Court nominee, judge neil gorsuch. K1 visas allow a foreigner who is engaged to usa resident to become a u. S. Resident and green cardholder. The Senate Judiciary committee holds a hearing on fraud. This is an hour and 50 minutes. Normally, i dont start a meeting until the ranking democrat gets here, but theres a vote going on, so this is the way im going to handle the meeting. I will call on senator durbin because he has another important meeting he has to go too. I want him to make his statement and ill make my statement and introduce the first panel and then we wont do anything until miss feinstein gets here. Thank you, senator durbin. Thank you. This is kind of out of order and for those new i appreciate the courtesy extended to me by my friend from iowa. I am a ranging member of a closed door subcommittee in a few minutes. I made a conscious choice to ask to be the ranking democratic member of the subcommittee. I did hat for several reason, first, 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 Capitol Office you will see proudly on my credenza my mothers naturalization certificate, as a reminder what i am and what she is. It was 116 years ago since her boat landed in baltimore and i made this journey to washington to represent the great state of illinois. Im sure when my mothers ship landed, she said not more of those people. They came down the steps and became part of america and thats why im here today. Weve seen in the last few weeks an absolute upheaval in the immigration policy of the United States of america. We have seen things done many of us never expected from executive order s stricken by federal courts to proposals to redefine criminal conduct so people can be deported. 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 probono awards for t those at that firm who have gone beyond their professional call of duty to help the less fortunate and not get paid for it. Theyve done amazing things. I asked what are you working on now, 50 attorneys were leaving for a meeting at Immaculate Conception church in chicago. They were hoping to get another fift 50 to join them. You know why theyre going . Theyre going to prepare guardianship papers who are f r fearing they will be gone. So if theyre snatched at work 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 anxiety, stress and fear across america is palpable. I am sure fiance visa fraud is an important issue. I am opposed to any visa fraud. Isnt it time this committee and immigration subcommittee take up some of the fundamentals of immigration . A few years ago we passed a comprehensive bipartisan bill in the senate. I was one of its authors. I agreed to an obscene amount of money for Border Protection and i voted for it but i choked on it because i knew how important it was. Wouldnt it be good if we could return to that moment, take that bill and move it forward. Thank you for allowing me an opening statement. To the subject of today, over the last several years, this committee has heard testimony about the various Immigration Laws using visa category by our federal immigration system. Today, oversight category of immigration fraud that often goes unreported and forgotten. Recent reports have shown the number of Foreign Nationals who defraud american citizens to enter our country and receive a green card is increasing very rapidly. In fact, the k1 fiance visa have been increasing every single year. The state department issued 44,000 in 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 category is concerning. It provides four nationals almost immediate access to the United States and benefits of u. S. Citizenship. Petitions for k1 fiances are quickly processed and approved in about 812 months compared to very much longer wait times and restrictions in other visa categories. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pursued more than 14,000 document and benefit Fraud Investigation reports from 2012 to 2015. That includes hundreds of arrests for marriage fraud but the government cannot provide exact numbers. This requires citizenship and Immigration Services for the state department to play a role caution kau categorized as immigration marriage police. Today, we will hear about their efforts to identify and prevent marriage fraud. U. S. Citizens should be freed to marry Foreign National, nobody questions that. U. S. Citizens who are manipulated and used for an immigration benefit as well as Foreign Nationals who legitim e legitimately want to marry an american. This kind of fraud can pose r k risks to our national economy, Public Safety and security. There are many different ways a con artist can commit marriage fraud. The most heartbreaking is when a Foreign National dupes a u. S. Citizen into believing theyre in fact in love. Upon entry, the Foreign National often drags out the engagement or abandons a 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. A naturalized citizen and cardiologist who lives in california, lived in the u. S. For 20 years. He petitioned for a k1 visa for his fiance, a Pakistani National that he met while visiting his family in that country. Instead of marrying mr. Hussain, his fiance abandoned him around the time the 90 davis sa expired. The next victim is miss lopez who met her exhusband while he was traveling in the United States. He was a Dutch National who proposed to elena, telling her he wanted to grow old with her. However, shortly before her second anniversary, he told elena they were getting a divorce and he married her only for the green card. She refused to continue spons sponsoring for the green card, he abused her and threatened to kill her. However, not all cases are onesided. 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 plead guilty to a launch marriage fraud scheme in which they posed as attorneys and charged chinese nationals up to 50,0 50,000 to set up sham marria marriages. These shams led to 70 fraudulent marria marriages. In another case a woman in the bronx married 10 men 1995 to 2010 charging them 5,000 to 10,0 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. Malik, 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. K1 visas are commonly 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 had successfully petitioned to bring fiances to the United States, more than needs to be done to close the vulnerabilities in our system, identified nefarious individuals who fraudulently say, i do, and pursue action against fiances who overstay their welcome and disregard of the 90 davis sa program requireme requirements. I talked about our witnesses and want to thank them for coming to testify, especially those to discuss details of their private personal experiences. I now call on senator feinstein. Thanks very much, mr. Chairman. Sorry to be late. I raced down to vote and got delayed on the way. You can probably figure out how. I cant to thank you for holding this hearing and particularly thank dr. Hussain for being here. He is a california from lakewood and i very much look forward to your testimony. The abuses of the fiance visa are startling. According to a january 4th, 201516 department of Security Office of the Inspector General, the report says this, i quote, work and fiance visas were the primary means by which known traff traffickers brought victims to the United States. Specifically, the ig discovered 32 known human traffickers. Let me emphasize, these are people confirmed to be human traff traffickers, used the immigration sim to bring people in the pats 32 years. Out of these known traff trafficker, they identified 17 instances where they used the fiance visa or work visa to bring victims to the United States. According to the i. G. , these victims were later forced into involuntary servitude, prostitution, in order to carry out their trafficking scheme and they would often confiscate their passport and force them into involuntary servetory. 