since being confirmed. live coverage on cspan3. >> the gentle lady from new jersey shall assume the duties of the chair in the event that i run into technical difficulties. i now recognize myself on opening statement. the committee on homeland security is meeting today to examine the way forward on homeland security. we're joined by the secretary of homeland secretary mayorkas who will testify before congress. we look forward to speaking to him about this administration's vision for the future of the department of homeland security. secretary mayorkas has inherited a department damaged by the previous administration and its failed homeland security policy. for years, president trump left the dha's without a lawfully appointed and confirm secretary, and kept critical positions vacant so he could exploit the department for political gain. i am pleased that president biden has made some key nominations and i look forward to senate-confirmed leadership now that secretary mayorkas has been sworn in and the administration is moving forward with filling leadership positions across the department. since president trump made the dhs place -- less able to carry out its mission, it left the homeland insecure. he downplayed the threat of covid-19 despite the warning from doctors and scientists, left states to fend for themselves to obtain testing supplies and ppe, and failed to implement a national vaccine distribution plan. he sided with putin and russia over our own intelligence community, even though our adversaries meddled in our elections and hacked into our computer systems. he helped fuel the rise of domestic terrorism in america and incited right-wing violent extremists to attack the united states capitol. americans continue to pay the price, with over half a million dead from covid-19, experts struggling to understand the scope of the solarwinds hack, and secretary mayorkas and the thousands of hard-working men and women at dhs are left to deal with the mess the previous administration left behind. this will be no easy task, and congress should be focused on giving the department the resource and authorities to do so. so desperate to make americans forget trump's failures, they have resorted to fear mongering about the challenges we face at the border. that does nothing to improve the situation on the ground. others are engaging in revisionist history, saying all was well at the border under the last administration. nothing can be farther from the truth. during the 2019 surge at the border, president trump ripped thousands of children fromntled imgrture and refused to address the underlying cause of migration. the trump administration's cruel, short-cited policies directly contributed to the situation at the border now. the biden administration is taking action. officials have announced repeatedly that people should not come to the border now. the administration is increasing capacity to shelter unaccompanied kids humanely, while testing them for covid-19. it is restarting the central american minors program to allow vulnerable children to apply to come to the united states in a safe and orderly way. meanwhile, dhs is reluctantly continuing to use its authority to expel adults and family units from the u.s., in order to manage increased flows in the near term. in fact,en administration is expelling more people than the previous one. our borders are not open. clearly, more will have to be done to respond to this situation while upholding our values. what we must not do his return to the morally bankrupt policies of the last in its duration -- of the last administration toward children. this committee will continue to conduct careful oversight of the department actions at the border. i want to hear from secretary mayorkas about how his department is responding. meanwhile, we must not take our eyes off homeland security threats like terrorism, cyber attacks, and the preparedness to respond. the biden administration is working to rebuild dhs, reform homeland security policies and address the situation at the border, while upholding our values. however, it cannot expect to be repaired in a matter of weeks, everything president trump's droid over four years -- president trump destroyed over four years. i look forward today to hearing from secretary mayorkas about his vision on a way forward for homeland security. i recognize the ranking member, the gentleman from new york, for an opening statement. representative: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for holding the steering and thank you to our witness, secretary mayorkas, for appearing as well. we had a nice discussion today and i am glad to see we are getting off on the right foot, mr. secretary. and to everyone out there, happy st. patrick's day. i can't think of more important time for both sides of the aisle to work together. issues we face each day are more complex and severe than i have ever seen. and we will only be successful by working together. engaging in divisive rhetoric is not the answer, and never will be. in just the first months of the hundred 17th congress, we have faced a deadly pandemic -- the 117th congress, we have faced a deadly pandemic, an attack on the capitol, and a burgeoning crisis along our southern border, not to mention threats from authoritarian states like china and russia, that are only getting more emboldened in their malign activities. just a week ago, a cyber attack on the microsoft exchange server is believed to have affected tens of thousands of entities across government and industry alike. must like the solar winds cyber campaign, we probably will not know the extent of damage caused by this attack for a while. mr. chairman, you and i are lockstep on this issue, as is the secretary. i believe cybersecurity is the preeminent threat to our national and homeland security. if we don't act swiftly and decisively, we will come to regret it. additionally, we are now facing a crisis on the southern border that could have been avoided. through irresponsible rhetoric and actions by this administration, we are seeing a crisis unfold during a pandemic. the situation at the border continues to get worse with inadequate action, or even proper acknowledgment of the severity of the situation. i just returned from the border, where i started my career as a crime prosecutor in the mid- 1990's. it is indeed a crisis that continues to deepen each day. one thing that disturbed me was the number of children encountered on the border, exposed to the elements and having experienced a traumatic journey from their home countries. as we approach peak levels of unaccompanied children crossing the border, i am concerned the administration policies are encouraging more to attempt this journey. there is no question about that, based on my conversations with customs and border patrol agents and other experts on the border. mr. secretary, i want to find ways to work together with you and keep the homeland safe. it is not about who gets credit or blame, it is about doing the right thing for america. i told you i would be frank and transparent with you, and i believe the department and administration is not living up to its end of the bargain. that is where we find ourselves. i'm concerned this administration created a border crisis through misguided policies and executive orders, denied the reality of the situation and dodged accountability. at the same time, american schools remain closed across the country and the u.s. border is open to foreign nationals. president biden wasted no time, one of his first acts was to unravel our immigration and border security posture by implementing selective enforcement of immigration laws, ending the remain in mexico policy, allowing the entry of thousands of migrants waiting in mexico into the country, re-implementing catch and release and canceling the asylum cooperative agreements with central american countries. it is no wonder we have this issue at the border. while the president's overdue message yesterday to migrants to not make the journey, it is better late than never, but words alone cannot undo the impact of his policies. statistics do not lie about the impact of these policies. in february 2021, customs and border control encountered the highest number of migrants encountered in the month of february in over seven years, 1400 41 people, a 100 73 percent increase compared to february 2020. a 160 3% increase of family units from january 2021. an increase in unaccompanied children. customs and border patrol officials predicted peak of 13,000 unaccompanied children crossing the border each month by may, which would exceed the height of the 2019 crisis. at the border patrol facility that houses unaccompanied children in el paso, they are overcapacity, and we have more coming. hundreds of border patrol agents are being diverted from interior drug checkpoints and northern and coastal borders to respond to this surge. dhs asked for volunteers to manage the number of migrants, and fema has been taken away from dealing with the pandemic and vaccinating americans to deal with a crisis. we are in the midst of a humanitarian, security and public health crisis the administration refuses to acknowledge and is not being transparent about. this is a crisis that is costing millions of dollars a day, and i expect more specificity from the department on the magnitude of this financial burden. customs and border patrol agent are -- have told me we are taking money from future payments for customs and border patrol agent later this year and if there is not a supplemental, they will not have money at the end of the year to pay wages. that is how bad it is. i do not want to throw stones, i just don't, i would like to work with you and the administration on this issue and come to the table with solutions. today, i propose several measures to get this crisis under control. we can restart wall funding. there is nothing more bipartisan than keeping our country safe. customs and border patrol agents are screaming for this. reimplement the remaining mexico policy and catch and release. listen to front-line workers and invest in areas of technology, access and resources for personnel, and work with foreign part is to prevent more migrants from reaching our borders, and prioritize the need to vaccinate front-line border patrol and ice security force. form a trust fund for border searches so we can deal with them in a more timely manner. i hope the administration is taking this crisis seriously and that we can work together to find solutions that are good for the country. i sincerely mean that. mr. chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. i look forward to the testimony. i yield back. chairman thompson: other members of the committee are my did that under committee rules, statements may be submitted for the record. members are reminded the committee will operate according to guidelines laid out by the chairman and ranking member in our february 3 agreement regarding remote procedures. without objection, the witness's full statement will be inserted into the record. i now recognize secretary mayorkas for his opening statement. secretary mayorkas: thank you and good morning chairman thompson, ranking member katko, and sting wished members of the committee. i should recognize the tragic events that took place in the surrounding areas of atlanta yesterday. our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of that tragic event, those that lost their lives as well as those that were injured. we are tracking that event very carefully. i have already been briefed on it and i know the federal arrow of investigation is working to understand all the facts, and that the individual who is a suspect of that event is in custody. more than 240,000 individuals dedicate their talent and energy each day to protecting our homeland security. it is an honor to appear before you to represent them and the critical work they perform in service of the american people. dhs personnel protect our country from foreign and domestic terrorism while also protecting our civil rights and civil liberties. they manage our borders while keeping america as a place of refuge. they support a government effort to defeat a pandemic that is impacted every part of american life, while also facilitating the legitimate trade and travel needed for a strong economy. the challenges we face are great, but we do not face them alone. the department of homeland security is fundamentally a department of partnerships. congress, all of you, is one of our essential partners. i commit to working with this committee on a bipartisan basis to ensure the success of our homeland security mission. 43 days into my tenure as secretary, i am sharing what we have done and where we are headed. i will start what is top of mind, our effort to defeat the covid-19 pandemic. on the first day of the said discretion, president biden challenged fema to stand up 100 federally-supported community vaccination centers in only 30 days. in fact, fema did not stand up 100 federally-supported community vaccination centers in 30 days, it stood up 441. today, that number is well over 900 and growing by the day. president biden challenged us to deliver 100 million vaccinations across the country in 100 days. last week, we passed 19 million doses and are on track to reach the president's ambitious goals -- 90 million doses and are on track to reach the president's ambitious goals. another goal is protecting our infrastructure, especially in light of the solar winds and the growing threat of ransomware. i have identified grant funding that will provide an additional $25 billion for state and local entities across the country to improve cybersecurity, raising the total minimum amount they must devote to this critical mission to $77 million. the cyber's copter -- that apartment security agency remains focused on providing assistance to federal civilian agencies and working with the private sector to improve our defenses. thank you very much to all of you for your leadership, for recognizing the importance of this issue and for the 600 $50 million you recently appropriated to enhance our ability to protect the nation against cyber attacks. as the united states approaches the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we face a threat landscape that has evolved. while we remain vigilant about the threat of or in terrorism, domestic extremism now poses the most lethal and recent terrorism-related threat today. the january 6 attack on the capitol of american example is a searing example of this threat. our office of intelligence and analysis and civil rights and privacy is working to assess the linkage between extremists, social media and acts of violence. we are expanding intelligence and information-sharing capabilities consistent with privacy rights, civil rights and civil liberties, as part of a whole of government effort to combat domestic violent extremism. we are equipping local communities with tools to better address this threat. this year and for the first time, i directed our homeland grant programs to make domestic violent extremism a national priority area, requiring recipients to spend at least 7.5% of their grant awards on commanding domestic violent extremism. across the nation this year, states and urban areas will spend at least $77 million to prevent, prepare for, protect against and respond to acts of domestic violent extremism. there is a great deal of attention focused on the southwest border. we are experiencing a surge of individuals attempting to cross the border. most are single adults who are expelled within hours back to mexico pursuant to cdc authority. families apprehended at the border are also immediately expelled under the same black health authority, unless we confront a limitation on mexico 's capacity to receive them. we are also encountering many unaccompanied children, children who arrive without a parent or legal guardian. their families make a hard-wrenching decision to send them on a journey across mexico to provide them with a safer future. the previous administration was expelling these unaccompanied children, some who are girls under age 12, for example, back to mexico. we ended that practice. unaccompanied children can make their claims for humanitarian relief in immigration proceedings as the law provides. if it is determined they do not have a valid claim, they will be returned in a safe manner. we have taken a series of actions to address the increase in the number of unaccompanied children at the border. we have increased our capacity to hold the children until hhs can shelter them while it identifies and vets the children's sponsors. we are increasing hhs capacity and i directed fema to support this effort. we have instituted the safe, orderly and legal pathway for children's asylum claims to be heard, so that they do not have to take the dangerous journey to our border. that pathway, the central american miners program, was torn down by the prior administration. these actions, and more that we are taking, are part of our plan to manage the arrival of individuals at our south west border. -- southwest border. the situation is difficult, we are working around the clock to manage it, but we will not waver in our mission to succeed. that is our job. he also will not waver in our values and principles as a nation. in the department of homeland security, can will tackle the many challenges we face, while complying with our legal obligations and honoring our nation's values and principles. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, and for your support of our department. i look forward to working with you and taking your questions. thank you. chairman thompson: i think the secretary for his testimony. i remind each member that he or she will have five minutes to question the witness. i recognize myself for questions. mr. secretary, the majority of this committee was here in january 6, when the insurrection occurred. you were not secretary, but you have had a chance to, i am sure, review some of the reports that have been generated. can you tell us, in your review, of what occurred and what led up to the january 6 insurrection? ? ? are you reviewing that process right now -- are you reviewing that process right now? secretary mayorkas: i will start on a personal note. i was brought to this country by my parents because of everything the capitol represents to the american people and because of everything you on this committee do, which is a servant represent the american people. we came because of the democracy that we learned so quickly to cherish. and what occurred on january 6 was heartbreaking, and i know some of you experienced it personally, in great fear. i certainly am reviewing the events that led up to that horrible day. i am also mindful of the fact that there are criminal investigations underway to address individuals who broke the law and perpetrated the crimes of january 6. and so i conduct my review and i receive my briefings mindful of the sensitivities of pending criminal investigations and prosecutions. it is very much a focus of the department of homeland security, of mind personally, and as i mentioned, domestic violent extremism is one of the greatest and most persistent threats that we as a country faced, and we are fully engaged in addressing it. chairman thompson: thank you very much. since we will probably hear a lot of discussion about the border, what is the status of children who are separated from their parents at the border? secretary mayorkas: mr. chairman, the children who were separated from their parents under the trump administration are the subject of an intense effort and an all of government effort directed by president biden to find the parents and reunite the families, and restore our nation to its former principles and values. we appointed an incredibly talented executive director to lead the task force. i am the chair, along with the secretaries of state, health and human services, and the attorney general of the united states. this is a full-time efforts by talented, dedicated individuals, not only in the department of homeland security, but in the other departments i mentioned. we look forward to working with this committee, with other members of congress, in harnessing the talent and resources of the private sector and community-based organizations in this effort. we have an obligation to find the parents and to reunite those families. chairman thompson: thank you. earlier this month, while visiting a fema vaccination center in philadelphia, you expressed the view that a person's socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, access to transportation or immigration status should not impact their ability to receive a vaccine. i could not agree with you more. can you share with the committee how are making that a reality? secretary mayorkas: mr. chairman, the issue of equity as a core foundation of the all-of-government effort to tackle the challenge of the covid-19 pandemic. fema uses a social vulnerability index that addresses the vulnerabilities that you identified, in ensuring that the placement of the community vaccination centers address the issue of equity and equality of access to the vaccines. i participate along with other cabinet members in a weekly meeting led by jeff resigns, who leads -- jeffrey -- jeffrey zeinz, who leads the effort, and equity is our focus every week. and that is also a core obligation of ours. chairman thompson: thank you. i recognize the ranking member, the gentleman from new york, mr. katko. representative katko: thank you, mr. secretary, and mr. chairman. i appreciate us getting off on the right foot. i commend the men and women at the homeland security department and other agencies. i know they are the front line workers, and the discussion you have with them ring true. after discussing things with them, i became much more vocal about what is happening at the border. i have questions that require a yes or no answer and i would appreciate going through those quickly. do you agree president biden signed multiple executive actions on his first day in office to halt border wall construction, and the remaining mexico policy and three, cancel asylum agreements with central american partners? chairman thompson: i do, -- secretary mayorkas: i do. and if i may, i appreciate our conversations thus far in the spirit of partnership to which we are both committed. i share your background as a federal prosecutor and i know we will accomplish a great deal together. may i just say one quick thing? representative call yes, but be brief. secretary mayorkas: i share your tremendous pride in the men and women of the border patrol and the department of homeland security. when i took over on february 2, 2% of the frontline border personnel had been vaccinated. and what i heard first and foremost was that their health and well-being had not been taken care of. we launched operation vaccinate our workforce, and over 26% of the frontline personnel are now vaccinated. representative: i appreciate you taking care of the agents. that is commendable. would you agree the border patrol encountered more than 100,000 individuals in february, 70 percent in keys -- 70% increase from 2020? secretary mayorkas: the numbers are accurate. representative: thank you. can you confirm customs and border protection's facility was over 700% capacity? secretary mayorkas: i don't have the precise figure. it was overcapacity. we are addressing that. representative: can you confirm homeland security has asked for volunteers to manage the overwhelming number of migrants at the border? secretary mayorkas: can you repeat the question? representative: can you confirm homeland security ask for volunteers to help manage the overwhelming number of migrants at the border? secretary mayorkas: we have certainly called upon the volunteer workforce to assist in managing at the border, as we have done before and we have done in many circumstances, to address the very mission of the department of homeland security. representative: can you confirm that over the weekend,, you directed fema to prepare shelter for unaccompanied children at the southwest border? secretary mayorkas: yes. representative: and female is the same agency charged with handling the pandemic and distribute in vaccines? secretary mayorkas: it certainly is and it is extraordinarily capable of addressing the many challenges that we, throughout the department of homeland security and throughout the nation, confront. this is not the first time that we have deployed the fantastic people of fema to address different challenges. representative: can you say after the response -- can you say after the surge at the border that it is highly likely you will need a supplemental budget from congress? secretary mayorkas: it is not highly likely. i will stay in close touch with you with respect to the financial impacts of the work we are performing, not only in this mission set, but across the department. representative: a couple questions about the facts we have set out and i appreciate your candor. you said the situation at the border is difficult. given the rise of individuals at the border, wouldn't it be fair to call it a crisis? secretary mayorkas: i didn't necessarily agree with all the statistics you cited, mr. ranking member. i am not spending any time on the language that we use. i'm spending time on operational response to the situation at the board. that is what i am focused on. representative: despite our disagreements and despite language characterizations, i want to solve the problems and want to get a commitment from you on two things. it is that you are open to work with embers of congress regardless of whether they are democrats or republicans to reverse the disorder at the border. secretary mayorkas: i will be a partner of members of congress regardless of party. representative: will you commit to encouraging the president to accept luther mccarthy's invitation to discuss the border crisis on how we can come together to fix it? secretary mayorkas: i will defer to the president as to how he believes he should conduct meetings that he hosts. representative: thank you. i yield back. chairman thompson: thank you. the chair recognizes other members for austins they may ask the witness. i will introduce witnesses in order of seniority, from majority to minority. members are recommended to un mute themselves for questioning into mute themselves what they are finished speaking, and to leave their cameras on so that they are visible. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from texas, miss jackson lee, for five minutes. representative jackson lee: thank you for your leadership, mr. chairman. my questions will try to be as short as possible if your answers could be likewise. about the shooting in atlanta, thank you for starting out, we all have the deepest sympathy. six of those individuals seem to be asian come out of the eight. what is the department going to be doing about what may be hateful acts and domestic terrorism against communities like asian american, when we are seeing a surgeon hateful acts? secretary mayorkas: congresswoman, nice to see you again. i won't comment on the tragedy of yesterday because it is under investigation, but we are intensely focused on the greatest threat we face in the homeland from a terrorism perspective, as i mentioned, and that is domestic violent extremism, violence motivated by different ideologies, including ideologies of hate against particular social groups. representative jackson lee: i appreciate it. i hope we will focus on asian-americans and we also know african-americans have been the focus of white racism. let me move to the border. this administration has a border policy. i congratulate you for it. it is not a policy of putting children in cages, which we had to suffer for year after year under the trump administration. there is no children in cages. i applaud the utilization of fema and the utilization of a policy. can you say what the policy is as it relates to the border? and is it your policy for children who are now moving to temporary sites like midland or dallas, into a process where they can seek asylum and go to their custodial representative in this country? secretary mayorkas: the border is secure, and the border is not open. we are expelling, under the cdc health authority in light of the pandemic, single individuals who arrive at the border. we are expelling families under that same public health authority, limited only by the capacity of mexico to receive them. and we are not expelling children who arrive unaccompanied, without parents or legal guardian, and we are caring for their custody and their shelter. it is hhs responsibility to place them with sponsors so that they can proceed with their immigration proceedings and claims for humanitarian relief under the laws of this country, in a safe and orderly way. representative: jackson lee -- representative jackson lee: as it relates to covid, our state, texas, is a hotspot. let me cite the legislation to acknowledge the value of fema and acknowledged tony robinson in the texas department of emergency management. they have been working beautifully, but i want to emphasize fema can stand up and do more as it relates to monitoring shipments, they can do more by establishing an after work with hhs to monitor -- establishing an app to work with hhs to monitor vaccines as they are coming forward. i want to work with you on ideas about how fema can be more effective on covid-19. all you work with me on that? secretary mayorkas: i certainly will and i appreciate the recommendation at the request. representative jackson lee: we are aware of the horrible breach that came about through solar winds, and you mentioned that in your presentation. so i would like you to answer the question regarding the importance of having shared folder abilities, meaning that we have a system, and i want to focus on the concept of making sure that we know the private vulnerabilities and public vulnerabilities, and that they are shared under the umbrella of system. would you comment? we need to know the vulnerabilities so we can address the vulnerabilities. we can't have that age or breach. secretary mayorkas: thank you so much for that question, because it returns to a statement i made at the outset, and that is that the department is a department of partnerships. in the public-private ship is especially important in enhancing our nation's cybersecurity, the infrastructure security agency within the department of homeland security is on point for enhancing that partnership, and is critically important to that partnership -- and critically important to the partnership is the sharing of information by the private sector and the government, by understanding vulnerabilities, understanding attacks organizations suffer, by learning from think collectively -- learning from them collectively, we will enhance our nation's cybersecurity. representative jackson lee: thank you. i yield back. chairman thompson: thank you. the chair recognize the gentleman from texas for five minutes, mr. mccall. representative mccall: you and i have seen this movie before. in 2014, when i was chair of this committee and you were deputy secretary of dhs, obama called the surge of migrants at the southern border a humanitarian crisis. he was right. today, we are seeing another surge. we have seen this movie before and we know the plot and the outcome. as chief of counterterrorism and national security for the u.s. attorney, deterrence does work firsthand. mr. secretary, you were a federal prosecutor in a border state, and i believe words do matter. i think words do matter. i think you said exactly -- sent exactly the wrong message when you stated, "we are not saying don't calm, we are saying don't come now -- don't come, we are saying don't come now. the trump administration did a masterful job negotiating the remaining mexico policy and the cooperative agreements with central america. it worked. migrants were left to wait in mexico for their asylum trial in the border was under control. after inauguration day, by president biden, these policies have been canceled. cartels and traffickers perceive the green light is on at our southern border, and the united states is open for business again. the message is, come on in. catch and release has returned as a policy of this nation and so has the threat. migrants are given a date to appear in court and suddenly disappear. the cartels are celebrating this victory. with all due respect, this administration created this crisis by rescinding these agreements. yesterday you said, "we are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years." that is staggering. and i appreciate your honesty. i agree with you. it is going to be the most we have seen in 20 years. you may call that only a challenge, but i call that a crisis. so i must ask, why in the world did this administration of president biden shred the trump administration's agreements with mexico and central america? the actions have had a direct cause and effect on this humanitarian and border crisis. what was this administration and the president thinking? secretary mayorkas: congressman, nice to see you again. i am very proud of the work that we did together when i was deputy secretary and you were chairman of this very esteemed committee. sometimes, tools of deterrence defy the values and principles for which we all stand. and one of those tools of deterrence the trump administration employed was deplorable, and absolutely unacceptable. and if we want to speak of language, let me speak of language. i will share with you how i define a crisis. a crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a nine-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent, and separate that family to deter future migration. that, to me, is a humanitarian crisis. and what the president has committed to and what i am committed to is to ensure that we have an immigration system that works, and that migration to our country is safe, orderly and humane. representative mccall: i was against separation of families, but let me say this. i am now the republican leader of the foreign affairs committee, so i get it from a foreign policy standpoint. i think it was a blunder to rescind these agreements, which have created this problem and it put these children in jeopardy, and we are seeing separation again. what is happening, and you and i have been down there so many times with the kids and children, and the babies down there, what a humanitarian crisis it is. i don't think it is a coincidence that on inaugural day, the president rescinded this policy end in february, we have hundreds of thousands of people coming in, as projected by the end of the year. secretary mayorkas: let me, if i may, make two points. one, in fact, we have seen migration surges before. 2019 was extraordinary, 20, and before that. -- 2019 was extraordinary, 2014, and before that in the bottom line is that the immigration system is broken and is in need of reform. the president presented a bill, there are bills before the house, and hopefully this year, and i am confident and optimistic that he will actually again, once and for all, to fix this system. representative mccall: [indiscernible] chairman thompson: time has expired. chair recognize the gentleman from rhode island for five minutes. representative: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, welcome before the committee and i congratulate you on taking over as secretary. i certainly look forward to working with you going forward. secretary mayorkas, i appreciate my colleague's concern about border security. that i have to say, i wish they had raised it with the prior administration, which was focused myopically on a wall. but i am concerned we are looking -- we are losing sight of the real threat. physical borders are not the only thing we have to be concerned with. we have seen in the last several months some of the most pervasive cyber incident in our history. what is more, these incursions into our cyberspace are at the behest of our greatest adversary, -- adversaries, particularly china. i want to start by asking you how you view the cyber threats we face? secretary mayorkas: thank you for your focus on leadership on this important mission set. i want to thank the committee for its support of our department and the infusion of much-needed resources to the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, cisa. this is one of my foremost priorities for the reasons you articulate. the cyber threats our country faces from nation state actors as well as individual actors could not be overstated. the threat to critical infrastructure could not be overstated, and we have seen that in a number of exploitations in recent months and over the past several years. we have incredibly dedicated and talented individuals who are focused on it. the president has identified this as well as a critical mission set, and there is an extraordinary appointment as the deputy national security. -- focused on cybersecurity this is an all of government effort. representative: thank you. i am a big proponent of the cyber security agency's work. recent events, whether the cyber incident tied to solar winds or the microsoft exchange server, or the frigid temperatures in texas, have demonstrated how the failure of a few important assets supporting national critical infrastructure and national critical functions, can have cascading and often devastating effects. the cyberspace commission on which i serve as a commissioner has suggested the concept of systemically important critical infrastructure, sici, as a framework for managing these risks. you believe sici, based as it is on work the obama administration did as part of an executive order, is a useful framework of managing risks, particularly cyber risks? secretary mayorkas: i do, and that is very much a subject of our discussion. i appreciate your focus on critical infrastructure. it is a subject i discuss with leadership in the department of homeland security on cybersecurity just a few days ago, because that is indeed a critical, critical area, upon which we all must focus. and i appreciate your work on the commission. representative: the commission believes dhs is the linchpin in helping to mitigate risk before cascading failures occur. do you agree with this assessment? and how are you engaging with your fellow cabinet secretaries and the white house to better management risks to important entities? secretary mayorkas: the department of homeland security has a key role to play in federal government architecture, and the public-private partnership is key. and we are on point for that. i had a very important