immigration reform. it is beyond dispute that such a narrative shapes behavior and encourages people to come to our country illegally. in fact, newspapers in el salvador and honduras seem to be encouraging youth to head to the united states based on these policies. in recent internal dhs surveys, these childrenry ve reveal that than 70% believe they are going to stay in the country. this administration should send an unambiguous message that those arriving will be promptly sent home. i, for one, do not want to see another child harmed because we have not clearly articulated the realities on the ground consistent with current law. yesterday i was glad to see secretary johnson's letter. an open letter to the parents of children crossing our southwest border, notifying them that there are no free passes into

the united states. this is a good start. but a lot more needs to be done. in addition to a robust and effective public service campaign, we should also engage with the government of mexico to step up their efforts to secure their southern border. i call on the president of mexico and his interior minister to do just that. i'm very concerned that this recent surge is weakening our border security efforts here at home. border patrol agents and officers who are looking after these children are being taken away from their main duty, their mission of tracking down drug and weapon smugglers as well as criminal aliens. operation control of the rio grande valley, the busiest sector in the nation, may be suffering. and cartels will no doubt exploit this situation. recently the state of texas announced that it would surge border security operations along the border to fill a void left by the federal government.

securing the border is a responsibility of the federal government. states should not need to protect what is in the federal government's role under our constitution. the president needs to immediately send the national guard to the southwest border to deal with this crisis. we need to find solutions to this crisis, and soon. and while secretary johnson has largely inherited the current situation, i look forward to hearing now how he is planning to respond to this emergency. again, i want to thank the witnesses for being here today on such short notice. the chair now recognizes the ranking member. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you also for holding today's hearing. i want to thank the witnesses also for their testimony. on a daily basis, waves of children ranging from toddlers to teenagers are fleeing violence, oppression and economic desperation from

guatemala, honduras and el salvador. many of them sent by their families. they are simply looking for a safe haven. as an intense and significant humanitarian crisis develops, we are finding it to be complex. it is irresponsible to attribute this crisis to one u.s. policy, or for that matter, one u.s. president. despite the demagoguing by many, this crisis is not just an immigration matter, nor is it just a foreign policy matter. this crisis is not exclusive to the united states. much of the western hemisphere is reeling with this crisis. according to the united nations, these children are streaming into mexico, panama, nicaragua and belize as well as canada and the united states. from our perspective, we seem to be barraged on a daily basis by troubling images of vulnerable

children, many still clutching their dolls and teddy bears, crossing the border into the united states and being immediately apprehended by border patrol officers. this fiscal year alone, the border patrol officers have apprehended and detained over 50,000 unaccompanied children at the southwestern border. the number of kids arriving at our border without their parents seems to grow by the day. the influx of these kids has certainly strained border patrol resources. but the men and women of the border patrol have risen to the challenge. in 2008, then president george bush signed a william we believe force trafficking victims authorization act. t( law recognizes that special kay is demanded when dealing with the young and vulnerable. under these laws, the border patrol is required to take unaccompanied children who are not from mexico into custody, screen them and transfer them to

the department of health and human services office of refuge resettlement. i would note for the record that during this challenging time, f even though border patrol has had to ramp up activities in the rio grande valley, the agency's effectiveness rate has improved. for those out there who are looking for simple answers, to lay the blame on president obama's policy on action for childhood arrivals or even the senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform legislation, i would note that neither would apply to these kids. hence the assertion that the recent surge on unaccompanied children is due to lack of immigration enforcement does not pass the smell test. in a time of crisis such as this, mr. chairman, we need to get our priorities in line and find both near-term and long-term ways to address this situation. on june 2nd, the president tapped secretary johnson to

establish a unified coordinating group to ensure federal unity of effort to address this situation. in turn, secretary johnson appointed fema's administrator fugate to be the fellow coordinating official and lead those efforts throughout the executive branch. looking out to the long term, we need to do more to turn the tide on this crisis by, among other things, fostering greater stability among our neighbors and dissuading families from taking such action. over the weekend, secretary johnson issued a public service announcement in various central american countries, debunking the myth about u.s. immigration policy, and informing the parents about the danger of traveling from central america to the united states. today i want to hear from the department about the response and their work with other fellow agencies, including the departments of health and human services, defense and state in

addressing this crisis. we need to organize all our fellow agencies involved, not just dhs, to effectively address the sudden surge. looking beyond dhs, there are questions to ask about hhs's resources for that matter. states' engagement through regional security initiatives such as the central american regional security initiative, do these programs have enough funding and personnel to be effective? i recognize that the panel assembled today may not be in a position to answer this question, but it is a question i will be pursuing. dehumanizing and labeling these kids and their parents will not yield a solution. labeling this as an administration failure will not address what is actually going on in el salvador, honduras and guatemala that would cause a parent to hand over their son or daughter to a smuggler, or send

that child through a perilous trek through central american and mexico to the united states. at this time, mr. chairman, we can use our platform to rise to the occasion and be helpful. or we can engage in political grandstanding at the peril of young lives. it is my hope that this committee, with its strong history of bipartisanship, can choose the former and be a model for effective leadership on this matter. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the ranking member for his constructive comments. other members are reminded that opening statements may be submitted for the record. we're pleased to be here today to have a distinguished panel of witnesses before us today. first, the secretary, jeh johnson, of homeland security was sworn on in december the 23rd, 2013, as the fourth secretary of the department of homeland security. prior to joining dhs he served as general counsel for the department of defense where he

served as part of the senior management team and led more than 10,000 military and civilian lawyers across the department. as general counsel of the department of defense, secretary johnson oversaw the development of the legal aspects of many of the nations counterterrorism policies and spearheaded reforms to the military commission systems at guantanamo bay. you and i talked privately. you have traveled many times down to my home state of texas and seen this crisis firsthand. we thank you for doing that. he is accompanied today, this morning, by mr. greg fugate, the administrator of the federal emergency management agency. and mr. ronald vitiello, deputy chief of the united states border patrol. mr. fugate and mr. vitiello will not be offering opening statements. they're here to answer any questions members may have. secretary has submitted a written statement.

on behalf of those witnesses which will appear in the record. the chair now recognizes the secretary for five minutes for his opening statement. >> thank you, chairman. you have my prepared statement. i will deliver an abbreviated version of it. mr. chairman, ranking member thompson, members of this committee, i thank you for the opportunity to testify today about our efforts to address the recent rise of unaccompanied children and others crossing our border in the rio grande valley. with me today to answer questions are craig fugate, the administrator of fema, and deputy chief ron vietillo of the u.s. border patrol. to be clear we face an urgent situation in the rio grande valley. last fiscal year, cdp apprehended more than 24,000 unaccompanied children at the border. by mid-june of this year, that number has doubled to more than 52,000. those from guatemala -- guatemala, el salvador, honduras make up three-quarters of that

migration. on friday, i traveled to south texas for the fourth time in six months in office. this time to lead an interagency team to oversee our efforts there. while there, we met with officials at mcgown and lackland to review the situation and hear directly from those on the ground what their needs are. while there, i spent time talking with the children again. it is a vivid reminder that this is a humanitarian issue as much as it is a matter of border security. we're talking about large numbers of children. without their parents. who have arrived at our border hungry, thirsty, exhausted, scared and vulnerable. how we treat the children in particular is a reflection of our laws and our values. therefore, to address this situation, our strategy is three-fold. first, process the increased tide of unaccompanied children

through the system as quickly as possible. two, stem the increased tide of illegal migration into the rio grande valley. three, do these things in a manner consistent with our laws and values as americans. so here's what we're doing. first, on may 12th, i declared a level four condition of readiness within dhs. which is a determination that the full capacity of cbp and i.c.e. to deal with the situation is full and we need to draw upon additional resources across all of dhs. i appointed deputy chief vitiello to my left to coordinate this effort within dhs. second, on june 1st, president obama, consistent with the homeland security act, directed me to establish a unified coordination group to bring to bear the assets of the entire federal government on this situation. this group includes dhs and all of its components. the department of health and human services, defense,

justice, state and gsa. i, in turn, designated fema administrator fugate to my right to serve as the federal coordinating official for the u.s. government-wide response. third, we have established added capacity to deal with the processing and housing of the children. we are creating additional capacity in places. and we are considering others. fourth, dhs and hhs are increasing spanish speaking case management staff. increasing staff handling incoming calls from parents or guardians, raising awareness of the parent hotline provided by fema and operated by hhs. surging staff to manage the intake of cbp referrals to track shelter bed capacity and facilitate shelter designations. here i must note from personal observation that our border patrol and other cbp personnel, as well as personnel from hhs,

i.c.e., fema and the coast guard are doing a remarkable job in difficult circumstances. all of these dedicated men and women deserve our recognition, support and gratitude. fifth, dhs is building additional detention capability for adults who cross the border illegally in the rio grande valley with their children. for this purpose, dhs is establishing a temporary facility for adults and children on the federal law enforcement training center's campus in artegia, new mexico. the establishment of this temporary facility will help cbp process those encountered at the border and allow i.c.e. to increase its capacity to house and expedite the removal of adults with children in a manner that complies with federal law. artegia is one of several facilities dhs is considering to increase our capacity, to hold and expedite the removal of the increasing number of adults with children illegally crossing the

