mr. emrich. mr. emrich: we do not have the ability to send an investigator to syria.have resources to verify various elements of testimony and story. sen. sessions: well i'm sure there are things you could do. but you're telling us you can do that for a majority of the people that you interviewed? do you have the ability for a majority of the people you interview to have independent data of value to help identify them? mr. emrich: in many cases we are able to find independent data. sen. sessions: in many cases, i asked a majority. mr. emrich: i cannot quantify. sen. sessions: 20% or 80%? can you tell us? is it less than 20 or more than 80? mr. emrich: i can't give you a number. sen. sessions: the reason is, you don't have the ability. i wish you did, but you don't. ms. strack? ms. strack: mr. emrich cover the point i was going to cover, sir. >> mr. chair, if i could. appoint you made on a -- a point you made on the u.s. response abilities versus those of other countries in the world. i know you mentioned brazil is not taking refugees. i wanted to set the record straig

mr. emrich?thank you, chairman sessions, ranking member durbin, and other distinguished senators for the opportunity to update you on the measures we're taking to ensure the security of the u.s. refugee admissions program. in addition to the security checks that my colleagues have described and that's in our written testimony, that apply to nationality, uscis has begun an additional layer of syrian applicants. it's performed by headquartered base e based. i'd like to describe the role of fdns. also within the d.c.-based element of the fraud detection and national security directorate as the intelligence division which is close and regular contact with our dhs intelligence community partner, the dhs office intelligence and analysis. other dhs components and intelligence community member agencies. fdns has full-time liaison officers stayinged at the fbi headquarters national joint terrorism task force, interpol and the fbi terrorist screening center. we rely on these everyday connections to share i

mr. emrich cover the point i was going to cover, sir. >> mr. chair, if i could. appoint you made on a -- a point you made on the u.s. response abilities versus those of other countries in the world. i know you mentioned brazil is not taking refugees. i wanted to set the record straight that brazil,, in fact has stepped up quite large in terms of the syrian crisis. they have done 80 military and visa program -- a humanitarian visa program and allowed syrians to come to brazil. not technically as rapidly's, but from the -- not technically as refugees. there are 30 countries involved in resettlement of syrians. you are right, europe is taking people because people are moving across land borders. but there are countries like new zealand, australia, and canada also playing a significant role. thank you. sen. session: according to the information on, the u.s. is six times more migrants than all of latin american countries combined. do you dispute that? mr. bartlett: i'm only talking about refugees at this point, sir. i also see numbers that indicate -- how long ago was

mr. emrich covered the point i was going to cover, sir. >> well -- mr. chair, if i could, not on security screen but go back to a point you made about humanitarian response, u.s. responsibilities versus those of other countries in the world and i know you mentioned brazil, not taking refugees. i wanted to set the record straight that brazil has, in fact, stepped up quite large in terms of the syria crisis, they have done a humanitarian visa program and allowed thousands of syrians to come to brazil. they are not coming technically as refugees but from the immediate region of the middle east there is about 30 countries involved in refugee resettlement of syrians. right now europe is taking the bulk because people are moving across the land bored but new zealand, australia and canada are playing a significant role. thank you. >> according to the information i have, the united states has six times more migrants than all the latin american countries combined. you dispute that? >> i'm only talking about refugees at this point, sir. >> howl ago was that they a

mr. emrich: i do. >> if there is no database to query, how can you have valid information? mr. rich: there is data that we check against and we would be happy to describe this to you in a different setting. you just tell us under both. you are a public official. do you think there is adequate data, when you query these databases, are you likely to have any valuable information from them? tell you thatwill we often find valuable information and that we check every single thing that is available. >> i am sure you check everything available. mr. steinback is making a plain fact. there is no real databases in syria to check. isn't that right? every thingwe check within u.s.aware of government holdings. we are either inquiring about, or looking into and we currently check. as far as i am concerned, if we have not overturned every stone, we are in the process of overturning every stone. >> there you go again. overturning everything you can overturned. i do not doubt that. and american police officer checks the crime information center when they arrest someone. you do not have a crime

