presidential candidates are scheduled to speak. c-span's road to the white house 2016. we take you there. >> tonight on c-span2 nasa unveils new close-up photos of pluto taken by the new horizons spacecraft and jeh johnson testifies at a capitol hill hearing on immigration and john alan talks about the militant group isis. nasa's new horizons spacecraft has taken over nine and a half years to reach pluto and is sending back the first pictures of the planet and moons and nasa revealed some of those photos at a facility in maryland. this is 45 minutes. >> good morning and welcome to the johns hopkins library in

maryland. i am dwayne brown with nasa's office of communication. we have an astronaut and associate administrator at nasa head quarters, alan stern, and alice bowman mission operations manager at john hopkins applied physics laboratory. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, pluto as never seen before. three, two one. [applause] >> now we have remarks from dr.

john grunsfeld: . >> it has been an incredible voyage. i know many of you have been participating the last few days but what it all comes down to is an enormous team of people led by alan stern, a big team here at the john hopkins applied physics laboratory, university of colorado the list goes on and on. hundreds of scientist, engineers, technicians, and people sewing blankets helping the explorer to visit pluto and fly on beyond. i am so glad you are here to participate in this true exploration exploration. that view is just the first of many, many rewards the team will

get especially since pluto didn't turn out to be a featureless planet and we are scratching our heads thinking what will we do with that. pluto is an interesting world. of course it would be but it was never a certainty but for the very first time we know that and with that for his first impression i would like to turn it over to alan stern. >> thank you. [applause] >> well i want to thank john for his remarks and nasa for making this possible. how about that? >> 50 years ago today the united states was embarking at the beginning of an era of exploring the solar system that will live

forever in history. 50 years ago the first spacecraft flew by mars and on that anniversary we complete the exploration. people wor time they broke records for low-cost outer planet exploration, they did some amazing feats and we saw one of them last weekend in terms of that mission operation rescue of this fly-by that produces images just like the one you saw and many more that will be reining to the ground beginning tomorrow. but stay tuned, stay tuned because our spacecraft is not in communication with the earth. we programmed it to be spending its time taking important data sets that it can only take today. and over the next period of

about 12-13 hours, the spacecraft will continue to take that data and then it will transmit a message back to the earth for 20 minutes at 9 p.m. eastern time and we will find out how it is doing. whether it survived the passage through the pluto system and hopefully it did and we are counting on that there is a little drama because it is true exploration. new new horizons is flying into the unknown. and tomorrow morning, we should see the beginning of a 16-month data waterfall. you will see seeing more and more about pluto beginning tomorrow. but if we could put up the best image having a resolution of four kilometers per pictures which is a thousand time better we could do even with the hubble scope telescope e three billion miles away at earth.

new horizons took that image yesterday and downlinked to it to ground. that image flew at the speed of light for four and a half hours and received to nasa's deep space network, the image was opened this morning, and how about a round of applause for that beautiful planet? now i would like to invite our mission manager alice bowman. dr. bowman has been leading the operation from the time we wrote the proposal to compete to win this project, all the way through development, through launch, and through an epic three billion mile journey across the solar system. ally -- alice?

[applause] >> what an absolute honor it is to be here to be standing here and waiting for those close images to come down. i cannot say enough about how thankful i am that nasa allowed us to build and operate the spacecraft at the physic laboratory. we have a live team and i happen to be the mission operation manager but in no way am i taking the credit for this incredible journey. i mean it is definitely a team effort. we depend upon each other to each do your part and to be the experts in our field. and when i stand back this morning and i just think -- i have to pinch myself. look what we accomplished.

it is truly amazing that human kind can go out and explore those worlds and to see pluto be revealed just before our eyes. it is just fantastic. and i cannot wait until we get these images down starting early tomorrow morning and of course the signal tonight that tells us that spacecraft is healthy and has recorded all of that fantastic data. so thank you, again. thank you very much. [applause] >> it has been a great morning. obviously the story is not over yet. you will hear more about that and what is going to happen this evening. before we open it up for questions i will toss this to alan. we have video of something that

happened this morning with the science team, i believe. >> sure. john and i were over at the building on the apl campus where the science team is working, the science team assembled at 5:45 this morning for a chance to see that image of pluto and react and have a little scientific discussion and i think we will give you a peek into it if we can queue it up. [applause] >> it is not behind the scenes

now. you have seen it on the screen and it is going viral on facebook, instagram and every other social media probably as well. we are happy to be here as representatives of the big team and nasa and dwayne? >> we are opened up for questions and social media, oh my goodness the numbers are astounding. the world is excited. raise your hand media, we will start with you and go to social media media, and we will try to get as many questions in as possible. raise them high. last time i stayed over here. give your name and affiliation. >> tell us about pluto. are their mountains? are there craters? tell us what you see? >> sure. can we queue that image back up?

this image is oriented with north of the top and so the dark region you see are near pluto's equator. the planet is about 1500 miles across to give you a scale. it has a thin or rarefied nitrogen atmosphere which you cannot see in this image but what you can see, and it is possible for folks behind the scene, to make a larger attraction screen, you can see regions of various times and we

know this is clearly a world where there is snow on the surface and the snow goes back into the atmosphere each 248 years orbit. those have been observed to move around. on the surface scene -- seen from three billion miles away. if you are a scientist like i am you want to see the supporting data. the topagraphy, and you want to see color data and identify the units, you want to determine watt the different areas are made from you want to see the

thermal maps so we can understand the brightest areas are the coldest areas or is that some other story pluto is trying to tell us. and we want to see higher resolution images and tomorrow we will have pictures with resolutions ten times that image and we will have better image that is dramatically better still. there is a lot more data coming down and we could not be happier about the performance of had spacecraft or the pluto system. >> i notice there is also color information in that picture. i am wondering if you can tell me first about the color data you got and also if you see evidence of atmosphere hazes or clouds or something you can see happening in the images. >> can we put up the color

image? is that possible? there is another image i am looking for. if they don't have it backstage i am not able to show it to you. okay. so on the monitor it is hard for me to see, but we know that pluto has color variations across the surface. when we stretch them we will have a better handle on how strong the variations are and expect to show you more later in the day. i looked at the images briefly over in the science work area and i was looking for evidence of plumes and hazes and emily, i could not see them. that doesn't mean they are not there. a real proper analysis of it will require some time. and maybe higher resolution images. >> hi mary ann crammer, this is very exciting for everybody, i

am sure. but i am wondering specifically for alice how are you feeling right now knowing that your craft is out there flying by the pluto system and you will not hear from it for a while? thanks. >> that is a really good question. i haven't had very much sleep and we always talk about the spacecraft as being a babe or a child. we lost signal at 11:17 and there was nothing anybody on the operation team could do. just trust we prepared it well to set off on its journey and do what it needed to do. but there were a lot of us in the op-center even though we knew that spacecraft wasn't going to be talking to us but we