southwest border. sixth, dhs has brought on more transportation assets to assist in the effort. the coast guard is loaning air assets to help transport the children. i.c.e. is leasing additional charter aircraft. seven, throughout the rgb sector we are conducting public health screening for all those who come into our facilities of contagious diseases or other possible public health concerns. both dhs and hhs are ensuring that children's nutritional and hygienic needs are met while in our custody. that children are provided regular meals and access to drinks and snacks throughout the day. that they receive constant supervision. and that children who exhibit signs of illness or disease are given proper medical care. we have also made clear that all individuals will be treated with dignity and respect and any instances of mistreatment reported to us will be

investigated. eighth, working through fema's national response coordination center, we are coordinating with voluntary and faith-based organizations to help us manage the influx of unaccompanied children crossing the border. the american red cross is providing blankets and other supplies. and through their restoring family links program is coordinating calls between children in the care of dhs and families anxious about their well-being. ninth, to stem the tide of children seeking to enter the united states, we have also been in contact with senior government officials of guatemala, el salvador, honduras and mexico to address our shared border security interest. the underlying conditions in central america that are promoting the mass exodus, and how we can work together to assure faster, secure removal and repatriation. last week, president obama spoke with mexican president pena net

toe about the situation as has secretary kerry. this past friday vice president biden also visited guatemala to meet with regional leaders to address the influx of unaccompanied children and families from central america. and the underlying security and economic issues that are causing this migration. the vice president announced that the u.s. will be providing a range of new assistants to the region, including $9.6 million n( additional funding for central american governments to receive and reintegrate their repay treeuated citizens. and a new $40 million u.s. agency for international development program in guatemala over five years to improve citizen security. an additional $161.5 million will be provided this year to the central american regional security initiative to further enable central american countries to respond to the nation's most pressing security and government -- government challenges. i will travel to guatemala on july 8 and 9.

the government of el salvador has sent additional personnel from its consulate in the u.s. to south texas to help expedite re-pay treeuation to its country. tenth, dhs together with doj has added personnel and resources to the investigation, prosecution and dismantling of the smuggling organizations that are facilitating border crossings into the rio grande valley. 11th, we are initiating and intensifying our public affairs campaigns. in spanish, with radio, print and tv post to communicate the dangers of sending unaccompanied children on the long journey from central america to the united states. and the dangers of putting children into the hands of criminal smuggling organizations. as the chairman noted, i have personally issued an open letter to the parents of those who are sending their children from central america to the u.s., which has been distributed broadly in spanish and english to highlight the dangers of the

journey and to emphasize there are no free passes or permissos at the other end. we are stressing that the deferred action for childhood arrivals or daca program, does not apply to children who arrive now or in the future in the united states. and that could be considered for daca individuals must have continually resided in the united states since june 2007. seven years ago. we're making clear that the earned path to citizenship contemplated by the senate bill passed last year will not apply to individuals who cross the border now or in the future. only to those who have been in this country for the last year and a half. 12th, given the influx of unaccompanied children in the rio grande valley, we have increased cbp staffing and detailed 115 additional experienced agents from less active sectors to augment operations there. i'm considering sending 150 more

border patrol agents based on my review of operations there this past week. 13th, in early may i directed the development of a southern border and approaches campaign plan effort that is putting together a strategic framework to further enhance security for our southern border. finally, we will continue to work closely with congress on this problem and keep you informed. dhs is updating members and staff on the situation in conference calls twice a week. and we're facilitating site visits to border patrol facilities in texas and arizona for a number of members and their staff. i have directed my staff to be forthright in bringing to me every conceivable, lawful option for consideration to address this problem. in cooperation with the other agencies of our government that are dedicating resources to the effort, with the support of congress, and in cooperation

with the governments of mexico and central america, i believe we will stem this tide. thank you. >> thank you, secretary. chair now recognizes himself for questions. let me say, first, i commend you for your immediate response to this crisis. but we do have a crisis on the border. it's in our backyard. and it's affecting my state particularly probably the greatest. and when i see our military bases now turning into refugee camps here in the united states, i think that's something i never thought we would see in the united states. i talked with senior officials and border patrol down in the rio grande valley sector. we have 250 -- over 250 children being apprehended every day down there. and i think the saddest thing about this whole story is the exploitation of these children. i think as you recently mentioned in your open letter,

you said that it's dangerous to send a child on the long journey from central america to the united states in the hands of smugglers. many children are traumatized, psychologically abused by their journey. or worse, beaten, starved, sexually assaulted or sold into the sex trade. they are exposed to psychological abuse at the hands of the criminals. you know, we see these publications down in central america saying, if you come into the united states, you can stay. now, whether that's a misinterpretation of our policies, i think there's a lot of confusion out there. and i personally believe that this administration's policies have contributed to this problem and have encouraged more people to come. when i talk to law enforcement, whether it's border sheriffs or cbp on border, they believe that this problem will continue until we provide a deterrence. a strong message that if you do

come, you cannot stay. and so secretary johnson, what are you doing in that respect? what deterrence are we providing to stop this? because if we don't provide that deterrence, this problem will not stop. >> i agree, first of all. we need to stem the tide. these gentlemen here to my left and right are leading our herculean effort to deal with the current capacity, but we've got to stem the tide. i believe among the things that i listed here that what is critical is we correct the record. we straighten the misperceptions. the smuggling organizations are creating a misinformation campaign that there's a permissos or free pass. i've even heard that you have to get here by may 2014 in order to get your free pass. so the smuggling organizations have an incentive to induce

these kids to -- to have their families pay money to smuggle them up here. so their putting out misinformation, which we're trying to correct through our public awareness campaign. but we're also building, as i mentioned, increased detention capability for adults who bring their kids into the country to expedite their removal and return back to their home nations. the other thing that we in the department of justice are very focused on right now is going after the networks of smuggling organizations. through their financial transactions, through prosecuting the personnel, we've surged doj and criminal investigators into texas for that purpose. but i agree, chairman, we need to stem the tide. >> and i think that -- that -- i know in 2006 we had a brazilian crisis. and we provided mandatory detention. and it worked. so i think -- i think the administration needs to look at that. i think the national guard -- i know d.o.d. doesn't like that option. but i think if they could help

with the influx and allow border patrol to do their job on the border, i think that would be helpful as well. in the limited time i have, i want to focus on what i think could be a very good solution to this problem. in addition to deterrence. you and i have talked about this issue. and it has to do with mexico. and mexico's cooperation with the united states. they are allowing this to happen in their country. the drug cartels are exploiting these children as they come through mexico. we know mexico's southern border is completely wide open. i know we have offered assistance to mexico that to date i don't know whether that has been accepted. but my information is that it has not been. i would like to commit my efforts to work with you to get that problem solved. because i think as you look at these children, they're all coming from central america. if we can close the southern

border of mexico, that stops 99% of our problems here. so if -- if, mr. secretary, if you would -- wouldn't mind commenting on that issue. >> well, first, as i mentioned in my opening comment, i want to hear every legally available option for consideration. whether it's from my own staff, whether it's from the interagency, or whether it's from members of congress. or former government officials who write op-eds. i want to hear every available option. clearly, the key -- a key to this is what the government of mexico can do. i agree with your assessment, mr. chairman. we need to engage the senior most officials and we've begun that in president to president discussions. i've had discussions with my counterpart. i think that mexican -- the mexican southern border, our shared border security interest, is the key. i also think that engagement with the government of guatemala

is the key which is why i'm going there personally next month. so -- but no doubt, we've got -- this is a critical way to stem the tide. >> all right. i encourage you. i think you're right. central america as well. with the secretary of state, state department has a role to deal with central america in this crisis coming out of there. with that, chair now recognizes the ranking member. >> thank you, mr. secretary. how often have you had a discussion with secretary kerry or burwell on this situation? what i'm looking for is, right now the microscope's on you. but there are some other players in this effort also. are you having discussions with -- with other officials of the cabinet? >> yeah. oh, yes, definitely. on june 1st, as i noted, the

president established a -- a government-wide effort pursuant to the homeland security act to deal with this and set up a unified coordination group, which i oversee. administrator fugate is in charge of it, which brings to bear the resources and assets of not only dhs, but hhs, doj, department of defense. and so we have an effort which fema, day-to-day, craig and his staff day to day coordinate and support. in addition to that, we're in routine -- i'm in routine conversation with my cabinet counterparts about this issue. i'm having a meeting with my cabinet counterparts right after this testimony, as a matter of fact. last friday i brought a group of interagency colleagues down to mcgowan and langley myself. not langley. lackland myself to see the

situation. so we're in good consultation with all these other agencies. >> yeah. just trying to make sure that there's an understanding that it's not just jeh johnson who's responsible for this issue. but there are other players also who actually we need to have conversation with. one of the conversations that i think would be important is under existing law, how long would the children be in custody of dhs before they're passed off to hhs? >> under existing law, we are required to transfer the child within 72 hours to hhs. from the point at which we identify the child as an unaccompanied minor. i know that the provision in the law says there's an exception for extraordinary circumstances. but in general the legal requirement is 72 hours. >> and i guess my question to

