Washington, dc. Mr. Mcaleenan also touched on Election Security and the work the agency is doing with states and local governments to prepare for the 2020 elections. This is one hour. Good afternoon, how is everybody doing . Think you for the kind introduction. For the account introduction and the opportunity to be with you today and have this important discussion on the state of security and immigration concerns nationally, but also hopefully we will have a conversation and dialogue on some of the other department of Homeland Security priorities and of course, with the members here. I know many of you have been following the crisis over the past year and tracking the growing regional challenge of migration in the region. Not only has the situation had obvious implications for order security, but it has led to a significant humanitarian prices as well as a foreignpolicy challenge in the u. S. And throughout the region. I would like to take a dialogue today a little bit above the headlines in the daily news cycle and kind of look back at the challenges over the past 10 , especially focus on the past three or four months during my tenure. Building started momentum and progress on our strategy to combat this crisis. Cfr audience, it is not too controversial to state the approach. The migration is among one of the most pressing u. S. National security interests in the western hemisphere and one of the most fundamental challenges to the region. Whether it is the migration situation from haiti to brazil, across the region a few years ago, the venezuela crisis that is ongoing, for closer to home, the Central American migration flows to the u. S. Border. With regard to that effort, we have been leading at the department of Homeland Security working with the government to target the push and pull factors driving migration. At the same time, we have to recognize that one of the Biggest Country bidding factors and when we face here at home is the immigration framework. I was brought in as acting secretary at the peak of this crisis. We were in the second of four months of over 100,000 arrivals at the u. S. Border heading toward a peak month in may of 144,000 arrivals. That means over 5000 migrants daily, primarily families and children. Lacked the tools tools to prevent these unprecedented flows in the funding of congress to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. We make some progress. Today, i am pleased to report the daily arrivals are down 64 and Central Americans arriving at the border have been reduced by 70 . Critically, as well, we have dramatically improved the conditions at the border facilities. Week,roadly, as of next expect to have achieved another milestone. With some humanitarian medical family units, the largest demographic arriving they will have been mitigated. This is a vital step in restoring the rule of law. Believe these improvements them astray significant progress. I do want to set the stage for a moment. Where we were a few months ago at the height of the crisis. The strategy and solutions we applied to begin addressing it and the continued efforts why the continued efforts are needed to solve it. In may, we had the third of four ,onths of over 400,000 arrivals 90 crossing the border illegally. 144,000 arrivals, 90 crossing the border illegally. We had one day of over 5800 arrivals at the u. S. Border in a single 24hour period. We had a group of 1036 migrants mass together and turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents. 72 were unaccompanied children and family units. A stark change in this traditional demographic arriving at our border. Many of these migrants represent mosttial americans, vulnerable populations who put their lives in the hands of very violent criminal organizations to make the journey. With those overwhelming numbers of arrivals, department of facilitiescurity were overcrowded. While we had warned congress about the crisis going back to december of last year, requesting resources and legislative changes, congressional action was not responsive and the crisis spiraled. I want to talk a moment about the fundamental causes for the migration patterns. The core of this issue in the region, is spent much of my time is acting secretary with Central American leaders since april, multiple meetings here in washington, but at the core, the push factors are predicated on a stark economic opportunity. Exacerbated by poverty and now Food Insecurity. With continued high levels of violence in some areas of Central America. Job creation has simply not kept up with labor growth. Resulting in a start opportunity shortage. With only about 1 5 of the needed jobs being created each year for the number of young people entering the workforce in the northern triangle, which is the single most important push factor in my perspective. Poverty and Food Insecurity are also key contributors. 