The law allows programs like this to exist and they were common. World war i, world war ii, vietnam war, korean war, this was Standard Practice of the government and only reversed by the department of defense in internal memos that undermine the intent express of congress with a statute passed by congress more than 100 years ago. You have lawlessness by the deferment of defense that are undermining a statute with internal executive memos. [inaudible] did you mention that . The 1996 act take away judicial discretion . I know mr. Metcalf had a different perspective. Tell me. Yes, that is one the most troubling aspects of the changes made to the Immigration Laws. It removed had an aggravated felony and expanded the definition of aggregated felony. And things that dont classify as aggravated. Im out of time but in Orange County we were the first pioneers creating veterans courts and out these issues are complex. We look forward to working with you on this issue. Id like to recognize mr. Biggs for five minutes. Thank you. I think we all understand that many of our veterans struggle with reintegration due to ptsd issues and that is why ive introduced a bill in legislation to advocate for my colleagues across the aisle to make access to make there be more available and more easily because its wholehearted to hold support therapy from veterans and when i see mr. Indicate he was struggling to reintegrate i dont think thats unusual for many of our servicemen and women to come back. Therapy will be helpful for that. He also said theres no free pass and that deportation is a double punishment. Let me explain why that is not so. There is no progress because you did of the time for shooting at a vehicle. That was the charge convicted and you serve your time. It became a deterrent. You were deported because of you are not a citizen and theres nobody else that would get an exception to that here because of any other rationale they would be you were deported [inaudible] im happy for you you received a pardon and your citizenship but to say its a double punishment the first punishment for violating the crime and committing the crime is the criminal sentence itself. Deportation is applicable to any person in the country that is not a citizen who has engaged in conduct. Thats the penalty that comes from obtaining citizenship and i read your statement and listen to you testify and may have a misunderstanding of what but i want to point out data that is absolutely mindboggling that was brought up. [inaudible] this individual deported was convicted, among other things, injury to a spouse which he received an eight year sentence, assault with a Deadly Weapon and false imprisonment. He did not naturalize when he was in the military and then subject to de portability doe does they were not misdemeanors that were as a result of the expansion of aggregated felonies. In seven. Obligations compared to 683,000 civilian applications. They received military applications, so, there are some interesting things we do manipulate the statistics in the way that i heard here today. We reviewed the cases involving 87 of the 92 veterans who were ultimately deported between 2013. Eighteen of those veterans, were convicted for sexually abusing others. Twentyone were convicted of a violent felony such is a homicide assault. That is 24 percent of the total. Nine were deported for having been convicted of firearms or explosives related things. Those cases, i am talking about over half of them were during the Obama Administration. Not on trump. Mr. Chairman i ask unanimous consent to enter these documents, the press release chinese alleged acting in the u. S. Of the peoples public you shall, subsequently believe you are working at high level Intelligence Officer with chinese. Also the 2017, department of defense memo, Article Service cannot take place until security checks have been completed demonstrating these were taken seriously. Nationalization that publicly military service. My time is expired. Thank you. That went out objection. I would like to call in our chairman for five minutes of questions. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you for coming here and sharing your story. It appears stories like pictures are all is it too common. In 2019, the report, 250 veterans removal proceedings. 2013 to 200018, at least 92 veterans were deported. I measure my open inc. Expend. Ptsd, brain injury and other traumas suffered while on active duty. How can the government, said the military people. See whose again. How can the government especially our blake of defense, better inform veterinary eligibility for naturalization. Waited to have some kind of program in place there where they can explain the forms that need to be done. That is my thought. Okay, in your testimony today, you laid out on the Trump Administration made live more difficult for cardholders. Enjoy the military and i did then apply for naturalization. World military Service Members, working on military acquisitio acquisitions, are warned about the changes ahead of time were able to find out if the changes recommended. No. And no costbenefit analysis. In fact the services were pushed back of the requirements because they see there unreasonable and making it hard to recruit people. So they push back the requirements. Yes, they dont agree with these requirements. His came from dod, upper loophole. Came from dod which did not do any cross analysis no discussion about it. Externally. With stakeholders and no analysis on the factors or on military recruiting. Lpr surfing the military, in 426, requests certication military service which is essential to the naturalization process. Signed by the proper authoriti authorities. Dod policy changes. The put out the demo but they didnt do anything to educate people generally about what should be done and there was haphazard, memos that didnt reach to the lowest levels. In fact if you talk to recruiters today, though still