Your written testimony at least there was you mentioned 700 officers you have moved. Has that had an impact on other areas, negative impact on other areas you had to move them from . We currently have 731 office of proceed operations mitchell brothers and sisters in blue that work at the ports of entry that are supporting my men and women in our efforts. Also have 325 Border Patrol agencies from the northern and coastal regions that i have pulled down on tdy and we also have a volunteer force of 342 that are helping with this crisis right now, and it is certainly pulling them away from their other duties but it is a necessity at the opinion. I desperately need their help to handle this crisis. Thank you. And my time is expired, but i want you to know im committed to not just the doling with the symptoms of this thing but wet have to address the pull that we eave all created. Not you, not your officers but this body. By our enact. I yield back. Miss wasserman shut. Thank you, madam chair. Chief provost i want to return to the line of questioning that chairwoman lowe was on and also a similar line of questioning on april issue i raised with acting secretary. Lawyers in south florida represented at least 20 undocumented children at the homestead facility that were apprehend far from the bored in the interior of the country had biological parents living the country bit they were separated and detained as unacandidate mind yore. Ill tell you, im a mother, i have twin 20yearolds and a 16yearold. My 16yearold were two hours from me as the young man who was apprehended with his uncle, documented bid the miami herald and released after being detained for five days without the able to make a phone call, by your officers if my child was apprehended, and they were two hours from me and not dish was not contacted and given an opportunity to come get her, when this young man had been the country since he was nine months old and his mother was two hours away in the United States, that to me i would be flipping out to say the least. But that is a direct violation of the statute and of the definition of up accompanied minor. You cited the definition earlier to the chairwoman but at you said, it is, a. , no lawful immigration status in the United States; b. , has not attainedded 18 yours of aim, and c, with respect to whom there is no parent or legal guardian in the out, not the case with these 20 children who were apprehended in the interior, including this young man. And theres no parent or theres no parent or legal guardian in the United States available to provide care and physical custody. Now, i will tell you that if im two hours away im available to provide care and physical custody. So, are you interpreting this statute to mean immediate, local, physical custody . And because thats not the letter of the law and not our it reads. Congresswoman i would say this is something that hhs is equipped to do when it comes more so than we are. Im talk about thank you actual apprehension. When we. A child instead of being returned to their parent in the United States, is instead treat as an unaccompanied minor. I have documentation of at least 20 children who have been apprehended in this way with parents in the United States, apprehended in interior, not returned to their parents, not able to make a phone call. When we apprehend them, if they are unaccompanied, i need to transfer. The over to hhs and, if i may, they are better equipped this is not something the Border Patrol just like as a Police Officer, when i was a Police Officer, we would bring in Child Protective Services time im sorry but your poly, your policy, chief, and cdp, saids that unaccompanied kid, quote, mussbe offer used of the temp im been informed where children were not permitted to call their parents until they reached orr custody days after apprehension by cbp. Thissous man who was finally returned to his mother on sunday had been in the United States since he was nine months old. His mother was two hours an from him. And he was left in your facility for five days. With no ability to make a phone call. If they have not been had the ability to make a phone call, congresswoman, i would say that is something that we need to investigate your policy has has not changed. Thats still the policy theyre able to make a phone call. With allow them to make a phone call. So how are you going ensure that this policy is followed and will you look into comprehensively whether or not there are children in your custody being defined as unaccompanied minors who are not being granted the able to make a call. Ill take back your allegations and speak with the office of professional responsibility who does to the investigates, yes, maam. I would like to ask you a question but the culture of cruelty that appears to exist in your agency. In an email to supervisor a widely report incident that occurred at the El Paso Processing Center in which an agent recounted a colleague forcing a child to hold a sign that said i like men and he had to walk in front of other migrants who humiliate. The agent said several colleagues laughed. This is a disgusting amount on so many levels, cruel, dehumanizing and homophobic and example of crew cruel and remain treatment. I asked the second if he would do a comprehensive investigation as to the allegations and how cbp officers are trying migrants, the accusations of kicking children awake in the middle of the night while theyre asleep help wouldnt make that commitment except on individual cases. We you make the commitment here and now to do a comprehensive investigation but the cruel acts that many of your cbp officers as well as they might be taking care of others that it not all baud threat are widespread reports that demand a comprehensive investigation. Will you commit to that. That