63 of Central Americans cite like a food as a primary incentive for migration. Over the past, decade, Transnational Criminal Organizations that use the core door for a range of illicit activities, including Trafficking Cocaine through Central America. By the security situation is improving in all three countries, the murder rates are down 50 or more in each of the three countries. The region has experienced elevated rates of violence and general crime committed by drug traffickers, gangs, and other criminal groups. These factors have created conditions that push money to make the dangerous trek north. If you want to be clear, we believe all factors, however, are even more significant. The strength of the u. S. Economy first and foremost with historic legal levels historical levels of unemployment. With resources in the u. S. Are certainly strong magnets, but the increase in arrivals this year is the weakness in the u. S. Immigration system, the vulnerability of our legal framework, which allow families and unaccompanied children to stay in the u. S. For years. Year, end of the fiscal coming up in a few weeks, we will see the numbers more than triple the record for family units arriving at the border with close to 500 50,000 this year 550,000 this year. Just to be really clear on this point, and our estimation, the central factor driving the migration crisis this year has been the inability to achieve results from the immigration process. In short, the crisis derives from multifaceted programs and needs a multipronged solution. Stepping into the role in being able to look across the immigration spectrum is a very complex process with five different agencies and through different departments of government involved. Developed an aggressive and holistic strategy to mitigate the crisis within existing law. They will first disrupt smuggling activity and reducing flow. Second, changing the way we process of look to create greater integrity in the system. Third, at the same time, we saw to urgently mitigate by providing health care for migrants crossing the u. S. Flow, we realize first and foremost that International Partnerships will be essential. We need to do work with regional partners more effectively. This has met partnering with the government of mexico. Increased security of their and to reduce the flow. It is meant to build relationships and capacity with Law Enforcement immigration and diplomatic authorities. What imola, under us, and the salvador. Guatemala, hunter is, and el salvador. Honduras, and el salvador. This is included the deployment of 25,000 groups under the new Mexican National guard focused on increased residence along the guatemala border, stopping the Conveyor Belt of large loops to the u. S. Large groups to the u. S. Border. We had 50 groups over 100. We only had six last month. You can see dramatic progress with mexicos efforts. Disrupting those key transportation hubs. And importantly, having consequences for those involved in the human smuggling ande, prosecuting coyotes those praying on human population. Now through our intelligence and efforts with Central American partners, more arrests about the region in the last three months than in any threeyear period in history. Guatemala has greatly appreciated this and has adopted new techniques and technology to disrupt human smuggling networks. They opened their doors to Homeland Security and requested system in their efforts and were currently have over 45 personnel supporting order security smuggling operations and what imola. Alvador in what guatemala. In the last two months, salvadorian police made about 5000 arrests nationally of gang members as part of their National Security plan. In addition to these enforcement efforts, several countries have agreed to partner with the u. S. On regional asylum Capacity Building efforts known as asylum cooperation agreements. Recognizing this countries dec ision to join the framework aswsn as meps known merps. These agreements will enhance operation. To that end, the u. S. Will be supporting significantly the guatemalan efforts to build a silent capacity with tens of millions of dollars in funding to be supporting the unchr. I believe these partnerships have paid great dividends already in ensuring effective results in Central America and the southern border, as well. Partnerships are having that impact in our border, not just in the region. Fulton mexico and all three Central American governments. Programs forated arrivals at the make it all the way to our border and cant be deterred or protected. Perhaps the most visible program resulting from the National Efforts has been the aggression mpp,ection particles, or which we established this fiscal year. It is not very well understood publicly. Under mpp, migrants crossing illegally at the ports of entry our process for expedited Court Hearings and returned to mexico. They are then allowed access on their hearing dates. They are getting initial hearings in three to five months on average. An initial hearing for someone in the u. S. Could be two years or five years or more under jurisdiction. Mpp enhances the integrity of the system by getting Immigration Court results at a much faster pace than a nonthat nondetainedt on documented in the u. S. Conducted in partnership with ico, comm we have successfully provided protections 200s of asylumseekers already. Hundreds of asylumseekers already. This just started in january with very small numbers. He finished their claims and were granted asylum by an immigration judge. I have got the backtoschool call. It is like the perennial september. Mpp. It provides expeditious access. Also to discourage individuals who werecoming told they would be released in the u. S. Mexicosateful for poor operation in this effort. In addition to what is happening the department of Homeland Security, for those who have a fear to return for their country of energy, it allows us to verify nationality electronically. This program is an extension of our process in place of mexico today but now has really rapidly increased in Central America. In addition to these layers at the border, we are also working to build capacity to extend the seller protection within partner countries in the region to ensure those who need protection from persecution, religious, racial, they can seek those protections as close to home as possible instead of putting themselves in the hands of smugglers and taking this dangerous journey to the u. S. Border. As many of you have seen in the