Transcripts For CSPAN2 Acting DHS Sec. Wolf Testifies On Law Enforcement Deployed To Protests 20240712

Good morning. This hear willing come to order. This hearing will come to order. I want to thank acting secretary wolf for his service and for taking the time to come before our committee here today. I know you have a lot of things on your plate here. The committee does appreciate you taking the time for coming in and explaining whats all been happening and answering our questions. Your full testimony, full written testimony will be entered in the record. For my part, im going to read my Opening Statement, and then there will be a twominute video at the tail end of my statement. The federal protective Service Officer David Patrick underwood was 53, on may 29th, when he was shot dead guarding a Federal Building in Oakland California during a protest. His partner was also shot, but thankfully survived. News reports said the protests involving approximately 8,000 people turned chaotic and violent as demonstrators smashed windows, looted stores and broke into a bank a few blocks from where officer underwood was on duty. The suspect that killed the sheriffs deputy a few days before. His antipolice views drew him to oakland where he saw the antipolice protest was an opportunity for more bloodshed. A retired police chief in st. Louis responded to the alarm going off at a shop owned by his friend during a night of antipolice protests that turned into a night of looting. Chief dorn, 77 years old, father of five, grand father of 10, died on june 2nd, in the anarchy unleashed in st. Louis. Unfortunately, the violence did not end there. Just yesterday morning, protesters in portland broke into a Police Association building and started a fire inside. Protesters slashed trucks tires. Shots were fired. It was the 69th straight day of what were constantly told are, quote, peaceful protests, unquote. Against the existence of police in portland. According to the department of Homeland Security, 277 attacks on police and federal officers throughout america have occurred during these peaceful protests that started in may. At least 140 federal officers have been injured in portland alone. At least 113 federal officers have suffered injuries to their sight after Peaceful Protesters have deliberately attempted to blind them with lasers and other weapons. At least 930 nonfederal Law Enforcement officers have been injured. At least one has died. At least 38 federal officers have been in portland meaning personal information about them such as addresses or phone numbers were put on line as a means of intimidation. At least 21 federal courthouses have been vandalized this summer. Protesters in nashville broke into city hall and lit fires in late may. A woman charged this week was caught on video holding a poster reading f the police, lighting it and tossing it through a broken window. Protesters in suburban denver broke into a courthouse and lit fires. Protesters in minneapolis burned down a police station. Others tried doing the exact same thing in seattle. A peaceful protest in oakland in july intensifies as news reports put it, after protesters set fire inside a courthouse, and launched fireworks on officers. During a peaceful protest in madison, wisconsin, at least one individual hurled a gasoline bomb into the city county building, which holds the citys 9 11 dispatch center and a jail. That night also included the beating of at least two individuals one of them a state lawmaker who collapsed in the landscaping near the capitol. These peaceful protests that include arson and assault have left a mark on our cities, our culture, and our country. As journalist Michael Tracy recently wrote, quote, from large metro areas like chicago, minneapolis st. Paul to small and mid sized cities like fort wayne indiana and Green Bay Wisconsin the number of boardedup, damaged or destroyed buildings i have personally observed, commercial, civic and residential is staggering. Keeping exact count is impossible. One might think that a major Media Organization like the New York Times would use some of their galactic journalistic resources to tally up the reck kaj for posterity wreckage for posterity but roughly six weeks later and such a tally is nowhere to be found, unquote. While police were tied up dealing with peaceful protests, homicides elsewhere in our cities were skyrocketing. By the end of july, homicides are up 53 in chicago over the same period in 2019. In minneapolis, murders are up 86 . In milwaukee, 84 . New york, 29 . Atlanta, 34 . Seattle, 42 . Philadelphia, 33 . New orleans, 36 . Denver, 46 . Those numbers measure the loss of human lives. Many are black lives that dont seem to matter much to the movement. Some are children. Some are children whose lives have been cut tragically short. Children whose lives matter. Their names matter. In chicago, alone, child victims include 15yearold terrace malden, 15yearold jeremiah jones, he was shot in the head. 15yearold michael ike. 14yearold verondo jones jr. 10yearold lena nunez. 7yearold natalia wallace, shot at a backyard party. 3yearold mikai james, killed when someone shot at her fathers car in traffic. 1yearold sincere gaston, killed when somebody shot his mothers car. Thats just since memorial day, in one city. These people have died because criminals killed them. But they may have also died because police were constrained and prevented from doing their job to protect them. When you encourage disdain for police, you encourage criminals. When you do little or nothing to stop riots, you unleash anarchy. And when you encourage criminals and unleash anarchy, people die. All of us suffer. With that, ive go a twominute video that i would like everybody to watch. It is not easy to watch, but it shows the reality of what these peaceful protests have devolved into. Ten people punched and kicked the politician while he was on the ground. Video shows carpenter later collapsing near the capitol. Senator peters . Thank you, mr. Chairman, acting secretary wolf, appreciate you being here today. I know you have an awful lot on your plate, and i appreciate that time is precious. You have a very challenging role, especially in these unprecedented times. Nevertheless, im extremely disapointed with some of the recent actions dhs has taken under your leadership, actions that put at risk your ability to effectively protect the homeland. I do not dispute that the situation in portland required a response. We cant allow a small number of bad actors who want to instigate violence or harm Law Enforcement personnel take advantage of a peaceful demonstration and demonstrators that are exercising their 1st amendment rights. However, dhs chose in response to the situation on the ground i think is unacceptable. Instead of working together with state and local partners, you sent a surge of federal personnel who did not have proper training to deescalate a situation. Your heavyhanded tactics caused additional chaos, and im concerned that this singular focus on protecting federal property is distracting the department from addressing the threat posed by domestic terrorism. Last year this Committee Held the senates first ever hearing focused on white supremacist violence and domestic terrorism threats. We have seen far too many attacks in this country at the hands of White Supremacists terrorists, attacks that have taken the lives of far too Many Americans. When americans were murdered in Shopping Centers or while at worship, by domestic terrorists, with ties to white supremacist movements, your department failed to respond with the same urgency that we saw on the streets of portland. When one federal Protection Services officer was tragically murdered, and another was seriously wounded, in the line of duty, earlier this year, it was by americans with ties to a movement rooted in white nationalism. Yet you still have not released a complete plan to combat white supremacist violence nearly a year after a long delayed release of the strategic framework for countering terrorism and targeted violence. I want to know why your agency is not focusing on the threat posed by white supremacist violence in our country with the same sense of urgency. I want to know why your own office of intelligence and analysis has no trouble sharing intelligence on journalists with police in portland but makes excuses for not being able to keep tabs on suspected domestic terrorists who frequent White Nationalist forums online. The department of Homeland Security and decisions made to keep our Community Safe should not be or ever be driven by politics. Terrorism is terrorism, whether it fits the ideological narrative of dhs leaders or not. Dhs must never let politics define, limit, or overshadow the truth about the security risks that are facing our country. Instead of aligning your departments resources, personnel and mission to tackle the white supremacist terrorist threat, you have chosen to focus on optics. I know our Law Enforcement personnel put their lives on the line every time they go to work. I have fought hard in congress to make sure they have the resources they need to stay safe in the line of duty and return home to their families safe. But let me be Crystal Clear the decisions this administration has made in recent months have put dhs personnel at unnecessary risk. And because you chose to escalate conflicts, you not only risked your officers safety. You risked the safety of american civilians. Now more than ever we need leadership at the department of Homeland Security. We need coordination with state and local officials. We need to focus on the most prevalent and the most deadly threats that are facing our country. I continue to hope the department can juggle its complex mission, but i have what i have seen so far calls into serious question this administrations priorities when it comes to National Security. I look forward to speaking with you today and continuing to Work Together to protect our National Security and the security of the American People. Thank you thanks, senator peters. Can you please stand and raise your right hand . Do you swear the testimony you give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god . [inaudible]. Please be seated. The honorable chad wolf is the acting secretary of the department of Homeland Security, been serving this position since november 2019. Mr. Wolf previously held numerous Senior Leadership roles in the department including leading the officer strategy policy and plans and serving as the chief of staff for the department. Acting secretary wolf . Chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters, members of the committee, thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. While Many Americans are aware of the Traditional Missions of the department of Homeland Security, such as aviation security, border security, Immigration Enforcement and counterterrorism, just to name a few, many are not as familiar with the Important Mission of the federal protective service or fps. It has protected federal property for almost 50 years and does so at almost 9,000 Properties Around this country. This responsibility was specifically provided to fps through the secretary of Homeland Security by the United States congress. For over 60 days federal properties in portland, particularly the hatfield federal courthouse have been attacked by violent criminals, opportunists and anarchists. I want to be clear we see in portland every day nonviolent protests. The department is aware of the National Dialogue taking place around racism and Law Enforcement practices, and we continue to support and defend every americans right to exercise their 1st amendment rights. The violent activity that i will refer to today is not associated with those protests. The violent activity we see occurring between midnight and 5 00 a. M. Began roughly around may 28th, with the mayor of portland announcing an 8 00 p. M. To 6 00 a. M. Curfew from may 30th to june 2nd. On june 1st, due to the level of violence, well before dhs arrived