7 of the 8 suspects reviewed had been arrested and convicted for trafficking children. Another seven convicted for labor trafficking or involuntary ser servetute. This is a big broad area. Lastly, 274 individuals subject to Human Trafficking investigations successfully petitioned the department of Homeland Security to bring in 425 family members and fiances. The i. G. Was not able to determine if these 425 individuals were also subject to prostitution and claverry, 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 i. G. s report into the record. Without objection, it will be so introduced. Thank you. The numbers are startling. I hope the department is prepared to address the steps it has taken to address these concerns raised by the i. G. I also believe this report is just another reason why the u and t visa, for victims of crimes including academic violence and rain and Human Trafficking are vital to the integrity of other imgreat lami system and our nation is morally obligated to provide. I look forward to testimony from the witnesses and i thank you for holding this hearing. I will ask the witnesses, even though some i already referred to. I mentioned miss lopez in my statement, she was married to a Dutch National who used her solely to get a green card. After leaving her, miss lopez learned her husband was very behind on Child Support of a previous marriage and has an extensive history. She now works to help others in similar situations. Thank you for your humanitarian work. Graegs ce is from the insti of genderbased violence. We work to improve the information that foreign fiances receive about their prospective spouse and seek for unaccountability to match couples overseas. I also talked about mr. Hussain, in an opening statement. He is a naturalized citizen from pakistan and cardiologist in california. His fiance left him before the marriage and claimed he abused her to seek an immigration visa. His story is another example how innocent americans are being victimized in regard to k1 visa fraud. I would 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 i introduced you. Would you start out, miss lopez . Thank you. Mr. Chairman, madam Ranking Member and for the other members of the esteemed Senate Judiciary committee. My name is Maria Elena Lopez and i was tricked by the love of my life. In 1998 i met a dutchman doing business in the United States. We immediately hit it off and started dating long distance. He was romantic, kind and generous. During one of our many visits he proposed and pledged his love wanting to grow old together. Neither of us had much money, i just put myself through college and a political news reporter. He was in the import export business and suggested we go for a civil ceremony to give us time for a full honeymoon. When my stepmother objected eric hey sured everyone we would have a Church Wedding every year. I took a lower paying job in my field for a sponsorship for the visa. I borrowed money from my mother to get an apartment and computer so he wouldnt feel so isolated in his homeland. When his k1 was approved we were married. I thought we were happy. Conscientiously set up the bills and started paying back my mother. When i asked about Child Support he said he paid through a dutch account and put off saving for that honeymoon. He eventually found work yet kept putting off that promised wedding and honeymoon. I became disturbed and a week before the anniversary, he co coldly said we were divorcing. I thought he were having marriage problems and suggested counseling. Then the cruelest thing i ever heard in my life, he shade our marriage was a practicality to get a green card and mocked me. I was stunned and immediately filed for a separation. Within days his parents confi confirmed this. When he caught wind of my Legal Proceedings and removing my sponsorsh sponsorship, he became violent and tried to strangle me. When the police arrived, he calmed down and i was told to brush it off. When i tame home he was packing. He said know one would believe him and a few minutes later i was looking down the barrel of a rival and he started shooting blanks at me and laughing. I grabbed my key s and fled the house, this time for good. Pennsylvania police this time refused to take action. They were more worried about whether i was paid to marry my husband than if he was trying to kill me. Erics behavior changed so abruptly i wondered if i ever knew who he was. I started trying to find out. I tracked down an exwife in europe who hadnt received Child Support in years and by then eric was making 148,0 148,000. During their divorce, eric stole her car for insurance and refused to pay child spot and accused her of an illegal drug operation. She was terrified of eric but even more afraid of dutch Child Services taking her new toddler away. She eventually escaped the country to get away from his nefarious business network. I found his boss you suspected of embezzling Company Funds but could not quite catch him redhanded. I dug through my own files and found my own credit changed. And he lied on immigration forms. I contacted the investigators, they say they get cases like this all the time. We were married two years and running out of time before citizenship. I hired an ex fbi agent as a provided investigator. If the department of Homeland Security wasnt going to do its job we were going to do it for them. If we documented eric was unable to get a green card in the first place. Domment activity and married me for a green card, 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 able to get a reserve protected address information Domestic Violence victims. Ill never know the e stent of the fraud or criminal activities eric committed but i did my best to warn our country witnessonced out. My life is forever change. I am now in hiding and putting myself in danger coming to this committee today. I am financially cleaned out and with the help of the government i have been made one side of a sham marriage. Although its difficult to relive the trauma ive been through, i want to speak up to help other people and prevent this from happening to them. Thank you very much. Thank you for that outstanding testimony. Im sorry and we thank you for coming forward even with the dangers you say you may face and i hope you dont face them. As the policy director at the pacific Asian Institute on genderbased violence im deeply honored to be here to comment on the impact of the immigrant survivors and Human Trafficking. The a. P. Violence Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking and other forms of genderbased violence in the ashaab Pacific Island asian specific island. And we work with asian Pacific Islander victim s as well as other victims. Apigbb has successfully worked to educate society about addr s addressing victim blaming attitu attitudes, making victim systems more accessible and advocating for policies that support justice for victims of dpomesti and Sexual Violence. We strongly believe in the importance of familybased immigration. And opportunities and freedom for themselves. Families are important for the new immigrants and impact in the stability of our communities. In our work, we work to support healthy Strong Family relationsh relationships. We appreciate the attention this committee is giving our immigration system and reducing the fraud and abuse. When theres fraud