanted to ask a question from the professor. Is that United States violating or violated human rights agreements set by the United Nations in the family separation policy . Yes. International law is clear family unity should be prioritized. So we asiocortez members of the United Nations signed on to the International Human rights agreement saying clearly family separation is a violation of International Human rights and then pursued a policy that violates human rights. I was looking how do we get to this point. How did we get to this point where we take children out of. Others and fathers arms it dated back we have taken children away from their parents , begin lastprocess year under secretary kiersten nielsen. I had to dig further and the staff dug further. Where did this start in the administration . We found a memo that dates back to april 23 2018. There was an official pursuendation to propagate all amenable adults across our border illegally, thisugh the supply applies to people in practice, including those with a family unit between ports of entry, here is the memo i would like to submit to the congressional record. What is the name of it . Rep. Ocasiocortez memo to the secretary from Homeland Security. April 23, 2018, increasing prosecution. Without objection. Rep. Ocasiocortez seems like this is the source of it. Seems as though you are the author. Yourself,re, from in mcaleenan and francis is this correct . Did you sign the memo . I would be happy to provide it. I will provide it over, but i would like to note it says the official recommendation, there was three different options presented. The third included the option for family separation. The initiative would pursue prosecution of all amenable adults including those present within a family unit. Your name is on this. Is it correct . Yes, i signed it. Rep. Ocasiocortez so you are the author. I am not the author. Rep. Ocasiocortez but you signed it. Zerotolerance memo. Rep. Ocasiocortez you provided the official recommendation to secretary nielsen to pursue family separation. I gave numerous recommendations how to secure the border and save lives. You gave herortez numerous options but recommendation was number three, family separation. This was not the only paper where we had given the secretary numerous options to save lives. Rep. Ocasiocortez so the recommendation of many, you recommended emily 7 separation. I recommended zerotolerance. Rep. Ocasiocortez zerotolerance was interpreted as the policy that separated andf i get arrested for dui i have a young child, i will be separated. If it is domestic violence, i separated rep. Ocasiocortez with all due respect, legal Asylum Seekers are not charged with any crime. When you are in the country illegally, it is you go through the legal way. The attorney general of the United States made that clear. Rep. Ocasiocortez ok. The chair, if the memo is submitted for review, inspector general, one last thing. Is there a record based on reports throughout the year we spoke with a woman who lost her child because of inhumane conditions. We learned there is no accurate record and no policy being held of people who are pregnant and people who go through miscarriages. Is there a record for those who entered the facilities . With theot familiar instance you are talking about but i believe the facilities keep logs and loss but i am not familiar. Where wouldcortez we find those records . I believe all of the facilities keep them. Rep. Ocasiocortez if we find they are not accessible, do you believe the committee should seek to request records from dhs on the location of children and those that are detained . Opine aboutnever what they would request and not request. Ms. Presley. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I am proud to represent and call the massachusetts seventh my home. It is a home to 40 of our residents are immigrants. Today those residents, those families are living in constant fear. At the hands of this administration is fundamentally broken immigration system has on wednesday we heard heartbreaking testimony from yasmine who lost her 19monthold baby girl. After pleading with officials to provide her baby with adequate medical care and medicine. I have no shortage of theory for that fury for this injustice. But at the time allotted to me, i would like to focus on saving a life. You, there has been too much death. I want to enlist your partnership, your partnership in saving a life. Right now ice is depriving an Asylum Seeker of adequate medical care. Mariana fled statesponsored genderbased violence in angola and is being held in texas at a facility offered by four civic, a private forprofit detention facility. Her five and sevenyearold babies were separated from her and sent thousands of miles away to chicago. A doctor at the Detention Center said she is at risk for hysterectomy if she doesnt isnt released and receive proper medical attention. Notifying of her health condition, they refused to rent care. To get adequate earlier this week she lost consciousness. Her lawyers and family are desperate to get her medical care. In your expert view, can you totruct and advise me how elevate her case so she gets a medical care she needs . On your first comment on ice medical, let me be clear because i remember that case. In 20 days of detainment they had 10 medical appointments and the mother did not go to two of them. Rep. Presely this is my time. I would like to reclaim we can alls but agree it was a tragedy that that baby died. I am not talking about the past. I am talking about the present and we have an opportunity to save a life. I am asking you in your Expert Opinion what should be done and how can we elevate . Im not going to let your callousness stand without response. This is about transparency to the american people, is it not . [speaking simultaneously] roy let we make sure i understand what