>> and the question is, if they're not available for repatriation to their home country, where will they keep them? anyway, you get my point. i understand the attorney has not signed off on the letter yet. we haven't gotten it yet. >> you should get it today. >> if i could ask you one last question quickly about human smuggling initiative. i was in the rio grande valley recently and ice briefed me on the problems they're having with wire transfers by criminals and drug cartels to traffic and narcotics and smuggled people. i'm impressed with the good work they've done but at the tell me they need legal resources, for example, on many of the money transfers people can claim to be somebody they're not. and there's not adequate identification which will allow

us law enforcement officials to trace the source of the funds. are you aware of that issue generally and what i'm offering is that there are additional legal authorities that your department needs or ice needs to track down and prosecute these wire transfers involving narcotics or human smuggling. i'd be glad to work with you on that. >> i'm very glad to work with you on that issue. i worked on it when i was attorney general of arizona, among many things, i would hope when the committee takes up the issue of immigration, that some of the tools could be contemplated. >> which will that be? >> the chairman indicated he would like to take it up next year. >> i'm always one of those who worked with former president bush and worked with him.

i think it's something that's going to require republicans and democrats to come together. i think it can be done. i don't think anybody no matter where you are in the political spectrum feels that the system we have today is working perfectly by any means. and i hope we have a comprehensive bill. and i think that we're -- the efforts will be there. and i would certainly be willing to work obviously as i have with so many other issues from the senator from texas and everybody else on that. i hope we have tried -- and i hope we will try to try comprehensive immigration reform. narrow issues like providing ice the information they need to track down these wire transfers to me it seems like a narrow issue and i hope it doesn't wait -- >> well, i would hope some of those things could be done in

the meantime. that's a basic law enforcement matter and we should be able to do it. senator cardin, you've been waiting patiently. i thank you again for your courtesy and please go ahead. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and mr. secretary, thank you for being her. i'm actually going to follow up on senator whitehouse's comments on cybersecurity. it was rather sobering, the vulnerability of america. we know that there are nation states that are actively trying to compromise our cybersecurity in the united states. we know that these efforts could lead for -- to soldiers or terrorists or criminals invading our country through cyberspace. and one of the sobering numbers that came out of that hearing, madam secretary, is that when they ask how effective are we in preventing this, the 80% number came out, which would, i think, be very damaging to think that

there's a 20% success rate. now, a lot of it is private resources not government resources that are being attacked but it means we're losing billions of dollars a year through cyberattacks. it does mean we are vulnerable a hostile force trying to come in and interfere with our cyberinformation and compromising our energy sources, our financial systems, our military. so in your response, you talked about the fact that we have a review going forward. and there's an issue now as to whether there needs to be a more focused person within the white house or whether the department of homeland security should take the lead. clearly, nsa plays a critical role here. defense -- department of defense has their own. i'm still concerned whether we have a game plan. in place. the initial review showed that there's still a lot more that needed to be done.

this is an urgent issue. i just want to emphasize the urgency of action here. now, there's two parts to this. i'd like to have you respond to both. senator whitehouse mentioned are the legal basis adequate? adequate for effectiveness on getting the information we need and have in place we need a protecter nation but also privacy. we look at einstein, too, there is a concern that there's personally identified information that may be available. we're not sure that we had in place. adequate oversight to make sure that we minimize invasion of individual privacy. and now as we move towards einstein 3, those same concerns are in place. so we want you to work with us to make sure that we institutionalized the protection of privacy for american citizens on personal information that's not needed for our security. but then secondly, we want to make sure that we have in place adequate laws and structures so that we can counter the

vulnerability that bad players are trying to perpetrate on the united states. i'm particularly mindful that nsa located in maryland, the premier collection agency in the world is actively working on this. and i just call to your attention to give this matter the highest attention. >> senator, i couldn't agree with you more. indeed, i believe that the cybermission is one of the major missions of the whole homeland security environment. it's also a rapidly evolving one and changing one almost by the time you are talking about a particular intrusion, it is passed and you're on to the next one. so i just want to clarify if i might one thing. and that is -- i don't think there is any confusion at least amongst the cabinet as to the division of labor.