tell you that out, shoulders can be nationalized in basic training. They dont even realize things have changed and people are told that it is easy to get your certified, but you have to wait and take it to your first unit and then we do get there, you cant find anybody who will certify it because there is no Public Education effort on how to get it certified. Your experience what is the average time to get a response to the certification. Once they have completed the 426. And is taking months, the exact plan being that if the email it to me, ive especially mail that i can send it to somebody who will get one side and a couple of weeks. If you know in the army. It is only if you know enough to email me. That that happens. If you dont, it takes months. You can take months of the forms are getting lost, people just never hear back after they submit them. What signals do you think that these the empty policy changes thinking about joining the military. What signals do they sick to the lpr currently surfing in the military. And forcing whose in the signal that the service has brought valued. That they are not welcome in the military. They also send a signal that they should not join the military until after they get their citizenship because are going to face a very long haul either citizenship and if they try to do it after joining the military. One state support services are available,. They used to be very Strong Services because the basic training naturalization sites and things that were dedicated to handling military people. Doesnt been dismantled so now it is rather ad hoc. There is a military helpline you n call, which often get wrong information we do call the military helpline. In other words, the bureaucratic processes have increased. Sooner thats correct. Who may experience what is the average spend of time it takes to process a military naturalization application. Is used only to get few months but now in monday cases, it is taking upwards of a year or two or sometimes three or four years. They planted tilting most of its International Field offices, and consolidated overseas naturalization, consolidating beep for hubs. Twentysix field offices and for hubs. How these changes Impact Service members and their families seeking citizenship while abroad. It will make it harder. One more question. How can we stop the deportation of the military veterans. Restore basic training naturalization. Then we will not have any deported best if everyone gets nationalized before the ligament the military. I should. Out that congress put an apartment safeguard in the law expedited naturalization. The law says that if you dont surf honorably for a period or periods aggregating five years, you cant lose your citizenship that you gain through military service. So there is no reason for these misguided policies because the legal means already is in the law can take care of anybody who is the bad actor and misbehaves after they get their citizenship. No reason other than ill will. Thank you i yield back. Do you have security clearance currently. Some are currently no i am retired. He smacked you have any access to classified information that was involved in making decisions about who would receive and which veterans would receive citizenship. Spak i only reviewed unclassified summaries. Would you be surprised to know that there were thousands of folks who for classified reasons, were not allowed to receive citizenship because they had ties to foreign countries. That is not correct. You nobly that. The citizen applications are actually not classified. His classified information is to why they did not receive citizenship. Its that is not classified, they give you a written decision telling you why theyre being denied. See you believe that they have ties to china, and a chinese intelligence services, that there will be a Public Statement identifying that person is having ties to chinese intelligence where it is that we are staying. No im staying we do go through the naturalization process is the completed forum and you have an interview and here denied you are given a written statement in writing explain why your denied of naturalization. Spilling in that written statement, may not include the reasons for the classified reasons for you not to be given the privilege of becoming a u. S. Citizen. They will tell you directly why you know being denied. Some xo seriously, you know staying here today that a top secret relationship, top secret information that has been developed during the Obama Administration by the way that identifies an individual is having a relationship with a chinese intelligence service, that is going to be identified in a public document. Thats what you are staying. What i am staying is we do apply for citizenship, there is a forum that has two questions including things like what if you have done whose that or the other thing and you have to answered those questions on oath. And if you live on oath, they will deny you naturalization and they will see we are daily denying you because you live to us and said x wasnt true. Its given to the individual. They dont need to rely unclassified information and they dont. So they certainly have access to classified information when the make a decision about weather to grant someone citizenship. They dont normally know. Among the department of defense doesnt have information to that. One agency of the government will work with another agency in the right to determine weather someone has a relationship that would be running to whose country. Interestingly, they dont pass that information along. Whose came out of Court Proceeding recently that if they have that information, they dont give it to the staff anyway. The national class. No one has been denied no veteran has been denied citizenship based on a relationship with a Foreign Intelligence Service. I think the case that was raised earlier, he was never nationalized. But thats not my question. My