were there and wanted to be with this as it went through this journey. and i am feeling a little bit nervous just like you do when you set your child off but i have absolute confidence that it is going to do watt it needs to do to collect that science and it will turn around and send us that burst of data and tell us it is okay. i guess it is a feeling of nervous and proud at the same time. >> okay. before you ask your question and gave and affiliation if you can raise your hand high. a lot of folks in the light we can't see. >> stacy, star talk radio, i have a question from one of our listeners. how long can new horizons continue to transmit before its power expires? >> i will take a crack at that. new horizons is powered by rtg which stands for radio thermo

electric generator and that is the same kind of power supply that deep space missions that far -- fly too far from the sun for solar rays to work use. that is developed by nasa and the department of energy. the element inside is plutonium which was named after pluto in the '30s. that produces heat and from the heat thermo couples convert that into power for the spacecraft. when we launched new horizons was producing 250 watts but that decay decays every year. it is currently 232 and every year three less watts and as it

declined we will not be able to operate the computer and communication system. we have estimated that point will be reached sometime in the mid-2030's. roughly 20 years from now. at that point the spacecraft will be approximately hundred astronomical units from the sun. over the next 20 years, if the spacecraft is healthy and operates, the fly by is the building blocks of planet like pluto, and we have a chance to go further and explore the deep breaches like the voyager did and hopefully return data that adds to the store house and the environment in the solar system and cross that boundary and

sample inter stellar space with modern implementation >> i am trying to get to as many media as i can. help me out and ask one question and don't sneak a follow-up in. these folks will be available throughout the day for one-on-one interviews. >> john with poplar mechanics. i am just wondering when the data comes in how it will be prioritize prioritized? it is a slow 56-k connection coming back from pluto so how has it been sorted to be prioritize prioritized as it comes in. >> that is actually a nuance story. so let me start by saying over the next couple months the spacecraft, for the next couple weeks, the spacecraft is sending some of the highest priority data back to the ground and around the first of august we will transition to a mode where

the spacecraft is sending low speed data sets which are taken and recorded at a slower speed and easier to plan for. we chose those to come to the ground first to give alice and her team a much-needed break of what has been seven days around the clock operations. we wanted to give them a break and that is why we have the low speed in august and september and they will crank it back up and we will start the planning for that in a couple weeks. we agreed with nasa long time ago which data sets were first, second and third priority and we will send them down in that order. initially we were going to send all of the data down as a browse data set that is compresed -- compressed on the spacecraft so we can get it down quickly and

with that safely on the ground we would go back and send everything a second time. the entire process i described takes a period of 16 months and we expect to finish the last of the data in november or arcked october of next year. >> what is the actually data rate? 56-k is much too high. >> we wish it was 56-k. well we call it rate stepping. as the spacecraft gets as viewed from the ground higher in the sky and the ground antenna increases in elevation following that spacecraft we can increase the data rate. so at the lowest rate the ten degree elevation horizon we are at a thousand bits per second. now when we transition into a spin mode we can actually get higher up and at the top of that

the max data rate is about 4,000 bits per second. >> we will take two questions and then we will go to social media which is no surprise it is exploding with excitement. so questions. one question and then social media and then i am coming over here because i have not hit this side yet. go ahead. >> tim cramer for northeast astronomy forum in new york where you will be next year and we are excited and i am excited to be here today. my question is about the cratering on chiron verses pluto. looked like there were a lot of cas craters at chiron and this image shows maybe one crater. i wonder is that real? do you see a lot less craters? and why would that be? why is there such a difference between pluto and chiron?

>> pluto and chiron look very different and we have known that from the earth but we can see how dramatically different they are. these images to my eye show an younger surface on pluto and older and more battered on chiron. we can compare it to impact models and i hope we will be able to establish the ages of different surface units on pluto and chiron. as to why pluto looks younger is either its internal engine is running and the are active processes taking place or those atmosphere prophecies are of themselves covering up the geology. we will know that once we get

the other data sets i mentioned because with those we can really read the whole story. it is ambiguous today for a couple reasons. one, we just got the data and second we don't have the supporting data sets to unravel the whole story. stay tuned. >> let's take a couple questions, chris media. two questions that are reoccurring. what is going on? i am hearing a lot of buzz on there? >> thank you. appreciate it. as we go through and monitor of the fans online. first question is does any of the surface features on pluto suggest possible tetonics? >> i am not sure. that is an honest answer. i think we have to have time to work with the data and look at it carefully on a computer verses seeing it on the screen

for a few seconds. we will have a chance to do that today. and by the time the experts take a look we can report back to you tomorrow for the first analysis. >> one more question chris. >> as nasa is always encouraging our youth to study s.t.e.m. this is coming from a younger man. from jessica lucas she tweets my nine-year-old son wants to know how long it took to build spacecraft new horizons? >> it was built in the period of four years and two months including the design phase and construction and testing. the entire project from getting authority to proceed until the time we launched was four years and two months which by the way is pretty short for outer planet missions and planetary missions in general. we were under the gun to make the jupiter gravity assist launch window in early 2006 and we were able to do that and as a

result we were able to make the encounter today. had we not made that launch window we would have had to fly another four years and not encountered pluto until 2019. we were very well aware during the time we designed new horizons there was a big incentive to make that launch windows and the hopkins applied physic library team the contractor team those of us at southwest research responsible for payload development, i think everybody knew it was very important and a lot of people really sacrificed family time nights and wokeeekends and a lot of other people didn't think it could be done but this team managed to do it. they built that spacecraft and got it launched in that unbelievably short time but it worked flawlessly the whole nine and a half years.

>> let me take a few more and go ahead and wrap up. >> what is the maximum resolution you hope to get from the pictures you are taking in the permanently shadowed areas? >> that is a little bit of a difficult question to answer because it depends on some of the subtleties of the data analysis. for those who don't know what the question is about now the spacecraft is beyond pluto when it looks back at the planet it is seeing the night side and just the thin crescent of sunlit rays. but we arranged to have it fly by on a day where pluto's largest moon chiron is on the other side and sunlight is reflecting off and aluminating the terrains. we look back with our cameras at the night side terrain

aluminated by chiron light and we can see. we are looking back to the glare of the sun now and the sunlight creates various optical effects on the images that can make it difficult to see the details in them. the native resolution is pretty good. but because it is so dark the signal to noise is low. and we will have to actually add the pixels in a way to change the resolution until we can build up. how far we will have to degrade the resolution to get the good signal is difficult to predict because we have never turned the cameras back to look at the sun. we didn't want to risk that during the flight out to pluto. we have to see what the optical effects are and see how well we

can produce the images. >> kelly with giant telescope e. the scientist are worried about what little atmosphere pluto has might have frozen out and you were eager to get there. you mentioned the inspection data for frost of nitrogen and methane. is it fair to say it snows on pluto? >> it sure looks that way. >> this is for alice, can you tell us about the data.

