Caller good morning. Im calling for those i am in support of gay marriage because i dont feel i have the right to tell anyone who they should marry. Especially if they are a taxpayer of a great country. Thank you. Host one more call. Montana calling us from brunswick, maine. Go ahead. Hello . That will be our last call on that topic. More information about those proceedings. If you were go to the senate to go to the Senate Judiciary committee j johnson is appearing before the committee to talk about issues related to his department. You can see that hearing live on cspan as it starts. Thank you for joining us today. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] thank you mr. Johnson for coming. Oversight is a critical function and a constitutional responsibility of our branch. Mr. Grassley every year this committee tries to invite the secretary of Homeland Security to brief us on the state much affairs at that department. Its an opportunity to question the administrations policies as well as an opportunity for the department to take responsibility for its actions. Its a pleasure to have secretary johnson here. This is the first opportunity for our committee to question him publicly since the president s executive action on immigration announced in november. Even though there is an injunction against the executives actions, we can still get a good idea what to expect from the enjoined programs based on the way the department has implemented the daca program. It appears, for example, that applications for deferred action are being rubberstamped. Evidenced by the fact that criminals and gang members are receiving special benefit despite supposed policies against it. Take for example, the case of a daca recipient North Carolina, Emanuel Hernandez who is accused of murdering four people. Last week the department admitted hernandez had received daca despite his gang membership which was known to adjudicators, and despite being in deportation proceedings. The Agency Response indicated a lapse in the processesing of wranglehernandezs application. However its not yet clear who ultimately made the decision to approve the application. But we need to get to the bottom of it. We know that the agency has terminated 282 daca requests because of gang and or criminal issues so this appears to be a bigger problem. This tragedy compels the question what background chks are in place and are they checks are in place, and are they adequate to ensure benefits are not being provided to those who pose a threat to homeland and Public Safety . And does this administration truly have a zero tolerance policy for granting immigration benefits to criminals and gang members as suggested by the president . The committee will also want to hear from the secretary about the proposed expansion of daca and why the department provided over 100,000 daca Work Authorization extensions despite assurances as lawyers gave the federal court that it would not implement any aspect of the president s executive action until february 18 2015. Whether discussing the 2012 daca program or the 2014 executive actions, there remains questions about the legality of the president s action. There are also questions about how the department will fund the program and whether illegal im legal immigrants will suffer due to the pryor at thisization of residents in the country illegally. The secretary must also answer as to why this add allowing people here illegally to be put on a path to citizenship which is clearly a constitutional responsibility of congress. This path to citizenship is afforded to the administrations use of advanced encouraging daca applicants to take advantage of. This loophole will set a dangerous precedent that will allow lawbreakers to obtain the benefits of lawful permanent residents and citizenship after a showing total disregard for american law. One thing seems to be very clear. Theres little we all or desire by the administration to force the laws on the books and backup agents in the field who swear to uphold the law. The Administration Needs to answer for the release of crime al aliens into the community. In fiscal year 2013 the Department Released from detention over 36,000 convicted criminal aliens and removal proceedings or after they had been ordered removed. And in 2014, it released 30,558 convicted criminal aliens that had convictions ranging from homicide Sexual Assault kidnapping to aggravated assault, to drunk driving. According to i. C. E. Statistics, 56 8 10 of 30,558 releases in 2014 were purely discretionary. The remainder were due to court mandates and the ability to optain travel documents. Why did the administration obtain travel documents. Why did the administration release almost 60 of the criminals in their custody . And what are they going to do about it . I expect the secretary to address that today. I expect the secretary to also address the problems with eb5 immigrant investor program. Not only are there gaping holes that risk our National Security there are serious management problems that were highlighted by the Inspector General. The i. G. Laid out how preferential treatment was granted to those well connected. It is very clear that the secretary does not plan to hold the former director who now sits in the number two post accountable for his actions. Instead, it appears that the violations of ethical conduct will go unpunished all while agents and adjudicators in the field are being reprimanded and threatened if they dont get to a. E. S. And follow the president s policies. Id also like to hear secretary johnsons thoughts on combating an array of National Security issues that the country faces. The