It must be paid staff. Everyone coming here. I would like to start with the decade in review. I refer everybody to my chart. This is a chart i have been updating for the last 34 years. It is important to lay out what the history has been. Certainly from my standpoint. Some key policy changes. They contributed to what i consider an ongoing crisis even though we have made some process progress. That chart reflects all minors and people coming to this country as family units. Focused onsions only Central American children and family members. 3000, 4000we had unaccompanied children. We werent even keeping track of families because it wasnt a problem. Was a similar moment. It was the issuance of the daca memorandum. Traffickersby human to help incentivize people. They would tell them, the u. S. Has changed your policy. That certainly started something. To 2015. Ard forward 2014 was the year when president obama very accurately described a humanitarian crisis at the border. 137,000 unaccompanied children cross the border and overwhelmed customs and Border Protection. We were all singing the praises of customs and Border Patrol. The problem has grown so much more severely. We had to do something. We began detaining those families together. It worked. A court intervened, as courts continue to do. They reinterpreted the settlement. Clearly incorrectly. Settlement dealt with unaccompanied minors. But now a court said it dealt with the company minors. Now the government was faced with the facts. The law,t to enforce we are going to have to detain the adults and release the children or we will have to release the families. The Obama Administration decided to release the families. Began what is called catch and release. It was ramping up. We started talking about caravans. Thes on the other set of aisle started referring to it as a manufactured crisis. I started producing this chart on a monthly basis. Start pointing out, no, this is not a manufactured crisis. This is Something Real and overwhelming. The courageous men and women of porter control, the compassionate men women a border control, or trying to deal with something that is overwhelming. Theit the high watermark of current crisis. Crossingle a day were the border. We no longer heard people talk about a manufactured crisis. In the end it was 608,000. 137,000 when president obama declared a humanitarian crisis. I hope we have late arrests that this is a manufactured crisis. We have brought it down. Bring up the next sheet. This is my weekly report. I come from a manufacturing background. This is Law Enforcement sensitive. Embers of the committee have this in front of them. The last week i have figures on, it averaged about1,372. Less than 1400. Interviewer forget a that secretary jeh johnson gave to msnbc. He would come into the office and he said he knew he had a problem. Why did we go from less than 1400 . What else needs to be done . What threatens the progress that we have already made . I have to say, i go down to the border. The individuals coming across here, the vast majority, they want what we want. Safety and security. I am highly sympathetic with that. It is far from undercontrol. How can we more accurately and rapidly determine those who come nothis country with documentation who clearly do not have a valid assignment asylum claims . And safely return them to their country . The real contribution that he made to that is if we are going to do something about that, lets gather the data. What i am hoping we will get out of this meeting is some of the data. How many of these claims have been adjudicated from Central America . How many of those individuals actually have valid asylum claims. , thate such a low hurdle credible fear standard, that we waived everybody in. The courts are completely backlogged. Some of them end up melding into society. We dont know where they go. We dont know where they are. In the end, they dont have a valid asylum claim. We shouldve never let the men. We have to increase that initial hurdle. Enact publicata to policy. What i am hoping that will come out of this hearing is better data. As we move forward with some of these programs that have shown some success, lets develop the data. You set an achievable goal. You come together on a bipartisan basis. With that, i will turn it over to senator peters. Thank you to our witnesses here today. I am proud to say that over the past year our committee has been able to come together on a bipartisan basis to examine these challenges we are facing our border. In june, we came together to unanimously advance my bipartisan bill to strengthen Border Security. And address Law Enforcement shortages at ports of entry. Billull Senate Approved by to hire more agricultural inspectors and canine units to protect the food supply from harmful contraband. Just yesterday, i had a chance to see an officer and canine inaction at detroit metropolitan airport. I was stunned to see the number of seizures that they make to keep our country save every single day. I am proud of those men and women who are leading the nation when it comes to the introduction of harmful biological material coming across the border. Theoit metro has been number one intercepting port for the last two fiscal years. Metro detroit has also pioneered Training Programs that have been deployed nationally with positive results in boston, new work newark, and dallas. These pests pose a significant threat. These officers are doing phenomenal work to protect michigan and the rest of the country from harm. Year, we have had many challenges for our Border Security professionals. The situation on our southern border is dynamic. Our Border Security efforts should reflect that fact. Administrations Border Security policies have been shortsighted. Successfullyng to address the conditions on our border and the root causes that are driving this migration, we need to take a comprehensive approach that looks at the data and finds Commonsense Solutions to address these very serious challenges. I appreciate our witnesses for joining us here today. And for their commitment to serve our country. I recognize that addressing Border Security and humanitarian challenges require stable and effective leadership. I am deeply concerned. Of the lack of Senate Confirmed leaders in nearly all of the top leadership positions in the department of Homeland Security. Confirmedree senate positions in front of us in all three of you are acting, not Senate Confirmed. I will continue to call on this administration to qualify leaders for this. Dhs and thewomen of American People deserve stability, accountability that comes from nominating and confirming qualified leaders. Permanence and stability is critical. I look forward to hearing your testimony. Thank you for your service. Thank you. I completely agree with you in terms of getting individuals nominated and performed confirmed. We do have some highly qualified individuals in these acting positions. This the tradition of committee to swear and witnesses. If you could stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Please be seated. Our first witnesses mr. Mark morgan, the acting commissioner of customs and Border Protection. He began serving his community as a u. S. Marine. After completing a 20 year career in the fbi, he started before beings appointed to the Border Patrol. He served as chief until 2017. He returned to be dhs acting director of Customs Enforcement. Morning. Thank you members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to inform the American People the truth of what is happening on the southwest border during 2019. As well as the remarkable and noteworthy successes by the Current Administration and the incredible men and women of United States custom and Border Protection. Im honored to speak on behalf of the men and women of cbp. Ofy are defending the rule law and maintaining integrity of the immigration system and protecting the safety and security of this great country. All while simultaneously playing a Critical Role in ensuring our economic security. Early this year, we sounded the alarm as the border crisis. To fixd congress to act the loopholes and a broken immigration system. And close the gaps driving the crisis. Singlenately, not a piece of meaningful legislation has been brought forward to address this crisis. The country watched as the crisis worsens. Although we have made great progress, i am here today to respectfully remind the committee and the American People that there continues to and aumanitarian crisis National Security crisis. Enforcement action succeeded 1. 