Transcripts For CSPAN3 Acting Homeland Security Secretary McAleenan Discusses Immigration 20240714

How is everybody doing . Really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you fran for the kind introduction. Great to see you and also want to thank the council on foreign releases for the opportunity to be with you today and have an important discussion on the state of Border Security and immigration concerns, nationalry but also hopefully fran well have the opportunity to have conversation and dialogue on some of the other Homeland Security priorities and with the members here. I know that many of you have been following the crisis on our southwest border over the past year. And tracking really the growing regional challenge of irregular migration in the region. Not only has the situation had obvious implications for Border Security. But its led to really a significant humanitarian crisis as well as a Foreign Policy challenge in the United States and throughout the region. Id like to take the thog today a little bit of above the headlines and the daily news cycle and kind of look back at challenges over the past 10 months or so in our efforts to address them, especially focused on the past three or four months during my tenure as acting secretary. I actually taq took the helm five and a half months ago but we started Building Momentum and strategy on the combatting the crisis in the last three or four. For a cfr audience i dont believe its too controversial to state that the development of a regional approach to migration is among one of the most pressing u. S. National security interests in the western hemisphere and really one of the most fundamental challenges for the region, writ large. Whether its the migration situation from haiti to brazil and across the region a few years ago, the venezuela crisis thats ongoing or closer to home, the Central American migration flows toward the u. S. Border. With regard to that effort, we have been leading at the department of Homeland Security working with our partner governments to target both the push and pull factors that are driving irregular migration. But statement we have to recognize that one of the biggest contributing factors to the crisis is one we face at home thats the weaknesses in the immigration framework. I was brought in as acting secretary really at the peak of this crisis. We were in the second of four months of over 100,000 arrivals at the u. S. Border and heading toward a peak month in may of 144,000 rachels. That means over almost 5,000 migrants daily, primarily families and children from Central America. And we lacked effective tools to counter the smugglers operating south of borders and bringing the unprecedented flows as well as the funding from congress to promptly alleviate the humanitarian crisis. We made some progress. And today im pleased to report daily arrivals are down 64 from the peak in may and total enforcement action force Central Americans arriving at the border have been reduced over 70 . Critically as well we have dramatically improved the conditions and care in our border facilities. And ill be able to talk more about that. More broadly, as of next week, we expect to have achieved another milestone with some humanitarian medical exceptions dhs will no longer be releases family units from Border Patrol stations into the interior. This means that for family units whats been the largest demographic arriving at the u. S. Border this year, the court mandated practice of catching catch and release due to the inability of dhs to complete immigration proepgd was family detained together in custody will have been mitigated. This is a vital step in restoring the rule of law and integrity to our grimes system. And taken together i believe these improvements demonstrate significant progress. But i do want to set the stage for a moment with where we were just a few months ago at the height of the crisis, the strategy and solutions that we have flooid to begin addressing it and why i i believe continued efforts and partnership are needed to permanently resolve it. To give you a sense of the enormous scale of this crisis that weve been confronted with this year, again, in may we had over it was the third of four months of poefr 100,000 arrivals. 90 of whom were crossing the border illegally. In addition to the modern day record of 144,000 in may, the highest in 13 years in any single month, we had one day of over 5,800 arrival at thes u. S. Border in a single 24 hour period. In that week we had a group of 1036 migrants crossenmace together and turn themselves into Border Patrol agents. Of our record apprehensions that month 72 were unaccompanied children and family units. A stark change in the traditional demographics arriving at our border. And many of the migrants represented Central Americas most this will vulnerable populations who put lives in the hands of very violent criminal os to make the journey. With those overwhelming arrivings dhs facilities were overcrowded resulting in difficult humanitarian conditions. In some sectors over 50 of the agents were directed to processing and care of migrants, month runs, medical krengs, leaving key areas of the border underman and necessitating closing of checkpoints. While we warned congress about the burgeoning crisis back to december of last year and requested both additional humanitarian resources and legislative changes, congressional action was not responsive and the crisis spiralled. I do want to talk a moment about the fundamental causes for these shifts in migration patterns. The core of in issue in the region a and i spent much of my time as acting secretary with Central American leaders, six trips to Central America since april. Multiple meetings here in washington. But at the core the push factors of migration are predicated on a stark Economic Opportunity gap. Exacerbated by poverty and now Food Insecurity with continued high levels of violence in some areas of Central America. Job creation has simply kept up with labor growth in Central America. Resulting in a stark opportunity shortage with only about one fifth of the needed jobs being treat are created each year for the number of young people entering the workforce in the northern triangle. This is the single most important push factor from my the perspective. Poverty and Food Insecurity as i mentioned are key contributors. 