Transcripts For CSPAN Homeland 20240703

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] okay. Can i have your attention please . Have conversation with the secretary of Homeland Security, alejandro mayorkas, known to many as alley. Thank you. [applause] why do we did right into it . Why did you want to leave a very prosperous law firm job to be the secretary of Homeland Security recs have you ever had any second thoughts about that job . [laughing] no second thoughts. What a privilege it is to leave a place one loves to biblical took place one loves. Okay. The way i i bridge of the o worlds is by borrowing and stealing talent. So jamie is the chair, culture of her Homeland Security Advisory Council in the department of Homeland Security and the jewel thief that am i just stole matthew from the law firm to join us and he will be a senior counselor on matters of technology. Okay. Well, let me talk about the elephant in the room, because you were the second secretary in the history of our country to be impeached. What was it like living through that impeachment process . Is it finally over now . To the best of my knowledge it over. So quite frankly i have said publicly a number of times that i did not allow it to distract me. That was actually sincere. I focus intensely on my work throughout intently. On, any week where it was an issue of greater prominence in the light of the department. I mightve spent 20 minutes on it. I really just focus a work. It it had its impact on loved ones. As will rogers once said, paraphrasing, the country is never safe as long as the house is in session come right . So you never know. It may never come back, right . One would hope not. Okay. Lets talk about the border. It appears there are a lot of people come in over the border. This is one of the subjects that people wanted to beat you, some people want to be impeached over. Its a really weird getting more people come in over the border illegally or is it just the appearance of the . No, no. The number of encounters at the southern border is very high but its very, very important, number one, to conceptualize it, and a virtue, to explain it. From a context perspective the world is saying the greatest level of displacement since a leaked world war ii. I think there are, a recent report was there 73 million displaced people and the United States. So the challenge of migration is not exclusive to the southern border, nor to the western hemisphere. It is global. When i speak to partners across the atlantic, its the first issue that they raise, the first challenge what is the reason for that . Well, one has the customary recent of displacement, violence, insecurity, poverty, corruption, authoritarian regimes. Now increasingly extreme weather events that propel people to leave. Why are we experiencing what we are . It is for those very reasons why people leave their countries of origin. We also, remember in our hemisphere, we overcame covid more rapidly than any other country. We had any post covid world 11 million jobs to fill. We are a country of choice as a destination. And one takes those two forces and then one considers the fact of having immigration system that is broken fundamentally, and we have a level of encounter that we do. When we speak of a broken system, let me just capture the as succinctly as i can. The average time it between encounter and the point of final adjudication of an asylum claim is seven plus years. Approximately 70 of the people need an essential threshold for a son, the cradle fair standard, about 70 qualify. So they stay for 7 years and the ultimate adjudication, about 20 qualify. Thats quite a disparity of people in the meantime leave, are able to stay. Sometimes have children, u. S. Citizen children, attend our schools, attended our places of worship but integrate i understand but why wasnt so we coming in illegally always say theyre seeking political asylum . Base on what you just said there likely to be here for seven years. Why not just say im not smuggling drugs. Im just a political Asylum Seeker . Separate drug smuggling for migration. The fact of the matter is that we have an extraordinary number of people claiming asylum, and a greatly reduced number of people qualifying for it. The reality is that people do claim asylum when, in fact, they are fleeing poverty, generalized violence, and that does not an asylum case make but the initial threshold for an asylum case is low and purposely low, and one of the things the Bipartisan Legislation would have done is wouldve raised the bar. So in our country at if sy seeks political asylum and illegitimately need political asylum, is that our love of the automotive and get it if theyre legitimate needs . Theres no quotas or anything on him the people we can except for political asylum . There is no quota on the asylum population. In one just has to persuade a judge. You have been Homeland Security secretary under President Biden from the beginning of his administration. So hurry people would use since that time have come over the border, the southern border, lets illegally seeking asylum, bringing drugs from whatever theyre doing . I do want to differentiate because we are in a political environment that demonizes individuals encountered at the border, and theres a vulnerability to painting with a broad brush people who are fleeing and coming to the United States. So i want to separate, and i will be incessant in this, separate drug smugglers from individuals seeking asylum or even if they dont have a basis to stay in the United States, seeking a better life. And so the number of encounters have been very well published this past year, this past month we had about 134,000 encounters. But lets say the beginning of the administration. Is it millions of people . Its several million people. The perception is why i get some republicans on the house side perhaps many others that were people up and coming in under President Biden and under President Trump is that you are not . That is, that is true. Now, in 2019 there was almost 100 increase in the number of encounters at the southern border over 2018. The situation, the hemisphere was propelled people to leave their country. 