1 million nationwide. An increase of 68 over the Previous Year. The total number of apprehensions along our southwest border exceeded 978,000. At 88 increase over the Previous Years apprehensions. Border control apprehended more than 473,000 family units. Representing the highest number for any year on record. Unaccompanied children encountered before the ports totaled more than 76,000. To 2 higher than any other year. Immigration system in the world designed to handle such a massive migration number. Not even the United States. Is theging still demographics of those illegally entering our southern border. Of all southwest Border Apprehensions came from the northern triangle countries. Majority being families and unaccompanied children. They are being pulled into the United States by the loopholes in our current Legal Framework. Kid,know if you grab a that is your passport in the United States. It was working. All while the human smuggling cartels exploited them. But the men lifethreatening situations. Treated them as nothing more than a money making commodity. The impact was real. In may of this year, we saw our highest numbers. Or than 140,000 apprehensions in a single month. Resources away from critical duties to care for women and children. Up to 50 of resources were pulled off the line to care for the families and children. Leaving areas of the border increasingly vulnerable. Cartels andhe smuggling organizations were exploiting those lawenforcement gaps. Increasing threats to our National Security. More than 150,000 migrants to illegally enter the United States got away. The Transnational Criminal Organizations are not only exploiting the migrants themselves, but also flooding the United States with illicit narcotics. Mistake, if you have a methamphetamine in your town or city, they came from the southwest border. An absence of congressional action, the administration has taken action. Governmentwith the of mexico. We have started initiatives and regulations to stem the flow of migration. Together, we are approaching this as a regional crisis that it is. We have seen incredible success. The last four months of fiscal year 2019, we saw noah 65 reduction in the apprehensions. September marks the lowest number of Enforcement Actions in the entire year. Holdingar, cbp was almost 20,000 detainees in custody. Val, we are averaging less than 3500 today. At the height of the crisis, cbp apprehensions at times exceeded more than 5000 in a single day. Thane are averaging less 1400. We have all that in the catch and release. Addressing the humanitarian crisis should not overshadow the National Security crisis. Officers seize more than 750,000 pounds of illicit narcotics. Operations marine ceased an additional 285,000 pounds of cocaine. Seizures of the four hard narcotics all increase. Last year, there are more than 68,000 Overdose Deaths in the u. S. We know that methamphetamine has seen significant resurgence of super labs in mexico are taking over production and flooding the u. S. With cheaper and purer forms. Nearlynally, cbp sees 3000 weapons, 75 Million Dollars worth of illicit currency, and apprehended 16,000 criminal aliens. This is just what we caught. I know i am running overtime. If i could just make a couple of more comments. Apprehension numbers are still unacceptable. As chairman johnson stated, the former secretary of dhs jeh johnson stated, 1000 apprehension was a bad day. He was correct and it still today. Im concerned the good story im able to tell this morning regarding the Immigration Crisis has allowed some to take their eye off the ball, but this crisis isnt over. Due in part to the judicial activism from the lower courts, we are one bad Court Decision away from losing a significant ability to continue to mitigate the current crisis. Additionally, we cannot rely solely on our partner nations to resolve our broken immigration system. To obtain a lasting and durable solution, Congress Must act. As a lawhere today enforcement professional, over 30 years of service to this country, i am absolutely perplexed why congress cannot come together on a bipartisan manner to fix this. The cartels and human smuggling organizations are exploiting the migrants as they make their journey here. They are giving up their life savings, turning themselves over, and often their children over to the hands of smugglers. Often abused and deprived of adequate food, water, and medical attention during their we averageow because 71 hospital visits per day in 2019. Add that up, thats roughly over 25,000 hospital visits. And cartels leave these immigrants in reverse to die. Rivers to die. Harsheave them in open, trailers to diet and in tractortrailers to die. The Border Patrol last year conducted 4900 rescues of immigrants who the smugglers abandoned to die. We also encountered 24 bodies along the southern border including skeletal remains. I have told the story before and i think i told it in front of this committee of a paraplegic man who smugglers through in the water to avoid apprehension without giving it a second thought. Are beingildren rented and recycled and presented as fake families. Last fiscal year, cbp identified over 6000 fake family members impacting over 1834 juveniles. We had a honduran man who bought a child, bought a child, for 80. Why did he do it . Because the loopholes in the system told him and the smugglers made sure he understood, you grab aunderstoo, thats your passport into the United States. It is our broken immigration Legal Framework that provides an incentive driving the crisis. I feel like i have been begging for congress to act. If Congress Continues to fail to come together across the aisle, more children and families will be placed in harms way by the cartels and the criminal Networks Domestic and abroad will continue to negatively impact the Public Safety throughout the nation as bad people and drugs make their way into our nation every day. We need your help. We are asking for your help. We have been asking for your help. , byonly winners here inaction, by not passing meaningful legislation, are the cartels as they continue to thrive and increase their multibilliondollar business on the backs of migrants. Please join us and doing everything we can to target these smuggling organizations and the cartels and put them out of business. We can start by eliminating the ability to advance the multibilliondollar business on the backs of migrants and at the cost of american lives. I sincerely thank you for this opportunity and im looking forward to addressing any of your questions. Thank you for that testimony. It is my intention, and hopefully the attention of the members of this committee to do everything we can. We need the information. Please help us get this information. I think you did a good job laying out that realogy, with reality, which is the first step. Testimony. Your the next witness is mr. Ken cuccinelli, the acting director citizenship and Immigration Department of Homeland Security. He let the state fight against human trafficking. He served in the Virginia Senate from 2002 to 2010. Cuccinelli good morning Ranking Member and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the incredible and important work the men and women of the immigration and Citizenship Services have done. We achieved many of president trumps goals to make the immigration system work better for america. As an agency, we tirelessly work handinhand with fellow dhs components to answer president trumps call to address the ongoing crisis at the border. In the absence of congressional action to close the loopholes being exploited and have led to the crisis at the southern border, we have taken significant steps to mitigate the loopholes in our asylum system, to combat fraudulent and fragilis frivolous claims, havetrengthen the steps we to preserve humanitarian assistance for those eligible for it. Uscis had a historic year. Im proud of the agencies work. I want to mention a few of the notable accomplishments. Uscis adjudicated more than 8. 2 million requests for immigration benefits. Ofve seen a rising level complexity in those adjudications as well. This workload represents the full spectrum of benefits that our laws provide to those who seek to come to the United States whether temporarily or permanently, as well as those who seek to become citizens of this nation. It also includes work continuing daca after tps and courts interfered with lawful attempts to terminate these programs, time and resources that should be spent adjudicating lawful immigration instead. Uscis nationalizes approximately 833,000 new citizens last year, the most in more than a decade. Uscis granted lawful permanent 580 2000 to individuals and completed more than 78,000 affirmative asylum applications. The agency also performed more than 40 million verifications of employment l of eligibility through the verify program. Border, uscisn felt the impact of the crisis, receiving more than 105 thousand credible few referrals. 5000 more than the Previous Year and a new record high. Put that in some perspective, just five years ago, folks still on the front edge of what is considered the crisis, 20 14, uscis received approximately 51,000 credible fear referrals. Just 10 years ago, uscis received approximately 5000 credible fear referrals. You can see the nonlinear rise in that measure of the crisis of the border. During any given week in fiscal year 2019, 150 to 200 officers were processed assigned to process the southern border, including 40 to 60 assigned in person at the southern border. Uscis took significant actions that will result in protecting american taxpayers, by publishing a final rule on admissibility of public grounds rules to reinforce a longstanding rule to ensure those who come to or remain in the United States are selfsufficient and not dependent on public benefits. Public charge has been a part of our immigration statute since 1882. Unfortunately, dhs was preliminarily enjoined from preliminary enforcing this final rule. The department of justice are defending the final rule and litigation and i am confident that as we continue to do as these things go through courts, we will prevail in that. Uscis continues to expand our Online Filing capabilities with over 1. 