mr. rodriguez. mr. rodriguez: no, we don't and no, we don't do that. we scrutinize people perhaps differently in situations where they come from conflict zones. particularly conflict zones where organizations that are actively promoting violence against the united states. senator booker: clearly. mr. rodriguez: no. i wouldn't operate an agency that would operate that way. senator booker: but the omnibus called for to us do that way and i'm glad at that bipartisan group of senators say we should not do those things but you say we don't do them now and it doesn't add -- mr. rodriguez: certainly not in the manner which my agency does the work. i don't operate the visa waiver program. we do other things based on -- senator booker: what i describe and what was in that omnibus -- mr. rodriguez: i won't be opining on the visa waiver program. senator booker: you are a smart many. but honorable sal dania, you don't think it makes us any safer? ms. saldana: as i said, as a general proposition. again, in our role as investigators, we're going to look at every asp

mr. rodriguez.prior to this position he has served as the director of the office for civil rights, justice.t of director rodriguez. mr. rodriguez: good morning. time beforeecond this committee to talk about this subject matter and the six time i have testified for some congressional committee in this fiscal year on this subject matter. this committee has become one of my favorites, particularly because the level of discourse has always been simple and intelligent. not that the questions are easy. the questions are hard once we need to be able to answer for the benefit of the mecca and people. i do appreciate the it town you have set here -- the tone you have said here. i believe that a healthy and robust immigration and travel system is critical to our economy, critical to the stability of families and critical to the successful conduct of our foreign policy and national security. i believe the most fundamental responsibility of government is to protect the public safety. i have spent a fair part of

mr. rodriguez. >> sure. i think as this committee knows, i spent most of my career in law enforcement and very early on was an organized crime prosecutor. back in the late '80s and early '90s where what was considered our organized crime database was actually rose and rows of filing cabinets that would fill this room. we've certainly come a long way from that time. we will now have uscis, a very well automated process to ping law enforcement, intelligence community databases to determine whether an individual seeking an immigration benefit presents a threat to the united states. that will never in my view be a substitute for the human judgment that is required on both ends to make an intelligence community judgment, hen for us to make an immigration judgment with that information. so that will always continue to be part of it, but in terms of the information moving, we really have reached a pretty good point these days. >> thank you. miss saldana, same question just briefly. >> and i agree. we can always imp

mr. rodriguez.rior to this position he has served as the director of the office for civil rights, department of justice. director rodriguez. mr. rodriguez: good morning. this is my second time before this committee to talk about this subject matter and the six time i have testified for some congressional committee in this fiscal year on this subject matter. i should hasten to say that this committee has become one of my favorites, particularly because the level of discourse has always been a civil and and intelligent one. not that the questions are easy. the questions are hard once we need to be able to answer for the benefit of the mecca and people. i do appreciate the tone you have set here. i believe that a healthy and robust immigration and travel system is critical to our economy, critical to the stability of families and critical to the successful conduct of our foreign policy and national security. that to the most fundamental responsibility of government is to protect the public safety. i ha

mr. rodriguez. mr. rodriguez: the question is first to me, is that correct? >> please. >> i think it's well known to just about everybody here including this committee that, in fact, there were a number of quite serious and quite pro rack active -- protractive false starts. e were using an antiquated waterfall process which is directed by one outside entity. we've since migrated agile process which has multiple contractor competing against each other. we can develop a particular item, test it, try it out on the field and make corrections an move on to the next item instead of trying to do everything all at once. to understand the time lines here. the first generation was water fall generation. there was a second generation called ellis. we began really the third generation live in march of last year which in other words was about a month before the inspector general's audit began. we launched the i-90 which is our replacement green card. that incorporated a number of critical functionalities which will be used for other applications in the future. we have pro