is going on here. We are talking about two cases, is that right . Rep. Pressley i was referencing the tragedy of a baby we have already lost. There is a woman in care right now who lost consciousness. I want to make sure im clear. Rep. Pressley im seeking his expert counsel on what is the procedure and what can be done to elevate this womans case to get her the medical attention that the detention doctors have e medical attention that the detention doctors have said are essential to keep her healthy and alive. Lamy asking, tell us what you can do to help in the situation. Will restart your time. To make a statement of the baby that did not die in ice custody. [inaudible] i am not revisiting the past. Of course not. I offered it for contents and said it was a tragedy and we can agree there been too many tragedies. You said there has been a lot of death. Lets stop the death. You cant blame the first one on ice. To save a womans life you are an expert. Your Expert Opinion where a person loses consciousness and separated for her babies from us. How does a member of the United States congress get an answer about her case from ice . All make an urgent phone call to acting director and i springs half a billion dollars of medical care into the facilities. Im sure all the facts you presented are probably not the fact. In your view, what does it take to elevated case to ensure a woman whose detained receives medical care . Obviously you can contact my office through hotline and send a letter to us. But as mr. Homan is suggesting. How does your office inspect the facility that the detained individuals have access to healthcare specialist and outside care . We do periodic unannounced inspections of cbp and ice is oldies and compare the situations we observe against the standards for ice facilities. When we identify issues of great concern we report and we notify ice as part of the process. Since september 2018 at least seven immigrant children have died while or after being in federal immigration custody. Based on what you have reported on, do you have concerns of the conditions of the Detention Centers could lead to her death . Your time is expired. But you may answer the question prayed. Based on what we reported on the management alerts and what i testified we are gravely concerned about the conditions that we see in the cbp facilities at the border. We are concerned that it could lead to additional security and obviously high risk of disease. Thank you very much. Mr. Homan, is a member of congress in hearing about so many possibly dying and not do what i can to save them. I think we all feel the same way on both sides of the aisle. Im not knocking you, im glad that youve agreed and as soon as his hearing is over to make the phone call. Because we do want to save every life that we possibly can. If you can provide me the information on make the phone call. Our staff will get it to you before we leave. Thank you very much. And to you ms. Costello. Im sure he will be in touch with the and do all the can help us out. Thank you very much. I really appreciate all of that. Now we will move on to mr. Clay. Thank you. Ms. Costello, in response to media reports a cbp put spokesperson said, it is important to note that the allegations of a Sexual Assault is already under investigation by the department of Homeland Security office of ig. Can you confirm and share any details about the scope of this investigation . Yes, sir, typically we would never confirm or deny the existence of an investigation to protect the integrity. But since cbp has already confirmed that we are investigating the allegation that came out of yuma i will confirm that we are. I cannot share any details with you about activity. Has any disciplinary action been taken . We just open the case and just received the allegation at the end of june. We are in the initial stages of the case. That is a one with 815 euro girl from honduras . I believe the allegation you are referring to coming out of yuma. Let me ask, have you heard of other Sexual Assaults or harassment of detainees at border facilities . Last month children reported to me the officers had pushed children who needed to use the bathroom and prevented them from using the toilet when they needed to. Three children reported to me that a child had been grabbed by the back of his neck and had been pulled out of his cage. Other children consistently reported that guards yelled at them when the children were terrified. They were so terrified that the guards that they could not even bring themselves to ask for more food. That said, i also heard about one guard who was kind with the children and who gave the little ones and extra chocolate pudding when he was able to. Thank you. Ms. Magna. Representative, we start from a position when children talk to us and choose to disclose their telling the truth, what we find the children do not tell stories in very linear ways in which an adult who is fully developed might tell the story. So we do hear a lot of stories from children about trauma and violence that they have experienced, both in home country and as they arrive at the border. In these facilities, what impact might this have on those children . What psychological effect. I think what is undisputed is that what is causing families to flee and causing children to flee his extraordinary violence in the home countries. Its very different depending on the country in the region. Maybe violence perpetrated by gangs, domestic violence, children may be coming from countries where there is no resources like we have here in the United States to address situations of domestic or community violence. The point is theyve experienced externally trauma before they make the migration journey. Then they take the migration journey and experience in many cases additional trauma. Then they arrived at the United States and placed in