u. S. Media, alongside these efforts, we are implementing new regulations to limit asylum reviews and preserve international law, stringent requirements for custody conditions for minors and federal holding. We still believe key legislative fixtures are necessary for cobranded solutions to the crisis. I cantt to underscore this enough, we cannot be in the position we are with a 70 reduction in the flow of Central Americans without these interNational Partners. This renewed strategy of engagement with support from the president in the white house has been absolutely critical to changing this dynamic. Securityg patient a around the region and making progress. I want to highlight one more place with more great process, perhaps the most fundamental. Area of care the and conditions, alleviating overcrowding and border facilities, providing showers and toilets and hotmails, and medical screening and care for young and unfortunately, increasingly ill population arriving at the border. Also, sufficient transportation to manage this complex process. Since receiving the emergency supplemental request in late june, almost a month later, dhs has added over 5000 beds, providing more appropriate settings for children and eliminating overcrowding. Hhs is a key partner in this well, which has resulted in dramatically reduced times in custody at the border. We have ensured access to showers at all major stations within 24 to 36 hours with hotmails and ageappropriate meals. Meals and ageappropriate meals. Increasedary, dhs has the presence of certified medical professional let border stations and ports from a proximately 20 beginning in december to over 200 today, ensuring all children arriving at the border are screened. Contracted and purchased dozens of buses for largescale transportation between facilities. To give you a sense of how big an impact this has made, the combined flow reduction in this emergency supplemental, we had almost 1000 people in custody at the border, 20,000 people in custody at the border. 2700 of those 20,000 were unaccompanied children. Today, we have 4500 in custody. That number has been fluctuating between 3500 and 4500. Those 2700 kids, we have under 150 in custody. They are saying less than 24 hours and being promptly transferred to better equipped hhs facilities. Cap made dramatic impact with emergency funding, but also the initiative undertaken with National Partners to address this crisis. We have a much better situation at quarter stations. Actions in thehe past six months have been focused on breaking the crisis in theect populations region and restore a sense of integrity to our immigration system. We cant let that clutter vision. Were still cloud our vision. Were still a crisis levels. We will not be solving the underlying problem. 1500 to 2000 arrivals per day. A dramatic success and significant reduction, but hundreds are dying on the journey. It cant be an acceptable situation. Not only in terms of the danger of the journey and the crossing for the migrants, but also the impact to our Security Missions and really, for this group in terms of the regional impact. Guatemala and under a, they will send 25 of their population to the u. S. Border this year. I think the leaders of all three countries are very concerned about this process. Forced migration is being required to leave for insecurity or lack of access to economic opportunity. I think it is essential we expand the dialogue and work on solutions together. With policy experts, congress, state and local partners burdened by this crisis, especially those along the border, and of course with our interNational Partners and neighbors. One last thing before we have the dialogue, i am really privileged to work alongside the departments extraordinary workforce. This crisis has hit them really hard both in terms of their efforts to care for vulnerable populations but also the way the efforts have been perceived. N amazing done a job with heart and compassion in trying circumstances and they deserve our support and thanks. Im very proud of them. Going forward, i know this ourience understands security is National Security. And are building a set of responsibilities and an effective capability with regional partners to make sustainable progress. We need your ideas and voices, your support and criticism. I appreciate the opportunity to provide you an update today. Thank you. [applause] secretary, thank you very much for your remarks. This is one of your highest priorities. Hopefully, well get to those. Let me start with asking some questions based on your remarks. You mentioned the catch and release will end. What does that mean for family units crossing the borders and unaccompanied minors . What will happen . Will we see different . What will we see different . Mr. Mcaleenan the main benefit will be the smuggling cycle, the confirmed release if you cross with a child, we will take that away. We will not be encouraging people to come with a child even if it is not their own. We have 5000 plus instances of fraudulent families. In terms of what happens to those arriving, there are two potential results. One is, if there is not an asylum claim made, we do repatriation. Second, for those that do have a claim, they can wait in mexico during adjudication of their case and protocols. Mentioned several times the weaknesses in the immigration process. Im not sure people really appreciate it. You only owned one small piece of the. Can you explain of that. Can you explain what the pieces are and who is the owner . Mr. Mcaleenan i had a very engaging conversation with the former ins commissioner, talking about some challenges. 