it makes it more difficult for uscis to accomplish its mission.there was a risk to our national security. basic information on visa applicants is not captured in an electronic format and cannot be used to inform basic steps. this concludes my prepared statement. i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you mr. roth. in my opening comments i was talking about missions, goals of different agencies. we have a simple one. to enhance the economic and national security of america. pretty all-encompassing. one of the problems we have with visa programs, you have conflicting goals. on the one hand, we want to facilitate travel. customer service. the other hand, we want to ensure the security of the homeland to keep america safe. there is tension there. have aur organization simple mission statement like this committee does? can you tell us what it is? >> we have a number of different ways. i have been very clear with our staff and communications to the entire staff that articulate a set of simple principles. qualifiedindividual immigration

marquez might be at the uscis office and the agent -- officer in charge of uscis, the offices wouldn't allow h.s.i. into the billing and wouldn't give them the a file. that's not indicating a great deal of cooperation between two different agencies under d.h.s. who supposedly the top concern is securing this nation. director rodriguez, can you explain that? we were -- we have been told do i have any information that the decision not to let h.s.i. in came from higher up. director rodriguez: that much is not direct in the sense that once field leadership had consulted with highers up, the instruction was to facilitate the actions that h.s.i. wanted to take. unfortunately this was all as the situation was evolving quickly. ordinarily we don't normally have situations where law enforcement comes into a uscis office to effect an arrest. senator johnson: how can you explain the officer in charge wouldn't allow h.s.i. agents in there when they are saying, listen, you could have a potential terrorist here, somebody who is involved in what just happened yesterday in the slaughter of 14 american

beginning with the petition to uscis come my colleagues here or a visa application submitted directlyo a consulate abroad. during the interview, prior to travel, upon arrival in the united states and while the traveler is in the u.s. are communities working together to protect our borders. the vast majority of these applicants and all immigrants and fiancee visa applicants are interviewed. each officer completes extensive training which has a strong emphasis on border security, fraud prevention, interagency coordination and intervening -- interviewing techniques. recent regent advisors bring additional antiterrorism expertise to the visa process. all visa applicant data is vetted against databases and including terrorist identity databases that contain millions of records of individuals found in eligible for visas. we collect 10 fingerprint scans from nearly all these applicants and screen them against dhs and other databases. all visa applicants are screened against photos against photos of known and suspect did terrorists and priority visa applicants. when interviewed raises concern

reports for fiscal year 2014, 2015 and '16, for quarter one of '16, and the uscis credible fear data and affirmative asylum case data, and ask unanimous consent. >> without objection. >> and with that, i would yield back, mr. chairman. i thank you. >> i'll hold the record open for five legislative days for any members who would like to submit a written statement. we'll recognize our panel of witnesses. i'm pleased to welcome mr. ronald vitiello, u.s. customs and border protection, mr. steven mccraw, director of the texas department of public safety, mr. brandon judd, president of the national border patrol council, professor yang tinge, professor at the temple university beazley school of law, and ms. eleanor acer, senior director of refugee protection at human rights first. welcome all. pursuant to committee rules all witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. if you can, please, rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> thank you, please be s

these anecdotal reports are supported by information that uscis provided the committee. that states that thousands of nationals have claimed credible fear in recent years. for these reasons, texas d.p.s. has stated that, quote, an unsecure border with mexico is the state's most significant vulnerability as it provides criminals and would-be terrorists from around the world a reliable means to enter texas and the nation undetected. this is especially concerning today in light of the recent terrorist attacks and schemes around the world. end quote. i thank our witnesses for their testimony today and look forward to examining issues related to national security threats at our border, and what could be done to combat this growing problem. i now recognize mr. lynch, the ranking member of the subcommittee on national security, for his opening statement. mr. lynch: thank you very much, mr. chairman. i also want to thank the panelists for helping the committee with its work. i'd like to also thank chairman meadows and ranking member connolly for holding this hearing as well. to

ng nat6:t, tvehies exsa h licee 5 urmo lae s us how ed wdmou its th istor wh usci coitfor jous. i' >>eborngn a chanalthrebye-mailinveigats are into who sent th wo l denkin bowas o his ly. inwi ld inth day wr's mspok fry rangementserbeinma. shurcorawi deil g vestigat ? epr:we do th autopsdempletee iofr at toye leedinmetimelethcoare stl infor aner thiong t do to your il rorgot wh she iting fodywathe mecaerly hwi brth to happed-ar a deins. >> hoputcot an onutrye now bue h dertho e vehaa lyr the >>darnell xookthe familyafteins' body ed. >> she what br closurtes owis ch >> ri ateyhace ely au e reare in y >>omcoity e skeptil ou inigation llw.>> iwi nolp no kedier ose who are in posionth is responsiblfor mang

you have uscis and ice. you will hear that. a lot of acronyms in this business. mr. john roth, the inspector general for the u.s. department of homeland security. the hearing is about the security of our u.s. visa systems and programs. i think the potential vulnerabilities came to light certainly in the public's awareness with 9/11. the fact that so many of the terror i haists that killed ames were here on student visas. we became aware of the fact of the overstays. so we started understanding the vulnerabilities there. back then, we obviously had the state department involved in granting and application -- or the acceptance and granting of visas. but you also had immigration and naturalization services. you had one agency. after 9/11, we kind of took that apart, set up the department of homeland security. now we have different agencies. i think it's a legitimate question to ask, are these agencies working together? do we have a shared purpose, shared goal, shared mission to literally keep this nation safe? allow for travel. allow for commerce. but at the heart of it