meeting with ms. newberger this past monday morning. we spoke about everything that we are doing across the federal government in executing the president's direction that indeed we bring all the to bear. because each one of us has different assets, different capabilities and efferent responsibilities. it is not just an all-of-government effort, it is an all-of-nation effort because here at cybersecurity, we say we are only as strong as our weakest link. so i share your view that we must work, all of us together in partnership, to address the challenge. representative: thank you. we think congress in this committee are key partners with congress -- key partners with the congress to protect sici, and mr. secretary, i hope you will work with us to address this systemic challenge. chairman thompson: the chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana, mr. higgins. representative higgins: this hearing, for many american waters, has been nauseating so far. carefully read, scripted statements, i suspect you are not here to answer questions. i suspect you are here to present a prepared narrative to the reason of congress. you have stated, we are not saying don't come, don't come now. my sources tell me they are coming now and they are coming the year. cartels have 2 million in the pipeline. we are looking at a 20-year high for illegal crossings at our southern border. and my colleagues across the aisle are not even mentioning cartels. americans are watching this. we are going to blame president trump? you mentioned the 2019 surge. there was no surge 2019 because the cartels were paying attention to the election cycle of 2018, when democrats took the majority. we had to use every available legal power to reestablish control in 2019. we did, we had this thing down to a manageable place. we have a 2021 search, why? what happened between the control that we had at what we have now? the election in november of 2020, and president biden was inaugurated. americans know it. they get it. the cartels are paying attention. they have loaded up their pipeline. we got 2 million illegal immigrants headed our way and i don't believe you have a plan to deal with it. regarding fema, if there is not a crisis or humanitarian disaster at the southern order, then may i suggest we take that fema disaster response team deployed there and send them somewhere they are needed, like my district in southwest louisiana, where there are still hurricane victims waiting on temporary housing. let me ask you a question and perhaps you can answer. do you agree the world is. sing a pandemic? -- the world is experiencing a pandemic, and is the world include mexico, honduras, el salvador, venezuela, cuba, china, iran? is the world experiencing a pandemic? secretary mayorkas: let me assure you of one thing before answer, and that is that despite strong differences of opinion, i look forward to working with you toward shared goals. of course the world is experiencing a pandemic. representative: and we are experiencing massive surges of illegals crossing our southern border. you are the head of the department of homeland security. are we testing individuals in the facilities prior to their release in the united date -- united states? secretary mayorkas: it is our policy to test individuals before releasing them. representative are we testing -- representative higgins: are we testing them before or after? secretary mayorkas: i can explain the process. it is in four-parts -- it is in four part? representative: higgins -- july representative higgins -- representative higgins: are we testing these individuals before or after they are released? secretary mayorkas: we have a four-part process. representative: higgins: the bottom line is, illegal immigrants are being processed at the border and released into our nation and they have either not been as dead or tested positive for covid. i don't think i am getting a straight answer from you. i have another simple question. do you believe that the policies initiated by president biden since his inauguration have impacted the issues on the southern border and increased illegal crossings? do you believe cartels were paying attention last year when then candidate i didn't was messaging that he was going to weaken the law enforcement nation, provide some path toward and mystique -- path toward amnesty or citizenship and process illegal crossings in a manner that was more conducive to their reception in the indicted states? -- reception in the united states? you message that again and again. do you think that might have something to do with what we are dealing with now? secretary mayorkas: i share a background with the ranking member and -- representative higgins: i am not getting a straight answer and am going to submit my questions in writing because you are here to repeat narratives prepared by staff and attorneys and i don't appreciate you dodging these questions. mr. chairman, i am going to yield my time and submit my questions in writing to the secretary, and i expect them to be answered and if they are not, we are going to make some noise. i yield. chairman thompson: the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. representative: thank you, mr. chairman. i believe that when a witness is before us, he should be given an opportunity to answer the question, and not shouted over. so in that vein, i will try to do that. mr. secretary, we have seen a lot of criminality and charges for the insurrections on the attack of january 6. president trump's words were the reason for participating in the attack, for example, garrett miller who is charged for his role in the attacks on the u.s. capitol, said, "i believe i was following the instruction of president trump." robert sandford, who was indicted for attacking a capitol police officer, an attack on law enforcement, told federal agents that he followed the president's instructions and had gone to the capitol for that day. is it fair to say extremist groups see president trump as the leader of their movement, mr. secretary? secretary mayorkas: the events of january 6 are the subject of criminal investigations and prosecutions, so i would prefer, out of respect for the integrity of that work, not to answer specifically with respect to the january 6 event. but what we are seeing is a growing and persistent threat, and that is domestic violent extremism, that is born of different ideologies, ideologies of hate, ideologies of antigovernment sentiment, ideologies of racially-motivated individuals, and that is what we are very much focused on here in the department of homeland security. and their words do matter. representative payne: but you can't say whether the impetus for january 6 was the insurrectionists following president trump? secretary mayorkas: it is not something i will comment on right now, congressman, in light of investigations underway in the evidentiary impact of anything i say. representative payne: since the november election, we have seen political leaders echo president trump's baseless lies that the election was stolen. can you share with the committee how repeating and amplifying these lies inspires and encourages the same extremist to attacked the capitol on january 6? secretary mayorkas: those pronouncements, congressman, are not fact based. they are actually in defiance of the facts. chris krebs, who led the cyber structure agency during the previous administration and who did a superb job, and i have seen the results of his great work each day, indicated that based on evidence, based on data, that the election was conducted with integrity, and that the votes were not manipulated. representative payne: so basically, the loser of the election was just plain sour grapes, and trying to sway the american people to believe that there was something inherently wrong with the election. is that correct? secretary mayorkas: congressman, i focus on election security with our state and local and tribal territorial partners. that is what i am focused on. representative payne: so the president's accusations were baseless. i yield back. chairman thompson: the chair recognizes the gentleman from mississippi for five unmute yourself. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the american people are doubly disturbed with the ongoing crisis along our southwest border. there have been increases of over 170% of the 36,687 encounters in february of 2020. this issue is of growing concern to the american public and this is not a political issue. we are highlighting what we are seeing along the southwest order -- border. we may even days away from a crisis on the southern border. inaction is simple he not an option. -- simply not an option. it will be long before we have tens of thousands of people showing up on the borders. it may be catastrophic for our company or our -- country or a region. we heard -- our country or region. whatever message was sent, it was interpreted the wrong way. it is a crisis. it is a crisis. we will be encountering more individuals on the southwest border then we have in the last 20 years. in february, there was a letter signed by over 50 members of congress and that letter was sent to the president and a copy of that letter was sent to you. the letter says we write today to bring cases to the rising immigration crisis that is beginning at our southern border. you signed multiple executive orders dismantling the security of our border. resending policies from the trump administration that were holding the flow of illegal immigration. the biden administration district -- directives on stopping building the border wall, halting deportations for 100 days have all communicated that our borders are open. this works out to an average encounter of over 3500 per day. secretary johnson was secretary under the obama administration. just two years ago he said i know that a thousand cases a day overwhelms the system. i cannot believe -- begin to imagine what 4000 a day looks like. we are truly in a crisis. we are approaching this 4000 number that was described as a crisis in the summer of 2019. in the summer of 2019, both republicans and democrats came together, they recognized that what we were seeing, the surge across our border was an immigration crisis and a humanitarian crisis. it was a crisis that must be addressed. we saw president trump put forth policies that almost immediately began to address the overcrowding that we saw across our southwest borders. i will tell you that this administration did the same thing. in less than 60 days, they have completely destroyed what was a successful policy -- successful policies and they rolled them back. secretary should -- secretary of state colin powell said he had the pottery barn rule. you break it, you own it. at this time, i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes for five minutes, mr. correa. on the yourself -- unmute yourself. >> let me talk about something that my colleague brought up. covid-19 testing at the border, are you testing all of those refugees and for the refugees that are not turned away, for those refugees that may come into the united states for further evaluation of their case, if they test positive, do you isolate them for the requisite time to make sure our communities are safe? i know you wanted to elaborate on the solutions that you have so i wanted to ask you to please elaborate, please be specific and factual. thank you. >> thank you. we have four different ways in which we test individuals who come into the country, to whom we do not expel. we work with community based organizations and local officials. we release them into those communities so that they are tested in the quarantine there and we provide 100% reimbursement through fema to the local entities in the community-based organization provided the state authority does not stand in the way. we work with states when the states have the capacity to test and quarantine. we are working with congress to directly fund organizations and when those three options are not available, we are now retaining a vendor to test individuals who are in custody and if they test positive, we transport them to ice facilities for quarantine before we release them. i appreciate the opportunity to share it with this community. >> let me follow up on the refugee issue. values, principles, children in cages, child separation, i was watching spanish news a few days ago and i watched an interview with the young lady no more than 14 years old who got to the border. she was stating that she got raped by seven men before she got to the u.s. border. we talk about deterrence and i can only imagine the drivers that push immigration, the dangers at home, the hunger, my question to you is when are we going to start? what are the long-term solutions to this problem? all of us agree that this did not happen one or two years ago, this has been going on for a long time, what are the long-term solutions, when are we going to implement them? thank you. commerce ben, thank you very much and i think it for a ramos -- congressman -- >> congressman, thank you very much and i think mr. ramos put it simply. the president is looking to finally fix the immigration system in this country. the second is to address the root causes in the countries from which these individuals are fleeing. specifically the northern triangle of guatemala, honduras and el salvador. we begin to invest in those countries and address the root causes and that funding was discontinued during the trump administration and the president is committed to restarting that critical element of an overarching approach to our border and the issues of migration that have challenged our nation for so many years. >> thank you very much. i yield. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina for five minutes. mr. bishop. >> thank you for your appearance, mr. secretary. others have made remarks to your statement. that we are not saying don't come, we are saying don't come now. you refused the suggestion to say don't come. president biden has said don't come, we are in the process of getting set up and answering mr. mccall, you spoke about the price of deterrence. mr. secretary, are you prepared to say that it is wrong to enter the united states illegally? >> of course. >> that is breaking the law, right? >> of course it is. >> so it would be wrong to incite migrants to do that. correct? >> mr. congressman, of course it is wrong. >> my question is so there can never be a right time to enter the country illegally or to incite migrants to do that, isn't that correct? >> if i may speak of the law to which you refer, our country -- >> i don't want you to explain the law, i am just asking you -- >> please allow the secretary to answer your question. >> is not answering my question. i don't want you to debate it. i just wanted to answer my question. let me put the question again and then we was he if i can get an answer to my question. when i asked the secretary is there cannot ever be the right time to enter the country or incite migrants to do that, would you agree? >> a claim of asylum, an individual fleeing persecution by reason of his or her membership -- a claim of asylum is a claim that is recognized by law in the united states of america. an individual who makes a claim of asylum is not breaking the law i doing so. -- by doing so. as a law enforcement officer, i enforce the laws of accountability as well as the humanitarian laws that congress passed. >> they will never be a right time for someone to do that incite migrants to do that. agreed? >> i believe the trafficking victim reauthorization act was unanimously passed by congress. it's by -- it speaks to the right of an individual, a young person to make a claim of asylum and improvise for the process that we must've for that individual in making that claim and that is a law that congress has passed and that i am duty-bound to enforce. >> are you saying that justifies anxiety migrants to enter the country illegally? >> of course not. i just want to recognize our responsibility when a child is under the age of 18 who is not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. just about whatever legal responsibilities are. >> your statement yesterday acknowledged that the search of migrants encountered at the border is a crisis and it may soon constitute a 20 year peak. >> abilene my language was that the numbers we are seeing could be the greatest if they materialize as they are trending. they could be the largest numbers we have seen in 20 years. >> did this take you by surprise or did you expect it. secretary mayorkas: i am focused on galvanizing the talent and dedication of the men and women at the department of homeland security. >> i just want a yes or no to the question of whether or not you were surprised by it. >> i don't know that i had any particular expectation one way or another, i just knew what we needed to do when we confronted the situation and we are doing it. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> thank you for being here. i have two questions. one on migration and one onto mystic terrorism. i will say as someone who is still relatively new to congress who sat and questioned secretary nielsen and she came in front of us two years ago, i have rarely seen an issue that is more politicized as a clinical weapon then immigration. i will say as a former c.i.a. officer and pentagon official, there is no contradiction between providing security at our borders and treating people humanely. they don't have to cross the border illegally. all these things, they don't contradict each other. i just have a hard time with this idea that it is literally used as a political football. that being said, i think we have to be clear eyed about the numbers coming over the border just as we were two years ago when the massive surge led the trump administration to put children in cages as a way to deter them from coming, we have large numbers coming over the border. we know that larger numbers are coming over the border. we know you are trying to deal with it, the men and women who are working on it. let me ask you about this going forward, comprehensive immigration reform, we all talk about it and use it as a talking point. the other side of the aisle had for years to propose something and never did. can i ask you, you believe that enemy -- any immigration reform must address fundamental changes to the immigration system? without changing the system going forward? if so, what are the reforms to that system that you're going to push to ensure we are not just going to be in the same situation five or 10 years from now? secretary mayorkas: thank you very much. i do believe in immigration reform and always have and i think everyone agrees with the need for it. i believe that the president put forward on day one a bill that set forth a vision to achieve exactly that which you speak of which is fundamental reform to a system that we all know is broken. i know there are critical elements of that bill that are before the house and upon which, the house will soon vote. i think a strike at some of the core needs, the core fixes that the immigration system requires to move us forward in a better way. >> i appreciate that, i would just say an honest reading of the bill, it is hard for me to understand how and a copy has of way we actually make it easier for these people who are risking their lives to come across the border, to still apply to legally work here. it is hard for me to understand how some of our businesses, our tourism industry is going to have an easier time getting legal immigrants to come work here. that is what we all want. i would ask you to make sure that any bill that comes across, any final bill shows how the system will reform, not just temporarily change. on the issue of domestic terrorism, your entire department was created because of the attack on our homeland, on 9/11. the department would not exist without that. can you tell me today on the issue of domestic terrorism, you wrote your testimony that lone wolf domestic terrorism was -- domestic violence extremism was your biggest worry. are you currently -- you are more worried about investing violence extremist lone wolves then you are about foreign terrorist lone wolves? secretary mayorkas: the threat picture is an evolving one. it is a very dynamic threat. when i started in the department of homeland security back into thousand. >> i have very little -- back in 2000. >> i have very little time, i want people to understand the magnitude of this threat. >> at this point in time, to mr. violence extremism, following ideologies of hate and extremism that are willing and able to take those ideologies and execute on them is our greatest threat in the homeland right now . >> thank you. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey for five minutes. >> thank you. there is an old saying, it isn't rocket science. some of this isn't rocket science and it is so obvious. two months ago, we did not have problems, we had some problems but they were certainly greatly diminished over time and we had agreements with mexico, agreements with other countries and we were able to make a very terrible situation much better and much safer. the increase and the flow of undocumented has been huge. the numbers are staggering. we are not dealing with a crisis. it is just a matter of too much -- two months. it is interesting how much change can really occur. sometimes it really is not good change. this has been increasing steadily since january 20. under the previous administration, customs, fewer than 1000 families -- they are overwhelmed, they are dealing with 6000 attempted families. mr. secretary, don't tell me this isn't a crisis, it is. you may not want to admit it, they may not want to say that we have had a radical change in eight weeks but we have. we put a different message out, you get a different result. the department of homeland security does not have a copy has of strategy to contain this spread of covid-19 that we are so worried about. -- copperheads of -- comprehensive strategy to contain this spread of covid-19 that we are so worried about. the situation is not acceptable, the situation is not sustainable, we are a nation of rule of law which demands strong borders. the previous speaker is right. once you have borders, you can actually attempt to straighten out and fix this immigration problem. when you just have people pouring in, you cannot. my question is your department is releasing thousands of migrants on their own recognizance with a notice to appear. you say there is a plan to test everyone, this in your officials from the department told us in a briefing last week that you were not testing everyone and have no ability to quarantine people who test positive. this is mind-boggling. we are literally going to create another spike, possibly. we heard from government officials along the border that people -- we are not being tested for covid-19. people who are positive for covid-19 are entering our public transportation systems. this is serious stuff. besides the fact that we are not obeying the rules of law, besides the fact that people are just pouring into our borders, we are going to make people sick. i would like to know specifically how many people have been released on their own recognizance since january 20, 2021. would you commit to sharing those numbers on a weekly basis with this committee? yes or no? >> i will share the data with you. >> we may have that opportunity. i disagree with you disagreeing. all i know is i am a simple guy. two months ago, we had a certain situation and now we are looking at people crossing the border with shirts with our president's name on them. how many have been covid-19 tested and how many have not? secretary mayorkas: if we look at the 2019 numbers in february, we take a look at the numbers in 2021 and the numbers are slightly greater than they were in february of 2019. if we look at individuals in family minutes, it is a complex issue. those of us who have studied migration for many years understand the episodic surges that can occur and we used to think it was seasonal and now our thinking is a bit different. i look very much -- i look forward to speaking with you about it. >> as to i you. >> the chair recognizes mr. cleveland who is having technical difficulties but i think we can hear you. >> thank you. thank you very much for holding this hearing. thank you mr. secretary for being here. i like to show the issues that it deals with. mr. secretary, congratulations on your confirmation. a couple of questions. is there intelligence to suggest [indiscernible] the information was given earlier by one of our team members. i am trying to figure out where it came from. can you help me on that pipeline issue? secretary mayorkas: i have not seen data to suggest that number. >> from the time that i heard the story and then going through it, i could find but i can't find that number. my issue, you can't solve this. i don't think chairman thompson can either, it is a national issue that we have, it will continue to encircle the americas. they are facts. i can't find the source of the fact. i am sitting here writing my note to you, asking if you can help and you are saying you don't know the source of that information. secretary mayorkas: i have never seen a figure like that, i don't know of its basis and i don't know of any reason to believe that data that was apparently just expressed this morning is anywhere close to being true. i will say also congressman, if i may, there have been statements made that we don't have a plan and i have not had an opportunity to respond to that. that is unequivocally false. of course we have a plan. we have a short-term plan, medium-term plan and a long-term plan and we are executing on all fronts and to address the situation at the border that is upon us right now takes time and we are working around the clock to do it and this is what we do and we will succeed. i believe in the men and women in the department of home and security and i believe in overcommitment commitment, our capabilities and we will meet the challenge. >> a press release was put out saying that [indiscernible] do you have any idea about custody from south of the border? secretary mayorkas: there are children who are infants to the age of five that come into the border, i confronted a situation of three young siblings under the age of 10, the youngest one being two years of age. his mother did not make it along the dangerous journey. that is why we communicate as we do not to take the dangerous journey as we build legal pathways that the law provides for people to seek humanitarian relief in our nation. >> thank you. i believe my time has run out but if not, i was worried about antifa. i was looking it up until january, i did not know antifa from my aunt edna. that is my grandfather because sister. not that that is relevant. what is antifa? is it in organization? what is it? i hear different things from everyone. secretary mayorkas: antifa is an abbreviation for anti-fascist. congressman, there are different ideologies, different ideologies of extremism that we are focused on to the extent that they manifest themselves in illegal conduct, to the extent that they manifest themselves in violent acts. as i mentioned before, the mystic violence extremism is one of our most urgent threats to the homeland. >> >> thank you, mr. chairman. cliques mr. secretary -- >> mr. secretary, i have two brief questions, when an alien crosses the line into america and did not go through any checkpoint, is he considered illegal? secretary mayorkas: it is an illegal crossing. >> is he sent back to this country of origin? secretary mayorkas: a single adult is expelled. that is the cdc public health authority. >> he is illegal and sent back to the country that he is from? >> the individual has made an illegal crossing and he is expelled into mexico, congressman. >> what is the number of illegals testing positive for covid according to your records? secretary mayorkas: i would be pleased to provide you with that data subsequent to the hearing. i don't have the figure before me and i apologize. >> the other thing that has been reported is that you will be given a briefing with the congressional hispanic office -- caucus. is that true? secretary mayorkas: that is this afternoon. >> will you give the republican caucus meeting as well? secretary mayorkas: absolutely. i have committed from day one to approach my work and exit cue my responsibilities in a bipartisan manner. -- exit cute fire -- execute my responsibilities in a bipartisan manner. >> we were in el paso this weekend and there is a border protection facility there. there were 1000 people there, it was at capacity. i was told by your staff there that they do not test any of those 1000 individuals. they did not test any of those individuals at that facility. that was a concern for me because they are all close together and the border patrol agents had not been vaccinated. then they were transferred elsewhere. so in their time at that facility, they are not tested. are they tested at another place? because they are not tested as far as i can see. >> your question if i may has two parts to it. number one, if they are not tested at the border patrol station as i outlined earlier, there are different capabilities a con -- upon which we are relying on the testing of individuals before they are released. we are instituting the capacity of these border patrol stations to test. that is number one. number two is that -- as i indicated earlier, the number of personnel that have been vaccinated has jumped from 2% at the beginning of february when i assumed office to over 26% as of the end of february. why? that is the commitment and dedication we have made to protecting the well-being of our front-line personnel and we have executive -- executed the operations of our workforce. we've executed operation vaccinate our work force. >> i just want to make sure i'm clear and the record is clear. not a single person was tested at that facility, and as we were there, there were people being transferred from that facility to elsewhere. they're there at least 72 hours, they're not being tested, they are being exposed, and others are being exposed because they're sent elsewhere before being tested. that's just a fact. i want to make sure people understand that. >> mr. secretary, i want to reclaim my time. i yield the balance of my time to dan bishop. >> the gentleman from south carolina. >> i yield the balance of my time to dan bishop. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, are you aware that four individuals on the terror watch list have been apprehended at the border recently? >> i am. >> you made reference earlier to the price of deterrence and the prospect of people coming into the united states illegally and their rights to seek asylum. would a terrorist have the right to enter the united states to seek asylum? ly. >> actually, sir, no, and if i may, a known or suspected terrorist, kst is the cronym that we use, individuals who match that profile have tried to cross the border, the land border. have tried to travel by air into the united states, not only this year but last year, the year prior, so on and so forth. and it is because of our multi-layered security apparatus, the architecture that we have built since the commencement of the department of homeland security that we are, in fact, able to identify and apprehend them and ensure that they do not remain in the united states. and so we actually deny them entry based on our intelligence and based on our vetting procedures which have only grown in sophistication throughout the years. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> this is not a new phenomenon. >> the chair recognizes the gentlelady from new york for five minutes, ms. clark. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and i thank you, mr. secretary, for joining us today. with your confirmation, i'm eager and elated to turn the page on the cruel, inhumane and morally bankrupt policies of the trump administration. the time we spend less money on border walls and more money on firewalls to protect our networks. instead of fearmongering about immigrants, i'm looking forward to confronting the real threat of domestic terrorism as evidenced by that attack on the capitol. mr. secretary, tomorrow the house will vote on the dream and promise act, a bill i proudly co-lead that will provide a pathway to citizenship for d.r.e.a.m.ers, tps holders and dbc recipients. i'm also co-writing president biden's plan to provide certainty to those already here and address the root causes of migration. as we work to pass this legislation, can you discuss what effort dhs is already undertaking to improve the lives of those who depend on daca, tps and ded after four years of fear, uncertainty and instability? >> thank you very much, congresswoman. >> we have a child arrival program, daca, as it is commonly known. it is a program of which we are immensely proud. so many youth who actually are front line personnel in the fight against the pandemic are daca recipients and who benefit tremendously from the legislation that you have proudly sponsored and for which i am grateful. we have -- the president has, in fact, used a deferred skpen -- and enforced departure in the past and as presidents of both parties have done. it is something we, too, are immensely proud of. we can be, and we are, both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. >> thank you so much, mr. secretary. i want to turn to some of the devastating humanitarian crises we are seeing in haiti, yemen, nations like cameroon and elsewhere around the world. for years i fought for tps designations for countries such as these, and i continue to believe these protection remain essential. under your leadership, how will dhs determine whether countries qualify for redesignation? >> thank you, congresswoman. we, in the department of homeland security and immigration services study the conditions of countries that have suffered disasters, that suffer violence, military strife and the like. we study those conditions to determine whether temporary protected status is needed in the first instance or whether the country conditions are in favor of the redesignation of a status previously divided. we do so in consultation with the department of state that also studies those country conditions, and that work is underway with respect to some of the countries that you have mentioned. >> thank you again, mr. secretary. i currently chair the subcommittee on cybersecurity, and i appreciate the department's renewed emphasis on its cybersecurity mission. following solo winds supply chain attack, many have suggested that immigrants get through our program, but einstein's program was never designed to supply a solar wind attack. many have warned about einstein and we must rethink our approach to federal security, move away from legacy technologies whose security technologies have diminished and put resources in tools that will protect against moderate threats. how is the department planning to protect against that? >> you are correct that einstein is a perimeter-protective measure that addresses known threats and the solar winds exploitation was not something that einstein was designed for. similarly, we have continuous diagnostics and mitigation which is a critical tool. we are looking intently at those tools and what other tools can complement them to address unknown vulnerabilities. zero day threats. we spoke about this earlier this week within the department of homeland security with our cisa leadership and our senior council for cybersecurity. we're grateful to this committee, actually, to fund cisa with $650 million, and we now are resourced to explore and implement new technologies to supplement those we already have in place. >> my time has expired. i look forward to further conversation with you within this space, and i yield back, mr. chairman. >> gentlelady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from michigan -- iowa, miss miller-meeks, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair, and thank you, senator mayorkas. secretary mayorkas, i am a former director of the iowa department of public health and a physician. during my duties as director of public health, i visited all of my county public health agencies and several of the counties had dramatic spikes in tuberculosis because of the effects of immigration when they had not had an increase in tuberculosis or other infectious diseases in over five decades. i was at the border on monday in el paso, and yesterday i introduced my first piece of legislation, the react act. this bill would require dhs to test for covid-19, any migrant being released from cbp or i.c.e. custody into the u.s. i've heard conflicting things today about testing. when we were there, migrants were not being tested and they were released into the community and often released into communities without >> at >> think there is a miscommunication >> here with respect to when that testing occurs. it is our policy to test individuals who arrive into the united states or who were encountered at the border in between the course of entry. it is our policy to test them. we did not have the capacity to test them at border jewel stations. we have since begun to build that capacity so that we can do the testing there in addition to the other three means of testing , individuals that i outlined in response to the congressman's earlier question. we do support the testing of individuals and that is indeed our policy and we have implemented practices to execute on that policy. i hope that answers your question. cliques thank you, you said that you support but don't require testing. -- >> thank you, you said you support but don't require testing. positive for covid. your department also recently announced it would be cancelling an information-sharing agreement with the department of health and human services. personally with what i experienced on the border, i think that is a mistake. we have unaccompanied minors as young as one year old, showing up with no adult supervision, with a phone number hhs is to call and turn them over to a sponsor. we need to ensure that the sponsors of unaccompanied minors are not going to turn around and traffic those minors. we've seen cases of this happening. this was conveyed to us by the border patrol agents and by the border patrol union members. we know a small fraction of the unaccompanied minors self-identified to hhs as gang members. for those single and unaccompanied males that their age may be under 18 but there is no verification of what age they are, information not flowing to i.c.e. officials that lead to investigation of armed