is note job of my Border Patrol officers. That is the job of the office of professional responsibility. I can tell you that instance being investigate. Being investigated. Comprehensively . Or individually . I cant speak for all of the investigations they office of professional responsibility currently has going but i can tell you that it do know that case is under investigation. So the only then ill conclude, madam chair. You like the secretary are only aware of and only willing to commit to individual investigations of specific allegations rather than the if it were me and i had widespread accusations of my officers, people in my measure any supervision being accused of cruelty i would want to get to the appointment of it. No case by case but where the breakdown is and how that is being allowed on the border. Maam, this something we work close with the office of dhs, office of Inspector General, thats with job as well as the office of professional responsibility. Madam chair, unfortunately thereteaches be a culture of cruelty that goes to the top in the department of Homeland Security. Thank you, i yield back. Madam chair. Thank you, chief, for being here and i wanted to just go a little further than my colleague about the subculture discussions because i think this speaks to leadership but and speaks to how we treat folks in the standards we employ. Are you familiar with the term tonk . I have heard that term before. And in what context have you heard that term . It is a highly inappropriate term that we do not tolerate in the Border Patrol that was a term from my experience from many, many years ago. Have you heard that term from officers in the field . That is not a term i have heard as of late when i was a young agent, yes. Have you seen it recently in emails or texts or heard it outside of your term as an agent . I was just made aware of an investigation is ongoing into i believe a tshirt that was made with Something Like that. Ive not seen it. The tshirt made by an agent . I dont know whether it was made by an agent. Last week secretary testified before the House Committee on judiciary that he doesnt think the cbp has a culture of dehumanizing migrants. Dont you feel that at least that term tonk is dehumanizing. I agree the term is dehumanizing. Do you think its appropriate for cbp officers or any agents to share personal and identifiable information of migrants. Not, i its not. We have to protect the privacy of those in our custody and in our care. And i assume you have answered this in the context that office of professional responsibility is going to be looking at and continues to look at those. Would they also look at individuals who may have online pocked the death of Child Migrants as well . Most definitely, and the there is a case im aware of bested on the Facebook Information that is being investigated right now. Back to the facebook and you said you joined i might have heard you wrong when you were giving the statistics in the finning you said june of 2018 to june of 2019. You visited the group or it was told you but eye opr four times you opened up facebook or four types you visited the group. Facebook. Four times you visited facebook. Facebook four times four different days i was on facebook no 2019. I was nine teams in a year from june how to june of nine day is should be specific logged on. Nine days in the 12 months on facebook and yes, sir. And logging on can be done through your mobile device or through a desktop or did i use an ipad, personal ipad. And so four times this calendar year, nine times the prior 12 years, to 12 months, nine days and four days the reason insay day, in the four days was on twice in one day for instance. Which would be common nor a yearer on that platform. You said you joined this group in 2017 at the request of a colleague. So from that time in 2017 to june of 2018, was there any data that opr had given for your facebook use and or your visiting because i understand you commented on a post within that group as well. I commented on a post within i believe what was the 1015 times two group but if i may explain, when he log on, the reason i commended on that is because my agents were talking about me and i will in goh in and search posts. Decide not know at the time what group i was on or whether i was on a group. I did a search for myself, and because of people were talking about the fact i had been on a jeopardy question, so i searched myself and that came up. Did not know at the time what group that was on until the posting came out. I dont go into facebook and go into groups. I go into facebook and i either talk to my friends in my group or i do quite often and that was revealed in the information that the office of professional responsibility looked at i searched myself. You would go into facebook, hit the little icon to search, type in your name on the search piece and then it would populate within post is would search through posts that would potentially have my name in it. The was to the sites work it would generally put to the top of the list those that have connections to you, individuals that are friends or groups you joined and would show up at the top. Correct. Thats when you noticed saw that and then you replied to that post because you had searched yourself they were talking about you. Yes, sir. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, madam chair. Like many members of congress, i have felt some obligation to travel to the border to see these conditions for myself and i must say your agents were accommodating and helping us do that in mcallen and brownsville two weeks ago. And i went to la raid to a year ago, the striking this year how much worse things are. Its partly the influx of so many people but its also a failure to provide for these very basic accommodations and failure of policy to get people through the process in a fair and orderly way. 40 men packed in a cell for six people. Vice president pence trade to put a positive face on that but the press was right there and saw for themselves. And then the Ursula Center for the families and unaccompanied children, people who hadnt had a change of clothes or a shower for days and so on. We spoke to a lot of people who have been stranded in Processing Centers for days, even weeks, when the standard is supposed to be 72 hours. One thing we need to get at is to what extent is this all this these conditions and the situation we find doctor what stenis this a failure in policy . I must say the most irrational policy of all has to be President Trump cutting off the very aid to the triangle countries that has been directed to stemming this flow by improving conditions and dealing with conditions in those home countries. How in the world can that even be con teammated. But contemplated but then closer to home, what but the accommodations that we provide . What about the process for processing and dealing with cases . I want to and then of course there is the a specific set of problems dealing with medical care and the kind of medical needs that these people who are being held have. I want to ask you one question but the 72 hour standard and then i want to move to the medical issue. But i know 72 hours is not an absolute requirement but it is a goal that im sure you embrace. How long on acknowledge are tender age children being killed in Border Patrol facilities in particular and in general. Can you address the 72 hour standard which i think given the state of these facilities we can all agree is highly desirable to move people through as quickly as possible and the what its going to take to come anywhere near to meeting that standard and if you want to comment on different subsets populations, as to the situation youre facing. Certainly congressman. First and for most, when it comes to processing we prioritize the processing of unacandidate Children First unaccompanied Children First and then the family ewans and then single adults. When we were at ouring high, when i maybed earlier that we had a time with 19,000 people in our custody, hhs was unable at that time to take people out of our custody within the 72 hours. Since you all have funded hhs, that number has dropped dramatically. A along with that our time in custody has troped and when it comes to unaccompanied children in our custody and care, they are currently obviously it changes at different times but somewhere in the 2001 to two day time frame and are being the one to two day final frame and being turn over to health and human services. That was not the state we were in when we had 27 hundred children in our dust custody bit needed hhs to take them out of my custody and i do agree. One alf of these individuals out of my custody as quickly as possible. Family units, as soon as we can process them and release them, we are doing that. We are working with local nongovernmental organizations, and doing our best to release them to those individuals, and that is more like a twoto threeday time frame. This problem right now is single adults, because i have to wait for i. C. E. To have the bed space. Those individuals i dont have the exact time but they are being held in our custody far too long. Those are the people in the cages . Shouting out in ive been here 40 days . Well, once again i believe mr. Cuellar stated earlier the reason that we have to be able to separate different groups and we need to be able to see those individuals, thus the use in some of our facilities like in Rio Grande Valley with the central Processing Center was to have eyes on to make sure nothing is happening but mostly single adult wed have issues with when it comes to goingon the 72 hour realm. I know my time expired so ill wait on the until in the next round on the medical issue, but coming into that ursula facility, put on masks, duly warned, that theres a lot of contagion here, and so i do have some questions that stem from that experience and those observations. Thank you, madam chair. Miss ming. Thank you, madam chairwoman. Thank you chief provost for being here. I wanted to ask about an issue, you stated in your testimony that your work force is extremely strained due to the crisis at the southern border. However strained are your work force is, bored el patrol is still conducting interior enforce new york farmers specifically have had issues with workers being picked up and detained by agents and there have been numerous interior Enforcement Actions across the state of new york that have impacted farmers and farmworkers. According to the new York State Department of labor, there are between 40,000 to 80,000 individuals employed on farms in a given year, including domestic, guest workers, migrant and seasonal labor am high proportion on the new york africa work force are vulnerable to immigration enforce. Which leaves farms in new york state vulnerable to leaving their work force. Given its close proximity to an International Border new york state has a significant Border Patrol presence which enables cbp agents to question, detain and search individuals. What type of criteria does werder Border Patrol use when its decided to question the individuals. If i may, and im just wanting to clarify for my open. Youre talk when youre speak bowel interior enforcement that is generally i. C. E. And, ero or Homeland Security investigations. That is not something that the Border Patrol does. We have traffic checkpoints that come in as a secondary support system that we are doing, and im just trying to clarify for my own edification, i apologize but i are you potentially speaking to enforce. Efforts by i. C. E. And hsi . So theres