Cart any mccraven, an Airman First Class in the United States air force. And lola bolden, a Sergeant First Class in the United States army. Never imagining that in their recruiting duties in Oklahoma City that they would give their lives in defense of their country. And to my colleagues and to congressman lucas, i would ask that we could observe a moment of silence in memory to all the 168 americans, oklahomans friends, that were killed in this despicable act of terror on our domestic shores. And to all of those that carry the scars and injuries to this day if we could observe a brief moment of silence. I thank my colleague and friend, congressman lucas, and thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back to my colleague. Mr. Lucas mr. Speaker theres no way that the oklahoma delegation can express our thanks to the country for the help over the last 20 years. But with this moment of silence just now we ask that everyone, two minutes after 9 00 central time this sunday morning think about those 168 souls those killed, and those who survived host a Memorial Service going on today in a coma city. Former president bill clinton was among the speakers. He participated in a Similar Service in 1995, 4 days after the tragedy occurred. The victims were remembered with a moment of silence. Each second representing a person killed in the attack followed by a reading of their names. Host tonight, Jessica Stern on the origin of isis and what we need to understand about them. Stern i think there are two acts of isis that are important for the president to understand. One is their efforts and successes on social media and the need for us to respond to that to counter the narrative that they are spreading so effectively and so far. And the other is there apocalyptic narrative. Its impossible for me to know for sure whether they really believe that the end times are coming or whether they are capitalizing on widespread beliefs in muslimmajority countries that they will witness the end of times. Host tonight at eight eastern and pacific at 8 00 eastern and pacific on q a. Host recently, a hearing on Customs Enforcement. The agencies to record, sarah sold on you, testified about current immigration laws and the apprehension and removal of immigrants with criminal records. This is around two and a half hours. Good morning. The Judiciary Committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair aauthorized to declare resources of the committee at any time. We welcome everyone to this mornings hearing on oversight of u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ill begin by recognizing myself for an opening statement. As the Obama Administration consistently shrinks the universe of criminal and unlawful a lee yens that u. S. Grimgses and Customs Enforcement can remove, ice apprehensions have decreased 40 since this time last year. Ice arrest of criminal aliens decline 42 . The average age has declined to approximately 26,000 beds. This has occurred despite a mandate in law that requires ice to maintain a 34,000 average daily population in detention facilities, and the number of unlawful or criminal aliens that ice has removed from the interior of the country has fallen by more than half since 2008. Many factors have contributed to the sharp decline of interior Immigration Enforcement under this administration, including the collapse of issuance and compliance of ice detainers because of policy issued on 202114. Ices implementation of its new priorities announced by secretary johnson on september 20, 2014 and the demise of the Community Programs on the same date. Detainers are noticed issued by ice and other dhs units that ask federal, local, Law Enforcement agencies not to release removable aliens from their facility in order for ice to take them into its custody and put them in removal proceedings. Due to the detainer debacle this administration has created, ice officers must wake up in the early hours of the morning, put their lives at risk and go out into the community to april presented convicted criminal aliens that have been released on to the streets. Director, you yourself are part of the confusion. You testified before congress one day state thag detainers should be made mandatory and the next day you retracted your testimony. When aliens released on to the streets go on to commit additional crimes yet could have been placed in ice custody, this administration is responsible. From january 1, 2014 to september 30, 2014, over 10,000 detainers were not honored. The recidivism rate for these aliens was 29 . Innocent citizens and Law Enforcement officers could be injured, maimed, or murdered due to a detainer not being issued or honored because of this administrations policies. The administration is responsible and will be held accountable. When president obama announced unilateral changes to our immigration system with a wave of his pen and cell phone on november 20, 2014, he indicated that he would allow millions of unlawful and criminal aliens to evade immigration enforce p. He did this with the issuance of new socalled u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities for the apprehension, deattention and removal of a lee of aliens. Under the Obama Administration new priorities, broad categories of unlawful and criminal aliens will be beyond the reach of the law even if they dont qualify for the president s unconstitutional legalization programs. This means that millions of removable aliens will be in the u. S. Without risk of removal. Simultaneously he announced to the