rise of issa, of course, presents a isil, of course, presents a threat to the homeland. We are investigating an isil plot of a terrorist attack in the United States perhaps in california. The transportation secretary t. S. A. Alerted local Law Enforcement to be on the lookout and to increase security. Earlier this month there were a number of arrests of american citizens for their involvement with isil. The justice departments also allegationed that isis helped to train a man from ohio. The man had traveled to syria, was directed to return to the United States and commit terrorist attack here. Other individuals including a kansas man, two people in new york were allegedly inspired by isis propaganda. And numerous other americans have been arrested on the way to the airport as allegedly attempting to travel to isis. The president has down played the threat posed by isis, but reportedly has billions of dollars, control significant territory, and is accusing innocent men, women, and children across the middle east including americans. Its obviously a threat that requires a serious, sustained response to keep our homeland safe. Another threat i expect the secretary to address is ever increasing risk of cyberattacks whose reports are filled with shocking examples of the federal governments lack of preparedness against the threat. It was reported this past weekend that the president s unclassified email was hacked late 2014, defense secretary carter recently disclosed that earlier this year Russian Hackers accessed an unclassified pentagon computer network. Moreover the Government AccountabilityOffice Report found that d. H. S. Lacked a strategy for protecting government buildings and Access Control systems from intrusion by hackers. Cybersecurity cant be on the periphery of our National Security strategy any longer. It has to be at the center. There are many issues to discuss today and i thank the secretary for being here and im told that senator leahy cannot come and im willing to call on anybody on that side of the aisle. Go ahead senator shoeman. Senator shoeman thank you for choosing me among all the choices. I appreciate that very much. I thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome, secretary johnson. Secretary, its always a pleasure to see you and speak with you about the Critical Issues confronting our nation. As a fellow new yorker im proud of the work you have done since being confirmed. I think most americans join me. You have done a great job and i think can i speak for our friends on both sides of the aisle, youre always available. Youre always candid. You ask the right questions. You give answers so you are a credit to your department and the country and your depth and breadth in counterterrorism and defense issues has served the department very well. And i want to tell you you have a great staff. They hear from me constantly. New yorks the center of terrorist target. New york, we have all of the sandy issues and defense issues, and your staff is fabulous. I thank you for that. We all know that d. H. S. Is tasked with an enormous range of responsibilities from guarding our borders and coastline to administering immigration, responding when disaster strikes, shielding the president , protect our airports, securing the homeland is a huge job. In my state from new york to buffalo, new york city to buffalo, and along the northern border the departments work directly impacts our economy as well as our security. Whether its the peace bridge in buffalo, the j. F. K. International airport, Hurricane Sandy relief efforts d. H. S. s work is vital to new yorkers and your dedicated Civil Servants who fill these responsibilities are essential. Unfortunately, we have an appropriations battle where we fought from the beginning of the year. We emphasize time and time again that 90 of d. H. S. Personnel would be declared essential in the event of a departmentwide shutdown. That meant they would have to work without pay unless congress got its act together. It befuddled me how so many people could want to hold up d. H. S. Funding when you have so many vital issues at stake unrelated to immigration, because it was hostage taking at its worse and im glad the department didnt shut down. Im relieved, too, that you were able to keep your hands on the helm during those difficult times. So i want to close by addressing two issues that my dear colleague, senator grassley, as addressed. First is isis and terrorism. There are new terrorist threats, believe me. As a new yorker, who lived through 9 11, knew people who died, i know that. I would say this to my colleagues with the new threats and the changing threats, we ought to be taking our hat off to the secretary, his people, and all the people in the c. I. A. , d. O. D. N. S. A. Who do an amazing job. Its not an accident that, praise god, we have not had a 9 11 like incident in america. In fact, just about every, with the exception of boston, which was unique, just about every major terrorist incident has been thwarted ahead of time as senator grassley talked about. Thats not an accident. That is not an accident. And i think that the men and women who work for you c. I. A. , d. O. D. N. S. A. And all the other agencies, f. B. I. Deserve a tremendous amount of credit. They are wonderful. They are like our soldiers. They are wonderful Civil Servants i talked to so many of them who are truly dedicated to preventing, god forbid, another terrorist attack on our homeland. So i salute them. And certainly questions should be asked. Lets not forget to give a little praise where praise is due. Second, on immigration. I find it truly befuddling about my