detention. And though im not a medical expert, it is my understanding that what theyre experiencing is something referred to as complex trauma based on a history. That very much compounds what theyre experiencing and can limit development and can certainly affect their ability to tell their stories which is why the idea of rushing children through immigration proceedings or keeping them locked up through their court date is really a horrifying one for anyone who works the children who understand that is not an environment in which a child will ever be able to tell the stories in a way that allows us to understand what happened and make a fair decision in their case. All of this is a truly disturbing. One of the client stated that the water tasted the coring. And they disclosed there is about 30 minors in the Detention Center as well and the other miners started to complain about the food and water that was provided to them in the client stated that the miners started protesting about it. And because of that the officers took out all of the supreme aspirin are you familiar with other incidents of retaliation . Yes. When we were inclined to, we talked with the girl who was in a cell with about 20 other girls, ten to 20 other girls. Who were very young and the nurse would bring into lice comes so all the girls could share the lice comes which is exactly the opposite of what youre supposed to do when you have lice. And sometime later the guard came back to get those combs back. One of the combs was missing. In retaliation as punishment for losing a lice comb every mat and blanket was taken out of the room and the girls had to sleep on the cement floor. That is nothing but pure evil. In my time is up. I yield back. Thank you very much. Ms. Norton. Thank you very much. It was very important to layout particularly what is happening. I know that we passed a very controversial appropriation. But at least we got somebody into the pipeline. As controversial as it was. Ill say one thing, with democrats in charge of this house, had we allowed the session as we go on recess when no more money on the border then the blame wouldve been more than it already is. And i think both sides have to take responsibility for what is happening on the border. The innocently think the trip or ministration should not get away with blaming the congress entirely on congress. This congress has just taken over. So obviously there is a lot of blame that can be cast. I want to look at the administration zerotolerance policy that forced the separation of 2800 children and were still hearing and living with. And overcrowding and delays that nobody would want to justify. Without decision to separate children required by law . Absolutely not. That had to be made at the ministration level . Yes. A federal court has held its unconstitutional to separate children from their families for purposes. The fifth amendment of the United States constitution protects family integrity. Not only required by law, but unconstitutional as it happened. Now, it should be clear that the policy overloaded the system one of my friends on the other side talked about what happens when an emergency is overloaded. But let me look at alternatives that were available. Apparently this ministration did permit the release and the date im given june 2017. They had to report back into ice and they had to frequently check in. Not until this hearing did i learned there was 90 success rate, humane we finally got success on something and we did not all grab it and say thank goodness lets go from there. I bet we dont have 99 rate when we do bales. In our own criminal justice system. Why in the world is that in. And what decision, what why did the end, what does that have on immigrant children was separating immigrant children from their families . Thank you representative. I cant speak to why the program ended. I do know when it did we lost a very effective tool that allowed individuals to live in a community together, we do know when families and children have counsel, they appear at their hearings, they participate in their cases and theres a chanc is most like theyre afraid not to appear. They already were afraid at the border and then when you get here and dont appear and have a full force of law. You can understand the intimidation. Im not sure if that is whats to be afraid of. I was interested, and expanding this thing, the dhs system issued a report that found that metering may lead to additional motor crossings. We are trying to cut down on border crossings. But apparently metering, what does that mean. The number of people who can request asylum at the border. Could you tell me how that have the opposite effect from what was designed . I was in tijuana earlier this year in i witnessed firsthand the problems with the metering system. There are hundreds explained metering. There are hundreds of asylumseekers who want to present themselves lawfully at the port of entry, the point of entry is where cbp officers work. They want to go to the cbp officers in request asylum. The United States has blocked off ports of entry throughout our southern border and limits the number of asylumseekers who can enter the country every day. The first day i got to tijuana, 0 asylumseekers were allowed to cross at the border underreport adventure. In subsequent days i saw the numbers go up to 40 asylumseekers, 60 asylumseekers, that is what is helping to contribute to massive problems on the Southern Side of the u. S. Border. Thank you very much. Mr. Garcia. Welcome to our committee. Thank you so much mr. Chairman. And very grateful for the opportunity to participate as a part of the panel. Asking questions of the witnesses today. I would like to remind everyone of a couple of things. It was the chief Law Enforcement of the lands Jeff Sessions who introduced zerotolerance policy. That was the message that the chopper