2020 was at time of tremendous suppressed migration threat thrt the hemisphere and around the world because of the covid19. People come over the southern port illegal what percentage are really drug smugglers . The majority of the fentanyl, over 90 of the fentanyl smuggled into this country is smuggled in Passenger Vehicles and commercial trucks traveling through our ports of entry. So its not people carry on the body . It is not people carrying it on there but what about people who are hired who want to get a better life, they hire people for money to get them across the border . Is that a big problem as a . So let me go back and make one other point about the ports of entry. The majority of people arrested seeking to smuggle fentanyl into the country through commercial trucks and Passenger Vehicles are United States citizens. What to do with them . Well, they are arrested for drug smugglers and under title 21 of the United States code they are prosecuted. So with respect to your question about, you know, people coming across the border, what we need, what we need fundamentally is a reformed system, a legislatively reformed system. We are in 2024 the world has changed. Our immigration system last changed in 1996. When a different we are in a different logo. And once legislation was legd i think innocent Bipartisan Legislation, and he got stalled lets say in the house. What that have solved our problem had it passed . It wouldve been a transformative change in managing the number of people we encounter. What was the main thing that wouldve been in that law that we dont have now at you wouldve liked to have . So we wouldve taken the seven plus year time period between the time of encounter and final adjudication and reduced it to a hospital as 90 days. And that changes and intending migrant risk risktakers. They know they can stay for multiple years and work and make more money than they can and safety so than in the country of origin, they will decide to make that journey. If they understand that they have to pay their life savings to a Smuggling Organization only to stay for a matter of weeks, that is very different risk calculus. One of your prior questions was do they pay people to assist them. The world of migration has changed dramatically over the last even 15 years. We are not dealing with the coyotes that i dealt with as a federal prosecutor where they smuggle two, three people at a time. We are dealing with extraordinary sophisticated Smuggling Organizations in a multibilliondollar industry that is also international. At that industry is it designed to bring drugs into the United States or designed to get people to come to the United States for which they get a fee . It is up the ladder. But what we are saying and it should be unsurprised everyone that were seeing not quite emerge, i was at synthesis of Transnational Criminal Organizations and the Smuggling Organizations, or so much money to be made. Fentanyl is coming from china, is that true . Well, china is a primary source of precursor chemicals and equipment used to manufacture fentanyl. How does he get over from china to let say mexico . It is shipped to mexico and it also comes domestically to the United States and follows various transit routes, which is why i engage with my counterpart from the peoples republic of china to address this fact. People who are now coming over, are we separating families . In other words, under the java mr. Schiff there was a lot of controversy children were being separate from paris. Is that happening are not happy . No. That was a deliberate practice to deter families from reaching the southern border, was the separation of them. That was condemned across the board. Cruelty is that something that is an instrument of the valuebased country. And we eliminated that practice here actually was a limited in all fairness towards the end of the Trump Administration. We issued a policy preventing it and we actually, the president created a Family Reunification Task force that i chair that is actually reuniting separated,. So President Trump campaign when he First Campaign for president on creating a wall, and i get some part of the wall was built but would not and will have helped somewhat if we had a big wall . With that not block people from come even the people like to make fun of the wall, expensive. Would not have had some impact on reducing illegal immigration . Solo, in the 21st century i wouldnt wouldnt necessary propose cementing pillars on the ground and constructing an immovable wall given the dynamism and you know the rapid change in migratory patterns. But i just have to quote second napolitano. When you build a what if it were, they would build a 21foot ladder. We see breaches of the wall all the time. Were seeing the corrosion and collapse of the wall in other places. But people breached physical barriers. It requires a much more comprehensive approach. Why