>> actually it held out since the last contact we had with it, and one of these things was out of our fault. we have a good measure of how the observations are going on board the spacecraft. >> glen right with irish television. i was broadcasting and hope this question has been asked. just a large scale picture we are looking at here i am seeing maybe five or six different terrains or regions on the broader scale. is that roughly right? and the feature that appears to be slightly different on the

left side and right side. i am wondering if that is an affect of the subsolar points or is there a difference within the heart feature? >> i would say we are seeing the same thing you are seeing, leo. a handful of individual broad surface units across this hemi hemisphere. we will be able to say more definitive things about that but i can i think you are making the right conclusion. >> hi robert with back space. can you describe what exactly you will see on the monitors tonight when the signal comes in? what is the hello, earth, data you will be getting and what will pop up first? what will show up on the screen

first? >> so when you establish the hand shake between the ground station or the antenna deep spacecraft the first thing that we try to lock is carrier. and that will tell us the spacecraft is there. the next thing we unlock are symbols and then telemetry and once we log that we know the spacecraft is transmitting at the expected data rate it hasn't switched to another data rate, and that is what we will see. you know, just ones and zeros but in our database on the ground we mapped the sequence of ones and zeros to say out of lock or lock so we will see those words appear on the screen and then we will start to get real-time data from the spacecraft. not recorded data but real-time data. and that consist of the most critical points from all of the

subsist subsist subsist sub-systems. there is not enough to send everything at one time so there is a cycle the telemetry table goes through. first you will see points devote today the main computer status and then point related to the guidance and control. we don't know where in the rotation we will intercept and we will have to wait and watch the cycle through. we should have enough time to cycle through a few times on the telemetry table. >> four quick questions. >> bobby russell with quest for stars. my social media accounts are blowing up and i have to ask when will we have color data in pictures? >> we have color data on the ground now and i believe we will show you some of that later in

the day but we will get back to you when we confirm. >> i am bob mcdonald from the canad canadian broadcasting association. that was the most dangerous time for the spacecraft if anything was going to go wrong that was it. in the worst case scenario if you don't hear from it tonight how much science do you have at this point? >> i don't think we will lose the spacecraft. we have estimated based upon a variety of different experts making numerical models of how much dust and debris is in the system and probability of loss of mission and set-up liability around two parts in 10,000. so you can fly hundreds of new horizons through the system and expect all of them to survive. so it is a low probability. but we always caution we are flying into the unknown.

as you know we have been transmitting data to the ground in the last few days and they are called failed safe data sets and the concept behind them is identical to the concept used on the apollo mission, particularly the early missions, as soon as the missioner commander stepped to the surface of the moon and said a few words for history, they would immediately collect the first sample in case something went wrong and they had to terminate the rest of the space wall and come back into the lander and leave. so they had a little bit of something guaranteed and that is what we have been doing. we designed this four years ago and went through and looked at the data sets that have been collected on final approach and selected for each of our primary mission objectives some samples of that data like the wonderful image you just saw but also

color data ultra violet pictures of the surface and atmosphere and plasma and particle data has been sent to the ground and revolutionized our knowledge about pluto and its satellites already. however, it would be killing the lily if i didn't tell you 99% of the data is still in the spacecraft and some of the most important stuff is in that. so it would be a great disappointment if new horizons was lost to a debris strike. but i think the spacecraft is going to do jus fine. see you at 9:00 tonight. >> this is for alice. based on the information last night, and the readjusted diameter of pluto how exactly close did new horizons come at closest approach this morning,

do you think? >> that is a navigation question, really. i can tell you we were 72 seconds early for hitting that aim point. and alan, do you know exactly what the distance was? the plan was 7750 miles. >> our map predicted we would be somewhere in the vicinity of 70 kilometers closer. it is still within the target box but a little up center but well within specks. >> i suppose this is a question for alan. when can we go back to pluto? [applause] >> i have secretly been working

on a landrover mission. i had a bet swn would ask me a question like this. >> have you really? >> yeah. i think we will return to the pluto system. it is so scientifically interesting and compelling we will want an orbit or lander in the future. doing a mission like that is tougher than new horizons because we will want to come to a stop and that will mean developing technology to do that. particularly when we want to cross the solar system in a reasonable amount of time and not take 40 years to get there because we need to travel slowly but travel fast and come to a stop. there are very good concepts people have. very preliminary concepts for follow-up missions. but i think first we need to really really see this data come to the ground and analyze it for a period of some years because we don't know the right questions to ask and therefore

the right instruments to put on a lander or orbterorbiter. i think the right thing to do is analyze the ditata we have on the ground and come to that question later on. >> i will remind the media these folks and others will be available throughout the day. check in with the newsroom. i am going to turn it over for closing remarks and i will do programming notes. >> well i think you have gotten a little bit of a sense of this great adventure of science we are on. we have long day before getting to the home signal. i will mention if you go to eyes.nasa.gov you can see the signal and you will be able to

see almost live when the deep space network is looking and then follow our story because we will keep you informed when new horizons phones home. throughout the day, though we have a series of panels so you will be able to here the scientist talking about their first impression. you heard alan's first impression and a few from the press here on your first impressions and we all have them. it is just incredible we are getting our first views of pluto and pluto system in this high resolution. but i can guarantee with as much certainty that the best is yet to come both from images you will see later today that are being worked on and with all of our fingers and toes crossed of the great images new horizons is taking right now that will be telemeter over the next 16 months. that is only part of the story.

what we have seen already from pluto is that it is a complex, interesting world. the dawn spacecraft is orbiting dwarf planet series and we found it was really interesting. you have been following curiosity and there was a lot of discussion before landing the mars science laboratory is mars relatively straight forward or very complex and the opportunity rover gave us a glimpse and the curiosity is showing mars is a whole world like the earth. we have spacecraft orbited our earth trying to tell our story which is even more tough. the existence of life on earth forever changed the atmosphere and geology of earth. we are just scratching the surface of the solar system.

juno arrives at jupiter next year. we have the rex mission to an asteroid to do a touch and go on an asteroid and bring samples back. this an incredible time for planetary science. and i think that it just fitting you are here showing this great in the for this incredible achievement. the cap stone event of our reconnaissance of the solar system. congrats, alice and alan. i hope you all enjoy the day, learn a lot and communicate to all of your subscribers and readers. this is an incredible journey and true exploration. i am thrilled to be here. >> social media, follow it on twitter. this mission. facebook youtube and others. and all of our information you heard today and you will be hearing in the weeks, months

years www.nasa.gov/newhorizons. thanks for joining us. [applause] now the iran nuclear deal is signed the question is what is next. we will talk to people on the hill about this. washington journal is live every morning at 7 eastern on c-span and you can give us your thoughts by phone and on