mr. emrich. there's no way to do background checks with any significance. i'm sure we have some intelligence data on a number of people throughout the region. if you get hit on that i'm sure you would reject them, but you have only a miniscule number of people that have been identified i'm sure in that fashion. and i don't believe you can tell us with any certainty that you have an ability to conduct an efficient background check. and let's say you have no information. let's say there's a question, do you have any ability to send an investigator to iraq to check and see if the person actually lived on the street, actually have the job he claims to have had? >> sure, if i may -- >> i was talking to mr. emrich. >> okay. >> well, we do not have the ability to send an investigator to syria. we do have resources we can use to verify various elements of someone's testimony and story. >> well, i'm sure there are things you can do, but you are telling that you can get a free majority of of the people that you interview? do you have the ability for a majority of the

mr. emrich, but there is no place to check. then if they are approved, their air fair is provided to the united states? >> not only do they go through security checks but they go through health exams. we do that not only for the health of the refugee but also for the citizens of the uts us -- united states. once they arrive, they sign a promissory note to pay back the lone. we have an 80% repayment rate, and that money goes back into future refugee programs. senator sessions: mr. carey, we just need to be aware when we talk about the cost of the program -- and we have a billion dollar cost, colleagues we are not talking about the new stress on medicaid, food stamps, housing hospitals, the allowances they may be entitled to, and other costs of that kind that have not been provided. is that correct? you are not estimating that, mr. carey? then ey: they are eligible for services on a means-tested basis in the communities in which they resettle. senator sessions: do they have to wait a year before they become eligible for food stam

mr. emrich or ms. strack, i hope you will ask for it. i think it's impossible, even with more staff, to get the information. er -- we are not going to be able, as some people might think, to go out to the neighborhood and actually interview people to make sure this is the same person that lives on this street. that worked at this job and was a good and decent person. we see that happening in europe in huge numbers, and i believe the american people are generous and kind and decent, and they want to contribute to solving this crisis and we are, and a significant degree, but we are entitled to have our officials protect our interests, the people's interest and that is what i think we tried to do today. i don't blame any of you for the difficult job you have, but i do think that we need to ask ourselves how so much instability occurred in the world. we'd ask ourselves how we can thatpositively assure stability is returned to as much of that area of the world as possible and to try to create a financially in helping in a humanitarian way, th

mr. emrich or miss strack, i hope you will ask for it. i'm worried that it's almost impossible, even with more staff, to really get the information. because we're not going to be able as some people might think to go out to the neighborhood and actually interview people to make sure this is the same person who lived on this street. that worked at this job and was a good and decent person. so we see that in europe how it's happening in huge numbers. i believe the american people are generous and kind and decent. and they want to contribute to helping solve this refugee crisis. and we are. in a significant degree. but we're entitled to have our officials protect our interests, the people's interest. that's what i think we have tried to do today. i don't blame any of you for the difficult job you have. but i do think that we need to ask ourselves how so much instability occurred in the world. we need to ask ourselves how we can more positively assure that stability is returned to as much of that area of the world as possible. and to try to c

mr. emrich or miss strack, i hope you will ask for it. i'm worried it is almost impossible with more staff to get the information. we're not going to be able to at some people might think, go out to the neighborhood and interview people that make sure the person that lived on this street was a doing a good job and good and december person. we're seeing in europe how it is happening in huge numbers. i believe the american people are generous, kind and decent. they want to contribute helping solve this refugee crisis and we are, in a significant degree. but we're entitled to have our officials protect our interests, the people's interest. that is what i think we tried to do today. i don't blame any of you for the difficult job you have. but i do think that, we need to ask ourselves how much so much instability occurred in the world. we need to ask ourselves how we can postively assure that stability is returned to as much of that area of the world as possible. to try to create a circumstance and financially help in a humanitarian way, peopl