in portland, the portland mayor asked the governor of oregon to activate the National Guard to help protect facilities in the city. Over the course of june, dhs monitored the situation in portland closely, began deploying additional fps officers into portland to protect federal facilities. Despite surging over 20 additional fps officers throughout the month of june, in late june, it was clear we were overmatched. In early june, at the request of fps officials in portland, i directed additional Law Enforcement assets to portland to protect federal properties as well as officers. Our federal officers have faced assaults from bricks, baseball bats, sledgehammers, molotov cocktails, mortar style commercial grade fireworks, accelerant, ieds and other violent weapons. Since july 4th federal officials in portland have made 99 arrests and dhs officers have experienced 277 separate injury. Those injuries range from minor to serious to include several who may have permanent eye damage. I would like to now to play a short video of what our officers have faced during their time in portland. Unfortunately, whats been absent during the 60 day period was the assistance of local and state Law Enforcement personnel. Dhs and doj officers were provided little to no assistance night after night in protecting federal properties and themselves. Local and state officials did not allow Law Enforcement, local Law Enforcement to police the area immediately around the federal facilities, nor in the parks nearby, which violent opportunists used as a staging ground to prepare for their nightly assault on the courthouse and our officers. Local and state officials did not allow Law Enforcement to make any arrests, i repeat any arrests if the violence was directed at federal properties. In fact, on july 17th, the mayor of portland directed that all federal Law Enforcement agencies be prohibited from accessing the Portland Police bureau Emergency Operations center and on july 22nd, the Portland City Council issued a resolution specifically directing all members of the Portland Police bureau shall not provide, request or receive any Operational Support from dhs and doj Law Enforcement agencies. To put it simply, dhs and doj office officers, Law Enforcement officers, civil Law Enforcement officers were abandoned due to the dangerous policies by local officials. The cooperation and assistance our federal officers received in any other city around the country did not exist in portland. Let me briefly address several inaccurate statements offered by some as the events played out in portland. Our Law Enforcement officers are not an occupying force. They are not serving as a general domestic security agency. They have been deployed for an extended period of time to one city, and thats portland. Its to protect federal properties. Our Law Enforcement officers are not stormtroopers or thugs. They are civil Law Enforcement officers who wear clearly marked uniforms who are properly trained who follow establish Law Enforcement procedures and practices and operate within their authorities. Its been suggested our Law Enforcement officers should not be in portland if not invited by state or local officials. And while our preference is always to partner with local and state Law Enforcement enforcing federal law is not by invitation. Unlike local Law Enforcement, we cannot be directed to ignore criminal activity and actions, and we will never shy away from our statutory duties. On july 14th, i placed phone calls to the mayor of portland and the governor of oregon. I offered the full resources of the department to assist them in ending the violence directed at the federal courthouse. Their answer was stark. It was no thank you and please remove all dhs Law Enforcement officers from portland. Fortunately, the governor felt better about the decision and reached out two and a half weeks later to offer Oregon State Police support to address the violence. As of today, the full augmented dhs Law Enforcement posture remains in portland. They will continue to remain until we are assured that the hatfield federal courthouse as well as other federal facilities in portland will no longer be violently attacked. While we have seen a noticeable decrease in violent activity directed at the federal courthouse in recent days, make no mistake, there continues to be violence in portland. Over the past seven days, Portland Police have declared a riot on four different occasions, glass bottles and blinding lasers have been directed at Portland Police officers, numerous arrests have been made. The portland Police Association building has been set on fire. While this violence is not directed at the federal courthouse, dhs Law Enforcement officers remain on alert should it return. Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Look forward to the questions. Thank you, acting secretary wolf. Senator scott has to preside at 11 00. I will yield my questioning time to senator scott. Thank you, chairman johnson. So first off, i want to thank you for what you do every day. I was governor for eight years, and i learned three things, that people cared about three things, jobs, education for their kids and they want to be safe. So the video you showed and the things we have seen in portland are disgusting. Do you think its a peaceful protests when people use lasers to try to blind Law Enforcement officers . Absolutely not. Do you think it is a peaceful protest when people throw bricks at Law Enforcement officers . Absolutely not. Do you think it is a peaceful protest when people start fires around buildings . Absolutely not. So would you call the attack on the Federal Building in portland a peaceful protest . No. Do you have an obligation in your job to defend federal property . Its an obligation and its a direction from the congress that says we shall protect those federal facilities. We dont have an option. It doesnt say we can. It says that we shall. I would just say that we do see peaceful protests in portland every day. Every day, there are peaceful protests. That does not make the news. There are no arrests or injuries. That usually occurs in the early evening, very different than what the video showed. So when you read things where politicians say all those protests in portland were peaceful, and you see the video, you see whats happened to your Law Enforcement officers, how do you feel . How does your Law Enforcement community feel . Well, i have some very strong feelings about that. Again, i think what folks are doing, whether intentionally or unintentionally, theyre confusing two different activities that are going on in portland, peaceful protesting and then the violent activity that we see between midnight and 5 00 a. M. There every morning. Our Law Enforcement officers are doing their very best, some of what you saw on the video, very difficult circumstances. They are behind a perimeter. They are inside a federal courthouse. They are inside that courthouse for the vast majority of time. They only come out to defend the court house as it is getting attacked. I mentioned some of the language, stormtroopers, things like that, i think most reasonable americans and almost all Law Enforcement know that that is an absolute lie. Were you surprised when the mayor and the governor didnt provide support to do the job of protecting federal property . I did, you know, i think everyone understands that oregon and portland, they have theres an environment there of protesting, and so we certainly appreciate that. What we saw throughout june and into july is going beyond that, becoming very very violent, and when you dont hold individuals accountable, or you allow them to attack a courthouse and then step back across the street into a park, to rearm, to come back to the courthouse, night after night after night, it emboldened them. What we see in portland is an environment. If you go back to 2018, we had a dhs i. C. E. Facility for 28 days was laid siege to by individuals. Portland police, local officials did nothing for 28 days. We finally had to send in federal Law Enforcement assets to take that building back. So what should congress be doing to be helpful to you . First off, why dont we talk about this. Talk about the people who have lost their vision. How many . And i think you saw a little bit from the video, the green laser is what were talking about. Thats a new tactic that we have seen that our federal protective Service Officers have seen in portland. Its very powerful. This is not the laser that your cat or your dog may chase on the ground. This is very very powerful laser. It hits their eyes. It will heat up the nucleus of the eye and it will give you permanent damage. Weve been able to address that with some eye protection, but we have three officers who will likely lose some portion of their vision. Have you heard a lot of sympathy for them through a lot of these National Politicians . As they say these people that throw bricks and start fires and do the lasers, have you heard any of them say gosh im worried about your Law Enforcement officers losing their vision . No, i think thats really disappointing. I talk passionately about what we do in portland and thats because of the Law Enforcement officers there that are putting their lives in danger, they are getting injured. What i dont hear is any appreciation for that. The Ranking Member certainly did that in his Opening Statement. I thank him for that, but i hear very little of that. I hear very little of that from the oregon congressional delegation. They have not mentioned dhs Law Enforcement officers, the injuries that they have had, protecting a federal courthouse, very similar to protecting the u. S. Capitol, someone walked up to the u. S. Capitol and tried to burn it down, you would arrest them. I would hope Capitol Police would arrest them. Thats all were trying to do in portland is protect a federal facility. Justice there in portland. How many Law Enforcement officers have lost their lives since these protests started back in may . From a dhs perspective, it is one that the chairman mentioned, officer underwood in oakland in protecting a courthouse there in oakland. We have had numerous injuries across the country. The 277 that i mentioned is just specifically in portland. But we have many numerous ones that have been injured thank you, chairman johnson. Senator peters . Thank you, chairman johnson. Again, secretary wolf, acting secretary wolf, thank you again for your testimony. To be clear on the record, we do are concerned about the men and women who put their lives in jeopardy every day to protect this country and respect the job they do and understand it is a very tough job. Mr. Chairman, we heard acting secretary wolf talk about the local officials and their unwillingness to be a part of securing their city. Certainly the images that we saw are disturbing. It is just hard for me to believe that local officials would just sit by idly and not be engaged if that, and as i asked you, when we requested this hearing, it would have been wonderful to hear both sides of the story, to have folks from oregon, the mayor, the governor, police chief, other officials that were engaged, if were going to be looking into the actions that occurred in portland, i think we need a complete picture. My experience is theres always two sides of every story. We need to hear that story. Hopefully that will happen in the future, that we will be able to get a better sense of that. So my question to you, acting secretary wolf, would you agree that the department of Homeland Securitys ability to conduct its mission of securing our nation really depends on partnerships and trust . Trust is absolutely critical in this very complex mission that you have, which i talked about in the opening and that trust needs to be established with state and local officials for everything . When you think of the broad range of topics that you deal with, election security, protecting our borders, cybersecurity, natural disasters, all of those things are under your purview, dont