. -- uscis credible fear nationality reports for fiscal year 2014, 2015 and 2016. for quarter one of 2016. and the uscis credible fear data and affirmative asylum case data. i ask unanimous consent. mr. desantis: without objection. medinah pedestrian with that i would -- mr. meadows: with that i would yield back, mr. chairman, thank you. mr. desantis: thank you. i'll hold the record open for five legislative days for any member who would like to submit a written statement. i'm pleased to welcome mr. vitiello. mr. mccraw, director of the texas department of public safety. mr. judd, president of the national border patrol council. professor ting, professor at the temple university beasley school of law. and ms. acer, senior director of refugee protection at human rights first. welcome all. purr superintendent to committee rules, all witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. you can please rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? thank y

of the other, the uscis nationality reports for fiscal year 2014, 2015, 2016. and the uscis credible fear data and affirmative asylum case data. >> without objection. mr. meadows: with that, i yield back mr. chairman. >> i will hold it open for anyone who wants to have a statement. i am pleased to welcome mr. ronald vitello, mr. stephen mccraw, director of texas public safety, mr. brandon judd, professor ting at the beasley school of law, and senior director of senior rights first. all witnesses will be sworn in before they testified. you can please rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear the testimony or about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? please be seated. all witnesses answer and affirmative. in order to allow time for discussion, please limit your oral testimony to five minutes. your entire written statement will be made part of the record. mr. vitello, you're up. five minutes. mr. vitiello: thank you chairman , and distinguished members of the subcommittee. it is an honor to appear bef

in particular, uscis, my agency, bears responsibility for screening refugees who will -- who are seeking admission to the united states. since september 11th, we have admitted nearly 790,000 refugees. i would hasten to add that about 120,000 of those have come from iraq. in that time, not a single admitted refugee has actually engaged in an act of terrorist violence against the united states. there have been a number relatively small number of terrorist plots or attempts to affiliate with terrorist organizations that have been successfully disrupted by united states law enforcement. the reason why we have been successful is the robust screening process that already exists to screen those who are coming to the united states. it is a multi-layered process involving a multitude of both agencies, law enforcement agencies, involves intensive interviews conducted by several agencies, in particular by my officers who are intensively trained and briefed to do the work that they do. nonetheless, recognizing evolving threats, particularly those posed by lone wolves, inspired by terrorist organizat

the other is the uscis credible fear rationality reports for fiscal year 2014, 2015 and '16.for quarter one of 16 and the uscis credible fear data and affirmative asylum case data, i ask unanimous consent. >> without objection. and with that, i would yield back, mr. chairman. i thank you. >> thank you, i'll hold the record open for five legislative days for any members who would like to submit a written statement. we would recognize our panel of witnesses. kpleesed to welcome mr. ronald patelo, chief of the u.s. border patrol. mr. steven mcgraw, director of texas department of public safety. professor yan ting at the temple university beasley school of law and ms. eleanor senor at human rights fiction director of protection. pursuant to committee rules, all witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. you can please rise and raise your right hand? do you solemnly swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? thank you, please be seated. all witnesses answered in the affirmative. in order to allow tim

we now have uscis, a well ng lawted process topi o ping lawt -- two enforcement. that will always continue to be part of it. as far as information, we have reached a pretty good point. >> i agree. we can always improve. we can always do better. we have seen one or two informationere the broke down a little bit. but the visa security program itself is an external area example of that information sally -- information sharing. it has so many different contributors, fbi, obviously state and other law enforcement. that is an example of the progress we have made. we are always working on this to make it better. and internationally with our allies and our countries out there. >> with apologies for being a contrary and are a skeptic in the room. >> be yourself. >> it's an occupational hazard, senator. newts are aaudit difficulty with the paper-based system. when we compare ice data with cas data, what we found is that perpetrators of human trafficking were using the visa system to bring their victims into the country. one of the current -- one of the reasons that has occu

you have uscis and ice. you will hear that. a lot of acronyms in this business. mr. john roth, the inspector general for the u.s. department of homeland security. the hearing is about the security of our u.s. visa systems and programs. i think the potential vulnerabilities came to light certainly in the public's awareness with 9/11. the fact that so many of the terror i haists that killed ames were here on student visas. we became aware of the fact of the overstays. so we started understanding the vulnerabilities there. back then, we obviously had the state department involved in granting and application -- or the acceptance and granting of visas. but you also had immigration and naturalization services. you had one agency. after 9/11, we kind of took that apart, set up the department of homeland security. now we have different agencies. i think it's a legitimate question to ask, are these agencies working together? do we have a shared purpose, shared goal, shared mission to literally keep this nation safe? allow for travel. allow for commerce. but at the heart of it