administrator fugate is, have you been able to coordinate the resources so that 72 hour pass on is working? >> at this time, with the number of children coming in, we're not meeting the 72 hours. but since june 1st, we've added over 3,000 beds to the health and human services office of refugee resettlement. including the three military bases that previously were referenced. in addition to that, we wanted to get these kids as quickly as we could from the detention facilities to a bed, even if we could not get them to hhs's custody. so custom and border protection has built out one processing center. another one is coming online in mid-july. so at this point, we have not reached the 72 hours. but we're building more capacity to get children in beds. but also health and human services is stepping up placement for the longer-term care of these children. our other hope is, is that the

quicker we can place children long term, either reunited with legal guardians or parents or with foster families while they await further proceedings, the fewer beds that will be required. we have increased capacity. but the number of children coming in have increased as well. and we have not reached the 72-hour mark. >> and i guess the follow-up to that is, in your coordinating role, do you feel that the resources necessary to be successful have been made available to you? >> yes, sir. the challenges again in building out facilities and bringing on additional foster care facilities, these are licensed facilities. it is diligent work by a lot of federal agencies to get this work, and it is time consuming. that's why we looked at some intermediate steps to increase bed capacity within custom and border protection. but you do have, i believe, additional requests that have been identified from omb that there will be additional resources required in the next

year. we continue to work within our authorities and within the budgets we currently have. >> mr. vietello, can you tell us whether or not the border patrol as it's presently staffed can meet this influx of young people coming across the border? >> as is typical, the men and the women of the border patrol have stepped up to this task. i think you heard the secretary describe that we were there on friday. we watched the hard, diligent, heroic work they are doing to make the best of the situation. it's our -- it's my assessment and what we heard from the leadership on the ground down there, the agents that are involved in this crisis, we are adequately staffed and even better staffed than we were this time last year. so we are concerned as this goes on about staffing levels and our

ability to do the other patrol border functions. but the reports that we got on friday, i'm very comfortable that they have the resources that are available and they're using them in an adequate way to protect the border. this isn't a security problem in the sense that this population, both the family units and the children, are not trying to evade apprehension at the border. they're essentially coming in an area that's -- that's well known by us, well patrolled by us. they're not evading arrest. and the other locations along the border were adequately or -- we are better staffed or the same staffing that we had last year. so there is some risk involved here, but the reports that we heard on friday don't concern me. >> thank you. i yield back. >> chairman recognizes gentleman from new york, mr. king. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary johnson, let me thank you for your testimony today. before we get into this issue thank you for what you've done

as far as counterterrorism efforts. i want to personally thank you for that. it's greatly appreciated. on this issue, let me get to the question that the chairman is raising regarding deterrence. in your statement you say that you want to emphasize there are no free passes. i understand what you mean by that, but if you're parents in central america, in effect this can look like a free pass. you're making the situation more humanitarian. you're making more facilities available. as mr. fugate said, you're providing support to families. all which is understandable. that's our obligation as human beings. on the other hand, if you're a family in guatemala or el salvador this in a way is a free pass. it's a better life than they're getting in south america. i don't understand how that's going to restore what's happening. and on the issue of diplomatic engagements, it would appear that as the chairman said the southern border of mexico is the key here. do we have any realistic hope that mexico is going to be cooperative on that?

also you mentioned going into the coyotes? what's the time frame on that? as a practical matter we've been trying to do that for years. is there any reason to think the homeland security or doj can expedite that or be more effective? i'm not reflecting on you. i'm just saying we've been doing this for as long as i can remember, going after the coyotes. they're still there. i guess what is the deterrence? because the more you take what is proper humanitarian action, the more you're making it, to me, more accessible and more hospitab hospitable, and it seems to be almost a catch-22. unless we can step up diplomatic efforts regarding the southern border of mexico. and going after the coyotes. >> well, a couple of things. first, i'm convinced that the principal reason these kids -- from everything i've heard, everything i've seen, and from my own conversations with these kids, the principal reason

they're leaving is the push factor from the countries they're living. the conditions in honduras, for example, are horrible. it's the murder capital of the world. there is -- there is this misinformation out there that there is a permissos. that's what we're hear ing. free pass. you get a piece of paper that says, welcome to the united states. you're free. that's not the case. when you're apprehended at the border, irregardless of age, you're a priority for removal. they're giving a notice to appear in a deportation proceeding. the way the law works, the 2008 law, we are required to give that child to hhs. and hhs is required to act in the best interest of the child, which most often means placing that child with a parent who is here in the united states. but there is a pending deportation proceeding against the child. now, in terms of -- but that's

not a free pass. in terms of -- >> but if i were a parent in guatemala, wouldn't i sooee tha as being a free pass? a 5-year-old child getting an order to show up in immigration court, are you going to actually deport that child? to me, it is a free pass. from their perspective. >> congressman, i don't see it as a free pass, particularly given the danger of migrating over 1,000 miles through mexico into the united states. especially now in the months of july and august that we're facing. a lot of these kids stow away on top of freight trains. which is exceedingly dangerous. i spoke to one kid who was about 12 or 13 who spent days, climbed on top of a freight train. a boxcar. and these kids, sometimes they fall off because they fall asleep. they can't hold on any longer. it's exceedingly dangerous. >> i'm not saying it is a free pass. i'm saying how do we change their minds, not think it's a free pass, considering the poverty we're under.

also if i could ask you on that, is the situation any worse in honduras today than it was two years ago or three years ago? any tougher economically or gangwise in these countries than it was several years ago before we had this mass influx? >> i know it's been bad for a while. i know it's been bad for a while. if you're asking me to explain why the influx over the last cup of months all of the sudden -- >> if you could, yeah, sure. >> i'm not sure i have the answer to that question. i do believe that the smuggling organizations are putting out a lot of disinformation about the conditions, the legal conditions here in the united states to induce this activity. and i agree with you, congressman, that we have to put in place, and i think we're doing this, a number of deterrent factors. increased housing to detain parents, adults who come to this country with their children, expedited removals, and the public relations campaign. and one of the things that i'm doing in addition to everything else we've done on the public relations front is i'm talking

to the u.s. conference of catholic bishops about how they can help. and i've had very good conversations. and i think that they will. because they realize that the dangers of a parent sending a child for this type of migration. >> thank you for your service. yield back, mr. chairman. >> thank the gentleman. chair now recognizes the gentle lady from texas, ms. jackson-lee. >> let me thank both the chairman and the ranking member for the spirit of this hearing. and the combined recognition that this is a humanitarian crisis way beyond our imagination, we might use hindsight, mr. secretary, and look at this and say why did we not see it. i think the variables of the world would argue that the world remains in crisis in many areas, and it makes it very difficult,

even when individuals are your neighbors, to be able to spot crises maybe before they begin to show themselves. so i am grateful for the response of the border patrol and the agencies and the president who is recognized that we have come. let me first of all acknowledge that this should not be political grandstanding. and i would commend some of my colleagues to read -- i'll hold up this article that says "why 90,000 children flooding our border is not an immigration story." in a survey of 404 by the united nations, they found that 58% of these children were forcibly displaced. and to a degree it warranted international protection. meaning that if the united states breached its responsibility, and i know some adhere to the u.n. i do.

i respect it as an international organization. we would be breaching many of its conventions that we have adhered to. so we're doing the right thing. i think it's important that i ask unanimous consent to put this in the record. an article dated june 16th, 2014. >> without objection. >> i also want to hold up what we're talking about. we're talking about a little baby holding a bottle. maybe not even carried by his own family. we're talking about children who are not in the taj mahal, but are desperate. and may be internally displaced or chased off by the violence of their countries. and we're trying to respond to it. i think that is very important. i think it's also important to note that the wilbur force act was signed in 2008 by president bush. this is the one about unaccompanied children that were supposed to be handled by hhs. it was legislation that originated in a judiciary committee.

i remember it very well. and the idea was for 20 children or 100 children to be handled by it was not an open door policy. it was never, if you will, amnesty. then i want to put into the record june 15, 2012 statement by i.c.e., accused of being the open-door policies june 15, 2012. come to the united states under the age of 16 and continuously resided in the united states for five years. what child can imagine that they would fit under daca? it is clearly an issue of devastating human smuggling and human trafficking, something my colleague, my chairwoman mrs. miller, myself have looked at and included this language even in our authorization bills some

few weeks ago. so i ask these questions as long as we can keep the facts. it is not an issue of the wilbur force bill. it is a question of detention facilities, as well the need for diplomatic interaction as we've done with the crisis and the leaders of guatemala, el salvador and honduras. they are in crisis. they are violent. i ask you about creating more processing centers, and as well, the senate passed about a 2 billion out of their labor hhs, is this what you need, about $2 billion to $3 billion to make sure we can respond to this? i also ask if someone would address the question, and i thank the border patrol for the work they've done, the suggestions that there have been some form of abuse. i think we should not run away

from challenges that have been made regarding the treatment of these children. i think we should be open. we want to make sure they have facilities. i appreciate your response to those questions. >> congresswoman, i will answer quickly and ask my colleagues if they would like to supplement. in general in response to your question, we need to identify and create more processing space, more shelter space for hhs, before they place the kids and more detention space for adults which children. we do not have a lot of detention space for family units. so as a deterrent and simply deal with the sheer numbers, we need to create more detention space for adults who bring their children. that's one of our principle goals as part of this process. i ask administrator fugate or chief patelo if they have anything they want to add? >> no. >> i would add on the claims of abuse, my chief, the

