♪ today's hearing on the department of home security budget, we are joined by immigration reporter, michelle hackman and michelle hackman, how tough of a grilling is dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas -- going before legislators today? guest: it will not be has first time, but he has a tough portfolio of issues to discuss from the southern border to immigration legislation, domestic terrorism, the colonial pipeline, anti-semitism attacks around the country and that is all under his purview and he has

a tough line of question ahead of him. host: a hearing at the house, the senate later this afternoon, what members are you particularly going to be focusing on and watching as you do your reporting on the hearings? guest: oh, probably the chairman. i find value in all of the members because often, democrats ask for a fresh friendlier questions, so they asked detailed information -- because often, democrats ask friendlier questions. i would say both sides actually i think are somewhat unhappy with the current administration's border policy, so i will pay attention to discussion around issues like how the administration is handling the asylum seekers at the border. host: there is the issue of child detention, likely an issue that will come up today.

what is the status right now for dhs in terms of numbers of detentions and the numbers of unaccompanied minors coming across the border? guest: the numbers have been roughly study for the last month or so. it is several hundred kids coming across the board every day. the number hovers between 300 to 500 and dhs have been doing a much better job as you know when children crossed the border. it is first dhs, but cut jones and border protection's job to process the kids and move them on to shelters run by that point -- the department of health and human services. while they are having trouble doing that, there was way markets coming in and going out of the system and they really improved the process, but right now they have about something like 700 kids in their custody, but they are moving them through. we hear numbers pretty frequently within about 24 hours, now they are moving to hhs shelters, which is good. host: immigration and border

questions, now's your time to call in. she covers for the wall street journal, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, independents, (202) 748-8002. a busy week for others who cover congress with the budget coming out at the end of the week. when you finally get your hands on that document, what are you going to be looking for in it? guest: one of the big questions i have is, how this administration is going to be handling ice, immigrations and custom enforcement. one of the big calls of the democratic primary what does the ice abolished or significantly scaled down. we saw comments yesterday from secretary mayorkas that they will put the ice budget at the same like the previous year. i'm curious of how they will manage that.

are they going to shift money around so that they have more money going into what they have alternatives to the attention, so rather than detaining an immigrant, you are free to go, we will track you with an ankle bracelet, that has been the obama administration's approach, that is what we are thinking will be the biden's administration approach. there are many other question, how much more money will receive go into the domestic terrorist efforts to work with nonprofit organizations to combat domestic terrorism. will we see more positions and intelligence to fight domestic terrorist groups. host: do you think we will see an uptick for pipeline security in this budget? guest: i would imagine so. the department announced this week that they are coming out with a new set of rules, to actually regulate pipelines after the colonial pipeline attack earlier this month. you know, oil pipelines, -- very

few critical infrastructure in industries that have requirements to report cybersecurity attacks and to fortify themselves against attacks. oil pipelines have not been one of those. the electric grid, nuclear power plants are some of the only few that actually have rules like that, so they are expanding that to the pipelines. host: on fortification, the idea of the wall between the united states and mexico, one of the first actions of the biden administration was atop the building of new walls. as the money in the budget each year toward a wall up code -- upkeep and what can we determine about that issue from the budget numbers that we are going to see this week? guest: that is a great question. the biden administration is grappling with this issue where in their first budget document that they put out, i forgot one, a couple of months ago, they

suggested that they want to give back all of the leftover money, but the trump administration had a lot -- allotted to the wall. when congress gives you money, it is against the law to not do that. i think they are grappling with, can they use that money to fix up sections of the wall that trump early started building, do they need to build more sections of the wall, can they use money that congress gave them to do other border technologies like adding radar and drones, lighting, things like that to the sections of the walls, and i think we will see how we handle -- how they handle that in the budget. host: there's a question from our text messages and service on california -- text messaging service in california. i will mayorkas respond to and complete border questions and wants you to drill down on high tech solutions at the border. guest: sure. as i said, he is in a tough spot