and abuse, those systems are drained and fewer resources. We urge you to be careful the remedies dont undermine current protections which have proven to be a lifeline for the most vulnerable isolated immigrant victims with the least access to help and systems designed to protect them. We applaud the work of this committee for survivors of academic and Sexual Violence and work done to protect immigrant victims. Theres obviously much more that needs to be done and i want to thank you for your attention to this matter. The institutes constituent local academic Violence Program are reported by citizen victims as well as victims in the marria marriages. Let me set out ways for screening process for k1 visas that we believe would reluce the risk of abuse and obtaining it as an avenue to allow loved ones to stay together. One context is engagement or marriage an individual has been threatened to enter by either their families or partners. These situations theyre connected to Domestic Violence and to leave the marriage once it takes place. Sponsorship may be part of this pressure and minors in particular are vulnerable because they are unable to assert their rights while se seeking protection. The u. S. Medical sponsor has to be at least 18. There hes no minimum age requirement for the beneficiary. Exceptions allow a waiver of the otherwise standard requirement the parties to be married must have met previously which can mask a marriage not entered with sufficient information about the attendant spouse or being forced by an individuals family. The limited time frame of the kvisa can compel either sponsor or foreign beneficiary to proceed in the face of misgivings and discount misuse of treatment by the fiance. In this way, the kvisa fails to allow a meaningful mechanism to determine whether the applicant is submitting fiance application with full and free consent. And let them react to running side of abuse. Some of the resources is to be 18 or over. Or applying heightened scrutiny where either party is underage 21. To strike and allow exception that allows a waiver for the k visa from 90 days to 120 days. A more common problem with the k1 applicant, after the fiance arrives in the u. S. , the other is exploited. As you raid in the live report the fiance visa is an avenue individuals use to bring victims in. Recently weve heard of cases where young women are sponsored on a visa and found out they were brought to be married to the fiances father or uncle. The fiance that came in went into the relationship 23u8ly intending to get married but dupe d by the actual sponsor. In these cases those individuals face a significant gap in the law, if they enter on a k and unable to identify the sponsor is abusive, they dont get married, theyre unable to adjust residency based on a petition. We recommend a humanitarian waiver in these cases whether theres a bona fide intend to enter into marriage with the sponsor, but it doesnt take place. Affording them under state law, assistance from the police, Immigration Law, fearlage barriers andlage of u. S. Law. Theres a body of research that demonstrates the immigrants are at risk of higher Domestic Violence and have more injuries and zbenss of abuse and duration than other Domestic Violence victims. Are you about done with your statement . Let me finish with a set of recommendations for the International Marriage regulation act. In 2005, congress did pass embr to try to get more information and protections for foreign fian fiances, and weve identified a few suggestions in making sure theres increased information for fiances that are attending interview s and consulates abrod and also we recommend there be more information provided at the adjustment of status stage. We would also recommend that there bea report and more evaluation to congress and to the public about what happens in those fiance petitions, especially in the context of individuals that have prior criminal histories as well as prior marriages and prior visa petitions because we know applicants can apply for a fiance but we dont actually know how often theres fraud happening in terms of what is being submitted on those k applications. I will provide further recommendations in my written testimony. Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. Now, dr. Hussain. 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 hussain. I am a naturalized physician and a cardiologist who practices in lakewood, california. Nearly 20 years ago i came to the United States as a young medical doctor and offered a residency is internal medicine and cardiology. I worked in indigent areas hel helping patients who would have difficulty getting decent care and i work at a hospital serving american veterans. My immigration was complicated but while i was, i had to show why my waiver would be of benefit to the United States. I provided my medical research. It took me about 12 long years to obtain green card and 17 years to be a citizen of this great country. Since then, i have saved many lives and provided assistance to those who cannot afford and get it for all this. I was able to sponsor family members like my single mother who raised me almost single handedly. I could do a fiance then. I come from a country where marriages are arranged. I realize this is not important for this country but to me and my family. My ex fiance was introduced to my family in pakistan in 2013. After numerous visits between the families we felt this was a good match. In the spring of 2014, i visited pakistan and met my fiance at her home. In may 2014, we were engaged and talk to each other on the phone and text and skype. My fiance insisted she wanted to come to the United States as soon as possible so i filed for a fiance petition and the usa approved that petition. She had an interview in march in 2015 for a k1 visa which was approved and in april she came to the United States. During her stay with me she appeared chiefly a eed cheerful. We had lots of fuchb and she traveled with me to las vegas and Santa Barbara because i was looking to relocate jobs. We were happy and i was looking forward to getting married and start a family. Then things started to change and she threatened to leave back to pakistan after she spoke to her family. By june 2015 she did not want to plan a wedding saying, what is the rush. We had arguments but it never changed my mind whether i wanted to marry her. After one particular argument she said she wanted to go back to pakistan so i bought her a ticket and the next morning she said she didnt mean it and wanted to pay. I wondered what was going on. Our relationship never resulted in legal marriage in the United States. At the time she said she does not need me to get her green card and boasted she could get it other quicker ways. I thought she was joking. On august, she left and i could not find her. I searched the spots we usually 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 would contact me if she wishes to. I was confused and scared and contacted her family in pakistan. They would not tell me what was going on. I felt they knew something but i did not. She called me twice while i was at work and called me to meet her at the shelter she was st staying at. She indicated she wanted to reconcile and sthehelter fully supported it but wanted to do so by the next day. The next morning i was called by the shelter she changed her mind after contacting her family in pakistan. I was dumbfounded. Three months after she left i had very little answers and nothing made sense. She filed for a restraining order. After two day evidentiary hearing the judge was patient and took