4 5 of thes immigration cycle, but the department of justice together had all five parts. Now, we are in five different agencies in three departments of government. We now have three of the components of the acting secretary. It makes those handouts, joint operations, joint budgeting a lot more challenging. If we have unaccompanied children of the border, alluding kits, tods 2700 dependent on the department of Homeland Security having the funding. We needed congress for the emergency supplemental. Twoof that 4. 5 billion, . 6 billion went to health and human services. It is that important to think about it in a continual, in a cycle. Failing to get immigration results. That requires adequate numbers of judges in the right places to handle the right cases. So we have done a lot of innovative things. We had articles talking about tent courts, they are temporary. Prioritizing their recent border arrivals so we have greater integrity in the process. Chairman nadler so judges are controlled by the justice department. That is part of the backlog. My understanding i was quite surprised, one, Immigration Judges have unionized, two, they cant be asked to work weekends or evenings or additional shifts , and it cant be required to go through those places where you need them the most. Are we seeking legislative change, the administration, to get that fixed . Sec. Mcaleenan i will defer to the attorney general in terms of the management of Immigration Judges, but we have been working to increase the number of judges. We are giving them an accurate estimate of how many will be required at the border arrival, but also, the ability to work remotely. We have created facilities at the border where the judges can beam in and hear the cases of those arriving, those acute asylum cases. Unfortunately, it will lengthen of thosef time waiting, but hopefully we can handle the challenge at the border and reduce the flow, so we are not constantly digging a deeper hole. Host the attorney general has the authority to appoint Immigration Judges and frankly, could take, presumably, assistant u. S. Attorneys in the region and have them temporarily assigned there to adjudicate these cases, right . Sec. Mcaleenan the are a lot of competing priorities and critical persecutions to support. But we are trying to work in partnership. D. H. S. Provides a significant number of assistant u. S. Attorneys to support Court Proceedings in article three course as well, but it has to be a shared responsibility. Host you talk about the criticality of working partnerships with the other countries in Central America, i will ask you the more difficult question, the president recently cut aid to those countries. How do you strengthen that partnership while you are also cutting aid . Sec. Mcaleenan i think what the , how het has asked views the partnership with our Central American partners is through the lens of collaboration in migration. As we are starting to see government step forward, and we have a strong leadership commitment in the Outgoing Administration of guatemala, the incoming president elect, as well as president hernandez in president and the new , who has really stepped up in the last few months, that commitment is being demonstrated. In my meetings with ministers which we are doing every single month, having engagement on how to deal with security and migrations, i am seeing a real sense of ownership, of innovation, which is new, frankly, from the region. At, we can do then is look how do we start programs that are working, that are supporting our interests, and the administration interests . We have already done that on the Law Enforcement side. With attorney general barr, we have done d. H. S. Programs have been turned on. The next step is to look at which of those aid programs are helping on the economic side and helping to reduce migration . Which of the international bureaucs and enforcement departments are helping to reduce the crime and violence in these communities . That is the process we are undertaking right now. But this is not completely stalled. You can look at the overseas private investment corporation, they Just Announced major support for projects in el salvador. Energy is one of the issues driving migration, the price of energy, textile concerns, it is dramatic and fx competitors. A greatugh they have freetrade agreement. But it is really about taking the next steps, where we have accountable partners who will be supporting our joint interests. Host immigration is a top priority, but to have others. Contouring terrorism, and Election Security. Let us talk about Election Security. In 2018, there were temporary Task Forces Set up by the d. H. S. That were then made permanent, because the fbi director said that 2018 was a dress reversal for 2020 dresser russell for 2020. Can you talk about what the departments role is was a dress rehearsal for 2020. Can you talk about what the departments role is in ensuring . Lection security sec. Mcaleenan the emerging challenges of domestic terrorism, but cyber and Election Security, no question, those are my top three. We have a tremendous deputy and , he is helping us cover all the many responsibilities of the department. We did have a hurricane in between, with dorian, which, i think was a great response by f. E. M. A. And partners. In terms of cyber Election Security, chris has accurately described, we are using the terms that 2018 was a playoff game, against maybe not the toughest opponent in the league, and 2020 will be a super bowl. There will be more than one opponent. We are concerned. What we have done is just maintain the momentum. We never took our foot off the gas after 2018, in fact, we institutionalize those frameworks and built a partnership with state and