We are funded by these Television Companies and more including cox. Koolende vries syndrome is extremely rare. Hi. But friends dont have to be. This is joe. When youre connected you are not alone. Cox supports cspan as a Public Service along wit these of the Television Providers give you a frontrow seat to democracy. Up next nuke state officials testified on placing migrant camps on National Park service land. They oppose the recent approval of the field in brooklyn by new yorks governor to be used as a temporary site to house migrants come into new york city. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the committee will come to order. Without objection pitchers authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. The committee is meeting today to testimony on destroying americas best idea, examining the Biden Administrations use of National Park service land for migrant camps. Ask unanimous consent of all members testifying today be allowed to sit with the committee, participant in hearing from the dais. The gentleman from new york and the gentleman from new york, additionally we have got the gentleman from new york, and mr. Texas mr. Pflueger from texas and from new york. Without objection, so ordered. Under Committee Role for at any for Opening Statement are limited to the chairmen and ranking minority member. Ive ever asked in this consent all of the members Opening Statements be made part of the hearing record if there submitted in accordance with Committee Role 30. Without objection, so ordered. I now recognize myself, or before before we get into tess when i will recognize less so for an Opening Statement. Good morning. Thank you us here today. New york city democrat mayor eric adams recently said that the endless flow of Illegal Migrants to his hometown will quote destroy the city. Hes right. Last week i saw that firsthand and the numbers dont lie. In august of this year 232,000 Illegal Immigrants flowed across our southern border that adds to the 6 million that a flowed across the border since President Biden was inaugurated. In the last 11 months of this fiscal year, an unbelievable fact, 25,000 pounds of fentanyl has been, 151 people on the terror watchlist seven apprehended at our southern border. And theres one more number, eight. Eight democrat mayors were governors have declared a state of emergency because Illegal Immigrants have flooded their cities and states. The endless flow of Illegal Immigrants over our southern border is not only destroy individual cities and states, its destroying our country. Now the Biden Administration is looking to spread this chaos to one of americas greatest ideas, our National Parks. Let me set the stage. Gateway National Recreation area unit of the National Park system is the lifeline to the outdoors in the middle of new york city. It provides space for the cities larger Security Guard campground, fishing and boating access, and even a unit of u. S. Naval sea cadets corps. Last year gateway had more than 9 million visitors. Facing political pressure the Biden Administration rubberstamp the lease proposal to allow the construction of shelters for migrant inside the park boundaries. The Committee First heard rumors of bibles plan in late august. When i visit the area last week dash of bidens plan. The lease was signed and would not be surprised if the constructing Migrant Children as a speaker officials told me verbatim that they are shortcutting nepa to build these camps. Ceq backed it up with a Public Statement and i quote, there is not time to complete an Environmental Assessment before action must be taken to address imminent threats, end quote. Now, this is interesting, and contrast of a ceq chair mallory stated in may of 2023 at a Senate Hearing and i quote, one of the key functions is to prevent the damage and cost that arise from rushed, buys and incomplete environmental decisionmaking, end quote. In case you didnt catch that im going to say it again. Four months ago the ceq chair said that quote one of 2027488001 function is to keep the damage. And then ceq last week stated to the press quote there is not time to complete an Environmental Assessment before action must be taken to address imminent threats, end quote. Our founders talked about our job as we the people, said in order to form a more Perfect Union, not a Perfect Union but a more Perfect Union, to establish justice and secure domestic tranquility and the preamble goes on. But look at those first two things, establishing justice d to turn domestic tranquility. How does two sets of standards establish justice . How can one interpretation of the law for months before another interpretation give anybody assurance that we are working towards a more Perfect Union by establishing justice . How does the actions that were seeing across the country and at the southern border, how does that give us confidence that we are accomplishing domestic tranquility . And for the more, this action is on a piece of National Park service land that in its enabling legislation specifically prohibits housing. It wouldnt matter if it were on a mountaintop, but this land happens to be in a floodplain that flooded just this past weekend. Isnt nepa supposed to protect human lives works how is building a migrant camp in a floodplain humane . I cant tell how many times i sit right here in this room and listen to my colleagues pontificate on the sanctity of the bedrock environmental law. Even as some of those conversations contribute to Energy Poverty for Everyday Americans. Yet, now that the president is facing public backlash from it border crisis unlike any this nation has ever seen, the administration has suddenly reverse course ignoring every Environmental Protection in the book. Time and again we seem President Biden and his folks embrace these rules for v and not for me. Its absolutely a shameful way to govern. Once again there is no justice in a double standard. Last week i write a letter to secretary deb haaland National ParkService Director charles sams demanding to know more about how their plan to help migrants in National Parks claim to be. Clean the role of ceq and sign off on the socalled emergency action. The secretaries yet to respond and her silence is deafening. We need answers. Last week in new york city i got kicked out of the process of facility and was refused a a. I heard park Officials Say they are bypassing our environmental laws to build migrant camps in a small park used by a Million People a year who live nearby. Its a rare green space in the midst of the city. Our National Parks of some of americas most treasured places. And as i said earlier they had been called our best idea. I will not sit back what President Biden takes them away for a crisis of his own making. Building camps on Park Service Land in the middle of new york city is not addressing the real problem. Its putting another bandaid on the bigger problem. Having 118, 20,000 migrants in new york city is but a small amount of whats affecting the rest of our country. This Administration Needs to own their mistakes and take the corrective actions to stop the flow of migrants. Its not just me saying that. Its not just republicans saying that. President biden and his disaster at the southern border is now affecting our National Parks. Enough is enough and i look forward to hearing the testimony here i yield back and recognize the Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when you assume the leadership of this committee i was cautiously optimistic. Its no secret that the gap between our policy views is