2 million applications filed fleshly or last year, a 10 increase from the Previous Year. We added four of our important forums for a total of eight available for Online Filing, with additional forms planned this year. Men and women of this uscis are working hard to transform a paperbased agency into an electronic agency that takes full advantage of the capabilities of the 21st century, all while maintaining records in a secure fashion even as threats evolve. In the coming year, uscis will continue to use every tool available to us to fulfill president trumps goals to fix thethe nation, strained immigration system, and fairly and efficiently adjudicate petitions applications and petitions of those seeking lawful status in the u. S. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and i look forward to any questions you might have. Isthank you our next witness dr. Benner, the acting director of immigration and Customs Enforcement at the department of Homeland Security. He has served and a variety of positions within i. C. E. Since he 1991. His service in before acting Deputy Director, he was the associate director for Homeland Security investigations, a position in ofch he oversaw the combat Transnational Criminal Organizations. Benner thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I will echo my colleagues when i say that the unprecedented crisis we saw on the southwest border certainly stressed our immigration system to its breaking point and the administration clearly took the administration clearly took necessary actions to address it. This breaking point, though, is an example which tragically illuminates the humanitarian cost of an unsecured border. Adult guatemalan male who presented at the border with a minor female, whom he fraudulently claimed to be his trailed. Since law child. Since Law Enforcement could not retain, they were released into u. S. Nterior of the he then moved the minor female to the southeastern United States where he repeatedly sexually abused and beat her on a regular basis until she was luckily rescued by Law Enforcement. Sadly, this is one of many examples of this fraud, exploitation, and Violence Associated with this unprecedented crisis. Crisis, not measured by the crisis itself, but we are measured by the crisi how we respond. Our response to this crisis was not without consequence. The sustained increase in illegal migration has stretched resources thin across the u. S. Government. The administration was faced this year with responding to the humanitarian crisis at the of other the expense vital lawenforcement missions. While the border dominated the headlines, the achievements of i. C. E. Over the last year were not defined by the crisis, nor were they limited to the border. Across the country and around the globe, i. C. E. Personnel remain steadfast in their critical mission, protecting america from crossborder crime and illegal immigration that threatens National Security and Public Safety. Today, i will highlight the operational responses protecting the great people of this nation. I. C. E. Investigates and enforces more than 400 federal criminal statutes and working donation with u. S. Customs and Border Protection and state, local, tribal and federal partners in a unified effort to target transnational organized crime. Hsi special agents arrested over 46,000 individuals in the past year with more than 37,500 of them being criminal arrests. Exceeding last years records by over 3000 criminal arrests, hsi made 4000 arrests of gang leaders, members, and associates including over 400 arrests of ms 13 members. Hsi continued to be at the forefront in the fright fight against Opioid Epidemic and prioritize the disruption and dismantlement of tcos involved in introducing fentanyl, heroin, and other dangerous opioids into states. Ed in fiscal year 2019, hsi and cbp partners seized over 11,000 pounds of opioids including over 3600 pounds of fentanyl. At the same time, making almost 2000 fentanyl related arrests, which is an increase of nearly 175 from the prior year. Hsi also continued to protect our citizens from crimes of exploitation by arresting over 3600 child predators. Traffickers, human while at the same time identifying and assisting more than 1400 victims of these heinous crimes. These efforts pay immediate dividends when considering the longterm damage these criminals can inflict upon vulnerable victims. All of these accomplishments were achieved despite the fact that hsi spent 400 personnel to the border to assist with combating the migrant influx. Agents who would otherwise be investigating criminal organizations were deployed to initiate a rapid dna pilot utilizing supplemental appropriations from congress that allowed for over 10,000 dna tests at seven locations along the southwest order border. Agents conducted interviews of members of suspected fraudulent family units to disrupt the disturbing practice of children being used as pawns by ruthless human smuggling and trafficking organizations. These efforts resulted in the identification of over 1000 incidents of family unit fraud claims,e usc uic which also led to over 1000 prosecutions. As a result of these efforts, hsi has seen a marked decrease in the number of fraudulent family incidents in the past few months, indicating that our joint efforts have been impacting the use of fraudulent families to circumvent our nations immigration laws. Enforcement and removal operations ensures the integrity of the immigration system and enhances National Security and Public Safety by enforcing the nations immigration laws and effective manner. The targeted immigration and enforcement operations focused on the interior of the country, changes in migration flows at the border directly impact nearly every area of the agencys operations including interior enforcement resources and detention capacity. As a result of the activity at the border, much of yaros limited detention capacity has been dedicated to housing aliens arrested by cbp at the border, many of whom are subject to mandatory detention under u. S. Immigration laws. Certainly, the shift in arrest ofand eros aliens in the interior included the decrease in the number of criminal aliens arrested peers simply put, more criminals who would otherwise be in custody or remove, are at in our community. Many of them violent recidivists as a direct result of the border crisis. Despite the operational environment of limited has been, tro ero committed. Officers arrested nearly 140,000 aliens of which 86 percent were convicted criminals or had pending criminal charges. The safety of the courageous and dedicated men and women of i. C. E. Is paramount to our agency. When local jurisdictions refused to work with us or obstruct lawful enforcement of the laws this body has pressed, it increases past, it increases the risk to every community in the country. In one example from boulder county, colorado, i. C. E. Officers recently found and arrested a 56yearold illegal alien who had been released from local custody twice after i. C. E. Detainers were ignored. The alien was arrested on local charges and then released. Subsequently arrested for felony Sexual Assault on a child and then again released. He was convicted of Sexual Assault in july of this year and remained at large until i. C. E. Apprehended him in august. Not only did these policies impact Public Safety by releasing criminals back onto the streets to reoffend, but also the safety of the individuals we are arresting and our own officers and agents whose goal is to effectively enforce the law and a manner that is safest for all parties involved. Much safer for officers in the public to have i. C. E. Apprehending aliens in a secure environment of a jail or Police Station rather than in a residence in the presence of family and friends. Unfortunately, despite our collaborative efforts at the border, the crisis doesnt start and stop at the border. It extends into the interior of the u. S. Between the illicit flows of opioids and the mass influx of aliens, almost every community in this country is now a border community. While our partners and cbp appreciate a temporary decrease in the migrant flow, i. C. E. Is not so fortunate. Particularlynel, our attorneys and deportation officers, will be managing this unprecedented increase for years to come. Already overburdened immigration system now must deal with a massive influx of aliens and court proceedings. The i. C. E. Tro docket is over 3 million, a population managed by a workforce short thousands of deportation officers and hundreds of attorneys. Trary to public efficient opinions and in the face of those who wish to attack those of us who represent the men and s, we remain vigilant. The extraordinary men and women of i. C. E. Will remain committed to protecting the communities we represent from criminal aliens, terrorists, drug dealers, human traffickers, gang members and organizations who attempt to exploit our borders. Thank you for the opportunity to appear this morning. Banner. You, mr. Our final witness is mr. James. Chenry he previously served as acting