wouldnt people come over the northern border . In other words, somehow, come nobody seems to be monitoring the Canadian Border that much, i guess. Isnt it easier to come in the country illegally from canada . We monitor the northern border of the United States. [laughing] u. S. Customs and border protection. Some of the terrain is very difficult to traverse here we have a different legal structure with canada. We have a Safe Third Country Agreement with canada, and the reality, and canada also has different approaches to migration into their country that do some of the countries in latin america. If you want to come into this country illegally, but suppose you want to come in, speech lets say one wanted to slap expert what would you recommend to that one person that they do about the best way to get in this country illegally . I would, i would caution them and encourage them to apply for a visa. And if, in fact, they seek humanitarian relief to actually avail themselves of the lawful pathways that we have established so that they dont risk their lives in the hands of smugglers. [applause] all right. What percentage of people die trying to get into this country . They are shot by somebody or i dont, i dont know, david, a percentage, but i will share with you having spoken to families who cross the area between colombia and panama, the suffering and the trauma is extraordinary. What is the confidence and those people illegally over the southern border . Is a mexico, colombia, venezuela . Where are the most coming from . It varies. Its very from time to time. I would you say the population right now demographically the population of individuals whom we are and counting at the southern border in between the ports of entry predominant right now mexico. Mexico, okay. Lets of those the legislation i didnt pass that supposed maybe eventually will pass but until then can you not administrative we do things that within the legislation or are you ready doing the . The legislation did a number of things. The two pillars were, gave us the legal tools statutory tools to vastly accelerate the adjudication of claims for humanitarian relief. And that means we could remove people more quickly who do not qualify, and and, quite frae could give a protection with for now its the. Much more rapidly. And it resourced us, it resourced us to a fact that dramatic change. We were talking about a piece of legislation that would equip us with 4300 more asylum officers. More Immigration Judges come just toss up the entire system in a way that we now just dont have. Okay. Let me ask you a few of the ated this. So right now the homeland, the department of Homeland Security was created after 9 11. Do you feel we are much safer today than we were before 9 11 because of the department . I do. Much more. Should a 9 11 event occur again . You know, its our job and not just the department of Homeland Security but the federal government in partnership with state and local tribal Territorial Law enforcement and the american citizenry to be vigilant. Because the Threat Landscape as directory of the fbi has actually communicative public look, we are in a heightened threat above is. A number of people from Homeland Security and for the cia or nsa have gone to capitol hill and said that tiktok is a danger to our National Security what the public has been given that much detailed information about what the threat is. How much of a threat to our National Security is tiktok . The peoples republic of china ask adversely to the interest of the United States in different ways ask. One of those ways is through the dissemination of this information, intentional communication of false statements. And tiktok is an extraordinary avenue through which to disseminate disinformation to millions and millions of people. But newspapers can disseminate disinformation or why is it if its over social media has to be a band if the newspaper says the same things thats over tiktok it would not be banned because the First Amendment. Why is the First Amendment not protecting the tiktok social media devices . Well, its not to be an issue of the First Amendment. Its an issue of security. As we are talking about a company and an algorithm that is controlled by a foreign state that ask adversely to the interests of the United States acts weave an obligation to protect american. That the presumption is people are not smart enough to know that its disinformation and they cant make the decision for themselves. Is that right . We are talking about many, many young people that access tiktok. I would posit that in this country we dont have the level of Digital Literacy that i think we would all want. We are all vulnerable to disinformation, and the reality is that we have an obligation to safeguard against it. We are talking about the intentional dissemination of false information. I should disclose that my firm is an investor in bytedance so my firm date invested the money going to another subject. So what is speedy you know my answers wouldve been the same had i known that at the outset. [laughing] okay. I didnt think youre going to change. Do you have children you ever watch tiktok for you tell them not to do that . You know, the one maxim from law school that remember very clearly, i dont think our older daughter looks at tiktok, our younger daughter does. The law of useless as a maximum of member. If i admonished are 19yearold daughter cannot access tiktok, im not sure i would succeed. Do you ever watch tiktok is so . She is a digitally no. I do not. She is a digitally