64 of haurndens live bureau the poverty line for instance with rural poverty more severe and 63 of Central Americaing the site lack of food as a motivation for migration. On top of that over the decade. Transnational organizations have used the Central American corridor for a range of elicits insist. Including Trafficking Cocaine through the United States. As a result while the situation is improving in all threes honduras, gault ray ray and el salvador, the murder rates down 50 or more in each of the three countries. The region has experienced elevated rates of violence and general crime committed by drug traffickers gangs and other criminal groups. Combined, these factors have created conditions that push many to make the dangerous trek north. I do want to be clear, though, that we we believe pennsylvania that pull factors, however are even more significant. And thats borne out by the dem graphics of those coming to the border. The strength of the u. S. Economy first and foremost with historically low levels of unemployment and the presence of significant dye spor an and guatemala and maurndsen and elf sampleden was the resources in the United States are strong mag nets but the main cause of the increases in arrival this is year is the weakness in the u. S. Immigration system, the vulnerabilities of our Legal Framework allowing families and unaccompanied children to stay in the u. S. For months or years even though the vast majority of them will not ultimately receive lawful status from an immigration judge. And thats why by the end of the fiscal year which is coming up in a few weeks, we will see the numbers more than triple the record for family units arriving at the border with close to 550,000 this year and a Record Number of unaccompanied minors in fiscal year 19. To be chloron this point, in our estimation, the central factor driving the migration crisis this year has been the inability to achieve results from the immigration process. The that can be effectuated at the border for these demographics. At or near the time they arrive. So in sort, the crisis derived from multifacetted problems and clearly called for multiprong solution. Stepping into the role and being able to really look across the immigration spectrum it is a very complex set of processes with five different agencies and three different drivers safety plan departments of government involved we developed of an aggressive and holistic strategy to mitigate the crisis within existing law. The str strategy sought to change the dahm at the border by first disrupting must goal willing activity and ds aring the unprecedented flow. Second changing the way we process that flow to create greater integrity in the system by achieving immigration results that can be effectuated at the border without release into the United States. And third, at the same time we sought to urgently mitigate the humanitarian situation by providing enhanced care for arriving migrants once they cross into the United States. To reduce the flow we realized first and foremost at International Partnerships will are going to be essentially if we couldnt convein congress to change the law that is allow us to main the integrity on the u. S. Side we need to work with regional partnering more effectively. Needing to develop operational and Strategic Partnerships in the region based on a sense of shared responsibility for the migrant crisis. Principally that meant partnering with the government of mexico to increase security of their border and prevent transnational criminal oranges from preying on migrants transiting north and reduce the flow. Second, it has meant building relationships and capacity with Law Enforcement immigration within and diplomatic authorities in the main source countries to are migrants to the pore. Guatemala, honduras and el salvador to address the root causes of migration from security, economic and governance perspectives. In terms of the reduction if flow through interdig shun and disruption the single biggest factor has been the effort efforts of mexico. This is including the dplimt of nearly 25,000 troops under the new Mexican National guard. Focused on increased presence along the guatemala border, stopping the Conveyor Belt of large groups to the border. We had a phenomenon of group in so 0 coming in numbers. 48 groups in may and we only had 6 last month. You can see dramatic progress from mexicos efforts. Disrupting the key transportation hubs that were exploited by smugglers. And importantly having consequences for those involved in the human smuggling cycle. Arresting and prosecuting coyotes and those involved. The increase in investigations to the smuggle operation has not been confined to mexico. There has been now been threw efforts with Central American partners more arrests and prosecutions made of human smugglers initiated throughout the region in the last three months than any threeyear period in history. For example, the government of honduras arrested more human smugglers in the three months of this year than the total number of arrests in 2018. Guatemala that is greatly increased police presents at the northern border with mexico and cooperated new technique to identify fraudulent documents and disrupt human smuggling networks. They opened the door to the department of Homeland Security and requested assistance in the efforts at and both the ports and bureau entry and we currently have 457 personnel embedded and supported supporting counterhuman smuggle operations in guatemala. Elf salvador made the decision to deploy 800 police and 300 immigration policies to patrol blind spots on the border with the guatemala in the last several weeksing a as well and in the last two months Salvadoran Police made over 5,000 arrests nationally the gang members as par of the National Security plan to address the push factors of migration. In addition to the enforcement efforts, several countries have agreed to partner with the United States on regional asylum Capacity Building efforts. Known asylum cooperation agreements. Recognizing these countries decisions to join the comprehensive refugee response framework under u. N. High commissioner frauj ee known as merps and best practices in the United States the agreements will enhance collaboration and build protection capacity. To that end, the United States will be supporting significantly the guatemalaen effort to build the sigh lam kpapts to tens of billions of funding. I believe the International Partnerships have paid dividends already in ensuring the effective immigration results in Central America and our southern border as well. Our partnerships are having that impact at our border not just in the region. Both with mexico and all three Central American governments, we have initiated or expanded programs that are resulting in more effective immigration results for arrival that is do make it all the way to the border and cant be deterred or protected closer to home. Perhaps the most visible program resulting from our energized International Efforts has been the migration protection migrant protection properly kohl or mpp which we established with mexico earlier this fiscal year. I want to explain this program a bit because its not well understood publicly. Under mpp eligible mierpgts crossing illegally are presented without documents are at ports of entry are processed for expedited Court Hearings and returned to mexico then allowed adequate through u. S. Ports of entry on the hearing dates getting initial hearingen on three to five months opinion someone in two years in some jurisdictions or five years or more in some of the busier jurisdictions in major cities. Mpp enhances the integrities of the system by getting Immigration Court results at a much faster pace than a nondetained document in the United States while keeping Families Together and without keeping them in custody. Its expressly provided for in law. And conducted in partnership with mexico who has committed to providing appropriate humanitarian protections and Work Authorization kwhiel they wait during the adjudication process. Under mpp we have successfully provided protections to hundreds of Asylum Seekers already. Including those unique asslyees