extensive testimony. She judge dismissed her case and found her noncredible and no evidence of academic violendome and im hoping she wasnt doing this to stay in this country. I am sad and had many questions about my fiances affection. My family tried to intervene with the family in pakistan however the family refused to reciprocate the attempt and the father said nobody can expel my daughter from america and she does not need jamal to live there. My brothers have been harassed by pakistan and threatened to kidnap my little niece. I notified centers in writing and send them all the relevant information including the court findings. I never heard back from the ucis. I also notified i. C. E. Over the phone. And she used it with penalty of perjury she was never married before she covered the truth that she was married before in pakistan and put me through much more than i had dreamed. I now understand more completely me and my ex fiance had two Different Reasons for getting engaged. I wanted to get married and start a family and she wanted to come to the United States and stay here. She just needed an easy way. Thank you. Thank you all three for your testimony. We wont have any questions of the first panel. Thank you very much for coming. I would call the second panel now and i will introduce you as youre coming. Greg nav van no, Deputy Assistant director for elicit trade, travel and finance division of immigration and cust customs. He has held a number of Key Management positions within i. C. E. Headquarters including Deputy Assistant director Investigative Services division. Unit chief for the unit. Mr. Nav van no was assigned to the fbi joint Task Terrorism to investigate and prosecute terror suspects for immigration fraud. Matthew emerick, associate director of fraud detection and National Security directorship, u. S. Citizenship and immigration. Mr. Emerick has 21 years of Immigration Law enforcement intelligence experience starting with immigration and naturalization services, chicago. Mr. Am moorick was assigned to response details headquarters and served on the joint task force and acting chief of the investigation division. Mr. Neufeld, Donald Neufeld is associate director of Service Center operations. In his position, mr. Neufeld overseas all activities of the five uscis in texas, vermont, virginia. He has 27 Years Experience of Immigration Services and has held leadership positions at headquarters. Washington, los angeles, miami, nebraska Service Centers. Daniel renod, director of cus m customs and immigration, he has been a federal immigration professional since 1988, joined vermont Service Center as an adjudicate tore and promoted as supervisor. Selected as a branch chief headquarters Field Service op raytive division where he provided guidance to field offi offices. He served as the acting chief Investigator Program and transitioner to the role of deputy operations field director. David donahue is acting Principal Deputy secretary counselor of state and he has been an advisor since 2014 and deputy secretary assistant Counselor Affairs since 2015. He also from 2012 to 2013 served as coordinator inner Agency Principle provincial affairs at the embassy in afghanistan. Id like to ask you if you could rise so i could 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 mr. Nufeld. Thank you for the opportunity to testify at todays hearing. My name is Donald Neufeld and i am the associate director for the Service Center Operations Director for u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Having served under every Administration Since president Ronald Reagan i appreciate and value the role uscs does in insuring the orderly and expeditious flow of legal immigration. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today for the important work as Service Center operati operations. The director is comprised of a headquarters operation in d. C. And five centers in dallas, texas, california, lincoln, nebraska, arlington, virginia and st. Ail bans vermont. We have 3,600 federal employees and 1800 contractors. The Service Centers are designed to adjudicate cases that do not require facetoface interaction with the public. Our caseload has kones and others. And adjustment of status and multiple forms of humanitarian protection. Service Center Employees proc s processed nearly 5 million of these applications and requests. With respect to visa 1 petiti petitions, someone who wishes to bring his fiance to the u. S. Has to file a form. Immigration Services Officer at one of the Service Centers will review the form and document sub made mitted in place of the petition. It is to show both parties intend to marry within 90 days of the fiances admission of k1 immigrants and within two years of filing the admission. We conduct a background check for security concerns and mcinformation risks on the petitioner and foreign background beneficiary. And background of the adam walsh Child Protection act and int intermarriage regulation act and together these provisions are based on the individuals criminal history and disclosure of previous filings at the time of the individuals interview with the department of state. If eligibility is dem great by a as. By a preponderance of the relationship. It allows 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 nor grant any immigration status or department of state will issue a k1 visa. Having a k1 visa does not grant that it will admit the visa holder to the United States. Recognizing the importance of humanitarian and family reunification and economic goals we strive to do our work with the greatest integrity and efficiency and rely on the fraud director to provide fraud trends and ferreting out fraud. To identify and address safety threats we conduct background checks and closely coordinate with agencies as appropriate. We are fastly committed to show individual benefits are not given to people who pose a Public Safety or soak to defraud the immigration system. In closing on behalf of the acting director, and my colleagues, i think for your interest in our Service Center operation programs and opportunity to share this information with you today. Ill be happy to address any questions or concerns you 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. We want all the information you can 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 fellow citizens at hole and abroad abroad aen the protection of our borders. Were the first line of defense in border security. Embassies and consulates around the world play an Important Role in that. Marriagebased immigrant visas are important to many u. S. Citizens who find a spouse or fiance overseas. In a small percentage of cases, however, we find evidence that a Foreign National is trying to gain permanent resident status by marrying a u. S. Citizen with no intention to honor the marriage. My written statement lists robust measures the department has in place to detect and prevent fraud in these categories which i will summarize for you today. The departments role in marriagebased visa application process begins when our National Visa center, or nvc, receives an approved petition directly from uscis. For every k1 fiance petition, nvcs Fraud Prevention unit, fpu, reviews the case for potential fraud indicators. Should fraud indicators be found, the fpu will conduct further indepth review of the publicly available information, department of state records and commercial databases. Nvc provides results of the results to overseas consular adjudicators who ultimately determine whether or not the applicant is qualified for a visa. Once nvc has reviewed the case, the applicant