Literate Consumer of information. What is the biggest Security Threat to the United States right now, in your view . So i would come in the terrorism context, i would say the threat of foreign terrorism has reemerged with the greater level of significance. And the threat of Domestic Violence extremists. Individuals or loose affiliations of individuals who are radicalized to violence because of ideologies of heat, which are only increasing, especially after the october 7 terrorist attacks against israel. Antigovernment sentiments, false narratives, other narratives propagated. But you feel better about her Homeland Security today than you did ten years ago or 20 years ago . I do. I think the department and the Homeland Security enterprise writ large has matured and advanced tremendously. Antedate who are the best at cyber terrorism . Is that china, north korea . Who would you think has a great capabilities and doing damage to our country in terms of Foreign Countries through cyber . I i would say there are four. China, russia, iran and north korea. Okay. In our country you can go if youre really good at cyber Something Like that you cak for a venture firm can make lots of money and so forth. If you go work in u. S. Government you will not get paid as much. So is a u. S. Government able to get topflight cyber people who can compete with the people from overseas or do not have the best people in our government working on these problems because we cant pay them enough . We had the best people in the government, and there are the best people in the private sector as well. You raise an issue where we had the debate in germany, to draw come to attract the best cyber talent, should we increase the salaries of those individuals to be able to better compete. We of course cannot close of the divide but we could shrink it speedy how did it come out . And so i lost this debate because we did increase in the salaries. And my position is very difficult for me to stand in front of a group of Border Patrol agents that risk their lives every day, risk their lives every day and say ive got to take cyber tell it come off get a kick up their salary above it to come to work for the United States of america. Because i will tell you that the compensation in Public Service is different than material compensation. So speeders theres a commitment to service. If one does not feel that that is enough, then one should choose otherwise. I disagreed with the plusup. So it didnt get out . It got done pics and i were paying people 5 more . We are paying people that more and look, a i talent, we have ai recruiting effort underway, and i have hit the road in recruiting Data Scientist and the like. I dont talk to them about the salary. Talk to them about what it means. Are using and i now already to kind of help . We are. We are at our department is leading in can you give examples without violating nasas agreed without a isotopic . Let me share with you one example of how it is demonstrated its capacity for good as well as otherwise and then ill share with you a couple pilots that we have going on. We fight online Child Exploitation and abuse, 80 million images disseminated worldwide last year. I dont think people understand the extent of the problem. We used ai to take a photograph of a young girl who disappeared at the age of about seven and we used ai to extrapolate what that young girl would look like now ten years later. Ten years later. Our ability to make that extrapolation using ai was so effective that our Law Enforcement officers were able to identify that 17yearold, finder, and rescue her. [applause] remarkable. Let me, let me flip it. Let me flip it. We then see ai being used to generate an image of a child that doesnt exist, or a child that does exist, and depicted that child, real or artificial, depict that child being sexually exploited. And it causes our Law Enforcement officers to devote resources on a decoy or eric mission. So its potential for good and its potential for harm our real. Can you tell what i will look like in five or ten years . Lab expert we will not change one bit. Really . I like that artificial intelligence. [applause] lets talk about your background. You dont come to the cabinet with the conventional background of the people who have this position. So where were you born . I was born in havana, cuba,. Really . What age do julie . My parents got my sister and easier to the United States as political refugees when i was about one. Did they come legally or illegally . They came in legally. My father was a bit prescient, although we didnt leave early but we left early enough. So there isnt that big a cuba to wasnt that a Cuban Jewish Community but your mother and father were both jewish. Your father was his ancestors came from speeding his father was in turkey, his mother from poland. And your mother was asked to nazi jewish my mother fled romania to france. France to cuba. Late. Her father lost eight brothers and of the family in the concentration camps. They left so they couldnt get to israel and are policies at that time were not as welcoming as one would of hope at a time of great human distress. Okay. They came to the United States legally. Where did they come . So we arrived in miami and we lived in miami into my father found a better work opportunity in los angeles, california,. Grown up in los angeles . I grew up for most of my life in los angeles. You speak spanish fluently . I i speak it. My grammar is not something that he take great pride in. [laughing] so where did you go to high