you believe that we need to have a relationship with local officials in order to effectively conduct that mission . I agree 100 . So why did that not occur here . Again, we have been talking, again, with Portland Police in oregon for over 60 days. We continue to ask them to get involved. Now, what we do see is local police and state police making arrests if the violence is directed at Portland Police facilities or city facilities. If the violence is directed at specifically at the hatfield federal courthouse, they would not engage. They would not make arrests. Again, these individuals, these violent individuals are staging in two city parks across the street from the courthouse, every night, they have tents set up. This is where they stage out of. They do that on city streets. The fence that you saw there is on the curb. They are in city streets as they are attacking the courthouse. We continue to engage with them. We had over the course of 60 days. As i mentioned in my Opening Statement, city Council Passed resolutions that prohibited Portland Police from coordinating with federal Law Enforcement even if their Emergency Management center. Even in an area where police talk together, to deconflict to make sure you dont have blueonblue incidents, thats currently not occurring in portland because of some of the City Council Resolutions passed. and to the country but absolutely in this point he is dead wrong. How is he dead wrong . Again im happy to walk you through exactly the coronation that we have tried to do with Portland Police. I reached out to the mayor on an occasion to offer our support and to offer that coronation and understand whats occurring on the ground. Again between midnight and 5 00 a. M. Every morning secretary chertoff as well as others commented on dhs action really understand whats going on in portland. I think they confuse people protesting that we see usually takes place between six and 7 00 p. M. Until 10 30 at night. Again no concerns there. It happened across the street from the courthouse and there were no incidents that we see at midnight to 5 00 a. M. Theres violent activity where we get no support, no support from state and local officials. Well, as a result of what is happening portland i certainly have heard an awful lot from state and local officials from my state as well about what they have seen and given the understandable concerns being expressed following the images that we have seen what are you doing to work with officials and communities that are participating in operation to build trust and some critical relationship that is necessary for us to accomplish the mission . I would answer that two different way senator. What we see in portland is different than any city across the country we talk about rejecting federal property release see a corporate relationship between federal state and local officials weathered chicago, seattle or any other major city where we have federal properties. There is intelligence in individuals are targeting those facilities and state and local partners with us. Thats different from whats been occurring in portland for over 60 days. Youre saying portland is the one case . You are seeing at anyplace across the country and you arent worried about anarchy and chaos across the rest of the country . Directed at federal facilities. Portland is very different. You see targeted attacks in atlanta and seattle and other places at federal facilities have been damaged or we see state and local Law Enforcement partnering with us at the facility and then again holding those that are attacking those certainly accountable for it when we talk about operation legend which you mentioned the department of justice Led Initiative thats really to target the violent street crime that you see in these nature metropolitan areas great transnational criminal gangs illicit narcotics firearms and things of that nature. The department of dhs department of Homeland Security investigators are partnering with the department of justice on that but its a very different activity than what we are doing in portland. Im very low on time here but would dhs resources stretched what assurances can you give us the combating white supremacist of violence and terrorism is truly a priority within your department and something that you will omit the resources necessary to combat . Absolutely. We have had several conversations about this. Whether its the far right and the far left or in between we are responding specifically what to whats going on in portland and other cities around the country and again in a different position at the department had the opportunity to develop a strategic framework for targeting violence in 2019 to the strategy outlines the dangers that we are seeing in the supremacist extremism and that lays out action we are working on that Implementation Plan that you are for two in your pic statement we are pushing targeting this area as well. We have security is nonprofit from fema and it also goes towards laces of worship faithbased communities that will also attacked against this and are Cybersecurity Infrastructure agency works with a host of partners and stakeholders regarding soft target security making sure those are shored up against Violent Attacks as well. In closing here no you put out the strategic lan but you really need to implement a plan, plan that is nothing unless its implemented. You have not put out that Implementation Plan we dont see the sense of urgency when it comes to creating that land. What is your timeline . When will we see an Implementation Planning concrete action . We have put out an Implementation Plan we are implementing many of the issues in that strategy to let me get you an exact day one we can get the Implementation Plan up. We will provide that to the committee. Thank you. Senator portman. Chair wolf first i would like to tell the men and women who work for you and several Law Enforcement that we appreciate what they are doing. We know that they have a responsibility and laws were passed or to protect these Federal Buildings and it looks almost like a were seen. And so let them know that the people i represent understand they have a responsibility and understand they have put themselves in danger and its appreciated and just to back up a second with the tragic word or of george floyd it was something i think all of us thought was horrible and then we had protests and demonstrations all around the country in response to that and in support of Racial Justice and equality. I think the vast majority of americans support those demonstrations. They are if they are peaceful and we have a right as americans under the First Amendment to be able to protest and we can never let that be taken away. What please on those videos and what we have all seen on our tv sets and on line is deeply troubling because the violence is causing damage and arson and looting. The one that breaks my heart is to cease storeowners particularly in these underserved communities who work hard to create a Small Business is being destroyed. You can drive through almost every major city in american see stores boarded up in washington d. C. If you drive around the white house area youll see a lot of stores and shops boarded up. The arson that we saw on the video is extremely dangerous to everybody and unfortunately we have seen this accompanying some of these peaceful protests. Not all in portland is the exception as you said in terms of the attacks on the Federal Buildings. I guess the one question i would ask you is what have you learned in court nation with the local the state officials is obviously been a huge problem and lack of coordination i should say. Its Getting Better to sound like the governor and others are working with you but what could you have done better . The protection of the courthouse and the Federal Building in general i think its clear you had your mission set but were there things that were done or things that happened that you have learned from in terms of the potential for future conflicts like this and what would you tell us . Thank you for the question i think it goes back to the Ranking Members question about the partnership between federal Law Enforcement and state and local Law Enforcement. What we have seen across the country it worked in city after city. Unfortunately what we saw portland was the lack of that. Violent individuals allowed to continue to to attack the federal facility night after night with no repercussions in the one holding them accountable. They became more bold and night after night and started seeing some of the weapons that they used being more and more sophisticated. At first it was bricks and bottles and cans food and things that are hard being thrown at an officer night after night 30 days in an 40 days and with no consequences to them doing that or then they come back with commercial. Fireworks and then they come back with ieds and then they come back with so theres no accountability but the Lesson Learned is making sure they are in Close Partnership with state and local Law Enforcement officials. Again we see that in every other city around the country. You make a good point you dont want to have this accelerated so getting control of the situation earlier obviously make sense. I wont push you on this because i want to ask you about operation legends but my question is more what you have learned as a federal dhs federal protective service Law Enforcement that we could have done better. Was there nothing that could have been done and could that information had been provided in a way that was more compelling to get the cooperate in . I find it extraordinary that the corporation wasnt there because every local state and Law Enforcement typically has a passion to be able to coordinate and Work Together and to do it well even without direction often at the grassroots that maybe you can get back to me on that as to what could have been done to try to make this relationship work better. Operation legends came up a moment ago and i think theres some confusion about that. This is something that is confusing in my own state. My understanding is operation legends is a followon to operation relentless pursuit which is about Violent Crime and not about the protesters and what we have been talking about otherwise today. The cities that are apparently part of operation legends where we see more funds and more help including help from dhs did my understanding is several personnel will be part of the new operation legends or the expansion of operation relentless in cleveland. I think the violence that we have seen in our cities and talking about island crime heres a big concern. We have seen an uptick and in the studies we seen this week are that there has been a 24 rise since last year in 50 of our largest cities and unfortunately cleveland is one of those. I think its good that we are helping cleveland cut down on Violent Crime. We also would like to see a beastly a reduction of Violent Crime. My concern is there some confusion and concern about this program because of a lack of communication with the u. S. Attorney and the mayor and with others. The mayor told me he read about operation legends as an example. He heard about it from a press release and my question to you is what could we do to sort of reduce the confusion about this . Theres a lot of concern that this had to do it federal agents coming in and dealing with protests which is not the issue at all. Its about Violent Crime and without the information up front and without having the proper groundwork its created more confusion than it should have. I would just ask you to distinguish operation legends from example of a situation in portland and can you tell us how dhs could do a better job in cooperation with local Law Enforcement as well as some of our federal personnel including the new u. S. Attorneys. What we are doing in portland is protecting a federal silly thats than under attack and was under attack. Operation legends isnt directed at the protection of Federal Buildings. Its to