commissioner and secretary have been very direct and we are all focused on that issue. there is no room for abusive detainees in custody, specifically children. will be fully cooperative in all manner getting to the bottom of those allegations. >> i'm glad to hear you say that publicly and openly, we are not running away from it, we are investigating and care about these children and will address this in the way the united states has always done in a humanitarian crisis. >> the lady's time expired. the secretary has to leave 12k:30. i will strictly enforce the five-minute rule. gentleman from alabama mr. rogers is recognized. >> thank you. do you believe we had control of our border, our southern border? >> he recognized when i took office we had some real issues in the rio grande valley sector, in particular, with those coming

from guatemala, el salvador and honduras. >> any areas of the border we had a fence we had children coming across? for example, southern part of california. >> this has not been a big phenomenon in southern california or arizona. >> any place we had a fence, have we had 5-year-old children coming across the border? >> not in very large numbers. it's got a lot to do with the fact south texas is so closely located to central america, too. that's the migration path. >> the rio grande valley, if we had the same fencing we have along the southern border of california, do you believe these children would be coming across the border in numbers they are coming across or anything close to it? >> it's hard to answer because you are talking about the rio grande river, which is a very -- >> i've been there. i know what i'm talking about. we don't have a fence down there. if we did, we wouldn't have 5-year-old children coming across. this congress in 2006, because i was here. we authorized and appropriated the money for 700 miles of

fencing. we've gotten most of that. that was done in 2009. we haven't had any more since then. this is what we get for it. let me ask this. i've been down to the large detention facility. i've seen the folks we detain be debriefed, cleaned up, put on a bus and sent back. why aren't we doing that with these children? >> first of all it's being used as a processing center for the unaccompanied children. they are leaving and going to hhs custody for shelter and then placement. >> why aren't we putting them on a bus like we normally do and sent them back down to guatemala. >> because the law requires i turn them over to hhs, sir. >> the law required obamacare to be kicked in two years ago. that hasn't stopped the administration before. it's a humanitarian crisis. it's a national security crisis for our country. i don't know why these children are being treated differently.

you talked about wanting to talk to the guatemalan government. what you need to do is ask the guatemalan government where they want these kids dropped off when the buses bring them back down there. what are we doing other then taking them and putting them in a facility here which makes it more likely we'll keep them here for months and years. what are we doing to get them turned home? >> we are creating additional detention space for adults who bring their children. i want to consider any option for stemming this tide, sir. the law requires, the law that was created in 2008, requires that we turn these kids over, they're unaccompanied to the department of health and human services within 72 hours, generally. that's what we do. they are turned over with a notice to appear that is effectively a deportation proceeding commenced against them. the law requires i turn them over to hhs. >> do you believe these are

exegent circumstances? >> yes. >> do you believe the president should issue an executive order to deal with this crisis? >> i'm not sure i can comment on that. of what nature? >> to supersede the law. this is not the first time -- >> last time i -- >> i don't know why he can't do it with these children. >> last time i looked an executive order can't supersede the law. >> that's what i thought. right now we have a crisis. i don't see this administration doing anything about it other than trying to house the children. i understand the humanitarian basis for that, but we need to send a signal to these other countries that it's not going to work. you can't send your children up here and let them stay. we'll turn them right back and give them right back to you. that's what i'm looking for you as a way to do this. that's a clear signal to these parents not to send these children in the future. tell me what you can do other than give them to hhs.

nothing. have you called the national guard out? or asked for it? >> like i said, i would like to consider every option presented. i went through in my prepared testimony the 12 or 13 steps we've taken to deal with the crisis, which includes building more detention space. >> the speaker of the house last week called on the president to mobilize the national guard to give relief to the border control and fema in this crisis. why can't you call on the president to do that? >> sir, if you're asking me if i can take an unaccompanied child, turn him around in the border and send him back to guatemala, i don't believe the law would permit us to do that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> recognizes mr. higgins from new york. >> thank you, mr. secretary. we had an incident in buffalo regarding facilities for

undocumented and unaccompanied children in grand island, new york. a local developer offered to gsa a property that the local developer doesn't own and either represented that the property was vacant and developable or federal agents assumed that the property was vacant and unavailable. that offer of property made its way from gsa to hhs, and finally to the department of homeland security where 3-d hs agents showed up at the property unannounced, and upon their arrival, they realized the property wasn't vacant. wasn't available. and found it to be a 236-room functioning hotel and spa. now, it would seem to me that someone that represents they own

a property and knows anything about it and offers that property to the federal government for use under this program, some due diligence would have had to have occurred to verify either the assumptions another to refute the misrepresentations that were made. are you familiar with this? can you offer any -- >> i've been informed that somebody within dhs looked at a hotel in upstate new york, and we were quickly informed that it's an up-and-running, functioning, occupied hotel. it's not a viable candidate for this situation. >> i think this misses the point. my real concern is that again, a local developer, doesn't own the property, reaches out to a federal agency and makes its way

through one, two, three other federal agencies and federal agents show up at the property. it's confirmed then, it could easily have been confirmed through some kind of internet search, google, that the property was not available. it just created a lot of confusion in the local community. >> well, i imagine it's just some investigators being thorough. as i mentioned, that property obviously is not an option to deal with this situation. it's an up-and-running occupied hotel. >> just seems to me more due diligence could have, should have been exercised here before federal agents were sent unannounced to a functioning

hotel and spa facility for the purposes of housing unoccupied children that cross the border. i yield back. >> gentlemen, i'd like to remind the members the purpose of this hearing is to address unaccompanied minors crossing the border. the chair now recognizes dr. brown from georgia. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, january 29th of this year, department of homeland security issued document, an ad actually requesting people to apply for a job to accompany these children, these unaccompanied children to be placed across the country. in that document, it said up to 65,000 kids. back in january of this year, the department already knew these kids were coming. was actually trying to get

contractors, independent contractors to come onboard to accompany these kids. at what point did you all have a knowledge that there were going to be up to 65,000 children, unaccompanied children coming into this country? obviously this is before january 29th. >> congressman, i heard about this solicitation. i don't know where this estimate comes from or what it's based on. i can't comment. >> i didn't ask about the document it. asked at what point did the department project that there were going to be 65,000 children coming into this country? >> like i said, i don't know where that estimate comes from. i heard about this document, but i've never seen it. >> the point is, what have you all done? if january the department understood that there were going to be up to 65,000 unaccompanied children coming to the united states, as a medical doctor, i try to prevent disease. i try to prevent problems with my patients.

the administration should be doing the same thing. if you knew that up to 65,000 unaccompanied children were going to be coming to this country, for pete's sake, you should have been doing something about it. i don't see where this administration or department of homeland security has done anything. am i wrong? >> very clearly, since i've been in office, we've known that there is an issue of a rising tide of unaccompanied children coming into this country. i've known that since i've been in office for six months. the issue intensified, i'd say for me at least, in the period april or may. in april, i asked my staff to develop an overall campaign plan for the southwest border, the rio grande valley in particular to deal with the children and deal with the rising tide of those coming from honduras, guatemala and el salvador, adults and children.

i saw this myself when i visited there in january. >> mr. secretary, i apologize for interrupting. i just have about two minutes left and i've got a lot of questions. the point is, nothing has been done for just get ready for these children to come. is that correct? >> i have to disagree. >> i would like to know what you all have been doing to try to stop the flood because i believe the administration policies is what's invited these kids to come here. i understand that these kids are being placed with family members across the country. i have seen some statistics that over 90% of these individuals, and you just said, that they were begin a notice of peer. 90% have actually absconded and never have been heard from again. how are you tracking, following up with these individuals if they don't show up in court? >> i don't know where the 90%

comes from. i do know that through hhs we have a process to track the kids when they move. if they move with their, with the adult whose supervision they're under that hhs places them with, there is a process to track them. i inquired and i'm told -- >> these kids have come here illegally. they've been law breakers already. you place them with families and it's my understanding that some of these families may be illegal themselves, is that correct? >> i'm sure that's true in certain segments, yes. >> what is the department doing to try to deport ordeal with these families that are illegal in themselves? and then you've got another law breaker in the kid. y'all should be following up. i don't have but just a second or two, but who has given the department of homeland security the directive of not enforcing

the law to deport people who are identified who are here illegally? >> i'd have to disagree with that characterization, sir. there are priorities for removal. focused on public safety, national security and border security. and we've prioritized the an enforcement of the law in that manner. >> well, i disagree. it's been very obvious the president has been very public that he said that he's not going to deport these illegal aliens. we don't even deport people who have broken the law and committed felonies. i think this administration is inviting these kids, inviting illegal aliens to come to this country and wants to give them legal status. i find that intolerable. thank you, mr. chairman. my time expired. >> chair recognizes ms. jackson lee for the purpose of entering statements into the record. >> i ask unanimous consent to submit the american immigration lawyers association statement dated june 24, 2014.