facebook and twitter. >> this sunday on q and a artist and journalist abby crab apple on using drawings about history. >> pelican bay isn't alone in this. around the country you can land in solitary for your art, gender status sexual orientation or your friends. i go around with a sketch book and draw and that is not the finished drawing a lot of time but to build repore with people. very often when you have a camera it puts a distance between you and the person. big insect thing in front of your face and they are taking images and they can not see it. whereas, when you draw it is vulnerable and people see what you are doing and if they suck they can tell you so. it is more interchange. most people are delighted to be

drawn and haven't been drawn before. i draw people because i like to and i like talking to them when i do it. >> sunday night at 8 eastern and pacific. jeh johnson talked about so-called sanctuary cities local jurisdictions that don't enforce federal immigration laws and talk about the president's decision in not deploring some immigrants. this is just over through hours. >> good morning. the committee comes to order and the chair is authorized to declare recesses of the committee at any time. we welcome everyone to this morning's hearing on oversight of the united states department

of homeland security. in a moment i will begin by recognizing myself for an opening statement and then i will recognize mr. conner when we arrives. i want to advise everyone as the secretary is already away many members on the democratic side are meeting with former secretary clinton. when they arrive we will recognize mr. conyers for his opening opening statement. good morning and i want to extend or welcome to sekt johnson for testifying before us for the second time. when he testified last year ge y stated he was not responsible for the dangerous and irresponsible decisions made by dhs before he was sworn in. i stated we could only hope he would bring back a level of adult responsibility to the enforcement of our immigration laws. unfortunately, since that

hearing, and under secretary johnson's leadership the declining of immigration enforcement has accelerated. dhs under the obama administration has taken unprecedented steps in order to shutdown the enforcement of the immigration laws for millions of unlawful and criminal aliens not considered high enough priorities. this is done under prosecution discretion. new priorities issued by secretary johnson last november have turned the flight from enforcement into a head long rush. although dhs previously deemed fugitive aliens a priority under johnson's guidelines they are no longer a priority and this means dhs is disregarding orders that have been issued and wasting the money spent to get the orders.

they claim gang members are most a top priority and they are convicted under state and not federal law and they are ignored under secretary johnson's priority. secretary johnson considers the second priority those convicts of domestic violence, sexual abuse, exploitation, burglarly, unlawful possession of a firearm, drug trafficking or drunk driving. but this falls away if the alien shows factors for release. the number of administrative arrest of criminal aliens has fallen by a third and the department continues to release thousands of such aliens on the to street. u.s. immigration and custom enforcement has admitted to

releasing 30 558 aliens with criminal conviction in 2014. we received data regarding the recidivism rate 1423 have been convicted of new crimes like vehicle homicide domestic violence sexual assault, dui, burglary, and assault among many others. because of the failure of this and previous administrations to detain criminal aliens and the failure to pursue fugitives there are almost 180,000 convicted criminal aliens in removal proceedings living in your neighborhoods and almost 170,000 convicted crim new mexico aliens who have been ordered to be removed but are living free. under the obama administration the total number of allyialiens not

being it detained has jumped. the security of this was made all too apparent in the recent weeks. a criminal alien who had been deported numerous times killed an american woman on a poplar pier in san francisco. ice issued a detainer for the immigrant which san francisco ignored and proceeded to release him. dhs advertises unfortunately that cities can ignore the federal request. support was expressed for mand mandatory detainers and then re redacted the statement. there are more than 200

jurisdictions that refuse to honor ice detainers. this releases criminal aliens on to the street with all too tragic results. the priority enforcem program is failure. asking for cooperation from sanctuary cities is a fools airing. the answer to the problem is for dhs to mandate compliance and this administration to defend the nature of detainers in federal court. unfortunately the administration has taken neither of these crucial steps to keep our communities safe. prior to secretary johnson's appointment, dhs under the obama administration went beyond simple non-enforcement and took the leap of granting amnesty to a class of hundreds of thousands of unlawful aliens. then it was announced it would

be granted to more than four million more unlawful aliens. by granting them deferred action we would bestow access to the social security trust fund and the earned income tax credit. it is within the constitutional authority of congress, not the administration, to grant such benefits to classes of unlawful ally ally ally -- aliens status. 26 states challenged this ruling and has been granted a temporary injunction. the court stated the administration is not just rewriting the laws but creating them from scratch. an appeals court rejected the administration's request of a stay against injunction. while the injunction is waited for the defered action is a

healthy development for the constitution the court was clear it was not interfering in any way with secretary johnson's non enforcement of the immigration laws. the american people have rightly lost all confidence in this administration's willingness to enforce the current immigration laws. this is the single biggest impedant for congress to fix the broken immigration system. i look forward to the testimony: >> it is my pleasure to recognize the ranking member of the committee the gentlemen from michigan mr. conyers. >> thank you, mr. chairman. members of the committee and our distinguished witness secretary jeh johnson. when he last testified i said given his record of public service i could think of no person better equipped to lead the department of homeland

security and carry out the president's immigration policy in the most humane way possible. much has happened in the past year and i am pleased to say i stand by my initial assessment which is not to see mr. secretary there is not still a great amount of work to do. in your written testimony you speak in great detail about your efforts to counter the global terrorist threat which has become decentralized and more diffused and more complex. i agree that isis and al-qaeda have moved to a new phase of the conflict recruiting at-risk individuals hoping to inspire attacks in the west. the department combats this with a combination of height ned

security measures. since september 11th 2011 nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremcist and other non-muslim extremist than by muslim extremist. state and local law enforcement agencies feel more threatened by right wing and anti-government terrorism as they are about isil-inspired attacks. i hope you will provide us with some assurance that our priorities are in order and the department focuses on homegrown

extrem extremism with the same force forcefulness it has from abroad. the initiatives you started last november should make our immigration enforcement center smarter, more efficient and ultimately more humane. carrying out these reform has not been easy but meaningful reforms is what they are. your job has been made harder by the refusal of conservative leadership in the house to allow a vote on the immigration reform bill that passed the united states senate two years ago with 68 votes. it has been made harder by their refusal to consider the bipartisan house bill hr-15 which had 201 co-sponsors in the

last congress and has made it harder by the bulitigation you had to fight off as you tempted to implement common sense and entire entirely lawful immigration reforms. at the end of the day, it only makes sense that the people who commit serious crimes and pose a danger to the public should be our highest priorities. those with strong ties to this country, the spousef of citizens and the parents of citizens and dreamers and whose who have worked in the united states for years should not be. who could disagree with that? we are already seeing a positive impact from the reforms that have been implemented and i thank you for your tenacity. certainly we may disagree about

the implementation of some of the enforcement reforms and that is something we will monitor but i believe we are heading in the right direction. one area that is particularly in need of urgent reforms involves the detention of mothers and children in secure jail-like facilities. you recently acknowledged that substantiate substantiate changes must be made to the current policy of detaining thousands of these families some for many months and for some longer than a year. we are monitoring these changes because we know from experts that family detention is causing real lasting damage to these children. we look forward to working with

you to insure all aspects of the department of homeland security operate in a way that reflects our values and continues to honor the contribution of immigrants to our great nation. one thing thing, the chairman spoke about the tragic death of kate steinle who was walking with her father on a san francisco pier. our hearts go out to her family. we must make sure we don't adopt policies that would diminish public safety and undermine our commitment to the constitution and civil liberties. so i ask mr. chair, unanimous consent to enter into the record new york's time editoral

entitled lost in the immigration frenzy. ...