who foor fom protection is provided immediately if its deemed too dangerous from the result of fear screenings to return them to mexico to kait wait for hearings as well as several going through the process already. This started in earnest in january with small numbers. But theyve already finished their claims and been granted asylum on the merits by an immigration judge. Everybody have kids . Ive got the back to school cold and working true. Its the personial september fun. But getting back to mpp very important pb mpp serve as a tool to provide expeditious access and for meritorious proclaims and discouraging those individuals with inadequate or who are coming as economic migrants but told they would be rested in the United States. The its led to a safer and orderly process on the southwest border and we are grateful for mexicos cooperation in this effort. In adoigs whats happening with mexico, dhs is also expanding a program called electronic nationality vchks. To streamline repatriation to Central America. For those folks that do not have a claim of asylum or fear of return to the country of origin. It allows us to basically verify nationality electronically instead of waiting for a consequence laroue interview. Its an stinks extension of the process in place with mexico today. But now has really rapidly increased with Central America. In addition to the layers that were putting in place at the border were also work working to build kbts as i noted extend asylum protections within partner countries in the region to ensure those needing protections from persecution, political, religious, racial or members of an social group, the core grounds for asylum they can seek the protections as close to home as possible instead of putting themselves in the hands of smugglers and taking the dangerous journey to the u. S. Border. As many of you have seen in u. S. Media, alongside the efforts we are also implementing new regulations designed to limit asylum abuse and preserve critical commitments under International Law promulgate stringten requirements for care and custody conditions for minors in federal holding but we still believe that key legislative fixes are necessary for a durable and comprehensive solution to the crisis. I dont want to i cant underscore this enough that we could not be in the position we are with the 70 reduction in the flow of Central Americans without the International Partners. This renewed strategy of engagement with support from the president and the white house has been absolutely critical to changing this dynamic, to increasing a sense of shared responsibility in the region. Pan allowing us to make progress. I do want to, though, you know in the third area highlight one more place where we have had cigarette progress and perhaps the most fundamental when you look at the responsibilities of the federal government to those in our custody. And that is the area of our efforts to enhance care and conditions, alleviate overcreweding in facilities, provide access to showers and toiletries be hot meals and kmed screening and care for young and unfortunately increasingly ill population thats arriving at the border. And also to ensure sufficient transportation that manages this complex process. Since receiving the emergency supplemental funding requested on may 1st in late june almost two months later dhs added over 5,000 beds and temporary facilities providing a more appropriate setting for families and children and eliminating overcrowding of single adults. Hhs our key partner in this cycle has been able to add necessary capacity for unaccompanied children as well which is resulting in dramatically reduced times in custody at the border. And we have ensured access to showers at all major stations within 24 to 36 hours and dramatically increased accessibility of hot meals and age appropriate meals and another key recommendation of medical professional including the American Association of pediatrics who i sought advice from throughout the crisis. In january. Dhs ep increased the medical professional at stations and ports from approximately 20 at the beginning in december to over 200 today. Ensuring that that all children rafrg at the border are screened, a policy choice i made in late december after two tragedy incidents at the border. And we have contracted for and purchased actually bought dozening of buses for large large scale transportation between facilities. To give you a sense how big an impact this has made. The combined flow reduction and emergency supplemental in the first week of june we had almost 20,000 people in our custody at the border. Police stations these are not designed for longterm holding not designed for families and children. 2,700 of those 20 thousandy unaccompanied children. Today, we have 4,500 in custody. This morning. And that number has been fluctuating wean 354,500. The 2,700 kids we have under 150 in custody. And theyre staying less than 24 hours. Theyre being promptly transferred to better equipped facilities at hhs. We made a dramatic impact as we promised congress we would with the emergency funding but also the initiative we have undertaken with International Partners to address this crisis. We got a much better situation at border stations. More brewedly the efforts and actions in the past six months have been focused on breaking the crisis to protect vulnerable populations in the recently and restore a sense of integrity to our immigration system for border arrivals. With you we cant let that progress which is more than cloud our vision. We are still at crisis levels in illegal crossings of the southwest border. And until we change the fundamental laws governing our immigration system we will not be solving the underlying problem. 1,500 to 2,000 arrivals per day. Were touts that as a dramatic success. And its a significant reduction. But hundreds are dying on the journey. It cant be an acceptable situation to any of us dsh to say that thats success. Not only in terms of the danger of the journey and the crossing for the migrants but also the impact to our Security Missions and really for in group i think in terms of the regional impact. Our neighbors in guatemala and honduras will send almost 2. 