Transcripts For CSPAN3 Immigration Officials Testify On Procedures To Prevent Fiance Visa Fraud 20170317

Within t90 days. This is just under two hours. Normally i dont see reading until the ranking democrat gets here, but theres a vote going on so this is the way im going to handle the meeting. Im going to call on the senator because he has an important meeting to go to so i want him to make his statement and ill make my statement and ill introduce the first panel and then we wont do anything after that. Proceed. Thank you for doing this. Its out of order and for those who are new i appreciate the courtesy extended to me. Im Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Committee and we have a closed door hearing recollectio hearing, but i wanted to be here because im the ranking democratic member on the immigration subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary committee. I did that for several reasons. I am the son of an immigrant. My mother came to this country at the age of 2. I am honored to be a first generation american. If you come to my office youll see my mothers naturalization certificate as a reminder of who i am and what america is. It was 116 years ago since her boat landed in baltimore and i have made this journey to washington to represent the great state of illinois. Im sure when my mothers ship landed there were people that said not more of those people and they came down the steps and became part of america and thats why im here today. Now weve seen in the last few weeks an absolute upheaval. You know what i found friday when i went back to chicago . I went to one of the largest law firms in our city. There was pro bono awards for the attorneys at that firm who have really gone above and beyond their professional call of duty to help the less fortunate and not get paid for it. Theyve done some amazing things. When i asked them what are you working on now, they said 50 attorneys were leaving for a meeting at church on sunday in chicago. They were hoping to find another 50 to join them. Do you know why theyre going . Theyre going to prepare guardianship papers for the families of those who fear deportation. Mothers and fathers are meeting with these volunteer lawyers to draw up papers so if theyre snatched away from work, put on a plane and deported, someone will take care of their children. Imagine the mind of that parent facing that prospect. Imagine how you would feel. That is what immigration is at this moment. The angxiety and stress and fea across america is palpable. I am sure that fiancee visa fraud is an important issue. For goodness sakes, isnt it time that this committee and this immigration subcommittee take up some of the fundamentals of immigration . Just a few years ago we passed a comprehensive bill. I thought it was a step forward. I agreed to an obscene amount of money for boarder protection. I choked on it, but i voted for it because i knew what the rest of the bill said and how important it was. Wouldnt it be good if we could return to that moment and bring that moment forward. Thank you. To the subject of today over the last several years this committee has heard testimony about the various ways that individuals scam our Immigration Laws using visa categories offered by our federal immigration system. Today we oversight one category of immigration fraud that often goes unreported and forgotten, marriage fraud. Recent reports have shown that the number of Foreign Nationals who defraud american citizens to enter our country and receive a green card is increasing very rap rapidly. In fact, petitions for the k1 fiancee visa have been increasing every year. The state department issued 44,000 in fiscal year 2016, a 27 increase since 2012. 89 of the k1 visa petitions are approved by citizenship and Immigration Services. Marriage provides one of the quickest paths to citizenship. Thats why abuse of the k1 visa category is concerning. It provides Foreign Nationals almost immediate access to the United States and the benefits of u. S. Citizenship. Petitions for k1 fiancees are quickly processed and approved in about eight to 12 months, compared to very much longer wait times and restrictions in other visa categories. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pursued more than 13,000 document and benefit Fraud Investigation reports from 2012 to 2015. That includes hundreds of arrests more marriage fraud, but the government cannot provided statistics of the exact numbers. This type of visa requires citizenship and Immigration Services and the state department to play a role that can be categorized as immigration marriage police. The government has to determine whether the intent to marry is genuine or just for immigration purposes. Today we will hear about their efforts to identify and prevent marriage fraud. Of course u. S. Citizens should be free to marry Foreign Nationals. Nobody questions that. But for fraudulent engagements and marriages harm u. S. Citizens who are manipulated and used for immigration benefits and Foreign Nationals who legitimately want to marry an american. This kind of fraud can also pose risks to our economy, Public Safety and National Security. There are many different ways that a con artist can commit marriage fraud. The most heart breaking is when a Foreign National dupz a u. S. Citizen into believing that theyre in fact in love. Upon entry, the Foreign National often drags out the engagement or abandons the u. S. Sponsor then becoming a visa overstay or the Foreign National will leave the marriage as soon as they obtain a green card. Today we will hear from victims of this type of marriage fraud. One man is a naturalized citizen and cardiologist in california who has lived in the u. S. For 20 years. He petitioned for a k1 visa for his fiancee who is a Pakistani National who he met while visiting his family. Instead of marrying him, his fiancee abandoned him fleeing the home around the time the 90 day visa expired. The next victim is ms. Lopez who met her exhusband while traveling in the United States. He was a Dutch National who proposed to her telling her he wanted to grow old with her. However shortly before their second anniversary he said they were getting a divorce and he married her only for the green card. She refused to continue sponsoring for a green card, he abused her and threatened to kill her. However, not all cases are one sided. Sometimes all parties, including the u. S. Citizen, knowingly enter into relationships with the intent of getting a visa and making a profit. For example, recently three individuals pled guilty to a large marriage fraud scheme in which they posed as attorneys and charged chinese nationals up to 50,000 to set up sham marriages. These shams led to 70 fraudulent marriages. In another case a woman in the bronx married ten men from 1999 to 2010 charging them 5,000 to 10,000 each. At one point she was married to eight of them at the same time. Among them was an alleged terrorist who was deported in 2006 for making threats against the United States one of the San Bernardino shooters came to the United States on a k1 visa. Not only are these cases full of fraud and deceit, theyre a serious threat to National Security. Visas are used by human traffickers to lure innocent women and innocent men into their underground industries. A 2016 Inspector General report found 274 subjects of isis Human Trafficking investigations has successfully petitioned to bring fiancees to the United States. More needs to be done to close the vulnerabilities in our system, identify nefarious individuals who fraudulently say i do and pursue actions against fiancees who overstay their welcome in disregard of the 90 day visa promigram requirements. Ive talked about our witnesses. I want to thank our witnesses for coming to testify, especially those who are here today to discuss details of their private personal experiences. I now call on the senator. Thanks very much. Im sorry to be late. I raced down to vote and got delayed on the way. You can probably figure out how. I want to thank you for holding this hearing and i want to particularly thank the doctor for being here. He is a californian from lakewood and i very much look forward to your testimony, doctor. Abuses of the fiancee visa are really startling. According to a january 4th, 2016, department of Homeland Security office of the Inspector General, the report states this and i quote, work and fiancee visas were the primary means by which known traffickers brought victims to the United States. Specifically the ig discovered 32 known human traffickers and let me just emphasize that these are people who are confirmed to be human traffickers who use the immigration system to bring victims to the country in the past 12 years. Out of these 32 known traffickers, the ig identified 17 instances where these known human traffickers use the fiancee visa or a work visa to bring victims to the United States. According to the ig, these victims were later then forced into involuntary servitude or prostitution. In order to coordinate the scheme, the traffickers would often confiscate the victims passport and subject them to involuntary servitude and force sex. Further the report states that 11 of the 18 suspects they reviewed had been arrested and or convicted for sex trafficking children. Another seven had been arrested and or convicted for labor trafficking or involuntary servitude. Lastly, the ig noted that an additional 274 individuals subject to Human Trafficking investigations successfully petitioned the department of Homeland Security to bring in 425 family members and mincefia, but the ig was not able to determine if these 425 individuals were also subject to prostitution and slavery. Meaning, there could be an additional 425 victims unknown to the government. Mr. Chairman, with your permission and hopefully without objection, id like to enter the igs january 4th, 2016 report into the record. Without objection it will be so introduced. Thank you. The numbers are startling. I hope the department is prepared to discuss the steps its taken to address these concerns raised by the ig. I also believe that this report is just another reason why the visas for victims of crimes, including Domestic Violence and rape and for the victims of Human Trafficking are vital to the integrity of our immigration system and quite frankly as instances like the igs report demonstrate our national is morally obligated to provide. I look forward to testimony from the witnesses and i thank you for holding this hearing. Thank you. Im going to introduce the witnesses. I mentioned ms. Lopez in my statement. She was married to a Dutch National who used her solely to get a green card after leaving her, ms. Lopez learned that her husband was very behind in Child Support of a previous marriage and had an extensive criminal history. She now works to help others in similar situations. Thank you for your humanitarian work. Grace ovain is from the asianpacific institute on gender violence. This organization is focused on gender violence in the Pacific Islands and works to improve the information that foreign fiancees receive about their perspective spouse and seeks to strength strength strengthen accountable for internationally Marriage Brokers that match perspective couples overseas. I also talked about mr. Husshus in my opening statement. Hes from pakistan and a cardiologist in california. His fiancee left him before the marriage and claimed that he abused her to seek an immigration visa. His story is another example of how innocent americans are being victimized in regard to k1 visa fraud. Im going to ask you to stand and id like to give you an oath at this point. If you would raise your right hand. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Please be seated and well go in the order in which i introduce you. So would you start out, ms. Lop lopez. Thank you, mr. Chairman, madam Ranking Member and other members of the judiciary committee. I was tricked by the love of my life. In 1998 i met a dutch man doing business in the United States. We immediately hit it off and we started dating long distance. We was romantic, kind and generous. During one of our many visits he proposed and pledged his love saying he wanted to grow old with me. Neither of us had much money. I had just put myself through college and i was a freelance political reporter. He said his limited income was needed to expand a new import export business. He suggested we get married in a civil ceremony giving us time to save up for a full wedding. When my stepmother objected he assured everyone we would have a better wedding the next year. I borrowed money from my mother to furnish our new apartment and to get him a computer so he wouldnt feel so isolated in his new homeland. When his visa was approved he came to the states and we were married. I thought we were happy. I paid the bills and set up retirement accounts and started paying back my mother. My husband found work, yet kept putting off that promised wedding and honeymoon. I become disturbed as he broke promises and then out of the blue on the night before our second anniversary he coldly announced we were divorcing. I assumed we were having marriage problems and suggested counseling and he refused. Then he said our marriage was nothing but a practiceality to get a green card. I was stunned and filed for a separation. Within days his parents confirmed this. When he caught wind of my Legal Proceedings and i was withdrawing my sponsorship he became violent. He threatened to kill me if i ever contacted immigration officials. A couple of days later he came home while i was packing. He insisted that no one would believe me about his violence and admissions and a few minutes later i was looking down the barrel of a rifle and he started shooting blanks at me and laughi laughing. I grabbed my keys and fled the house. Pennsylvania police genre furef take action. They were more worried if i was paid to marry my husband than if my husband was trying to kill me. His behavior had changed so abruptly that i wondered if i ever really knew who he was so i started trying to find out. I tracked down an exwife in europe who hadnt received Child Support in years. He was making 148,000. During their divorce eric stole their car for insurance, refused to pay Child Support and intimidated her into running a drug operation. She was terrified of eric, but she was more afraid of dutch Child Services taking her toddler away. She escaped the country. I tracked down erics former Business Partner who confirmed this. Then i found erics former boss who suspected him of embezeling company funds. I discovered the loan on my car changed and he took out credit in my name. When i contacted immigration investigators they said they get cases like mine all the time, but we were married for two years so he was pretty much guaranteed citizenship. I was running out of options. I hired a retired fbi special agent as a private investigator. If the Department Homeland security wasnt going to do its job, we would do it for them. If eric was inadmissible to get a green card and involved in criminal activities, lied on immigration forms, tried to kill me, repeatedly threatened any and committed marriage fraud, the feds would have to do something and i was wrong. Immigration officials refused to take our sworn statements or accept our evidence. I was, however, able to get a reserved protected address for Domestic Violence victims. Ill never know the extent of the fraud or criminal activities that eric committed, but i did my best to warn our country. Once i found out, my life has forever changed. I am now in hiding. I am putting myself in danger by even coming to this committee today. Ive been financially cleaned out and with the help of the government ive been made a victim of a onesided sham marriage. Although its difficult to relive the trauma that ive been through, i want to speak up in the hopes of helping other people to prevent this from happening to them. Thank you very much. Thank you for that outstanding testimony and im sorry that you do, but we would thank you for what youve come forward to tell us, even under the dangers you say you might face. I hope you dont face it. Thank you. Thank you chairman and distinguished members of the committee. As the policy director on gender based violence im honored to be here to able to comment on the impact of the system on immigrant survivors of domestic and Sexual Violence and human tracking. It is a National Resource center on violence and Human Trafficking and other forms of gender based violence serving a National Network of advocates and Community Based programs that work with victims as well as other immigrant victims of violence. To end sexual and Domestic Violence we have worked to educate society about addressing victim blame attitudes and make victims more accessible and advocating policies that support victims. As an organization that works to support healthy strong families, we believe in the importance of family based immigration. The u. S. Was founded by individuals seeking better opportunities and freedom for themselves and their families. Families are crucial to economic and social integration of new immigrants. In our work in the api community and immigrant communities we work to help support healthy Strong Family relationships. We appreciate the attention this committee is giving to this to improving our immigration system and reducing the possibility of fraud or abuse in this context. We know that when theres fraud and abuse, those System Resources are drained meaning fewer resources are available for those who need the most help. In examining changes to the immigration process, we urge you to be careful that the remedies dont undermine current protections which have proven to be a life line for the victims. With the least access to help and in the systems designed to protect them. We applaud the work of this committee in protecting the rights and protections of the survivors of Sexual Violence including the work that youve done to protect victims. Too often victims fear reaching out to police or seeking medical assistance. I want to thank you for your attention to this matter. The institutes local antiDomestic Violence have fac by victims, both by u. S. Citizen victims as well as the immigrant victims. Let me lay out recommendations for improving the screening process for k1 visas we believe would reduce the risk of abuse. And allowing loved ones to Stay Together and begin families. One issue weve identified is in the context of engagement or marriage that a person has been threatened to enter, by either their family or abusive partner. Victims are particularly vulnerable to Domestic Violence, and other forms of coercion and intimidation and abuse, not only to force them into an unwanted marriage, but also to prevent them from being able to leave the marriage after it takes place. Either u. S. Citizen sponsor or foreign beneficiary may be the victim of this coercive pressure and minors are particularly vulnerable because theyre unable to assert their own rights in terms of seeking protections. While the u. S. Citizen sponsor must be at least 18, because they have to execute an affidavit of support, theres no minimum age requirement for the foreign beneficiary. Exceptions allow a waiver of the otherwise standard requirement that the parties are married that the parties to be married must have met previously, which can potentially mask a marriage that is not bona fide, not entered with sufficient information about the intended spouse or that its being forced by an individuals family. Finally, the limited time frame of the kviza can come peel either sponder to proceed in the face of misgivings. That is to potentially discount abusive treatment by the fiance as a prewedding outlier. The k visa process fails to determine whether the applicant is submitting fiance application with full consent, to allow them time to react to the warning signs of abuse. Some recommendations we have such as requiring foreign beneficiaries to be 18 or older, or heightened scrutiny in the cases where peter party is under age 21, to strike or narrow the exception that allows a waiver of the inperson requirement, and to extend the length of the k visa from 90 days to 120 days. Were faced with the k1 applicant, after the fiance arrives in the u. S. , the foreign fiance is exploited or abusive. In the report about Human Trafficking, the fiance visa is an avenue that individuals use to bring victims in. Recently weve heard of cases where even young women are sponsored on a fiance visa and thought to be the paramour for the sponsors married father, uncle or friend. The fiance that came in was actually went into the relationship fully intending to get married, but was duped by the actual sponsor. In these cases, those individuals face a significant gap in the law, that is if they enter on a k and theyre able to identify that this sponsor is abusive and does not mary and they end up not getting married, theyll ineligible to adjust to the permanent residency based on another family based petition. So we recommend a humanitarian waiver for these cases where theres a finding of bona fide intent to enter into the marriage with the sponsor but where the marriage doesnt take place. In these types of cases, immigrant victims frequently face not accessing protections under state law, assistance from the police or protective orders, and under Immigration Law, due to lack of knowledge of the u. S. Laws. Theres a considerable body of research that demonstrates the immigrant victims are particularly at high risk of serious Domestic Violence. They tend to have fewer resources, sustain more severe physical injury, and emotional consequences of abuse and the duration of the abuse than other Domestic Violence victims in the United States. Are you about done with your statement . Yeah. Let me just finish with a set of recommendations about the International Marriage broker regulation act. In 2005, congress did pass mbra to try to get more information and protections for foreign fiancees. Weve identified a few suggestions in making sure that theres increased information for fiancees. That are attending interviews in consulates abroad, and also we with would recommend there be more information provided at the adjustment of status stage. We would also recommend that there be a report and more evaluation, and to congress and the public about what happens in those fiancee petitions. Especially in the context of individuals that have prior criminal histories as well as prior marriages, and or prior visa petitions. Because we know that applicants can apply for a fiancee, but we dont actually know how often theres fraud happening in terms of whether its being submitted on that is ka applications. So i will provide further recommendations in my written testimony. Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. Now dr. Hussan. Senator grassley and other members of the committee, good morning, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story. My name is jamal hussan and i a border citizen and naturalized u. S. Citizen. Im a cardiologist who practices in lakewood, california. Nearly 20 years ago, i came to the United States to be a medical doctor. I was on a visa, and offered a residency, and subsequently in cardiology. I worked for about three years in underserved areas helping indigent and vulnerable patients who otherwise would have democrat difficulty getting decent medical care. My immigration to the United States was a part of a complex process. Because i was seeking permanent residency, i had to show why my immigration would be useful to the United States. I applied for a waiver because of my medical research. It took me 12 long years to obtain green card and 17 years to become a citizen of this country. I have saved many lives and provided services to those who cannot afford. I am grateful for all this. Once a citizen, i was able to sponsor family members such as my elderly mother, someone who raised me almost singlehandedly. I could also seek a fiance visa then. I came from a country where marriages are arranged. I realize this is not a custom for most of the people of this country, but its important for me and my family. My family was introduced to my exfiancees family in pakistan. After numerous visits between the families, they felt this might be a good match. I visited pakistan, i visited twice, and met my fiancee at our home. We would talk to each other on the phone, tex the and skype. My fiancee insisted she wanted to come to the United States as soon as possible. So i filed for a fiancee petition. The petition was approved. She had an interview in march of 2015, in islamabad, for a visa which was approved and in april she came to the United States. During her stay with me, she appeared cheerful, excited in her new surroundings. We had lots of fun exploring together. She even traveled with me to las vegas, to santa barbara, north dakota, and because i was looking at that time to relocate jobs. We were happy and i was looking forward to getting married and start a family. Then things started to change. She started threatening to leave back to pakistan, especially after she spoke to her family back home on the phone. By june 2015 she still had not wanted to plan a wedding, saying things like, what is the rush. We had arguments, but it never changed my mind of whether i wanted to marry her. After one particular argument, she indicated that she wanted to go back to pakistan, so i bought her a ticket. However, the next morning she said she didnt mean it, and she wanted to stay. So i began wondering what was going on. Our relationship never resulted in legal marriage in the United States. At times my fiancee indicated she does not need me anymore to get her green card and boasted she could get it in other quicker ways. On august 7, 2015, while i was at work, she left my apartment and never came back. I frantically searched for her in the usual spots we would visit but i could not find her. I went to the local Police Station to report her missing. The Police Officer on duty told me she is safe, and i could go home, and she will contact me if she wishes. I was confused and scared so i called our families back in pakistan. Her family was not willing to tell me what was going on. I felt they knew something i did not. A couple of weeks later she called me twice while i was at work. She told me where she was, and told me to meet her at the shelter she was staying at. She indicated that she wanted to reconcile, however, she wanted me to respond by the next day. The next morning i was called by the shelter staff that she had changed her mind, after she spoke to her family in pakistan. I was dumbfounded. Three months later, after she left my apartment, i still had very little answers, and nothing made sense to me. She then filed for restraining order on september 30, 2015. After a hearing, the judge was part and took extensive testimony. The judge dismissed her case, declared her noncredible and found no evidence of Domestic Violence. The judge also ruled im hoping that she wasnt fabricating this to create a basis to stay in this country. I was sad and hurt and also had many questions about my fiancees affections. My family attempted to intervene to resolve the misunderstanding with the family in pakistan, however, her family refused any reciprocal attempt. They said she did not need jamal to live there. My family has been harassed in pakistan and her brothers have threatened to kidnap my little niece. I notified centers in writing, and sent them all the relevant information, including the court findings. I never heard back from the ucis. I notified i. C. E. Over the phone. She claimed she was never married before. We discovered she was married and divorced in pakistan. She put me through much more than i would have dreamed. I now understand more completely that me and my exfiancee had Different Reasons for getting engaged. I wanted to get married and start a family. She just needed an easy way to get here and stay here. Thank you. Thank you all three for your testimony. We wont have any questions of the first panel. So thank you very much for coming. And i would call the second panel now, and ill introduce you as youre coming. Greg nevano, Deputy Assistant director for illicit trade, travel and finance division of immigration and customs. Mr. Nevano has held a number of Key Management positions within i. C. E. Headquarters, including associate Deputy Assistant director, Investigative Services division, unit chief of asset unit. Mr. Nevano was assigned to Fbi Joint Terrorism Task force to investigate and prosecute terror suspects for immigration fraud. Matthew emrich, associate director of fraud detection and National Security directorship, directorate of u. S. Citizenship and immigration. Mr. Emrich has 21 years of Immigration Law enforcement and intelligence experience, starting with Immigration Naturalization Services chicago. Mr. Emrich was assigned to the 9 11 response detail at ins headquarters and served on the chicago joint Terrorism Task force as acting section chief for National Security investigation division. Mr. Neufeld Donald Neufeld is associate director of Service Center operations, and his position, mr. Neufeld oversees all activities of all five uscis centers. He has 27 Years Experience of Immigration Services. And has held leadership positions at headquarters, washington, los angeles, miami, nebraska, california Service Centers. Daniel renaud in iowa we say renaud is associate director of Field Operations, director of u. S. Customs and immigration. He has been a federal immigration professional since 1988. Joined vermont Service Center as an adjudicator and promoted to supervisor. He was selected as a branch chief headquarters Field Service operation division, where he provided guidance to field offices. He served as the acting chief of Immigration Investor Program and transition to the role of deputy associate director Field Operations director. David donahue is acting principal Deputy Assistant secretary of Consular Affairs of the department of state. Mr. Donahue has been a Senior Adviser to the bureau since 2014. And Deputy Assistant secretary Consular Affairs since 2015. He also is from 2012 to 2013 served as coordinator of inner Agency Principal provincial affairs at the embassy in afghanistan. Id like to ask you if youd rise so i can swear. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god . Thanks to all of you. Well start with mfrom my left right. Good morning. Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for your for the opportunity to testify at todays hearing. My name is Donald Neufeld and i am with the director of u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Having served under every Administration Since president ronald reagan, i appreciate and value the role uscis plays in protecting the homeland, supporting the economy, providing humanitarian relief and ensuring the orderly and expeditious role of immigration. Im testifying regarding the Systems Operations director. The director is comprised a headquarters component in washington, d. C. , and five Service Centers located in dallas, texas, california, nebraska, virginia and vermont. Our current authorized staffing level is 3,681 federal employees, and contract support provided by approximately 1,800 contractors. The Service Centers are designed to adjudicate cases without facetoface interactions with the public. Our caseloads are generally high volume with visa petitions sushs k1s and h1bs. In fiscal year 2016, Service Center employees processed a total of nearly 5 million of these applications, petitions and requests. With respect to k1 visa petitions, a u. S. Citizen who wishes to bring his or her fiance to the u. S. Files a form 129f, petition for alien fiance with uscis. An officer at one of our Service Centers will review the form and documents submitted in support of the petition. The evidence must show that both parties are free to marry, that they intend to enter into a bona fide and legal marriage within 90 days of the fiances admission of a k1 nonimmigrant and generally that