statement of the women's refugee commission dated june 24, 2014, and finally, a "the washington post" story, younging my rants stuck in limbo mexican border, children stuck alone in shelter basis june 22, 2014. unanimous consent. >> without objection, so ordered. >> thank you. i would also ask unanimous consent to submit statement from the first focus campaign for children facinging my rant children and families. >> without objection, so ordered. >> mr. secretary, thank you for your testimony so far today. everything you've done so far to address the issue we are discussing in today's hearing, and i'd like to commend through you your director in el paso for ice, adrian mesias, your assistant director. there have been not accompanied alien children butting my rant families transported from the

rio grande valley to el paso. hundreds so far. more plane loads coming in this week. your team on the ground in el paso has been exceptional how they are handling and processing these families and how they are working with social service groups like annunciation house to make sure the children and families and security of our country are protected. thank you for that. i also want to, you and i discussed this privately, but i want to say publically that the border patrol agents, cbp officers on front lines of this crisis are doing an extraordinary job in very difficult circumstances. we hear story after story of border patrol agents bringing toys from their own homes for these kids who are in incredibly vulnerable, difficult situations. border patrol agents working in cramped conditions. sometimes conditions that i know you are addressing, but border

on perhaps unsafe, unsanitary and i know we are quickly changing that. i want to thank all these agents and officers who are on the line facing this issue directly. to follow up on ms. jackson lee's comments, i want to thank you and the office for civil rights and civil liberties for addressing the claims and allegations brought by the aclu and others about mistreatment offing my rant children in custody. we don't know what the facts are. we just know the allegations have been made. you have promised to follow up on that aggressively and get to the facts and address that issue once we have all the facts. i want to thank you for that, as well. mr. chairman, i would like to address the larger context of this issue brought up by you and your opening remarks about what has created the conditions for this crisis that we have right now. i will acknowledge, i do think that the president's piecemeal administrative approach to this

when it comes to the dreamers or through daca might contribute to a perception there are these permicos available in the united states. mr. king's point that given the way these children are processed and begin an order to appear and placed with families in the united states, that may create the perception. there's also the fact congress in the year and half i've been here has been unable to vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. i think that contributes to this issue. miss jackson lee brought up the wilbur force act under president bush. all those facts about congress and the administration's ability or inability to deal with immigration are lost on the families and parents of these unaccompanied children who are sent north. i can only imagine. we celebrated my daughter molly's 6th birthday yesterday. i can only imagine what that must be like to be in a position to put her on a train north through mexico up to the border

with united states, not knowing how she will fare, if she will get there, what will happen to her once she arrives. conditions have to be really bad, unimaginably bad, to me, for that to happen. while i agree maybe mexican do more, although i find it ironic so many of us question we have an appropriate border policy that he we would be implementing or imposing one on another country. mexican do more. perhaps we could completely fence the border and build a giant moat with alligators to keep kids and people away. maybe we could put these kids on a bus and drop them off at the border with guatemala. i don't think any of those consistent, one with the law, two with our values, three with my conscience or the conscience of many of the people in this country. i think which have to address the issues in those countries of origin. we have complicity in this. we are the world's largest drug market. those countries are in between the world's largest drug suppliers and the world's largest drug market. i think your public relations campaign, mr. secretary, to

those countries, to tell them this is a dangerous journey is well intentioned. i don't know how effective that's going to be. we need a public relations campaign in the united states. if you use drugs, you are complicit in the dangers these children face. we do have a humanitarian crisis here. there is no easy solution. it certainly won't be solved by walls or border an enforcement. i think we need to go to the countries of origin. with that, mr. chair, i yield back. >> the chair now recognizes miss miller from michigan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. unfortunately the central americas have had a very long history of both bad economies and violence, and both these things are probably as bad now as they have ever been, but to say that's a reason we suddenly have tens of thousands of children, children almost entirely coming from guatemala, the honduras and el salvador,

traveling thousands of miles through mexico illegally entering the united states simply isn't true. i think it can be laid directly at the feet of president obama as a result of his daca policy in 2012. i hope our hearing doesn't judge just point out the problem which is very, very bad, getting worse, no end in sight, but i hope we can coalesce around actual options and solutions. several weeks ago i called on the president to call up the national guard. clearly, this is a national emergency. i don't think individual states like texas or arizona would have to fit the bill if they had their own national guard come up. this is a national problem. a number of members of congress subsequently joined me and i appreciate that in calling up the national guard. last week both governor rick perry and speaker boehner, as well, asked the president to call up the guard. i also called on the administration several weeks ago, almost a month ago to begin a very aggressive public relations campaign in the centrals telling parents not to put their children in danger by

paying mexican drug cartels up to $8,000 a head to smuggle their children into the united states. i'm glad to see that this was actually number 11 on the secretary's list of his action list he testified to today in our hearing. regarding mexico, which is our neighbor and in fact one of our largest trading partners, they are behaving so badly and so dishonorably they are complicit in human smuggling coming up from the centrals. i think we need to take additional steps now to protect america by getting our neighbors' attention. instead of increasing funding, hundreds of millions of dollars as the president called for, i think we need to stop foreign aid to the centrals immediately. i'm going to give you a couple of examples of what some of our usaid is being used for. developing civil society programs. climate change. addressing the gender gap in education and work force.

we would be better off spending this money in thor in cities of america. start with detroit. i would say no more money from america until they step up to their own responsibilities and stop their citizens from illegally migrating to the united states. again, regarding mexico, how can we continue to have free and fair trade with a country that not only takes our money but is actually profiting from these drug cartels from human smuggling of children? it is sickening to watch these children on the top of the train, the beast as they call it, sitting on the top of these trains coming up thousands of miles through mexico and the mexican government is doing nothing. we need to act decisively, we need to act now. i would say no more financial assistance either from the united states to the centrals that are shipping up their children to mexico, through mexico and to the united states. and i also think in regard to trading with mexico, we need to

reopen, reexamine and perhaps repeal both nafta, which is the north american free trade agreement, and i think we need to do the same with cafta, central america free trade agreement. we need to whack them, our neighbors, to understand that they are just not going to keep taking our money and we are just going to be sitting here like this. we are not the atm machine while this humanitarian crisis is happening with these innocent, innocent children. i would just ask the witnesses what you think of these additional options. secretary asked for options. in my opinion, we are not going to enforce our way out of this. we are not going to enforce our way out of this situation. we need to have some policy change and here are some suggested options. do any of the witnesses have a comment? >> congresswoman, i agree with you that a key to solving this problem is mexico and central

america, which is why we, i personally, i'm in dialogue with them. i believe in a number of respects we have a very valuable relationship with the government of mexico. in a number of respects that promotes the economies of our countries and this continent. but i do believe that we have to engage with them on our shared border security interest. i intend to have that conversation with them. our president has had that conversation with their president. we need to stress the situation that exists in south texas as a result of the migration that passes through their country from central america. we are doing that. and i believe the discussions had been ratcheted up, if you will, over the last several months as a result of the situation we face. i agree with you with respect to that. and with respect to daca, we

have to keep reemphasizing as i did in the letter i sent, which i believe was probably read by millions of people by now, at least i hope it was, daca is for kids who have been in this country for seven years. not for somebody who crosses the border today or tomorrow or yesterday. it's for somebody who's been in this country seven years. the smuggling organizations have a motive to distort and to pass out disinformation to encourage parents to pay them $3,000 or $4,000 a person to bring their kid into this country. that's what they're doing. they launched a misinformation campaign, which we have to correct. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> chair recognizes ms. sanchez from california. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, gentlemen, for being before us today. i want to make a couple of comments to some of the things i heard here and i want to ask you

questions. first of all, people are slamming mexico because they've got these drug cartels, et cetera. the reality is the demand is coming from the united states. i mean, where are we? why haven't we done something about this demand for drugs? it's a supply and demand issue. people, americans are putting cash on the barrel head to get these drugs. so we can't just look at a country that is transiting drugs or a country sending drugs, what are we doing about the demand here in the united states? because that's where this money comes from. secondly, i just want to address, and i agree on so many things with miss miller, especially when it comes to borders, but i would have to respectfully disagree on a couple of things i heard from her about not working with

central american countries or mexico. first of all, we know this has been proven time after time after time that the education of a mother around the world, the education of a mother is central to the nucleus of the family, stability of the family and the economics of the family. this is a long-term investment we make when we have usaid in so many countries working to educate young ladies because they will be the mothers of the future. and with respect to working with institutions or working with make institutions in countries, we also do that. if you have a place, a country, and you can't trust the judicial system, you can't think you are going to get a fair shake if you get picked up off the street or if you've got a business saying you can't get a contract

enforced, but that's what makes america so great is that we have these incredible institutions. these democratic institutions, by the way you guys, and these judicial institutions we work on every day to make great america and we try to put that and help other countries to do. i think these types of things we are working on in other countries are incredibly important to give hope to people who live in those countries and to have them have an ability to stay in those countries and not leave them and come up to an america that we know right now when we see the border is being taxed. i would like to ask you about this whole issue because some have said that gang members or individuals with criminal records are the ones that are accompanying these children who

are coming up and being apprehended. my first question is, how does the border patrol screen these individuals for these issues? and what are your findings so far? >> each of the individuals who are arrested are interviewed by law enforcement professionals. so their observations plus the biometric capture of their fingerprints are checked against the data basis of the holdings of the united states government. everybody over 14 gets all ten fingerprints taken sent against the ncis data base to check against their prior criminal record from the united states. we have reports where this is probably the most acute reports of people who are recognized as being gang members as part of the population that's under 17. >> my last question because i'm running out of time. given the influx of these unaccompanied minors coming into the country, mostly across the texan border, you are putting

border patrol there. where are these personnel and resources coming from to handle this influx? what about the other areas if you are pulling them from other areas, what are we seeing happen there? >> we looked carefully and taken a handful of folks from along the southwest border from areas that are not as active as what we are seeing in the rtv. those people are dedicated for more boots on the ground for the border patrol function and to gather intelligence to find leads for investigative follow-up to hand over to i.c.e. to attack the networks that are responsible for the alien smuggling in that area. >> my time is up and i thank you. i'll submit the rest of my questions for the record. thank you. >> chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania mr. meehan. >> mr. secretary, i'm very grateful for your leadership of this agency at this particularly difficult time.