5 of the populations to the u. S. Border this year. An incalculable loss of youth and energy. And i think the leaders of all three countries are very concerned about in process. A president has made it a part of the platform to end forced migration to the u. S. In his first term. Forced migration being defined as required to leave for insecurity or lack of access to Economic Opportunity. So in closing i think its essential that we respond the dialogue and work on Solutions Together with policy experts, with congress, with state and local partner are arndting excessively burdened by the crisis ebrahim those along the border and of course with our International Partners and neighbors. But i just want to note one last thing before we have the dialogue. Im really privileged to work longside the departments extraordinary workforce. And i want to tell you that this crisis has hit them really hard. Both in terms of their efforts to care for vulnerable populations but also the way the efforts have been perceived. I want to tell that you theyve done an amazing job with heart and compassion and very trying circumstances. And they really do deserve our support and thanks. And you know, im very proud of them. So going forward, i know that this audience understands the Border Security is National Security. Migration crisis cant be addressed simply by the distinction country working alone. We must create and we are building a shared set of responsibility and an effective capability on behalf of regional partners to really make sustainable progress. So we need your ideas and voices, your support, criticism. And i really appreciate the opportunity to provide you an update today and look forward to the rest of our dialogue. Thank you. [ applause ] all right. Acting secretary, thank you very much for remarks. I think this is one of your highest priorities but you have others and hopefully well get to those. Certainly. But let me start with sort of asking some questions. Based on your remarks. You mentioned that the catch and release is going to end. Right. What does that mean for family units crossing the border and unaccompanied earn minor sns what will happen what are we going to see different with the end of catch and release . Sure, so the main benefit will be this incentivization of the smuggling cycle, confirmed release if you cross with a child had well take that away. We wont be encouraging people to come with a child even if its not their own. And we have had 5,000 plus instances of fraudulent families presenting at the border so far this year that weve been investigating. Several significantly Human Trafficking and smuggling cases coming out of the work with hsi and the Border Patrol. But in terms of what happens to those arriving there is two potential results. One if there is not an asylum claim made there is a streamlined prerepatriation which we didnt have the ability to do without the Central American partnering engaging. For those who do have a claim of fear of the home country they can wait in mexico during adjudication of of the case under the migrant protection properly kohl. You mentioned several times the weaknesses in the immigration process. Im not sure people really appreciate. You only own one small front end piece of that. Can you explain kind of what the pieces are and who is the owner. Sure, i mean its interesting. I had a very engaging conversation with doris meissner, probably some of you know her from the Migration Policy Institute former ins commissioner where she talked about the challenges in the 90s and she owned four fichgts of immigration cycle but the dwpt of justice together had all a whole all five parts. Well now we are in five agencies and three departments of government so i went from just the fronted end at cbp to now three of the components at acting secretary but it makes the handoffs joint planning, joint operations joint budgeting more challenging, right . If we have unaccompanied children at the border as we had the back up i alluded to 2,700 kids waiting in border stations that depended on hhs having the funding for additional beds. We had to go together to congress to beth request support in that emergency supplemental. And out of that 4. 5 billion in the supplemental, 3. 6 went to health and Human Services 3. 4 for additional bed space for kids. Its that important to think about it as a system and a continuum and a cycle and of course the main cause that i alluded to was failing to get immigration results. And that requires adequate numbers of judges in the right places to handle the cases. We have done innovative things. We had some articles talking about tents courts but they are not tents but they are raefrp where he we use vtc tos connect to existing judges in courtroom but prioritizing the border arrivals to have greater integrity and through put in the process. Immigration judges are controlled by the justice department. Right. Thats been part of the become log right because there are insufficient numbers as you say of Immigration Judges. My understanding i was actually quite surprised is one Immigration Judges have unionized. Two they cant be asked to work weekends or evening or additional shifts. Right. And cant be asked to go cant be required to go to the places where you need them most. Are we seeking legislative change . Is the administration to get that fixed . Well ill defer to the attorney general on the change in terms of the management of the Immigration Judges. But we have been working in partnership to both increase the numbers of judges so were gifting them an accurate estimate of how many will be roird for border arrivals. But also the ability to work remotely. Thats been critical. Weve created facilities at the border where now the judges can beam in by vtc and hear the cases of those arriving. Those acute asylum cases. Ufrmt it will lengthen the time of those waiting for cases to be jude indicated who have been released in the United States but hopefully we can get a handle on the challenge at the border increasing the integrity of the system and reduce the flow so were not constantly digging a deeper hole. The attorney general has the authority to appoint Immigration Judges and frngly could take presumably assistant u. S. Attorneys in the region and have them temporarily assigned down there to jude kait the cases, right . Well, i know there are a lot of competing priorities and probably critical prosecutions to support as you know more about the doj than i do with your career. But we have tried to work in partnership. Dhs provides a significant number of special u. S. Attorneys to support Immigration Court proceedings in the article iii courts as well. But its got to be shared responsibility. And i think highlights your point about managing that continuum in the grimgts system effectively given the fact its in three departments. Let me ask you, you talked about the criticality of working with the sending countries in Central America. Ill ask you the more difficult question. The president recently cut aid to the countries. Right. How do you build and strengthen that partnership while you also cut aid . Well, i think what the president has asked is and really i think he has been clear about how he views the priorities in the relationship with our Central American partners in particular is through the lens of collaboration and migration first and foremost. As we see governments step forward and we have strong leadership commitment inmate outgoing grmgs in the guatemala, the incoming preponderate ptd, alex ma tai and wells president hernandez in honduras and the new dprpgs of president buickly stepping up in the first few months with a series of initiatives that that commitment is being demonstrated. And really you know in my meetings with ministers which we do every month were having engagements on how to deal with security and migration issues in the hemisphere im seeing a sense of ownership of innovation which is new frngly in the last year from the region. So what we can do then is look at how do we restart aid programs that are working supporting our interests, the administrations interests. We have done that in the Law Enforcement side. With attorney general barr we have gone back and doj. And dhs programs have been turned back on. Now the next step is looking at which aid programs are helping on the economic side and hpg reduce