address violent street crime. The investigation is part of i. C. E. And a Small Partnership with doj as they go out into different cities specifically in chicago is where we are most engaged. Hsi of her day with Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering weapons and thats what we are partnering with dcf dea fbi and the Marshals Service not only chicago but across the country as well. Two Different Missions regarding operation legends in court nation there. Its my understanding most operation legends initiatives are brought by u. S. Attorneys in the area cities in the various districts so i will take that back to doj to make sure that partnership is there. Again i would appreciate your looking into it and also getting back to us and talk about how we can better coordinate it. Clearly wasnt cornuta dwell in its morbid doj responsibility where local Law Enforcement and the portland mayor and the u. S. Attorney with press accounts rather than having been told about it and having gotten explanation makes it more difficult for you to do your job. When your agents show up and people are sure it makes it harder. I just think its a matter of simple coming occasion and my hope is we can do a better job. Again i want to and with saying i hope you will communicate back to the people who work for you who are doing their job are passionately and we understand the sacrifices they are making a we appreciate it rate. Thank you. Senator hassan. Mr. Chair and Ranking Member for having this hearing and i would say would be good to build on this hearing opening tuesday that local officials. I want to thank you secretary wolf for your testimony today and i hope you will pass on my thanks to the men and women who work to defend our country and make us safe. I also want to take a moment to mourn the loss of David Patrick underwood the federal Service Officer killed in the line of duty. Our country is undergoing them muchneeded reckoning about her history and were Racial Injustice following the killing of george floyd and Breonna Taylor and others but is we address longstanding inequities in our society we must also conduct strong oversight to federal government response in places Like Washington d. C. In portland oregon. Thats why todays hearing is so vital. I want to start mr. Wolf with this question for them Washington Post and political reporter the dh Office Intelligence and analysis compiled intelligence reports by journalists and protesters involved in the portland project. A second story stated mr. Cuccinelli waives the requirement for dhs Intelligence Office be subject to review by dhss internal civil rights watchdog the office for civil rights and civil liberty. That is extremely troubling. Mission dhs relies on public trust and to see something Say Something campaign the American People expect dhs sec tabbies will be done in a manner consistent with their values so its extremely disappointed here that dhs agents are being circumvented or purse taps arbitrarily can you confirm whos doing the investigation . The department of office of Inspector General is performing that investigation mentioned two different issues. I think they are being conflated so if i could have just a moment to explain the situation. Opensource reporting program at dhs was in 2011 so there were three incidents is that i was made aware of, information being put out that also identified media or press criticism as i was made aware of what was occurring to stop the program and i stopped and remove the individual in charge of that direct it. It but me stop you there for a minute. My time is limited. Is the ig the only investigation going on with that issue . That specific issue, yes. We i and they has oversight function also looking at that. What i want to get to than is if you have another internal investigation given his apparent involvement in the waving of the requirement to dhs intelligence activities in civil rights and Civil Liberties oversight will mr. Cuccinelli recuse himself from any matters related to that investigation. The investigation is separate and apart from anything that i would be involved in a mr. Cuccinelli would be involved in. You mentioned an internal investigation. Is a preliminary investigation by the ie picked up the investigation. Specifically that to the cr cl question that you mentioned we have raw intelligence reporting and finished intelligence products. Mr. Cuccinelli removed himself because there was an issue with finished intelligence reports. Theres a disagreement between cr cl and the office of intelligence analysis. He removed himself from matt left it with the undersecretary of intelligence analysis and resolve that and cr cl played a role and collection requirement of all intelligence as well. I think its important to separate those because what we some some portland and the opensource reporting our intelligence products. Thank you. We will follow up on that because i want to make sure we understand it but its a concerning report and they reshaped you taking it on. I want to move onto Something Else. Dhs personnel worked to protect Federal Buildings in their occupants for its critical that they take all possible steps to dso eight and the confrontations both to protect themselves and others so i want to build a minute on senator portmans line of question about what dhs could have done better. Two of your who served under Republican Administration of expressed concern that wasnt what happened in portland. Deescalation was what happened. Tom ridge art nations first dhs secretary and former governor of pennsylvania said the weight dhs officials were acting was quote not defusing the situation. Exacerbated it macri similarly former secretary Michael Chertoff recently said that dhs has taken a quote belligerent aggressive tone towards the protests and their actions have quote poured gasoline on the fire of the situation now threatens to undermine the publics part in the department. Mr. Wolf have you spoken with former secretaries ridge and chertoff and you agree that they should be escalate tensions instead of increasing them . I walk them through specifically what was going on in portland and they asked a number of questions and at the end of that conversation they thanked me. They said they did not know all the facts and that certainly inform their decision. Absolutely, we absolutely have to be escalate the love of the training of the federal protective service are trained on deescalation techniques. A lot of what we do when you look at a fivehour period every night night we are inside that federal courthouse 90 to 95 of that time. We only come out when they are fire scenes and theres enough individuals. We have seen anywhere from 500 to a thousand individuals and at some point you do have to disperse the crowd and you have to push them back. We do a number of tactics to actually try to the escalate the situation. I would appreciate an understanding of just about out of time here what i would appreciate his material from your department about the type of deescalation training that you do and i also to follow up on mr. Portman would appreciate further conversation about it youve learned about what worked and what didnt work rate we have seen very disturbing video here today. Theres also disturbing video where federal authorities are using batons on people who appear to be peaceful. Those are the types of things that together can escalate along with tactical decisions you may make so id appreciate following up with you. Again thank the professional men and women of in your service for their service and their families too. One clarification. The video where received the baton hitting the navy veteran that is not dhs Law Enforcement. Again thats why coordination and clarity about what youre doing and who you are a clear identification makes a difference. Senator paul. Course likewise do matter and just saying it so doesnt make it so and its important to know the majority of lives lost in our cities are young black men but i think its unconscionable. Been going on decade after decade after decade. I visited the south side of chicago and ive been to the most violent precinct in our country. I visited with pastor brooks is trying to save lives one at a time through counseling and fulfilling strong male role model acting in a peaceful way but i was then to ferguson and i met with Business Owners who lost business as the majority of whom are africanamerican. Pastor brooks was recently interviewed on after the rioting in chicago lamented that the rioters burned down the local pharmacy and people as committees were having to drive 15 or 20 miles in to the suburbs to get their prescription drugs for its unconscionable. Its not an easy problem to fix. People of try to fix fix it ands going on in our cities and its made worse by lawlessness and made worse by the mayhem that people have allowed. There is in and convenient truth that we have defaced and its a political one. The Inconvenient Truth is all the cities are run by democrats and have been for 50 years. Every one of our major cities run by democrats governors Mayors Police chiefs all democrats. You could say its a coincidence or he could say well all of them . The top 10 cities that have the highest murder rate in our country are every one of the mayors as a democrat. We have to get to the bottom of this pretty fee live in those cities we have to figure out some sort of constructive way to make a better but you have to first realize that democrats have failed everyone at the cities and if your city is under attack and you have children being shot, the chairman mentioned the names of the young children. 2yearolds and 5yearolds being shot through windows and doors. Who is running the citys . We have to do something about it but painting slogans and graffiti and blowing up molotov cocktails is in getting you anywhere fee live in portland instead of throwing molotov cocktails and trying to burn the federal courthouse maybe you should be Gathering Signatures to have the recall of the mayor to let mayhem and chaos happen in the city. Maybe we should recall the mayor of chicago who is allowed this to go on. Its been going on decade after decade. Black lives do matter but if they do matter do something about it and those who are at the receiving end of that the young black men who are dying in chicago dying in the cities wise up and say my goodness insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. Quit electing the people who are allowing your cities to go into rock and ruin and allow local drug stores to burn down and allow businesses to be burned down that leave the community and never come back right rid of the disaster in our country and people need to put the blame where it will accrue. The people who have been running the cities for fit years. With regard to who should do this my preferences it be done locally. The constitution reserves these Police Powers to the state and primarily the police power should be exercised in the state should be a rare exception that we have federal officers in our state taking care of things even as serious as arson and as serious as attacks. I do understand when theres mayhem and chaos someone has to protect the Federal Buildings. My preference would be that has to happen they stay at the Federal Buildings arresting only those who are committing violence when they commit violence and we are aware and careful that allowing federal police and allowing people to federalize police force to be sent in to her cities one of the checks and balances of federalism is to not let the executive branch have the executive branch in our state but i think we need to be very wary of the possibility for harm by federalizing police power and sending them into these situations for their been disasters already prepare not in your department but the images of the young man being shot with a robber bullet to have his skull fractured and his action and ultimately will be disfigured from us while he was simply holding up a speaker. Those are terrible symbols and