defense, where he was part of the senior management team and led more than 10000 military and civilian lawyers across the department. secretary johnson was general counsel of the air force from 19982001 and he served as the assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york from 1989 to 1991. in private law practice and secretary johnson was a partner in the new york city-based walter. secretary johnson graduated from morehouse college in 1979 received his degree from columbia law school in 1982. mr. secretary, your entire statement will be entered into the record and we ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes or less and we welcome you again. >> thank you chairman. you have my pair of testimony as you noted. chairman congressman it is a

pleasure to see you again. last time i was here i noted were you noted that 38 years ago, i was an intern for the congressman and was a congressman and was a member of this committee. i recall after talking to some of the congressional interns who were here 38 years ago very vividly the congressman sent me to a hearing in the senate judiciary subcommittee on the constitution over on the senate side. 38 years ago this month i remember it like it was yesterday the witness was talking about the abolition of the electoral college and in the middle of his testimony he had a massive heart attack and drop dead. i hope not to make such news today. [laughter] >> we hope and pray not either.

>> in all seriousness as you noted the department has many missions. we have 22 components and are focused on a number of things. my top priority for 2015 has been management reform ensuring the department functions most effectively and efficiently for the american people. i am pleased we have felt almost all the vacancies that exist in my department when i came in 18 months ago with the senate confirmation of the administrator for doing a number of things to reform and make more efficient how we conduct our business we are focused on aviation security and of course on counterterrorism which in my view remains the cornerstone of the nation and we are focused on cybersecurity. i refer the mentors to an op-ed that appears today in public ago on the federal cybersecurity and

how i think we need to improve the mission and the things we are doing to improve our federal civilian .gov network on immigration respectfully it is a fiction to say we are not enforcing the law. apprehensions are down, down considerably from where they were a year ago that there are still apprehensions dalia in particular on the southern border. i am pleased the spike lee saw on the southern border has not returned in apprehensions which are an indicator of total attempts to cross the border are down considerably. if the current pace continues apprehensions will be at the lowest since sometime in the 1970s. in terms of enforcement removal,

without a doubt the new policy that i announced and interacting prioritizes threats to public safety and border security. without a doubt we are moving increasingly in the direction of deporting criminals. absolutely, and i stand by that because they believe that it is good for public safety. i am pleased that of those in immigration detention now, 96% are in my top two priorities for removal. 76% are in my top priority for the removal. that is those that presented at the border convicted felons. they are focused on the criminals and threats to public safety on border security. part of that is fixing our

relationship with state and local law enforcement. if a security program the security program had become legally and politically controversial to the point where something like 300 jurisdictions had enacted or imposed limitations on their law-enforcement ability to cooperate with immigration enforcement personnel. that is needed to be fixed because it was inhibiting our ability to get at the criminals and so what the president and i did was to replace the secular community program with the nuclear reinforcement program which resolves the legal and political controversy and we are actively reaching out to state and local law enforcement jurisdictions to introduce the program and encourage them to work with us. of the 49 biggest, i am pleased to report that some 33 have

indicated an agreement and a willingness to work with us. only five of the 49 have said no so far. this is a work in progress. the county has agreed to work with us in the new program to more effectively get asked the threats to public safety. for the sake of homeland security and border security as the chairman referenced at that the first action programs for adults is pending right now in litigation. last friday we await the position and congressmen i look forward to your questions. thank you. >> thank you mr. secretary. i will recognize myself. you are free to pray or advise

against criminal aliens and a number of available immigration detention beds to utilize continues to fall. 44,000 are authorized. only 24 to 26,000 are being utilized. so can you explain to me the continued increase in the number of convicted criminal aliens in the proceedings who have already been ordered removed who are not being detained? the number of these convicted criminal aliens allowed on the streets have gone up by 28% in less than three years and again i will direct your attention to the chart over there, from the 270,000 to almost 350,000 of these people are out on the street and many of them are committing new crimes. and i would very much like you to explain how this priority system is working when you are not fully utilizing it and not removing 350,000 people that have been ordered removed and not even using the capabilities

of the congress is paying for. it was up to 41000 that is a day-to-day report i get into the last time i checked it was up to around 31000 but is up to full capacity the congress has given up some 34,000 to be sure but it's moving in the direction. that would be providing additional capacity. it's trending in that direction. we have come as you know established greater capability to detain those who bring their children with them and i have issued the policy is to reform

the practice because of the special considerations that go into dealing with children. it is coming up and one of the reasons i think it is lower than 34,000 is frankly the apprehension rates are lower. in the and the ability to conduct interior enforcement. >> we are not acted upon by state and local jurisdictions. >> i do not delete but we should mandate that conduct of state and local law enforcement through federal legislation. iadb that's the most effective way to work with jurisdictions

particularly the larger ones is through a cooperative effort, and i believe state and local law enforcement believes that as well. it removes the legal and political controversy. >> let me ask you about that. is it true some of the worst offending cheapest actions have declined to even participate in the nuclear reinforcement program. >> i would disagree with that. >> my understanding is that five year a jurisdictions have sent out right now. and as i indicated a moment ago 33 have indicated a willingness to participate in one way or another of the 49 top 11 are still considering it and contacted hundreds. the overwhelming number indicated a willingness to work with us.

>> of the 276 sanctuary cities where they've publicly taken a position to not cooperate with ic last year some 80,000 criminal aliens were released by the communities onto the street. they have 1900 new crimes. why wouldn't it be a priori to do everything possible to mandate come influence, whatever the case might be for them to honor the ice detainer's rather than to see this ocher. they released 30,000 last year

under on their own procedures and again that helped contribute to this growing list now of nearly 350,000 individuals who were either under a deportation order those that are pending out on the streets. if we should reduce or eliminate the criminals that are undocumented work released by the sanctuary cities. >> and by the department i believe that we should work to reduce that number absolutely. >> i disagree through the federal legislation we should mandate how state and local law enforcement relates to us. i don't think that is going to solve the controversy in the courts.