director from may 2017 to january 2018. He previously served in a variety of incisions throughout the federal government including an Administrative Law judge for immigration matters. Mr. Mchenry. Chairman,y mr. Ranking member peters and other distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Executiveector of office for immigration review at the department of justice, we want to show you the progress we have made, the continuing challenges, and the impact of unprecedented levels of illegal immigration on its operations. The primary mission of the oir byto adjudicate cases expeditiously and uniformly interpreting and administering immigration laws. Our employees are firmly committed to the mission and they are performing commendably and improving the functioning of courts and i am honored to lead them. After eight consecutive years of declining or stagnant ductivity between fy 2019 2009 and 2016, the second year of increased Immigration Court place case completions. We have an increase of roughly 80,000 case completions from the prior year which is almost double the number of cases it completed just three years ago. Even accounting for factors such as hiring recency, 150 of our judges completed at least 700 cases last fiscal year and the average immigration judge completed 708 cases despite losing five weeks to the government shutdown. Perhaps most importantly, the increase in productivity did not lead to an increase in allegations of judicial misconduct. Although we have solved some of our more intractable problems of the past that kid including hiring, productivity, and technology, the progress is threatened by challenges emanating from the continued surge of illegal operations from the southern border. Immigrationrs, court caseload, which currently is just under one million, byrease due to factors insufficient hiring, a lack of institutional emphasis on the importance of can b completing in a timely manner. Those factors are being successfully addressed. More recent increases have been driven largely by external factors. More specifically in fy 2019, the department of Homeland Security filed approximately 443,000 new cases with the Immigration Courts. Thats the highest single your number in the eoirs history. On average, four out of every five removal cases will conclude with the alien required to leave the u. S. With ordered removal or departure. Luntary that means statistically the majority of cases may not involve a viable claim that allows an alien to lawful relief lawfully remain in the u. S. However, the presence of the already crowded dockets diverts resources from already addressing those claims that are meritorious. In casesnt increases involving asylum applications, unaccompanied alien children, credible fear claims, and aliens who fail to appear, have taxed our resources. Our immigration system faces numerous charges challenges. Significantrs downstream of surges of illegal immigration at the border and those effects have placed a marked strain on its resources. To combat these effects, the attorney general has brought important clarity to the law through case adjudications and the department of justice is defending against challenges that would otherwise erode the integrity of immigration laws. Eoir continues to adjudicate cases fairly and expeditiously at unprecedented levels, but adjudication alone will not resolve the crisis at the border. To compare it to a congress act as well. The department has proposed numerous changes that would strengthen the immigration system as a whole including consolidating federal appeals and one circuit, clarifying the socalled categorical approach, and revising statutory language the Supreme Court has found unconstitutionally vague. We stand ready to continue to work with congress to strengthen existing laws and more effectively address many challenges facing. The immigration system today. Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify and i will be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you, mr. Mchenry. I will do some question. Normally, i would defer. There are a couple things that popped out at me. Talked about der oh ero docket of can we start reconciling the numbers and what they mean . I will defer to mr. Benner regarding the 3 million caseload, but i think they are already filed final that have to be processed or reviewed. On our side, the caseload has increased almost exponentially over the past decade but it has increased considerably in the past three years. Most of that appears to be driven by changes to the border. Our judges are adjudicating cases efficiently as they possibly can. As i alluded to, we made significant improvements. But again, the pending caseload is just the most recent one, about half of the one million. What is the other half . Cases filed in a prior fiscal year. Or they are cases taking long to adjudicate. Pending is just this years cases . Pending is all cases as of the end of the fiscal year. Filed that year or in a prior year. I think we stopped doing this, the administratively closing some of these cases. I think there are hundreds of thousands that have been closed. Is that true . Approximately there are 320,000 case is still administratively closed. They are not included in the one million total. And the 3 million cases, those have been adjudicated, so those are off the department of justice docket in your lap, so they have been adjudicated and basically ordered fort removal, correct . Correct. Its a little confusing on the isket, but the 3 million inclusive of eoir plus the added the delta peer the difference already been have through the adjudication process and already in front of the ij. Finalave an order of removal. A lot of them in next absent chair recently with expedited dockets of family units. Final orders of removal were ordered in absentia, meaning no one shows up. Which brings me to the next question. To what extent do we know where the 608,000 people are on that chart . Again, im just talking about the children and family units that came in last year. Do we know where those people are . When i was on the border, i realize they give addresses, but they dont necessarily show up. Can we comment on the extent we actually keep track of where the people are . We dont, largely, as evidenced in the fact that those families were issued a notice to appear. Unless they are put on some alternative to detention or monitoring system, we have a higher rate of knowing where people are thats a low percentage, correct . Our capacity is around 160,000 people in fiscal year 2019 going through the atd was anklehether it bracelet, monitoring, phone check ins and other technology. Smaller percentage. We have some feel in terms of the successful asylum claims after the adjudication process . Ive heard Different Things as. Ow as 9 , 15 , 20 whats the best information in terms of these family units . Im focusing on that problem for successful asylum claims. The overall rate is 20 . Historically, it has been below 25 for the last four or five years. The rates for northern triangle countries are even lower. Basically, it is one out of five. People are coming to improve their lot in life. Surprised, but not shocked last week where we had the director of fbi and the counterterrorism say not one of those three individuals even mentioned gangs. Oral testimony about that. With el of what we saw chapos son being arrested and mexico having to get him back, the murder of the nine mormons, to what extent is that drug cartel, that kind of violence, how has that spilled over the border . I would think in terms of gangs, the drug distribution, those people turn themselves in. That allows people to get away. I would think those are gang members, drug kingpins, people, as soon as we put somebody way, we bring somebody else to manage in operation. To what extent is that spilling over the border and are we at risk . Mr. Morgan . Morgan in fiscal year 2019, we apprehended over 1200 gang members from 20 different gangs. Every local Law Enforcement know the drugtool that organizations use our gang members. That is how you apprehended. That is the question we dont talk about. We estimated 150 thousand individuals we did not catch. In one year. 150,000. Those are running for the border, trying to avoid apprehension so the conversation we need to have, there is a chunk of those people that are bad people. Criminal aliens. Gang members. The numbers are staggering. Everybody should be alarmed by that. I could not get this out of the fbi director. Do we have some estimate of how many gang members are in this country . Is it a growing number are we battling that . I would say i would handed over. Really good have statistical reporting on the number of types of gang members. Ms 13 we have been focusing on the last two years, in the range of 800010,000 ms 13 members. The eleen working with salvador in National Police to get an understanding of the flows out of the United States through dhs and isis removals, and also understanding what the population is in el salvador that may be looking to travel. Is it your sense this is a growing problem . Something that is contained . I want some kind of sense. It is not contained. It is growing. The cartels, specifically the mexican cartels thrive off of gang members. They need those gang members to infiltrate