that is that the department of defense operationally has adopted mill side, the department of homeland security, the dot gov, has adopted both. and the privacy issues are built into our own dhs process and from an operational standpoint we have moved in the way past the initial review. the question, i think, senator whitehouse goes to somebody coordinating operational efforts in the case of a major attack from the white house. >> i think that was his concern but think it was also his concern on the broader issues that you have in place the coordination that requires interagency. and whether that is adequately addressed under the current chain of command. i think that's still an issue that we're not quite confident is in place.

the review by the president seemed to indicate that that was clear. i know he's taken steps to counter some of that but at least the initial information from the review indicated that there was a need for a stronger coordination. >> senator, i think that's correct. and i think in the months since that review, a great deal of work has been done. but we'll continue to be done in this regard. again, this was an area, if i might say, that we have really put a priority on over the last year. and one of our chief challenges right now, one of the key priorities we have is really speeding up the hiring process to bring on more individuals who work in this arena. >> well, i thank you for that. we really want to work with you closely on that. >> thank you. >> another hearing we had in our subcommittee -- we get all the tough topics. we had high containment in the united states and the concern

was the anthrax -- the attack on the congress itself. fort dedrick which is located in maryland is moving move forward on its lab and we're proud of the work being done there by dedicated people by moving the challenging risks against america. there is also here this a issue of coordination. there's a lot of federal agencies that are involved in dealing with our high containment labs. and there's been some reports here indicating -- i know that the committee on homeland security as senator lieberman and senator collins have filed legislation. part of that would be to part to deal with select agent list by tier so that there are added precautions to those who deal with those chemicals and agents that could very well be used as a weapons of mass destruction. and require greater background checks, greater security issues, training, et cetera, greater inventory controls, et cetera.

at tier 1. and have you had a chance to rough those recommendations and do you have any -- >> i have reviewed them and have discussed them with members of the department including the newly confirmed undersecretary for science and technology dr. o'toole who's really an expert in this whole area. and the way we look at it is that the department of homeland security provides standards that would need to be met in a way similar or analogous or similar in the chemical arena where you have the tiering as you suggest, one, two, three, and four and you have an engagement process by which laboratories are tiered and standards established. >> well, i would just urge you we need to have a system that promotes best practices.

but we also -- there's a lot of good things going on. we also need to have a much more sophisticated background checks, et cetera, and continuing review for those who have access to those items that could very well be part of a weapon of mass destruction. i think senator lieberman's point is to try to move us in that direction. i know there have been other recommendations. and i hope we can move quickly on these issues as well. >> i concur. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. madam secretary, i just wanted to talk to you for a moment. i'm really concerned that we may be unwittingly presiding over the demise of american agriculture. i have never seen it more stressed. i come from the largest agricultural state in the union. california is a driver. sometimes for good. and sometimes a driver for not

so good. but what we see happening are growing farmers moving to mexico operating lands in mexico, hiring mexicans and importing into this country. i'll give you one example. a man by the time name of steve, 2,000 acres, 500 jobs, 50 million operation in california to guaa la-hara. today he exports 2 million pounds of lettuce a week and he has spent thousands of dollars to start up his new farms and train workers. that's what's happening. western growers tells me and tells everybody, i assume, that at least 85,000 acres of farm land from california and arizona are now in mexico and at least 22,000 ag jobs formally in these two states are now in mexico. and we see it in apples.

