mr. langlois. mr. langlois: thank you for the opportunity to testify at today's hearing on unaccompanied children. my days of -- my name is joseph langlois. i oversee the asylum program at uscis, which plays a critical role in upholding our nation's long tradition of providing protection for those who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution. my testimony today will focus on uscis's role in adjudicating asylum applications filed a bionic company children. the trafficking victims protection reauthorization act of 2008, tvpra changed the track for unaccompanied children seeking asylum and removal proceedings and introduced a new role for u.s. -- uscis. prior to the tvpra only immigration judges had jurisdiction to adjudicate asylum applications filed by on a coveted children in removal proceedings. under the tvpra unaccompanied children and removal proceedings now have the ability to file their asylum applications with uscis. this arrangement allows unaccompanied children to initial

mr. langlois. >> mr. chairman, senator carper and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify at today's hearing. my name is joseph langlois and i'm the associate director of the refugee asylum and international directorate within the u.s. citizenship and immigration services uscis. i oversee the asylum program at uscis which plays a critical role in the long tradition of providing protection for those who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution. my testimony today will focus on the uscis row of adjudicating asylum applications filed by unaccompanied children. the trafficking of it comes protection reauthorization act of 2008 changed the track for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in removal proceedings and introduced a new role for uscis. prior only immigration judges have jurisdiction to adjudicate asylum applications filed by unaccompanied children in removal proceedings. unaccompanied children in removal proceedings now have now have the

mr. langlois? >> mr. chairman senator carper and other distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify ter hearing on unaccompanied children. my name is joseph langlois and i am the associate director of the u.s. asylum and director within u.s. citizenship and immigration at the department of homeland security. i oversee the asylum program that plays a critical role in upholding our nation's long tradition of providing protection for those who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution. my testimonyfolk focuses on the role of adjudicating the papers filled. the traffic victim reauthorization act of 2008 changed the track for unaccompanied children seeking asylum and removal proceedings and introduced a new role for uscis. prior to the tpra only immigration judges had jurisdiction to adjudicate asylum applications. under the tptra, unaccompanied children and removal proceedings now have the ability to file their asylum application with uscis. this allows

mr. langlois. let me start with the chart. as i stated earlier, there are multiple causes for children coming into the country. does anybody want to take look at that chart and dispute by overall conclusion of the primary cause of the spike of unaccompanied children coming into the country was defered action on childhood arrivals and the message that sent to central america that if you get to america you are home free. anybody want to volunteer to challenge that conclusion? okay. mr. greenberg? can you twist? >> i do want to make clear that hhs is not an immigration agency and not responsible for immigration policy. our responsibilities here are principlely about providing the shelter for children and getting them to appropriate sponsors. the work on reasons for why children are coming is really the work that has been done by the state department and homeland security and i would refer to the recent gao report looking at this. certainly the goa report highlights the importance of crime and violence and economic conditions in t

mr. langlois? >> individuals, as we discussed them individuals who are attempting to enter the united states unauthorized come for a variety of reasons. one reason however, is that they are fleeing persecution. they have a well-founded fear of persecution or they've been persecuted in the past and their claims should be heard. we should design the law to effectively and efficiently hear those claims. senator, you had mentioned a needle in a haystack. to a great degree that analogy rings true here where you're trying to get to that new efficiently and effectively in order to grant asylum to individuals who deserve protection but effectively and efficiently deny those individuals that were not eligible, and return those individuals. so to the extent that the law can grapple with that balance, that's what i would encourage. >> thanks. thank you all. someone i think in your testimony today i've had mentioned that roughly 4000 unaccompanied minors have been granted asylum, is that correct? >> that is co