migration. Which of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau Operations are really critical to the Capacity Building for governance and reducing criminal and violence that are helping drive this in communities. I think thats the process we are under taking right now. But this is not completely stalled. You can look at the overseas private Investment Corporation Just Announced a major support for new lng proj in el salvador and energy is a critical issue driving economic challenges, the price of energy for the affection tiextile concerns and thats affects competitiveness even with the free trade agreement. Its about taking the next step where we have accountable partners okay whats working and supporting joint interests. So immigration is a top priority. But you have others. Terrorism, counterterrorism, obviously. And Election Security. Lets talk about Election Security for a moment. In 2018 there were temporary Task Forces Set up at dhs, fbi, nsa and cyberkpand that were made permanent. Right. Because fbi director chris wray said 2018 was a dress rehearsal for 2020. Can you talk for a moment about why its a priority and what the departments role is in sort of ensuring Election Security and integrity in 2020. Sure. And you just outlined my three Top Priorities at dhs. Obviously the border grimes issues. But really counterterrorism and ee mernging domestic terrorism we can talk about. But cyberand Election Security no question. Knows are the top three. I have a tremendous acting deputy. Administer pekoskeky from tsa. A true Homeland Security professional. He is helping us cover all the many areas. And we in a hurricane, dorian which was a great response by fema. But in terms of cyberand Election Security, i think chris has accurately described. We are using the terms that 2018 was a playoff game. You know against maybe not the toughest opponent in the league. 2020 will be the super bowl. And we have to be ready opinion. And there is more than one opponents were concerned on the field with us. So what we have done is just maintained the momentum. We never took our foot off the based after 2018. In fact we institutionalized the temporary frameworks and built out the partnership with states and local jurisdictions. The threat, you know, to our democracy is fundamental. If we have a disrupted election or if we have foreign influence that changes perceptions of the american voting public so we have to address both sides of that coin. With the states now were engaged with all 50 states on the election infrastructure, voter registration, and about 1,900 jurisdictions among the 8,800 that administrative location attention locally administered, state administered exelections we put our best practices globally to the states and counties. We have had National Table top exercises which have had tremendous participation and really run through real world scenarios that we can expect. And you know we worked with vendors of the voting machines. We are really taking a comprehensive approach. Its the top priority for our cybersecurity and infrastructure security attention run by chris krebs who you saw in aspen. In Close Partnership with the nsa looking at the cyberthreat from foreign and with the fbi leading on the foreign influence side as well. So each of the departments and agencies just like dhs has their own task force and strategy. You know in the counterterrorism world there is the National Strategy and each agency has a supporting strategy. There a National Strategy focused on Election Security and integrity . Or is it just the individual agencies working together . You know, its a good question. We in july we had the opportunity as a team, the dni, fbi director. General nack zone and myself and chris krebs briefed the house and senate. Probably 70 of the senate showed up for the briefing. I think what emerge from the dialogue is we do have a coherent strategy. We met at the pc level as well. And Everybody Knows roles and there is information sharing cross the scenes. Nsa and cybercommand articulated a Clear Strategy on detecting and ideally deterring cyberattempts to impact our elections. The fisher talked extensively about the foreign influence efforts. And really the dhs role is supporting the states and locals on building that resilience, as well as supporting the fbi on the resilience of the American Voter to messaging. We need instead of trying to counter every potential element of foreign disinformation, its about having the voters who are armed and understand theyre going to be bombarded with it and how to get good information and make their own decision. So i think its a coherent strategy among the tleep major players. And of course the dni has a dedicated National Intelligence manager focused on cyberthreats to the election, writ larng. And communicating with all of our departments aggressively. So one more before i open it up. Just to touch on terrorism. You released a domestic terrorism and targeting violence strategy last week. Can you talk about that a little bit . And explain what you mean by targeting violence. Right. So it was a significant step and statement for us to release an updated counterterrorism strategic framework at dhs we did some new things as you noted, fran. First of all, we linked we explicitly rebalanced between our foreign counterterrorism responsibilities which are operationally really the focus of dhs historically, the reason we were created also where the authorities our direct impact authorities lie. But rebalancing that with a renewed focus on domestic terrorism and specifically and explicitly racially motivated extremism and white supremacist extremism we add that but also the concept that violence extremism is something dhs can bakt. We see significant increased attack was significant lethality coming from actors that dont have a clear ideological mochgs who are shopping for ideology. They are upon a path to violence and looking for justification or validation out in the chat rooms and in the internet sphere to then apply. So for us the capabilities we have through helping identify threat and vulnerabilities in public spaces across the border in supporting with u. S. Secret Services National threat assessment center, state and locals and communities understand risk factors because these these actors are demonstrating concerns that somebody has noticed on their path to violence. We want that to be shared. With all potential intervention points along the way. So that we these equities apply whether its International Terrorism mochgs whether its a domestic terrorism motivation or simply a disattacked yuj individual who wants to take violence. We have can find a off ramp for the violence or be able to respond effectively with the multitude of resources at the department that were already plaiing but we want to do it in a integrated and galvanized way. One more. Sorry. What role does gun control play in this . Umhum . And why dont we seem to be able to get even the enhanced background check legislation through. The administration has taken action to reduce the lethality of gun violence with the bump stock regulation and very you know urgently after the las vegas shooting. I dont want to get in front of the white house discussion was capitol hill on this issue or the attorney