because one -- one of president biden to campaign practices -- promises was that he would not build the wall. a billion dollars or possibly more that he put toward wall construction and they have not really determined or they have not announced how they are going to use that money. they suggested they wanted to give it back, but it is a legal problem, they need to use the money as -- if congress does not take it back quickly. and so, i heard that it is possible they can use it to build roads, to ease the task of the border patrol to patrol the walls. they could use it potentially to actually mitigate some of the environmental effects of the walls, particularly in areas -- areas in arizona, california, they have built wildlife preserves for endangered species act and so they can use that money to mitigate some other

damage that was done through the construction. they can use it toward drones and other technology that can detect things like drug smuggling or human smuggling across the wall. host: plenty of colors already this morning. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. iris out of michigan, independent, good morning. caller: good morning and good morning. it is so nice to see a jewish girl working for the wall street journal. i have a question regarding the kids released from foster care, they are on the street, wouldn't that be a great report to make? they lose a home at 18 and have to go on the streets, i think it is important because we are bringing somebody young people in from down south of the

border. it is a good story. i would go for it if i were you. guest: i agree. that is a problem. i know -- it is actually a problem there as well because there are laws that required to care for the kids until their 18th birthday but after that, they are on their own and out and often actually get turned over to ice and that is an issue that immigration advocates frequently flag. host: from fox news op-ed from earlier this week, this is congressman andy biggs on the border crisis saying, mayorkas deceived american by claiming that the border is closed, but 178,000 illegal aliens were counted -- encountered at the southern border in april alone. in the meantime, it had the lowest number of deportations in decades. the record number entering the country and the record low in deportations show both ends of

the biden administration's efforts to drive up the number of people in the country illegally. there are more than 3 million individuals, many of whom are expect -- suspected criminals living in our communities who have received a due process and have been ordered by hr to leave the country but the biden administration is doing nothing about it. a question on the deportation issue number two, will secretary mayorkas talk to andy biggs today? guest: sorry about that. host: will mayorkas be questioned by andy biggs today and if he is, what you think he will say on this deportation issue? guest: what he will say is that the department is looking at its deportation strategy. they have really shifted years he and the biden administration where trump said, anyone in the

country illegally as a target for deportation. we do not care who you are, if you are here and breaking our laws, we are going to target you. where the biden administration has said, our resources are very limited. we have about 6000 officers in total across the country charged with carrying out their partitions and we will concentrate our resources -- out deportations and we will concentrate our resources on the serious criminals and they also say, it is not about numbers, it is about the quality of the people we are catching and deporting. and they have been criticized for that because they are allowing a lot of people with criminal convictions, may less serious criminal convictions, to sort of be free from the fear of deportation. host: broadway, virginia, democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i think we should cut off

all of the border control funding there. the money they are wasting -- putting them in hotel rooms, line them all over the country, lying to the american people about it. i think you should cut up all of the funding until they straighten things out. host: how would you like it straightened out? what is straightened out in your mind? caller: put back some of the things like remain in mexico and deport the illegals who should be deported. host: michelle hackman, remain in mexico policy, something we have not talked about yet. guest: that was a big trump administration policy toward the end of his administration where what essentially they did was they said, if someone came across the border, asked for asylum, they trump administration would say, great, they would go to court in six

months and you have to wait in mexico and come back to a port of entry and take you to your court date. it had the effect of driving many migrants away. the places in mexico where they were required to wait are the most dangerous places in the western hemisphere. and so people often abandoned their claim, they were ordered deported in abstention. they were banned from coming to the united states and it was a big issue for human rights advocates. a lot of those people were getting targeted, kidnapped, and were getting killed. and the biden administration made this promise that they would end that program because it is one of the issues around humid -- humid -- republicans point to it and say this is a boon for us because it slowed the act of people asking for asylum because they did not want to be put in this program, but