forces. how are you going to ensure working with hhs that these children are not handed over to traffickers. is it being handled by documented fraud experts and are you willing to share the information with hhs? >> congresswoman, allow me to take a minute to clarify your misunderstanding of what is and is not occurring. the department of health and human services runs background checks on individuals to ensure that the individuals in whose custody a child will be released is, in fact, capable of and responsible for that child. individual with criminal backgrounds, individuals who, in fact, are not who they say they are, individuals with other derogatory information that establishes that they are not responsible sponsors for children, the department of health and human services does not place those children in those individuals' custody, number one. number two, the memorandum that was on the books achieve precisely the problem of which you speak. individuals who were responsible sponsors were reluctant to come forward because of their information with respect to their presence in the united states was turned over to i.c.e., despite the fact that they might be lawfully present, despite the fact that they may be perfectly capable and responsible for the needs of the child, and despite the fact that they may be a close relative, even a parent or legal guardian of that child. that memorandum that existed on the books chilled the very responsible conduct that underscores your question as a physician, and it is precisely the reason why we did not continue with that memorandum. the concerns that underlie your question are our concerns as well. >> thank you, and if i have some additional time, we also found that the border walls -- >> the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. green, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i thank your witness for appearing. i have had hearings taking place at the same time, and my questioning in each hearing took place at the same time, so my apologies for being a bit tardy, and i may have missed some things that have been said. but i do want to speak briefly about texas and the fact that the announcement by the governor of the state of texas to lift the statewide covid restrictions came at a time when the cdc director was urging governors to keep some restrictions in place to decrease the amount of virus and circulation. and i would also add that authorities in houston found that the u.k. variant of covid in houston is in 31 of 37 wastewater treatment plants, suggesting, in their words, ongoing and uncontrolled community spread of the more contagious strain of the virus. so, mr. secretary, your concerns that you might have about governor abbott and other governors dismantling the public health marries contrary to the advice of public health experts, please. >> let me, if i may, congressman, say the following three things. number one, we are encouraging individuals, organizations, government officials to follow the cdc guidelines and to encourage everyone to do the same. we are advocating strongly to ensure that everyone in the united states is vaccinated for the sake of the public health. we are following the science and the data. and third, we are hopeful that state leaders will permit us to reimburse state and local organizations and community-based organizations that perform testing and quarantine individuals who have crossed the border so that we can ensure the public health of our communities and of the individuals themselves. >> thank you. moving to another area quickly, the president has proposed a $4 billion four-year inter-agency plan. i'd like to get your opinion of how important this plan is because it's supposed to address underlining causes of migration. >> it is very important. it is of critical importance. we are, as i mentioned earlier, we are taking short-term actions to address the situation at the border. we are taking medium-term actions such as building pathways that the laws of our country permit, and we have long-term solutions to make lasting change. and the infusion of resources in the countries of origin from which these individuals flee, the $4 billion of which the president has spoken and to which he has committed is precisely that, to get to the root causes. because we can talk about the poll factors which certainly us this morning, but we have to understand that the push factors are so extraordinary. imagine loving parents willing to allow and to -- their young child under the age of 18 to leave home, traverse mexico alone to reach our southern border. that speaks of the level of desperation. and we must address the root causes that lead a loving parent to do that. and that is what the $4 billion are designed to do. >> i will yield back any remaining time that i have. gentlemen yields back. chair recogniing gentle lady from tennessee. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you secretary for being here to answer the questions. last week your assistant secretary for border immigration policy told the committee in a member briefing that cbp does not have the ability and is not testing everyone in their custody before they're released. how many have been released. do you know that? >> i'm sorry, congresswoman. i think i committed earlier to providing that number to a fellow member of your committee. i will certainly provide it to you as well. as i mentioned, u.s. customs and border protection did not have the capacity to test in its facilities. and now we are entering into a contract with one vendor to begin and we will expand has needed so we can test in a cbp facility when the other mechanisms of which i have spoken are not available. >> you don't know how many have been released and how many of the individuals have been tested. do you know that? >> i'm sorry. i will get the data to you. i apologize. i don't have it before me this morning. >> okay. you know, as a u.s. citizen, we have to present with a negative covid-19 test within three days to reenter the country if we've traveled internationally, and you know, you can't tell me how many have been released or how many were tested. we absolutely need to institute and carryout a valid covid-19 testing program in order to be able to measure these results. so that's imperative. i will go on. i'm on the cyber security and infrastructure sub committee, sir. and i'm really interested in the critical infrastructure designations of domestic supply chains. and that's something as a pharmacist i've been talking about for 25 years. you know, we're so relying on adversarial nations such as china, and what do you see in the future with that? you know, we worry about we listen to a hearing about solar and how they infiltrated and we don't know how they infill rated those entities. you know, we upload apps every day, and we try to keep on top of things, but it's unfathomable to me that we don't even know how that system was infiltrating. you know, as a -- like i say, as critical infrastructure goes, what are your plans to ensure that we have domestic supply chains for things like finished pharmaceuticals or chemicals that we won't have to be reliant on adversarial nations such as china? >> congresswoman, your question is a very important one, and touched on a number of different subjects. we've learned a great deal about the solar winds exploitation. i want to assure you of that, and i would be pleased to share information with you in that regard outside of the context of this morning's hearing. you have -- your question touches upon a number of very significant areas of focus of ours. number one, the supply chain and the security of the supply chain. number two, the fact that we do have nation state actors that employ cyber capabilities to exploit our supply chain and our critical infrastructure. and the importance of securing our critical infrastructure and some areas of critical infrastructure are far more advanced in their cyber security than others. and that is one of our critical areas of focus. to make sure that we frankly raise the bar across the national landscape. it is so vitally important and i think your focus on it is spot on. >> you know, i don't envy you and the position you're in right now, because nobody wants these immigrants coming over. they don't want them to be hungry. we're a giving nation. what we do, we're a nation of laws. and lawlessness breeds lawlessness, and without the covid testing over 100 people from what i understand have been released into these communities. do these people know that these people have tested positive? do the residents know? and this is such a threat that we have to quarantine for 14 days once we've been exposed to somebody. these people have no quarantine whatsoever. >> we are a nation of laws. you are correct. we are also a nation of immigrants and we can and we are both. i appreciate your note on the humanitarian side at the very outset of your question. i must repeat what i have said previously. we -- it is our policy to test individuals. it is our policy to see that those individuals who test positive are quarantined. we have implemented different mechanisms to achieve that policy. it is our responsibility to coordinate and communicate with local communities so they understand what is happening. we need to do that with local officials. there have been times when we have not met our responsibility as well as we should have. those instances are brought to the attention of leadership, and they are addressed, and we improve based on the mistakes made. we are deeply committed to the mission. >> i just have one -- >> gentle lady's time has expired. >> okay. >> chair recognizes the gentleman from california for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman. and welcome, secretary. secretary, i appreciate the challenge you face on the border, and what i don't appreciate, though, is the feigned concern of my colleagues about these being super spreader events. these are colleagues who spent the last year going to super spreader events. a number of them at the white house. they mock the mask mandates here and i don't believe they have a genuine concern of the health of the people on the border presenting any super spreader threat, but i do wish you well and working with you to address real issues on the border humanitarian issues. my question as it relates to covid is do you consider covid a -- naturally occurring biological diseases like covid a threat to our homeland? >> i do, and we have an office that is dedicated to that particular threat stream. we have quite a bit of research and development in our office of science and technology addressing biological threats. it is an area of focus and it was when i was the department secretary of homeland security. and secretary -- >> secretary of homeland security -- >> and secretary, does the office have a standing strategy to take on biological threats? it. >> it does, and i would be very pleased to share that strategy with you and to speak with you outside the context of this hearing. >> great. and secretary, finally, what can we do when we looked at the recent atri bugs to russia and the desire in 2016, 2018 and again, 2020 to interfere in the election. what can we do to make sure that we learn from the mistakes of the past and our responses and that as we go into a midterm election that they are nowhere near as successful as they have been in the past? and i say that because i do think chris krebs and his team did the best job in the last four years but what can we do to stop the behavior and educate the american people about what their intent is? >> congressman, we have quite a number of tools in our tool box to address adverse actions by state actors. and certainly we evaluate each threat to the homeland based on the facts and the dynamics that it presents. and i know the national security adviser of the united states has spoken on this very subject. and that we have met on it as a government across the federal government. and i don't want to speak further to that. >> sure. >> value demings and i are headed into an intelligence committee hearing. val, i'm happy to yield to you if you want to get any questions in before you have to go. >> the chair recognizes if gentle lady from florida for the remaining time. >> thank you so much. i'm not sure how much time you have left, but secretary, thank you so much. let me just make one thing clear. the safety of our nation is our number one concern, and one of the things that i will not do, though, is to use law enforcement as political pawns like unfortunately i have seen too many times, or my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do. since i have been on this committee long before you and under a prior administration, i have heard about staffing shortages. i've heard about low morale, training challenges with custom and border patrol officers and agents. so i know, mr. secretary, you just got there, but could you please update us on the status of the men and women on the frontline who regardless of the political campaigns i see and hear too frequently on the other side are doing the best job they can do? >> congresswoman, thank you so much for that question. i walked into office on february second of this year with already tremendous pride in the men and women of the department of homeland security, and the men and women on the frontlines. my pride is only swelled in the days since i took office. i will share with you that i was on the border a few weeks ago, and i saw the heroism of the men and women of the united states border patrol. i saw them undertake personal sacrifice to not only ensure that the border is secure but that the needs of very young children are taken care of. and they accomplish both. i heard from them concerns about the fact that the leadership of the department in the past had not addressed their public health and well being. i heard that from their representatives. and it is for that reason that we double down on operation vow, vaccinate our work force, and we've made the tremendous strides that we have. it is why i am pushing for the right sizing of our work force and the funding we need to accomplish that. i will do everything in my power to fully support the men and women of the department of homeland security, because they do everything in their power to serve the american people and to do so nobly and ably. >> mr. secretary -- thank you. >> the time has expired. >> i yield back. >> recognize the gentleman from georgia for five minutes. >> secretary, pleasure to see you here today. do you agree that we have a crisis on the southern border? yes or no? >> congressman, we have a very serious challenge, and i don't think the difficulty of the challenge can be overstated. we also have a plan to address it. we are executing on our plan and we will succeed. that's what we do. >> okay. >> it's for the very reason of which i spoke a moment ago. ek trord nar men and women. >> mr. secretary, you said to congressman swellwell that you consider covid thereby a threat to our homeland, and a serious threat, i assume. is that correct? >> congressman, the pandemic is a threat not only to our country. it is a threat that we are tackling like never before. >> okay. >> it's a threat throughout the world. congressman's spoke to something we in the department of home lapd security have historically addressed thanks to an -- >> thank you, mr. secretary. do you agree americans must present a negative covid-19 test taken within the country after flying internationally? >> i believe we require negative test for individuals traveling internationally. >> there are thousands of foreign nationals that cross or borders and are released into our communities without us knowing if they've had a covid-19 test or not. whether they test positive or whether they test negative. so there appears to be a more lenient standard for foreign nationals crossing our border illegally than for american citizens. why is that? >> that is not true. >> what do you mean it's not true? >> it's unequivocally not true for the reasons i have expressed. >> so are we testing every foreign national that crosses our border to see whether they have covid or not? >> it is our policy as i have articulated before, congressman, it is our policy to test individuals who are apprehended between the ports of entry to test them and if, in fact, they test positive, to quarantine them. that is our policy. and we have built practices to execute on that policy. >> can you assure the american people that no one who has been apprehended is released into our communities with the -- that still test positive for covid-19? >>. >> congressman, let me be clear. there were times earlier when individuals were apprehended and we sought to expel them and we were unable to expel them and we were compelled to release them and we did not have the opportunity to address them. we have addressed that situation. >> so right now as we speak right now, you're telling me that no one is released into our country that is covid-19 positive? congressman, allow me to repeat myself if i may. >> that's just a yes or no question. yes or no? >> congressman, if i may, the situation at the border is complex and the complexity is evidenced by the questions i've been receiving throughout the morning so please, if i may. it is our policy to test and to quarantine. >> okay, but are you executing to that policy 100%? >> we are doing the best we can to ensure that the policy is executed 100% of the time. that i can say. >> okay. the best we can so it is still possible, then, for covid-19 or for foreign nationals who test positive for covid-19 to enter our country. that's what you're saying, i guess? >> congressman, we do the best we can in everything that we do. >> okay. all right. since biden administration took office, thousands of people have been released into the border communities. according to media reporting since january 25th, 2021, at least 108 migrants tested positive for covid-19 after being released into brownsville, texas where they proceeded to travel across the united states. the mayor of yuma, arizona said migrants are not being tested for covid-19 before being released into his community. is it the federal government's job to enforce the laws and not burden states with a public safety crisis resulting from federal policies? >> congressman, it is our responsibility to enforce federal law. and the situations of which you spoke are precisely the situations that i provided in my answer to your prior question. there were instances in which individuals were released. and you mentioned brownsville and that is an example of that. in yuma, arizona, we didn't have the relationship with community-based organizations. they did not have the same footprint, and it is precisely why we built the additional practices to which i referred earlier this morning. why we've built different practices to plug any hole to ensure that our policy to the best of our abilities, our policy that everyone is tested and quarantine is needed, and that is what we have done. what we do is we address a challenge, and if we see an element of that challenge that we are not addressing, then we know what we must do and we do it. and that is precisely what we have done here and across the board in addressing the migration of individuals at our southwest border. >> gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentle lady from nevada for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and thank you, mr. secretary for being with us today. it's refreshing to have a professional in this field, someone of your caliber to head up homeland security. over the past four years it's been a revolving door. there have been about six different secretaries. some of them approved, some of them not who knew very little about what should be going on over there. we've heard a lot from our colleagues across the aisle about the immigration problem. we can see there is one and we're working on fixing it. but i'd point out that a lot of that problem stemmed from some of the policies that donald trump had, and from his own incompetence. there's evidence from cbp for one example is that the number of individuals who have been apprehended at the border has been on the rise since may 2020. so that's way back in his administration. didn't just start when joe biden took over. but it's not only in immigration the incompetence of the last administration comes through. i'd like to ask you about how we're dealing with covid and ppe. for example, jared kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser so-called senior adviser to then president trump told a room full of people that providing ppe and dealing with covid was not the role of government. ppe was shortage would be solved by the free markets. then in april of 2020 at the briefing they stated the strategic national sock pile was not intended for dissemination to the states. they went onto change the mission statement on the internet on their website, because this contradicted with something else that kushner was saying. then he had the project air bridge with some of his buddies and who knows what happened with that. and even today we have a survey from the past month that shows 81% of nurses are having to reuse single-use ppe. so i wonder if you could talk to us about how you're dealing with that issue, what's happening with this project air bridge, how we can work together to be sure that states do get the needed equipment to fight this pandemic, and that people on the frontlines are protected. >> thank you very much. as i mentioned previously, we've really put our weight behind operation vow. vaccinate our work force. our acting deputy secretary and doctors, our medical professionals, are very focussed on the distribution of the vaccine and accessibility of the vaccine, and in administration of the vaccine to our frontline personnel including the brave men and women of the united states border patrol. if i can, you mentioned the increase in numbers beginning in may of 2020 at our border. if i may, congresswoman, they began, i believe, in april of 2020. and one of the difficulties that we face with respect to the challenge at the border is the fact that our processes that preexisted to address these challenges were dismantled in their entirety. and so we're addressing the numbers while we rebuild our capabilities. nearly from scratch. while we rebuild lawful pathways that the law provides, that were similarly torn down and why the -- and during the time when the infusion of resources into the countries of origin to address the root causes had been discontinued. so the challenge has been made more difficult, and then we have, of course, the pandemic, and our effort to protect our men and women to protect the american people, and the individuals whom we are encountering and placing in our custody. >> thank you, very much. if i could appoint a personal privilege, i would like to work with you on the uic funding. this is very important. i represent las vegas, and it's very important to us that some of the changes trump tried to make to that formula be readdressed so we don't lose that needed funding to help us stay prepared for any kind of terror attack. >> thank you. i look forward to working with you in that regard. i am very familiar with the formula that underlies those grants. i understand some of the concerns with respect to that formula, and i look forward to working with you to ensure that the formula is what it needs to be beginning in fiscal year 2022. >> thank you so much. i yield back, mr. chairman. thank you very much, gentle lady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and mr. mayorkas, it's a pleasure to see you here. got a couple questions. is it unlawful for someone to enter the united states without the proper authorization? >> whether you're a citizen or alien, a visa? >> an unlawful entry into the united states is certainly unlawful. yes. >> okay. so somebody who doesn't have proper authorization entering the united states is an unlawful entry. is that correct. >> that's correct. >> you stated on i believe on several occasions people have asked you, you made a statement to migrants across the border that were looking to come into the united states, don't come now. have you said that? >> i don't recall, but i think the message is, in fact, not to come to the border. not to take the perilous journey. the border is not open. we are expelling individuals by reason of the public health situation under the cdc title 42 authority. we are building, rebuilding, i should say, legal pathways for individuals who have claims for relief that the laws of the united states recognize and support. >> you're saying don't come unless you meet one of the criteria. is that your position? >> if you are speaking of individuals who are seeking to come to the southwest border, the message is do not come. >> do not come, unequivocally, do not come? >> that is correct. >> thank you. i spoke -- i had the privilege of being with some of our agents this past monday. and they were quite candid in what they required to do their job. number one was personnel. you said that -- i'm not sure this was -- you wanted to right size or you want to have appropriate number of people staffing at customs and border protection. are you going to be asking for additional personnel in your budget request to the president? >> yes, i will be. >> okay. >> yes, i have. >> thank you. >> the second thing they asked, and i was pretty specific on their order was finish the wall. and i know that the president, the president stopped the construction of the wall even portions of the wall that were already appropriated in a bipartisan manner. and so are you going to be asking the president to finish the wall and the wall that has already been appropriated by congress? >> no, i will not. and if i may speak to that, congressman -- >> even though your own custom and border patrol agents are saying that is definitely something they want? >> that is not the response of the united states border patrol with unanimity. and i will tell you from experience that that is not the path that individuals on both sides of the aisle believe is the correct one. one of the individuals, one of the members of the united states senate who was a hero in my home growing up was john mccain. and i remember when i was a nominee to be the deputy secretary of homeland security. then senator mccain articulated what we needed to do to innovate and modernize our defenses along the border. we didn't nor should we rely exclusively on physical barriers. because the border is not the same across its many miles of stretch. and the migration challenges are not the same along the many miles of the border on the south and, in fact, on the north as well. >> it's a combination of things. >> mr. secretary, i only have a certain amount of time. so it's funny you say that you don't have unanimity. i'm talk act the portions of the wall that were already funded. your agents, every single one of the agents i spoke to said that they would like to have those portions finished. that there are portions that were about to be rebuilt that were stopped and it made no sense. and so i would ask you to reconsider what you're saying. i agree with you. there are places where the wall is appropriate and there are places where the wall is not appropriate, because the final thing they said was they needed technology and they needed additional technology. there's apparently some kind of technology that they all really want but that was third after building the portions of the wall that were basically stopped by the biden administration. so i would ask you to reconsider that, and talk to your border agency and they'll tell you which portions of the wall should be built and continue to be built and where technology would be a better thing. i don't disagree that technology in some areas is a much better way of handling it than physical barrier. finally, that's all i have. i'm going to yield my time. >> you have no time to yield. >> sorry. >> okay. >> the chair recognizes the congresswoman from new jersey. >> mr. chairman, i just want to thank him for trying at least. >> chair recognizes the gentle lady from new jersey for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i just want to take note of a couple things. number one is that we're talking to an individual who has been on the job about two months trying to undo the ib humanity and the incompetency of a four-year term before that. we need to recognize that as we're beating him up. our republican colleagues have so many concerns that children and migrants may very well be spreading the can have. let me start by saying i'm glad to hear they're interested in it and that they're concerned about the pandemic but i would note that not one republican in congress voted for the american kes rest cue plan to fight this pandemic and provide the needs to the american families. so it poses a question to me as to whether or not we are feigning concern and care at this point. mr. mayorkas, i would like to switch my area of questioning with you. i am the sub committee chair of the tsa sub committee, and i want to talk to you about the tsa work force. i am concerned that the predicate upon which it was originally designed, giving the department flexibility and, therefore, not giving the individuals a kind of same protections on the frontlines that title 5 of the u.s. civil service act code provides has now resulted in individuals who have worked with this agency for some 20 years who never have seen a decent increase in pay. who don't have the same rights and privileges and protections that other unionized employees receive. that i think is unfair, and that i think is unnecessary. and i think that we're now entering an administration that has greater respect for the value of unionization and the value of equity and equality among the work force. so i know that some of these things particularly putting these individuals under title 5 is something that you can do administratively, and i would hope that you would. but if not, we're also willing to engage in legislative response to it. i, in fact, am a co-sponsor of mr. thompson's bill that would do just that. what i'd like to ask you to are you willing to work with us to try to accomplish this from an administrative perspective and that we can codify it later on? >> congresswoman, thank you so much. i most certainly am. i will tell you that i am very focussed on this issue. i have spoken with chairman thompson about it. i have spoken with union leadership about it. and i've spoken with the personnel throughout the tsa accomplishment about it during a town hall that we had last week. it is an issue with which i am familiar by reason of my prior service, and i am studying it very carefully, and with urgency because i understand the concerns that you have and i share them. >> thank you very much. i'm not sure how much more time i have left. but at some point i'd like you to tell me what you were doing to improve upon the backlog of the h-4 visas, because the backlog had the former administration's incompetence in dealing with this area as well. resulted in a backlog. resulted in women not having jobs outside of their homes. it's impacted family incomes and has logged us high level skills and education that would be helpful to us in our economy. >> thank you, congresswoman. i look forward to meeting with you and understanding better your concerns in that regard. i'm very familiar with u.s. citizenship and immigration services. and its struggling financial situation. i'm aware of the financial assistance it received from congress because of that. >> i'm a member of the appropriations committee. and i need you to know that i am an ally when it comes to ensuring that the department of homeland security has the resources that it needs in order to be able to accomplish its diverse responsibilities. i also fully recognize that that agency has been starved. it's been starved of talent and has been starved of man power and woman power. and i will do anything that i can to ensure that you all are treated with the respect that you need in order to keep us safe and secure in the homeland. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> gentle lady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kansas for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary for being here today. i appreciate your time. i want to talk about something fundamental, because that's what's on the minds of the people that i represent in kansas. president biden imposed a so-called deportation moratorium. he ceased unirat laterally construction of the border wall. his border immigration policies and rhetoric undermine in my opinion, a core american value of american life. and it's the rule of law. this principle has guided and sustained our country for more than two centuries. if we reward unlawful migration with the greatest prize anywhere in the world, and i think you would agree with that, which is american citizenship, we will erode the legitimacy of our immigration system. it's the most generous anywhere in the world. secretary, what message do you think this is sending to the millions around the world who play by the rules, who respect our laws and are waiting their turn to come to our country for the chance to have a better life? >> congressman, we have had a broken immigration system ever since i can remember, and i've never heard anyone say otherwise. yet, we haven't been able to fix it legislatively. and it is my hope that we finally do. the migration challenge that we are facing in the southwest border is not new. we confronted it in 2019 and 2014 and before then. and it is a reflection of the fact that our system is broken. it is a reflection of other facts as well of which -- >> do you think -- mr. secretary, mr. secretary, excuse me. excuse me. do you think it's a reflection of the rhetoric of president biden and the policies he's implemented since coming into office? do you think that has had an impact on the increase? >> i do not. the american people heard that answer and they are not buying it. i'd like to yield the remainder of my time. >> it is the policy. i am very concerned about the delay in nominating assistant director. can you speak to the delay of the nominee and would you say we need a permanent position of leadership. -- literature? sec. mayorkas: we are very focused on filling the vacancies across the department. it is an issue that i worked with the white house on every single week. as a matter of fact, i had a conversation on that very subject. i will say, yes we do need a politically appointed senate confirmed leadership in a number of positions throughout the department of homeland security. we are very unfortunate -- very fortunate to have extraordinary talent and insisted is no different. >> you have done a wonderful job. anything i can do to help the process along, let us do that. at assistant director is greatly important. thank you, mr. chairman. >> the gentleman yields back. the young lady from california. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. secretary for being with us today. i want to turn to my topic of deported veterans. in this country, we have people who sign up to serve in the military. they can go fight in war, and if they get killed in a ward become a united states citizen, but if they survive and come back home they can still be deported. i think it is completely unacceptable, and on both sides of the aisle we should be raising an alarm bell. president biden put forward a plan to overhaul the immigration system, address the root causes of migration, and expand legal pathways to migration. what would the department of homeland security do? sec. mayorkas: thank you very much for your question. i raise this very issue two days ago, and i think your use of the term alarm is a fair one. this is an issue that requires urgent action, and i look forward to speaking with the secretary of veteran affairs to see what we can do about it. we owe to individuals who have served in our armed forces so very much. our freedom is because of them. i look forward to following up with you on this in this regard. >> thank you, very much. mr. secretary, as you are aware, the department of fallen security began a wind down of the migrant detection particles and began allowing individuals in the program to pursue their asylum cases. this is a welcome first step and i applaud the department of homeland security for moving quickly to shut down this terrific program, which exposed asylum-seekers to violence, but however the process and out so far only applies to individuals with an active case before the immigration courts. there are many other people who were subjected to npp not covered under the plan's dhs announced, particularly asylum-seekers who were formerly in npp. -- should await further instructions. will there be additional phases to the wind down plan? sec. mayorkas: congresswoman, we are looking at that very question right now. right now, as you can well imagine we are addressing these issues that impact the southwest border in a prioritization matrix, and i look forward to conferring with you about how we are looking at it, the timing that we are thinking of, but first things first, we are going to address the challenge we are confronting right now. challenge that we're confronting right now. >> thank you, mr. secretary. is there any expectation on timing on when that announcement might be made? >> no. i think right now we are addressing the immediate needs of the southwest border. as we've been zugz throughout the hearing. >> thank you. president biden has made a commitment to restore access to asylum at the u.s./mexico border and we welcome efforts led by the president and the agency you lead to undo the mpp policy and to begin the process to be able to allow asylum seekers really the rights they're entitled to under the u.s. law. i'd like to address some of the misrepresentations that we've heard about the situation at the border. wouldn't you agree that it's inhumane to put children in danger? >> i would. >> and isn't it true some families are admitted because of a change in mexican law, not u.s. policy. >> it is our practice under the cdc title public health authority to expel families the limitation on that is if, in fact, at particular points in time mexico does not have the capacity to receive the families that we seek to expel. >> and then we place the families in immigration proceedings and if, in fact, they do not have a claim for relief under the law, they are to be and will be returned. >> i'm referring to a mexican policy that has recently changed where mexico's refusing to take some asylum seekers. are you aware of that? >> i'm aware