every state to further their drug scheme they do. From our perspective, the numbers are not getting better. We need to talk more about the numbers we dont catch. I am overtime. You, mr. Chairman. Mr. Morgan, effective training ensures our Border Patrol agents execute their mission with the highest degree of professionalism. Outning sessions keep them of costly and timeconsuming disciplinary investigations. We want them to be able to do that professionally. I dont see the need for training as a criticism for the men and women who serve in these Critical Roles. It is a recognition they are in a challenging environment that is highly dynamic. If you look at the department of defense, they put folks out of harms way way without extensive training. Certainly when it comes to private industry, they are trained so there employees understand the best way to increase productivity. Is, how many hours of training do new agents receive . Border skit about 700 hours of training. That. Os get less than only because some areas required for the Spanish Language is not as great. If they are assigned to those boards, they get around 80 hours. You are looking at in excess of 700 hours of basic training. Out. At is prior to going is there continuing education . Yes, sir. Two facets, one specific to their job skills, and another where we have all employees. Continuing ethics training, integrity training. Some new social Media Training. Many agents have faced disciplinary action . It has been consistent, 500. Nd 3000\ canould you agree programs reduce the incidence of misconduct that takes them off the line . Absolutely. Organizations obsess over leadership and training. Outso think well thought policies and plans and tools, another big area is resiliency to help that. Dowhat enhanced training they undertake after the misconduct involving social media use and harassment . Its a good question. Team. Oud of the they got together across the board and developed a first time social Media Training package that was mandatory for every single employee. That course was launched in july of this year. Had a 99 to say we Completion Rate of that training. The next question is for the whole panel. The administration has implemented a number of operational changes that have individualson attempting to seek asylum in the country. These include the migrant protection protocols which have forced thousands of families to wait in some dangerous areas in mexico while they wait for their claims to be heard. Rapid deportation has allowed agents to do asylum screening interviews. I want to say are most important responsibility is to keep our nation safe. I know all of you share that. We can also secure our borders and make sure families fleeing persecution have a fair process. We can do both. That is something we can do as a country. In light of the reports detailing kidnappings, sexual violence, extortion, disappearance and murder youeted at migrants, are considering revisiting the migrant protection protocols . Any thoughts about that given the things we have seen . Mr. Morgan . Morgan i think we have to, one reason why that started, we had over 20,000. It was overcrowded. Unbelievable. And now we have about 3500 people in our facilities. Butcrowding has all evaporated. Just recently with the department along with the International Office of migration and other advocacy groups and ngos, they went to mexico and visited several shelters. Two shelters had persistent Law Enforcement presence. Found them to have adequate food, its header a new what we are hearing those are some facts. Morether facts, who has a structured approach to the information, because they actually interview the migrants and ask if they want to return. They are saying they stay in the shelter environment. The issue we are receiving, somewhat anecdotal, the issue is when the individuals leave the shelter environment and go out on their own or they are reengaging the human smuggling organizations to come back illegally. Recidivism rate. That is an area where they are exploited again with respect to that. Anybody else . Data . Have or are the stories. These are troubling reports. Back to our point, we have spoken about this, what is the data to support what you are saying . Mr. Morgan that is tough. You are spot on. We should try to get that data. The data is not there. We are dealing with another country. A lot of the information is anecdotal. We are trying to visit the shelters. Interagency groups, nonprofit organizations, we are dealing this on a daily basis to get that data. The data is not there. Those reports are not unsubstantiated by the mexican military. It is hard to get the data. The data we can get is again we were at 20,000 in may. Now we are down to 3500 in custody. 140,000 apprehensions. Now 1400 today. One large reason is because mexico has stepped up and agreed to meet us as partners and see this as a regional crisis. Because of that we are seeing capacity go down, apprehensions go down. That data i have. Add, i was handed a note, apparently a group issued a report and said there were 300 43 cases of violence or threats out of 57,000 individuals. Everyone is a problem. 57,000 ties into what mr. Morgan was talking about. I would like to enter that in the record and we will check the veracity of it. Time anybody, any person if they have a concern, all they have to do is come to a port of entry and express that and they will be given due process. You. Ank thank you for the work you are doing and standing up for the laws in the United States. Let me add a voice i hear of people who are grateful for the work that is happening. We have laws in our country. You and your teams are stepping up and enforcing the law. Thank you for doing that. Thestened to some of current debate nationally. There is a move to transition dhs to be more like readers of the border then there is Law Enforcement. Im grateful we have Law Enforcement folks therefore the stories you told about some of the risks. I have a series of questions. , talking to the folks, most of them said we needed ice help. They are doing soft sided facilities, which i want to talk about. There was a push to say the Biggest Issue is not enough capacity with ice. Understand those groups of folks who want to abolish ice and not have it at all. Pointo you need at this to be able to manage the surge of people coming out . Number one, detention beds and capacity is a big issue that affects the ecosystem of enforcement of immigration laws. The funding levels of 2019, 45000al year and change. For families0 beds at residential centers. We were operating at a high of 58,000, well over our appropriate levels. We do want to live within our means. However the operational reality in responding to the crisis forced us to make some decisions about how to acquire more beds. Numbers ifsurge up you had more funding . Quality facilities and what they are managing right now to the border. They are trying to manage, they are not just going to release people on the street. To manage what you get. Goyou have the capability to up. Yes, sir. And we wont bring that online unless it meets our standards. Sometimes the challenges making sure they meet the standards we are committed to to putting detainees into. Some proactive planning would be the ability to have a certain number of beds likeable and empty, almost emergency preparedness. Fema stores supplies and assets that they would need to respond to in a natural disaster. We should have 5000 beds ready to go to immediately address a spike in numbers of the border. That cost money. They are empty and available. They are ready to go in the case of emergency. Guess of what a that might be on cost . I do have estimates. Im happy to provide those to you. Let me switchover. Do to manage to that capacity, around 200 billion a year. That is a pretty big cost. There was no place to go to ramp up. What is the status on those . How many facilities do we have . Some of them are great. They are well managed. They are fully stocked. How many of those do we have. We have multiple facilities. Designed for families, designed designed dults, it is costing a tremendous amount of money. We have talked about this. Thent want to look up definition of insanity and have a picture of our facility. We have to change how we do this. Acting Deputy Director said it best. We need a surge capacity. Permanent establish facilities, strategic locations that are multi use buildings they give us those capabilities to turn on the lights and give us capacity. We are not in the position this year where we did have to release individuals, tens of thousands on a regular basis. Avoiding to have to rampup. Year ice hadhis ins into custody. Infrastructure and transportation and all of those efforts were doing their best to relieve the pressure at the border. Theres one other aspect. On the other end of the equation, attorneys that represent the government in Immigration Court. Helpful tos been capacity,judges and the ice attorney levels have remained flat. With that docket of one million at any given point, we need to look at the ability to surge our attorney population to service the increase. Glovek that is a hand in they have to go together. Mississippi this past year. You mentioned that for ice and the interior picking up 86 of those folks that had a criminal record. Know. Important to 86 of the folks have a criminal record. When ice carried out that raid, there was questions. There were hundreds of people that were not legally present that had employment in mississippi. Help us understand, in states that have done everify, how are that many illegal employed . You had multiple companies claiming to be participants in everify. They had registered. When we investigated with our partners at ice how many of the individuals they had utilized, it came to a handful. Less than 20. You know the hundreds that were identified working there illegally. Consequenceituted for businesses that participate complyrify but do not with the terms of that participation, such as the businesses in mississippi. We will terminate them from the everify program. So they cannot shield, as they did. Used it once last year on one guy. They can do that any longer. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for your service. To the men and women who work for you, it is a tough job. It looks like from the numbers theres been success in reducing the number of people crossing the border. It is still a lot of people relative to the historical numbers. 64 increase decrease, that is positive. In terms of the pressure you feel and the infrastructure feels and i saw when i was down there, it is better. I dont think we understand what happened, although commissioner morgan talked about the Mexico Program and how that is working. Can you tell us about what you think the other factors are . Can you give me the top three reasons. You said a reduction. And also how has the makeup changed . We have seen there are fewer Central Americans, more from mexico. Is that accurate . Are they family members claiming asylum . Can you give us a sense of what is going on and why . The changing demographics is key. Demographics have changed. From the northern triangle countries. Year, weirst time this are seeing mexican nationals taking over a larger percentage than individuals from northern triangle countries. The specific families and unaccompanied minors are drastically being reduced for the first time. Kids thatfamilies and task our system. Hands down the government of mexico, their effort is number one. I would call exit code number one and number two. With the national guard. Over 25,000 troops. They strengthened their border between mexico and the United States and have targeted operations, human smuggling. 213iscal year 2019 we had groups. Last month we had two. Their is strengthening enforcement. Hey are supporting mpp that has been a game changer. That isd element impacting what we have done with the northern trying oh countries. They have joined us. They are trying to strengthen and increase their asylum capacity. They have worked with us to expedite the removal of their individuals through different electronic verification and other techniques to allow us to return those individuals. The last thing, this administration that has continued to work in the Legal Framework and push, even though the judicial activism has hindered us, we continue to push. There,ylum that is out thats another Significant Initiative we are able to use to return individuals. As the weather gets warmer, more people tend to cross. Im not suggesting we dont need the surge capacity. This does give us a breather. Concernedi have been about going back to 2015 is the issue of kids and the lack of communication between hhs and dhs. My sense is we are doing better now. With this law i would hope we can do a better job of providing information about these children to understand what is happening with these kids and where they are. These are children. And get them reunited with their families. Its in everybodys interest, including the administration when we lost kids. Can you tell us where we are on that in terms of providing information . You mentioned mpp. The same issue. If the kids are separated, some are in the United States, the parents are in mexico. How are we providing that information . This is in everybodys interest. I will turn to my colleagues on the question about the o. R. Issue. We would not return apparent to mexico and keep the child. If we decide to separate based on a criteria like the parent is a convicted murderer, rapist, etc. , for the safety of the child we would separate that child from the parent. The child would be provided to hhs and we would keep the parent in the United States. Ok. We will follow up on that. We are hearing other things about separation and i want to make sure we understand it well. To the drug issue. Said we are all border states. Ohio is hit hard with crystal meth right now. It is coming from mexico. Opioidshit hard with and now we see more fentanyl coming. It used to be from china through the mail system. Now we see it through mexico. The cartels are very involved with this. A lot of money in it. As the numbers of crossings have gone down, we get a sense the drug flow has not. I asked this question last week. Theid a hearing and we had right people there to talk about what was happening in terms of the drug threat. He indicated even though there is a decrease in people coming across, theres not a decrease in the flow of drugs. Is that accurate . Yes. That is accurate. I will tell you what our concern is right now. The number of seizures of fentanyl from china are way down. Coming through the small quantities through the mail facilities. We seethed over 1000 pounds more fentanyl. That increase is mexico. The mexican cartels have jumped into that fentanyl space. My concern is that the trend of the super labs, which we have seen with methamphetamine for three years is that the fentanyl problem translates into the same super lab problem we are facing. What do you mean by that . Address this issue, weve got to understand it. I hear Different Things from different individuals. It seems you are right. Fentanyl kills more people from overdoses then all other drugs. Not china to mexico, it is produced in mexico. Shut down. Re it is processed to there. Is that accurate . Yes. What we saw in ohio was the domestic pill press operations, and individual orders relatively pure fentanyl from china and produce pills that are killing people. What we see now is the precursor chemicals to make fentanyl going from china to mexico where it is processed and assembled in mexico in so the number of seizure incidents have gone down, but the amounts and the weights have gone up. Shipments,ng bigger better quality, higher purity, and much more productivity. It is manufacturing 101. Kind ofa supply chain economy. We can apply the same lessons and rules i would love to follow you followup with you on this. We talked about a trilateral approach here, china, mexico, and the u. S. , because of there is flow from china. Can you followup with me on that and see how we can better target the cartels and the real problem here . Mr. Benner absolutely. Ohio, wed an office in doubled our footprint in other places. Thank you. I want to point out there is , reportingt article that a council on Foreign Relations paper says in 2016, americans spent nearly 150 billion dollars on cocaine, heroin, meth, and marijuana. These drugling cartels, which are operating in over a largeing number of communities inside mexico, Central America. They are untouchable. That bleeds over to other parts of society in terms of extortion. This is americas insatiable demand for drugs. Mr. Cuccinelli. I want to seize on your word impunity. We cant go too deep on it here, but they dont have to. Convexity ur capacity can help make sure that doesnt happen. I think that is a longer discussion for another day. There is a major difference between the gangs we are talking about and the cartels we are talking about. Literally at every level from the street all the way up to the kind of manufacturing that mr. Benner is talking about, and the nature of the organizations and what they are willing to do. They do not have to be able to act way they are acting if we take unified action as a nation to counter that. In mexico ornge is Central America, we have drug basically controlling the economies of the communities. Communityyou have a of 10,000 people completely dependent on the drug trade. It will be difficult to take out that kingpin. There are plenty of people standing behind him. Massive grown to such a problem, which is why it is so difficult for governments in mexico and Central America to do with it, but the point is this is american demand for drugs. I will refer to senator carper. Thank. Rper . You all. Good to see you we begin by saying, my colleagues have heard me say ad nausea, everything i do, i know i can do better. I think its true of all of us. Think one of the keys to making progress is to point to the constitution, starting with these words, we the people of the United States, in order to form a more Perfect Union it doesnt say perfect, it is a more perfect. The goal is that we will aim high. We recentlying is had testimony before the environment of public works , a top official of the department of commerce from wyoming, hes in charge of National Parks and the fish and wildlife service, and he said he has worked for the republican senator from wyoming. Testimony that the most Lasting Solutions are bipartisan solutions. You have people in this