its hard to be a policeman for the federal authorities havent necessarily been steeped in the training that it takes to be able to try to put down violence at the same time cannot get in the way of peaceful protest and we have big knowledge those chaotic situations at these protests so someone must do something but i would say the more constructive way of doing this would need to assess who are the officials and who are the political officials that run the cities and how they let us down and time and time again democrats are 50 years running your cities and letting us down and if you are a family that lives on the southside of chicago you need to ask yourself who is in charge of the city and why are they doing something to protect my children . The come children are being shot in chicago . Why are my local officials doing nothing and the answer is frankly democrats have done nothing for her cities for 50 years and the people who live in our cities need to make a reassessment of who has been in charge of our cities. The only question id like to finish with is the idea of Police Powers and Police Powers primarily should be decided within the states and not the federal government idea of a comment common one that . Senator the federal protective service has given them specific authority to protect federal facilities. We talk about everywhere else in the country outside of portland and the arrest that need to be made to cut his individuals or perhaps targeting are committing violence are usually done by state and local Law Enforcement that i would agree. Arrest these individuals and work with the u. S. Attorney. Unfortunately for 60 days in portland we did not see that occurred. They would do their violent acts and no one would hold them accountable to dhs is put into position that we had to start making arrests and hold these individuals accountable. As indicated 99 federal arrests and all of those took place on federal property or within one, two or three blocks but there seems to be a misconception that we are somehow across the city policing the city. That is not the case. We are only targeting individuals that we see that we know in that we track violent activities across the courthouse. Senator rosen. Thank you mr. Chairman and Ranking Member peters acting secretary wolf. Would you please convey to know that our thoughts and prayers are with the family and any officers injured in any of these attacks that were going on and let them know that we are thinking about them. I do want to talk like everyone else about domestic terrorism. Its been one year since they were thick terrorist attack in which 23 americans lost their lives. According to the fbi White Supremacists are the nations most significant domestic threat. Statistics show racially motivated violent extremism accounts for the majority of all domestic terrorist act since 1994. Unfortunately instead of addressing the root causes of white supremacist violence visit administration is using the domestic terrorism label to crack down on Peaceful Protesters exercising their First Amendment right to justify the presence of federal Law Enforcement in portland acting deputies secretary can Ken Cuccinelli and other dhs officials have accused demonstrators largely students veterans mothers nurses and other americans crying out for Racial Justice or president trumps referred to them as the beehive of terrorism. Peaceful protesters with tactics commonly used in autocratic societies not in democracy. Politicizing domestic terrorism distracts from dhs mission to keep americans safe from violent extremism whether its in the Latino Community the community at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh or any other american. Just answer yes or no secretary wolf because my time is limited you agree that domestic terrorists stems from racially motivated violent extremists particularly white supremacist . Senator what i would agree with and ive been on record and their strategy in september of 2019 the support a growing threat from domestic individuals in the west who includes white supremacist extremism growing here. We have seen it a number of incidents rising and as that outlined her question by the hartman and has taken a number of initiatives to address that. Mummy comment on the comment that you made that i strongly disagree with. Dh is Law Enforcement no way is cracking down on peaceful croak protesters in portland. I would like to claim my time back to follow up on senator peters question. This administration has headed dhs budget on domestic terrorism by closing offices and cutting programs. The Department Taps the resources it needs to prevent white supremacist from escalating hateful rhetoric and violence. Again we have increased the number of funding bureaucratic program and targeted violence and terrorism prevention. We have a number of individuals dedicated to this mission and i would say from dhss perspective we dont investigate the department of justice. What we do is training information sharing and outreach in different communities to make sure they have the resources they need to respond. The department is doing that and we have increased the number of staff in that office and we are implementing and responding to the Ranking Member on our strategy to address also to violent extremism. Thats good to hear. Can you tell us about the amount of dollars that you have spent sending a group Law Enforcement agents that could otherwise fight violent extremism across the country . I dont have the specific dollars being deployed to portland. Again we deployed assets because the federal courthouse was being set on fire every night. Can you let us know of is on that . We will certainly provide that to the committee. Thank you appreciated. In the background dhs is taking steps that will harm our dreamers. In nevada we are holding 16,000. Go people, our medical professionals and in some cases they have contributed to our immunity every single day. The u. S. Supreme court recently decided against the administration in its request and the Doctor Program including the termination of daca was over. And declaring the matter be remanded to dhs so it may consider the problem anew. In other words you affecting dhs secretary have the power by choice to protect framers by preventing the daca program from being terminated. However the july 20 memo you said you were making changes to daca and directing personnel to take appropriate action to reject initial requests for daca and all pending and future applications except in exceptional circumstances and the shortened daca renewals end quote. This memo clearly ignored the u. S. Supreme courts decision requiring u. S. Citizens uscis to continue to prosper with daca ive concluded that daca policy present serious challenging concerns that may warrant a full rescission unquote. Again the decision to ursid daca program slicing her hands and i urge you to consider how your actions to resend the daca program well at first we affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of americans. The midst of the covid19 pandemic more than 200,000. The recipients have been working in areas of dhs to identify as part of the essential workforce infrastructure 41,000 Daca Recipients working in Health Care Positions versus paramedics and the like. Please consider reviewing this and allowing these First Responders and people and the first lines to continue to serve this nation. Thank you to my time is up. Mr. Secretary do want to respond to senator rosen . The that the Supreme Court decision that we are adhering to and why we are taking certain actions in no way does the Supreme Court decision tell the department to process new daca applicants for the Supreme Court decision did not say that the program is lawful. What it clearly did say his dhs has the authority to resend it and of course it didnt like the way we have done that in the past three years. My memo that i signed out of the direction i have given the department is to continue the program under certain parameters. As the senator said no new dock applications are being received and we have limited renewals. We did that because we have ongoing serious concerns about this program that we are working through consideration based off of the Supreme Court decision and guidance guidance. Well work through that carefully and consider everything the court laid out but what we didnt want to do is continue to operate a program that is a serious reservation unlawful that goes against deferred action and goes against congresss wishes and as we do that we will continue the process during the applicants as was done in the past. Responding to the last question was there Something Else you made a statement he wanted to respond to . Again there were several. One was the dhs Law Enforcement officials are cracking down on Peaceful Protesters. Thats a false narrative that continues to be put out there. Does a disservice to the man men women of Law Enforcement at the department. In no way are we doing anything regarding peaceful protest but ive said this time and time again. We see our spot useful protesters important every night across from the national courthouse. There are no incidents and no rest and no injuries. Thats not whats occurring and whats occurring in thats not with Law Enforcement officials are danny with every night. Thank you. Senator langford. Mr. Secretary thank you for your work. Please pass our gratitude onto the men and women of Law Enforcement is around to run the country especially those serving in portland right now. I am astounded that some of the conversations that ive heard even during this hearing but most certainly over the past several weeks about these men and women serving there every single night. Please tell the families thank you. They are sending out their loved ones to travel to portland and as we discuss feasible protests across across the street Law Enforcement has had 277 injuries. Well folks here want to blame the police please tell them thank you. They have suffered chemical burns, being hit with bricks, being shot with pellet guns, had largescale fireworks fired sideways into them and mortar rounds. Members of this Committee Talk about peaceful protest and thought your Law Enforcement been a problem. I dont think your agents are the problem. I think they are defending federal property which is what this congress originally told them to do. This whole focus on v fund the police and just walk away like they did in minneapolis and allow the building to burn down and allow writers to burned down, i do not agree with and millions of other americans dont agree with just writers who burned things down. To the men and women on the frontlines please tell them thank you that we are exceptionally grateful for their work and i do not believe that they are the problem nor do i think it has been stated over and over again and even in this hearing i know that theyve been shot at and they have had bricks thrown at them and they have had mortar rounds fired at them and that they have had trash set on fire and leaf blowers blowing trash toward them. They are two sides of the story. Just please tell them thank you for me. I do want to ask you a whole of questions that ive got a lot of them select a walk through this protectorate over and over again that your federal Law Enforcement are going down the street and harming Peaceful Protesters. Are you cracking down on Peaceful Protesters . Absolute now. Federal agents are being accused as unmarked wandering the streets and they have no police markings. You have federal Law Enforcement in portland that are not labeled as police in uniform . Absolutely not. We are Uniforms Department and they all wear different uniforms. They are all marked with police and state Border Patrol and other say ddt and other say i. C. E. You have patches on their shoulders and they clearly have identified themselves. These individuals are out here essentially in half a square block from where the violence takes place. After the 40th night we know who they are. We know