general who is you know his department is working with the white house on specifically that question. But you know its definitely something we need to work through. But you know on the dhs side we want to help prepare state and local jurisdictions whether first responders, Mental Health professionaling School Resource officers to be ready to prevent and respond regardless of the means, regardless of the motivation. Okay. At this point id like to invite members to joint join our conversation with questions. A reminder this this meeting is on the record wit for the microphone and speak directly into it. Please stand and state your name and affiliation. Processes please limit yourself to one question and keep it concise to allow as many member as possible to speak. Start in the front and ill work my way around. Thank you steve shaun from George Washington University Law school. Thanks for the remarks. You gave a very detailed, concise consideration of what you were doing within existing law. But you also said that key legislative fixes were necessary. And that fundamental laws needed to be changed. So what are im wondering could you outline what the administration would like to achieve by way of changed legislation in the United States. And you mentioned the concept of asylum abuse. Are there changes needed in International Treats protecting Asylum Seekers. Yes i can give you, thank you for the question. Hopefully i can give you more concise my remarks a response on the legislative changing we are looking for addressing the key drivers of the crisis. The first deals with how we are able to manage families at the border. We have now taken a regulatory step that would also achieve this aim if its ultimately allowed to go forward by the federal courts. But the idea is to keep Families Together in an appropriate setting through an expedited and fair immigration proceeding. Thats what we did in 40u under the obama administration. Then secretary jay johnson made the decision to establish Family Residential centers in the first major crisis of families and kids coming to the border. It worked very successfully. We were able to jude kait family asylum claims within 40 to 50 days on average. Again, these are facilities where with the educational, recorrections court, dining, the campuslike setting that obvious i isnt ideal but better than a situation where families are released and incentivized to come in large numbers. So thats the first change we asked for legislatively. That would be even more durable and consistent than just the regulatory efforts we have undertaken. We still have that request outstanding to congress. The second is really a key one. Its modifying the very important trafficking victims reauthorization protection act, the trafficking victims protection reauthorization act. Tppra, which is establishes something we grow strongly with, high standards for care of children in custody. But also ha double standard embedded. We are not empowered to repatriate unaccompanied children arriving from noncontigous countries. You can return a child to mexico working with the mexican authorities but you cant do so for Central America. Thats something the Central American governments dont like. They want some say what happens with their nationals who are minors for one. And two, its providing this incentive to put kids in the hands of smugglers at 5,000 to 10,000 per person to come to the forward. Wed like what weapon ewe proposed to the hill was providing access to asylum protections for children in country or in a neighboring country. But in response if a child did not meet the requirements and still came to the border, or avoided that we, able to repatriate to ensure that we have integrity in that cycle and can seek to protect children as close to home as possible. And then the third was to modify the initial asylum standard. So there is two parts of the asylum consideration. When an individual crosses. If theyre put into an expedited removal proceeding neck claim fear of return. And theyre assessed for whether they present a credible fear. Well courts and you probably know well, sir, the courts have interpreted that as a possibility of profiting an asylum case and its a low bar. We say 857 plus of migrants meeting that bar. Whereas when the they see a immigration judge we only see 10 to 13 granted asylum by a judge. That gap just incentivizes people to come in claim fear and then released into the u. S. Awaiting a Court Proceeding which could be five years in the future. Knows are the three signal changes we are asking for in the immigration law. In terms of the broader regional oximeter to asylum or our own International Law commitments, i think what we are articulating a a strategy that the best way to honor the commitments and we see this happening in europe as well, is supporting transit countries and source countries and building their own capacity to provide those protections. And thats the kind of strategy where the shared responsibility were trying to take in the hemisphere. Thank you. Okay. The lady all the way in the back. I dont know if i achieved the concise objective. Let me say one question, no statements, were going to get as many questions in as we can. Great. Thank you so much for speaking with us today. I am. Your name and affiliation. Knicks coal rand. I was arounding if you could elaborate on families just being detained and no longer release intoed the interior of the u. S. What practically would that mean . What particular facilities will they be detained in . Would it require constructing new facilities and where would the funding for that come from . And also what might happen when Border Apprehensions go up in the fall when the weather gets cooler as has happened historically . Okay. Ill try to be concise and just build off my answer to fran a moment ago on a similar question. First just on the seasonal point, we have not seen flows to the border track the historical seasonal patterns built around the agricultural cycle. Thats not the case in recent months. For instance, from july to august, we have seen the numbers increase each of the past six years but not last month. The the you know, traditional spring to summer cycle has not followed patterns either. Were kind of divorced from the historical seasonal cycle and we see the flow responding more to anticipated success or failure than simple seasonal results. Now, but families what were doing with with Central American families now thats ending the the catchen a release process is if they dont have a fear claim theyre repatriated in a streamlined fashion or if they have a fear claim asked to wait under the mierpgt protesting properly protocol in mexico they would not be current held on the u. S. Side even in the Family Residential centers because we are not able right now to complete an immigration proceeding while in the 21 days we have by court order. After the flores regulations are finally joud indicated appear put in place, that time limit will be alleviated and thats a third option for managing cases of families being able to hold them together in an appropriate setting threw of an immigration proceeding. Thank you. Over here. The blue shirt. Yeah, blue shirt. Thank you. Mr. Secretary im george salem with dla piper. My question concerns a