they have met within two years of the petition. They must undergo a Security Check for information on both the petitioner and Foreign National beneficiary. Officers also review security and background check results for potential applicability of the marriage broker regulation act. They restrict eligibility based on the petitioners criminal history and provide for disclosure of previous filings and criminal history of the petitioner at the time of the beneficia beneficiarys interview with the department of state. If eligibility is demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence, the petition will be approved and forwarded to the department of state. Approval of the k1 visa petition means only that uscis recognizes the claimed relationship between the petitioner and beneficiary, allowing department of state to consider issuance of a k1 visa. An approved petition in and of itself does not grant an immigration benefit. The approval does not permit the fiance to travel to the United States or grant any immigration status or guarantee the Immigration Service will issue a k1 visa. Recognizing the importance of providing Immigration Services that support humanitarian, family reunification and economic goals, we strive to do our work with the greatest efficiency. We rely on the broad detection of National Security directorate to provide training and assistance to adjudicators in ferreting out fraud. We conduct biographic and biometric background checks and closely coordinate with Law Enforcement agencies as appropriate. We are steadfastly committed to ensuring benefits are not granted individuals who seek to defraud the u. S. Immigration system. In closing, on behalf of uscis acting director, i thank you, chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein and members of your committee for interest in our Service Operations programs and the opportunity to share this information with you today. Ill be happy to address any questions or concerns you may have. Not only thank you for your testimony, but thank you for finishing within the five minutes. Yes, very good. I should have said to all of you, that if you have a longer statement, that obviously will be put in the record, because we want all the information you give us, not just what you can give us within the five minutes. Mr. Donahue . Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the department of states efforts to detect and prevent marriage fraud for immigration benefits. Im pleased to be on the panel with uscis and i. C. E. As my colleagues are testifying and as youll hear from me, we use a whole of government approach to tackle this issue. The department has no higher priority than the safety of our fellow citizens, at home and abroad, and the protection of our borders. We are the first line of defense in Border Security and our embassies and consulates around the world play an Important Role in that position. Visas are important to many u. S. Citizens who find a spouse or fiance overseas. But if we find a Foreign National to gain american status to marry a u. S. Citizen with no intention to parry. We protect and ve vent fraud in these categories which will summarize for you today. The departments role in the visa application process begins when our National Visa center, or nbc, receives an approved petition directly from the uscis. For every k1 fiance petition, the prevention unit reviews the case for potential fraud indicators. Should fraud indicators be found, they collect further indepth review of the publicly available information, department of state records, and commercial databases. Nbc provides results of this research to our overseas consular adjudicators, who ultly determine whether the applicant is qualified for a visa. Once nbc has reviewed the case, the applicant interviews with the consular officer overseas. Adjudicators are trained to detect fraud. They learn the social and Economic Conditions in their host country. Many adjudicators come to the post with the Extensive Knowledge of the local language. During the interview, consular officers assess the identity, evaluate qualifications, and identify any fraud indicators, and review information pertaining to possible ineligibilities. That includes any information provided by our partners uscis or by the National Visa center. If an adjudicator determines that the relationship used as a basis for the visa petition is fraudulent, the adjudicator will return the petition to uscis for reconsideration and possible revocation. Most u. S. Embassies and consulates have a dedicated fraud detection unit. The application is sent to the post for further assessment. Many consular sections integrate diplomat security agents to the team. They prevent and detect fraud at post by liaising with local Law Enforcement and preparing cases for the prosecution in court. In fiscal year 2016, for example, integrated security agents worked with consular officers and local Law Enforcement to disrupt Human Smuggling Networks in china, the Dominican Republic and romania. These safeguards work. In 2016, the department of state partnered with uscis to conduct a review of five years of data on k1 visa recipients to determine if visa holders complied with the terms of the visas and properly adjusted to lawful permanent resident status at the end of the initial period of admission. Results show the vast majority of recipients, about 98 , use their visas appropriately. Were committed to preventing individuals who intend to do our nations harm to enter the country. Every visa decision is a National Security decision. Our Fraud Prevention officers efforts compliment the process we and our Partner Agencies have built to screen all these applicants. This includes a sophisticated Global Information Technology Network that shares data among the department and federal Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies. No visa can be issued unless all relevant concerns are fully resolved. Mr. Chairman, senator feinstein, and i want to thank the Panel Members who spoke earlier. I thought they provided some moving testimony which will certainly inspire us to do more. We strive to increase our effectiveness to seek more opportunities to collaborate with our partners, including you, to address this important issue. I look forward to your suggestions. Thank you very much. Now mr. Renaud. Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein and dished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify at todays hearing. My name is daniel renaud. Im the associate director for the Field Operations directorate at the United States citizenship and Immigration Services. I pronounced your name wrong. Thats quite all right, sir. I learned at an early age the importance of public service. Both my parents served with the federal government and i, too, chose it as a career path. I balance the importance of immigration, with the need to ensure that those who are not entitled to bane fit under the law do not receive one. For me, these two missions are not incongruent. Im honored and privileged to lead the team of 6,000 federal employees who are hard at work as we speak, operating the largest Immigration Service in the world, while upholding the uscis core values. The dedicated employees of the Field Operations directorate understands and appreciates the significance of the work we do, and its important in upholding the tenets of this country and impact on the lives of the applicants we serve. These are not benefits we grant lightly. National security and Public Safety are always at the forefront of everything we do. Let me be clear. For as long as i have been in this line of business, there have always been individuals trying to obtain immigration benefits through fraud. Today we will explain how uscis is aligning its work force, its technology and processes to identify fraud, understanding that as one avenue of fraud is shut down, perpetrators of fraud will seek alternate avenues to exploit. We train immigration officers early on and throughout their careers on fraud indicators, and how to detect and deter fraud. In every field office across the nation, today and every day, the primary concern of immigration officers is ensuring that the wrong person does not obtain an immigration benefit. Uscis continues to provide current and effective training to our work force in issues related to fraud. For example, we recently completed credibility training in each of our district offices to better prepare officers to take and evaluate oral testimony. In Field Operations, facetoface interviews are a tool we regularly use to assess eligibility and evaluate fraud risk. Recently additional questions aimed at preserving the integrity of the immigration system have been added to our forms to better determine risk, and assist with vetting. We continue to evaluate our processes to ensure that we are collecting the most critical information, and that we are conducting our interviews in the most effective manner. From a systems perspective, uscis performs a number of Security Checks when an individual files for an application for permanent residency. These Security Checks include screening against biographic and biometric holdings of the u. S. Department of Homeland Security and other u. S. Government partners. These checks include tax checks on the applicant and petitioner, fbi name checks, fingerprint checks against fbi criminal holdings, dsh checks at the time of interview and checks against texts are repeated again just before final decision. Protecting the integrity of 9 u. S. Immigration system is not something i take lightly. When there are questions about the accuracy of background check information, i do not hesitate to take immediate action to ensure that no benefit is provided until those questions are resolved. And decisions can be made with confidence in the integrity of the immigration system. When i learn certain naturalization cases proceeded to add jud case without the historical fingerprint record information, i create a special adjudications unit dedicated exclusively in preparing them for civil denaturalization. The highlight of my career has been administering the oath of allegiance to new citizens. Hundreds of ceremonies are conducted each year throughout the country. I welcome new citizens to the country knowing that the uniform rule of naturalization envisioned by the framers of the constitution has been applied to detect and protect the security of this nation. On behalf of the acting director and my colleagues, i chank the chairman, the Ranking Member for the opportunity to share this information concerning the Field Operations with you. I appreciate you holding this hearing today, as i believe we share the desire to ensure the integrity of the immigration system, and to finding improved ways to preventing and detecting abuses to the system. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, mr. Renaud. Now mr. Emrich. Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, and distinguish the members of the committ committee, thank you for your interest in the subject of immigration fraud. And i also thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is matthew emrich. Im the associate director of the Fraud Detection National Security directorate with the u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As the associate director of fdns, i have oversight responsibility for usciss fraud detection efforts. Uscis created the national Security Office in 2004, and the office began with a handful of employees. In 2010, former director promoted it to a directorate to implement his prioritization of the agencys mission to safeguard the nations security and protect the integrity of the lawful immigration system. A further illustration of this prioritization is the growth of the fdns corps, which now numbers nearly 1,000 onboard employees located in uscis field offices, Service Centers, asylum offices and other locations worldwide. In addition to serving as a primary conduit for information sharing and collaboration with our Law Enforcement and Intelligence Community partners, fdns officers also conduct administration investigations, administrative investigations, focused on the detection of immigration benefit fraud. Ill begin with a summary of the authorities in a general overview of the type of work fdns immigration officers conduct. The secretary of Homeland Security has Broad Authority to administer and enforce the immigration and nationality act and other laws in the immigration of aliens. Uscis has the authority to investigate alleged civil and criminal violations of the Immigration Laws, administer oaths, take and consider evidence, and fingerprint and photograph aliens. Uscis verifies information applicants and petitioners submit to uscis to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations before they make a decision in the case. Fdns officers conducted administrative investigations that establish and document findings that uscis adjudicatedive staff use for an individuals eligibility for immigration benefit. These are aimed at verifying circumstances and relationships that support their that purport the immigration benefit. The findings identified violation of relevant sections of the immigration and nationality act and or other grounds of inadmissibilitinadmi. Benefit fraud is generally initiated in the form of a referral from an adjudications officer, the public, or another government agency. All referrals are processed similarly, despite the source of the referral. Fdns typically begins by having an officer review the referral to ensure that it articulates immigrant benefit fraud and contains enough information to be actionable. If the referral meets those criteria, the officer opens a case in our system of record known as the fdns data system. Administrative investigation may include searches of government and commercial databases, file reviews, domestic or overseas site visits, domestic or overseas verification of documents, witness interviews, and or one or more additional interviews of the applicant or petitioner. Upon conclusion of an administrative investigation, the fdns officer documents the results in our system of record, and completes a written statement of finding. The written statement of finding is provided to the adjudicator who has responsibility for adjudicating the case. The adjudicator will use these findings to inform their decision on the application or petition. When evidence of fraud has been verified by fdsn in an individual case, uscis adjudicators will generally deny the case or if the benefit has already been granted, issue a notice of intent to rescind or revoke the benefit. In either case, the uscis will then issue a notice to appear subjecting the applicant to removal proceedings. Fdns will refer cases to immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security investigations, for criminal investigation. Uscis officers may assist in presenting cases to the u. S. Attorneys office for possible prosecution in coordination with immigration and Customs Enforcement. Uscis routinely assists in investigations involving marriage fraud. Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide you information on usciss antifraud efforts and i look forward to answering your questions. Now mr. Nevano. Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, and distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the issue of marriage fraud and the efforts of u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify, investigate, and bring to justice individuals and organizations who engage in this crime. As an Investigative Agency in the department of Homeland Security, they have broad Legal Authority to enforce a diverse array of federal statutes to include the immigration and nationality act and general federal crimes. I. C. E. Hsi uses this authority to investigate fraud claims. They work in close coordination with our Sister Agency u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and other Agency Partners to target individuals and organizations who arrange shared marriages, as well as those who participate in marriages for the sole purpose of obtaining or conveying immigration benefit. Fraud has been used by both individuals and organizations to obtain benefits and generate large amounts of illicit income. Typically a broker or facilitator recruits a u. S. Citizen to marry an alien who hay or may not already be in the United States. While they may be outside of the United States, using a k1 visa obtained through fraud, many aliens who enter without inspection or through use of other nonimmigrant visa classifications, participate in marriage fraud to attempt to remain in the United States. One of hsis primary tools in the successful detection, dismantling, and prosecution of organizations that facilitate benefit fraud, including marriage fraud, are the hsi document and benefit fraud task forces. The task forces build upon existing partnerships to bring together investigators from a wide variety of agencies with expertise in different aspects of investigating document and benefit fraud. Partners include uscis fraud detection and National Security, the department of state Diplomatic Security service, and several other federal, state and local Law Enforcement personnel. The task forces maximized resources eliminate duplication of efforts and produce a strong Law Enforcement presence. They combine i. C. E. s unique and administrative authorities with a variety of other Law Enforcement agency tools and authorities to achieve focused, highimpact criminal prosecutions and financial seizures. The task forces focus on criminal organizations that orchestrate these crimes result in a more efficient use of resources and increases the likelihood of these cases will be accepted for prosecution by the United States attorneys office. They consider uscis to be a close partner in benefit fraud, including marriage fraud. In certain instances when suspicious marriages are encountered during the adjudication of application and petition benefits, theyre referred to hsi for criminal investigation. Uscis, fdns officers work closely with hsi special agents during these investigations. Providing invaluable subject matter, expertise and information. Our relationship with fdns officers is a key element in our ability to take these investigations from initial lead development to successful prosecution. In an effort to streamline the lead referral process between uscis and i. C. E. , hsi has begun the process of implementing a National Lead Development Center for the intake, vetting, developing and thwarting of benefit fraud leads to hsi field offices for investigation. The center will standardize all benefit fraud leads to include those involving marriage fraud. Recognizing the value of fostering relationships with stakeholders outside of the federal government, to prevent and detect marriage fraud, we conduct outreach to raise public awareness, educate partner organizations, and deter individuals from entering into fraudulent marriages. The Outreach Program seeks to counter the common perception that entering into a sham marriage for the purpose of assisting a Foreign National with gaining u. S. Immigration status is a harmless transgression without consequences. This Program Highlights not only the adverse personal, financial and legal ramifications for people participating in the fraudulent marriages, but the impact on Public Safety, National Security and the integrity of the immigration system. Through this initiative, they encourage the reporting of suspected marriage fraud to hsi and seek cooperation educating the general public on the fact that marriage fraud is a federal crime with serious consequences. In closing, thank you again for your opportunity to appear before you today. And your continued support of i. C. E. And Law Enforcement mission. I. C. E. Is committed to working closely with you, and i appreciate your interest in this important issue. And i am pleased to answer any of the questions you may have. Well have fiveminuteround questions. I think i have so many questions, that im going to have to submit some for answering in writing. So if you dont get youll get questions from me, even if i dont state them. I would like to start with mr. Nevano. Does i. C. E. Still consider marriage fraud to be a National Security threat . Absolutely, senator. We definitely consider it a National Security threat. Thats why we have 24 Document Benefit Fraud Task forces that are located across the country that particularly partake in the vetting, and working closely with the uscis on ensuring that individuals who are committing marriage fraud are brought to justice. I think you just answered my next question, but im going to ask it anyway, so if you want to fill in, what policies and procedures has i. C. E. Implemented to address marriage fraud and mitigate these threats . Youve already talked about the task forces. So, definitely our benefit and document task forces are definitely a key element to detecting and deterring and prosecuting marriage fraud. As i mentioned in my oral testimony, weve also done Public Outreach to go out to oh fish yants of marriage, and indicators of potential fraud to ensure that the public and the local, state and local government officials are aware of certain marriage fraud indicators. Also, for you, sir, i. C. E. Has the responsibility of investigating cases of marriage fraud to be effective. I. C. E. Would