local organizations. The threat to democracy is fundamental to read if we have disrupted election or a foreign influence of that changes the perception of the voting public, we have to deal with both sides of the coin. We are engaged with all 50 states in their election infrastructure and voter registration, in about 1800 jurisdictions. Locally administered, state administered elections. We have put out best practices globally to the states and counties. We have National Tabletop exercises which have tremendous participation and really run through realworld scenarios that we can expect. We have worked with vendors of voting machines. We are really taking a comprehensive approach. It is a top priority for our Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency run by chris krebs, who you aspen. We are in Close Partnership with the n. S. A. , looking at Cyber Threats from foreign, and the f. B. I. Leading on that side as well. Host so each of the departments and agencies, just like d. H. S. , have their own task force and strategy. In the counterterrorism world, there is a National Strategy, than each agency has a supporting strategy. Is there a National Strategy focused on Election Security and integrity, or is it individual agencies working together . Sec. Mcaleenan good question. In july, we had the opportunity as a team, that dni, the fbi krebsor, myself and chris to go and brief the senate. Probably 70 of the senate came out for the briefing. We do have a National Strategy. Everybody knows their roles, and there is plenty of information sharing across the scene. N. S. A. And Cyber Command articulated a Clear Strategy on detecting and ideally deterring cyber attempts to impact our elections. Talked extensively about their foreign influence efforts. Role isly, the d. H. S. Supporting the states and local sauna building resilience, as well as supporting the f. B. I. On on rebuilding that resilience, as well as supporting the f. B. I. On the resilience of the voter. Having voters who are armed and understanding that they will be bombarded with misinformation, and how to get past that and make. Their own decisions i think it is a coherent strategy amongst all the players. A manager focused on Cyber Threats to the election writ large, and communicating with all of our departments aggressively. Host one more before i open it up, to touch on terrorism, you released a domestic terrorism and targeted violence strategy last week. Talk about that a little bit, and explain what you mean by targeted violence. Sec. Mcaleenan it was a significant step for us to release a counterterrorism strategic framework that d. H. S. , and we did some new things in it. As you noted, we first of all, explicitly rebalanced between our foreign counterterrorism responsibilities, which are operationally the focus of d. H. S. Historically, the reason we were created, and also where our direct impact authorities lie, but we are rebalancing that with renewed focus on domestic terrorism, especially racially motivated and violent extremism. We also added targeted violence as something that the d. H. S. Equities can impact. That was intentional. Because we do see a significant number of increased attacks, with significant lethality coming from actors that dont necessarily have a clear ideological motivation or, are shopping for an ideology. In the chat rooms and in the internet sphere, to then apply. For us, the capabilities we have through helping identify threats and vulnerabilities in public spaces across the board, and supporting with the u. S. Secret Service NationalThreat Assessment Center and state and local communities understand as risk factors, factors that somebody has noticed on their path to violence, we share them at all additional intervention way. S along the these equities apply whether it is International Terrorism motivation, whether it is domestic terrorism motivation, or simply a disaffected young individual who wants to take a violent act. We can help prepare a Community Effort to try to find an off ramp for that violence or be able to respond more effectively with the multitude of resources at the department in an integrated and galvanized way. Host one more. What role does gun control play in this . And why dont we seem to be able to get even the enhanced background check legislation through . Sec. Mcaleenan the administration has taken action to reduce lethality of gun violence, with the bump stock regulation, and very urgently after the las vegas shooting. I dont want to get in front of the white houses discussions with capital with capitol hill on this issue, but it is definitely something we need to work through. On the d. H. S. Side, we want to help prepare state and local jurisdictions, whether it is first responders, Mental Health professionals, to be able to respond be regardless of the means or the motivations. Host at this point, i invite members to join the conversation. A reminder that the meaning is on the record. Please stand and state your name and affiliation, a limit yourself to one question, and keep it concise to allow as many members to speak. I will start at the front and work my way around. Thank you. Steve from George Washington university. Thank you for your remarks. You give a very detailed, concise consideration of what you are doing with an existing problem. But he also said that key legislative were necessary, and that fundamental laws need to be changed. Could you outline what the administration would like to achieve, and you also mentioned the concept of asylum. Are there changes needed in International Treaties . Sec. Mcaleenan thank you for the question. Yes, i can give you hopefully more concise than my remarks, a