school. I went to Beverly Hills high school. Beverly hills high school. A lot of movie stars kids and things like that . You know. Its interesting would you consider jack abram a movie star . I dont have any movie stars. When your puppy whenever his Beverly Hills high school, they think of the clampett family. There were four Elementary Schools that fed into the high school. I very much wanted to give back so i went into Public Service and i had my eyes on the United States Attorneys Office in los angeles. They required three years of experience soi gained three years of experience at a private loss firm and went into the us Attorneys Office and you were a litigator . You were a federal prosecutor. You went in as a federal prosecutor and were a us assistant attorney. For 8 and a half years specializing in sophisticated broad cases. Did any of your people get off when you took them to trial or did you convict everybody . One individual. We ended up resolving the case after a adverse verdict. In a case that was quasicriminal. Didnt suffer an adverse verdict encourages case to retry obviously discovered double jeopardy but this was a quasiforfeiture case. In the first case the jury voted to for the defendant. The judge actually issued verdict , a ruling notwithstanding the verdict and felt the jury had aired greatly and he took it to trial again. So you became the us attorney. Let me share something, when i became the us attorney at the age of 38 , i think i might have been ultimately confirmed that 39 but when i was us attorney i communicated to all the supervisors in Law Enforcement during my tenure the acquittal rates would go up. And i received a standing ovation. And ill share with you why and jamie knows this as a former Deputy Attorney general. Law enforcement will never take issue with an adverse verdict. If one took a tough case to trial and one invested everything one could in reaching a just outcome. But what Law Enforcement will criticize is a prosecutor who is hesitant to take a tough case to trial even though its a just and righteous case and sometimes you take tough cases and the jury does the right thing. So many times when the play is cast in hell the actors arent angels. We have tough witnesses, they come with their own baggage. I could tell a story that would make everybody in this room . About an acquittal. We had one case where two defendants one , the United States marshals and the guards in the detention center, the warden and United States marshal during trial communicated to me a deep concern if this individual was not convicted because the guards and the marshals who had seen everything said that they around this individual they felt they were around what the warden said it is loose but there was something about this individual. That case rested on a very difficult witness who was a drug user and the jury just couldnt do it and they felt they couldnt rely on this one witness. Not exclusively but predominantly in finding beyond reasonable doubt and that individual who was accused of stealing drugs from drug dealers in gratuitously setting one of them on fire to their death and chopping the other one up, gratuitously. Got that individual acquitted. Law enforcement, we took it to trial. We took it to trial, i was on that case intensely. They thanked us for doing everything that we could just as the investigator had done everything he could. But the person got off and what happened to the person . Maybe ran for congress or Something Like that. So did you ever convict anybody that you thought shouldnt have been convicted . Absolutely not. Never, this is a matter of evidence, its a matter of integrity. Never had one scintilla of doubt with respect to the guilt of the individual. So us attorney and you finish that and you go back to the practice of law. You went to not only los angeles. Did you get involved in the campaignwith barack obama running for president , were you involved in his campaigner anyway. So you ultimately get involved in the transition with barack obama. I lead the Criminal Division at the department of justice transition team. You to the composition initially, what was your position. Director of us citizenship andadministration and Agency Within the department that administers legal immigration. And after that you got promoted to be the deputy Homeland Security under janet napolitano. And so that didnt convince you that this was a complicated area and you shouldnt want to come back as secretary . Complicated, difficult, challenging and extraordinarily fulfilling. So you go back after pres. Obama leaves office. You join blooming hill in what city . So your partner there, how did you get connected to the biden administration, did they remember you from the obama administration, they call you up and said we like he was deputy, nowyou can be there secretary . I wouldnt say it was in that way. But i was extraordinarily proud to be contacted by the incoming president , the president elect because. And did your family say youre making a lot of money here, your way up here in compensation and youre going to get go down here again, was not a factor . They didnt care quest is not that they didnt care. It is what it is. So what was your confirmation letter, was that unanimous . I wouldnt say it was unanimous. I will tell you that i was confirmed unanimously twice. Until i touched in. I was confirmed unanimously to be the director of us citizenship and immigration services. And after that i did not enjoy too easy confirmation proceedings. My confirmation as a secretary was