mr. palmieri, what actually is mexico doing to help us on this problem right now? >> dr. coburn, in the last year mexico has returned over 85,000 adults and children from its territory back to central america. in the current fiscal -- the current calendar year they are on pace to return over 90,000 adults and children back to the countries of el salvador, guatemala and honduras. on monday the president announced the launch of its southern border strategy which they hope will increase their ability to interdict and disrupt these smuggling networks. >> all right, thank you. mr. winkowski, i have a question for you. i've recently spoken to a whistle blower and i.c.e. agent who shared with us often -- if we can get those posters up -- documented examples of terminated notices from unaccompanied alien children which you can see in these posters. the reason for these terminations, they are resulting in any and all removal proceedings, it's lutzed as prosecution. it's transmitted back to the i.c.e. agents. explain to me, if you would what this prosectorial discretion under notic

mr. palmieri. what do we know about migration of unaccompanied minors to, from honduras, el salvador and guatemala to other central american countries or south american countries? what sort of information could you share on that? >> it appears the primary route that el salvadorian and guatemalan and honduran migrants and unaccompanied children are taking are north. there are reports that some do seek to stay in mexico if they can. part of the mexican effort at the border with guatemala is they are trying to issue better documentation of people who are entering their country so that they can track those, those visitors in a better way as they move through the country and to see where they are ending up. it is without a doubt the large numbers end up at our border. >> absolutely. for mr. osuna, we know that many of these unaccompanied minors have fled violence. we also know that many have arrived in the united states in the hand of human traffickers. and may have been further victimized on the route

mr. palmieri.stopped by a report by u.n., not only country seeing a huge increase in the migration of unaccompanied minors from guatemala and south of honduras and i saw somewhere where a number of asylum seekers in mexico, nicaragua, belize, costa rica, pan marks i think over 700% ifas i'm not mistaken. what does that say is happening in the three central american countries that we focused on today? >> i think it further confirms that endemic violence in these societies, the street crime, the gang intimidation and forced recruitment, lack of educational opportunity, the poor job prospects in these countries fr young people are driving, are driving people away. and out of these countries. and we've got to do a better job working with these countries to address these, these basic systemic problems that they're confronting. the supplemental has $295 million that tries to get at a better prosperity agenda, that improves economic opportunity but also at the same time maintaining our efforts to address

mr. palmieri, thank you so much. and mr. osuna, welcome and please proceed. >> good morning, mr. chairman, senator coburn and other committee members. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the justice department's executive office for immigration review. our agency is responsible for conducting civil immigration removal proceedings throughout our immigration reports throughout the country and our appellate level, the board of immigration appeals. our case does follow immigration enforcement patterns along the border and in the interior of the country. every individual that the department of homeland security formally charges with rebeing removable from the u.s. results in another case for our immigration courts. with nearly 375,000 matters pending at the end of the june, we are facing the largest case load that the agency has ever seen. overall, we have 243 immigration judges and 59 immigration courts around the country. many of our courts are located at or near the southern border, including in san diego, el paso, and texas. many of our courts are also loca

mr. palmieri. what do we know about migration of unaccompanied minors to, from honduras, el salvador and guatemala to other central american countries or south american countries? what sort of information could you share on that? >> it appears the primary route that el salvadorian and guatemalan and honduran migrants and unaccompanied children are taking are north. there are reports that some do seek to stay in mexico if they can. part of the mexican effort at the border with guatemala is they are trying to issue better documentation of people who are entering their country so that they can track those, those visitors in a better way as they move through the country and to see where they are ending up. it is without a doubt the large numbers end up at our border. >> absolutely. for mr. osuna, we know that many of these unaccompanied minors have fled violence. we also know that many have arrived in the united states in the hand of human traffickers. and may have been further victimized on the route