you know my respect for you. i do respectfully disagree with you on this issue with regard to the deferred action on child arrivals. i've been, as you know, a prosecutor and we've been fighting violence and drugs for the last decade or more. the one changed factor has been the new permissive policy of this administration on deferred action for child arrivals. i also want to associate myself with the comments of my colleagues both here and on the other side. i hope every college kid who is sitting here with their visions of the important world they're playing with social activism and looking at investments for colleges or global warming will appreciate that when they're sitting in their dorm smoking dope purchased from these drug gangs, this is the implication, and maybe there is a little time for social activism there, too. regardless, let me ask you a question about your apprehending

children at the boarder with adults and you are going to hold them and send them back, and i appreciate that policy. let me understand what's the distinction if you take an adult with their children who arguably are more responsible because they're with their children. and yet if the child comes without their adult, we're going to take the child at the border and reunify with an adult who is probably here not under legal status. so what's the difference? why aren't we obtaining this child, reunifying and returning both of them? >> if an adult is apprehended at the border and brought their children with them, they are priority for removal. we are guilding additional space to hold them so they can be

returned quickly. we need to do that. i believe that is important to do. >> but what it's difference? >> the difference is if you are talking about reuniting a child with a parent who is in the interior, first of all, the law requires that if it's in the best interest of the child to do that, we will do that. there is a deportation proceeding pending against the child at that point. with respect to the parent, if the parent is a convicted criminal, has a criminal record or is in some respect a priority for removal under our existing policies, then they should be removed. >> with all due respect, what percentage right now of children are appearing for these hearings? >> i do know that unaccompanied children in removal proceedings are, in fact, removed. >> what percentage once reunited are returning for these status hearings? >> i don't have that percentage. i know -- >> probably not very high. >> i don't have the number

offhand. >> that is something we should know if this is so fundamental to the policy. i don't know the answer, but want to be very honest with the american people. this idea somehow we are going to institute legal proceedings and take -- we've got 65,000 children that have come over the line. now, you know and i know, when suppose we go through a legal process and find that that child has, is now subject to judicial order for return, you know and i know when i was a prosecutor, it took two agents to accompany that child back to his country. we used to fly an individual back. 65,000 children. how are we going to return them? >> congressman, i'll say two things. first of all, we are talking about children as young as 5 and

7 years old. this is a humanitarian issue. >> i know that. >> so when you're talking about somebody who is desperate to be reunited with her mother or her father in the united states, i think as americans, we need to be careful about how we treat these kids. >> my time -- we all get it. this is what's so difficult about this. we are dealing with children and we get it, but we ought not be leaving the american people with the false impression that somehow the system is going to work and is actually going to lead to removals. once those children are here, they're staying here. >> the other point i make, if i could, is that we have to stay focused through this situation on public safety, national security and border security. so there are a number of people who are in this country who still need to be removed, to whom we need to continue to apply resources.

i've got to keep my eye on that ball, as well. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> chair recognizes mr. svehla from texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to begin by respectfully disagreeing with my colleague from michigan with trade with mexico. the total trade volume between the trade of michigan and mexico is $52 million. michigan exports $12 billion in products to mexico. and 175,000 jobs in michigan depend upon trade with mexico. over the past few weeks, as i've tried to wrap my arms around this situation, as you have, what it's boiled down to, in my view, is i view it as three separate crisis. we have the crisis in central

america. tomorrow the house committee on foreign affairs will be addressing that. we know that the white house has initiated a response in that regard, so we'll save that for another day. the second crisis i see is a logistical crisis with respect to this sudden influx. you've addressed well the detention aspect of that. one thing i am wondering about from the ajudd kative standpoint, what do we need to do to make our ajuktive process more efficient? >> we are searching i.c.e. and doj resources into the region to deal with removal proceedings, to deal with asylum claims.

we need more lawyers and judges down there and more teleconference to expedite the run of the mill removal proceeding, which i'm sure you know can take a long time. we have resources all around the country we think we can devote to this so that everybody is doing a fair share of the work here. we would like to see the process move more expeditiously when it involves removal of asylum claims. we have a plan to do that. >> is the administration request in terms of dollars, does it include this part of the process? >> i believe it does. >> the third crisis i see and i have some figures here that suggest that in the last fiscal

cycle, that 85% of the unaccompanied children that were being detained were being reunited with family. do you know if that is an accurate reflection of what we are seeing to date in this fiscal cycle? >> i know that just over 50% of those unaccompanied children that hhs is placing is placing with a parent. i've seen the number 85% to suggest that 85% are being placed with a family member, but i don't know that to be -- i've seen it, but i don't know that to be accurate. i've seen it in various places. >> that sounds like the statistics i looked at in terms of the last fiscal cycle. my point, i suppose, is that's the third crisis i see which is addressing immigration reform crisis. in my view, those parents and those family members of these children are being reunited with

are the people working in our hotels and our restaurants and our construction sites. it's certainly something we need to address very quickly. just yesterday in texas, local leaders met and they did address one thing that we are seeing in terms of the 72-hour detention. some of the folks have been taken to buses so they can be sent to the other facilities. but the numbers are so overwhelming that the bus stations are closing because there's not enough buses. some of the local nonprofits are having to take care of some of those families. my question is, what federal grant programs are there that we can tap into on an urgent basis so these nonprofits working alongside cbp and dhs down there can work with? >> i know we had a terrific volunteer effort. i know the red cross has really

stepped up as well as a number of texas-based volunteer organizations have done a heroic job. in terms of grant making, i'd have to take a closer look at that to see what might be available. perhaps administrator fugate has thoughts. we can look at that. >> we can work with your office on those few points. i want to thank you, mr. vitiello and agents at border customs and patrol. i have witnessed first hand on plane rides up to the capital brownsville your agents caring for these unaccompanied minors. i know how hard they are working. i want to thank you and your agency on behalf of all the people that i represent. >> thank you, sir. >> chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina, mr. duncan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me say for the record thank you, gentlemen, for your service

for our country. secretary johnson, i'm a big fan. i think you are the right man at the right time in this job. you have an immense challenge ahead of you. all the different hats you have to wear to protect our country. we are in a crisis situation in this country. if my comments show frustration, let me toll you i am frustrated. i'm frustrated by the crisis on the border. last night we saw the irs commissioner continue to obstruct congress' investigation into irs' targeting of conservative groups by a crashed hard drive and lost e-mails. i'm frustrated that brian kerry's death hadn't been vindicated through the fast and furious investigation. i'm frustrated when we receive the release of terrorists from guantanamo bay and not informing congress. a lot of lawlessness in this country. i think about and i'm reminded of john adams who, regardless of the mood in boston, defended the british soldiers in the boston

massacre. regardless of how we feel about immigration reform in this country, how can we sit by and watch our country's national sovereignty, my country's national sovereignty violated over and over and over on our southern border? not just this situation with children, but for a long time we've seen an increase in illegal immigrants coming into this country. we are calling the guatemalans and el salvadorans. i'm concern about middle eastern, asians and africans coming to this country, not to take the job, not so they can have a better life, but possibly do harm to this great nation. that is a concern. if children can come across because agents are changing diapers or doing other things other than securing the border, i'm sure that elements that want to do harm to this country can exploit our southern border also. let the record show since 2006, there's been an increase of over

9,000 cbp agents in this country, since 2006 and now. over 9,000 more agents to secure our border and our border is less secure today, i think, than it ever has been. i want to read a portion of a late draft memo from deputy chief vitiello. the large quantity of dhs interdiction intelligence investigation processing detention removal of resources currently dedicated to address unaccompanied alien children is compromising dhs capabilities to address other transport or criminal areas such as human 134ugling, trafficking, drugs, weapons, commercial and financial operations. if the u.s. government fails to deliver adequate consequences to deter aliens from attempting to illegally enter the u.s., there will be a greater increase in the rate of resit it very many. for facilitating human smuggling

as a direct member of illicit alien smuggling organization or private facilitator. these consequences must be delivered at the border and within the interior the united states, ag through expand i.c.e. homeland investigations to target individuals facilitating unaccompanied alien children, family unit traveling to the united states. i agree with those words completely. this administration's mishandling of this situation encourages more lawlessness, encourages more folks to come here. if you talk about utilizing the resource of the united states, everything at your disposal, we heard the national guards will be called out. article 4 section 4 guarantees every state that joins this union protection against this, protection against this, article 4, section 4, look it up. every resource. how about voice of america? are we directing a spanish-speaking voice of america into central america saying you cannot come into this country illegally? you will not get citizenship?