wide. Wide. But ive come to think of you as a reasonable and principled call eight. I hope that these qualities would be reflected in the committees work, but todays hearing is neither reasonable nor principled. It is a dehumanizing political stunt. The current influx of migrants as a humanitarian crisis, no doubt. That deserves meaningful comprehensive solutions, solutions that are rooted in upholding our basic values and human rights, and solutions that would provide resources to respond to the crisis and to the humanitarian needs that we are confronting. Solutions that are rooted, that are based on facts not rhetoric from maga talking heads. Solutions that accept the reality that we are dealing with. Solutions that deal, yes, with security. Nobody is denying that. No one on our site is saying lets open up the borders and see what happens. Has to deal with security. But we also have to understand that we are dealing with the Global Crisis. A crisis of major proportions affecting the third world primarily across this globe. A crisis built on poverty, repression and oppression, political and otherwise, undemocratic governments in all parts of the world. The violence, the collapse of civil society, organized criminal groups that infect and affect every decision for these countries and these communities. The climate that is impacting our world in a very direct way. And so this impact of the Global Crisis on, in creating the challenges that we confront not only in the southern border but across this nation are driven beirut causes, and were not dealing with those. Thats part of the solution as well. But we wont hear about any of that today because its not about solutions this hearing. Todays hearing is not meant for solutions. Todays hearing is an excuse republicans to double down on the failed policies of the Trump Administration. Its an excuse to distract the American People from the fact that republicans are pushing us into a Government Shutdown that doesnt need to happen. I can shut down double actually slow down the processing of asylum applications i might add. And finally this hearing is an excuse to use National Parks and public land as a political foil to fuel at the immigrant rhetoric that creates a division and creates the patient in our and that the Republican Party see as the only political advantage heading into the 2024 election. So of course we are going to hear about it and were going to continue to do about it. No solutions are just going hear about it. And for anyone who believes that this hearing is a sincere attempt to protect public lands, let me quickly relieve you of any misguidance that you might have on that. If my gp colleagues execute about the parks to increase something for the park service. Instead they have done the opposite, appropriations bill that cuts park service is already underfunded budget by half a billion. If my gp colleagues actually cared about our public lands they would take a real effort to hold oil, gas and Mining Companies accountable for the messes that they played on our public lands. Instead they do the opposite and continue pushing bill after bill to get environmental laws like nepa and industry achieve or even free pass to wreck our landscape and stick taxpayers with the cleanup bill. And if my colleagues actually cared about the American People they wouldnt be pulling this stunt and buddhist to get to work to keep our government funded an open, our most basic responsibility in congress. But if my republican colleagues are about migrant scapegoating, janine up the political rhetoric on this issue, maga drumbeats, fox news shout outs can speak a mccarthy retweets and dramatic distractions, then i would say theyre right on track and on target. This is a serious issue and its a crisis proportion. Nobody denies that. What we had hoped from the initiation of this congress, this house of representatives, that there would be some response to the initiative present by not compensate Immigration Reform and funding adequately. What needed to be done to deal with the humanitarian crisis here i suspect, and no, i dont suspect. I believe that this is a selffulfilling prophecy. You will not your solutions from my colleagues. You will hear the rhetoric weve been hearing over and over again. Hateful sometimes, not factbased all the time, and without a clear solution. If there is a middle ground and a consensus to be reached we want to work on that. But to say that this hearing is about protection, and epiphany has occurred to save our public lands is a mistake. Its an excuse. And the selffulfilling so fulfill the prophecy that americans need to be aware of is that the worst that it gets, the better in the political calculations of the Republican Party. Has the Biden Administration done everything . Hasnt responded the way it should every time . No. I have complaints about capacity, resource allocation. And being able to respond to this in an effective and efficient way, i have complaints about that. But congress has not done its job. This is a broken Immigration Law that weve been dealing with for decades. And if the republicans are serious, we are serious to find solutions and common ground. But if this is just about the maintaining of political advantage or more division using this going into 2024 as the only issue that republicans have, then we cant work with that. So as we go forward with this hearing, i can only say that this is not an opportunity to discuss in serious manner solutions. This is a meeting to try to create the division and the rhetoric that is being pumped into this issue over and over again. With that, i yield back, mr. Chair. The gentleman yields back and i remind the committee it is fully under our authority and jurisdiction to oversight over the National Park service. This is an issue that is important to our committee and i believe to the American Public on the broader issue of immigration i will say that republicans have acted. They passed, we passed h. R. Two the secure our border act, the companies that Immigration Reform bill, the first time it has been done definite since ive been in congress, in any kind of memory that i have of laws being passed. The senate unfortunately has not taken that built up. I hope give them another opportunity to do that. Before introduce the Witnesses Today i will note that we planned on having two panels today. The first panel would have included National ParkService Director chuck sams, diy solicitor anderson, and the Principal Deputy assistant secretary many but they chose not to appear before us today. All of these we understand laden intimate role at the request of the white house to rubberstamp the lease. However i realize we provide a little over a week stones, i expect the delight and National ParkService Officials who signed off on a state of emergency want to urgently discuss the matter with congress and the American Public. We noticed this hearing on the First Business day after the lease was signed. With that being said, we would use all available tools at the discretion of the committee to compel them to discuss this matter with us and the American People in the near future. I do want to thank the witnesses who agreed to testify before us today and i look for to hearing your testimony. Our witnesses are the honorable joanne ariella, new York City Council will the honorable Jamie Williams new york state sme member for the 59th district. Ms. Eleanor acer come senior director of refugee protection at human rights first, and mr. Kenda spencer, chairman of the United StatesPark Police Fraternal Order of the