interviews with the consular overseas. Consular adjudicators are trained to detect fraud. They receive ongoing training on local fraud trends, cultural norms particularly regarding marriage and relationships and the social and Economic Conditions in their host country. Many of our adjudicate aerls co come po post with Extensive Knowledge of the local laj wang. Evaluate qualifications for the visa category, identify any fraud indicators and review information pertaining to possible ineligibilitieneligibi. That includes any information provided by our partners, uscis, or by the National Visa center. If an adjudicator determines the relationship used as a basis for the visa petition is fraudulent, adjudicator will return the petition to uscis for reconsideration and possible revocation. Most u. S. Embassiies and consulates have a dedicated Fraud Prevention unit. If fraud is suspected, the visa application is sent for further assessment. Many integrate Diplomatic Security agents into their teams. These teams improve our ability to prevent and detect fraud at post by liasing with local Law Enforcement, conducting investigations and preparing cases for the prosecution in court. In fiscal year 2016, for example, integrated Diplomatic Security agents worked with consular officers and Law Enforcement to disrupt human smothering 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 term if visa holders complied with the terms of their visas and properly adjusted to lawful permanent status or departed the United States at the end of the period of admission. The vast majority of k1 recipients, 98 , use their visas proecht appropriately. Every visa decision is a National Security decision. Our Fraud Prevention officers efforts complement the multifaceted security process we and our Partner Agencies built to screen all visa applicants. This includes a sophisticated Global Information Technology Network that shares data among the department and federal Law Enforcement and intelligence agen 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, we spoke earlier. I thought they provided some moving testimony that will certainly inspire us to do more. Our efforts to detect and prevent fraud marriage continue. We strive to increase our effectiveness to seek more opportunities to collaborate with our partners including you to address this important and urgent issue. I appreciate your feedback and suggestions and look forward to your suggestions. Thank you very much. No n chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify at todays hearing. My name is daniel renaud. Sorry, i pronounced your name wrong. Thats quite all right, sir. I learned in an early age the important of public service, both my parents served the federal government and i, too, chose it as a career path. For over 28 years i dedicated my career to serving this country by balancing the importance of immigration with the need to ensure that those who are not entitled to a benefit under the law do not receive one. For me, these two missions are not incongruent. Im honored and privileged to lead the field and its team of 6,000 federal employees hard at work as we speak operating the largest Immigration Service in the world while upholding the uscis core values of integrity, respect, innovation and vigilance. The dedicated employees of the Field Operations directrate understand the significance of the work we do and upholding th. 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 ive 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 workforce, its technology and its 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 years on fraud indicators and how to detect and deter fraud. In every field office across the nation, today and every day, the primary concern immigration officers is ensuring that the wrong person does not obtain an immigration benefit. Uscis continues to provide current and effective training to our workforce 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 test testimony. 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 does a number of security checks. These security checks include screening against biographic and biometric holdings of u. S. Department of Homeland Security and other u. S. Government partners. These checks include text checks on both the applicant, fbi name check, fingerprint checks against fbi criminal holdings, dhs ident checks at time of interview and checks against texts are repeated again, just before final decision. Protecting the integrity of the u. S. Immigration system is not a topic i take lightly and instill this importance to all the employees who serve in this direct r dire dire dire directerate. I dont hesitate to take immediate action that no benefit is provided until the questions are resolved and questions than with made with confidence in the integrity of the immigration system. When i learn certain naturalization cases proceeded to adjudication without historical fingerprints, i created a special adjudications unit dedicated exclusively to reviewing these cases and. The highlight of my career has been administering the oath of allegiance to new citizens at hundreds of naturalization ceremonies conducted each year throughout the country. Im proud to welcome new citizens to this country knowing that the uniform rule of naturalization envisioned by the framers of the constitution has been applied to detect and deter fraud and protect the security of this nation. In closing, on behalf of acting director and my colleagues, i thank the chairman, Ranking Member, for the opportunity to share this information concerning the Field Operations dire directerate with you. I appreciate you holding this hearing today, i believe we share the desire to ensure the integrity of the immigration system and finding improved ways to preventing and protecting abuses to the system. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, mr. Renaud. Now mr. Emirate. Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, and distinguished members of the 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 dex National Security direct rat with u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As the associate director of fdns, i have oversight responsibility for fraud detection and National Security efforts. Uscis created the fraud detection national Security Office in 2004 and the office grand with a handful of employees. In 2010, former director prov e promoted fdns to to help safeguard our nations security and protect the integrity of the lawful immigration system. A further illustration of this prioritization is the gross of the fdns corps which 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 administrative investigations focused on the detection of immigration benefit fraud. Ill begin with a summary of the authorities and a general overview of the type of work fdns immigration officers conduct. The secretary of Homeland Security has Broad Authority to administer and force the immigration and nationality act and other laws pertaining to the naturalization and immigration of aliens. Uscis officers have authorities delegated to them by the secretary including the authority to investigate alleged civil and criminal violations of the Immigration Laws, interview aliens, 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 uscis makes a decision in a case. Fdns officers conduct administrative investigations that establish and document findings that uscis adjudicative staff may use to determine an individuals eligibility for an immigration benefit. These investigations are aimed at verifying circumstances and relationships that support that purport