we see it in dary. -- dairy. we see it in pears and row crops. and some of the other economic stressors for the first time in my lifetime i have seen farmers in bread lines in the central valley. and you add to this your i-9 audits which send a chilling effect over the rest of agriculture, respectfully i do not agree with the ranking member. i think we're destroying agriculture because like it or not, agriculture depends on a nondomestic work force to the greatest extent. virtually all of the big ag states do. and i think we have to recognize it. and so i have been increasingly concerned by the inability to move any legislation that would give some protections to workers who are committed to work agriculture for a period of

years. and that, namely, is ag jobs. h2a will not do it. if you're 24/7, h2a 365 days a year will not do it. and i am increasingly concerned by what's happening. and, of course, the product of this is that we import more food produce from outside our country. and, therefore, there's more salmonella concerns as there were with peppers and other things coming in to the country and i think the country that's strong really should be able to produce its own food. but you can't do it with domestic labor. that's just a fact. so we have to have public policy that deals with it. so i wanted to say that to you publicly 'cause i hammer it and hammer it and no one pays attention. it's as if we're in this great

thrust to drive anybody that's illegal out of this country no matter how valuable their services may be. another problem that i've had is the visa waiver program. i believe the visa waiver program -- it essentially is the soft underbelly of the visa system. now we have 35 countries. we end it. we have 16 million people come in. the overstay is 40% of the undocumented population. in other words, there's 40% that you really don't know where it came from is what i'm trying to say. and i've always suspected people come in on a visitors visa and they just decide to stay. and that's a large part of the undocumented population. so let me ask you this question. what steps have dhs taken to

begin to track who's entered the united states through the visa waiver program? and if they have left or overstayed their visit? >> senator, we've taken a number of steps on the visa overstay issue. and i'd be happy to supply you with a more complete briefing or your staff with a more complete briefing but i believe it in the air, those who come in by air, tracking them as they come in and now being able to measure better whether or not they have left, we are also working -- >> how do you do that specifically? >> because we have better air travel documentation than we did before. for example, they help us. other programs that we are using help us. so there are mechanisms in place that are giving us better control particularly in the air environment, who's coming in, who needs to be leaving, leaves open the question of measuring

those who are coming and not leaving or leaving on the land ports. >> and how do you know today how many are leaving and if you do know, what percent are actually leaving? >> i don't think that we can say with precision what percentage of visa holders stay over. but i think we can say that the issue of the visa overstays has been one of the -- kind of most difficult but top priority problems that we've been working on the last 12 months. >> i know you have. and we've talked about it. to be candid with you, there still is no way to know if people have left. i mean, that's the nitty-gritty of this issue. people have left the country and they are here a specific period of time and the visa expires, do they leave? even if it's a simple form as in

china when you go into china you just fill out a form in trip triplecate and we don't know essentially if a visitor has left our country. >> senator, first of all, we are getting more information on an incoming traveller. particularly, in the air environment. secondly, one of the ways that we are now picking up more of the overstays is by the enhancements of other activities that we are doing and interior enforcement. for example, as we expand secured communities and we hope to in the next few years have it in every jail across the country, there will be a biometric that will be taken when you are booked. and if you're an overstay, we will pick you up right then and there. and, therefore, there will be a renewal process instituted right then and there.

some of these other mechanisms that we have built up i think will help that visa overstay problem. >> i have been trying it for probably 9 or 10 years now. when do you think we will have a system where we will be able to know if visa waivers have left the country? >> senator -- >> 'cause we keep increasing the pool of countries. i mean, when i started on this, i think we were 13 or 14 countries. we're now 35 countries that people can come in without a visa. and yet we don't have the data as to whether they leave. and so the blame for the illegal immigration problem is put on poor people who come over the border, it may not be the major part of the problem. we have no way of knowing.

>> senator, i think your comments as you and i both know some of the complexities of this issue. but there are -- one thing i would caution us against is the notion that we're going to build or should build a massive biometric exit system around the country. the expense and added value of that security, i think, is dubious. there are other mechanisms better able to tell us not just about an overstay, but an overstay who is here to do us harm. >> thank you. >> thank you. senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, madam secretary. since october, 2003, 104 immigrant detainees have died in our custody. or in the custody of the immigration and customs