number of senior gulf arabs who were attempting to get into the United States who are major investors in the country, many of whom have businesses here that employ americans. Were finding many of them now in administrative processing that can take ten months to two years whereas they had previously received fiveyear multiple entry visas. Is there a policy in place to give extra scrutiny to arab Business People . And it seems that a number of them needing medical attention here are not getting visas in any kind of a humanitarian consideration. Im wondering if there is a policy decision in that regard. Yeah, im not aware of any policy decision that would have changed the processing. Good question for consequence lir affairs our partnering at the department of state and certainly condition va that to them. Thank you. Rate height here up front. Jim jones with monarch gold strategies. Good to see you ambassador. Good to see you. I think you are doing a good job under the circumstances. Everybody everybody in all the leadership dhs is in an acting position. Have i believe that that reduces your efficiency of management. It further allows white house staff to be the controlling interest in policy at dhs. Do you see any movement to make the acting positions permanent. Thank you for the question, ambassador. Ill just highlight a few that are not acting. Our commandant. Director of secret service head of intelligence and analysis. We have a number of of key leadership components that are in permanent confirmed capacities. But it is something that dhs we do have a number of acting. I guess if you count me and the deputy twice which is maybe not fair because were both confirmed in our component head roles we do have a number of acting especially on the immigration side of the department. Thats said, what we have is tremendous career professionals throughout. A number of of the leaders ive known almost two decades coming up in the system alongside each other in the department of Homeland Security. And we havent miss add beat operationally. I do think it can impact dialogue on the hill sometimes to have that kind of vote of confidence literally from the senate. And those engagements. But its something that were not worried about. Were trying to solve problems and keep our Forward Momentum and thats certainly my charge and my goal. Thank you. All the way in the back. Theresa welsch a reporter with deb ex. I want to ask you more about the agreement you signed last week with el salvador. And i notice that the phrase safe third country was fallout used with respect to that agreement as it was with guatemala signed earlier this summer. Could you tell us how the two agreements are kircht and give us more details about the one signed with el salvador last week . Thank you. Sure the situations are different in guatemala and el salvador. Guatemala has been the largest sending country to the u. S. Border this year almost 40 of the flow in some months. And 807 of those mts arriving have transited gault ray. Edhlund salvador in a different position. So of the arrivals from el salvador and a negligible number are transiting to the u. S. Border. Its a different structure and situation in terms of how we collaborate on asylum. Guatemala has a functioning asylum process. They are granting asylum. Its nascent. And needs to be nascent. It needs to be further developed. I was pleased to reference the significant investment from the department of state to support guatemala in building their asylum capacity. We see similar, but at a smaller scale effort with el salvador to support them in their own decision to join the u. N. High commission for Refugees Program in latin america, to build their own asylum commitments. We think thats important. It could apply in the future to transiting partners, personnel from neighboring countries, for instance. Its really to show that this is a shared responsibility regionally. That theres access to protections. If youre being persecuted for the core conditions of asylum, political, racial, religious, membership in a social group, considerations nearby. We want to meet each partner where they are. Each would be operationally very different in application. So thank you for the question. Im alex, proud cfr term member and also a proud refugee. This is very personal for me. I usually have very eloquent questions, but when youre using terms like family unit, crisis, arrivals, demographics, Conveyor Belt. Those are people. So had my mom come here today, tried to come here today like she did 35 years ago with my sister and i, i dont think id be here. I want to know how you are challenging the assumptions upon which our entire immigration system is based . Are you challenging the assumptions . Maybe its not a crisis. Maybe its an opportunity. Are those basic conversations happening . So i think what were trying to do is make our immigration system work under existing law, but also recommend improvements that are responsive to the changes in patterns around the world. I do recognize in a deeply personal way that those patterns are people. What id like to say in response is that the u. S. Is and will remain the most generous country in the world for refugees and Asylum Seekers. The combined processing and access for both refugees and Asylum Seekers in the United States is the highest in the world. It will be again this year. It will be next year. Were also managing a lawful immigration system that hit a record last year with over 750,000 naturalizations, one every 42 seconds for a new sint. But we have to maintain that commitment. Thats a Global Leadership responsibility for the United States and for dhs, and i appreciate your heartfelt question. There was another one at that tab table. Thank you. Clara long from human rights watch. I was a bit concerned about your description of the migrant protection protocols as something that maintains the integrity of the process when your own asylum officers have filed an amicus brief in federal court claiming that the program itself violates the u. S. s obligations when the over 40,000 people who are now waiting in mexico for their hearings are less than 2 represented by attorneys. Im interested in what youre doing to investigate whether, in fact, the commitments that you referred to mexico made in terms of humanitarian conditions, work visas, are actually providing safety for the migrants who are in this program and whether youre at all concerned that a 2 representation rate of serious due process concerns raised by attorneys, by advocacy organizations in the actual Court Proceedings, something that raises concerns at dhs and what youre doing to address that . Thanks for the question. Ill give you a couple of examples. Ill be meeting later today with the mexican ambassador to the United States, something that we do pretty much biweekly to talk about the progress of our partnership on a whole series of issues, but specifically on the migrant protection protocols. Were constantly discussing ways to ensure the safety of migrants waiting in mexico under this program. Weve offered Financial Support which has been received by the government of mexico. Theyve opened a new shelter in juarez in the last three weeks. Ive been to el paso talking with our partners on the ngo side that have very good