no enforce. By cbp agents in or near farms. We do some roving patrol. I may this may be something that i need to follow up with you on so i can understand better, and i apologize but we do some roving patrol and we do have checkpoints but generally when were talking about interior Enforcement Actions, that is the job of i. C. E. , and im not sure, maybe thats something that we need to i need to come sit down and speak with you about more in depth. We just had a lot of stories about from our farms and farmers about workers being picked up and so if you could ill take that back and see whether or not that it is something that we are doing and i will get back with you. Thank you. I would i apologize. Im just it mail be i. C. E. That were talking about and i dont have that information. Specifically i want to no what role cbp plays and what criteria is used when i would like to take that back and get you an answer. Of course, thank you. Another question i have, story but a colleague of ours at the Ursula Detention Center who encountered a 13yearold u. S. Citizen at the Detention Center where children are also held in cages and wanted to getmer background about the incident, why was this u. S. Citizen child held in a cage . Is this Standard Practice . How often does its happen . What this protocol . So, im not knowing the exact case youre talking to and if you send me that information im more than happy to follow up on that exact case there are instances where in particular children, u. S. Citizens children, do come into our care and custody if they are traveling and have made crossed the border with a parent who isen illegal alien. So that does happen at times, and we try to keep them together and the parent can make a call on what happens. Im not sure the specific case youre speaking to, if you have time frame, that would help me but im more than happy to look interest any specific instances. Sure. This specific incident was reported in an article on the national paper, usa today that was our colleague, congresswoman annett barigon who had been on a congressional tour at the southern border specifically at the Detention Center. Do you know how many u. S. Citizen children are in Border Patrol custody and how long are they detained for. Few and far between and i do believe that in that instance that this was a child with an illegal alien mother who the marijuana and the child were released on their own recognizance. ll confirm thats the case. Those instances are few and far between. I dont have an exact number but it does happen from time to time. If you could get back to us as well, i would love to know how many u. S. Citizens at any given time, including currently, are in Border Patrol custody and the average time that they are detained and the process they must go through to get released. And once again, if they are in with a parent, we are going to work through processing the parent accordingly and then work to if its a family unit in particular to release them as soon as possible, but i am more than happy to follow up on that with you. Thank you. Yield back. Mr. I have two areas to talk about. I was in a month or so i visited the border, and quite frankly i was really surprised and shocked what i saw. I know one of the Border Patrol agents made comment to me, if youre in a Police Officer in the United States and you arrest somebody see them in court. When we have these issues now, we have to detain these people and really arent in the detaining business and thats caused a lot of issued with the volume with had ha. In now, you are dealing with what i seen with unprecedented line of immigrants and you need more resources no question. We just passed a bill which provides 4. 5 billion to alleveat they humanitarian crisis on the border. Didnt get everything we wanted but get a lot but its not the end. We need to fix the overcrowding, we need hire hundreds more judges. Thats a major issue. So we can move the people in the United States or out and they have a status. We need to provide more aid to the more than triangle countries. We need to make sure that be deal with the problems why people are leaving and as long as the feel thenned and theres corruption well keep have the problem. Need bring in more doctors to screen detainees. Very important issue with Young Children kids and everybody who needs a doctor. We need to abide by International Law and allow people seek asylum. Thats big issue and we have to do that. These people are rug for the lives and we need to restructure the whole immigration system. Theres are their Party Organizations such as the red cross willing to rolled up their sleeves and help out at no expense to american taxpayer. I keep hearing but in the flu and lyes outbreaks this is concerning and preventible and he volunteers have to be screened before providing assistance. Are you willing to enup your doors to uman tarean organizations and if so how can hong help . This could help some of the issues were dealing with. Especially with a group like the red cross. So, sir, i dont want to speak out of line. I well tell you we are working very closely with medical professionals and thank you for the funding because that it is supporting having more medical professionals in our facility. We have expanded to over 200 medical professionals in our facilities across the board. Cant speak to the legalities on the red cross. Do know that we are working with fema within the department as well, and looking at all different kinds of possibles. I agree we need the medical assistance in our facilities if just cant speak to what we can or cannot do. It is certainly something i will take back and see whether or not thats something that is fees able. Need to make it a priority. Another thing i learned. We talk but immigration iris very politicalment