response on the legislative changes we are looking for that would address the key drivers of these crisis. The first deals with how we are able to manage families at the border. We have taken a regulatory step that would also achieve this if it is ultimately allowed to go forward by the federal courts. But the idea is to keep Families Together in an appropriate setting through an escalated and fair immigration proceeding. That is what we did in 2014 under the obama administration. Thensecretary jeh johnson made familyision to establish centers, it worked successfully. We were able to adjudicate family asylum claims between 4060 days on average. Again, these are facilities with educational, recreational, medical, dining, a campus like setting, that obviously is not ideal, but is better than a situation where families are incentivized to come in large numbers after being released. Durableld be even more and consistent than just a the regulatory effort to have undertaken. We still have that request outstanding to congress. The second is a p1, modifying the second is a p1, modifying the act which establishes something we agree strongly with, high standards of care for children in custody, but also has a standard embedded in it. We are not empowered to repatriate unaccompanied children coming from noncontiguous countries. You can return a child into mexico working with mexican authorities, but you cannot do that for Central America. That is something that the Mexican Government does not like. They wanted their say in what is happening with the minors, and two, it is giving an incentive to smugglers to bring people to the border. What we propose was to have access to sound protections for children in the country or a neighboring country, but in response, if a child did not meet those requirements and still came to the border or of whether the process, we would be it were to repatriate to ensure they are kept close to home as possible. And a third would be to modify the initial a set of standards. There are two parts to the slm consideration when an individual crosses. If they are put into a removal proceeding, they can claim fear to return. You probably know, the courts have interpreted that as the possibility of proving an asylum case, and is a very low bar. We are seeing 85 of migrants meeting that are, whereas when they actually see an immigration judge, we are only seeing 10 to 13 they granted asylum and judge. Tion that gap incentivizes people to come in and claim fear and await a Court Proceeding in the u. S. , which could be five years into the future. That is one thing we are asking for in terms of the immigration law. In terms of the asylum commitments, i think we are integrating a strategy that is the best way to honor those commitments, and you see this happening in europe as well, supporting transit countries and source countries in building their own capacity to provide those protections. That is the kind of strategy with a shared responsibility that we are trying to take in the hemisphere. Thank you. Host ok, the lady in the back. Sec. Mcaleenan i dont know if i achieved in a concise objective. Say, we, let me just will try to get as many questions in as we can. I am from usa today. Nicole [indiscernible] i was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on families being detained and no longer released into the interior of the u. S. What particular facilities will and withetained in, that require first constructing the facilities, and where would the funding come from . Whenlso, what might happen order apprehension go up in the fall when the weather goes cooler, as has happened historically . Sec. Mcaleenan i will try to build off my refrain a few moments ago. On your seasonal point, we have not seen flows to our border, tracked by a historical seasonal patterns around the agricultural cycle that has not been the case, in recent months. For instance, from july to august, we saw the numbers increase each of the past six years, but not last month. Traditional springsummer cycle has not followed the pattern either. We see the flow responding more to anticipated success or failure than simple seasonal results. We are doing with Central American families now, ending the catch and release process, is that if they dont have a fear claim, they will be repatriated in a streamlined fashion, or if they do have a fear claim, they have to await mexico. Enter in they were not currently be held in the u. S. Side of the border because we are not able now to complete an immigration proceeding in the 21 days we have by court order. Arer the force regulations adjudicated and put in place, that timeline will be alleviated, and there will be a third option in managing cases of families, being able to hold them together during an immigration proceeding. Host over here in the blue shirt. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, i am with the los angeles piper. My question concerns a number of senior gulf arabs who were attempted to get into the United States, who were major investors in the country, many of whom have businesses here that employ americans. We are finding many of them now in a meditative processing, which can take 10 months to two years, whereas they had previously received fiveyear multiple entry visas. Is there a policy in place to give extra scrutiny to arab and it seemsle, that a number of them who need medical attention here are not or any kind of humanitarian consideration. I was wondering if there is a policy decision in that regard. Sec. Mcaleenan i am not aware of any policy decision. Good question for our partners over at the department of state. We will certainly convey that to them. Thank you. Ost