that is not a viable option for this administration. host: about 10 minutes left with michelle hackman, the wall street journal immigration reported there. her work at the wall street journal, wsj.com is where you can go. taking your phone call online, on -- (202) 748-8000 for democrats, republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. this is steve, pennsylvania, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you guys today? i will make this quick because i have a couple of points i want to throughout their, it is mostly opinion because i think number one, politicians are a joke because they are a bunch of drama queens more interested in keeping their jobs and doing it. and number two, a lot of the money being spent for border walls, -- why are we not spending to keep the boots on

the ground. get more officials able to handle the workload's because they are overrun dealing with all of these cases. last but not least, the humanitarian issue, we boast about being a loving country but we have to worry about keeping ourselves safe. to me, handling this humanitarian issue, to keep the people save even in their own country, seemed to be a better idea when they are not looking to come to our country to try to get a better life for themselves. for what its worth, that is all i have to say and you guys have a good day. host: ms. hackman, what you want to pick up on that? guest: you make a point that the biden administration has been talking about and i think we will hear sec. mayorkas bring up today. what they would call the push factors out of countries in central america and around the world that are driving people to leave their countries.

deep poverty, corruption, gang violence, more recently effects of time to change, there were two hurricanes that hit guatemala and honduras, particularly demolished and higher -- and higher -- enti re small towns. that is a biden administration and kamala harris have been focused on, trying to pump money into those countries and pump assistance into those countries so they can improve the situation on the ground. there is skepticism, it is hard to do, in a short period of time, that is a project that might take years to decades. i did not think we will immediately see the effects of those efforts. host: the caller brought up the boots on the ground, where are we on numbers of border patrol agents, efforts to hire more agents that were started during

the trump administration and i believe --where are we in hiring? guest: that is a great question. that is a cretin that will get answered -- that is a question that will get answered by the hearing this week. i will note that even though there is the drive to hire more border patrol agents, that there were border patrol agents -- more border patrol agents now than before. i think the efforts now are to be more focused -- this started under trump and i think it is a great move, to sort of have specialists, people who are more focused on handling children coming across the border so that border patrol agents are left -- they complained that they have become like daycare attendance -- attendants and that frees up agents to be back on the line, back at the border so they are trying to look for people who are sneaking across rather than turning themselves in. host: to pennsylvania, this is

well, a republican, good morning. caller: i wanted to comment about what the previous caller said. i think that is the end solution, conflict resolution in places like africa and elsewhere. the biggest issue is that money is poured into the area -- stably put into infrastructure and all of these other policies needed. in the meantime, it seems like we might have caused the issue in our country with the act, with a migrant workers, we needed their help during world war ii to keep our farms going and i think a lot of people nowadays forget how much they played a big part in keeping the agriculture in this country

running. a lot of these people probably at their trying to seek asylum and they rightfully deserve it. do you have any comment on that? host: with your work in this area, what is the best way to help a destabilized country? if there is money people want to send to help or a government wants to help, what is the best way to do that? caller: by giving the people the opportunity to grow the country the way they want, rwanda is an amazing example of what can be done if done correctly in a short period of time. they are probably one of the cleanest cities in the world if not all of africa. host: how are they doing there? caller: empowering the people, and really kind of giving them the resources and the opportunity to take advantage of it, not just the physical cash

to inflate the system. host: thank you for the call from pennsylvania. ms. hackman on some of the issues he brought up? guest: i totally agree with you that there are multiple causes of why people come. as you know, half of the farmworkers in this country are here illegally and the cover and border -- and the tougher border. one people cross the border and in the past, it was seasonal, they would work for a few months and go back to mexico. people did not want to come here and live here the rest of their lives. we do not have any programs available for them, and illegal pathway to allow them to come to work, even to allow them to come and join their family members. you know some of the backlogs are 10 and 20 years long and that is driving a lot of the people to come across the border illegally because we created no other option for them. i think that is something we are going to see advocates pushing

the biden administration to consider. host: about five minutes left with michelle hackman. we will try to get to as many of your calls as possible. virginia, and dependents. caller: hi, i have an idea and i am not familiar if this is something that has been considered before. just carrying this conversation -- hearing about this conversation about the areas where they were having to wait near the border in mexico and in particular that are dangerous, has it been considered that the u.s. government partnered -- looking at where they are state -- getting there immigrants from and partner with the big areas and establish offices in those areas and possibly even compounds in those areas where people could come in, say i am seeking asylum, they will be taken care of by the u.s.

