How are we doing on the opening video . Okay. Let me know when that comes up. I want to welcome the members of the subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties. I want to welcome our distinguished witnesses and guests to this hearing on the humanitarian crisis at the border. The American People are up in arms about reports both from the Inspector General of the department of Homeland Security and the media and various human Rights Groups about the dangerous overcrowding spreading infections, influenza, diarrhea and lice, pervasive medical inattention, sexual assaults and systemic abuse of migrants in u. S. Government care and custody at the border. We hope to shine a bright light this afternoon on these dark developments to enable rapid and effective legislative responses. I want to thank our first witness yasmin juarez who brings us the story of her daughter who died. We know that six children have lost their lives while in detention at the border. I want to thank all members of congress and this committee who have travelled to the border to investigate and all those who are prepared to do so in the coming weeks. The human rights the violations and family catastrophes happening at the border are not improving a serious regional refugee crisis but worsening it. What is driving this refugee crisis . Gang violence and intimidation, government dysfunction and police corruption, political persecution, rape and gender violence. They are all driving unprecedented numbers of desperate families and terrified children out of the northern triangle of Central America into the United States. Many are facing threats of imminent death or bodily harm or the prospect of their children being forced into violent gangs or criminal north americas of sexual abuse and trafficking. Some are Climate Change refugees fleeing the devastating effects of extreme drought and flooding in their home areas. The journey to the border today for these huddled masses is traumatic and filled with deadly peril. Along the way, many are robbed, as assaulted or raped. Some have been killed. Parents have drowned alongside their children in the rio grande. But hundreds of thousands have made it to our border. They turn themselves into border officials and make their legal climb for asylum, a claim they have the right to make under both american and international law. Yet they have been greeted not as refugees whose asylum claims must be heard and taken seriously under our due process of law, but is presumptive criminals and threats to the American People. The Trump Administration has prosecuted them, subjected their families to prolonged and miserable detention, separated children from their parents and forced migrants back into mexico. The entire thrust of this policy is punishment, both Court Ordered and government administered. While the Trump Administration did not cause the refugee crisis in Central America, it has exacerbated it by cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid for education, health care and Community Development to precisely the countries which the refugees are desperately fleeing in huge numbers. We owe the region at least this aid given that we are a key market for the drug trade that has recked so much violence and insecurity in these countries. Foreign policies toward Central America over the last several decades have emphasized war over economic and social development. The administrations responses have produced dangerous overcrowding, widespread sickness and disease and shocking failure to provide medical care, food, water and sanitation. Sick children packed into holding cells, pregnant women sleeping on cold floors and mothers trying to warm newborn babies with aluminum blankets. The policy of separating thousands of migrant parents from their children is designed to make conditions at the border so miserable that the refugees will stop coming. Last may then attorney general sessions said if you dont want your child to be separated, then dont bring them across the border illegal lily. The trump deterrence policy seems to be having no deterrent effect at all. According to customs and border protections own data family migrations spiked in the month after the administration announced the family separation policy and there have been sharp increases ever since unlike anything weve seen before in our lifetimes whatever these harsh policies are intended to accomplish, the message received by hundreds of thousands of people seems to be migrate now before things get worse. Our government should be sending doctors and social workers and humanitarian supplies to the border along with asylum officers and helegal resources. We should make sure that all of the money spent at the border is not being wasted but used to meet the urgent needs of the migrants. Last week the department of Homeland Securitys Inspector General warned of a ticking time bomb at Border Patrol detention facilities. The i. G. Cited children crammed into cages with no access to showers or hot meals and serious overcrowding and prolonged detention for adults, some in standing room only conditions with no room to lie or even sit down president at the Border Patrol station in clinlt, texas the New York Times reported outbreaks ofscabies, and chickenpox. The stench of the childrens dirty clothing would spread to the agents own children. One girl seemed likely enough to try to kill herself that the agents made her sleep on a cot in front of them so they could watch her as they were processing new arrivals. There is no excuse for our government being so unprepared and