enenforcement -- enforcement. but were unso i believe. in 2006 a man from ghana died in custody from a heart attack after guards waited 40 minutes to provide him medical attention, let alone open his cell. they wouldn't open his cell for 40 minutes. last year another detainee died after falling and fracturing his skull and after newspaper accounts being shackled and being pinned to the medical floor after he moan and vomited after being left in a disciplinary cell for more than 13 hours. an ecuadorian woman died in a minnesota facility three years ago. ice found that her death was inevitable. but also found that she had not undergone her mandatory medical intake exam despite being

detained for two months. you inherited this problem. i know that. and i know that you're trying to fix it. but the first step in improving conditions is identifying the problem. so my question to you is, what went wrong here? >> well, we did an extensive review of the detention situation at ice, senator. and i think -- and several things which we have moved to correct. one is we decentralized it too much. we didn't have ice personnel onsite. we didn't have clear standards that we enforced. the contracting particularly as we outsourced all these detention facilities was not all that it should have been. we now have moved and we can

brief your staff in more detail but we have moved to correct all of those problems and to really evaluate that detention system and hold it to the standards that it should meet in any legal system. >> thank you. i want to talk about immigrants -- seekers of asylum. every year tens of thousands of democracy and human rights activists are victims of religious persecution and ethnic cleansing come to our borders to seek protection. these really are the huddled masses. and our asylum and refugee programs which protect these people and welcome them to our country are an important part that make us -- of what makes us the land of the free. and minnesota has a special place in these programs as recently as 2006 we took more

refugees than any other state except california. but right now ice is detaining thousands of applicants for asylum obvious for months at a time. -- often for months at a time. it's suggested more asylum seekers are being detained for longer. your department has discretion over whether or not to detain asylum-seekers. why are we frequently detaining asylum-seekers? >> someone in our country has declared asylum. we have some categories of individuals who are seeking asylum that we are looking at en masse as to whether or not

they should fall within asylum eligibility. that's an interagency process when working on with the state department and the justice department. and then with respect to trying to move or increase the speed of the adjudication process, we're doing everything we can to look at methods to streamline but there are certain limitations that are on that, limitations in terms of availability of hearing officers, availability of evidence adjudicators and the like. >> well, i've read about people have come seeking asylum, that's why -- when they arrive, and they know that if they go back -- or they claim when they go back they are going to be subject to violence or retribution and have been

imprisoned. and in 2005, a congressionally authorized bipartisan commission found that it wasn't appropriate to detain asylum-seekers in prison. that was four years ago but today asylum-seekers continue to be detained in state and county jails alongside violent criminals. and they wear prison jumpsuits and they're shackled and they're even put in solitary confinement. these are people who come and say they're seeking asylum. they aren't criminals. immigrant -- ice currently detables asylum seekers in several county jails in minnesota. in october you announced that you would take care of asylum-seekers. will this include separating of accused and convicted criminals

and getting them out of prison-like conditions? i would encourage that. >> senator, yes, part of our overall detention reform is to really do a risk analysis for every individual who comes into our system. and if they are not felt to be a danger to the community or a -- or else wise, to look at how they should be housed. and under what conditions. and so not everybody needs to be housed in the same way as your question. >> well, just following up on that, there's a credible fear interview to determine whether these people have a credible fear. and very often they're continued to be detained after it's been determined they have a credible fear if they go back. >> and what we have been doing is working with our field officers to increase and speed

up the process by which they are paroled in the country temporarily if there has been adjudication of credible fear. >> okay. well, thank you. i would encourage that. >> yeah, absolutely. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i join my colleagues in welcoming you here, madam secretary and i commend you for the good jobs that you are doing. i appreciated the meeting you participated in when you were in philadelphia some time ago. about manufacturing vaccines. and we have seen a very serious problem with h1n1, the swine flu vaccine, with the delivery falling far behind what was anticipated. because they were foreign manufacturers by and large. australia used it for their own purposes.