>> we have guidelines with those that have been convicted of something of immigration detention. and we should no longer release somebody for the budgetary or the reasons of space. we could detain them consistent with the law. that has been my directive. >> thank you mr. chairman and welcome. >> i was looking at articles in the newspaper today about cybersecurity. the sophisticated actors penetrate the data because they know that they can count on the single user letting his guard down but we have increased and

continue to increase. >> thank you congressman. i've been struck by the fact that very often the most sophisticated far-reaching attacks whether in the private sector or the government by the most sophisticated actors often starts with a simple active spearfishing. someone opened an e-mail that they shouldn't have and so a large part of the effort to be education of the workforce the suspicious e-mails they don't recognize. >> on immigration enforcement priorities over the past six and a half years. this has had many immigration

enforcement records. the number of people removed was so much greater than it had been in the past administrations but the president was described as the departing chief and the "washington post" reported that they are now on pace to remove people than in the past fiscal years. can you explain why that removal numbers went down in this past year? spin it as i mentioned congressmen i would like to see us move in the direction of focusing on the threats to public safety. that's what we are doing. while the overall number of deeper tensions have been going down and an increasing percentage of those that we

detain and hopefully those that we ultimately remove our convicted criminals. and threats to public safety that is the direction that i believe we need to go in. >> good. >> let me ask you about the decision to replace the communities with the prayer of the enforcement program. >> in the crime by the local law enforcement a check not only by the fbi, but also against the department of homeland security immigration records. will that interoperability still be present under the pre- reinforcement program? >> yes. stick excellent. >> the montgomery county chief

of police recently said his office notifies when they are said to set to be released and they are always able to get there on the day to release to assume custody. would you assume they would generally take appropriate action when notified about the release of a serious criminal acts >> we will take appropriate action to avoid the release of the criminal, absolutely. >> very good. >> and finally, can you comment on the shooting in pennsylvania and how do people that say that the southwest border is not secure and how secure is it compared to other times in history tax

>> over the last 15 years in the clinton, bush and obama administrations, we -- and i included the statement we and the congress have well have made investments in the border security. for example, 15 years ago there was only 70 miles of on the southwest border and another 700 miles of fencing. we are up to 18,000 in change in terms of border patrol personnel on the southwest border and i believe that is reflected in the numbers. in the year 2000 come apprehensions were 1.6 million. and every cent year's they are down around 400000. this year i suspect we'll be in will be in the 300 thousands even lower. that is doing very large part to the investments made in border security in the congress and i

want to continue that progress through investment and technology surveillance. >> in terms of the san francisco case -- >> and i hope i pronounced them correctly. can you give us an update on the subject click >> my understanding is he was departed five times. >> they served fairly significant jail sentences. he was in custody serving his last sentence.

we put a detainer and then he was transferred to the san francisco sheriff sympathy but another detainer and he was released. my hope is that jurisdictions like san francisco county will cooperate with the new program. as the sheriff acknowledged personally met with the sheriff in april to ask for his participation in the program. in the purpose of promoting public safety to give jurisdictions to cooperate with us on this. >> the chair now advises the

gentleman from south carolina at the immigration and border security subcommittee for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman for letting me go in this spot. mr. secretary economic committee for almost five years now and i've witnessed listened as they called on the other side of the il-2 repeated almost catatonic frequency, certain phrases like citizenship for 11 million aspiring americans is at the 11 million of any category to pass a background check. phrases like functional control of the border. phrases such as sanctuary cities and i've listened pretty carefully mr. secretary, as i've heard argument after argument after argument made against and how learning state and local law enforcement to actually enforce immigration law.

he is committed local, state and federal crimes. he is a career criminal in my pathway criminal he might criminal in my criminal he might have waited at least three separate statutes when he said we picked up the gun before he shot and killed an innocent woman walking with her father, so. she must not have functional control over the border or he wouldn't have reentered so many times he and he is, i am assuming i'm a not and not able to pass anyone's background check i would hope that somebody with this criminal history couldn't even pass our friend in the senate comprehensive immigration reform background check. i want to ask if you know who said it.

people living in a document on documented to come forward and get on the books and subject themselves to a background check i want people to come forward. do you know who said that? >> you did say that. i want you to tommy but independent background leads you to come forward. >> he is not the type of person that would ever qualify for any sort of deferred action. >> nor is he the type of person that would come forward mr. secretary so my point is when you have -- >> may i be allowed to speak click >> you are able to answer the question asked. >> is not any kind of person that would qualify for any type

of a version the version of the deferred action in my book. >> i'm not going to let you run out the clock. >> better than being on the books mr. secretary, he was in federal prison, so i want to know why he was somebody in federal prison with a federal detainer on him released to a sanctuary city? >> you would have to ask the bureau of prisons. spanky had a detainer when he was in b. o p. custody and when

he was was in the custody of san francisco. he was the exhibit for the need to work with our prior reinforcement program. secure communities wasn't working. >> why don't you make the detainer is mandatory if they are not complying with federal detainer is why don't you make it mandatory. our ability to work with state and local law-enforcement i would suspect they do as well. >> you are willing to mandate that the state and local law enforcement cannot assist you in and forcing them to immigration

law. help me understand that. you can end forward the city to ignore federal law that you will not in power state and local law enforcement can help me reconcile that. they do not have the authority under the due process clause of the constitution to hold people until we can come and get them. last time time i looked into the legislation you cannot write to the due process clause. i do not believe that mandating through the federal legislation conduct of sheriffs and police chiefs is the way to go. i think that it will be hugely controversial. i want to see us work

cooperatively with state and local law enforcement. >> my time is that mr. secretary. the last time i looked, we had a supremacy clause, and so god knows that trumps the law in san francisco and when i hear the phrase sanctuary city as benign sounding as it is if they have it may have been a sanctuary for that defendant but it sure is not a century for walking with her father. at a minimum change the name of whatever benign sounding program for cities like san francisco want to follow. and i would hope that he would insist that federal detainer is be honored and not be discretionary. with that i would yield back to the chairman. >> the gentleman from new york for five minutes. >> mr. chairman, first i want to welcome the secretary and i would like to remind mr. gaudi

isn't in the fourth amendment and the federal courts have held the detainer's sister carrie johnson said there were troubles in the court and there were indeed the troubles in the court and i want to commend the administration for following the policy. >> secretary johnson, i've heard significant concerns. i realize this is the one topic that we are supposed to talk about. those that work in the motion picture industry moving through these jobs provide a livelihood for many new yorkers so i take very seriously the allegations but it's improperly allowing unqualified aliens to fulfill those jobs. >> on the allied topic, we have

been asked and i'm looking sympathetically to look at the numbers of the h. one b. visa. and in the committee we have an increase of 51,000 which most of us voted against because of the type of provision to eliminate directly to the visa but we need at the h1b visa because we have to bring engineers and others. >> we see the recent stories. they have their american employees to then forced to train foreigners to replace them. if that is true there is a serious failing of the program and it's being used to displace the american workers rather than

to supply people. as the department looking into how the program is abused and can it be fixed properly? >> through the program those that hold up the visa are not to replace those with jobs as you pointed out. any such allegations are very troubling to me. i believe that such matters are investigated and i also believe congress can help in this regard. i also think that congress can help with increased enforcement mechanisms for situations where an employer does in fact replace american workers with h1b holders.