to form the basis of immigration benefit. The findings identify violations of relevant sections of the immigration and nationality act and or other grounds of inadmissibility or remove blt. Ad administrative investigations into suspected immigration benefit fraud are generally initiated in the form of a referral from an aju jujude gad officers or another agency. All referrals are processed similarly despite the source of the referral. Fdns typically begins s by ha an officer review it, and contains enough information to be actionable. If the referral meets these criteria, the officer opens a case in our system of record known as the fdns data system. An 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 findings. The written statement of finding is provided to the adjudicator who has a responsibility for adjudicating the case. The adjudicator will use these findings to inform their decision on the immigration applicant or petition. When evidence of fraud has been verified by fdns in an individual case, uscis adjudicators generally will 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 u. S. Attorney Attorneys Office for possible prosecution in coordination with immigration and Customs Enforcement and uscis routinely assists in investigations involving marriage fraud. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide you information on uscis antifraud efforts andem chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, distinguished members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the issue of marriage fraud and efforts of u. S. Ism grace a immigration to investigate, and bring to justice organizations and individuals who engage in the crime. In the u. S. Department of Homeland Security, i. C. E. Homeland security investigations has broad Legal Authority to enforce a diverse array of federal statutes to include the immigration and nationality act in general federal crimes. I. C. E. Hsi uses this authority to investigate a wide variety of immigration benefit fraud crimes. Hsi works in close coordination with our sister agency, u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and other Agency Partners to target individuals and organizations who arrange sham marriages as well as those who participate in marriages for the sole purpose of obtaining or conveying an immigration benefit. The crime of marriage fraud has been used by both individuals and organizations to unlawfully obtain immigration benefits and to generate large amounts of elicit income. Typically, a broker or facilitator recruits a u. S. Citizen to marry an alien, may or may not only be in the United States. While the alien may be outside of the United States and entering using a k1 fiance visa obtained through fraud, many aliens who enter without inspection 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 in National Security, department of state Diplomatic Security service and several others federal, state and local Law Enforcement personnel. The task forces maximize resources, eliminate duplication of efforts and produce a strong Law Enforcement presence. They combine i. C. E. s unique the task forces focus on criminal organizations that orchestrate these crimes resulting in a more efficient use of resources and increases the likelihood that these cases will be accepted for prosecution by the United States Attorneys Office. Hsi considers uscis to be a close partner in the investigation of benefit fraud including marriage fraud. In certain instances when suspicious marriage are encountered during the adjudication of application and petition for benefits, theyre referred from uscis to hsi for criminal investigation. U i uscis officers work closely with hsi 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 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 forwarding of benefit fraud leads to hsi field officers 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 to raise Public Awareness and educate the partner organization, and deter individuals from entering into the fraudulent matters. The common perception is entering into the sham marriage for the purpose of assisting a Foreign National with immigration status is a harmless transgression without consequences. This is going to highlight not only the personal, financial, and legal ramifications for the person participating in the fraudulent marriages but damage of Public Safety, National Security and the integrity of the immigration system. Through this initiative, hsi partners with coordinators throughout the United States in order to 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, your your opportunity to appear before you today. And your continued support of i. C. E. And its 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 your questions you may have. Well have fiveminuteround questions. I have so many questions, im going to have to submit some for answer in writing. So if you dont get youll get some questions from me even if i dont state them. Id like to the 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 documented benefit Fraud Task Forces that are located across the country that particularly partake in the vetting and working closely with uscis on ensuring that individuals who are committing marriage fraud are brought to justice. Thank you. 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 mitt graigate these threats . Youve already talked about the task forces. So definitely our document and benefit Fraud Task Forces are definitely a key element to detecting and deterring and prosecuting marriage fraud. As i mentioned in my oral testimony, too, weve done Public Outreach to go out to efficient ya officiants of marriage. To ensure that public and local, state and government officials are aware of certain marriage fraud indicators. Also for you, sir, i. C. E. Has a 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 of government approach to these type of cases. Im going to refer back to our document and benefit Fraud Task Forces which uscis, fdns and state department 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 of government approach, sir, we can tackle the problem by working in unison and we work very closely with our Partner Agencies. Also for you, does uscis and state provide you with a review of k1 visa and evidences that they received when making adjudication of a k1 senator, we at our currently we have benefit fraud units located in five locations across the country and we are regularly receive leads of not only marriage fraud but all types of document and benefit fraud from uscis, fraud fdns, so that flow of information is currently coming to u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a regular basis. Okay. The national for mr. Neufeld, ranaud, and emrich, National Security implications of marriage fraud are great. The 9 11 commission reported 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 required, as i said in my statement, by one of the San Bernardino terrorist attackers. What 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 a petition . You dont have to respond to that. Both the both the petition petitioner and beneficiary. Public safety threats. As well as serx offender administration. If theres a lookout in there concerning a potential sex offender then we do a fingerprint check to see, to determine if that person is going it be a threat to a child. Im sorry, i didnt mean to interrupt you. Uscis recognizes that the individuals who will try to who want to come to the sbooits a United States and do us harm will take advantage of any immigration vehicle including marriage fraud. Thats why weve multilayered checks into