and with respect to the possibility of bioterrorism, theories a long list of problems, anthrax, botulism, smallpox. and we seem to be bogged down in bureaucratic infighting between a couple of federal agencies with the rumor department at the fence in the border not -- or darpo not going ahead with the briefings at the very highest level with the vice president, secretary sebelius and director orszag and my question to you is, isn't this a problem of such magnitude and with our experience with h1n1 that we ought to be moving ahead properly to try to find some way

to deal with vaccines should we have a bioterrorist attack? >> senator, i think that the -- first of all, on the vaccine question, we are now catching up in terms of projections and availability of vaccine. and we still to need to encourage the american public to get that h1n1 vaccine. >> but our attempts haven't been too good so far. >> it is now a very robust production schedule. and it is, like a -- we will at some point in december be at the number we predicted at the fall or the manufacturers more effectively, but the real question which is the availability domestically of a manufacturing capacity, a development capacity. an h1n1 episode reveals how useful it would be to have that capacity domestically. and the second part of your

question, i think that that is an urgent issue for us with respect to other bio agents moving forward. >> thank you. i think it is urgent and i'm glad to have your concurrence to see if we can't break the logjam and move ahead. i turn to another subject which is the subject of the jobs created by the eb5 program which gives an individual who wants to become a u.s. citizen preferred status by investing $500,000 in the united states. and creating at least 10 jobs from that. and this has been an enormously successful program in pennsylvania. promoted by governor rendell. and it is produced some

2,300,000 jobs and the expectation of 6,000 more jobs. and we have run into a very serious problem with regard to investments in one pennsylvania project where there was a change in investment and at the time the processes were made, there was a disclosure that there would be the business plans specifically provided for alternative investments and those alternative investments were made. and er5 investors who put up $2,500,000 and created a great number of jobs and they had advice from the company chief of

service operation center if there could be alternative investments and now their status is being challenged -- or being -- their appeals have been denied. i have learned about this matter only recently and wrote to the director of the u.s. citizenship and immigration services and asked that the letter be made part of the record, mr. chairman. unanimous consent requested? and my request to you, madam secretary, there needs to be a promulgation of written set of guidelines where it seems on the merits and as a matter of equity where there is a substitution of investment and that was stated in advance that there ought to be no problem 'cause you have three people whose appeals have been denied all the way up to

the chain and they're now being reviewed by uscis that we need to as a matter of fairness deal with them. for example, if somebody is going to be deported under these kinds of circumstances, certainly be a damper on this important program especially at a time when we need all the job stimulus that we can get. >> senator, i'll be happy take a look at that request. and see what we can do with that. i'm sure the director will take a look at that. we will working on the guidelines on eb5. and working also with the department of commerce. to see what would make sense in the environment as you say, these investments lead to american jobs. >> i very much appreciate that. one final question, the small amount of time that i have remaining.

is there any process possible to simplify checks at airports? listen, we have to do whatever it takes to be safe in the airports. but to wonder sometimes about all the rig marole in the ages from the very young to the very old and a question arises in my mind as to whether we're not overreacting. we had the white house mall on monday night -- i didn't see you there. were you there? >> i was there. i was all dressed up. [laughter] >> big crowd. my credential was checked three times as i walked through. was yours checked three times? >> no, i walked right in. [laughter] >> well, i will not ask you why you have preferred status because i know you're in entitled to it. but it raises the question in

mind -- and i'm glad to be checked as often as they want to check us going into the white house. but it's a reaction to the gate crashers, obviously, of a couple of weeks ago. and i wonder do you have results what all these elaborate tests shows? remember the old slogan, well, you're too young, in world war ii is this really necessary? is all of it really necessary? 'cause if it is, fine. >> senator, i think that -- a couple of things. one i consistently asked in the department what is the value added of any procedure that we're imposing and what is the threat that we are attempting to deal with? the second thing i ask for, is there a better way? and this is where, for example,

there is a project underway that if successfully completed they allow us to get rid of the liquid limitation, which is a real -- it's a problem for travelers who don't want to have to necessarily check a bag. so we're consistently asking those types of questions. and they're the kinds of questions that we ought to be asking 'cause, you know, travel and ease of travel and all of that is something we want to foster. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we mentioned -- touched earlier my statement but by december 31st, a short time from now, states will have to be complying with real id under the act that was zipped through for the citizens that aren't going to be able to use driver's license as identification according to commercial airports across the country.