need to open communications with the uscis and state department. What process does i. C. E. , uscis, and state have in place to ensure that each agency is coordinating, the sharing of information on a potential marriage fraud case . Senator, as my colleague from the state department mentioned, we take a whole government approach to these type of cases. Ill refer back to the document and benefit task force, which all are members of those task forces. And within that environment, senator, we share resources, databases, they have access to our databases, we have access to their databases. Taking that whole government approach we can tackle the problem by working in unison. We work closely with our Partner Agencies. Also for you, does uscis and state provide you with their review of k1 visa petitions, and evidences that they received when making an adjudication of a k1 visa petition and applications, and if not, why would they not do that . Senator, we at our currently we have benefit fraud units located in five locations across the country, and we are regularly receiving leads of not only marriage fraud, but all types of document benefit fraud from uscis, fraud fdns. That flow of information is currently coming to u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a regular basis. Okay. The national for mr. Neufeld, renaud and emrich, the 9 11 commission reported that several top al qaeda operatives viewed marriage fraud as, quote, a fantastic mechanism for operatives to acquire valid documents, end of quote. In fact, a k1 visa was acquired, as i said in my statement, by one of the San Bernardino terrorist attackers. Ive got four questions, i dont think ill have time to ask all of them, but each of you can hit on, what background checks do both the u. S. Citizen and Foreign National undergo during the initial filing of an i29 petition . And if all of you dont have to respond to that, thats okay. But id like to have whatever youve got to contribute. Yes, sir. For the i129f, that both the petitioner and beneficiary receive a check through the tech system, we contains records from 26 other Government Agencies pertaining to National Security threats, Public Safety threats, as well as sex offender administration. If there is a lookout in there concerning a potential sex offender, then we do a fingerprint check to determine if that person is going to be a threat to a child. And additionally im sorry, i didnt mean to interrupt you. Uscis recognizes that individuals who will try to who want to come into the United States and do us harm will take advantage of any immigration vehicle. Including marriage fraud. Thats why weve built multilayered checks into the system. And just to give some indication of how seriously uscis treats marriage fraud, in fy 2016, approximately 45 of the hours that fdns employ crease spent on immigration fraud was spent on marriage fraud. So its a big part of our work. Do either of you have anything you want to add to that . Okay. Then ill go to ill if i have a second round, ill get back to you. Go ahead. Thanks very much, mr. Chairman. I have four questions im going to try to do in five minutes. The igs report found that known human traffickers used work and fiance visas to bring victims to the United States legally. And 274 individuals who were subject of i. C. E. s Human Trafficking investigation petitioned the government to bring in a total of 425 additional family members and fiances into the United States. How is it that an additional 425 individuals were permitted to enter the United States by traffickers . And this was not detected during the inperson interview. Mr. Emrich . So as i mentioned, the battery of checks that we do, at different stages of the process, we also fdsn, if the adjudicators are trained to see things that are indications of fraud, or trafficking, and if they see those indicators, they refer those to fdns for further investigation. And we also may consult i. C. E. On that. In those particular cases, i cant speak to the particular cases. I can say we take that report very seriously. We are working with whoa, whoa, whoa, you cannot say you take the Homeland Security report seriously . No, i say we do take them seriously. I beg your pardon. Right now were working with i. C. E. Through the human smuggling and Trafficking Center to develop a better mechanism of going through and reviewing the files for information on traffickers, and making sure that that gets to i. C. E. So were very concerned about that. And we again, we take that seriously. I appreciate that. I think you know that this is a huge industry. Its the second largest criminal industry in the world today. And so we are very concerned by it. Mr. Neufeld, if i may, following the shootings at San Bernardino in which one of the perpetrators entered the u. S. On a fiance visa, president obama asked the departments of state and Homeland Security to undertake a review of the k1 fiance visa process. Is the review complete . I believe so. But i would like to defer to my colleague to answer the question, matt emrich, for that review. Mr. Emrich, you got the hot seat. So, to my knowledge, that review has been conducted. Additionally, uscis conducted two different reviews of screening procedures, along with our Intelligence Community partners. Those reviews have informed some proposed actions within our screening, within the realm of screening that we could brief you on in a nonpublic setting. Well, let me ask the chairman, i think this is really important that this committee, and it can be in a classified basis if you want, mr. Chairman, but have an opportunity to look at these reviews. 14 people were killed here in this terrorist attack. Ill have my staff discuss that with your staff and see what we can set up. Okay. All right. May i add some other actions that weve taken as well . Yes, certainly. One of the things that weve done is revised our forums, so our forms capture more information. It captures more information, that information is of use in two different ways. Number one, it improves our screening process. Additionally, it provides additional information, so then when cases are referred to either fdns and i. C. E. For administrative or criminal investigation, theres more information to provide leads and to give our investigators to go on. Additionally, there has been training developed to better aid the officer, the adjudicators who are assessing credibility. I believe that all of the officers who conduct interviews have received that training. All right. Thank you very much. But i just want you to know that im very interested in the followup of this. Im not going to forget it. I would really appreciate it if there are ways of making this available to the committee, to see what was found, is what im interested in. Well certainly do our best to answer those questions. For mr. Renaud, in an effort to deter marriage fraud, foreigners deriving their status based on marriage of less than two years, are only given a conditional residence status. In other words, theyre not full green card holders. Once a marriage has lasted two years, the petitioner and the beneficiary requests that the government remove the condition, giving the government another chance to determine if there was fraud involved in the marriage. Since the enactment of this provision, in 1986, how effective has it been . Well, i dont have data specifically on how effective that could you provide that data to the committee . Or has anybody looked back to see if it is effective . I think that we certainly can provide data on what percentage of the form, the petition to remove conditions, on what percentage of those are approved, or denied, or the percentage of individuals who whose status is terminated for failure to file. If thats a degree of success, certainly, we can provide that. That would be appreciated. Youre welcome. So well count on receiving it. According to your website, and this is for mr. Nevano, in addition to the type of marriage fraud that the chairman is trying to highlight today, there are two other types of fraud. And they involve a situation where United States citizen accepts some money or benefit in exchange for marrying a Foreign National, and a mail order type of situation. How prevalent are these two types of marriage fraud . Senator, i dont have statistics with me. Im not sure that we capture the use of mail order brides, or webbased, you know, people seeking to obtain marriage. But i would answer your question by stating that all types of marriage fraud are certainly concerning to us, as i believe weve testified already, is that marriage fraud allows an individual quicker access to u. S. Citizenship, rather than waiting, you know, five years, which is the normal wait time. It allows an individual to obtain their u. S. Citizenship within three years. So its certainly something that we take very seriously, and well look into regularly. Good. Let me ask you this. Do you know what role websites like craigslist or backpage play in perpetuating this type of fraud . It seems to me to be a good medium to do so. Senator, i can say we have several units within Homeland Security investigations, like our cyber crime center, that actively looks, and we have undercover operations that certainly look at targeting these websites to try to deter, disrupt and dismantle these sometimes individuals who are seeking advertisements on backpage and other Media Outlets such as craigslist. We take it very seriously, and we do have active investigations that we look at for these type of websites. Good. Thank you. I mean, we found this in terms of child trafficking a very big deal. So thank you very much. Youre welcome. I would appreciate it. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Senator klobuchar. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you, all of you. I want to follow up on something senator feinstein was asking about. I led the sex trafficking bill that passed the senate. And have been very active in a number of efforts in that regard. And i know she asked you about a report from the department of Homeland Security, and i wondered if you could just elaborate a bit and tell me about any measures that uscis has taken in response to the findings in the report. Mr. Emrich, renaud, and mr. Neufeld. So, as i mentioned, we are working we do have a fulltime employee at the human smuggling and Trafficking Center that is working on developing ways of sharing information with i. C. E. When any of our personnel become aware, or suspect that some criminal activity is going on, thats beyond the scope of what we can investigate, we routinely refer cases to other agencies that have responsibility for that. So in this case, it would be i. C. E. So when we do become when we do see something that we think may involve trafficking, we refer those matters to i. C. E. And we also work very closely with i. C. E. On a local level to share information. So to give an example, in fy 2016, we completed at least 2,113 requests for assistance from i. C. E. So those are situations where i. C. E. Came to us, asking for information on an investigation, and where we provided i. C. E. The information that they need. So i think wed be happy to update the committee at some point, once the work is done with the human smuggling and Trafficking Center. Im not sure if mr. Nevano would have anything to add to that work. Senator, as my colleague stated, after the report came out, we worked collaboratively with uscis and added an officer to our human smuggling and Trafficking Center. Additionally, some of the measures that we took was that alleged human traffickers, that we were aware of, we entered lookouts in the system. When the uscis runs their checks, they would now be able to enter it, and hit on a lookout of a potential alleged human trafficker. And they would refer that case over to us for any type of deconfliction and or investigation. As well as our human smuggling and Trafficking Center, also utilizes the uscis databases when we have alleged traffickers to query whether or not these individuals have petitioned for anybody to come into the United States. And if we did find that information, we would coordinate regularly with uscis. Okay. Thank you. Maybe just with the time remaining here ill move on to one other question and maybe we could have mr. Renaud and mr. Neufeld focus on that. In your experience, do you believe that the existing measures are sufficient to detect potential fraud in the k1 visa program . You note that the president s executive order on interior immigration, along with imle mentation of guidance for cases with fraud indicators should be referred to u. S. Immigrations and customs to i. C. E. , can you elaborate on how these recent updates are expected to affect efforts to affect marriage fraud in the k1 visa program . Anyone . I can start, i guess. Thank you for the question. I think that, are we satisfied in i think its our job not to be satisfied. I think as mr. Donahue mentioned in his opening remarks, this is an ongoing battle that we continue to try and increase our effectiveness to deter, detect, and stamp out fraud where we can see it. Where we can find it. I think that we do that through training, through intelligence obtained through fdns and our federal partners. So it is an ongoing battle. And we continue to see it as a critical part of why we come to work every day. To make sure that the wrong person doesnt get a benefit. And i dont know if you ill say the same thing. Were ever vigilant. The schemes are changing daily. And we rely pretty heavily on the fdsn officers at our Service Centers to keep us abreast of the latest trends theyre seeing. And then we work the government as make sure we have access to the tools that we need to ferret out the fraud. Okay. Thank you very much. I got a request for some information, i think we sent a letter for, and that would be for you to follow up with the victims concerns. You heard the victims from the first panel pointing out fraud in their cases and the committee has asked for the Foreign National a files so could you please get those files to my staff . Absolutely, i will look into it, senator. Thank you. I have one question for mr. Neufeld and or mr. Renaud and it comes from mentioning that the uscis reviews evidence to ensure that both parties are free to marry. In this country, free to marry means that one is not already currently married to someone else. What process does uscis use to determine the marital status of both parties . Is the process effective and lastly, what steps could uscis take to improve this process to catch multiple k1 visa petitioners . So we principally rely on the information provided to us to the answers to the questions on the form and on the documentation that is submitted along with the petition. We will issue requests for additional evidence if we have any factors that cause us some concern. We in the area where things could be improved in the future, to the extent that we could gain access to information in other data bases regarding marital status, that would be helpful. We typically dont have access to that and it pretty much is a paperbased adjudication or review of the evidence they provide to us. At present. Do you have anything to add, mr. Renaud . If you dont, thats okay. I would just, i rarely pass up the opportunity to add something so i will say something. I think that one of the challenges that we have seen in certain recent media stories, one you referenced in your opening statement, is that we need to find a better way to lock down identities early on in the system so people cannot come to us multiple times and with the assumption that we dont know we have seen them before. I think those are some of the things that we have been increasingly successful at but obviously, we are not done yet. So the story of the bronx woman, you know, that is a problem, frankly, that we need to address. Those are some of the things that we are working on now. So i think that we need to continue our efforts with, again, with our federal partners to do what we can but i dont think theres an end to our efforts. I dont think we will ever get to a point where we can say there is no risk of marriage fraud. I just think we need to continue to narrow the gap and reduce the risk. Just one short followup and it will be my last question to either one of you. Do you interview the foreign filer as well as the u. S. Citizen . We dont during the process of our adjudication of the fiance petition but they would be interviewed by my colleagues in the Field Operations director when they apply for adjustment status. So we do have the opportunity to interview anyone at any time who has an immigration benefit pending in front of us. We do know and i wont speak for state, but i know that the fiance is interviewed as part of the k1 immigrant visa process. We do not routinely interview at the time of adjusting the status but we certainly have that option if there are indicators that an interview would be helpful to the proper adjudication. Could i ask my colleagues, it will be senator cruz and then senator tilis, would it be possible for one of you to finish this meeting so that i can go to another appointment that i have right now . Okay. So then i would like to just thank you as chairman of the committee and i will turn it over to senator cruz and senator t tillis at this point. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the chairman for holding this hearing. This is an important topic. It is one that is easy to be overlooked and particularly with the Supreme Court confirmation hearing coming up next week, no one would be surprised if the chairman were focused on that instead of this important topic and i appreciate the diligence you bring every day to chairing this committee and highlighting issues that have a significant impact. Immigration fraud is always a serious concern. Especially when it impacts National Security and although the number of k1 visas issued annually are not particularly large compared to other immigrant and nonimmigration numbers, there is the potential for fraud that exposes us to National Security risks. Now, of course, addressing this top topic is sensitive because we dont want immigration policy to be discouraging marriage and family units and legitimate unification of families. But according to i. C. E and i quote, terrorists and other criminals can use marriage fraud as a vehicle to enter the United States. And as all of us know, one of the two perpetrators of the 2015 terror attack in San Bernardino originally entered the United States on a k1 visa. 14 people were murdered that day by tashfeen malik, who had spent significant amount of time in saudi arabia and her fiance, a nativeborn u. S. Citizen. According to press reports in applying for a visa, malik lied about her residential address in pakistan and the couple also apparently did not submit sufficient evidence to show that they had met in person, as is typically required for a k1 visa tha visa. That visa was granted and tragically, the result was the murder of 14 innocent souls in San Bernardino. My question to the panel is what went wrong in that instance and what have we done to fix it so that it doesnt go wrong again . If i might start. So in that instance, although the two individuals had obviously had very serious and evil intent, there were no indications upon them filing their i129f that the qualifications for that particular form were met in that they were free to marry, they had met at some point in the past two years and that they intended to marry when they came into the United States. That being said, incident was reviewed by uscis internally and the inner agency. As a result of cis has made several improvements to its process. Additionally, uscis and our screening partners did both retrospective and prospective reviews of the screening process and those reviews will inform processes going ahead that we discussed earlier. We would be happy to discuss with the committee in a nonpublic setting. Some of the majors that uscis has taken are adding additional biographic adding additional questions to forms that give us increased biographic information we can use both to better improve our screening efforts with the Intelligence Community as well as give our fdns and i. C. E. Investigators more information to work with when they are working in administrative or criminal investigations, respectively. Additionally we have developed training for our officers who give interviews, for adjudications to better help them determine credibility and to flesh out various issues. Do we know why the fake address in pakistan was not found . We do not have, as mr. Neufeld mentioned earlier in regards to marriages, we do not have robust Infrastructure Overseas that is in place to verify addresses. We do use a process through both, we have four officers overseas, both through them and through department of state, we can request overseas verifications in locations where we dont have personnel, the department of state will go out and verify addresses. When there are indications of fraud. But continue fra structuthe infn place to do that on a mass scale. So if malik were applying for a new k1 visa and put down the same fake address, we dont have in place vetting procedures to catch that . We do our vetting partners do have information such as addresses so thats something that they check. That would pick up things where theres a natural there was a National