this system. And just to give some indication how seriously uscis treats marriage fraud, in fy 2016, approximately 45 of the hours that fdns employees 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. Thanks very much, mr. Chairman. I have four questions. Im going to try to do it in five minutes. The i. G. s report found that known human traffickers used work and fiance visas to bring victims to the United States legally. And specifically 274 individu individuals 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 . We so as i mentioned, the battery of checks that we do at different stages of the process, we also, fdns, 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. And in those particular cases, i cant speak to the particular cases, i can say we take that report very seriously. Were working with whoa, whoa, whoa. You cannot say you take the Homeland Security report seriously . No, i said we do take the report very seriously. Oh, i beg your pardon. Thank you. And 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 report very seriously. I appreciate that. I think you know that this is a huge industry. Its the second largest criminal industry in the world today. An 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 fiancee 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 defefr r 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 come 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. And may i add some other actions that weve taken as well . Yes, certainly. So one of the things that weve done is revised our forms so that our forms capture more information. It captures more information and information is used 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 administrator 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 officers, the adjudicators who are doing interviews and assessing credibility. And 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. So would really appreciate it if there are ways of making this available to the committee to see what was found is im interested in. We will certainly do our best to answer those questions. And for mr. Renaud, in an effort to deter marriage fraud, foreigners deriving their status based on marriage of less there you are of less than two years are only given a conditional permanent resident status as i understand it. In other words, theyre not full green card holders. So once the 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 could you provide that data to the committee . Has anybody looked back to see if it is effective . We certainly can provide data on what percentage of the form is in i. 751, petition to remove conditions, what percentage of those who approved or denied or percentage of individuals whose status is terminated for tafaile to file. If thats a degree of success, we can provide that. That is appreciated and we will count on receiving it. According to the 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 a 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 mailorder 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 look into regularly. Good. Let me ask you this. Do you know what role websites like craigslist or backpage play in perpetrating this type of fraud . It seems to me to be a good medium to do so. Senator, i can say that we have several units within Homeland Security investigations like our Cyber Crimes 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 outlooks such as craigslist. So 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. Appreciate it. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Senator klobuchar. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you, all of you. I want to followup on something senator feinstein was asking about. I led with senator cornyn the sex trafficking bill that passed the senate and i have been very active in a number of efforts in that regard and i know she asked you about the report from the department of Homeland Security. And i wondered if you could just elaborate a bit and tell me about measures 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. 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 will 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 fdns officer to our human smuggling and Trafficking Center. Additionally, some of the measures we took was that alleged human traffickers that we were aware of, we entered lookouts in the system and when uscis runs their checks, they would not be able to enter it and hit on 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 yoouni states and if we did find that information, we could coordinate regularly with uscis. Okay. Thank you. Anyone im maybe just with the time remaining here move on to one other question and maybe we could have mr. Renaud and mr. Neufeld focus on that. And 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 Enforcement along with related implementation guidance, updated policies for when cases with fraud indicators should be referred to u. S. Immigrations and customs, to i. C. E. Can you elaborate on how the recent updates are expected to affect efforts to address marriage fraud in the k1 visa program . Anyone . So i can start, i guess. Thank you u ffor the question. I think that are we satisfied . I think its our job not to be satisfied. I think as mr. Donahue mentioned in his opening remarks, this is an ongoing battle 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 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 had ill defer. Ill just say the same thing. Its were ever vigilant. The schemes are changing daily and we rely pretty heavily on the fdns officers that are embedded at our Service Centers to try to keep us abreast of the latest trends that they are seeing then we work government as a whole to make sure that we have access to the tools that we need to ferret out the crime. 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 followup with a victims concern. You heard the victims from the first panel pointing out fraud in their cases and the committee has asked for the National Files so could you please get those files to my staff . Absolutely, ill 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 k m marry. In this country, free to marry means one is currently not already 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 partitioners . So we excuse me, 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 databases regarding marital status, that would be helpful. We typically dont have access to that. It pretty much is a paperbased adjudication or review of the evidence they provide to us. Okay. 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, you know, one of the challenges that weve seen in certain recent media stories, one that 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 weve seen them before. I think that those are some of the things that we have been increasingly successful at, but obviously, you know, were not done yet. So the story of the bronx woman, you know, that is a that is a problem, frankly, that we need to address. And that is those are some of the things that were 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 well 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, 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 pof our of our adjudication of the feon say position but they would be when they apply for adjustment process. 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 adjustment of 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 tillis. Will it be possible for one of you to finish this meeting so 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 ill turn it over to senator cruz and senator tillis at this point. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And id 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 nonimmigratinoni nonimmigration numbers, there is the potential for fraud that exposes us to National Security risks. Now, of course, addressing this 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, a pakistan native, who spent a significant amount of time in saudi arabia and her fiancee, farook, a native born u. S. Citizen. According to press reports in applying for a visa, malik lied about her residential address in pakist pakistan. The couple did not provide significant information to show they met in person which is required of a k1 visa. The 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 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 in the past two years and that they intended to marry when they came into the United States. That being said, the incident was reviewed by both uscis internally and the inner agency. As a result, cis has made several improves to its process. Additionally, uscis and our screening partners did both retrospective and perspective reviews of the screening process and those reviews will inform processes going ahead that we discussed earlier. Wed be happy to discuss with the committee in a nonpublic setting. Some of the measures that uscis has taken are adding additional b 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 theyre working and administrative or criminal investigation respectively. Additionally, weve developed training for our officers who give interviews for adjudications to better help them determine credibility and to flush 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 our 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 the infrastructures not in 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 the our vetting partners do have information such as addresses so thats something that they check. That would be, pick up things where there was a National Security flag on the address or other information 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. And one final question. From what i understand it, 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 ofte media, examining the postings of individuals, from regions of the world that pose significant threats of terrorism. What extent are we examining their social media postings . Yes, sir. Since fy 15, weve 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 full time on selected populations. Right now as a result of the executive order, were reviewing all of our screening procedures at the department to develop unified screening and 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 med methods but this is work that we fully anticipate will continue and our capabilities will improi improve as we go forward. Do you have the adequate resources for the task . We are thats under review right now. That will part of the uniform vetting efforts will inform our resource needs, but as of right now, to we feel that were doing a high volume of checks and i think that however the uniform screening review comes out that we will find the resources. Very god. Thank you. Senator tillis . 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 that 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 we have. There are some people who 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, various visa programs we have. Part of what we have to do is make it work so its less likely somebody transcends into an illegal status as we go forward. Then we con 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 about 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 cbeen covered . Just start, anyone who wants to speak. Senator, thats a very good question. Thank you very asking that question. As youre probably aware, the sentencing guideline on single scheme marriage fraud range from potentially, like, 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. So i would agree with you there. And maybe as youre asking the question, one thing, i mean, this has also become a criminal enterprise so i dont know, im not an attorney, but, you know, 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 were involved in our own Fraud Prevention efforts in the state department but also its something thats used by i. C. E. And Diplomatic Security as a way to look at common terms, common addresses, common anything thats common and find other people that may be similar. We recently found a case like that where we saw this commonality and we 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 for you, mr. Donahue. I do want to tap on to something that senator cruz discussed. 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. So i do believe that 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 a sponsoring fiance 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 by that i. C. E. Provides to many of our posts. Through our Diplomatic Security to go through. And get to the know, what is this application about . And will the person use the visa appropriately . And are they using it for some nefarious means . And 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 whos 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 that 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 weve dont is we provide a very standard question. One of the things mentioned during earlier discussions on this subject, two people who are interviewing clients overseas were working with partnership with everyone on social media. Thats a real hard nut to crack in the kinds of volumes were dealing with. Immigration. Technology, we used to think facial recognition and finger pretties was a hard nut to crack and we cracked those. I think we will eventually. Its knot going not going to be oneagency solution to the problem. We did a test on social media, 17 countries that have the most k visas and didnt get any real resolution from that but did find its very labor intensive and we need a wholegovernment solution to that. Mr. Nevano . Id like to add to my colleague, senator, we have special ajint gents assigned at posts abauroad, 30 visa posts i 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 in 25 posts. I also 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 theyre interviewed joef s ee et department of state and when theyre admitted to the United States, Border Protection. 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 more difficult for a k1 to enter into marriage fraud. Well thank you for that. Just going back to what i said in the beginning of my comments, if you take a look at there may be what i would guess is a minor proportion of people for the reasons you just said, mr. Nevano, that 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 whey to legally enter this country and thats because legally enter this country. Thats because we have a failed visa system that we need to fix. I for one look forward to providing you all with 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 you need to provide the right clearances and after granting a visa, tracking so that we really get to, i think, a more effective and efficient, fair visa program in general. I thank you all for being here today. I see no other members present, so well hold the committee open for a week for additional comments and responses to questions. Thank you all for being here. Thank those from the previous panel. This meeting is adjourned. [inaudible] up next on American History tv, and educational film from 1951. Using the sale of american tractors to brazil, it explains the complicated process of International Commerce and trade