committee that are pretty good at that. We need to have partners in this administration that are pretty good at that as well. Forth done some back and between this hearing and the other committee on nuclear safety, which is important. For many years, i have a real appreciation for nuclear safety. I want to come back to some of what i heard. Mr. Morgan, what i heard you say, one of things i wrote down, not a single piece of legislation i think passed by this congress to fight this battle. Thatld just remind us all we could build a wall from sea to shining sea. I support barriers. I support billions of dollars for barriers. I voted for money, we have voted for millions of dollars. We have voted to raise the authorization. For the number of Border Patrol, 21,000 borderk patrol officers now. Aboutk we are down to 20,000. We provide the money to fully fund those positions. I voted for aircraft, helicopters, improving intelligence, we provided money for boats, boat ramps, money for forces. Horses. All kinds of force multipliers. Congress has not been a good partner i think is just unfair and untrue. I would just keep that in mind. We want to focus on the c. Compromise, communicate. Comprehensive Community Immigration reform. We had bipartisan support led by john mccain and others 6, 7, eight years ago. Two thirds voted in the senate. That is not a cure all, its part of the solution. It would nice be nice to have a president who is a partner. We have talked about the need for comprehensive Immigration Reform and then he walks it back. We need him to enforce the idea and engage and not walk it back. The other thing i would say is senator peters and i have been to Central America together a number of times. Struck by howbeen folks down there live lives of misery. Youve seen it, i have cnet. If i have lived down there with my family, i would want to get out, too. If they want to have a better prosperity, put several billions of dollars now into three buckets. One of those is hope and economic opportunity. That is one of the main drivers to cause people to leave their countries. The second is crime and violence. Corruption, which is an endemic in those countries. I will give you a tale of two cities, only it is three countries. On the one hand, el salvador, new president , youve probably met him. Impressive former mayor of san salvador. Young guy, not even 40 years old. Different kind of a generation. He replaced a 75yearold former leftist guerrilla leader. The money we are poking putting in those three buckets in el salvador, very well used. If you look at the murder rates, it is encouraging. If you look at whats happening Juan Hernandez ran for president a second time. The constitution in that country says you can only be president for four years. He on the Supreme Court said there constitution was basically unconstitutional. And uproar in the country has just destroyed a lot of the progress made in the country. Whats noteworthy, for the last two or three years, we have not had an ambassador to that country. If we had had an ambassador in that country, some people who are accomplished, that would never have happened. We would never have allowed that to happen. Jimmy mireles was sworn in as a president of guatemala. Very encouraging. What wastform his motto . Neither a thief nor corrupt. And he is so disappointed. His family is disappointed. Now they have a new election and new leadership. We need to be fully engaged through ambassadors and usaid. In some cases, the president and , they need to show we have expectations. The money we are putting into prosperity is not money that is just u. S. Money. We are leveraging other money. In elery dollar we put in salvador, we leverage seven. They put in money, private Companies Put in money, that is the expectation. We have the criteria to measure that they should be getting things done. Unfortunately, the president suspended money to all of the. Is last thing, secretary did he leaving, at least restore the funding we authorized for the Security Side for those countries. Normally, i dont go through this kind of statement when addressing the witnesses, but i just want to say we need to be on the same page where we can, we need to be principled, and look at the policies. The suit suggesting that we have done nothing is just not true. I yield the floor. Cannot just respond . You have had a lot of time to speak already. Lets let somebody else talk. Thank you. If you want to quickly respond. You dont want to . Ok. Mr. Cuccinelli, i have a number of things here. We will be closing this hearing out here. Credible fear, the numbers you talked about referral, you said 5000, 10,000 ago. Ago 5000 10 years we have over 600,000 families this year. I thought they were all claiming credible fear. Compareda low number to family units and unaccompanied children . The children typically flow right into hhs when they are unaccompanied. They are not typically thats a relatively low percentage of the overall numbers. Thats right. You also dont have the mpp pieces in that credible fear. But thats a pretty small amount, 57,000. Can anyone explain the discrepancy . I would have thought you would have had hundreds of thousands of referrals. Right. You would expect perhaps to see the numbers matching at least the family why dont they . I dont have an answer as to why they dont. Does anybody . The credible fear process is only triggered typically when someone is subject to an expedited removal order. If they dont go through the expedited removal so the bottom line is we let hundreds of thousands of people in and they did not even have to claim credible fear . Thats correct. Thats pretty noteworthy. I want people to understand that. They did not even have to claim the unbelievably low standard, that by and large, 20 , or even lower, and they dont even have an asylum claim. Thats one of the parts i was talking about about the legislation that does need to get past. The Settlement Agreement says we can only detain people for 20 days. Thats whats driving us. There is not time to do the proper vetting we need to do. Mr. Cuccinelli, do you know of another nation other than germany for a couple years with the syrian migrant flow that grants legal permanent residency millions per year . No, not even close. Space,the humanitarian america is number one. I have people come up and basically lobby me and say it is outrageous we reduced the number of refugees now to 15,000. I point out to them thats the official total, but you are ignoring the 608,000 people who have common who would basically be refugees as well. Thats the problem with the illegal flow. It affects the legal flow. Absolutely. We had almost 80,000 asylum cases last year, same Legal Standard as refugees. Its the same type of population, but they are landing at our border and on our soil, so we are shifting resources to contend with it. That backlog continues to grow. We are at over 340,000 cases and growing. Someone said 87 of the people we are taking enforcement action against have criminal records. Define criminal records. Is it because they have overstayed visas . Is that felonious other than immigration felonious behavior . It could include felony immigration charges. Typically it is not a visa overstayed. It is someone with a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge. Officers0,000 the ero arrested in the interior. But it would be nice to separate im not understanding the concern of breaking understood immigration laws, but it would be nice to have that split in terms of felonious behaviors. Is it immigration or is it literally rape, assault, murder . Thats good data to have. I do have some data and im happy to provide this to you after the hearing. Good. We will take that and enter it in the record. Dna testing. Beinging done by cbp, done by i. C. E. , correct . We are hearing these children being used. Time and time again. I cant help but think of a as ae girl who gets used false family, goes through that dangerous journey, gets sent back to Central America, goes through the dangerous journey again, when she gets old enough, she is just put into the sex trade . What are we fighting in terms of data for false families . The rapid dna was by far the most criminal critical investigative tool for furniture lint family units that went to the border fraudulent family units that went to the border. Aboutnd with rapid dna 13 to 15 hit rate on fraudulent families. Initially when we first got there during the height of the crisis, we were showing percentages about 20 , 25 . The amount of fraud was rampant. Word spread, the cartels are the best advertisers of what works and what doesnt. Within a short period of time, it was getting back to the organizations that needed to pay for it operations pivot operations. You mentioned operation noble guardian. This was efforts to look at the back end of the equation were fraudulent families were released into the interior and the children were separated from unrelated adults and taken to an airport and flown to the northern triangle. We have identified over 600 children that have been recycled in this methodology. We interviewed several of the children as they were departing the u. S. Some of them had indicated they had made the trip as many as eight times with separate unrelated adults every time. And again, i have to point out, the 600 are the people we catch. We dont even know how many people we dont. We dont understand the magnitude of this problem. I just want to make a final point. I want to have mr. Morgan comment on this. We have a completely unsecure border on our side of the border. But the southwest border is 100 secure, basically, or close to 100 on the southern side, right . Migrants are not passing, drugs are not passing. It is controlled. It is possible if we actually have the will to do so. Bothorgan i agree on fronts. The Mexican Border is controlled by the cartels. Nothing passes through without the cartels. You are 100 correct. I think its important when we talk about securing the border, part of the narrative we need to get better at is not just about the immigration issue. Its about the humanitarian issue and National Security. Drugs are pouring into the country. Cbp alone, over 750,000 pounds of drugs, all for the hard narcotics went up last year. 68,000 deaths due to overdose. 