36 states are not complying. i mentioned i have than horror of seeing thousands of americans who have flown to visit friends or family or relatives for the holidays with no problem and then get to board a plane on january 2nd, or 3rd or 4th that they can't get on the plane having the same exact ids they had when they first got on the plane. will your agency take any administrative steps so we don't kind of chaos or confusion after midnight on december 31st? >> mr. chairman, this is a very frustrating situation -- >> i mean, i'd love to get the bill passed to have this -- >> there's a solution -- >> i know. it's been held up by these aggravating holes.

>> there's a legislative solution and it will have to be a legislative solution. in the meantime, i have a set of not very attractive options and they're not very attractive for the fundamental reasons that simply by granting an extension doesn't get us -- move us forward on the security side and fulfilling what the 9/11 commission recommended. but i am looking at what our options are now should the congress not act. >> please keep in touch with me on that. >> absolutely. >> you testified that you're conducting an internal review of the effectiveness of internal boarder checkpoint points. in vermont, that one has been the source of ongoing concerns. there's some considerable distance from the border.

there's half a dozen of parallel roads, two-lane roads that go along there and they just get out there, see if they can parallel and come back. with gps it's pretty easy to do. i've always been concerned about these kind of checkpoints from years ago when i was asked if i could prove that i'm a u.s. citizen. you know, a license plate on the car, my id that says i'm a united states senator but did not seem to satisfy the person that i was a u.s. citizen. i suspected they had a deficient class when they were growing up. i haven't had that happen since. and it's been years since that.

but i do get horror stories of people, taking kids to school late for a doctor's appointment and suddenly they have to prove they're citizens when they were born and raised in vermont. >> we have looked at the issue of temporary interior checkpoints and i particularly look at the ones in vermont because i know you're interested and we'll provide you with greater detail on actual numbers. but my view, senator, is that they are and should be part of a border strategy. so that we do have some means off a geographical border to see what's coming across. they do provide useful information and we do make apprehensions. >> i understand that but it's so far removed from the border that the vast number of people going

down there -- if you really wanted to get involved, many are not going to take the interstate. your predecessor proudly gave me a list of the number of marijuana arrests and people whose visas they had over a period of several months and stopping people. and i pointed out if you really want to find people with visas or marijuana or something, every day we have hundreds of thousands of people who drive in from maryland or virginia into the district of columbia. just put a roadblock on every single one of the bridges and the roads coming in here. and i can guarantee you you'll get hundreds of people. now, there may be a bit of an outcry for those going to work because you would have a traffic jam that would take a week to unravel. and i think you and i quickly

agree that for the number of arrests you'd get, it's not a very effective thing to do. we're just a little state. but there are some of us who love it and we're born there and we're concerned about it and wonder if this is overkill. >> mr. chairman, i think it is not. and we have the same question in arizona in which the state i'm familiar with and the new mexico the state i grew in. we need to look at the border as an entire region and have some facilities that are not permanent in nature that are off of the border that move around. that surprise people. that they can't depend upon as part of our overall strategic look. now, how we conduct those checkpoints and whether they cause undue delay, that is an issue that i think we can take another look at. >> well, it also reflects how

they are. we could not have a better friend. and i look at this and then i hear the complaints about -- frankly, i'm disappointed from a number of complaints from monitors about their treatment and reentry into the states of canada and also from canadians and entering. some they had never heard and in recent years a lot of them. and some seemed -- and we're a welcoming country and if somebody is treated like if you're a criminal unless you can prove otherwise by the people at our border, whether they may get off an international fighter and flying across the border and it does not help and to the credit of the customs and border protection officials in vermont, they had a recent meeting in newport, vermont, it's a border

city, actually one my wife was born in, and they made very clear they wanted to hear about these negative experiences. i think they were surprised how many they have and i know these are hard-working men and women. i know it's not an easy job. and i know that they are the first people who are going to ask and say how did that happen? but its image of america -- sometimes that's the first things people see in america is our border. and we should not assume everybody is guilty when they come through. >> mr. chairman, we'll continue to work to improve that. >> okay. i have a question about what senator kyl and the department needs to provide waivers and exemptions, certainly materials to support cases. that may be one for the record but i really would like an answer.