ministration wanted to send to the world. And it was the announcement that led to the picking order of other functions to develop what is laid out in the memo previously mentioned. That mr. Homan and others were responsible for operationalizing the zerotolerance policy. That is at the root of family separation that we have come to know in many of the Horror Stories that we have heard here this afternoon. Ms. Costello. The Inspector Generals Office that you had reported that some of the most inhumane conditions that our country has ever heard of and witness of the border have taken place. To your knowledge, did any children die at the border during obama ministration . I dont have any reporting or fax on that. Thank you. Im deeply concerned by the findings from multiple independent reports that the government failed to track separated families which made it harder to reunify the later on. January 2019th found that hhs faced significant challenges in identifying separated children including the lack of an existing integrated data system to track separated families across hhs and the complexity of determining which children should be considered separated. Why would a system have been important . It was important to make sure your defined children separated and who they were separated from. We are concerned today with issues with the data system and in particular the quality of information about current children in separating from print. What impact did the absence of a system have on the reunification of separated children . It met the government had to spend significant time identifying who the children were. In the absence of a system to track the children and their families the government faced intensive effort which you had to look at 60 databases across both programs at 12000 case files and had to go to get certification to identify the children. And produce more delays. These conditions and policies are not accidental. Mr. Homan, when your time as acting i stricter deterrent was the order, the memo bears that out exactly what you plan for, the chopper ministration claims had no choice but to rip children from their parents because they were criminally prosecuting the parents pursuant to zerotolerance policy. Again policies that the ministration created and you accepted and championed as weve seen. Let me remind everyone that the chopper ministration tried to ban asylum seeking and started the process of metering. Which then prevents people from coming through legal part of entry, thats exacerbated the crisis. People are desperately waiting months just to get online and be granted the rights to due process. Youve said that most immigrants are not criminals other than the criminal act that they do when the into the country illegally. That is why i think we ought to revisit decriminalizing desperation. 1325 and 1326 of the u. S. Code. The statute that the ministration has leveraged to separate thousands of children from their families. You understand that the consequences of separation of many children will be lifelong trauma and carried across generations. How we not learned from the japaneseamericans, mr. Homan, i am a father, do you have children . How can you possibly allow this to happen under your watch, do you not care . Is it because they dont look like children around you . I dont get it. Have you ever held a deceased child in your arms . First of all your comments are disgusting. I have served my country 34 years. And yes i have a five euro boy in my arms, and nil down beside him and said a prayer for him because i knew what his last 30 minutes was like. And i had a five year old son at the time. What ive done in my 34 years serving my nation is to save lives. So for you to sit there and insult my integrity and my love for my country and for children, that is why this whole thing needs to be fixed. And youre a member to fix it. [inaudible] gentleman your time is expired. It is my time. The gentleman ripped off about 70 for questions designed to go after the character of mrd be given a chance to respond. It was ridiculous how he rattled them off and would not let him respond. I understand that. Enforceable and have stability in my hearings. I have the floor. I agree with that. That is why were banging. So we can hear each person speak. Ive been very courteous and very kind. Mr. Homan do you have something to say . No one in this room has seen what ive seen in my 30 for your crew. No one has experienced what ive experienced. When you want to talk about the memo, this is one option to stop death. Not just about enforcing laws, if you want to legalize illegal immigration, good luck with that. Its going to get a whole lot worse than that word. There be no consequences or deterrence. 31 of women will be rate rate. We are nation of laws, if you dont like it change it. You the legislator. On the executive branch. Ive served for 34 years. And when i say here and have anybody say i dont care about children because theyre not the same color as my children. It is my time. Im not ask questions you and i quite a few. First of all, let me say this to mr. Homan. I am never in im hoping, i have listened to all of us and sometimes i think we put issues on top of issues and theres quite a few issues floating around. I think all of us appreciate the Border Patrol and those people that work for our federal government. I want to thank you for being here today. And i understand why you could get a little bit upset. I get that. But i also say we need to concentrate on living and not just the dead and all the problems. We are to figure out some solutions. I think you presented some. And mr. Homan, five times no has presented three things that he thought all to be done. And that could resolve this problem. And, youve said something that is really bothering me and it makes me think. You said is not necessarily about the money. It