Order. The subcommittee is meeting to examine visa overstays. Conversations about the best way to secure have been me principle focus of the media, congress, and administration. To visawant to go overstays. Yesterday, dhs released the official 2016 overstay numbers and this way they expanded the categories and to students and visa holders. I want to thank them for providing an accurate number. The numbers are start. Start the numbers are stark. Cpb calculated that we had nearly 740,000 people overstay their visas at some point in fiscal year 2016. Even using cpbs more generous numbers that account for some of those overstays who eventually leave, albeit late, we had almost 630,000 overstays still in the country at the end of last fiscal year. Over more time as more and more overstays left the number gets smaller and by january of this year we still had 544,000 overstays from fiscal year 16. Suspected of being in the country. Still an incredibly large number. To put that number in context, we only apprehended 310,000 unique individuals crossing the land border illegally last year. Meaning we had almost twice as many overstays as people apprehended at the land southern border. Its probably time to jet son the conventional wisdom that visa overstays make up about 40 of the elicit flow with this years number of Border Apprehensions at record low, visa overstays are a much bigger problem than it has been historically. So, why does closing this gap in our Border Security defenses matter . Well, there are unidentified National Security and Public Safety risks in a population that large and visa overstays have historically been the \hav historically been the primary means for terrorist entry into the United States. Time and time again terrorists exploited the visa system by legally entering america. The 9 11 commission put it this way, terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons. Since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, terrorist abused the hospitality of American People to commit attacks here. An egyptian convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing worked illegally in the u. S. As a cab driver. At least four of the 9 11 hijackers overstayed their vee visas or were out of status, a missed opportunity to killed nearly 3,000 of our fellow americans. The attackers exploited the poorest outer ring of our Border Security. The hijackers passed through u. S. Border security a combined total of 68 times without arousing any suspicion. More recently, aminoel ka leafy attempted to conduct a Suicide Attack on the u. S. Capital in 2012. He had been in the country since 1999 on a tourist visa but never left. Thats why i wanted to hold this hearing today. I do not want the threat posed by visa overstays to get drowned out by the challenges we face on the Southern Land border. We can chew gum and walk at the same time. We have to keep the dhs focussed on both problem sets. Elicit traffic flow that crosses the land border and the growing problem of visa overstays. In order to tackle this challenge, the department has to identify the people who overstay their visas in the first place. Mandate for buy metrically has been a requirement for 12 years. Cdp has made in fits and starts only marginal progress when it comes to the bio metric exit. There have been a series of exit pilot projects over the last ten years, but no plan to ever implement a exit capability was seriously considered by the department. Recent executive orders make it clear that finally finish the exit system is a priority for this administration. Building on previous testing and pilots, cdp will engage in a series of operational demonstrations with a planned rollout of a facial recognition exit system at some of the nations largest airport. The Previous Administration committed to a 2018 rollout of a fully operational biometric exit system at the nations highest volume airports. I look forward to hearing about the plans exit beyond the operational demonstrations. Putting a bio metric exit system into place as the 9 11 commission noted an essential investment in our National Security end quote because without a viable exit system, visa holders can overstay their vee is and disappear in the United States. In the current high risk environment, it is imperative we place greater emphasis. Once we identify overstas especially those who present National Security and Public Safety threats we must dedicate the resources necessary to promptly remove those in the country here illegally or we put our citizens at risk unnecessarily. A recent report cast significant the once pause of ices ability to do that. To lack of training appears hamper the work of our agents. According we have a backlog of 1. 2 million overstay cases and wasted manpower chasing leads that already left the country or changed their immigration status. In one instance an i. C. E. Agent spent 50 hours tracking down a lead that turned out to not be an overstay after all and were closing cases. We have to do better. Adding a reliable exit system would be an immediate force multiplier allow National Security professionals to focus their efforts and only spending time tracking people who are still in the country. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas for a statement he may have. I thank chairwoman mcsally for holding todays hearing on the Border Security risks imposed by visa overstays. While the white house focuses its Border Security rhetoric boarding a wall along the southern border, attention and resources should be paid to issues like overstays. I represent border communities i know firsthand the security challenges we face along the border, but to keep our focus mainly on walls is a vulnerability in and of itself. The approximately 740,000 individuals who overstayed in fiscal 2016 is a far greater number than the 331,000 individuals who were apprehended along the u. S. Mexico border that year. I believe these figures illustrate the challenge overstays pose. Over the last few years, dhs renewed its efforts toward a bio metric entry exit system. I look forward to hearing from the panel about its progress of development and plans for the deployment of that system. I hope to hear about how the Department Plans to address bio metric exit at our land borders particularly along the mexican border. Unlike canada, mexico currently does not have the entry Infrastructure Technology in processes necessary to share traveler information with the United States. I hope to hear from i. C. E. About how it prioritizes individuals who have overstayed and may pose a National Security or Public Safety threat. With limited resources, we must first address those who may do us harm. Deploying bio metric exit at ports of entry and addressing overstays is no easy task, but it is a necessary part of ensuring meaningful Border Security. I thank the witnesses for joining us today and yield back the balance of my time. Gentlemen yields back. Other members of the committee are reminded that Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. We are pleased to be joined by four distinguished witnesses to discuss this important topic. Mr. Michael daugherty the assistant secretary for border immigration and trade policy at the department of Homeland Security. He previously served in dhs as a citizenship and Immigration Service and Senior Policy Adviser for immigration with the border and transportation security direct rat. Mr. Daughertys federal experience also includes service as Legislative Council on the personal staff of senator john kyle and staff of Sub Committee on terrorism, technology and Homeland Security. Mr. John wagner is the deputy executive assistant commissioner for the u. S. Customs and Border Protections Office of field operations. Mr. Wagner formerly serves as executive director of admissibility in passenger programs with responsibility for all traveler admissibility related policy and programs including the trusted traveller program. The Immigration Advisory Program and the fraudulent document analysis unit. Mr. Clark settles is the assistant director for the National SecurityInvestigations Division within the Homeland Security investigations. In this capacity, hes responsibility for strategic planning, National Policy implementation. Additional will settles oversees hsi National Security programs which include joint Terrorism Task forces and visa security program. Mr. John roth became the inspector january for Homeland Security in march of 2014. His long record of Public Service includes time at the food and Drug Administration where he served as the director of department of justice where. Mong many positions, he served the chernow recognizes mr. Doherty for five minutes to testify. Chairwoman, mcsally, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the Sub Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss work in progress at the department of Homeland Security to identify report and address overstays. Some 50 million nonimmigrant visitors entered the United States each year. They enter for business, to study, to see family or loved ones or to vacation here. The United States welcomes these visitors while recognizing its imperative that they depart the country when their visas or period of authorized admission expired. Our ability to identify foreign nationals who overstay their visit is important for numerous reasons. Chief among them we need to determine whether individuals pose a threat to National Security or to Public Safety. And we need to protect the integrity of our immigration system by removing those who are present in violation of law. The key way to ensure that the federal government has the means of accurately determining the presence of unlawful overstays in the United States is through a bio metric exit system that will provide a high level of assurance when a visitor has the left the country. As most of us know, biometric exit has been a federal objective for many years. It is a priority for this administration in his executive order of march 6th, the president directed dhs to expedite the completion and implementation of exit tracking system for inscope travelers to the United States as recommended by the 9 11 commission. Yesterday the Department Released the fiscal year 2016 overstay report. It contains new data unavailable last year when the fy 2015 report was issued. The fy 2016 report has been expanded to include foreign students, Exchange Visitors and numerous other classes of nonimmigrants. Dhss ability to provide new analysis on these nonimmigrant classes results from improvements made by dhs in expanding its Data Collection capabilities. The fy 16 report reflects that 98. 