unfortunate because lot of countries take in immigrant. We all somehow other than the American Indians came from some other country. When i saw ive spend year in Law Enforcement, as a prosecutor, and what i see right now the cartels are in control of a lot of things going on front am drug point of view and also from shaking down immigrants, people coming, trying to offend a way thats better for families and thats priority we dont talk about anymore in this country. Or media doesnt talk about. Thats a big problem. About what is happening and we need to deal with. The other thing want to talk about, talk about our chairwoman and thats about the 1015 private facebook group. A lot of good agents out there. A lot of bad people. A few bad people make it look bad for an interagency and happens in congress, happens in a lot of organizations. Now, this group has about 9500 members strong, posting racist, misogynies city is comments comd cracking joke bowled detainees dying anywhere custody. Reports of misconduct, a form are prosecute and county executive i work with Law Enforcement for decades never in my life ever seen such a lack of professionalism and disregard for human suffering. This us huge suffering i. Dont believe that most of your agents share the view and i serve on the Intelligent Committee for 12 years and serve with sylvester reyes, member over the boredle prompt he toll stories a learn to respect your agency because off what the told me and how tough between the borders bordea certain camaraderie that there is but a few people are really hurting your agency right now and a lot of only people, dimlike i. C. E. A lot of good people but a few bad people some certain policies by our administration are causing problems with your agencies and respect. So we have turn it around mitchell question is what are you doing to he restore the credible and reputation of your agency relate you talked bed the 1015 group but you have a long way to good to roo build your reputation with the average person in this country. Thank you for question and youre exactly right. Those individual are not representative of my men and women as a whole. That is why we have taken steps, the office of professional responsibility is all in on this investigation, meaning putting large sum of resources into it and as i stated before he well hole those accountable who have done that. In my statement to the work force i made messenger of and will continue to make mention of is a reach out to the work force as were praying training that all this douse harm our reputation. Would love to see more from the media and others reporting on the Amazing Things my men and women are doing because die spend every week, im making calls to the field on rescues, agents put energy lives on the line as you have putting their live oles then line. Thats not making into the public eye and the media and were putting that information out and i would love to see that be out so that the public can see when were talking about over 4,000 rescues this year, when were talking about agents who have pulled children out of a river in the del rio area, where actually the river is extremely take voice smugglers put children in inner tubes that are made for Swimming Pool and push them about into the river and put women in those situations. I agree that we have to deal with those few bad apples. This is a priority for us as an organization, a priority not only for me but also for the secretary as i know he has subpoena as well. I think the stories you hear, which have to be put out there need to tell the good story outs saving peoples lives also. Thank you. Yield back. Just a very quick followup with regards to congresswoman wasserman schultz. The question regarding the incidents in the umenyiora ma second of the the huma yuma sector. When children went to orr and there are those kinds of allegations, does orr give Border Patrol that information. We did not receive that information until the investigation came out. Went to oig and i do know thats office of inspector children is investigating that but that is certainly information i would love to have so that we can address any of these concerns up front. No whether theyve giving directly to oig and or the office of professional responsibility that it is something they other should be doing as well. Nothing prevents them from doing that. Not that im aware of. Those are generally the entities theyre going to give it to but we certainly want them giving those types of allegations to either oig, dhs, oig orr cbp office of professional responsibility. Well make sure that happens. Thank you. When thing i find very concerning is that despite the guidance exempting vulnerable populations from place independent the Migrant Protection Protocols Program we have machine made aware that pregnant women and lgbt migrants have been sent back to mexico to wait in mexico. Since your agents apparently are not consistently following the criteria of that you have given, what is being done to ensure thing a does not return vulnerable individuals and what oversight mechanisms do you have in place to ensure that outcome . My understanding is that they are given sort of general guidance ask theres nothing in writing. They are given guidance and of course theres supervisory oversight when it comes to individuals we are returning through the Migrant Protection Protocol Program and we also work i want to be clear, we work very closely with the government of mexico and we are not just turning people back across the werder. We turning them over to them and theyre working with nongovernmental organizations and shelters in their areas for placement for them. The standards when it comes to the mpp program, speak to obviously anybody that we have, over 96 hours in our custody or has entered