along party lines. Not entirely, there were a few republicans in the state senate who voted to confirm me. So you have to pay yourself for Legal Services or getting confirmed, you have to pay accounting fees or how do you get confirmed without having to spend a lot of money legal or accounting things to fill out forms . By filling them out myself. I didnt spend any money. Lets talk about the department of Homeland Security. How many people work at the department of Homeland Security . About 600,000, they are the Third Largest department in the federal government. And do they work remotely . Some remote and some in person and some dont have the option. What are the main parts of it . You have several parts together , what are your main divisions . I dont think people reallyunderstand the expense of our mission. In the immigration area and in others us customs and border protection, why do i say others . Trade and travel, tsa. Immigration and customs enforcement, us citizenship and immigration services, Cyber Security and infrastructure agency. Fema, the United States secret service. Those are seven United States coast guard, the eight. The expense of our portfolio is extraordinary from online Child Sexual Exploitation and abuse crimes of exploitation Human Trafficking to facilitating lawful trade and travel to search and rescue and security in the arctic and indo specific to addressing the flooding yesterday and today in houston. Texas. Where we have a number of fatalities and the frequency and gravity of extreme weather events is only growing. The Cyber Attacks from china, russia, iran, north korea. Its extraordinary. You get the weekend off, youdont have to worry about some crisis somewhere . My goal is to take half a saturday. And how do you stay in shape, are you an exerciser or a warrior . Let me tell you, if sheds weight, i would disappear. I worked out. And you go to a restaurant in washington, do people give you tips or something about some Homeland Security violation somewhere . You mean do i walk into a restaurant without someone commending us for the extraordinary work we do,does that happen a lot . Giving the American People safe and secure . I have some of those fromtime to time. Whats the latest complaint you get about tsa agents . Let me say this. 10 years ago, 10 years ago the concern was am i going to , 10 years ago am i going to board my flight and reach my destination safely . That was the concern. Am i going to reach my destination safely. Now the concern is how household will my travel experience fee . How long will i need to wait in line . We have moved a lot. Sometimes people get on the plane and they are drunk or they hit a Flight Attendant and then i never read abouttheir going to jail, they just seem to go away. David, i share your perspective. I remember as an assistant us attorney anyone messed around in a plane up in the air they were prosecuted, it was a federal offense. The level of disruption in a post covid world is unprecedented in scope and scale and i actually believe that the enforcement regime is not active enough. So you share my view. I do. So if pres. Biden is reelected, would you continue to serve in this position . I will tell you that i believe in the president and i believe in his prerogative to design who his cabinet is. If the president is not reelected and your best friend andworst enemy approached you and said they were offered the job who would you recommend to take it, your best friend or your worst enemy . I dont have enemies. I would absolutely ask my best friend to take the job and if i had an enemy i would consider them unqualified. Because they are your enemy. Okay. So today people are worried about immigrants coming in illegally but how many Illegal Immigrants do you think we have in the country now and once somebody is in the country illegally, what percentage actually ever gets sent out . We have thus far this fiscal year removed or returned more individuals than any administration i think for at least 10 years so we are removing and returning more and more than any administration including the immediately proceeding administration. When we took office i believe the accounting was 11. 4 million undocumented people in the United States. We dont have an update to that number now but its been millions and millions because our system has been broken for decades. You are responsible for overseeing domestic terrorism to . We deal with the Domestic Violence extremism which is the form of domestic terrorism that were most focused on. We deal with it, we deal with it with our partners across the federal and private fbi. So on the secret service, recently i think our candidate running for president Robert Kennedys father was assassinated, they didnt have secret Service Protection and hes asked for protection , hasnt receded, who makes a decision on who gets secret Service Attention when youre running for president . I do and what we do is we set up a process, we have defined criteria in the process, the process provides for a Bipartisan Group of congressional leaders to make recommendations to me after they have analyzed the factors that we have established. This is protocol established prior to the Trump Administration and so we resuscitated it. It is apolitical, it is bipartisan and the factors are apolitical and i followed in each instance the recommendations of the Bipartisan Group, theres been no light between or amongst us. I work in the white house 100 years ago or so, it was present president and Vice President got secret Service Protection. As