in fact, you are going to be deported back to your home country. that is a resource we can use are we doing that? maybe we are, but we should. just like we should have national guard on the border. mr. secretary, you mention in your statement that we should do everything consistent with the laws and values of this country. we have laws on the books. the 2006 secure fence act, we've got a very porous southern border. we don't have a defense act. if you enter this country illegally, you will be deported. you cannot enter this country illegally. are we enforcing that? we seem to be looking the other way. are you willing to say if you enter the united states illegally of any age you will be deported back to your home country? >> congressman, as you well know, we have to prioritize removals in accordance with the resources congress gives us. i have a finite amount of an

enforcement resources, border security resources. so for the sake of homeland security, what we need to do is go after the worst of the worst first, which is what i believe we are doing. i think we could do a more effective job of that. i believe that we need to prioritize and go after those who represent threats to public safety. >> we increased your officers almost 9,000. >> yes, we have. >> and i'm sure deputy chief definitely thanks you for that. i support it, too. in terms of your question about border security, let me say this. i continually inquire in this current situation, are we taking our eye offer the ball? i want to know in the rgv sector, in particular, that our border patrol agents are focused on border security as well as dealing with the volume of the kids that are coming in. over the last 1 1/2 months or so, we surged a lot of resources

into that part of the country. fema, hhs and others, coast guard's down there to support cbp in their effort. as recently as i think yesterday, the chief and the deputy chief and i discussed this. i'll let the deputy chief answer for himself, but i believe it's the case that our border patrol agents on the border are on the job, they continue to do their job. >> mr. secretary, i'm out of time. whatever the chair will allow, let the record reflect that the president asked for additional $1.4 billion to assist this effort and we are $18 trillion in debt. with that, if the deputy secretary would like to answer and you'll allow that. >> yes. >> just to reiterate, we've been surging the resources that the border patrol has, cbp, the department into rgp the last several years. so they are better resourced now than they were last year.

this particular issue is a challenge for us. in fact, there are more people focused on moving the flow and booking in and processing both allenes and adult family units and adult males, all the people that come across. they are better resourced than they have been previously. >> thank you for that. for the record, i would like to include the article that has his memo. >> without objection, so ordered. chair recognizes the gentleman from california. >> thank you, mr. chair. mr. secretary, thank you for your attention and your agency's hard work on this crisis. i just want to go through a few questions. first, would you agree, mr. secretary, that we have a broken immigration system in the united states? >> yes. >> would you agree that because we have a broken immigration system, because there is great uncertainty about our immigration system that in this chaos, this crisis with unaccompanied minor children has occurred?

2. >> i wouldn't put it that way but i believe uncertainty in the law and uncertainty that i believe the smuggling organizations are creating is a reason for the recent influx. >> mr. secretary, you would agree that this crisis and the attention your border patrol agents has had to give to these children has diverted away from their attention to securing the rest of our southern border? >> as i mentioned a moment ago, that is an issue that i'm constantly focused on to make sure that doesn't happen. as i think the deputy chief's comments reflect, we've surged a lot of resources into the rio grande valley sector to make sure that everybody remains focused on their job in addition to dealing with the recent increase to processes people through the system, as well as maintaining our presence on the border. i believe we are continuing to

do that. >> miss miller, my colleague from michigan, placed this crisis and its blame squarely at the feet of president obama's daca program, the deferred action program. that was implemented in 2012, is that correct? >> daca was implemented june 2012. >> here we are where the peak levels of unaccompanied children migration is occurring in 2014, is that right? >> yes. daca is intended for kids who came into this country seven or more years ago. >> if miss miller is indeed right this is squarely the president's fault because of daca, wouldn't you have expected to see these peak levels of children coming across the border perhaps 2012 or 2013 rather than now? i guess i'm asking, is it fair to solely place this on daca or is this something much more

complex? >> let me be clear. i believe first and foremost, and i believe most people believe first and foremost, from everything i heard, everything i've seen and my own conversations with these children, that the principal reason they are leaving their countries is the conditions in those countries. they are really bad. it has to be really bad for a parent to want to part company with his or her own 7-year-old. that is the principal reason we are seeing this. i do also believe that the smuggling organizations are creating a misinformation campaign about the legal situation in this country. it's in their interest to create that misinformation. and i believe they are. i believe, therefore, it's imperative for us to correct the record about what is available and what is not to somebody who crosses the border. >> mr. secretary, you would agree there are some short-term and long-term solutions to what

we can do? >> yes. >> a short-term would be something you've already done, writing an open letter to the parents of children crossing our southwest boarder to dispel the myths about what it means to come here, and the dangers that the children will go through in their path. >> if there were -- if this administration's policies were the principal reason they are coming here, would you see kids from a whole bunch of other countries, too. >> would you agree another short-term solution would be working as the president and vice president have been doing so, to work with mexico and guatemala on that much smaller border between mexico and guatemala, in addition to working on our much more vast boarder? >> yes. >> mr. secretary, would you agree that a long-term solution would be putting certainty in our immigration policy so that there are not misconceptions as to what it means to children anywhere across the world? >> yes. >> thank you, mr. secretary. with that i yield back the balance of my time.

>> chair recognizes mr. palazzo. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i do believe daca and our failure of enforcing our immigration laws are the cause of this. the number of unaccompanied children has grown since 2012. last year it was a record of 5,000, now we have 65,000. i don't blame just the president for not enforcing our immigration laws. i know many do. it's not just that. it's even members of congress. talking about a pathway to amnesty lays out the welcome mat for people around the world that want to come into the united states illegally, why our borders are not secured. it's irresponsible to talk about what we'll do before we can stop the flow into the country. this is not a surprise what has happened. it's everyone.

we need to secure our borders and make sure people cannot get into the country illegally. we need to make sure people can overstay their visas. if i can get a quick answer. my constituents are frequently on flood alert. we prepare for emergencies, invest in mitigation, we are still dealing with the aftermaths of sandy, irene and lee. the president's smart budget request did not ask for additional funding to pay for this crisis at the border. we know we knew about it as far back as january. here is my question. how can you guarantee me and my constituents that the money to address the crisis at the border won't come from the same pots that helped pennsylvanians back home deal with floods by putting fema in charge, you've kind of signalled a disaster declaration is coming. i'm concerned that our flood disaster funding will be constantly drained by the situation. if you can quickly answer that.

>> well, i can assure you, congressman, that if your constituents or anybody else faces a major disaster, we will support a response. >> but is it coming out of those same pots of money? are we draining the money that will be used for flood disasters by using fema? is it coming out of that same pot? >> fema's coordinated role doesn't mean that fema is undertaking to support all these agencies. all these agencies are paying for this out of their own -- >> i'm just worried about where the money is coming from. does that mean that pot get drained a little more? quickly. >> congressman, the funds being used for this were already funds expended under current authority to deal with these issues. funding that's being directed is done through inner agency agreements. money is not coming out of drf to pay for those functions, which are primarily funded by congress. >> if i could go back to the -- you know, if it's not our lack

of enforcing immigration laws, then why don't they stop somewhere in mexico? why come all the way to the united states? why put these children a thousand miles and risk their lives to get to the united states? there's nowhere in mexico that is better than honduras or guatemala? i don't buy that. i don't think the american people do either. department of homeland security was created to stop bad things from happening before they happen. here's a copy of the ad that dhs put out in january 29th. in fact, we wanted an answer from the contractors by february 19th. it said there will be approximately 65,000 children in total. my question is, who knew that there was going to be 65,000? the largest amount that ever came was 5,000. somewhere we pull out this number of 65,000. it happens to be correct. why was the administration

surprised? why are we acting surprised now if in january we expected this to happen? and why weren't we prepared if we expected 65,000? why didn't we do anything to stop this in advance? you talked in your testimony that the president talked to the president of mexico last week and vice president biden just recently -- why then if back in january 29th we anticipated this happening? >> first of all, i don't know where thatte estimate comes fro. >> it's in dhs' ad. >> i don't know where the estimate comes from. i don't know who created the 65,000 estimate. in all likelihood, we'll probably exceed that at the rate we're going. we've known this has been a problem since i took office six months ago. i've been hearing about this issue going back to my confirmation hearing. so -- and we've known we've had a problem in the rio grande valley sector, which is why in april i asked my staff to create

a campaign plan for the rio grande valley sector in particular for the southwest border to bring to bear all the resources of dhs on this issue. we've known we've had an issue with third-country nationals, children and adults. i issued the campaign plan in early may. the numbers very clearly have spiked more recently in april, may, which has required us to bring to bear the resources of the entire federal government. >> but we shouldn't be surprised because we saw it coming as far back as january. somebody did in dhs. i'd like to know who it is, if you could find out. >> i'm not disagreeing with you. >> but it went from 5,000 to 65,000. something happened. when the largest amount that ever came of unaccompanied children was 5,000, which was last year, something happened that 65,000 showed up and somebody knew about it. and surprise? >> i think it was more like 38,000 last year.