right here, upfront jim jones with monarch gold strategies. Sec. Mcaleenan good to see you, ambassador. Good to see you, think you are doing a great job under the circumstances. I think everybody in all the leadership is in an acting position. That this is your efficiency management, it further allows white house staff to be the controlling interest in policy decisions. Do you see any improvement in thes making these acting positions permanent . Sec. Mcaleenan to answer your questions, i will highlight a few that are not acting director of secret service, our head of intelligence and analysis, a number of our key leadership components are in for capacities. But it is something that in d. H. S. , we do have a number of actings if you cant me and the deputy. Actings,e a number of especially on the immigration side of the department. Do have iswhat we tremendous career professionals throughout. A number of these leaders, i have known for almost two decades, coming up in the system alongside each other in the department of Homeland Security, and we have not missed a beat operationally. It could impact us in our dialogue on the hill sometimes, in those engagements, but it is something that we are not worried about. We are trying to solve problems and keep our forward momentum. That is certainly my charge and my goal. Thank you. Host all the way in the back. Teresa welsch, i am a reporter with [indiscernible] i wanted to ask about el salvador. Could you tell us how the two agreements with el salvador and with guatemala are different from the one signed with el salvador last week . Sec. Mcaleenan the situations are very different in guatemala and el salvador. And guatemala has been the largest sending country to the u. S. Border this year, almost 40 of the flow in some months. And about 80 of those arriving at the border transit in guatemala. And el salvador is about 10 of the arrivals from el salvador, a very negligible percentage are actually transiting el salvador border. S. So use a different structure and situation in terms of how we collaborate on asylum. Guatemala has a functioning asylum process. They are granting asylum. It needs to be further developed. I was pleased to reference the significant investment from the department of state to support guatemala in building their asylum capacity. We see it at a similar but smaller scale effort by el salvador to support their own decisions to join you and High Commission for refugees program, to build their own as helen commitments. We think it is important. They could apply in the future with personnel from neighboring countries, for instance. But it is to show that this is a shared responsibility regionally. That there is access to protections if you are being persecuted. So we want to meet each partner where they are and each of these would be operationally very different in application. Thank you for the question. Host back here, yep. Cfi am alex, i am a proud term member, and i am also a proud refugee. So this is very personal thing for me. Units,erms like family catch and release, arrivals, demographics, Conveyor Belt, those are people. Today,mom come here tried to come here today like she did 35 years ago with my sister and i, i dont think i would be here. I want to know how you are challenging the assumptions upon which our entire immigration system is based. Are you challenging the assumptions . May be is not a crisis, maybe it is a opportunity. Are those basic conversations happening . Sec. Mcaleenan i think what we are trying to do is make our immigration system work under existing law but also recommend improvements that are responsive to the changes in patterns around the world. In a deeplyze that those patterns are deep. What i would like to say and was once is that the u. S. Is and will remain the most generous country in the world for refugees and asylumseekers. The combined processing and access for both refugees and asylumseekers in the United States is the highest in the world, it will be again next year. We are now managing a lawful immigration system that hit a record last year with almost 750,000 naturalization for new citizens. Responsibility for the United States and the d. H. S. I appreciate your heartfelt question. Host there was another one at that table. Hi. Thank you. I am the acting Deputy Director for Human Rights Watch in washington. There are concerns about your description of the migrant protection protocol as something that maintains the integrity of one of you, when filed an amicus brief in the federal court claiming that the program itself violates u. S. Obligations, when the over 40 dozen people now waiting in mexico for their hearings are less than 2 presented by attorneys represented by attorneys. I am interested in what you are doing to investigate whether in fact the commitments you refer in terms of humanitarian conditions, work visas, are actually providing safety for the migrants in the program, and whether you are at all concerned rate,hat representation serious of due process concerns raised by attorneys and advocacy organizations in the actual Court Proceedings. I am wondering what you are doing to address that. Sec. Mcaleenan thank you for the question. A couple of examples. I will be meeting later today with the mexican ambassador to the United States, something we do pretty much biweekly, to talk about the progress of our partnership on a whole series of issues, but specifically on the migrant protocol. We are constantly discussing ways to ensure the safety of migrants waiting in mexico on the program. We have offered financial support, which has been received by the government of mexico. They opened a new shelter in juarez in the past few