colleagues from the other side of the aisle, they cry out against a broken border. The bipartisan immigration bill passed, senator mccain and myself, the gang of eight, does more to tight enup the border than any proposal made by the other side. More than any. We talk about a broken system. But our colleagues are just happy to let the status quo go on. Employers are allowed to hire new illegals. Our bill stopped that with things taken from Jeff Sessions book everify and things like that. So we get a lot of complaints that the president s moving forward on immigration, but we have no activity, no solutions from the other side of the aisle. Only complaints. Thats not governing. Now they are in the majority, they have a responsibility to start governing on this issue instead of just complaining when the administration, because of the paralysis in congress on this issue, not caused by democrats, blocks us from moving forward. I would just say youll hear a lot of those complaints, but let us all bear in mind that this senate bipartisan, came together on a solution that dealt with border, dealt with illegals crossing the border, dealt with all of the issues we faced, had overwhelming support in the contry, a majority of republicans supported the bill, but because of a hard right few we have been unable to pass a bill. That should be constantly borne in mind as you will hear the criticisms that you will hear today. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield the floor. The microphone. Not the floor. Senator grassley before i have you go ahead, stay seated, but id like to have you affirm that the testimony you are about to give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god. If secretary johnson i do, sir. Senator grassley thank you. Proceed. The speaker pro tempore thank secretary johnson , thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the members of the committee for hearing me today. You have my prepared statement. Let me just say a few things in the five minutes that i have. In my view, counterterrorism needs to remain the cornerstone of the department of Homeland Security. Homeland securitys mission. Its the reason we were formed and the reason why i accepted service as the secretary for this department. In my view, the global terrorist threat has evolved to a 23450u phase new phase. It is more complex, it is more decentralized. In many respects it is harder to detect. There are more groups. And we therefore, need a whole of government approach that includes very much so the department of Homeland Security. We have the phenomenon now of foreign fighters, who leave their home countries go to places like iraq and syria and return. We need to track foreign fighters. We need to track foreign fighters from countries for which we do not require a visa. My staff is developing as a follow on to what we did last summer greater security measures that can be taken with regard to travelers from those countries. We continue to focus on Aviation Security. I want to build preclearance capability on the front end of a flight to the United States, and we are working daily to do that. A lot of our efforts continue to center around Airport Security. We directed a number of things last week concerning Airport Security. We are engaging state and local Law Enforcement which in my view given the nature of the homeland threat, which involves the threat of the lone wolf, the independent actor, its much more important that we work with City Police Departments commissions, commissioners, state Law Enforcement as well. We have our engagements in the community to counter violent extremism. I traveled to places like minneapolis, boston, lang large chicago, columbus, ohio los angeles, chicago, columbus ohio, to engage Community Leaders counter violent extremism. Im pleased that the congress is active in evaluating and voting on cybersecurity legislation. Its one of my top priorities. Im happy to discuss that further. We are doing a lot to enhance Border Security. We have added resources stemming from last summer. We have prioritized those apprehended at the border. We have developed what i briefed to some of you the southern Border Campaign strategy. Which is a d. H. S. Wide combined effort at Border Security on the southern border. As i reported last week our numbers of apprehensions on the southern border midway through the fiscal year are down considerably from where they were this time last year and even the year before that. Apprehensions are an indication of total attempts to cross the border illegally and they are down considerably, though i believe that there is more we can and should do. As all of you know the president and i are interested in reforming our immigration system. We announced a number of executive actions that include deferred action for parents, which is the subject of the litigation in texas, but it includes a number of other things as well. Added Border Security. The southern Border Campaign strategy. Pay reform for Immigration Enforcement personnel. And so forth. We are ending the controversial secure communities program, which led to a lot of resistence from state and local Law Enforcement, in an effort to get at the criminals who should be removed from our country. I am interested in enhancing Public Safety. Im interested at in getting at the criminals. So we are working with mayors, governors, county commissioners sheriffs chiefs, to introduce them to our new Priority Enforcement Program so they will work with us again in an effort to get at the criminals who should be removed from this country. Im sure we will have an opportunity to discuss the eb5 program. There are