and also i know judge webster has been asked to oversee the fort hood investigation. and since your department is involved, i told the white house i expect a report to come here certainly to senator sessions, to myself and ultimately to the committee. >> madam secretary, senator kyl asked you about the border patrol agent numbers. and he indicated there was 100-person increase in the budget but you're moving a couple thousand to the northern border. how does that not result in a reduction of agents at the southern border? can you give us an analysis of the numbers? >> i can. and i think more appropriately i should give you -- we will give

you kind of the staffing plan. but as i suggested to senator kyl, we are not moving agents from the southern border to the -- >> will the numbers be up or down a year from now? >> it will be up. >> okay. that's good to hear. and if you can explain that, i would appreciate it. you know, the operation streamline -- people are not detained for that long a period of time. it doesn't require, it seems to me that the quality of housing that you would be if you were maintaining someone in a prison institution for longer periods of time, but -- what we've learned with crystal clarity is that releasing people who entered the country illegally on any kind of bail results in very few showing back up when their deportation hearing comes. so it's just a devastation of

any enforcement idea if you do not hold them pending their hearing. have there been any changes in the number of people that you're releasing on bail? because we finally got the previous administration to end the catch and release for the most part. i think there's probably some areas that needed further improvement but it sounds to me like, as you told senator franken, i think, on asylum cases you're looking to release them as soon as possible well, often that means they don't return. >> no, senator, i think those things should not be confused. i think what he was asking about was the adjudication of credible fear matters. and they have been bogged down in the system. and we have -- we are looking to improve that process.

now, we also have told the congress and congress asked us to provide an alternative to detention plan. obviously, that has to be contingent upon a credible belief by us that we will have that individual back and ready for deportation. as a matter of practice, there are ways to help ascertain that and to supervise that. and we are -- we do do that. on streamline, as i suggested to senator kyl, i agree that streamline is very, very useful. we also believe that we have enough detention space identified for the individuals apprehended in the streamline sectors, which include the larger sectors of the border. >> well, i hope you look to streamline that process and how it seems to be effective and it

strikes me -- if you ask the average american -- when you apprehend somebody who entered the country illegally that shouldn't be, should at least be required to have some sort of conviction of a misdemeanor of some kind before they're sent back, i think they would all agree that makes sense. with regard to everify, i understand that the arizona law which you signed into effect is under appeal now in the supreme court. that the ninth circuit in a strong opinion affirmed the illegality of that law which says the state of arizona basically declared that businesses should check with the everify system to verify whether or not the person is lawfully in the country before they hire them, the supreme court indicated they would like -- ask

the united states government to express -- file a brief in the case. has a decision been made and why wouldn't we want to file a brief supporting that law that seems to be working well? >> well, senator, i think that the process is underway in the federal government as to how to respond to the u.s. supreme court's request. you are correct. i did sign that law and i signed it out of my belief that you have to deal effectively for the demand signed for illegal labor, which is actions involving employers, everify, those sorts of things even as you work to strengthen the border itself. >> i think that's correct. and to suggest that once you've gotten into the country illegally, you're now free to work and stay in the country indefinitely is not the message we need to send.

