[Senate Hearing 117-]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2023
----------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2022
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10:06 a.m. in room SD-106, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Chris Murphy (chairman) presiding.
Present: Senators Murphy, Tester, Shaheen, Murray, Capito,
Murkowski, Hoeven, Kennedy, and Hyde-Smith.
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
STATEMENT OF HON. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, SECRETARY
opening statement of senator chris murphy
Senator Murphy. Good morning. We call this hearing of the
Subcommittee on Homeland Security to order.
Today, we welcome the Secretary of Homeland Security
Alejandro Mayorkas.
Before we get started, Mr. Secretary, on behalf of the
subcommittee, I would like to once again share our appreciation
to you and to all of the department's employees for your and
their dedication to protecting our nation's security. We are
mindful of the wide-ranging responsibilities and the sacrifices
that are entailed in upholding those responsibilities and we
are deeply grateful to you and your team.
The purpose, of course, of today's hearing is to review the
department's fiscal year 2023 Budget Request. It's a request
that focus on strengthening the nation's cyber defense,
responding to border management needs, promoting a humane and
efficient immigration system, improving operational readiness
of the Coast Guard, and continuing steps to advance climate
response and resiliency.
I imagine much of today's discussion will cover border
security, immigration policies, and the CDC's Title 42
authority.
Mr. Secretary, I am constantly demoralized by the tone of
our debate about security and in particular the tone of our
debate about our border. Many of my Republican colleagues, and
I frankly don't put the Ranking Member in this category, simply
see the issue of immigration as a political cudgel. They see
immigrants as political opportunities to be cast as threats and
they constantly dumb down the debate about immigration, for
instance, insisting that the reason there are high numbers of
undocumented immigrants arriving at our border right now is
because of the name on the door at the White House.
Let me assure my colleagues non-citizens arriving at our
southwest border don't care who the President of the United
States is. Why? Because they come here for a complex set of
reasons, most of which are connected to life back in their home
country.
We only have to go back to 2019 to see the evidence under
arguably the most restrictive policies and programs in decades,
policies that included separating little children from their
parents and sending thousands of vulnerable people to wait
months for a chance to seek asylum in conditions so dangerous
that our own State Department issued warnings.
Our country saw the highest level of apprehensions at the
border in over a decade in 2019 and how did Congress respond?
Well, Congress stepped up and enacted a $4.6 billion emergency
supplemental in 2019 in order to provide resources to DHS and
other departments to manage the border requirements that year.
Why did that happen? Because at that time there was a
shared commitment to respond to the realities at our border, to
support the brave, dedicated men and women of U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), and countless others at the department
working every day on the border or supporting those at the
border and that should be our mission today as it was in 2019.
Now we can have an argument about when to lift Title 42,
but it cannot be permanent, not unless Congress changes the
law, and I find it ironic that there are so many Republicans
that are so confident that COVID is no longer a threat to our
country, except at the border.
Title 42 is going to be lifted now or at some point in the
future and so we can play politics about this or we can be in a
constructive dialogue with you, Mr. Secretary, about funding a
plan to allow your department to coordinate with other Federal
agencies and our neighbors to the south in order to optimally
respond to the expected challenges that are going to result
when inevitably this two plus year restriction on U.S. asylum
law is lifted.
Today we should also talk about the work the department is
doing to protect the homeland from two other threats. I know
there's a long list of threats, but at the top of my list would
be domestic terrorism and foreign propaganda.
Right now the greatest present threat we face as a nation
is domestic terrorism and no one should forget how close we
came in this place to a mass atrocity over a year ago and
nobody should think that this threat has suddenly vanished.
So I look forward to hearing more today about what the
department is going to do with new resources, with this new
budget to counter the threat from within our nation that is
presented to our democracy.
And, Mr. Secretary, I know that you know that there has
been a lot of misinformation about your department's work to
combat misinformation. Frankly, I don't know why we would spend
billions of dollars protecting the homeland without the
capacity to protect our citizens from foreign actors and
terrorist organizations who seek to spread hateful and
dangerous propaganda designed to tear apart our democracy but
you should probably set the record straight about what the
goals of your efforts in this area are.