70,000 the year before. We need to secure this border. People are dying every day because the border is not secure. And as long as we have laws that are so easily exploitable by the human traffickers where they literally can surge, and one time in el paso, 1000 people, its easy for six or seven or 100 to get through, to replenish the gang members. Thats the reality. Thats right. When we talk about the security of the southern border, we cannot separate the migration flow from the National Security side. They are interconnected. Smugglers dont care, they are interconnected. Sen. Peters i would like to talk a little bit of about about abstention yeah cases. That aliens who failed to appear at their andings have taxed the ero eoir resources to an incredible degree. I am holding a redacted notice to appear that was issued earlier this year. I ask unanimous consent this can be entered into the record. A sevenyearold child, unaccompanied trial, was given an nta without specific hearing dates or locations, thus making it difficult to avoid the and im glading, you agree it taxes our resources. How is a sevenyearold supposed to navigate the court system if basic information is not provided in the form you give to a sevenyearold child . Im not specifically familiar without form, so i cant guarantee it was filed, that it wasnt rejected by the court. What i can say is there are regulations that dictate how service must be accomplished on someone who is underage. Typically if someone is under the age of 14, it has to be served on a custodian or parent, someone else other than a sevenyearold. Again, im not familiar with this specific case. I would like to go through what those procedures are that may be beyond the scope of what we can do now, but i think the office would like to talk to what the procedures are that a migrant will need to have to appear. The regulations do typically spell out what is required in a notice. There has been litigation in the past year. We also have internal guidance when we reject notices for not having sufficient or correct information. And we would like data on all that as well, back to the hearing. Sed the dhs office of Inspector General reported participants in family Case Management program, which has issued an alternative to detention program, had a 100 attendance at court hearings. What are your agencies doing to expand on these programs under the recently provided appropriations that were provided to agencies . If we could have some comment . Mr. Morgan . Dontrgan so we participate in any alternative detentions. That would be i. C. E. Or ero. I didnt know it was quite 100 , i thought it was in the high 90 . Excellent. The challenge with alternative detention is the limited amount of those resources to keep that monitoring on throughout the dependency of a total hearing process. The fc mp provided for that. We were continually monitoring and providing that level of engagement that certainly increased the level of participation showing up for hearings and check ins at a higher rate. My understanding is that that was a pilot and we are not currently running fcmp at the moment. I want to go back and double check that so i am providing accurate information. We would like that. You say its a pilot in the high 90s, seems like a pretty successful pilot. Why isnt it expanded . Thats the whole idea of having pilots. the challenge i think is the program was capped at 119,000. Those assets are recycled as people go off of atd. They have new people coming. I mentioned earlier the number was about 160,000 that had gone through it. Certainly it is just a dedication of a lot more resources in a more intensive way. Ouruld be happy to bring folks that manage that program and come and talk about it more specifically. We would like that because you have to look at the alternative to have them not show up, also is a tax on the system as mr. Mchenry said. We have to take a look at that and i look forward to doing that. Mr. Mchenry, the current Immigration Court backlog including asylum backlog has ballooned. You mentioned approximately one million cases now. One of the stated causes is a lack of Immigration Judges and staff. Under the recent supplemental appropriated 135 Million Dollars for the hiring of 30 teams, 10 Million Dollars in court space, and more for the program. What is the progress now . I believe we fomented all of it except maybe. 1 by the aid end of the fiscal year. How many immigration judge teams are on board with law clerks . Currently 439. We brought a class in september. Thats the hiring of the additional teams . Thats all . We have another class in two weeks. We are averaging one class per quarter. The former formal operation is 534. And you have identified new courtroom spaces . Yes, we have it planned through at least 2021. Have Program Sites been highlighted for expansion . Not to my knowledge, but that is an issue with the contractor and not us. Thank you. A quick followup. If we have 500 34 times 708 cases per judge per year, thats 378,000 we could adjudicate per year. Is that policy bill is that possible . We also need i. C. E. Attorneys to adjudicate those cases, correct . We believe its possible. Absolutely, senator. Looking at the current docket, detained, nondetained, we are about 800 attorneys short in the office of legal representatives. As eoir expands into areas where we have no attorneys, you can imagine the challenge of finding space for attorneys and getting folks into that to represent the government in Immigration Court. Needs deportation officers and staff to facilitate the movement of people in and out of courts as well. Be ecosystem needs to equally resourced in order to be effective. Test. Test. Test. Test. T be ablg down the backlog . I hate to staff up for that kind of flow, it is putting a bandaid on the problem, but that being the case, do you agree with mr. Benner that we really do need the full team . We need to fund the adjudicators from i. C. E. As well. I do. Historically, it has been one or the other. Dhs was getting funded and immigrations werent. Judges aremmigration funded and others are not. We need to make that a really important point. A lot of things senator peters was talking about with the adjudication process, i think this is open for a hearing in and of itself. I will ask all of you to be thinking about what information, what kind of data, caseload, the percentage of people given valid asylum claims. This is data we need if we are going to craft legislation to solve that problem. I want to thank the witnesses for appearing before us for the thoughtful testimony and answers to the questions. I want to thank the men and women who serve with you in your agencies and departments. Its unbelievable to me that Law Enforcement has come under such attack. Its completely uncalled for. Secretary kelly when he was secretary of Homeland Security, came before us and said, i will not apologize for the men and women of my department for enforcing the law. Thats their job. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is Border Protection. Nobody should apologize for that. Theink the men and women, people i speak to show a great deal of compassion to those individuals seeking better opportunity. They are trying to deal with an overwhelming problem. As secretary kelly said at that point in time as well, if we dont like the law, it is our responsibility to have the skill and courage to change it. I dont have colleagues appear, but thats the message i have four colleagues on this committee. Lets have the skill and courage to admit we have a problem, go through this process, identify the problem, the root causes, establish an achievable goal or goals and craft legislation on a nonpartisan basis. , anybodymagine anybody that is satisfied with the current situation. We can argue about how many ,egal immigrants should come in those are concerns, but nobody should be arguing we should allow this uncontrolled flow with all the human suffering associated with it and the billions of dollars we are allowing to flow into the pockets of some of the most evil human beings on the planet again, thank you and the men and women you serve. Forrecord will remain open 15 days for the submission of statement and questions. This hearing is adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]