Security flag on the address, which in this case im not sure if there was one. But in regards to verifying addresses that applicants are providing on the forms in the absence of any National Security flag or indicator, the infrastructure is not there to verify addresses. One final question. From what i understand, in 2014, dhs began a Pilot Program to incorporate social media screening into the vetting of applicants for immigration visas including k1 fiance visas. What is the current state of affairs in terms of our use of social media, examining the postings of individuals, particularly from regions of the world that pose significant threats of terrorism, to what extent are we examining their social media postings . Yes, sir. So since fy 15, we have been piloting a variety of social media screening efforts. The current effort has dedicated personnel so we have staff who are devoted to doing this fulltime on selected populations. Right now as a result of the executive order, we are reviewing all of our screening procedures at the department to develop unified screening. This is one of the things thats being reviewed. But i can tell you that to date, uscis has conducted social media checks on publicly available social media on approximately 19,000 persons to date. We do this in conjunction with the dhs office of intelligence and analysis and dhs office of science and technology which is helping us to better refine our methods, but this is work that we fully anticipate will continue and our capabilities will improve as we go forward. Do you have the adequate resources for the task . We are thats under review right now. Part of the uniform vetting efforts will inform our resource needs but as of right now, we feel we are doing a high volume of checks and i think that however the uniform screening review comes out, that we will find the resources. Very good. Thank you. Senator . Thank you, senator cruz. Thank you all for being here. Im sorry i wasnt here for the majority of the meeting. We had a competing Committee Meeting in banking. Just one real quick question. Is there anybody here on this panel thinks we should just end the k1 program entirely . All right. So we think theres a place for it. Its more a matter of getting it right and dealing with the abuses and possibly prosecuting those who are abusing it. The reason i wanted to make it to this committee, i think the same could be said for virtually every visa program that we have. There are some people that would like to eliminate them. I think we do, we do it at the cost of meaningful immigration, orderly immigration in this nation, whether its h1, h2a, h2b, the various visa programs that we have, and part of what we have to do is make them work so that its less likely somebody transcends into illegal status as we go forward. Then we can solve immigration after 40 years of failure, in my opinion. But back on the k1, the first question i had, i wasnt here for the first panel, but i know none of you are from the doj but do you have any ideas what we should do to step up prosecution and possibly penalties with respect to creating a deterrent for anybody who would engage in the kinds of abuses that have been covered . Start with anyone who wants to speak. Senator, thats a very good question. Thank you for asking that question. As you are probably aware, the sentencing guidelines on single scheme marriage fraud range from potentially zero to six months on single scheme marriage fraud so certainly increasing those penalties would act as a deterrent for individuals to enter in this type of visa fraud. I would agree with you there. Maybe as you are asking the question, one thing, i mean, this has also become a criminal enterprise so i dont know, im not an attorney, but what more could we do to define elements of the crime to cast a wider net . I dont know how these cases get prosecuted today but how could we make it one where anybody involved in the chain would potentially be subject to prosecution . As you answer the questions, if any of you wish to speak on it . Mr. Donahue . One thing we do a lot more is data mining. We look for connections, links between people around the world and we are involved in our own Fraud Prevention efforts in the state department but also its something used by i. C. E. And Diplomatic Security as a way to look at common terms, common addresses, anything thats common and find other people that may be similar. We recently found a case like that where we saw this commonality and were able to working with our partners begin picking these people up and removing them from the United States. Thank you. I did have another question, mr. Donahue. I do want to tap on to something that senator cruz discussed. We were talking about San Bernardino. Im reading a commentary here and one of the passages, it says that marriage fraud is not necessarily a matter of National Security. I think we have at least one example where it may be a matter of Homeland Security. I do believe stepping up our vetting processes are critically important. That relates to a question i want to ask you, mr. Donahue. Uscis i know has certain latitude to permit waivers on certain requirements like income requirements for sponsoring fiances. What other areas beyond that one does the department have and to what extent are they used as a matter of general practice . As i said in my opening statement, we consider every visa adjudication to be a National Security decision and so we take it very seriously that every visa, every time we issue a visa, the first thing we think about is National Security. And what we are set up to do is to try to get to the bottom of each case, through the interview, through the information provided by our partners here, through our partnership with the visa Security Units that are hosted, that i. C. E. Provides to many of our posts, to our Diplomatic Security, get to the nut, what is this application about and will the person use the visa appropriately and are they using it for some nefarious means. Just on a broader question, that relates to either national or Homeland Security, has there been any more Exhaustive Research done on, i know San Bernardino was an example that everybody would point to, but do we know to what extent anyone who has come over on a k1 visa have been involved or been the target of any fbi investigations or local Law Enforcement investigations . Do we have any idea of the base who have come through on k1 who may have been involved in some nefarious activity after they entered the country . We dont have, i dont know if you have more from i. C. E. But let me talking about the San Bernardino, i did want to mention that we did along with our partners a very thorough review of things and some of the things we have done is provided very standard questions, some of the things that have been mentioned during our earlier hearings and discussions on this subject, to people who are interviewing clients overseas. We are working in partnership with everyone on the social media. Thats a real hard nut to crack in the kind of volumes we are dealing with in immigration. But technology, we used to think facial recognition or fingerprint collection was a hard nut to crack and we cracked those. I think we will eventually but its not going to be a one Agency Solution to that problem. So we did a test on social media about 17 countries that have the most k visas and we didnt get any real resolution from that. But did find its very labor intensive. We need a whole government solution for that. I would like to add to my colleague, senator, that we have special agents assigned at visa posts abroad, 30 visa posts in 25 countries that are actually present during the screening of visas that we actually have a live hsi special agent that sits in these 30 countries and 25 posts. I also would like to mention what you stated, sir, is that marriage fraud is not necessarily just a k1 issue. K1 in my estimation, sir, is something that they go through extra scrutiny and theres at least three layers of review and vetting from the time the 129f petition is filed to the time they are interviewed overseas at department of state and then the time they enter the United States and are admitted by customs and border protection. Whereas marriage fraud is any visa classification. You could have a visitor for pleasure that comes into the United States that engages in visa fraud. So the k1, there are extra layers of defense, in my opinion, that would make it look more difficult for k1 to enterp into marriage fraud. Thank you for that. Just going back to what i said in the beginning of my comments, if you take a look there may be what i guess is a minor proportion of people for treehe reasons you just said this would use this as a vehicle to come into the United States and do harm to us but i believe there are other people who may do it because they think its the only way to legally enter this country. Thats because we have a failed visa system here that we need to fix. And i for one will look forward to you all providing feedback on things that we can do, prosecute the abusers, make examples out of them, not only in the k1 program but every other program that we have, so that we can start having an intelligent discussion around visa reform, giving you the tools that you need to provide the right clearances and then after granting a visa, tracking so that we really get to i think a more effective, more efficient, fairer visa program and generally i thank you all for being here today. I see no other members present so we will hold the committee open for a week for additional comments and responses to questions. Thank you all for being here. I thank those from the previous panel. This meetings adjourned. Ahead of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for judge neil gorsuch on monday, cspan caught up with members of the Senate Judiciary committee to discuss their approach to the hearing. Heres Committee Chair Chuck Grassley of iowa. Chairman grassley, how many Supreme Court confirmation hearings have you been through . This will be the 14th in the 36 years i have been on the committee. And this will be your first as chairman . Yes. Is preparing as chairman different than preparing for a Supreme Court confirmation hearing as not a chairman . Procedurally its a little bit different because you have to be on top of it and make sure that everybody understands what the rules are and how you are going to conduct the meeting. But as far as the questions that i ask of the candidate, they wouldnt be any different than if i were a Junior Member of this committee or the chairman of the committee. What is that preparation like for you . The preparation for whether its for this one or going way back to