end of secure communities despite the fact that the , president claims he took action to prioritize Immigration Enforcement against criminal aliens, he is scrapping a tool that identifies cripple aliens booked in jails across the United States so that federal Law Enforcement officials can prioritize their removal. It protected american citizens and immigrants alike from a lee yens who are a dangerous to their communities. Secure communities simply uses an already existing federal Information Sharing Partnership between ice and the federal bureau of investigation that helps to identify criminal aliens so ice can taken forcement action. As of august 2014, administration indicated that over 375,000 convicted criminal aliens were removed as a result of secure communities. We just learned that in addition to releasing over 36,000 convicted criminal alienseq fiscal year 2013, ice released 35,538 criminal aliens in fiscal year 2014 pursuant to its socalled priorities. The agency released thousands of criminal aliens convicted of offenses involving dangerous drugs, assault and domestic violence, stolen vehicles, robbery, sex offenses, Sexual Assault, kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter and even homicide. 27 of the aliens released were socalled level ones according to the administration, the worst of the worst. Director, ices first duty and highest obligation is Public Safety. The nonsensical actions of this administration demonstrate its lack of desire to enforce the law even against unlawful aliens convicted of serious crimes. I can only hope that as the new director of ice, you will reconsider these policies put in place by your predecessors and return ice to an agency that puts Public Safety and the enforcement of our immigration laws as its number one concern. Its now my pleasure to recognize the Ranking Member of the immigration and Border Security subcommittee, the gentlemanwoman from california for her opening statement. Rep. Lofgren todays hearing is our first opportunity as a committee to speak with the honorable sarah saldana, the director of u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as ice. The job is a difficult one. I think we can all agree on that point. I look forward to hearing more about how she carries out the challenge. One of the many responsibilities she must carry out is implementing a series of Law Enforcement memoranda issued in november by secretary johnson. These memoranda grew out of a directive issued last march by president obama when he asked secretary johnson to do an inventory of the departments current practices to see how it can conduct enforcement more humanely within the confines of the law. I believe the memoranda contained a number of common sense reforms to our Immigration Enforcement efforts and they represent the secretarys best efforts to carry out the president s directive. Its important to remember that these reforms didi, not take place overnight and they were developed to respond to a particular problem that weve observed over many years. During the Bush Administration ice officials conducted work site raids targeting people who were and working in the without authorization but who posed no working in the country without authorization but who pose no threat to National Half of the peopleh the interior by ice administration had never beenrc convicted of a crime or had been convicted only of immigration or Traffic Offenses. Many were helping to grow our economy, put food open our table while also supporting their own american spouses and children. Now the Bush Administration began to shift away from that unfocused enforcement in its final years and this administration has sought to continue the trend. Because earlier efforts fell short, secretary johnsons early memo owns in more carefully on the departments top three civil Immigration Enforcement priorities and incorporates clear prosecutorial discretion guidance. The memo explains that prosecutorial discretion may be exercised not only for persons who fall outside of those priorities, but also persons who appear it to be priorities but who have compelling, extenuating circumstances. The memo directs immigration officials to examine individual circumstances, such as the length of time they have lived in the United States, military service, number of years have passed since an offense, family and Community Ties and other compelling humanitarian factors such as poor health, age pregnancy or young children. The memoranda makes clear the decision should be based open the totality of the circumstances. Given limited resources it makes sense to focus first on persons who pose a threat to National Security or Public Safety before we turn our attention to people who lived in the country for years and who are contributingl members of their communities. I hope we will hear today what the agency is doing to ensure that the totality of the circumstances is considered in each case. Im concerned about reports that i continue to receive about Enforcement Actions being taken against people who appear to be candidates for prosecutorial discretion. The well publishized case from pastor from iowa. Although pastor maxs 17yearold conviction for driving while intoxicated undoubtedly counts as a significant misdemeanor and undoubtedly places him within priority two category, the extended length of time since that offense, hi testified before the subcommittee four months before he died from cancer during his detention in ice custody, reminded about him again, when i read about a detainee who tide of