violence has taken place each and every night. We know to come their thats what you are coming to do. They have also been accused of not wearing their name tags. There not wearing their name tags because of not only their personal information is put out on twitter and social media but individuals are showing up at their homes and their families identify. We pulled off their nametag and we did put a unique identifier in numbers and letters on their uniforms. We can keep track of them and the accountability for them when their name is not specifically on there. I have heard over and over again these are oaks that are out there that are not trained in deescalation theyve been randomly pulled in from other places and causing violence by escalating as they are not trained. Their federal protection that officers are specifically trained for this mission. The officials we have in Law Enforcement officials are specifically trained for this mission. Ports of entry every day over the course of years there a mask protest. Some tried to barricade themselves a ports of entry and thats what these individuals do. This is what they do at the detention facilities. They are trained in deescalation and crowd control. These the only individuals in portland. We did not send Law Enforcement from tsa. They are not trained in it would not have been appropriate. Effort over and over again that federal agents are wandering the streets of portland arresting people randomly. Snatch and grab his smashandgrab is what im here for my colleagues just grabbing people off the streets and putting him to unmarked cars. Again not true. We as marked and unmarked vehicles in what we try to does deescalate the situation so ive been individuals throwing a molotov cocktail the federal courthouse and they disappeared into 100,000 officials will we dont do is go to the middle of that rupert. Will we try to do is keep track of that individual and then begin to question that individual or rest that individual with a breakaway so it deescalate the situation. All 99 reps have happened on federal property or open two to three blocks. Effort you are cooperate with local Law Enforcement or local officials and they are depicted by democrats on the committee as soap opera than theyve been so helpful and friendly and youve just not reached out to them but yet as they go through your report when the Portland City Council voted to prohibit their Law Enforcement, local Law Enforcement cooperating with you and engaging with you in any kind of sharing of information the day that they voted for that this was your report from the night before in the time that dhs booted out. The report was around 10 20 local time violent anarchists began their nightly assaults on the courthouse rather than to barricade in front of the courthouse of salt and officer with lasers which can cause permanent lioness. After repeated attempts the courthouse and the writers spray painted. Federal officers were forced to leave the building in order to repel them. And they did so they were assaulted with lasers and a variety of objects designed to cause harm. Measures were deployed to redirect a large amount people in the courthouse facility. Riders used cars and began to use wooden boards to block the more main courthouse and officers also the story as well. In the Early Morning hours of july 22 the day of the boats when they have said for police not to cooperate in individuals entered into the federal courthouse and several members of the group began removing plywood attached to the front of the building to protect the damaged glass facade Protector Group successfully removed the plywood sheeting local attempts to kick in the window struck it with a metal object repeatedly pounded on with the hammer and successfully removed the entire wooden structure protecting the courthouse enters an unknown individual broke one of the windows. He walked towards the building holding us solyndra go object and connect to the object inside the broken window short time later the object exploded in close proximity to Law Enforcement officers exiting the building through a broken window and the injuries were sustained. That was the night before portland voted to make sure Law Enforcement wouldnt cooperate night after night. These are the peaceful protest the members of this committee continue to blame your officers as the problem when thats happening on the streets. Thanks for clarifying what the news is not reporting and tell your folks think youve. Thank you for that clarifying question. Senator romney. I dont see them on the board here anymore. We will go to senator harris. Thank you mr. Chairman. Congress and the committee have the responsibility free from political interference yet in the last week the Administration Made clear that it is over writing Census Bureau professionals by forcing them to rush by one Month Remaining census operations regardless of the quality and the accuracy of that data. This political interpreter and is not checked by congress and the harm hard to committees including rural communities, communities of color, tribal nations and low income communities for the next decade at least. Mr. Chairman i urge you to schedule a hearing on this topic as we have a duty to ensure a fair and accurate. We have art of reached out to im not sure when the hearing will be scheduled but i party reached out to the department. I appreciate that. Mr. Secretary on august 3 the Washington Post reported that you regularly talk with the president and Stephen Miller could have you discussed the deployment of dhs agents in connection with the president s reelection effort and with the president or any of his white house staff or Campaign Staff . Im not going to comment on my discussions with the president or senior staff but all these incidents have taken place in portland or the event. Sir have you discussed it with any Campaign Staff . No, they have all been under the direction of the department creates back im not sure for her to answer. To be discussed the deployment within a Campaign Staff . No. Has the Party Affiliation of the particular mayors or governors come up in any of her conversations with anyone . Not my conversation. Or you are of any conversations . Im not going to comment on specific comments. Make your not going to comment on whether the mayors or governors have come up in any of her conversations . The general statement because i see where youre going is im not going to comment specifically on any discussions ive had with the president or senior staff did what i can tell you is our deployment Law Enforcement officers of portland are in support of operation legend are done within dhs authority and not for any political specific reason. On july 2039 states Federal District court judge ordered dhs and u. S. Marshals to stop arresting threatening or using force against journalists and legal observers. Im assuming that you were aware of that can you tell this committee what you did to inform your agent about that ruling and what exactly did you inform them and when did you inform them . Was that evening i believe britney believe was the afternoon. We worked with the office of general counsel on what the Department Justice to make sure officers in portland were aware of that and provide additional training along with dhs. By what message do inform your agents in portland that day . Or office of general counsel back at headquarters liaison and with the lawyers there in portland and briefed out all of our Law Enforcement operators. Did you issue a memorandum to your agents . A believed individual component heads from fef and ogc which would normally do that the opposite general counsel provided not only a verbal briefing but. Is that a normal protocol that you and the secretary of the things he would burn regions were on the ground of the court ruling regarding the parameters of their enforcement . The normal protocol would make sure general counsel would inform them in the individual operating component heads of those Law Enforcement agencies would as well. The next day on july 24 at california and who is studying a portland attended the protest and he was wearing a green hat identified as a legal observer. He was filming a protest when the everall agent shot her with a robber bullet near her heart at point like range. Was there any disciplinary action taken against that agent . Im unaware of that specific incident but what i can say is no dhs Law Enforcement officer in portland uses rubber bullets. You have been not been informed of this in any manner . Dhs Law Enforcement officers did not use that type of weapon. Will you follow with this committee and ask your staff if they are familiar with this . Or may finish please . Went to have checked with your staff if they are familiar with this incident and if it was one of regions was the disciplinary action taken . Just answer was not one of our agents. We do not use that type of weapon. Proportion of federal agencies and chemicals against mothers and veterans in agents are using military style flash bangs and make people feel like they are going deaf. He consulted with medical experts about the impact of chemical on protesters including pregnant women . We have looked at a variety of far less than lethal missions as it were cards crowd control and dispersing crowds . Have you checked with medical efforts. The munitions we use in portland occurred between midnight and 5 00 a. M. Every night. I would devise you knowing there are women including pregnant women in these protests i would advise you and it is wellknown they are mothers including pregnant women who are attending these protests. I would advise you sir to consult with medical experts to determine the impacts of chemical irritants on pregnant women big moving on have been made dhs personnel been suspended terminated or stopped from using Excessive Force . Are you referring to portland specifically . Any person. Not to my knowledge, no. Have there have been any complaints . Or office of civil rights Civil Liberties have received a number of complaints. What is the protocol for being personally informed of these and it investigations . C. Arcelus looking into them and awake he has done an investigation as well. At what point does it come to you . Would come to me after the investigation. My time is up. Thank you sir. Thank you mr. Chairman. Is it your estimation that the riots that have been occurring in portland around the federal courthouse or coordinate event organized operations against federal Law Enforcement . We have certainly seen some coronation ball bear and some of the tactics that they use for Law Enforcement as well as military. What do you believe rioters, the ones who were firing munitions and who are attacking federal officers and who are federal Law Enforcement why is it that they chose to target a federal courthouse . Is there some symbolism here expect im not sure. Obviously is the seat of Justin Justice in portland. Some individuals that are peacefully protesting want to see changes in Law Enforcement taking place in this courthouse. What we see is they want to burn it down. They are very specific about that and they are on social media about that. What i would say is not after night for 50 nights some showing up at 3 00 a. M. On the site has been very violent night after night not a mother that wants to peacefully protest at that spot. They are showing up for reason at 3 00 a. M. To do damage to the courthouse in her office. Thank you have been to portland yourself having you . You have seen the situation. What do the Law Enforcement officers there on the ground protecting this property would have they told you what you think they might like this committee to no . Law enforcement officers are extremely frustrated to forward and state please got involved. They are extremely for frustrated to we have violent individuals on city streets coming out of various directions. They know which entrants as we come in out of the courthouse or they have a target that is very specific. They feel under attack