they do now. But it seems as if a lot of white house aides have secret Service Protection, it seems like its proliferated. How do you decide who gets it ifyoure a white house aide or not . It is based on a threat assessment and very sadly the threat environment in which we are living is more acute. And it was when you had the privilege of serving. We are now in a world where a former Government Official, not of course the former president but a former Government Official is receiving protection because of the Threat Landscape. What about baseball owners, do they need secret Service Protection . If i recall my reading of the standings circa this morning you aresafe and secure since you are resting in first place. We will see. We will talk again either before or after we talk about brooklyn. On the whole people watching this, you would like to say to them that they are safer today in the United States and they were 10 or 20 or 30 years agobut we still have big risks. I would say the following, i would say we are safer today than we were yesterday. The Threat Landscape is heightened. And Everyone Needs to be vigilant. Because what we have observed, if one takes a look at the Domestic Violence that has occurred whether it is the tragic shooting in buffalo, new york, in the supermarket, whether it is the july 4 parade in a suburb of chicago, whether it is texas, what we have learned is that the individuals, the assailants were exhibiting signs of radicalization into violence before they committed their heinous acts. And what we, you know the to the see something Say Something campaign that seconds napolitano developed really i think to the general public speaks of the abandoned bus stop or in the airport. It doesnt necessarily the individual who is exhibiting signs that should cause us all to worry. So the question is and what we are building is an architecture where people understand what the indicia are and know that what helps they can call you. Because its not to call the accountability regime Law Enforcement because nothing has occurred yet to call a trusted source whether it is a teacher, a faithful leader. On Mental Health practitioner to say look, this individual is coming to school in a hazmat suit or this individual has withdrawn from all social interaction. And it is communicating messages that speak of an interest in committing a violent act, who do i call, what outreach do i make. To prevent something from materializing. Sometimes when you see people who do these Mass Shootings they go on to their social media and said they said somecrazy things two days ago but you dont have a resource or capability to look at all crazy things on social media to figure out who might do something crazy. That is correct. But if they are publishing that so that others can see it, what do others do and thats the muscle that we need to build in this country. How to come to help someone and prevent something from happening. I would say we are safer. The Threat Landscape is heightened that Everyone Needs to bevigilant. Homeland security is an all in proposition. A member of Congress Says i have a security problem in my district and i like to look into it so this person voted to impeach you, what would be your reaction. The political position of an individual is irrelevant to a security analysis. So it doesnt affect you. You dont remember the name or whether they voted against you. I dont have that good of a memory. Let me be clear. That i have some very productive relationships and good relationships with some of the people who voted to impeach me. But you dont hold it against you. Im not a person that holds things against people, i live my life to the best of my abilities in a way that would make me, my parents and others proud and others are going to live their lives and make their decisions. The first Homeland Security seconds was a big burly man, former governor of pennsylvania. A great man. Youre not a big burly man so youre shorter. So when people see you. I see where this is going. When people meet for the first time and say i thought that i was going to be big, hes in charge of Homeland Security but these diminutive. Thats never been a problem. Not for me. But let me, so i have to share a story. But before i do you mention secretary rich, a great american. When his portrait was unveiled at the then headquarters he said this is very very typical of washington. First, they paint you and a quarter, then they frame you, then they hang you out to dry. So i was as the new assistant United States attorney i was dealing with a defense lawyer. And he had not met me. And he apparently gathered from my voice that i was tall and vague. And so when he first met me, in court, at a status hearing he actually thought i was an imposter. He did not believe i was who i was but then when the judge called the case, he realized i actually was alejandro mayorkas. The judge had not met me before, the defense lawyer was about 6 foot five and i am almost the inverse. A little taller than that and the judge looked at me and looked at him and said you know, you should be really happy we dont settle this case the oldfashioned way. So to be very serious i want to thank you for your service to the country and many different positions. I would not be as magnanimous as you if these and people were voting to impeach me, i would have their names memorized but thank you for what youve done for the country and thank you for being a good sport today. Thank you david. I think you can legally take this too, this is a map of dc. [applause]