is about a will. Ive two pieces of that. I want you to talk about what was to homan, a man who has been at his job over 30 years . Over 30 years. And who is a dedicated public servant. His recommendations and i want you to elaborate on the issue, it does not have to be this way in other words just because of money. Keeper were simply. Thinking. So in terms of mr. Homans recommendations they will not work. The children and families who are represented are refugees, they are fleeing terrible violence. They are coming to the United States to seek safety, the United States is not the only country in our region that is seen an increase in refugees and asylumseekers. All of the countries surrounding the northern triangle have seen market increases in the number of asylumseekers coming to the countries. What we need is not to in the florida Settlement Agreement, what we need is to not change the trafficking the reauthorization act. Those are two critical pillars that protect immigrant children in federal custody that limit their time and cbp facilities to 72 hours and require children be released to family members after appropriate setting as quickly as possible. That me offer you five solutions. One, less independent doctors into these facilities. Two, let Public Health experts inspect the facilities and give them authorization to order mediation. That is what the floors case thought just two weeks ago in federal court. The Administration Response to those requests was no. The ministration argued in a quote, that would be a coercive remedy. The third recommendation that i have is to ensure children are not in cbp custody for any longer than 72 hours. This ministration has failed to provide plaintiffs counsel and floors with any data about how long children are being held in cbp custody. You have oversight powers on this question. Fourth, children should not be separated from their parents. Immigration officers should not be separating children from their mothers, fathers, brothers, grandmothers, absent or reason to believe there is imminent risk of harm to the child. Finally, my fifth recommendation. Is that we look at the data and do what works. When families have access to a lawyer they appear at the Immigration Court hearing. 99 of the time. When families are offered support from social workers due to ice family Case Management programs they show up for immigration proceedings, 99 of the time. Children and families belong together, they do not belong in detention, they should be released and they should be free. In doing that would be far less expensive than what were doing now. The ice case Family Management program cost only 38 a day per family unit. To detain one person in a family Detention Center it cost on average 320 per day. To detain a child at homestead, a legally blind child, it cost the u. S. Taxpayers between 750 and 775 a day. That child was detained there about 120 days unnecessarily when he had a father who is desperate, desperately trying to get him back. So we are spending a minimum of 300 a day, minimum on these children. Is that what you are tony . That is the rate that we are paying for one person a day at the family Detention Center. And if any of us were given 300 a day to take care of our child that is quite a bit of money. You could do all kinds of things. Am i right . That is right. Let me going, ms. Costello, i want to ask you about dhs inspections of several immigration Detention Centers on the southern border. These reports were shocking to the conscience. And i think they will shock any american who takes the time to read them. Or even to look at the pictures. In may 2019 you issued a report on dangerous, overcrowding and prolonged detention at border facility in el paso, texas. I understand that your team saw 900 detainees is alright . Yes or print the report found that some detained immigrants were held in stating room only conditions for days or weeks. In the report goes on to say, with limited access to showers and clean clothing detainees were wearing soiled clothing for days or weeks. The report concludes that these conditions present an immediate risk to the health and safety not just of the detainees also dhs agents and officers. Ms. Costello and all your years in government service, did you see anything like this . Im not. Form partly the Inspection Team that did the work on the ground for me has not. They have been doing this for years. The reason we issued the alerts was because theyve never seen anything like what they saw in the El Paso Center we reported on in the civilities in rio grande valley. This is not an isolated incident. Last week your Office Issued another report describing dangerous overcrowding prolonged detention. The five different border facilities in texas. Together these facilities held over 20500 young people in the reporting that nearly one third of these children had been held longer than the 72 hour limit. Like for these facilities customer. It was similar to the situation and el paso they describe the situation like the never seen before. Its an overcrowded facility. In a facility and space they cannot possibly fit in. I think the caption underneath i dont know if it describes the number. When your Inspector Generals Office they were allowed to take the photo . Yes. That is part of how we do or work. And how we collected evidence. And frankly whenever a not to have our team going and take pictures. Thank you very much. How long were these children kept in these conditions . In that facility, and the rio grande valley, the information that we have is that children, 31 of them were there for more than 72 hours. 