detained in artesia and are now being held at cairns and at dilley. i only have time to make a few remarks. i hope that i can channel the passion of our volunteer attorneys, as well as the pain of their clients. first, i just want to focus really briefly on who these detainees are. the vast majority of the children and mothers who are being held in these family detention facilities are asylum seekers who would qualify for protection under u.s. and international law. that is who they are. we know this because the ala immigration council project has won 14 out of 15 of their asylum hearings on behalf of these women. we know this because in the first months of dilley being open on the ngo tour that we took of the facility, 80% of the women who were currently in that facility had already expressed a fear of returning to their home countries. the reality is that family detention incarcerates with policies specially designed to make release as difficult as possible and to make deportation as quick as possible. the most vulnerable individuals -- children and

detained in artesia and are now being held at cairns and at dilley. i only have time to make a few remarks. i hope that i can channel the passion of our volunteer attorneys, as well as the pain of their clients. first, i just want to focus really briefly on who these detainees are. the vast majority of the children and mothers who are being held in these family detention facilities are asylum seekers who would qualify for protection under u.s. and international law. that is who they are. we know this because the ala immigration council project has won 14 out of 15 of their asylum heernlgs hearings on behalf of these women. we know this because in the first months of dilley being open on the ngo tour that we took of the facility, 80% of the women who were currently in that facility had already expressed a fear ef returnof returning to their home countries. the reality is that family detention incarcerates with policies specially designed to make release as difficult as possible and to make deportation as quick as possible. the most vulnerable individua

>> these particular transfers were happening because they were winding down artesia. they were closing artesia, and the currently detained population had to be moved, some of them had hearings that were scheduled for the weeks during which the transfers were going to be happening, and so we were able to negotiate a pace for those transfers that would allow the individuals to keep their merits hearings, that took a lot of work. and there was a lot of confusion during that process. >> how about in the nonartesian settings outside the family? do you know of any of those? >> i know it is a problem i don't have any direct knowledge to speak to it. >> it's incredibly expensive in the nonfamily context for an individual to pay for an attorney when their case gets moved out to new york, for example, or atlanta, and so inevitably, that individual is in a situation where they have to seek counsel in their new location, and that not only creates incredible costs but potential delays on the case, and inefficiencies in the case, you create a rapport and a relationship with your co

and artesia isn't a big city. it's an economy that relies on fletc. the students spend their money at local businesses. many residents are contract employees at the facility. if fletc closes, it has a real impact in our community. as a new mexican i'm appalled that a d.h.s. shutdown is even being considered. we cannot risk our national security our community safety and our border commerce just so republicans can prove some inside the beltway point about how angry they are about immigration reform. the house bill threatens to deport millions of people who have been living and going school in our country for many years. the senate should choose a different route. put a clean bill on the floor allow an open amendment debate and enact a bill the president can sign before any shutdown occurs. few states understand the importance of comprehensive immigration reform like new mexico. we need a system that secures our borders that strengthens families and that supports our economy. in fact, we almost had just that. the senate passed a bipartisan bill in the la

that's what they tried to do in artesia with mothers and children. before there were attorneys there, they were moving and deporting hundreds of people so i think it's really important at that very first instance when somebody encounters law enforcement that they have access to counsel or at least information regarding their legal rights. i think it's more than just a pamphlet because you don't know if they speak or understand the language. as it has been said today, we have seen so many more children with indigenous languages coming into the system. you can't just hand a child from guatemala a know your rights booklet. i child is going to have a very difficult time understanding their rights. we play game was them to help them understand their rights. it's got to be more than just handing them a piece of paper. >> i would defer to my attorney colleagues but our experience is that in some of the facilities that we have visited over the years do have legal programs and know your rights programs. other detention facilities in texas have no ngos at all.

we went to artesia, new mexico, last december and karnes in december. dealey will be the third major large new detention facility we visited. and then the experts submit reports to us, and we work with ice. we make recommendations and work with ice to resolve issues that we found there. >> as it relates to these complaints in particular, were you able to determine whether they were justified, corrective action taken? how were those specific complaints as it relates to those unaccompanied children listed in the complaint from nijc addressed? >> i don't believe our recommendations have been finalized. the process is those are protected under deliberative privilege until we hear back from ice or cbp about the complaints. i can check to be sure but i don't believe those complaints we have final recommendations on those. once we have final recommendations we report out in our annual report and our quarterly reports to congress. >> we can expect at some point specific -- something specific to address these issues. >> it should be in our annual or quarterly re

we went to artesia, new mexico last december and karnes in december. dealey will be the third major large new facility we visited. the experts submit reports to us and we work with ice. we make recommendations and work with ice to resolve issues that we found there. >> as it relates to these in kick were you able to determine whether they were justified corrective action taken how were specific complaints relates to unaccompanied children listed in the complaint from aic addressed. >> i don't believe our recommendations have been finalized. the process is those are protected under privilege until we hear back from ice or cdp about the complaints. i can check to be sure but i don't believe those complaints we have final recommendations on those. once we have final recommendations we report out in our final report and quarterly reports to congress. >> we can expect at some point specific -- something specific to address these issues. >> should be in annual quarterly report, don't issue finnings in a report on each individual complaint, there are probably

it would impact our southeast federal law enforcement training center in artesia. this facility trains our border and customs agents. and it would compromise sheriff and city police departments who use d.h.s. funding to increase personnel and purchase equipment. moreover d.h.s. helps fund some of our most important security programs such as the new mexico all-source intelligence center, a public safety partnership based out of santa fe that is designed to collect analyze and disseminate intelligence. a shutdown would also risk important d.h.s. grant funding for new mexico at the department of homeland security and emergency management. this agency works closely with d.h.s. to aid communities after natural disasters. so in times of crisis, d.h.s. works hand in glove with the state of new mexico. for example just last year, severe thunderstorms and floods caused disruption of oil and gas development, agricultural losses and extensive damage to critical infrastructure across new mexico. hitting counties like colfax, otero, and sierra county. fema an agency under d.h.s