mr. rodriguez, at this point, at this stage in the game, i can't tell you unequivocally that that was him. >> reporter: once he got home to newark, police say she helped her husband cover up the cold blooded crime. told police her suv had been stolen. police found the vehicle parked right outside the couple's home. today we learned ironically the same age, 7, as little sheyla. >> by no means is she looking to walk away from this. in a matter of minutes her whole world got turned upside down. >> many worlds turned upside down. rodriguez was charged with among other things leaving the scene of an accident resulting in a fatality. he's being held on $250,000 bail. his wife's bail, much lower, at just $7500. for now we're live in jersey city, kemberly richardson, channel 7 eyewitness news. >>> following breaking news in brooklyn. another hit-and-run. this time the victim, a 70-year-old man on a scooter. he was hit by a car in bensonhurst. the driver took off. a live picture from the scene in bensonhurst. the victim in critical condition at lutheran medical center. all we know really about thi

mr. rodriguez, at this point, at this stage in the game, i can't tell you unequivocally that that was him. >> reporter: sheyla's father said the driver should have helped his daughter. an accident is one thing. leaving his daughter dying, suffering in the street, is cruel and heartless. >> and rodriguez remains in jail on $250,000 bail. his wife's bail was set at $7500. the couple has a 7-year-old son, the same age as sheyla. reporting live in west new york, carolina leid, channel 7 eyewitness news. workers go on strike over wages and benefits in new jersey? besides paralyzing the region, now coming out with a contingency plan just in case. the plan expected to include adding buses and ferries. more than 100,000 people use new jersey transit trains to get in to manhattan each weekday. under federal law, march 13th is the first day railroad workers can strike. >>> funeral services will be held tomorrow for the beloved owner of a sneaker store in new jersey who was murdered on the job. 21-year-old jamaal gaines was shot in the east coast boutique in rahway friday night. at this point police

the canes should go as senior point gartd as angel rodriguez goes. >> mr. before brob probably it would have been a little pressure on me but not any more.

mr. rodriguez, we are told he was driving with no license. he's also an undocumented immigrant. coming up on eyewitness news at 6:00, we're going to talk to the couple's landlord who was there

mr. rodriguez, we are told he was driving with no license. he's also an undocumented immigrant. coming up on eyewitness news at 6:00, we're going to talk to the couple's landlord who was there for now we're live in west new york. i'm sandra bookman, channel 7 eyewitness news. >>> turning now to weather. heavy rain and strong winds could make for a messy morning commute. meteorologist lee goldberg is tracking it all. he's outside our studio on the upper west side. >> nice tame start to the month. we're going to bring the march wild out as we go through the next few days. we'll start with rain and thunder and eventually talk about a little snow down the road. right now it's nice and quiet. you wouldn't know we have rain and thunder coming in. a look over manhattan skyline. see some high clouds. that's the approaching system coming in. we're down to 45. we've got a wind getting brisk. we've cooled off a little bit. inland numbers still near 50 degrees. obviously nice and mild out ahead of the storm. wind coming off the water. it all equals rain. there it is coming in at pennsylvani

we just heard laura rodriguez mr. roub yo said he's not going to do that regardless of what happens here in florida. we'll be watching it very closely throughout the course of the next several hours for you. reporting live in palm beach county, willard shepard, nbc 6 news. >> meanwhile, senator ted cruz will be watching tonight's election results @rom his home state of texas, since he is unlikely to win florida or ohio. cruz will be looking to pick up delegates in illinois, missouri and north carolina. while republican presidential candidate john kasich cast his ballot for himself in ohio's primary. he voted in westerville outside of columbus. afterwards, speaking to reporters sharing his thoughts on running a positive campaign and the challengers who have not. >> i learned that you have to vote for yourself, because if you don't, youou could lose. it's a long road for me, and i'm -- i am very, very humbled by the campaign and the experience, and the attention. >> the governor saidid if he wins his home state, he expe

the canes should go as senior point gartd as angel rodriguez goes. >> mr. before brob probably it would have been a little pressure on me but not any more. i think our guys realize not just what i do or how i lead them. it's what we do and how we push each other. how we encourage each other. >> thursday night in providence against buffalo. former cane vernon guesting with me on sports extra. four years with the dolphins. went to um and american high school before. that vernon signed with the new york giants last week. five years, 85 million bucks. >> things just didn't workout. you know, honestly they tried to their best to make things work. we just knew that we had to take the next step forward and try something different. good guy. good luck to him. >> busy day in sports. the panthers in brooklyly to plate islanders. one point behind boston in the third division. and after beating philadelphia saturday may shootout. before that they had lost five out of six. 14 games left. >> and we went through a stretch where we were a little lax days cacaent not playin