53 of inscope nonimmigrant visitors departed the United States on time and abided by the terms of their admission. While that is an impressive level of compliance, our data indicates that 1. 47 ed of nonimmigrant visitors overstay their period of admission. That means a total of 739,478 individuals who are expected to depart the United States in fy 2016 did not do so. While the number overstay numbers declined, these numbers are significant concern for secretary kelly and the department. Dhs collaborating with the state dhs is collaborating with the state department, with the doj and with odni to improve screening and vetting standards and procedures so that we can better determine when nonimmigrants intend to fraudulently overstay the terms of their visas which is a task assigned to us by the president s executive order of march 6. Secretary kelly is also committed to increasing the number of i. C. E. Agents to undertake enforcement agents against violators. We have a clear commitment and direction from the president via the executive order to prioritize bio metric exit entry. We appreciate the strong support that it is continuously received from korng in favor of implementing such a system. Building on recent bio metric exit Pilot Programs, on going work includes an aggressive effort to reengineer and to redesign data handling, to develop next generation facial matching capabilities and to build a backend communication portal to connect with the travel industry and with our security partners. Ultimately the goal of our collaborative efforts with government, industry and international stak holders is to accurately identify passengers and to deliver a seamless and secure travel experience. While implementation of a robust and effective bio metric exit solution will take time and presents significant operational challenges, dhss aggressively advancing the development of a comprehensive bio metric exit system. Our strategy is to expand activities under way in the air and sea environment to include our land borders as well. Dhs will continue to build on the progress made in the fy 2016 overstay report to identify , report and take appropriate action against those who overstay or violate the terms of their admission to the United States. Chairwoman mcsally, Ranking Member vala and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify today on this important issue and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, mr. Daulgtry. The chair now recognizes mr. Wagner for five minutes. Good afternoon, chairwoman mcsally. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss u. S. Customs and border rejections protections progress since last year implementing a implementing. Before that let me touch on the overstay report we released yesterday. This years report accounts for 96 of all air and sea nonimmigrant admissions from fiscal year 16 at air and sea locations. We expanded the report to include additional categories of temporary visitors including foreign students, Exchange Visitors and certain worker classifications. Last fiscal year there were approximately 50. 4 million inscope nonimmigrant admissions through the air and sea locations who were expected to depart. Of this number, dhs calculated a total overstay rate of approximately 1. 47 , which is about 739,000 individuals. Of these, about 628,000 remained in the u. S. , or 1. 25 at the end of the fiscal year. Due to continuing departures that number is currently at about 455,000 or. 9 . Im happy to discuss that report further. Moving to bio metric exit, last year i testified before the Sub Committee and described some of the pilots that cdp and dhs have conducted over the years and the many challenges we faced in developing a feasible bio metric exit solution. I understand your frustration with the pace of this. I also recognize that congress has made 1 billion available over the next decade for bio metric exit and essentially funded a program in advance of dhs having a real plan on how to implement. As ive said publicly, were out of time and were out of excuses. So the good news is we have developed a feasible solution. Weve had a lot of discussion with private Sector Technology experts and many stakeholders. We knew this for this to be successful, we couldnt implement another stand alone stove pipe process adding yet another process for travelers to learn. We certainly couldnt rearrange in the nearterm how airports built or operating model of the Airline Industry, so the biggest factor in our struggle to find a solution was relying on finding that single magic piece of technology that would accomplish our needs. Previous efforts never really took a deep look at the processes behind how our data systems already function. So we figured out a way to better position the data we already have on travelers, make the inspection process a lot more efficient. In nontechnical terms, we moved the bio metrics off a traveler expected to be on a departing flight out of the dhs data base and into its own temporary and secure data base until we encounter the person. By doing so, we can now skip reading the passport first, like all other countries require who have smart gates and a lot of the technology weve seen developed. We can go straight to collecting a bio metric and matching against the gallery. This makes the process a lot quicker and the infrast