more than 96 hours prior, is not eligible for it, as well as individuals who are of course mexican nationals and those who express a fear of mexico are going to be sent to the uscis forcredible fear. Excuse me for interrupting. What is the weakness the system that has made it that has allowed in these cases for vulnerable populations to enn fact be returned to mexico . We follow the standards of the mpp. No unaccompanied alien children are sent back. Citizens and nationals in mexico, aliens processed for example it is happening . What im trying no get at is, or is to ask you, can you look into what is happening and where are those weaknesses that are actually resulting in these vulnerable populations being returned. So, we have if they have circumstances where they have medical or Mental Health issues, put they are need to be like current medical issue, if theyve been cleared they genetic back but its something im morning happy to talk to you about and work with you on what your actual concerns are in it. I think i want my other colleagues to have a chance but id like to follow up. I will few. Id like to understand allege b. E. T. Ar your pick concerns when it comes to cases of individuals that were sending back. Well follow up. Okay. Thank you, madam chair, and i want to thank my friends on both sides the dais for a terrific here and chief post few for your thorough answers and the tremendous job that you and then and women in cbp are doing. Something that resound on both sides is that our leaders in the house and senate, the administration, we need to come up with policies. I think the sheriff said it best. Law enforcements put in a very difficult position. Youve get to follow the law. And you do. And if the laws are not put in place so that you can do your jobs, and we have some work to do. I sincerely hope our colleagues do that in the near future deal with this crisis. Following up on my early line of questioning, how long does it take for a border station staff to process a quoteunquote large group . Well, large group has varied. We count a large group as anybody over 100, group of 100. But just this year we breck records that are certainly dont want us to be breaking with juan large group of over a thousand in one group. So obviously its going to depend upon the size of the group. When i have dies where ive got over 5,000 illegal illens coming across the border its extremely time consuming to get the individuals junior transported logistic throughspecial if if theyre in remote locations, medically screened, processed, through the system. It can take with an extremely large group, days to get them handled. Just depends upon the size of the station where they cross, it depends upon the staffing we have on it and depends on the size of the group. We have had over 200, 203 large groups that have crossed our border this year. Thats over hundred people in each group. Last year we had 13 total. The year before i think it was just a handful. Mam, is processing include a michigan screening and medical dream. If warrant inside all children are screened now. Medically. Thank you. Perhaps the met m it tricks should be adjust sew we count how many hours to be processed and medically screen and then to start a new clock how long its tacks for i. C. E. Hhs to respond to notification for pickup. Is that possible . What story do you think would be told if we start looking at that various steps aspirating aties versus just in custody. I can certain at the tell you that Border Patrol this 0. Ones that cane saw no if migrants come cross the werder illegal and present himselfs to my men and women hey have a legal responsibility to take them interest custody. And then they are in our care and custody, and we dont have the ability to say, im sorry i dont have anymore space. Whereas i think as i mentioned earlier its critical that my partners at hhs and i. C. E. Have the funding they need to be able to take these folks out of our care and custody and once again ill recognize certainly the efforts of this committee when it comes to funding provided to hhs. That has been a tremendous help. I certainly do not want 2700 unaccompanied children in my custody. I would never want to see that green. And it has made a big difference. But because of i. C. E. Not having the beds, that does have an impact. There are obviously numerous factors that impact the processing and getting into individuals done. As soon as possible we have the processed we notify either hhs or i. C. E. Theyre ready for them to go. And we work hand in hand with them on moving those in court the longest. Yes, maam. Again, chief provost, thank youor your testimony madam chair i believe they called votes so im going to yield back. In fact they have called votes. We have the option. We can do one real quick round or we can come back. I dont know what the committee would prefer. One quick one. One quick round . Yes. Okay, then the next cuellar. One quick question. I there some issues. I think you were down in la raid dewhen we that his Border Patrol agent that murdered multiple individuals, i think its a veteran. I think we had another Border Patrol agent win the same time that killed his girlfriend and baby. My question, even though a do a polygraph example do you do any sort of i dont know what your position is on psychological testing for those folks, number one, and then number two is, in talking to the men and women at the border, theyre afraid sometimes to talk when they have an issue because if they go in to the supervisor and say ive get a problem, the they can the gun away and are told Union Members to talk to a pries. If you tell Law Enforcement you have an issue, theyll talk your gun away. So my question is on polygraph psychological and any sorts of support and thank you very much. Thank