on the balanced security initiative is obviously i'm concerned in the quest expedite the removal of individuals to the country we may be deporting those with serious persecution claims. recently they instituted a pilot program expediting deportation of central americans beyond the normal expedited removal process. these detainees are apprehended and detained away from the general population. they are not given any know your rights presentations and it's deported within a matter of days. advocates on the ground are being told that they are held in facilities particularly of the sanctions internet other facilities in south texas. i'm most concerned that we may have the border security to the mexican government and that they are deporting the refugees

without offering any protection in the international law to read mexico has more than doubled its detention in central america families and without the comments of the trees were assisted by the protection and the legitimate refugees. i find these practices troubling given that there are several news reports about the horrific violence in the region especially against women and girls and articles stating that central americans are being killed upon the deportation to mexico and the united states. i would like to enter some of these into the record, mr. chairman. >> if the gentleman will at some point designated -- >> law enforcement involves enforcing those to provide the protection to the enforcing and we have an obligation to make sure that we don't undermine those that are -- undermine the borders and friends borders. what is the administration doing to ensure that refugees international protection claims are being honored by those in

our government and they have an adequate opportunity to make their claims with proper legal assistance and by the government of mexico? >> will couple of things, congressman. first, we had prayer ties to him on our personal interviews of people on the border particularly from central america that may have a reasonable fear claim and credible fear claim. in the most recent guidance issued by directed that these interviews we conducted in a reasonable period of time as quickly as possible. my hope is that we can get those done on average around 14 days after apprehension. so that's one thing. when it comes to refugees the other thing that we have begun which i would like to see more use out of this and country processing in central america.

the advice that we got last summer when we were dealing with the spike is that we need to offer people a lawful chief task to the united states and so we set up in country processing the ability to interview kids in the three central american countries that have parents power here to see if they would qualify for the refugee status. frankly not enough people have taken advantage of the program. it's just in the low thousands. i would like to see more people use that method versus to make the journey through mexico which is very dangerous crossing the border illegally so we are encouraging people to make use of that in central america and i want to see us publicize it and put an emphasis on it because it is the lawful safe path to come to the united states.

>> my time is expired and i will yield back. >> recognizing the gentleman from ohio for five minutes. >> i will preface my questions with a comment and that as we mentioned the secure communities program several times this morning mr. secretary, and i would just note the administration never went to court to defend the program when the issue was before the courts but let me turn to my question first of all what is the administration's position on sanctuary cities? >> i would like to reduce if not eliminate the jurisdictions that don't want to cooperate with us and. >> but as far as the cities, has the administration actually come out and either condemn them on the one hand or condone them on

another? >> whatever label you put on that there are a lot of jurisdictions, something like 300. >> what is your operating definition of the sanctuary city? >> there are so many around i just know that there are something like 300 jurisdictions in the executive orders and acting pursuant to the state law that will not cooperate with us because the controversy around the communities program to be a >> in essence they are refusing to cooperate with the federal government in the enforcement of the federal immigration law would that be fair? >> one of the things that is so frustrating to a lot of us and a lot of people that i bring this whole topic up with is the fact that this administration seems to be anxious to aggressively

pursue communities, states that are enforcing the immigration law so when they are enforcing the immigration law we go after them and pursue them and basically in that case stop them. however we have communities all over the country refusing to enforce and we saw this incident with a totally totally innocent 32-year-old woman will actively oppose the cities that are flaunting the immigration law. can you understand that frustration while people have? >> all i notice i have been spending a whole lot of time of my own meeting with mayors governors, county executive dan sheriff's has been opposed to

cooperating with us to encourage to even any those barriers. that is not included in arizona. it's a lot of very large jurisdictions that have passed these types of laws to encourage them to repeal them or interpret them in a certain way consistent in the new program which is aiming at getting us criminals. >> let me switch gears. has the administration reached out to the family and your knowledge? to the family of the woman was murdered by this individual who had committed seven different felonies in four different states in my understanding who kept coming back and is the administration reached out to the family? >> i would note the administration has reached out in a whole range of cases and i

am not being critical of that. certainly there are times when the administration should do that and there are times when perhaps they need to do that. >> could you check into that? >> speaking for myself i have developed a practice of reaching out to every share for commissioner and chief who sent and was in the line of duty. i read a letter personally. >> i would ask that the administration check. >> 2700 miles i believe. >> and how much is actually complete at this point? >> 700 pursuant. >> what did the administration due back do back in 2010 which suspended the expansion of the

virtual portion of the fence? >> my understanding is the 700 miles was built pursuant to the congressional mandate. congressional mandate. and i know that there was some litigation around an environmental issue. i also know that a lot of the southwest border is very remote. as i'm sure you know some of it includes the rio grande. other parts of the border are very mountainous. and so the fans that we've built has been built in places where it makes the most sense to have a sense. >> let me just conclude by noting that one of the areas that is frustrating to the american public. the length of time this has taken end of the lawsuits that have been filed and all the rest, the defense needs to be completed and we need to have a

secure border. >> i believe it is almost completed pursuant to the mandate we have in congress, sir. >> the chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes the woman ms. lofgren. >> thank you for being here and for the work that you do on behalf of our country to keep us safe. it is a tough job, but you have approached your duties with skill and dignity and we very much appreciate that. i want to touch just prefer the -- briefing on the tragedy of the young lady walking with her fodder, obviously an outrageous situation that she was shot and killed. and i think that whenever an innocent citizen loses their life at should cause us to review what are the policies and what can be changed that would make our communities safer?

some said we ought to do mandatory sentencing. but my understanding is that mr. sanchez just finished four years in prison for the prosecution. so, it doesn't appear that that is necessarily the answer. one of the questions i wanted to explore was the policy of a transfer from the bureau of prisons to the locality. it's my understanding that there was a 20-year-old four for mr. sanchez but the underlining offense was possession position at possession of a small med marijuana. now, i don't know is a discussion they had it if you had an outstanding warrant against somebody that committed a crime two weeks ago you know what, the department of homeland security would thwart data.

is there some way that we could store either clearing up the war in that case you would have a situation where they are tired and there would be no witnesses. you couldn't really have an effective prosecution further in the state of california today the possession of a small amount of marijuana is infraction but are your thoughts on the process? >> i agree with the spirit of your question and i think that in a situation where the bureau of prisons have someone they are about to release because that person has completed the sentence. and there's an immigration detainer and there is a 20-year-old warrant on a marijuana charge.

there ought to be some discretion and balancing built into that. >> or maybe some communication in the locality to find out if they intend to -- >> i think we need to look at this question. it may be that the gift they are ready to a criminal warrant which in all cases isn't necessarily the best outcome into so i want to look at the question of whether or not we can work more effectively together to make the appropriate assessment that it's better this person go to immigration and a jurisdiction 320-year-old warrant. >> i'm glad to hear that and i would like to keep apprised of the project and i think it is an important element of the situation that has not been examined.