government so if they have a -- if they are in danger, they can be moved out of danger and then it can be decided if they can stay in the compound until they are hearing, maybe there can be a processing where they can say, ok, tell us why you are here, what is your claim, you know, and it can be decided whether or not they need protection in the compound or they can just come back to that compound. a set date, have the court date there, virtually or by location -- at location and at that point, have those locations equipped to do all of the licensing, visas, whatever they would need so that they can ride across the board and we are not having like almost an hour

glass, it is not like we are having everyone funnel through the tiny little port, we can take care a lot of that -- take care of a lot of that and people do not have to go through treacherous trips or send their children with coyotes or whatever else is happening. host: thank you for the question. we are running low on time so i will give michelle hackman time to respond. guest: that is another big initiative of the biden administration, they call it in country processing and they are looking to do that may be within the next year or so, expand centers within countries that send a lot of migrants to the u.s. to see, make your asylum claim here and if you pass, bring you safely to the united states rather than have you make that treacherous journey across the border illegally and then the border control custody. cut that out. if i were to say that there was an issue with that process, the

big thing that i would like is that a lot of people coming from central america, although they are facing dangerous circumstances, a lot of people are threatened by gang violence, being extorted, things like that. it does not often meet our very strict definition of the what qualified asylum -- that is political persecution, religious persecution, ethnic persecution, so what happens if we set up those processes and people do not know -- can we create other pathways for them to come legally so that we are flowing that flow. host: this is john, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i just recovered from covid for three months. host: i hope you are ok. caller: yeah, i made it.

host: glad you made it. caller: i am very concerned, i never had to use our health system for too many many -- many major things. and all of a sudden having to use it. i am burning through my medicare, tricare, 22 years in the navy and i was a fireman and i am burning through that insurance. i want to know, how can we bring people across, say we will -- i have been doing this for my back and how are we going to take care of our own citizens first? where's the priority? host: thank you for watching from the hospital. michelle hackman? guest: i totally hear that concern. the thing i would emphasize is

that the u.s. does not have a ton of control over how many people are crossing the border illegally. particularly who are asking for asylum. you typically get deported or expelled extremely quickly, but folks who ask for asylum, which is a legal process, tend to get to stay for two years while their court date gets process. in most cases, they do not have access to insurance. i think california is one of the only states that offers undocumented immigrants access to medicaid or other insurance. really what they do have access to it a shot at the emergency room and get here that way. in terms of teeth or anything like that, i do not think we have seen the health care system particularly strained for that reason, but for those -- they do not get any preventive care in this country and in the end of coming to our emergency room. host: last call, barbara in oklahoma, independent, go ahead.

caller: yes, i would like to know who is taking care of all of these kids? to me, this is almost like hijacking the kids. why aren't they being sent back to their own country? this is ridiculous. host: i will give you the final minutes. guest: the reason is because we have laws that stated the children need to be offered protection in the united states if they want it, which everyone -- everyone in the system asked. what happens is they go to shelters run by the department of health and human services where there are social workers and care workers working with the children anywhere from a few weeks to a few months while the government looks for an adult sponsor in the united states who can take care of them longer-term while the immigration case is working its way through the system. 40% of the kids have a parent in the united states and that becomes their sponsor, typically

another family member, a family friend, things like that. host: michelle hackman, in an immigration reporter with the wall street journal. if you want to follow her on twitter, is he to >> coming up live today, we will be hearing from department of homeland security secretary mayorkas testifying on the budget request for next year.

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[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] >> good afternoon i'm going to call this hearing order. this is going to be a virtual and hybrid hearing. some of my colleagues will be here in person and others virtually. we will make sure everyone has a chance to ask a question when it is their turn. we will also have to vote at some