you, congressman we currently do not have a psychological evaluation etching do a very extensive background economic do polygraphs and we also do reinvestigations every five years. That is something i would say that we should speak with office of professional responsibility in ration to on psychological exams. I can tell you i took one for my Police Department when i hired on. When it comes to things for the agencies, concerns they have. We have created a Peer Support Program in our own Chaplain Program to help support our men and women when they do need to talk but issues as well, but i would certainly want my men and women to be ailing to go talk to their supervisors when they have an issue and of course, if they have an allegation, they can go directly to the office if spend countior general for the office of special counsel or to the office of professional responsibility, without any of their chain of command knowing they have a concern with their chain of command. Mr. Rutherford. Very quickly. Think it enweed by important we incredibly important question help you with the symptoms and also have to address the causes and i think thats evidence evidence by the fact when i see videotape of these large groups, 203, 100 plus, i think i actually saw the video of the thousand group coming across. We dead rye leave thats. Run from your officers. They run to your officers. The rope im for that is they understand the draw that we have created, the pull as yall call it, that is continues to bring them here. This body, this congress, has got address that and in assist you in that way. One quick question, can you tell me how you move 71 officers and also had in military assistant down there. How did that good . Was it worthwhile or the dod assistance has helped us particularly when it comes to running for instance, it running our mobile surveillance cameras for us. That allowed know free up agents and helping us with Situational Awareness so agents can respond. Theyre providing support when it comes to meal preparation for the individuals in our custody and care. And other things so they have been a huge support as well. Very good. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, madam chair. Chief provost, immigration lawyers who work with tee attend migrant theyd told my afters they heard record cbp pressuring teenaged girls into signing documents state theyre adults and accusing girls of lying when they assert theyre a minor. A child would lose Legal Protections and become subject to expedited removal, and transfor i. C. E. Custody. Yes or noer is this a Legal Practice . No. Would you commit to investigating the accusations and if substantiated hole the cbb officers held accountable. Definitely. Thank you very much. One additional question. Abusive behavior as i indicated in my prior can hing seems to be tolerated at cbp. Although i know youre disagree withing that or following up on individual cases of abuse. But this is widespread puss and apparently progressly goes unwished. Out of a total of 700,090 agencies discipline area actions only 70 were removal actions, resting less than 1 . What kind of misconduct would prompt the removal of an employee and why is this number so low and reports cbp abuse and misconduct are so commonplace. Lack of candor would be an issue. Conduct unbecoming can lead to removal as well. But there are various levels along the lack of candor meaning lying. Yes, yes. There are numerous things that could bring to light discipline. I state during 2017 that we did have hundreds of individuals that received suspensions, we did have demotions and we had everything from a from at the lower level of a counseling or written reprimand up to removal. This is something we take very seriously. There were several allegation that were unsubstantiated as well in the number you provided. Im sure there were bull its 7 thousands hundred 39 agency disciplinary actions and less than 1 resulted in removal. Id think that things like kicking a child awake while theyre trying to sleep on the floor covered by tinfoil is something that would indicate a culture of abuse and abusive practice by an individual who certainly doesnt belong employed as a customs and borer Patrol Officer and wouldnt be exemplary of the 4,000 rescuers that you have indicated you have conducted. It would definitely not be, maam, burt once again those are allegations that have to be investigated and whether or not those elses are true why is the number so low when the reports cbp abuse misconduct are so commonplace. Once again reports are allegations. Has to of that i believe 3800 of that number that you give were unsubstantiated allegations and opposite again this are not investigated by me. Those are investigated either by the office of Inspector General or the office of professional responsibility. Thats their job to deal with. So when youre saying the number of 7,239. 3800 3,806 were unsubstantiated claims, and there were various forms of discipline that were handed out it and will depend of every type of situation. Hide like a comprehensive overview of what the forms of discipline were by number of those remaining 4,000 cases. Ill gettive the labor Employee Relations group on that. Mr. Aguilar. Thank you. The family separation policy was in effect from at least april to june of 2018 and reports indicate children were separate before then. We know that families are operated before the president implemented this policy also known as zero tolerance. You were appointening acting chief in april of 2017. Did youve play any role in advising agents how to carry another family separation ol si. Well, are first, i with never had a specific family separation policy in my 25 years. Zero tolerance. In my 25 years i have had to separate families and this is not something that