connections on both sides of the border on how the situation is working, and were hearing positive things about the government of mexico granting, not only Work Authorization, but temporary permits to be in mexico as well as Social Security numbers to access social services in mexico while theyre waiting. So this is a shared commitment of both governments. This is the approach mexico agreed to with the United States. And so looking at ways that we can make sure they have shelter, their care while theyre waiting for their hearings is very important to me. Its something im engaging the mexicans on every week. In terms of access to counsel, thats a commitment to the program. I would like to see those numbers increase. Were providing everyone with the protocols with a list of Legal Service providers as they are processed under mpp. Wed like to see those numbers increase and were talking with the government of mexico about ways to ensure that access. Thank you. Right here. Thank you so much for your remarks. Im danielle, a mem bir of the American Academy of pediatrics. I was hoping you could speak about the decision to not provide the flu vaccine to the customs and Border Patrol facilities. Flu season is here, also for your own staff having contact with people who may have a contagious illness. Thank you. Sure. Not to go back to our layers of complexity in the immigration continuum. I can answer to give you a sense of how were working on that program. Were working under interim screenings procedures, after tragedies last year, two children dying of custody for the first time in our process in over ten years. I immediately talked to dr. Kraft that month about the challenges and what we could do better. But under the guidance of our chief medical officer in consultation with hhs and the Public Health service team, we are looking at ways to adjust our screening for more interim permanent medical procedures. Thats due by the end of the year. We are looking at the flu vaccine issue very specifically. Just to be clear, when children are transferred to hhs they get the vaccine. When families or adults are transferred to i. C. E. , they get the vaccine. That time at the border is intended to be very short processing and then movement to a more appropriate setting for longer term detention. We got away from that during the crisis last spring. If we did that again, we would certainly look at applying a more broad flu vaccine protocol. You might not be aware, but we did do that in south texas where we had the significant numbers of people waiting in Border Patrol stations and we also had a flu outbreak. We did step up flu vaccines directly in border stations in an Operational Response in that case. But looking broadly across the board, well evaluate it. It doesnt necessarily make sense to do it at that initial point where theres just a temporary processing and ideally Quick Movement to a more appropriate setting. I want to ensure you that were looking at it very carefully. We want to help improve the health of the arriving populations, also measles, mumps, chickenpox in those arriving. Plm smr. Secretary, were goo wrap up and let you get back to work. Thank you. One, there was secret service moved from treasury into dhs. I understand secretary mnuchin is looking to take that back. I understand his association to be with some of the my eyes have been opened even further to have tremendous a group of people they are. Of course, this week theyve got unga, the election swinging in to full flower and, of course, doing their regular missions at the same time. So theres deep interaction both with treasury on the financial investigations, on cyber and, of course, across the Homeland Security enterprise with National Security special events. I will be a huge supporter of them regardless of where theyre housed and funded in the federal government. Youre always looking for opportunities to tighten and align the best possible way. Last question. When i was still in government we established the threeounce liquid rule. I understand theres beta testing. I never thought it would last this long. I never thought it would still be in place. I understand theres testing in technology to do away with the threeounce rule. How far out do you see that . Thats a great question. I think some of the Technological Developments to do some better automated assessment of substances. Im looking to apply that for countering opioids in the mail environment as well. Synthetic fentanyl. I dont think those are Science Fiction anymore. I think were talking years in the cycle from development topt application. We are expanding the use of highend computed tomography machines at checkpoints for tsa in addition to what they have in the baggage environment. So more to come on that. I think well hopefully be able to develop even better techniques in the coming months and years. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Also live today ton the cspan networks, this afternoon remarks from former trashl security adviser susan riegs, expected to join our lawmakers, journalists and political strategists at the Texas Tribune festival in austin. Live coverage starts at 3 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Well have more from austin this weekend when politico interviews lawmakers and political strategists at the Texas Tribune festival. Scheduled speakers include representative mark meadows and 2020 democratic president ial candidate montana governor steve bullock. Live coverage starts saturday at 10 30 a. M. Eastern. That will be on cspan. This weekend on American History tv, saturday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, historians talk about the Lessons Learned from the reconstruction period after the civil war. The concept of whiteness before the civil war was a barrier of exclusion when states said only white men to vote. White ngs was, therefore, used to exclude others. In the Civil Rights Act whiteness becomes a baseline. If white people enjoy certain legal rights, everybody else has to enjoy those rights, also. At 8 00 on lectures in history, the deindustrialization of the United States. Sunday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, the psychological impact of flying on world war i pilots. At 7 00 women in the Apollo Program and the challenges they faced. There were cameras all over the place. Theyre supposed to be on the room as a whole. This camera was just on me. I have no idea why it had been on me. I didnt say anything about it. We didnt even know the term Sexual Harassment or hostile workforce. Theres two different ways to think about that. One is that its a little voyeuristic on the part of the dudes watching you and it is harassing and uncomfortable. The other way to think of it is let them look and let them all know, let everybody who is not in this damn room know there is a woman here, im here, get used to it. Explore our nations past on American History tv every weekend on cspan3. The house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country so you can make up your own mind, created by cable in 1979. Cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Up next, experts from latin america talk about recent political movements in their nations during a panel discussion. Afterwards representatives from