each and every night and they are looking for state and local Law Enforcement to step up and control their streets and make arrests. You reference and to give us a better idea of whats going on i understand at lease 38 Law Enforcement officers in the Law Enforcement officers were and personal information perhaps includes where they lived in their personal residence of made publicly available. Think we can agree this is the worst form of a form of social terrorism if you put these folks in danger and put their families and danger and discourage them from undertaking their responsibility. Can you describe in more detail what happened . What we see again opensource reporting is information that has put out on twitter or on a message board identified by violent individuals in portland exposing personal information. Its not only those individuals but the individuals we have brought in where they are being put out on social media and we have had to beef up security as well. Its just as dangerous as being in that courthouse. Once they leave the danger doesnt go away for the thread doesnt go away. The individuals that we have there night after night not only having to fight the fight between midnight and 5 00 a. M. But they go back to their hotel. To make you reference this in terms of what you do at a hotel. Give me a sense of what measures the h. S. Is taking to protect officers and others who are they are serving and carrying out the responsibilities trying to keep federal property and licenses saved. Law enforcement agencies certainly have protocols that are put in place once a Law Enforcement officers information is put out on social media so we are making sure can pull that down as much as possible. Its once its out its difficult to do that. Chad wolf just one final question on the situation. Is my understanding thank you references a moment ago. The Homeland Security act, 2002 actually charges Homeland Security secretary with protecting Federal Buildings and grounds. As the statute passed by this body. By the United States congress. Therefore a legal obligation for you to undertake the production of federal property can you elaborate on that pret pretty. Chad wolf they direct the secretary the department and then they have an extension to protect federal property. A lot has been made by the additional Law Enforcement and what we saw in 2014, secretary johnson. Dhs secretary, additional Law Enforcement to the site across the country. As a threat warranted in this case as well in portland in this what we did. Sen. Josh hawley i want to talk a little bit about operation legend which is happening across the u. S. It began in my home state, and city of kansas city. Where a young boy, four yearold was killed by gunfire while he slept. The nEarly Morning of june the 29th. For us onst elaborate dhs role in operation legend. Chad wolf were supporting the department of justice mainly through our Homeland Security investigators. As part of ice. And thats what they do each and every day. They are looking at transnational criminal gangs, illicit narcotics. They are looking at all of the violent streaks that we see is on the rise. Many of the metropolitan cities. Chicago we have over 100 ages their everyday. Theyre focusing on this. Overdoing is we are prioritizing cases that they work on to make sure that we address in partnership with a t Marshal Service making sure that we are coming at it from a team as long with the state along to address that read. Sen. Josh hawley operation legend has it folded and continues when full. Understanding is that this operation is designed to assist, state and local leaders. In protecting their citizens and also in prosecuting crimes and often times, the former state prosecutor, a crime could be duly charged if they at the state and federal level. We always welcome federal assistance. But is it your understanding that this operation is designed to assist state and local leaders how would you assess of our coordination of the communication between state and local leaders. Police were using at dhs. Chad wolf certainly designed that way. I think is working very well. We have seen it in kansas city, st. Louis, chicago and ara numbr of other cities. The 20 is mayors and other elected officials in those cities, they understand what it is, and understand that we are there to work with them,d designed to go after some of the Violent Crimes. And i welcome you. I want you to work with us pretty. Sen. Josh hawley upat my time s expired and i want in conclusion, thank you to dhs Law Enforcement officers thank you to you mr. Secretary and especially for those Law Enforcement officers or other putting their lives on the line. I know they dont have to do that. They are choosing to serve in this way. Theyre choosing to go out and try to keep safe, american citizens, federal property. Just like the Capitol Police do everything the night. In this building just like the Law Enforcement do it home and keep us safe. So someone who had the privilege of the attorney general might say to work with Law Enforcement in my state every single day. I just want to say, thank you to them for what they are doing and for choosing to serve our country in this way. I am sorry that they are being dragged through the mud that they are. Chad wolf thank you and i will pass that along. You need to unmute. Sen. mr. Sec. Inc. You very much for joining us. Before i came here, i was a troll content. I was unable flight officer. Today with the death of john kane. I served later on for the u. S. Congressman. And we served together in congress and its governors. In the Homeland Security committee. He was in remain so, one of my dearest lifelong friends he was quoted as saying. [inaudible]. He was secretary of the Homeland Security during the administration. You may have statutory to do certain things. That is not always mean it is the right thing to do. The s. W. A. T. Team, did not defuse the situation and exasperated it. Went on to say that the apartment is established in the ever present threat of global terrorism is not established in the president s personal militiaman. In vehicle day in before i can send to uninvited intervention to my people. That was when he was governor. He and i, to the out we took an oath to defend the country and the constitution and the First Amendment of the constitution says that congress will make no law respecting an exercise the religion and free exercise thereof or freedom of speech with right of people peacefully assemble. The kind of activity that occurred and it was not peaceful. Was not peaceful simply. I think its of the kind of behavior than any of us would want to see. But i would suggest, while several years ago, i wouldnt call i would go to the department of Homeland Security committee. Every month. Ive talked about a different part of the Border Patrol, could be tsa, a variety of things. I would talk about the mission and thank the men and women of the department of Homeland Security for their service to our country. And thank the families were sharing their husbands, their wives, their moms or dads, and people of america. Soy understand the department in the challenges. Sen. Tom carper and occasions in which the department behaves badly. [inaudible]. Certainly does not excuse the behavior of two in the morning. And while they were demonstrating. When i was always been, my office was actually in federal courthouse. About a month or so ago, there were violent protesters. They came right in king street right in front of the Federal Building. Where i used to tour. And along with joes office was there. All of the Judges Office is there. About a month ago. What happened that followed that was remarkable thing. The chief of police, robert tracy was a veteran of new York City Police and chicago police. He and mike met with demonstrators. On the return treated and talk to them and beginning communications that ended up using violence than what again and the week after that. [inaudible]. I think it was called, i may have it wrong. Escape from the prison and tracked down and great line. And he was in jail. He said what we have is failure to communicate. I study chairman of the association. Probably in 25 years. Every present i have known literally we been able to communicate with them. Democrat and republican. In the idea that we face a situation like this. As far as i know, is just not acceptable. What can we do to help. How can we help make sure and to be invited into the city. I think that is huge thing. Im going to stop there. I asked what is going on now, now that the presence have been shut down. What is going on in terms of the violence. What i have on dhss website. The activity continues, diminishing and increased cooperation between the state and federal Law Enforcement bargaining a stark contrast of intense violence. I dont want high over spilt milk. But if we can do this all over again, the idea of the president of the United States, and with the governors, and the mayor, i think it would made a differen difference. All of the difference in the world. Ive taken all of my time. I apologize for that. If you would like to allow the secretary to speak for over minutes or so. That would be great. Thank you senator. Its a little difficult to hear you. Let me take a couple of the comments and questions in order here. I appreciate you holding of the constitution. That is exactly with the men women in Law Enforcement officers of dhs extend everyday to the ideals of the constitution to include the First Amendment. As i said here, we would both support individuals who will peacefully protest but again what we see in portland, is absolutely the opposite between midnight and 5 00 a. M. For 60 days d straight. I just want to be very clear on that. Regarding portland and that failure to communicate. I would disagree. Theres no failure. We have been very clear on what we need from state and local officials and Law Enforcement for 60 days. They refused to engage. And finally b the governor reacd out and now you see Oregon State Police patrolling the states and patrolling along the Portland Police around that federal courthouse and guess what, the violence has stopped. I know it would suck. Would you have local and state seengaging in doing their jobs. Weakness of the violence would be decreasing and it has. Unfortunately, took until they 60 Initiative Card on day two or three. So that is unfortunate. Give then regarding the comments on former secretary ridge. Former secretary, has also been mentioned here. And i will respect lycee, i appreciate your service not onl0 to the departments to the country again the wrong on this issue. They do not understand the situation that is occurring and portland. They dont understand the facts on the ground. As i talked to them, i did reach out and explain that. Sthey understood with the men ad women of dhs Law Enforcement and the response was that you gotta work better with state and locals. And i agree with you. I agree with them. We have to work better with state and local. We needid a really a good partnr in order to work with them and for 60 days, we did not have a willing partner to work with us. When i wasrper secretary of state i would pick up phone and pick and call people. And i would just how, in the case like this, i think the president could do that. And maybe have kind of relationships where just talk to the mayor. Maybe actually try to communicate with them. In figure out whose role it is that you need to speak with. Thank you. Chad wolf it does take two to tango. Thank you mr. Chairman, i appreciate you holding this hearing today. And they effort to ensure the members can be here remotely. I appreciate that. Regarding the importance of social distancing. Especially as increasing numbers a member of congress, are diagnosed with covid19. So we are doing that today. Also appreciate acting secretary joining us today. Acting secretary, hauling to discuss the challenges regarding communications between the dhs and state and local officials. It is finally important in this