i'm really become a strong believer that an important part of your job and the congress' job is to send a message throughout the world where large numbers of people through polling data say they would come to the united states if they could to send a message that you can come. we have large numbers of people that come every year but you must do so lawfully. that's a message we need to send. and it's important. i have been somewhat concerned in recent days as i learned about the corrie borhas matter where they complained there was a political campaign in colorado that the district attorney was running for office, a higher office at that time. had plea bargained a number of cases to agriculture trespass, where people are illegally in

the country committed a drug crime or some other more serious offense and they were allowed to plead to a misdemeanor agricultural trespass because apparently that did not result in deportation. after the election was over, he was attacked. apparently. criticized, prosecuted, acquitted. and it now turns out from your internal investigation that supervisors who were involved in that case have failed a polygraph test and apparently have been determined to have conducted themselves wrongly with regard to this individual. let's see what -- to be brief. i understand that the office of professional responsibility have documents showing that the

supervisors are criticized and apparently moved against them. mr. borhas who has been terminated and now contesting that determination that ice presented a supervisor for criminal prosecution to the u.s. attorney. or felony offenses of providing false statements. and that opr sustained administrative charges against the supervisor and that the final report was completed on april 3rd, but apparently ice has yet to take any action against the supervisor, but they're continuing to seek -- to remove mr. borhas. do you know anything about that. i think we need to make sure that this is done right. >> senator, i'm not personally familiar with that matter but i will become personally familiar with it. >> thank you. i think it needs to be looked at.

i don't believe there's anything wrong with a federal agent or state police officer criticizing a prosecutor. i used to be one. a prosecutor. and i didn't make people every time you enter into a plea bargain, but i don't think they should be disciplined solely for that. if some violation occurred, i understand it. but likewise, i don't believe you should allow a climate to develop in the department. that indicates that people who disagree with the policies of the department will be punished if they express themselves. do you understand the value of that? >> absolutely. as somebody who has run a large prosecution office, i can appreciate the value of your comment. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> senator klobuchar will be the last person. and we will finish the hearing. very, very good. i rushed out from the floor and made it in time. i want to thank you, secretary

napolitano, for being here. you know, we just talked last week or so in the commerce committee. and i will say what i said then. i want to thank you for your great help in addressing the flooding in the red river valley for both minnesota and north dakota and was really impressed by the work of the people in your department. and then secondly, again, one other thing that i didn't mention in commerce at the last oversight hearing in may was about a month before the western hemisphere travel initiative took effect and we had serious backlogs of travelers in minnesota who were suddenly going to need passports or other documents to get to canada, which had not been required before. and this is going on when we had a decline in the tourism industry all over the country. and i have learned from talking to people in minnesota that the implementation of the western hemisphere travel initiative have been much smoother in our state. which is a good thing, madam

secretary, and they were pleased with how things went in a timely fashion and the pragmatism. and we talked about the no-fly issue and the climate secure issues and i'm not going to go at it again. i want to touch on something that i know was touched on briefly here about the accidental disclosure of transportation safety administration airport screening procedures -- when that confidential document was placed online. i know that you said to an earlier question it didn't represent a significant risk but it did violate the standards of your department and i was just wondering what steps you're talking to make sure that these kinds of disclosures don't happen again. obviously, they are of are concern. >> several things, one of the things we asked the inspector general to look at the entire issue about what occurred.

secondly, several employees have already been placed on administrative leave and the contractor involved who actually made the inappropriate posting has been dealt with appropriately. thirdly, we are going back to our own procedures at the tsa for what gets posted and how. and also making sure that the employees throughout the department have their training and memories refreshed as do the necessity or when redaction needs to occur, how that properly is to be done. >> very good. and thank you and we'll look forward to hearing the results as we move forward. i know we talked before about the border enforcement security task force in the southwest corner of our country. i wanted to get an update on that. i don't think you talked to anyone else about that here. and have you seen any change in

the drug cartel tactic in mexico since the coordinated efforts began? and the second question would be, how would you assess mexico's state and local law enforcement officials work in rooting out corruption, going out after the cartels and being more vigilant? >> we've increased the number of border enforcement security teams, the best teams across the border. they've been very effective, collaborative efforts to make sure that whatever violence is occurring on the mexican side of the border doesn't spill over onto the u.s. side. and they're helpful for a number of reasons as well going after fugitive aliens, for example, criminal alien gangs as another example. so that continues to be a very effective tool for us. our law enforcement relations with mexico are the best i've seen in the 17-almost years that