of the change in law, congresswoman. the change in law provides that families with children of a particular age are to be in the custody of a particular organization, government organization in mexico rather than the immigration authorities. and that is as i understand it the change in mexican law. >> thank you, mr. secretary. the mexican law was passed during the trump administration and they did build capacity to prepare for its implementation. and with that, mr. chairman, i know i'm out of time. i appreciate the time and thank you for your efforts. mr. secretary, i yield back. >> thank you. we recognize the gentleman from michigan for five minutes, mr. meyer. >> thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member and secretary mayorkas for joining us. i want to second many of the concerns that my colleagues had around our border security and around the strong influx of both the asylum seekers and migrants at the border. it's obviously a pressing challenge and i hope we'll continue to work together to address it. but i wanted to touch upon another area of focus dealing with immigration and that has to do with the h-2 -b visa program. earlier this this morning bipartisan delegation of members of congress sent a letter regarding that program. the visa are incredibly important to the economy of michigan and to many folks who are both in the, dealing with especially seasonal tourism workers, and i think there is a strong need and collective desire to fix the program, especially those bouncing back from deep struggles in the past year due to covid and the lockdown restrictions we've had to make sure they're well-situated in order to come back as we're on the up swing this summer. so we have many small and seasonal businesses in michigan that rely on the visa so holders on employment. they struggle to find employment otherwise. that's not just seasonal visas and we are a state with a strong domestic tourism component in the spring and summer. this is a vital part of our economy. not too long ago dhs announced the visa cap for the second half of the fiscal year was already reached. now, there's still a critical labor shortage and a need for seasonal business workers across michigan in addition to the rest of the country. we're experiencing significant unemployment in the country more broadly for which we have generous federal top up of extended unemployment insurance. but we still need the seasonal workers in order to fulfill the jobs and support the hundreds of thousands of jobs of american citizens whose jobs depend on the tourism sectors especially in parts of no, your honor michigan. it's essential we have additional visas granted as soon as possible so we can begin to have those businesses plan to reopen for the 2021 summer tourism season. under the law, you've been given the authority to determine if this cap of 33,000 is raised. i guess i would like to work with your office and again, that's why i advocate this cap be raised so i guess my first question to you, does the department currently have a plan or proposed timeline for making a determination on this visa cap? >> congressman, thank you very much, and thank you for your letter which i have read. and i have been studying the h-2-b issue. the annual happen to be reached. it's 33,000 in two parts a total of 66,000. the secretary of homeland security has the authority to waive that limit and issue new visas. i'm taking a very close look at that. the waiver authority has been exercised many times in the past. usually in june. i'm looking at it with ur jeb si because i understand your point about the seasonal nature, of course, and the summer months are looming. if, in fact, that waiver authority is exercised, i understand that the speed with which it is exercised is vitally important to the market of which you speak. so i'd be very happy to speak with you outside of this hearing. and confer about the issue of those visas. >> thank you. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i do think there are some reforms needed in the program, but perhaps they will not be accomplished in short order, understanding that the urgency of which you speak for the people of michigan. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i'm glad you appreciate that a lot of these businesses are hanging on by a threat as is, and in order to be fully staffed by the time both the season is starting and as additional vaccinations and restrictions are anticipated to be lifted, that planning requires months of work in advance and obviously getting those visas and getting the travel and the timeline set up is critical as well. i'm heartened that you appreciate the urgency of the matter and i look forward to working closely with your office on this and i'm grateful you're willing to work together with us to solve this problem. both addressing the short-term needs in the upcoming 2021 season, and also focusing on what we can do in the long-term to better reform the programs. thank you. i yield back my time. >> the chair recognizes the gentle lady from virginia. >> thank you for joining us today. i wanted to shift the discussion to our ports and custom border control. we have the port of virginia. i recognize the critical role that custom and border plays especially with regard to maritime ports and the port container traffic through there. but in the last few years custom and border patrol has increasingly relied on the ports and other nonfederal entities to provide facilities and payments of overtime for officers in order to meet the operational needs. my district, the port of virginia has had to pay approximately half a million dollars annually for the preimburstment for overtime pay, and these are services that through the customs fees that are collected, should be able to support our ports without having to have an additional nonfederal contribution. i just wanted to ask you today if you would be able to provide to our district and also other ports the list of unfunded requirements that we need in able to meet the requirements for both overtime and facilities without asking our local communities to make an additional investment in order to continue operation of our port. >> congresswoman, i look forward to looking into that and reporting the results. it's not one that i am intimately floor with candidly, but i will share with you i know that our -- i know our fee revenue with customs and border protection is down. but i'm not familiar with the sharing of responsibility, if you will, for overtime. i'll look into that very quickly and circle back with you. i appreciate that. >> i appreciate that. and thank you so much. we really appreciate the support that customs and border protection provides to the port of virginia. another issue i wanted to touch on is about fema and disaster preparedness. we're in a coastal region that is frequently experiencing sunny day flooding, kind of ongoing flooding issues that have become increasingly more prevalent. i wanted to talk with you about ways fma could assist communities that have ongoing issues that are not one-time natural disasters such as a large storm. and how we can work together with the communities to deal with slow -- hazard and how fema can be more involved in helping communities through the issues. >> look, i look forward to meeting with you about that as well, because that is something that we are looking at, especially given climate change, and its impacts on the homeland security, and our mission sets. and how we can best equip local communities to address the impacts of climate change, severe weather conditions being one of them. so i very much look forward to working with you in that regard and we'll schedule a meeting to that end. and i thank you. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i'm new to this committee but have been serving previously on armed services. i'm glad to be serving on the transportation and maritime sub committee of this committee and interested in the coast guard and the continued possibility of expanding the coast guard operations in the western pacific in support of enforcing unrecognized chinese maritime claims and all the different things are that of upmost concerned. i'd love to talk about how to further leverage the coast guard in the issues that impact our homeland. >> thank you. i look forward to that as well. i meet regularly with the admiral schultz and our acting deputy secretary david picoski hails from an illustrious career in the coast guard. i'm familiar with the issues and look forward to speaking with you about them. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i yield back the remainder of my time. >> question lady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentle lady from florida for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate everyone's time here today. thank you, secretary mayorkas. i know we've been in and out of meetings all day today. if this question has been asked previously, i apologize. can you tell me what fema stands for? >> federal emergency management administration. >> excellent. so since fema has been now deployed to the border, that would stand to reason that there is an emergency on the border. correct? >> congresswoman, perhaps you did not hear me -- >> yes or no will suffice. >> we have a serious challenge at the border and we are tackling it. >> so fema being the emergency management administration, they deal with emergencies, and they are now being deployed to the border, and it's not an emergency? is that what i'm hearing? >> congresswoman, if you'll allow me, fema, the men and women of fema have tremendous capabilities to address challenges that we confront in a series of our mission sets. we -- >> i'm glad you said -- i'm so sorry. i have to reclaim my time because i'm very limited and i'm glad you said that. because the men and women of fema are incredible. and i represent a hurricane prone state, so this is really important to me, especially as the ranking member of the emergency preparedness and response and recovery sub committee. so with everything that we have going on, a global pandemic, a border crisis, with everything happening, does fema have the resources necessary to effectively respond to the border crisis and the upcoming hurricane season in your opinion? >> yes. >> yes, they do? >> yes. >> excellent. >> let me share with you a glowing example of that. as i said at the outset, the president set an ambitious goal for fema to set up 100 federally supported community vaccinations centers in 30 days. they stood up 4411 in 30 days. and the number is over 900 today. their capabilities are extraordinary. and i have tremendous confidence in their ability to provide the assistance in helping health and human services. >> and that's critical infrastructure, right? >> in handling the issue of the unaccompanied children arriving in large numbers at our southwest border and our other mission sets, tremendous confidence. >> excellent. so real quick, talking about the infrastructure, and i know fema is great when it comes to standing up infrastructure, but talking about dhs as a whole, i know you all play a role here, do you support the walls around the capitol region? >> what walls? are you speaking of the fencing, congresswoman? >> yes, the ten-foot wall, fencing, with razor wire around it. >> congresswoman, that is -- >> just a yes or no. >> -- that i -- congresswoman, if i may, that is an issue that i have not studied. i have left to the security experts with respect to what particular type of physical barriers are best suited for the protection of the capitol region. >> i apologize, i know i'm new here and i know you're new here. >> i'm trying to answer your question. >> are you telling me you haven't studied whether a ten-foot fence around the capitol region is necessary as secretary of homeland security? >> congresswoman, i have deferred to the experts with respect to the nature of the physical barrier that is most effective in protecting the capitol region. where that barrier should be, whether it should be singular in nature, wherever it is, or whether it should vary -- >> secretary, i appreciate that. i'm going to reclaim my time because i think we both agree that physical barriers work. i know several of my colleagues have talked about the statistics, the number of folks coming over the border. i want to bring it home a little bit. see, i'm from a small town out west and the month before i was supposed to graduate high school which was 2006, one of my classmates was kidnapped by an illegal who had been deported multiple times. and i think when you have policies that incentivize folks to come over illegally and we don't have the proper mechanisms in place to protect our borders, as you say, fema has been deployed, and they are an emergency agency, that kind of impact has resounding effects. so my question to you, her name was amber scott, the young lady that was kidnapped by this illegal criminal. how many more people will have to be kidnapped before -- >> your time as expired. >> mr. chairman, may i answer that question? >> yes. >> congresswoman, i find that question to be extraordinarily disrespectful, disrespectful not only to me but disrespectful to the men and women of the department of homeland security and to all the front line personnel throughout this country who dedicate themselves to the safety and security of the american people. >> i'm sorry you feel that way. i'm sorry that you feel that way. i'm sure the american people feel very disrespected about the border situation they're facing right now. >> the young lady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman thompson, for recognizing me and secretary mayorkas, welcome to the committee, thank you for your service, i look forward to working together to help protect your economy. with the attack on the capitol on january 6, we witnessed the merging of a wide range of domestic extremist ideologies including the proud boys, militia groups like the oath keepers and three percenters as well as qanon and other movements. as the head of homeland security, do you agree that racially motivated extremities represent one of the greatest threats to the security of americans? >> i certainly do, congressman. >> thank you. if so, how is dhs working to strengthen its understanding of these groups and how they organize? >> congressman, we are gathering intelligence and information from varied sources. we are communicating that information to state and local, tribal and territorial personnel to ensure that our first responder communities across the country are well equipped with that information. we have dedicated funding to equip state, local, tribal, territorial organizations with the ability on their own to detect and respond to those threats. we have a number of different efforts under way. we work in close partnership with the federal bureau of investigation in the dissemination of products, to communities through a joint information bulletin. we have many efforts under way. i look forward to elaborating with you when we meet outside the context of this hearing. >> thank you so much. >> i welcome that opportunity. >> thank you so much. i do as well, sir. in my home state in new jersey office of homeland security and preparedness has been warning of the threat of militia extremist groups for several years now in fact it was the first government entity in the united states to label white supremacy as a top level threat. they share intelligence related to domestic terrorism threats. one thing else that come up over the years now is, with the dhs, is how to make sure it does a better job of disseminating and making use of information and analysis prepared by states like new jersey and other homeland security agencies to counter the domestic terror threat. is that something you have plans of doing more of? i wanted to get a sense what have your strategy is there. >> most personal. our ability to gather together information and intelligence and disseminate it effectively to the first responder community throughout the country is an essential element of our battle against domestic violence extremism. we have extraordinary individuals here in the department of homeland security who are focused on that. you mentioned, congressman, the fusion center in new jersey, and i am familiar with it. i am very familiar with the fusion center led by mike senna. that is a critical vehicle in my mind. we have to resource the fusion centers so we have an architecture across the country to use the information advisedly and effectively in countering this very serious threat that our homeland faces. >> grateful for that. what do you see, as you probably are aware, it seems that many of these domestic terror groups and movements are increasingly decentralized and don't always rely on a single leader or defined structure. what challenges do you see that are unique in particular by these threats from a decentralized extremist network, what threats provide to the homeland and to law enforcement, and what do you think we should be doing about that? >> congressman, i think the fact that it is a decentralized threat, that it is so diffuse, that we're speaking of loose affiliations, we're speaking of lone actors. we are addressing the fact that the problematic ideology that underlies their drive to violent acts is so easily disseminated throughout social media, that presents a challenge that is really quite difficult. and i met as recently as yesterday with personnel, my colleagues across the federal government, to develop strategies and best understand the threat and how we can most effectively confront it on behalf of the american people. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i look forward to working together. thank you so much. i yield back. >> thank you. >> the gentleman yields pack. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas for five minutes, mr. pfluger. >> thank you, mr. chairman, thank you, mr. secretary. i appreciate that. i want to clarify something, you've said very emphatically that the border is secure today. you've also said it is not open. so what you're saying is that we -- your own cbp agents are apprehending 100% of those who are illegally crossing? >> the u.s. border patrol does an exceptional job in -- >> are they apprehending 100% of the -- of the illegal crossings? >> i don't know of any reason to believe that they are apprehending a smaller percentage than has historically been the case. they did not -- my definition of security -- excuse me, sir. when i look at the definition of security it says it's the state of being free from danger. and as a fighter pilot i would never call something secure if there were got-aways. your agents have told me in the last two months that on average 4,500 to 6,000 got-aways are crossing the border every single day. most concerning is the known or suspected terrorists of which we know and from this testimony those have crossed over. so are you certain that we have, uh, apprehended 100% of the ksts that are crossed the border? >> congressman, i have no reason to believe that we have not. but i must tell you i'm completely unfamiliar with the data that you referenced. i am not certain of the accuracy of the information that you have. and i also am very troubled by the definition that you -- that you quoted. can you repeat that definition? >> just a simple definition from the dictionary. i would like to move on -- >> because it certainly -- >> -- i would ask you, are you willing to release the got-away number on a weekly basis? likewise, when it comes to known or suspected terrorists, will you commit today to providing a classified brief, a comprehensive brief that gets into the affiliation of these terrorists and also speaks to, uh, the jttf or their i.c.e. concerns? >> congressman, i will honor my obligations to provide this committee with information as a primary committee of jurisdiction. >> thank you for that, i appreciate that. i would like to move into something that's extremely concerning. on sunday, midland, texas, my home district, without notification, without coordination, without any alert to the local or state officials or to my office, received an emergency intake center with 700 -- up to 700 uacs between the age of 15 to 17, saying they were not going to have any criminal or behavioral issues, that they would be there for two to three weeks, and that they're placed into this situation in midland. what i'm wondering is, umm, is that site going to be there for two to three weeks, are there further sites that are going to exist, why was there no coordination with local or state officials prior to this happening, how do we verify the age of those individuals that are there? >> congressman, it is our responsibility to communicate effectively with local communities when we have actions under way in them. if there was a failure to communicate with local officials with respect to our plans to open a facility in midland, texas, to shelter unaccompanied children, then that's a failure on our part and i'll follow up and make sure that does not happen again. >> we're very concerned about that failure of communication. the folks in my district and along our southern part of my own congressional district lie approximately a hundred miles from the border. the reason i started out with the questioning is because we are very worried about the security. and when you say the border is secure and there are literally hundreds if not thousands of folks that are crossing that are not contacted, that are not apprehended, we know this because the sign cutting along the border where there are no physical barriers or technology, mr. secretary, it's very concerning, our policies in the last couple of months, that have reversed course, and i don't have to go back into detail from this hearing today on the questioning that's already happened, will you commit to doing everything you possibly can to secure our border? >> yes, i will. i have. as have the men and women of the department of homeland security. we have been unwavering in that commitment. and your citation to the past two months in the context of this issue, i would respectfully submit, is misplaced. >> well, i appreciate what the customs and border protection agents do, they put their life on the line every single day. my utmost respect to them and their families because they truly are giving everything they have to keep our country safe. more needs to be done. >> thank you, congressman. >> thank you. mr. chairman, thank you. >> the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. malinowsky, for five minutes. while he's coming, we recognize the gentleman from new york for five minutes, mr. torrez. unmute yourself. >> i think the congressman came so i'll defer to him. >> hi, i'm here. am i okay to go, mr. chairman? >> yes, you are. >> thank you so much. mr. secretary, thank you so much for being here with us today. i'll just start with an observation, as an immigrant to this country myself. i've been listening to this debate and i think it's important that we remember that over the last four years, we're talking about illegal immigration, we have seen an across-the-board effort to try to limit, shut the door to legal immigration to the united states. asylum virtually shut down. refugee admissions virtually shut down, for the first time in our modern history, since when we turned our backs on jewish refugees fleeing hitler's germany before the second world war. we've made it harder for folks to get green cards, harder to apply for citizenship. we've banned travel and admissions from particular countries. this is a crisis. this is a moral crisis. it's something that has hurt our economy. it hurts our strength, our position in the world. and when i listen to my friends on the other side, i really think that they need to decide, as we face questions about the dreamers and about immigration reform, are they still the party of reagan? are they still the party of john mccain? are they still the party that agreed in 2013 to an immigration reform compromise very similar to what president biden has just put forward? my republican colleagues know, they say this very often, and they're absolutely right, that we are beginning a contest as a country with the communist party of china. and i wish they would recognize that one of our greatest strengths in that contest is that we are the china, the united states, not china, we are the country that attracts energy and youth and talent from around the world, that millions of people want to be american citizens. millions of people want to be american taxpayers, want to be american soldiers. why would we squandered that advantage? i hope we don't, for the sake of promoting fear in the service of politics. with that comment, mr. secretary, just a couple of questions in that spirit. one, president biden has pledged to raise the cap on refugee admissions after we nearly shut down refugee admissions under the trump administration. can you let us know why there's been a delay in actually effecting that order, signing it, and when we might expect to see it? >> congressman, thank you very much. i know that the president is considering that issue. it's a serious issue. he has committed to restoring our leadership in the world, including as a leader of -- as a place of refuge for people fleeing persecution. and so i will defer to him and his deliberations on that important issue. i know he's very committed to it. >> okay. thank you. one element of this that i think is more under your control, uscis, at some point in the last administration -- well, probably related to covid, stopped doing in-person interviews for refugee applicants. but also continues, as i understand it, to refuse to do video interviews, even though it continues video interviews for people being deported, not people being admitted as refugees. is that something you can fix? because there are situations where literally hours and days matter right now in terms of getting that process restarted. >> congressman, i'll have to take a look at that, to see what u.s. citizenship and immigration service's practices are with respect to video interviews of refugee applicants. i will look at that and get back to you. i'm familiar with the pros and cons of video interviews. they present tremendous advantages in a number of different respects. so i will follow up as quickly as possible. >> thank you. very limited time, different issue, big controversy last year, dhs units like vortac involved in policing civil unrest in the united states. would you agree that's not necessarily an appropriate role for these essentially paramilitary units and that any dhs units involved in policing civilunrest should not be wearing civilian clothes, desert fatigues, but should have insignia as does law enforcement in this country? >> congressman, i'm looking carefully at what occurred in portland, deployment of resources in the department of homeland security. i would like to give my personnel an opportunity to address the issues and questions that i have, and then i will circle back with you. i want to be respectful of my workforce. but it is an issue that i am very focused on. >> thank you so much. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair, thank you, mr. secretary, for coming today and testifying. first question, mr. secretary, as you know, ms-13 is a transnational criminal organization whose members have terrorized and murdered people all over the united states. and many people in my district over the past few years. it's the largest and most violent street gang on long island, i represent parts of long island. the gang has thousands of members across the united states, comprised primarily of immigrants from central america. just yesterday, multiple media outlets reported that at least four people in the fbi's terrorist watch list have been arrested at the southern border. what is the dhs doing to secure our border and screen migrants to make sure that dangerous terrorists like ms-13 gang members are not permitted to enter this country? >> congressman, we have a screening protocol at the border at all ports of entry, we screen those who enter the country not only by land but by air and by sea. i would be very pleased, because i am so very proud, to share with you outside the context of this hearing everything that we do to screen individuals who are seeking to enter the united states and make sure that those who pose a danger to our communities do not enter the united states. we have very rigorous screening procedures in place and our people are very equipped to execute those procedures. >> i appreciate that, mr. secretary. and we talked about it a little before, this year is not the only year that people from the terrorist watch list or fbi's most wanted list have tried to cross the border. i believe in '18 there were six, '19 there were zero, '20 there were three. now it's only march 17 and we've already had four. is that concerning, that more people are trying to get in now? what's with the increase in numbers? >> congressman, i am concerned if one tries to come, over any length of time. that's my job. and that's the job of the people of the department of homeland security. >> okay, mr. secretary. as long as we keep up, because, you know, ms-13 has been knocked back a little bit through increased enforcement in my district, i don't need them getting a foothold back in. it was not good for my district, it wasn't good for new york, it's not good for the country. >> congressman -- oh, i didn't mean to interrupt. i prosecuted ms-13 gang members. i prosecuted many different types of gang members in my work as an assistant united states attorney and as the united states attorney across the country in the central district of california. i would be very pleased to discuss with you the strategies that we are employing and the strategies i have in mind to tackle this threat, which has been too persistent for too many years. cies. >> i appreciate that, mr. secretary. just a quick question, can you explain,there was no congressional notification of the white house's announcement today to establish another unified coordination group in light of the microsoft exchange volatility? >> congressman, i'm not familiar with the communication channel. what it was and what it wasn't. certainly we have been amplifying the threat of cybersecurity throughout the country. and since january 20. and we also have been amplifying the concerns around this sect exploitation of the second threat to microsoft. and so i can't speak any more than that. but i would be very happy to follow up with you. >> okay, as long as -- we usually -- i know congress -- the committee is usually notified when these are announce. i don't believe we received any notification. just in the future making sure we stay on top of that. in 2015, pete king introduced the anthrax first responder preparedness act which became public law 14-268. can you provide us with a status update as to the implementation that have pilot program? >> i would be pleased to. i certainly don't have it at my disposal but i look forward to following up with you, congressman. >> i look forward to your answers. thank you very much. i yield back. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. just for the record, we have very seldom received any notification on what the white house is doing, whether it's a democrat or republican. and i agree with my colleague from new york, it would be nice to know, but the practice is just not something that's ordinarily done. maybe that's something we can take up. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york again, mr. torrez, for five minutes. >> new, mr. chair. mr. secretary, a few yes or no questions about the border crisis, which as of late has been the subject of political demagoguery. isn't it true there was a border crisis in 2019, not so long ago, during the trump administration? >> the numbers of individuals encountered at the border was extremely large in 2019. >> that's a yes. isn't it true there was a border crisis before then, in 2014, during the obama administration? >> the numbers were considerable then as well. >> yes. and now there's one in 2021. is it fair to say, contrary to politically motivated storylines, that the border crisis is more of a cyclical occurrence than a unique consequence of the biden administration policies? >> i would say it is episodic, congressman, and we have experienced episodes of increased migration for many, many years, throughout many years. >> in both democratic and republican !? >> oh, absolutely. it speaks so profoundly of the need to once and for all fix our broken immigration system. >> i have a few yes or no questions about policies that might have caused or compounded the migrant surge. isn't it true that the trump administration cut humanitarian assistance meant to address the root causes of migration from central america? >> it did, congressman. >> isn't it true that the trump administration canceled the central american minors program which would have enabled children to apply for asylum from their home country without migrate to go to u.s./mexico border? >> yes, congressman, it did. >> isn't it true that during the trump administration families might have been too fearful to come forward and take custody of children in federal custody? >> congressman, if you are speaking of the memorandum -- >> yes. >> -- between the health and human services and immigration and customs enforcement, yes, the pernicious effect of that memorandum was in fact to chill relatives, sponsors, from coming forward to shelter unaccompanied children, indeed. >> so is it fair to say that the seeds of the present border crisis were planted long before you assumed office? >> i would say, congressman, that the challenge that we are confronting at the border is made far more difficult by reason of the factors that you have identified and some others as well. >> i have a question about the 287-g program. in august of 2020, then-candidate joe biden committed to ending the 287-g program which allows state and local law enforcement to collaborate with i.c.e. do you intend to fulfill that promise and end the 287-g program? >> i am looking very closely at the 287-g program, and really reestablishing a healthy relationship with state and local law enforcement throughout the country. i'm very proud of the support from the law enforcement community that i received when i was a nominee to be the secretary of homeland security. >> with respect, mr. secretary, do you intend to end it, are you going to modify it? what's the plan? >> i've got to take a close look at it. i'm very well aware of the president's commitment. but it's something that i -- >> is there a review under way? >> there is, congressman. >> what's the timeline for that review? >> as soon as possible, congressman. and i'm sorry i can't give you a more definite answer. as this hearing has evidenced, there is a great deal of work to be done across the department and we're doing it all. >> as you know, in january, president biden issued an executive order imposing a moratorium on almost all deportations. that executive order was subsequently put on hold by a court. in february, my understanding is that i.c.e. issued new guidance on deportations. the new guidance on deportation, is it essentially the same as the original executive order or are there differences? >> if i may, there was an announcement from the department of homeland security that removals from the country would be put on pause, individuals would remain in detention, but that removals would be put on pause for a period of 100 days as the issues were studied. you correctly noted that a court enjoined that pause. then on january 20, concurrently, on january 20, then the then-acting secretary issued guidance that revised those january 20 enforcement priorities. and i am studying the issues. i intend to engage with the workforce. i intend to engage with this committee. and i intend to engage with the community as i develop guidelines to promulgate. >> the gentleman's time from new york has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california for five minutes, mr. mcclintock. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for allowing me to join you today, and secretary mayorkas, thank you for being here for a marathon hearing. is it true that dhs is planning to reopen all of the mpb cases? >> i don't -- i'm not familiar with that, congressman. i'll have to take a look at that and get back to you, i apologize. we're certainly processing individuals with active cases in an orderly way through discrete ports of entry. we have indeed commenced that process. it's proving quite successful. >> i thought one of the executive orders was to basically invite the mpp applicants into the country. >> congressman, as i've indicated, what we have done is we have developed a safe, orderly, and humane way for individuals with active cases in the mpp program to -- >> how many are you talking about? >> yes, congressman? >> how many -- >> to be processed through the ports of entry so they can pursue their claims under the law in the united states. >> so i assume the answer is yes, you are bringing them in. how many? >> i will get for you the numbers that we have admitted who have claims for relief under the law in the united states already made. >> you agree with the trump regulation prohibiting aliens with dui convictions, when the dui resulted in serious bodily injury or death of the other person, making them ineligible for asylum? >> i'm not familiar, is there a regular on point, congressman, to address that? >> yes, i'm specifically discussing who is eligible for asylum. the trump administration promulgated regulations saying if there was a dui conviction that resulted in the bodily injury or death of another person, you're not eligible for asylum. >> i'm not familiar with that regulation but i will make this >> c-span's washington journal, every day we take your calls live on the air. coming up thursday morning, we look at capital security with ohio democratic congressman tim ryan. then, the biden administrations covid-19 response and vaccination rollout. watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern thursday morning. you to join the discussion to phone calls, they spoke comments, text messages, and tweets. >> coming lab thursday at 10:00 a.m., i house judiciary subcommittee of the hearing on discrimination and violence against asian americans. the house returns at noon eastern, on providing a path to citizenship to those who come to the u.s. as minors. on c-span2, members voted noon and then they take up the boston mayor's nomination to be labor secretary. on c-span3 at 10:00

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