mr. chairman. i too want to join you in general general austin and general rodriguez for their extraordinary service since this is likely your last appearance before the committee. having the privilege to work for you for many years your professional, skill and commitment to the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen you lead is without parallel thank you both and general votel we appreciate your appearance today and see you tomorrow as you've been nominated to be the successor to general austin central command. again your service is also deeply appreciated. earl whier this year i traveled to iraq, afghanistan, djibouti to see firsthand some of the pressing challenges that we've been talking about. in iraq the diplomatic and military officials i met universally agreed the iraqi security forces success we're taking in ramadi in june was critical for providing momentum for upcoming operations. while isis lost considerable territory it once held in iraq the more difficult task is ahead, the combination of a newly trained iraqi security force enabled by coalition intelligence and air strikes should be ab

mr. chairman. general rodriguez, regarding libya, you mentioned in your written testimony that the lack of stability and security in libya threatens our peace and security objectives in the middle east. of course, whatever we do in the middle east is fraught with all kinds of peril and unintended consequences. so while the libyan government of national accord established by agreement on december 2015 as you note in your testimony is an important step, it will take time to establish its authority. so can you talk more about what's supposed to happen under this agreement and what happens -- what is to be expected to happen in libya and what kind of timeframe are we talking about to establish stability and security in libya? >> thank you, senator. the agreement that the u.,. brokered to build the government national accord was supposed to bring together both the house of representatives in the east and the general national congress in the west. and build a central government that could then begin to govern libya. this will, you know, be a long time coming as they work through this, and we are continuin

govnment miguel diaz bermuda anesthesiamiguel diaz berma anesthesiaen bruno rodriguez and john kerry's cuban counterpart hernandez and mr. castro by the way is woyd oweer, his wife died nine years ago. and i would like to join my colleague here he will join me to talk about the reaction from that news conference. no matter what happens from this point forward, what happened both during the news conference and after the news conference will be hard to top. >> this is the major headline tonight. and we know everybody in south florida was watching because as ended, the emails at local 10 were flooded with folks saying this cannot be. we just did not hear what he just said. a lot of folks point together fact there are political prisoners here on e island inciting numbers and when you talk to folks here on the island, in havana, you get a different reaction. >> why do you have political prisoners and do you have e and why don't you release them? >> questioned by american journalist and it seems raul castro gets nruingterred when answering and castro says show me, give me a list of political prisoners to release and if there

rodriguez, 17. cleveland, ohio, november 21, 2014. bryant, 60. sharita, 41. jaria, 19. shaylana, 17. mountain, alabama, november 16, 2015. he sylvia, 71. clara, 68. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to congratulate the military

government miguel diaz bermuda anesthesiamiguel diaz bermuda anesthesiaen bruno rodriguez and john kerry's cuban counterpart hernandnd and mr. castro by the way is woyd oweer, his wife died nine years ago. and i would like to join my colleague here he will join me to talk about the reaction from that news conference. no matter what happens from this point forward, what happened both during the news conference and after the news conference will be hard to top. >> this is the major headline tonight. and we know everybody in south florida was watching because as soons this press conference ended, the emails at loc 10 were flooded with folks saying this cannot be. just said. a lot of folks pointnt together fact there are political prisoners here on the island inciting numbers and when you talk to folks here on thee island, in havana, you get a differenteaction. >> why do you have political prisoners and d/ you have -- and why don't you release them? >> queioned by american journalist and it seems raul castro gets nruingterred when answering and castro says show me, give me a list of political prisoners to release and if there a

eliott rodriguez has more on what is planned and reaction from local cuban americans who met with mr. obama yesterday. >> reporter: the president will do a lot in three days. he's been spending time preparing for the trip. last night he met with a group of prominent cuban-americans and today he sent a letter to 76- year-old woman who lives in cuba and is eager for the president to arrive on cuban soil. a country that badly needs a facelift is getting it. at least it is if this havana a small stadium where president barack obama will attend an exhibition game next week. the white house has released details of the president of this visit. it begins sunday with a tour of old havana and a visit to will meet cardinal ortega. monday mr. raul castro as well as cuban entrepreneurs and attend a state dinner. on tuesday he will directly addressed the cuban people from cuba's national theater. will be with members of civil society and dissidents before attending the exhibition baseball game between tampa bay rays and the national team. was night he met at the white house with 16 comments cuban-