weeks. I have been down there talking with partners on the ngo side on how the situation is working. We are hearing positive things about the government of mexico granting not only work authorizations, but temporary mexico, as well as Social Security numbers to access social services in mexico while they are waiting. This is a shared commitment of both governments. This is the approach mexico agreed to with the United States. Would looking at ways that we can make sure they have shelter, they have care when they are waiting for their hearings, it is something that is important to me and something that i am engaging the mexicans on every week. I would like to see the numbers increase in terms of co everyone are providing with information on legal providers as they are processed, and we are talking with government to make sure they have access. Thank you. Host right here. Thank you so much for your remarks on here in washington, d. C. , a member of American Academy of pediatrics. I would like to see if you can comment on the flu vaccine. Just out of concern for people coming through, but also for your own staff having contact with people who may have a contagious illness. You. Mcaleenan thank not to go back into our layers of complexity in the immigration continuum, to give you a sense of how were looking at the problems, first of all, we put in place procedures at the border after the tragedies last september of two children dying in custody for the first time in 10 years. We talked to the doctors that month about the challenges of what we could do better. Under the guidance of our chief medical officer, in consultation with h. H. S. In the Public Health service team, we are looking at ways to adjust our screening for more permanent medical procedures, that is due by the end of the year. We are looking at the flu vaccine issue very specifically. To be clear, when children are transferred to h. H. S. , they get the vaccine. When families and adults are transferred by i. C. E. They get vaccine,. The time at the border is intended to be very short processing and then movements to a more appropriate setting for a longerterm detention. We got away from that doing the crisis last spring. If we did that again, we would certainly look at applying a more broad flu vaccine protocol. You might not be aware of it, but we did that in south texas, where we had significant numbers of people waiting at the station, and we also had a slew of rick. We stepped up we also had a flu outbreak. We stepped up vaccinations after that. But i just wanted to assure you that we are looking at it very carefully, and we want to preserve the health of the arriving migrant populations and prevent outbreaks not only of the flu, but of critical diseases were seeing like mumps, chickenpox, in significant numbers of those arriving. Host mr. Secretary, two questions. One, there is consideration of moving the secret service, which would move from treasury into d. H. S. With the establishment of the department. I understand secretary mnuchin is looking to take them back. Where is that, and when do you expect it to happen . Sec. Mcaleenan i understand that that is in the interest of the finest Law Enforcement professionals in the world. My eyes have been open further to just how tremendous a group of people they are. Theyweek, they have unga, have the elections swinging into full flower, and of course, doing their regular missions at the same time. There is deep interaction both on treasury and financial investigations and cyber, and across the Homeland Security enterprise. I will be a huge supporter of them regardless of where they are housed in funded in the federal government, but we are always looking for opportunities to tighten and align the best possible way. Last question. Ien we were in government, was there when we established the three ounce liquid rule. I understand that there is testing of technology to be it what to do away with the three ounce rule. How far away are we from that. . Sec. Mcaleenan some of the to the logical developments with computer tomography and a. I. Assesshms to better substances, i am looking to apply that for countering ilioids in the ma environment, fentanyl and carfentanil. I dont think those are Science Fiction anymore, we are talking years in the cycle from development to application. We are expanding the use of highend computer tomography machines at checkpoints at t. S. A. , in addition to what they have in the baggage environment. That. O come on i think we will hopefully be it were to develop even better techniques in the coming months and years. Host mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being here. Sec. Mcaleenan thank you. I really appreciate it. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap. Org] announcer cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, a discussion on whistleblower laws that apply to the intelligence communities, and democrati congressman ro h khanna shares his thoughts on the whistleblower complaint. We also talk to the director of the Family ResearchCouncil Center for religious liberty about the trump administrations religious liberty policy. Watch tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Announcer life tuesday on the cspan networks, President Trump makes remarks at the United NationsGeneral Assembly in new york city. Our coverage begins at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. At noon, the u. S. House returns speeches. L at 2 00 p. M. , the house takes up several bills looking at humanitarian aid. 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Host good afternoon, everybody. , i ame is Nancy Bloomberg the president at the u. S. Institute