indifferent to refugee flows that have been steadily mounting for months. These conditions violate american law and International Human rights standards. We would not accept these conditions for refugees anywhere else in the world. The Trump Administration reversed a policy, for example, that largely protected pregnant women from detention. Over 200 human rights and civil Rights Groups have called for the policys reinstatement, noting the current arbitrary detention of pregnant women violates International Human rights norms. Last week the dhs Inspector General reported that 31 of children across five facilities had been held longer than 72 hours in violation of flores, the 1997 Settlement Agreement that required children to be placed in safe and sanitary conditions and directs children be transferred out of detention facilities as expeditiously as possible. There have now been news reports of Migrant Children detained for much longer than 72 hours and many for weeks. There is a dangerous lack of accountability at detention facilities. We know that many officers are doing their best under these trying conditions but after recent reports there is little doubt that there is a real contingent of Border Agents acting in callous and scandalous ways, punishing scared children, mocking Migrant Deaths on facebook and even attacking in vile ways members of congress who dare to demand fair treatment for migrants under the rule of law. Im pleased that the acting secretary has pledged to investigate these reports but reportedly top Border Patrol officials have been aware of the Facebook Group and its egregious contents for many months and even years. What sort of culture exists within dhs that would foster or tolerate this behavior for so long . Why did the administration and its allies block efforts to ensure that increased funding for the border be accompanied by provisions to ensure responsible oversight over how our money as taxpayers is being spent . How can we end official tolerance for these shameful actions in our name . I hope our hearing today will bring these difficult fact into the light and pose hard questions about official actions that shame us as a society. Not as democrats or republicans or independents but as americans. I also hope that this hearing in conjunction with chairman cummings full hearing on pride will provide immediate steps for relief and change in these conditions. Ill now do to the video before i turn it over to our Ranking Member mr. Roy. Just how grim conditions are inside border detejs ntion facilities in south texas. New photos show severe overcrowding. The incoming president of the American Academy of pediatrics telling cbs news they are no place for children. When i opened the door, the first thing that hit us was the smell and it was a smell of sweat, europeurine and feces. At three facilities they visited, investigators say children had no access to showers and at two facilities no access to hot meals. The children are hardly being fed anything nutritious and they are being medically neglected. We are seeing a flu outbreak and a lice infestation. We have children sleeping on the floor. Its the worst conditions ive ever witnessed in several years of doing these inspections. Cbs news has confirmed that a sixth migrant child has died after crossing the u. S. Mexico border. Previously officials had confirmed the deaths of five Migrant Children since december, but an official at the department of health and Human Services told cbs news Late Wednesday that an unaccompanied 10yearold girl from el salvador died in u. S. Custody in september. I had people there that told me that the job they are doing is incredible. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the subcommittee mr. Roy of texas for five minutes for his Opening Statement and i will be liberal with that. I thank the chairman. Ms. Juarez, on behalf of this committee, all the members here, the entire house of representatives, there are no words that we can possibly share with you about the loss of your little girl. Im the father of a son and a daughter. I cannot possibly imagine what you have gone through. We owe it to you and to our country and to all those who seek to come here to have a system that works and to not having Something Like this happen. So my prayers for my family to you and we thank you for being here. Mr. Chairman, i have to say i am frustrated, though, with the title of the hearing. Its setting a tone that doesnt allow us to come together to address this difficult problem in a way that is befitting of the United States and our welcoming nature as a country. It is a hearing entitled kids in cages. What we say and the hyperbole we use matters. As a member from texas and a former staffer on the Senate Judiciary committee as a member of congress, ive been to the border many times and to this day i have never seen a kid in a cage the way those words seem to indicate it. Lets look at the advertisements for this hearing, okay . The slide on the right is the ad for this hearing, showing pictures of kids supposedly in cages. The picture on the left is the picture from 2014 when president obamas dhs secretary jeh johnson was giving a tour of a facility where youve got, yes, chain link barriers put up in temporary facilities at that time under the Obama Administration in a way too d d with a crisis in 2014 and trying to deal with the problem of massive numbers of people coming across the border, oftentimes with parents that arent the parents claiming to be the parents of the child, which is horrific. Often times in facilities in dealing