rodriguez. is, it was brought up by the media that mr. trump hired foreign immigrant workers to do part-time work. and trump, during his debate sat there and said, there are jobs that americans don't want. the question iowa's have in this discussion is, what is there so much of a focus on stopping immigration when the economics tell us that immigrants can earn a higher salary here and they are going to come here? especially with the upcoming optimization of the jobs, i'd understand why we don't focus more on a specializing our own workers, so that computers and machines can necessarily take jobs from american people. mark: anybody want to weigh in? yes, sir. and you are? >> i am from congressman brooks office. -- there arenotion 7 billion people outside our borders. 80% of them make less than a welfare recipient. we could take one billion of rest andnot help the be like india. i mean, there is balance somewhere is that we are talking about. and so, i guess the notion is, what are we helped by flooding the country with vast numbers of peop

mr. obama stepped onto cuban soil and into the history books. there first lady, daughthts sasha and malia and grandmother to meet with rodriguez. despite the handshakes and flowers, it was noticeably low key compared to the pope's airport arrival 6 months ago at which raul castro received the poptiff. then there was pomp. but the circumststces surrounding this trip are much different. a 2 and a half day presidential uncomfortable political divisions. not the prayerful flections with a wave and smile, the presidential limo adorned with cuban flags left for the airport. the first stop a erousing welcome from the u.s. embassy employees at the hotel from the employees and families. the 2008 slogan invoked, yes we can, to drive home the historic change. even if not all back home believe in it. >> our u.s.-cuban relations like so many others he's tackled in his presidency, he can now say, we can now say yes, we did. >> yes, we did. >> [speaking spanish] >> anchor: president obama began his remarks with the light hearted look at the history 9 decades in the making. >> ba in 1928 president coolidge came on a battleship. it took him 3 d

you had bruno rodriguez, the foreign minister, greet the president at the airport. that said, mr.d greeted other visitors before. there is a disparity, if you will, between the scale of the united states and the scale of cuba. so what i thought this signaled to me is the cuban government was trying to slightly, i don't know if the word is downplay, but keep all this under control. and that's a reminder that they're uneasy. one of the things we want to do is change cuba. we want to see political and economic change come to that country. obviously, the regime wants to keep the lid on all that. so my hunch is by not showing up at the airport, it was a way of trying not to lose control and trying not to make this visit seem bigger than it was at home. the president, for his part, when he speaks to the cuban people, has to somehow signal that change needs to come to cuba. that's the tension between the two sides. the way dissidents are being treated is a reminder that even though this is a step towards one another, the two governments remain quite far apart. >> most of the criticism ab

mr. greggs sent up to gate 8. i'd appreciate it. >> sure. >> all right, thanks. >> rodriguez greggs was convicted a week earlier.ssession of marijuana for sale. he was sentenced to one year and will serve his time at real consumas. >> this is my first time being here so it's kind of scary being here with people who got all of these type of charges. this doesn't even seem like a jail. it seems like a prison. and they lot of people live like this is their home. i can't live like that here. i don't feel like this is my home. >> it's just really scary to me. but i just stay on my bunk and just mind my business. it's like a fish in a tank full of sharks. i've been here a week, and i haven't ate all week. nothing tastes good. when i try to eat it, it comes right back up. i don't want to be in the chow hall and it comes up. that will start a problem, also. just a lot of politics in here. there's just certain stuff that you just can't do. >> so today's session, we're going to talk about the re-entry plan and what that looks like. >> okay. >> so what that means is, we're going to take a look at some of the things that yo