165 were there longer than a week. That is children. With regard to unaccompanied alien children. We had 50 under seven who were there for over two weeks. Let me ask you this. Im just curious, where are the two of the facilities in this. Do you know . No i do not. But children are supposed to have access to toilets in the holding room. Deal . Yeah, and facilities like this and this is Knowledge Based on interviewing hundred of immigrant families. The toilets are open. There is no privacy to use the toilets. Children try to use the foil wrappers that you see to cover themselves when theyre toileting. And this leads to problems. They were so embarrassed the boys could see them while they were using the toilet. We talked to a boy who tried not to eat because he was so embarrassed to use the toilet. Every day were being degraded by having no access to any privacy when theyre using the toilet. I want to clarify a member of my team was able to clarify, you cannot tell by the picture but apparently the toilet is in the back one described as a ticking time bomb. Ms. Castella. Cbp has detailed standards and required the following when detaining, based on yours, you believe cbp is meeting those . Not for everyone as a standard. I do want to emphasize when we visited the facilities, they were wellstocked as i said in my prepared statement, diapers, juice, snacks. With all of our inspections unannounced thus only way to do it. What they are not meeting standards is obviously the crowding, the prolonged detention, some of the hygiene to the children are supposed to have. It would be impossible to do so and the conditions that we saw there. It is shocking. Doesnt shock you that we are spending a minimum of 300 per day . I dont have information that validates that particular number. That is not what i asked. I no, sir. Would it shock you to know that we were spending a minimum of 300 a day for folks to live in a facility like that . If that were inaccurate number, yes. Can i ask you a question. The 300 a day is for Family Residential centers. And the reason the price is 300 because winter provide child psychologists, pediatricians, educational program, the pictures you are being shown are Border Patrol facilities. There is not a cost per day. The 300 per day is ice facility. A different facility print. Wherever it is. Were spending some money. Theyre not coming for free. I dont know what Border Patrol facilities, the 300 is ice facility. Digital, on the . I want to agree with mr. Homan. [laughter] thank you very much. As defined the dhs has not developed a longterm plan to address the issues within Detention Centers along the southern border. In the steps the dhs has taken to alleviate overcrowding, these are your words to fall short. Is that accurate . I think the efforts to put in place and try to create more space to eliminate the overcrowding our first steps. But as i testified earlier, it is about moving children and families and adults out of these facilities to begin with, the cbp facilities were never intended to house folks for longer than 70 charts. We are currently engaged in efforts to identify why they are staying there longer than 72 hours and offer recommendations for things that we can do about that. How soon do you expect the recommendations to be made. We are just getting involved in that work. That is not what i asked you. I know. As i promised you a date and then you know im going to ask you. I certainly will. It will take some time for us to get there. I think we have several lines of work that we are engaged in on all of these issues that have been discussed today. Some will be ready this for, that would probably not yet. I want you to understand, this is very unusual for us to be here this late on a getaway day. But it is urgent for us, its a lifeanddeath situation. That is why impressing you a little bit. Somebody sent on the other side, youre looking for solutions and sometimes to get to solutions you have to have accountability. You have temperature. So we want to see something get done. As fast as we can. Yes, maam. I want to add to the record that cbp has dealt with larger numbers in the past without causing and creating a health and safety crisis. So if apprehensions continue at the rate that they been in 2018 without the drop that we saw last month with a 20 drop from dupree 2019 we will see no more than 67 of the number of apprehensions that we saw in 1986 and 1998, and 1999 and 2000. The flores Settlement Agreement was reached in 1997. It requires the government to plan for an inbox. Two weeks ago a federal court recognized that the government has had 22 years to plan for an inbox. In the court order the government to do so. I agree with determine about the urgency of the situation in the Administration Needs to act now to care for these children and release them promptly. Mrs. Costello you will get back to me. Let me know, do you believe you can get that done . Of course you will. I would really appreciate that. Im going to let each one of them asked one question. You all have been so kind to stay here. And i want to check to see if you had a question or two . We will go to mr. Raskin and then come back down this way. Thank you very much and im proud to be a member of your committee. With all the extraordinary work we did this week to opening americas eyes to what is going on in the name of every american citizen at the border. I wanted to ask you, you have been doing this work is understanding since you are a law student in a Clinical Program in 2003. You have some historical sense of this looking at it at a human rights advocate in a lawyer from our perspective. Can you compare the conditions that youve seen at immigration facilities over the last year to what you saw before this. Speaking of the truth, most americans who are not in the immigration field, and i am not paid close attention to this. But is this what it has always been like or are we seeing a deterioration of the conditions. How do we understand this and Historical Context . Ive never seen anything like this. I have been involved in suing three ministrations to try and seek better