with situations where you want to separate the children from bad actors. In the most recent time weve had 144,000 people that cbp had to deal with in may. How do you deal with that . Under the most generous circumstances of trying to figure out what to do to care with children, release them to family members, give them food, give them health care, how would we have them do it when were denying them the facilities and the resources to it. We should discuss the humanitarian crisis. The red line, you see the massive spike in apprehensions. The numbers in june were 94,987, the highest june number recorded in at least the last five years. It was down from 144,000 in may. That often happens because of the heat in june. I personally saw an overwhelming number of going above and beyond. We all agree theyre stretched. There is no disagreement in this room on that. Ive seen the facilities and ive not seen a single cage in the way its being depicted. Im seeing ways to try to separate people and keep them safe. And we demean the process and our Border Patrol agents who are Law Enforcement officers for the government of the United States trying to do their job when we call them cages. It is not helpful to use this crisis that so many denied and called manufactured now to score political points. In this fiscal year more than 694,000 aliens have been apprehended whether they were claiming asylum or straight coming illegally. On february 5th t15th the presi declared a national emergency. That request and the followup was ignored. And the situation grew so dire i found myself in agreement with the Editorial Board of the New York Times who said it is time for congress to stop dithering. For five months we listened to come of our colleagues say there is no crisis. Speaker pelosi called the situation a fake crisis at the border. Foreign Relations Committee chairman engel called it a fake crisis. Jerry nadler, there is no crisis at the border. Represent wasserman schultz. I could go on and on. There are dozens of examples, hundreds of examples. Instead of focusing on the magnets that will allow cartels to exploit women and children, some in this body would rather attack the men and women on the front lines of the crisis. In the face of our willful blindness, cpb has performed over 3,000 rescues this year. 3,000 rescue this is year including last month in laredo where they rescued 14 migrants locked in a horse trailer that was 114 degrees inside with no ventilation and exit. These are all complex questions and i wish we would all sit in a room, roll our sleeves up and sit down and try to figure out how to solve the problem. The reality is cbp is out there saving lives. Agencies such as cbp do not have enough resources to respond to the crisis while also performing their Law Enforcement duties. Were oversight. We should go dig into that statement. Lets go make sure there arent children going hungry. Of course were worried about it, this is now his words. Everyone in the entire chain of command was worried about the situation for children. Thats why we built soft sided facilities, a thousand spaces. Were building more were going to be opening next week. Were trying to provide as much space as we can while children were in your custody. The big point was to move them to hhs. 1200 have been with us over three days. Now that we have the supplemental from congress, the supplemental that was being denied, hhs has additional beds. Thats a huge improvement and thats his words. Today i talked to a cbp official who said at no point in time has a cbp facility been lacking in supplies for Migrant Children. We should look into that and make sure thats the case. Cbp began paying for supplies out of their operational budget. Sometimes they paid out of their own pockets. Importantly my chief of staff went to clint this weekend because i felt so strongly. He looked and he talked and he saw and he took pictures. He observed some of the pictures youre going to see here which is from a video from a border parole head i believe in arizona. Facilities are receiving lots of materials and supplies and food. Theres other pictures that show other materials and supplies and food. Can i guarantee that all of that got to every person whos been detained . No. But this is what were getting in terms of information and what were seeing. Ive southeastern with my own eyes with facilities in mcallen where theyll talk to Border Patrol and go well this all looks great. They walk across the street and get in front of a camera and they say kids in cages. Thats not going to solve the problem. Thats not going to help ms. Juarez. Thats not going to help stop the cartels who made 2 billion in 2018 profiting by moving people through mexico to come here. Hundreds of millions of dollars. T even if you believe this is because the northern triangle is suffering calamitous situations economically in terms of safety and security and gangs, agreed. But what were talking about is a profit model that cartels are abusing to use for profit and use our asylum laws to harm these people and harm that father and that child that died in the river trying to come here. Ive gone longer than i probably should have, mr. Chairman. I appreciate the time. We have a broken immigration system. I believe we need to fix the asylum problem, the flores Settlement Agreement. We need to have a strong collective agreement. Charitable donations freedom act, if anyone wants to give something, they can give charitable gifts. I dont know if its necessary but lets Work Together to bring down barriers to make sure people are cared for. I d