is now Border Patrol. Win we have a responsible to ensure the safety of children. So there are always going to be cases as there still are today where we have to spray families. We do not take that lightly. That is something that is very difficult any of my men and women to do. That is something that the care of the children is of utmost concern but this is something that has been done. Ive worked under four administrations and been done in each of those administrations and it is of course being done in compliance with the executive order and with the miss el right now, but it is something that we have done throughout my career. So youre saying it was just business as usual nothing was difference between im saying zero tolerance was different. I was a Prosecution Initiative are not focus only on family units. What role different you have in helping guide your agents on what the new prosecutorial standard was . I give direction outfield the field once zero tolerance came down the chain of command on zero tolerance as a whole, when it came to prosecutions. Everyone knew that was a change in the process, a new process coming down from the top. It was a zero Tolerance Program and a program focused on Prosecution Initiatives, though we have done newspaper russ Prosecution Initiatives over the years. Thank you, chief. Mr. Price. I know were running out of time as this vote has the clock ticks on the vote but die want to return to the issue of the medical situation. At ursula is where i observed this and but i hope you can provide an answer more generally and perhaps some of this for the record imwould appreciate your Immediate Response to how attention you are paying to this, how critically you are regarding this situation. It looked pretty bad, frankly. We had to put on masks and there was a warning of contagious diseases in the air but just seeing the line of migrants waiting to be seen by medical staff. Looking at those who had been seen. We spoke with a father who was lying on a supposedly a quarintine mat outside with a daughter who looked very sick to us, clearly and i will that didnt look like much on an isolation situation. Wasnt clear when why actually be taken to a medical facility. There are people who had been seen, who were waying to good to a local Health Care Facility or to west like 0, the cpps isolation Border Patrol fasel and so on. It was nose a good scene. Appeared to be overwhelming. You realize there is money in this emergency humanitarian supplemental. 112 million specifically for consumables and medical care in cbp facilities. Wonder what your assessment of the need is, me priority that you give this, and in particular, were going to warrant to know how quickly and in what ways you can utilize these funds. Certainly. And this is of course of serious concern to me to my men and women as well. There are numerous individuals coming into our custody that are sick when they arrive. We are expanding and thank you for the funding that has helped us to expand our medical contracts where we have over 200 medical professionals now working in our facilities. We are also able to buy more medical bags, cardiac monitors and other medical supplies to assist in this issue. As i stated we are doing right now an original bored patrol agent are taking 80 people to the hospital today across the southwest border. When the medical professionals advise they that anybody in our can you needs further medical attention outside of what they can provide well take them to a hospital and well stay with. The through that time until they can be medically cleared. This is of great concern, specifically with the demographic we have coming across. Nearly 300,000 children who have come across our border illegally between the ports of entry this year and i think thats a very vulnerable population when it comes to the health risks so it is of great concern to us, thank you for funding. Well continue to expand and im more than happy to come back and speak with you on how those funds are being utilized. Miss messenger ming. I want to back to the cbp conversation. What Border Patrol proceeds when processing these vicious specifically unaccompanied mainor and had Border Patrol returned asylum seeking teachages to mexico. Unacandidate minor children cannot be part of the mpp program so were not returning unaccompanied children. When you return Asylum Seekers to mexico, do Border Patrol agencies ask if they face danger or persecution in their home country . So, when it comes to them waiting in mexico for their asylum case, if they show a fear of mexico, then they go back to a uscis to express that fear. Otherwise theyre waiting then in mexico for their hearing here in the u. S. And then are brought back across for that hearing. So if anyone expresses that they fear danger or fear of persecution in their home country they are brought you at cis facilities . Are you asking pick to the mpp program . Yes. Specific to that they would need to show a fear of mexico and if they show a fear of mexico, they are referred because theyre being return and waiting in mexico for their hearing up here. If the show a fear of mexico theyre red raiders back to whether they have a credible fear of persecution or torture. But when it comes to whether or not they have a fear of their home country, then theyre going get their day in court to express that in front of a judge. So where do they go if they dont specifically mention mexico . If they are part of the mpp program, the 22,000, i think we have done so far, then they are going to wait in mexico for their court date. If they specifically say mexico, then then they will good to uscis for a determination of fear of returning to do going no mexico. [inaudible]. [inaudible]. [inaudible]
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