communication is frequent, open, honest and in both directions. I share the concerns that my colleagues have expressed on these matters. Can you follow with me how they intend to improve the partnership state and local and tribal officials read and improve his communication strategy for the challenges that we saw in portland. Chad wolf i will senator and i will say that again, we dont have any other issue another in any other city in very specific to portland and i continue to reach out to the mayor and the governor. But again i would direct you to the Portland City Council. It passed a resolution the prohibited Portland Police from coordinating the party ensuring information with federal Law Enforcement. Thank you. Im partially, there are additional situations where dhs has not successfully communicated with state local and tribal officials. I continued to be very troubled by the challenges and in many cases very young children, and temporary accommodations in arizona. Dhs did not notify the city of phoenix. We are aware that the city of phoenix does not have a similar type of resolution passed. We are willing and able to communicate with dhs. So we are in the middle of a pet bubble pen and it can communication across all levels of government is vital to maintaining a coordinated and appreciation and frequent and Robust Communications between federal, local and officials, is most important to interpol enforcement takes effort and a coordinated message. Its also critical to protecting the Public Health an individual states and in the community. My question for you, acting secretary, but it dhs choose not to communicate with the city of phoenix in advance of this initiative. What specific steps have you taken to improve communications with appropriate local officials regarding the transport and the children and the dhs custody especially with children not being held in traditional dhs facilities. Chad wolf ice is used specifically of the accommodations been ongoing for decades. So its something do we do that because we are not able to take us and encamped in children at the specific time. Another housing location ice facility not readily available because of the part of the country are as you indicated, they are being so this is a practice of the department is used going back again for decades. An communications though, will say should be occurring there locally in arizona and specifically, with ice director there is all the cdc rcp officials, making sure theres close coordination as those individuals are either being gmoved out in the Hotel Accommodations and housings are whether they are being deported are moving to rr for further actions. I appreciate that. As you mentioned, this is been going on for decades. In will continue to occur. In the states arizona what we haverr high levels of deportati, we want to this before it continues. So the initial report of the situation, identify hotels no longer allow margaret children. So im continuing and so where are they being held and if not, can you tell me when this population of Migrant Children are being held. Chad wolf again we have contracts that have been going on for decades to house individuals that we are in the process or in the course of processing, at the uic moving those from dhs custody two oh are. Or to deport them. As we do that and from a family, we also do that with family units as well. So we do that not only using ice, housing facilities and detention facilities and we have several of them in texas and arizona. But we also continue to use that with housing accommodations as well. So are you using other than the ones that are no longer accommodating isis imMigrant Children to be house predict soandso we continue to work with local hotels, and again with the contractors demands and supports that. So we continue to use that moving forward that we understand again, some on enough of that contract and we continue to use that as a way to house individuals that we are picking up that are legally having the right to remain in the u. S. And we continue to process them. So i communicate with the mayor of phoenix, he would be aware of the Current Situation and my children are being housed in non ice facilities in the city of phoenix including other hotels. Chad wolf so we can certainly reach out to the mayor. And in other city officials and certainly explain the process and explain how that occurs and what they will see in their communities. We certainly would be doing that from the director there in arizona. We can certainly have an outreach take place. And my last question, we both agreed that should be happening. And now know that is not happening. And since you have said that ice will continue to transport children and in hotel type facilities of any sum of to my knowledge there has been as of this moment no entry in front outreach to the city of phoenix. I want to make sure that this actually does occur. Chad wolf have slowly and again as we do our mission, each and every day and transporting individuals between dhs custody and hhs custody and the like, we do that every day. Will certainly communicate with mayors and local officials as much as we certainly can read but these are missions that we do day in and day out. Every single day. Thank you. Ry mr. Chairman, my time is nearly expired and if you have additional questions. But i will pass those along, i thank you for holding the street today. I yield back my time oriented. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, again thank you for occurring herein is often the case, i reserve my time for the questioning. Most of thosese questions have already been asked. So not repeat them. There is one area that i do want to explore a little bit with you. And it really is the makeup of the writers. Another senator peters, and folks on the other side of the aisle were making statement in terms of White Supremacy which i think we all acknowledge is a growing problem. One thatia i know this departmet is not ignoring. This committee is not either. Do you have any kind of intelligence in terms of the rioters and first of all, is it a effort. Re sink ordination between some organization in different riots in different settings or is this just, locally spawned. And potentially inspired by more of a national movement. Where are we finding out in terms of what is causing this. Chad wolf all talk about portland. What we do see what we saw was some organization to help they attacked the federal courthouse. That was just there locally not talking about the coronation with other cities but specifically, how they approach the court house and tactics that use, its clear they were trained and that there were some organization involved there. And it wasnt just natural for them to arise there at 2 00 a. M. With weapons in hand. s other signs of organization, have you been able to do investigations to determine who is organizing it pretty. Online security and the skaters are working specifically with the fbi and asian have a number of cases open. Specifically regarding portland. And i think what we will see over the course of the next 30 days, youre going to see a lot more activity coming out of the department of justice. Jerking individuals. So again, there are riots in very destructive plants all of the country a number of cities. Without revealing of the final findings of investigations which are are not ready to do are you finding organizing groups. Commonality. Sen. Ron johnson i have not seen intelligence that they are coordinating across multiple cities all at the same time but would we do see an aesthetic time and time again, violent criminals. Perhaps do not have an ideology but are thinking or taking advantage of of an environment especially in portland than 60 days, you could come up and do any violent things and you would have no violent and markers trying to burn down a courthouse. And we can take a, a o social media, promulgating and inspiring others to do more violence in portland. In organizing, so theres certainly anti god. And also Ranking Member mentioned it. That has been attributed there in portland as well. So we see a number of violent extremists and ideologies that is occurring. It was dangerous about portland is they have fostered this environment that you could show up and you can do any number of dangerous and criminal acts with no consequences to you. Thats why the shut up night after night after the 30 and 40 and 50 and 69 parties because they know that the vast majority, that they have no consequence. It. So the people of you have arrested. In terms of giving intelligence of what is causing this, my guest regarding white supremacist, that full spectrum of political ideology. Re finding the full spectrum in their majority of one side versus the other. Are there in artist. To the how ideology of the simply anarchists as they can be an anarchist. Of the arrests that we have been, 199, all of the above that you mentioned. And were also seeing the individuals are trying not to talk to Law Enforcement. So soon as they are arrested and picked up, they do not talk to lawenforcement. Until then we get from them, it is very little that obviously we turn it over department of justice. In the asse attorney there and then after that process plays itself out. s in the past investigations, do you know which groups are trained not to talk to lawenforcement pretty. Chad wolf all of the above. In ourur first two and tika and others. But yes we do see that. Sen. Ron johnson i am going to find, it is quite interesting when some investigations conclude and get some sense or some sort of sense of what is happening here. Who is driving all of this. And certainly we saw broad support from this committee to the men and women of your departments i think that is pending and proper. And glad to hear this very strong show support. My cardio my Opening Statement is they out the significant, the men and women of dhs and a general Law Enforcement face. It is not an easy task. I tried to describe the sacrifices made. And again thomas not only the sacrifices made by the men and women on front lines it is their families. They have to worry every time the muslin steps out the door and goes to work. They put their life on the line. That is what is happening. So for my standpoint, onto, what you to convey our appreciations vertically those in your departments to into all lawenforcement pretty limited the sacrifice. So please, we wish a full and speedy recovery. Theres something particularly evil, the son the reason the put this in the video. The green laser lights. Broken bones will heal. Other injuries will heal. You lose your side, you have lost the quality of life. One of your senses. And for any human being to do that to another human being. Just strikes me as vertically evil. I hope they stop. I haveur a question when they doing to another human being. But. Chad wolf again on that point, thats why i talk so passionately about her mission in portland in our on port apartment officers. I welcome the opportunity discussions like this where i can carry dangerous information. What is occurring in portland, and by the mainstreet media. We are supporting our Law Enforcement officers. In her certainly help determine another of the Committee Show your support as well. Sen. Ron johnson i want americans to really consider, but what is that was your father or husband or wife, being confronted by somebody onto hole in their shield and they try to blind you. Find your loved one. Again, theres something horriblys despicable about allf this but in particular that one. That just affects me. And thank you for your service is not an easy job. It is not an easy task. He did a good job, very forthright in your testimony. And please, convey the strong support to the men and women of your department and of this committee and also for me personally. So that, the hearing will remain open until august 21st until 5 00 p. M. For submission of statements and this hearing is adjourned. And also for me personally. With that from the hearing will remain open. Adjourned. G is