question is your understanding is there has never been an individual denied citizenship of the veteran denied citizen ship is a result of ace relationship with the Foreign Intelligence Service. I can answered that because the country has been fighting since 1775. And i cant because its more than 200 years. But i can tell you that National Concern eight concerns, are overblown and that was proven in a court case in seattle with the department of defense came into court and presented the facts to the judge and the judge dismissed them concerning them and staying they were not valid. Whose into a real simple question. Would you be in favor of naturalizing an individual or for them to become an naturalized citizen if they had relationship with the Foreign Intelligence Service. Im not sure what you mean by relationship. They work for and receive her name from, a Foreign Intelligence Service to provide information about the United States of america. The individual is the spy, and they failed to reveal that information in the naturalization application when they got nationalized by accident, they could be 19 nationalists is sims the government found out that information that could be prosecuted and departed. I am certainly in favor of that. My question is would you be in favor of naturalizing that person. Im not in favor of naturalizing anyone who doesnt meet the requirements of becoming the national citizen. And certainly a spy does not qualify. Think you very much. Thank you mr. Chairman. I think the witnesses for being here. The u. S. Military has long relied on evidence to protect our country. Within the United States we have 2. 4 million veterans with emigrant ties. We also rely on assistance from Foreign Nationals abroad including afghanistan and iraq. In january of 2006, congress created a special immigrant visa ordinance iv, to provide a path to safety in the United States for iraq in translators who work for the u. S. The military and artists of secretly facing danger. Whose is simple common sense in my view toward people put their lives on the line to send it to defend our country, the only right thing to do is to make sure that they and their families are protected. Primary care now, ive heard from congressman raskin in the number of republican offices to educate private gentlemen who i will call mohammed abroad. The the translator who worked with the u. S. Military and several national and International Agencies for nearly a decade in afghanistan. And your experience is a Lieutenant Colonel in the military police work and u. S. Army reserve, would you agree that the assistance of native translators in countries like afghanistan and iraq, have been critical to the u. S. Military operations in those countries. Absolutely yes. It was that makes them operational. We need them to understand the local culture and local language. Loophole of danger that putting himself in when they are great to do the job. Smack theyre putting themselves in extreme danger and monday have been killed. Their family members have been murder because they sided with the United States and the overseas. Unsurprisingly like mr mr. Common due to their service, had faced persistent persecution including assassination that threats from the taliban. One week ago, mr. Common was arrested by military police and there is a possibility that he will be disappeared. And yet, the state has denied mr. Conference application discretionary basis. Whose case is about larger thing. The data shows that 60 percent drop in a side view drop among iraqis was even worse from 2500 and 2017, to 181 in 2019. In the drop of over 90 percent. In your opinion, what is causing these delays and drops and omissions. Fear, on the part of the bureaucrats who are supposed to be conducting background checks on these individuals. They are afraid to approve anyone. It is also a lack of resources and lack of attention by the leadership. They dont seem to want to focus on business process of saving folks and put their lives a live or america. Can we improve Whose Program to a tshirt access for safety for our allies on the sap program. They passed a statute that set a deadline but it unfortunately bureaucracy is ignoring the deadline. So i think Congress Needs to provide strong oversight to ensure the statues are followed. What is the process currently look like for an applicant. Theyre very been vetted to surf alongside her trips, has brought quite a pit of heavy betting that is already been dead for these individuals. They are ready heavily vetted and they have huge files filled with testimonials about their Loyal Service to the United States. Sometimes the rev. Period of monday years. It is unclear what exactly is going on in that subsequent betting that seems to take years and years and from what i can to help most it is simply a file being put on chef and nothing happening. Snacking beyond the immediate humanitarian inserts protect those who risk their lives for us, another thing that concerns me is the message that we are sending to potential future allies. So how does whose failure to protect these people impact our National Securities interested in the ability of our troops to safely do their jobs interact in an instant. Is quite bad. People who are actually out there that might be wheeling to help us in the future, are going to turn and look at how mohammed was treated and see, i want to take those chance and im not going to help you. Tonight mr. Chairman of the treatment of people who put their lives on the line, defending our country is just unacceptable weather it is immigrants leaving here who signed up protect our country or people abroad going down so despite significant threat to date and their families lives and it is our duty to stay on alongside these communities and demand justice. I yield back. I fully agree with you and i like to call on ms. Garcia from the state of texas. Thank you. For convening whose hearing on whose very importan