mr. chairman. >> it's hard for me to believe, general rodriguez, that it's been nine years. before that time, of course you all remember it was part of three different comms including -- i also remember i was opposed to sending the troops into bosnia. the excuse being used at that time was because of ethnic cleansing. i recall being in florida and it was something that was needed. it was brought up by senator cotten that there is a problem over there. there are a lot of problems in africa. they don't rise to the top, but the president there is one that our state department opposed ended like to know, it's my understanding, i know him personally and i have been with him several times. he was legitimately put into office but was nonelection. the reason our state department was opposed to him running again was because the term limits would have set in if that first term had been considered a full-time. now you follow me there so far. then when the courts came along, the supreme court agreed he was entitled to run again and then i will always believe that one of the big politica

mr. obama stepped onto cuban soil and into the history books. there first lady, daughthts sasha and malia and grandmother to meet with rodriguez. despite the handshakes and flowers, it was noticeably low key compared to the pope's airport arrival 6 months ago at which raul castro received the poptiff. then there was pomp. but the circumststces surrounding this trip are much different. a 2 and a half day presidential uncomfortable political divisions. not the prayerful flections

mr. chairman. thanks to all of you for being here and for all you do for the security of our country. general rodriguez, the "new york times" report from february 27 recounted at the time when intervention in libya was being discussed then secretary bob gates stated that libyan leader moammar gadhafi quote was not a threat to us anywhere closed quote and then director of defense intelligence agency quoted gadhafi was a thug in a dangerous neighborhood but keeping order, closed quote. general rodriguez, how has the chaos in libya, specifically the proliferation of weapons from gadhafi's stockpiles and the infiltration of isis and al qaeda affiliates, led to further destabilization of north africa and the middle east and threatened our security interests? >> thank you, senator. the first effects of that destabilization was probably in mali when many of the fighters as well as arms ammunitions explosives headed that way which created some of the challenges down there. so it has destabilized north africa all the way down to mali. the other challenge is the militias who have grown up and around and use many

mr. chairman. thanks to all of you for being here and for all you do for security of our country. general rodriguez, the "new york times" report recounted at the time when intervention in libya was being discussed then secretary bob gates stated that libyan leader moammar gadhafi was not a threat to us and then director of defense intelligence agency quoted gadhafi was a thug in a dangerous neighborhood but keeping order. general rodriguez how has the chaos in libya specifically the proliferation of weapons from gadhafi's stockpiles and infiltration of isis and al qaeda affiliates led to further destabilization of north africa and middle east and threatened our security interests? >> thank you senator. the first effects of that destabilization was probably in mali when the fighters as well as arms ammunitions explosives headed that way which created challenges down there. so it has destabilized north africa. the other challenge is the militias who have grown up and around and use many of the ammission stocks for their power and influence not only internal to libya but external to neighbors. and the

rodriguez, 58 years old. maria sal da noah, 50. edgar costumbre, 24. glade spring, virginia, february 25, 2014, terry griffin, 75 years old. nancy griffin, 74, kristen palmer, 46. mr. peters: kevin palmer, 44. riffin palmer, 17. fontana, california, december 31, 2013. sylvia miranda, 34 years old. reina miranda, 10. ramon miranda jr. 12 years old. jacksonville, florida -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the honorable judge poe is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: mr. speaker, in a secret court, the f.b.i. quietly revised its privacy policy for searching thru data on americans collected by the n.s.a. the n.s.a., which i call the national surveillance agency, gives the f.b.i. access to not only data they collect but the content of personal communications like emails, texts, and phone calls. what the intelligence agencies have been doing is lawfully collecting information on foreign terrorists but at the same time creating large databas

rodriguez, 17. cleveland, ohio, november 21, 2014. bryant, 60. sharita, 41. jaria, 19. shaylana, 17. mountain, alabama, november 16, 2015. he sylvia, 71. clara, 68. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to congratulate the military affairs committee of key west on their 50th anniversary celebration. since its inception, m.a.c.'s mission has been to strengthen the bond between military members and civilians in the florida keys. members of m.a.c. are devoted citizens of their community, participating and volunteering in local events to ensure that key's life continues to thrive. i'm proud to recognize two charter members of m.a.c., mr. dward knight and mr. frank topino. -- both were in world war ii. both have gone on to become successful entrepreneurs, businessmen and philanthropists in key west. they are highly respected pill threefers florida keys community,