>> you haven't had a chance to review it but it talks about the manner in which the dhs is screening and caring for unaccompanied children when it comes to mexican children at the border. >> it's whether the voluntarily return. but what of the gal found is we are not really getting all of the kind of examination that the wall envisioned. you have a child who may be a victim of trafficking. they may have been a victim of sexual abuse and severe interrogation is conducted in

the uniformed officer that may or may not speak their language in front of other people other children. so i'm wondering now that we have the gal report, whether we can revisit how we are doing these interviews and how we might take the clue from a clue from police agencies around the united states to make sure that potential trafficking victims are interviewed in an appropriate setting by skilled nonuniformed people so that we could get the truth.

>> it's always good to see you, thank you for being here. they complement to the conservative leadership of the house for impacting and slowing some of the policies this administration was talking about in the policy releasing from guantánamo bay and perhaps releasing criminals on their streets they would be the first to say we have a lot of work to do. they also mentioned that your job needs to be done humanely. you know and we talked about before we have a huge problem in the country is a growing problem and in fact, if we took them in the united states today they would equal the sixth or just army in the world.

so my question is this is it humane to leave individuals that are here illegally and who enacted the participants in the wall street game were participated in the organized criminal gangs to remain in the united states. >> if that is the case and that is indeed the memo that you mentioned, you had it a little difficult because three months ago, the director didn't have a clue when she was asked and you can look at the testimony and the record. when we asked how many criminal aliens would file and have they processed and deported since the dhs updated its policies that you referenced how many have been released and third with a type of process is the dhs using to determine who is a member of a criminal gang.

so my question to you is can you give us today the number of criminal aliens with violent ties that ice and cbp has deported since the policy was updated? >> as a noble number that we can get to you for the record is sitting right now i don't know the number but i -- >> here's the problem that we have. here is one of our top priorities. the director directors that you didn't have a clue and today when we have a hearing to look at this, we don't have that number so if you would get it back to us i would assume then that you also don't know how many have been released. >> again it is a notable number i just didn't come prepared with the number if i could have anticipated your question, i would have. >> if it was when a was when a startup was one of her top rarities that might have been a trick that you would like to see if it was working so let me ask

you this one. >> is one of my top three birdies. >> you just don't know if it is working or not. >> you don't know the unknowable number. >> i do notice i have mandated as part of that same directive that we track -- >> can i ask you this because i don't have the five-minute clip type of process are they using to do the tracking that you mandated >> do you ask them? >> we've tightened up the guidance so that it is more -- if we can more effectively identify -- >> share with us as a committee how you've tightened it up. did you ask the individuals if they are members of the violent criminal gang's? >> if you are referring to applicants for the deferred action the answer is yes. >> so your testimony today is that you ask every member who

was in applicants whether they are a member of the violent criminal gang to cut that would begin, what the director said so that is your testimony today. >> i know that being a member of a criminal street gang is a disqualifier. >> but if we don't know who they are it doesn't help us. can you state under oath today that you know that each of those applicants were asked whether they are even a member of a violent, opening? >> i believe the answer is yes sir. >> you believe it is that you do not know. can you confirm that and get it back to us for the record? do you know whether or not they are reviewing the criminal trial records? >> i'm sorry, what's the question? to >> did you know whether the applicant's trial records are reviewed whether the decision is made if they will be released?

spin it a trial record, what is a trial record? >> when they are going to court and they are prosecuted for a crime there would be the record of that and the reason it's important is because often times it doesn't stay on the conviction they were a member of a violent criminal gang unless you are reviewing the records he wouldn't have a way of knowing it and i know my time is up but -- >> i don't know if i'd ever heard the term trial record. >> the problem is it doesn't show those in the trial. >> i will yield back. very concerning that you have a major priority and we don't know the metrics whether or not it is working. >> that would be a mischaracterization of what i said sir. >> the time of the gentleman has expired and recognize the gentleman from texas for five minutes. >> thank you very much for your testimony. to my colleagues i think i said

this before on the homeland security is important to note that the secretary has made incredible advances securing the nation and i always say when we were asked to criticize the administration and other agencies within homeland security that we have faced challenges that america is more secure and the department and in particular let me thank secretary johnson for noting that decrease in the unaccompanied children and when that group of us went to visit in the san antonio and viewed the circumstances that were of children and mothers that the department was responsive and we

appreciate the decrease in population of mothers and children dealing with unaccompanied circumstances. i think that it's important to take note that this is a huge challenge in securing the nation so allow me to review this and click yes or no to get to the questions but i just want to say that program that you have announced would that have been a sizable intervention for the sheriff's sheriff's department and other cities to be able to respond to a circumstance that mr. sanchez? does this give them a greater latitude and rename and renamed the sanctuary city status? to >> yes. >> and let me just say for my colleagues colleagues the century city isn't choosing the the secretary of homeland security is the state's rights and individual cities wreaking their determination. i would offer to say and ask unanimous consent to put into

the record and might i do this to my colleagues to know what my deepest sympathy to the family and i deeply apologize to the family for the tragedies that have occurred in san francisco. none of us would want to counter that were supported that war to be supportive of the preemptive immigration reform and support that violent act. but i do think it's important to note the murders in san francisco compared to the cities of minneapolis and the dallas of the same size. those are the 5.75 and indianapolis is 5.17 at 11.39. over the years, the site has gone down. i don't necessarily want to condemn the cities, but i do want to condemn the idea of the communications and i want to join with the mayor looking at an order of activities here.

>> my question to the law enforcement in the city it would negate the sanctuary city authority to have simply picked up the phone and called to be able to say to this individual that has a long criminal history is in our facilities. mr. secretary is that a possibility in light of the tragedy that we do not diminish could have been a conversation at this time? from the sheriff's department could not violate the city rules per se? >> my strong intent with the new program is that we have the type of cooperative relationship with local law enforcement such that so that we get a notification before somebody is released. >> and they could have also made a call at that time as well. >> i won't get into the orders.

with the move quickly to this issue of the violent extremism. the times made it clear. the attacks versus the seven islamic militant attacks and we all know that we are concerned about isis and every state. they are dealing with antigovernment feelings and i have every respect for opinions and speech that expresses hatred toward me because i'm an african-american but not violence as evidenced by mother in annual. can you explain what you will be giving about capturing those who engage in violent anti-extreme antigovernment activities and of course racial violence that is rising as a perspective of the mystic theater is on

>> of course there's always the law-enforcement approach to hate crime and violence. the efforts across the department should be comprehensive in my view. i spent a lot of time as you know we attended one together in houston about a month ago. i effort has been focusing on the communities that i believe are most vulnerable at least some members of the community to the appeals overseas for those that are actively targeting individuals in these communities into so i think that we need to focus on communities that have the ability to influence somebody that may be turning in the direction. without a doubt, there is a very

real potential of domestic acts of terrorism. i just went to oklahoma oklahoma city in and the 20th anniversary of the bombing of air -- that in april. the program that counters domestic violent extremism is in my judgment a little more complicated. it's a threat to the homeland from overseas that i am concerned about is one that is making active efforts to recruit people in response to isis's recruitment efforts. ..