protection for immigrant children and detention. But never before have i seen what i saw, heard and smelled as what i did and clint last month. Never before have we heard of 700 children being detained in a facility designed for 100 adults. Never before have i met with children detained in cbp custody for even a week, much less several weeks. Never before has my team of lawyers had to directly intervene to get babies admitted to the hospital. The week of june 10, my colleagues a pediatrician and several lawyers did interviews in macgowan texas at the facility. They identified five babies who were so sick that they needed to be admitted to the neo native intensive care unit of the local hospital. So nearly a decade as the committee knows there were no reported deaths of children in federal immigration custody. In just the past year, seven children have died in custody or just after being released. This is different than what ive ever seen before. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You are clearly the expert, youre clearly the person that has performed the sacrifice to try to defend the border to try to protect america and save lives from americans and others who are here illegally or legally however, they are here. You have Closing Remarks, because i know you been cut off a lot today. And im very sorry that a member on the other side question your integrity. Clearly, you are incredible, you have served this country with honor and i just wanted to give you an opportunity to have some Closing Remarks or touch on anything that has been mentioned in the last 30 minutes. I want to say this, im sure my country for 34 years. There is, i made earlier on my linkedin that oversaw 300 some thousand prayed in the four years and my leadership we oversaw illegal aliens being removed and to party. And i got an award from president obama for distinguished service. I worked for six president s and i respect each and every one of them because of the president of the United States. But my job is to clear lump or small officers and execute a mission. Under president obama and leadership of ice, executed owned or President Trump a year end half. I did my job. And a lot of this goes backandforth today. I will leave it with this. The situation of the border is for congress to act. These children are back conditions. My heart breaks for them. They should not Border Patrol jails were not built for women and children. The people at hhs the money they need to get them the facility. No one wants to see that. I asked congress to things all yield back. First well, something thats good to point out, these facilities were not built for children. Number two, you have given three solutions that i agree one 100 would begin to solve the problem. I can assure you this side of the aisle, we will do everything we can to work with the Trump Administration to implement that. It takes 218 votes to pass legislation and move it to the senate. We have about a hundred 98 and i hope we can work in a bipartisan way. To get to a solution in this congress it will take bipartisan support. With that i yield back. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wanted to, i wondered if you could answer a couple questions that i was unable to get answered during our visit. Are you aware of exactly what is the temperature where families are being detained should be at, and secondarily, what is the heat index need to be outside for people to be moved from tense inside. I dont know the answer to that question. I can say the biggest complaint you hear from folks is that they call them ice boxes, many of these people from Central America dont expect air conditioning on a 247 basis but i dont know what they have or if they have a limit on where it should be at. Okay. Is there anyone who could speak to a recommended temperature . I dont have those numbers, but i know advocacy groups have pulled that information the past and id be happy to share with you a prepared report in terms of what they have been told are the standards and what should be the standard. Does not include anything including a lavatory and the toilets, if you send equipment someplace and more goods and you send one toilet to serve 500 people, that is not sanitary. That is a Public Health issue. I would be curious to know for my own edification, what is recommended. I dont think weve ever had those recommendations because weve never been in the circumstance where weve had to say how many toilets are needed for children. Things have never been this announcer you can watch all of the testimony by going to cspan. Org. Type in child separation policy in the search box. We also have congressional debate, briefings, interviews, and other hearings on this issue. Generating reaction from members of congress. New jersey Democrat BonnieWatson Coleman tweeted ice raids have begun in many cities, early reports say many in new york appeared to be occurring without a warrant. Know your rights. Ed markey todays ice raids are designed for peak cruelty, stoke fear in immigrant communities, and throw more people into already overcrowded facilities. Here is trumps a vicious manufactured cycle to criminalize emigrants and push and overcrowded system to a breaking point. And michigans debbie ingle with ice raids today, wanted to pass along information, it cannot be said enough about please know your rights. No one can enter your home without a judicial warrant. Sometimes ice will try to show different papers, but it must be a judicial warrant from a court. Newsmakers, Jim Bridenstine talks about the apollo 11 moon landing 50 years ago this week. He looks ahead to u. S. Plans to return to the moon and go to mars, and discusses President Trumps goal to develop a space force. Newsmakers today at six a copy and eastern. You can watch online or listen on our free cspan radio app. Thann has spoken with more 50 fren