>> well, from 5,000 to 38 to 65. >> no, sir. you want to somehow put it on the doorstep of d.a. can. i keep saying that -- >> no, no, no. i'm blaming congress as well. and our lack of immigration enforcement. there's nothing wrong with our immigration laws. we just don't enforce them. we've released 36,000 criminal aliens backn to the streets. 160 of them committed murder. if we could release people who have committed murder, i'm sure it has something to do with it. thank you. >> gentleman's time is expired. mr. richmond from louisiana. >> thank you, mr. secretary, for coming today. let me just go back to some basic questions. i've heard today a number of times that we should send the kids back. do many of the kids actually not make it and die along the long

route to make it to our border? >> the route is definitely treacherous. i can't tell you with any degree of certainty who doesn't make it because i'm just not in a position to know that. i have heard in a number of different places that these kids are exploited by the smuggling organizations. they travel over a thousand miles up the coast of mexico on trains and trucks. it's getting hot. it's exceedingly dangerous. >> and what happens to them if we just turn them around? >> well, if we just turn them around, they just go back to the conditions that they were motivated to leave from. >> if they make it back. if they make the long journey back. besides the humanitarian reasons and reasons of conscience and our morals, the william act

would keep you from turning them around, wouldn't it? >> well, the 2008 law is not in con flukt with commencing a deportation proceeding against the child. it's my understanding that the law would not permit an expedited removal of an unaccompanied child. that's my understanding of the law. we do expedited removals. let's say a mexican crosses the border. they're apprehended by one of the chief's border patrol agents. we can do an expedited removal of the mexican right back into the country of mexico. we can do expedited removals of adults into central america where there's no immigration judge involved. but in terms of an expedited removal for an unaccompanied child, my understanding of the law is that's not available. >> and as much as you heard today that we should just either turn them around or expeditiously remove them, do

you know of any legislation introduced that someone put their name on to repeal the william force act? >> not to my knowledge. >> we also talked a little bit about -- and i heard you mention a little bit about mexico and the fact that you have -- the vice president has met and the president has had telephone conversations. has the government of mexico started taking any steps, any affirmative steps to help us with this issue? >> we have over the last several years been in discussions with them about our shared border security interest, and we've increased that engagement in light of this current situation. and i believe we'll continue to have productive conversations. >> well, specifically on this issue and the fact you just mentioned we're looking at probably over 60,000 unaccompanied minors this year, have they taken any steps to help us with this issue right now, besides just conversations?

>> i'm sure they will help us with the public affairs campaign. excuse me. and we will continue our discussions about our shared border security interest. i've had those discussions beginning in february, and i believe they'll be productive. >> mr. chairman, and i know the secretary has to leave, so i'll yield back so my colleagues can ask some questions. >> thank you for that. to get through all the members in the time we have, i am going to strictly enforce a five-minute rule. mr. perry from pennsylvania. >> thanks, mr. chairman. and if it hasn't already been done, i'd like to submit a copy of the advertisement that's been referenced. i would also like to just reject categorically any claims made by members of this committee that somehow america or american

citizens are at fault for this crisis, this situation on the border. with that having been said, gentlemen, thank you very much for your service in these difficult times. we're very appreciative. i would like to turn to mr. vitello. is that correct? thank you, sir. how long have criminals been smuggling people across the bord border, to your knowledge? >> my entire career, 29 years. >> so at least 29 years. and have smugglers lied to people south of the border that might be interested in seeking to cross the border about the conditions or what they might encounter or their status when they come here? have smugglers lied to people in the past? >> that is the experience of the border patrol. >> so in your opinion, in your estimation, what has changed recently in the last two or three years that has fostered this immense increase in traffic, especially of people that are young? 17 and below coming -- what has changed?

and are there any metrics at all you know of to support the claim you might make shortly? >> i think lots of things have changed. i think the -- i mean, we've talked about all of the push factors. i've seen these reports. people are fleeing, you know, difficult conditions. they're reuniting with family in the united states. they're fleeing economic uncertainty and failed governments, both locally and nationally. >> so the conditions that you're talking about, the crime, the uncertain conditions, the poor conditions economically, what has changed dramatically? because would you admit that the numbers have increased dramatically? >> no doubt about that. >> is there a corresponding increase dramatically in poorness of conditions in these countries south of the border to correlate? >> i just don't know. i think it's been a while that those conditions have existed. >> yeah, it's been a while, right? my concern is there's some narrative here that seems to be perpetrated among the american citizens that somehow things have exponentially decreased

south of the border and that's counterpart to this exodus south of the border into the united states. that's what's causing it. i'm not sure it's true. you don't know at this time of any metric that would support that. >> not metrics. >> so do you think there's any difference in our policy? and i would agree with the remarx of mr. barletta that a congress that has implied that wholesale amnesty might be in order if you make it across the border. but are there any other policies from the administration or otherwise that might be contributing to this circumstance currently on the border? >> i think that we're addressing in the broad spectrum all of the things that i believe will help make this better. >> i understand. but is there any particular policy that might be -- you know, whatever the numbers are. 5,000 to 38,000 to 68,000. is there anything you can think of that supports it? >> i'm not sure i'd categorize it as policy. we've struggled not to have a

sufficient level of, in this case, detention for people who bring their children across the border. as it relates to the unaccompanied children, the law dictates how they're processed, both in the initial for book in and deportation proceedings, and then turning over to -- >> i understand that, but what's changed to drive so many to come recently? what's changed? >> i'm not sure. >> okay. i'm not sure. and i'm not sure either, but i think our policy has changed. the public perception that you can come here and stay has changed. >> i've seen those reports. those are reflected in the intelligence we've collected. it's in the -- >> it's not reflected? >> no, it is reflected. in the open source reports. >> so has human trafficking also gone up as a result of these increased numbers? >> i'm not sure it's gone up. i think these populations have gone -- have increased, which leads me to believe that smuggling has increased as well. >> all right. mr. secretary, i have to move on. i appreciate your answers.

regarding the 29 january advertisement for escort services, i understand you were on the job for about a month. so you're somewhat unaware. do you know what drove that policy decision? do you have any idea? to advertise. >> i haven't seen the document. >> i'm going to provide it and have it -- >> i believe it's an improvement document. >> plthere's a couple points of contact. if you could in writing respond to me about what the policy decisions were that drove the advertisement. and do you know if this is unprecedented? have we advertised for these escorts in the past? and if not, why not? and if now, why now? >> i'd have to see the -- >> all right. i yield back, but i would like those answers in writing. can i get a commitment to get them? >> i always believe in being responsive to congress. >> thank you. >> chair recognizes gentle lady from new york, ms. clark. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank mr. secretary,

mr. vitiello for your testimony here today. it's been very enlightening. i want to thank you for your thoughtful approach to really handling a multifaceted, multidimensional, very complex crisis. there are a lot of moving parts here. and it's clearly something that we have to work with in terms of a work in progress. i was glad to hear about the diplomatic component to what you're doing in terms of reaching out to el salvador, honduras, guatemala. my question is a logistical one, similar to the one mr. vella raised. what exactly do you anticipate in terms of the logistical challenge of reuniting children who don't have any relatives in

the united states? how do we work with embassies, consulates to reunite children from various countries with their parents back home? and how do we identify that? have you given thought to that as of yet? >> well, once the child's identified as an unaccompanied child, the law requires dhs turn the child over to hhs. so your question really goes to hhs. >> okay. >> and their process, which i'm not fully equipped to answer. but they have a process of identifying a family member and acting in the best interest of the child. >> very well. i just wanted to get a sense because i can imagine it's a daunting task. i did want to comment for the basis of this hearing that i find it very troubling that we would want to move a military operation such as the national

guard to our borders to address unaccompanied minors. and i just want to put that on the record because we can't say it's a humanitarian crisis on the one hand. and i think just about every colleague has acknowledged that. and then want to put arms on the border to meet children who are fleeing clearly an untenable situation in their homelands. do you have a sense of the average amount of children coming in daily and which nations, what percentage are coming from what nations? >> in the rio grande valley sector, where almost all of this is occurring, we're encountering about -- the number varies, but we're encountering lately about 350 a day. >> and do you have a sense --

are they -- i mean, do you get a sense that they're being -- for instance, if they're being smuggled, are they children from varying countries, or are they typically grouped by country? >> honduras, guatemala, el salvador. >> so you could conceivably run into children traveling together but from different countries? >> i'm not sure about that. i'm not sure about the -- how they configure themselves in these groups. i do know that something like three-quarters of them are from honduras, el salvador, guatemala. >> i'd be interesting, mr. secretary, if we could drill down at some point to get a better sense of which countries seem to have a larger percentage of children coming in. if, mr. vitiello, if you could get a sense of, are these children meeting in the desert? are they meeting on railway

cars? because at least what we're seeing from the press is that the children tend to gravitate and come across together, so you're not seeing individual kids necessarily but children traveling together. >> they're very clearly coming in groups. they're herded, shepherded by a civilian guide at various points along the journey. that's part of the smuggling organization. and it starts at the point of origin in central america and goes through mexico. so they're clearly traveling in groups. they're not traveling alone. and the numbers are roughly equivalent among the three countries. honduras might be slightly larger than the other two, but they're roughly equivalent. >> very well. i yield back, mr. chairman. i thank you once again. >> mr. plaza is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as an active member of the national guard, i see first hand the importance of the national guard supporting our armed forces to protect our country. as grd