intestinal cancer while in custody once again. When i talk about these issues, i am always reminded of francisco cusson into Francisco Castaneda who testified and died of cancer while in custody. I thought of him again of a detainee who died of intestinal cancer all being detained since 2010. I understand the office of special responsibility is reviewing this matter, but i think the case raises important issues about the november 20 a not number 20 memo. I believe it is difficult to square the language in the memo with the departments current policy for Holding Women and children in family detention for eight, nine ten months, even after they have established a credible fear of prosecution. Weve heard detention ofni a child with brain cancer, a mother with ovarian cancer, a mother with a congenital disorder. And a 15day old baby held with this postpartum mother. We are aware of at least one suicide by a woman at the facility. Our experience contracting with private Prison Companies to run family detention facilities has not been a good one. When the Corrections Corporation of america received a contract to convert a medium security prison into what became a facility, the results were awful. After litigation, congressional oversight and sustained public outrage, families were moved out of the facility. Im concerned that today were making the same mistake we made then but on a much larger scale. Finally, i think secretary johnson was wise to announce the end of secure communities. Right from the start, the program was based on misrepresentation. It became deeply unpopular when it became clear it was largely being used to april present and remove noncriminals and Court Challenges and legislative changes rendered the program largely defunkt. When i folk last when spoke last month about it, we agreed that ice must first regain the trust of state and local governments and Law Enforcement agencies and that process begins again with regaining the trust of immigration communities. I believe were on the right track to a common sense approach on Immigration Enforcement. Im looking forward to working with the director. And mr. Chairman i would like to ask unanimous consent to put two things in the record, one a letter from we belong together about this hearing, and also the appropriations language that does not specify 34,000 people in detention. It says the department shall maintain a level of not less than 34,000 detention beds. Thats not people, but beds, and i think we need to make sure clear what the statute requires and i would ask unanimous consent to both of those in the record. I would yield back. Rep. Goodlatte the time has expired. Without objection, her requests will be granted. Without objection, i would like to put a record of criminal convictions associated with releases in 2014 and the enforcement and removal operations weekly report for the week of march 29april 4, 2015. The chair now is pleased to recognize the chairman of the immigration and Border Security subcommittee, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. Gowdy for his opening statement. Mr. Gowdy as we approach this hearing, mr. Chairman, we are wise to keep in mind the primary duty of government, at least in my judgment is the security and protection of the American People. Immigration has a key part of that duty. We trust them with the enforcement laws. On the ice website, it reads enforces federal laws governing border control, customs trade and immigration to promote Homeland Security and Public Safety. Given the critically Important Mission entrusted to ice, we take our oversite to that agency seriously and ices work has an immense impact on the people we work for. Ice has been plagued for low morale, so one have himself or herself even accepting the challenges of being in Law Enforcement generally why is morale that low. Could it possibly be that women and men who signed up to enforce the law are now being asked not to . We also know theres a deep deficit of trust among our fellow americans with regard to the immigration system. For years they have been promised for a immigration system that works and secure border. Those promises have not been kept by either party. Decisions by administration by both parties to selectively enforce our immigration laws have had a negative effect on he also conferred benefits on the same people. So mr. Chairman, want people to understand this. The decision to avoid the application consequences through a prosecute uriel discretion a prosecutor ial discretion, those are very different concepts. One, it can easily be argued is constitutionally rooted, albeit on a case by case basis and the other, the conferring of benefits, is a purely political calculation without much grounding, if at all, in the law. Folks may like the president s policy. They may wish the policy were the law, but one person does not make law in a republic and we should take heed that those who benefit from the nonapplication of the law today will be crying out for the full application of the law tomorrow because such is the nature of the law. Once it is eroded, you do not row store it without great consequence. In fact, the president himself agreed with that and said, and i quote, the notion that i could just suspend deportations through executive orders is just not the case. He told us time and time and time again. He also reminded us that he was not a king. His position may have changed but the constitution has not. Prosecutorial discretion is real and constitutionally valid but it is not a synonym for anarchy.