Earlier this year, despite the odds, this subcommittee came
together and we wrote a bipartisan budget that overcame all
these political pitfalls that I've identified surrounding this
important set of investments in our nation's security and that
is in large part due to the tone set by Senator Capito and the
great staff work that is done on this subcommittee to find a
way to come together to protect our nation despite the politics
that surround this subcommittee's budget.
I think that we can deliver again this year and I'm
grateful to begin that work with this important hearing.
Thank you, Secretary Mayorkas, for appearing before us
today, and I will now turn it over to the Ranking Member
Senator Capito for opening remarks.
statement of senator shelley moore capito
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the
hearing, and thanks to you for the tone and the collegial way
that we've been able to work through some very difficult
issues.
Secretary Mayorkas, it's very nice to see you again, and
thank you for your constant willingness to talk with me on all
of these important issues and all of us really.
Before we begin our discussion on fiscal year 2023, Mr.
Chairman, may I quickly say thank you to you for your work and
partnership in getting this fiscal year 2022 bill done and I
appreciate you working with me and I appreciate the cooperation
that we've found to be able to find our way to what I thought
was a good compromise.
While we have much to talk about regarding the broad scope
of the Department of Homeland Security, from cyber to disaster
response to transportation security, discussions these days are
rightly dominated by the crisis at the southern border.
Last year at this time there were those who said the
numbers at the southern border were merely a seasonal surge,
but the numbers have only continued to get worse.Since last
year's hearing, we've broken records each month and not just
month to month but compared to previous years and over a period
of decades.
Recently we saw nearly 10,000 illegal border crossings in
one day. Each crossing lines the pockets of some ruthless
cartel that are poisoning our country and my state of West
Virginia with drugs like fentanyl. They're using the money for
that.
To be fair and to your credit, we have noticed occasional
efforts at real border enforcement and deterrence and those
efforts have proved fruitful when applied, but unfortunately
they've been kind of far and few between in my opinion and the
challenges are only growing more dire.
Still, despite the backdrop of an ongoing border crisis, we
were able to come together last year to pass a full
appropriations bill that included an 11 percent increase for
DHS, including key border security measures, such as an
increased Border Patrol hiring, doubling the amount for border
security technology, and maintaining funds to provide for
physical barriers on our southern border.
Now we have your request for fiscal year 2023 in front of
us. I appreciate the Administration is acknowledging the need
for more Border Patrol agents as well as a small nod to the
need for more ICE law enforcement agents to deal with ever-
growing non-detained docket.
However, as a whole, the budget seems to focus more on
climate change and a vague equity agenda while making the
current border crisis worse.
To name just an example, this budget asks for 9,000 fewer
ICE beds. I will be asking you about this, I'm sure you know,
cutting over one-quarter of your average daily capacity and a
large overall cut for enforcement and removal operations.
Time and again this Administration and your department have
told courts around the country that you can't properly follow
the law's detention requirements because of limited resources
provided to you by Congress and yet you are here asking us for
a huge decrease in ICE capacity.
Last year in fiscal year 2021 the department did a record-
size reprogramming which flew in the face of certain
congressional priorities and took money from throughout the
entire department to plug holes created by the immigration
surge. The 11 percent increase in fiscal year 2022 was an
opportunity to get this problem under control but, once again,
it looks like there's funds that are going different places and
we're not solving the problem.
Mr. Secretary, you have said you will seek to cover
additional costs through transfers and reprogramming. While I
appreciate that you believe absorbing these costs within your
budget is fiscally responsible, I'm concerned the transfers and
reprogramming necessary to deal with the size of the crisis
we're seeing at the border would stretch the limits of the
other responsibilities at the department.
We know that it will be especially true if Title 42 is
lifted. The department must be transparent about its use of
funds and its burn rate so that we can carefully monitor this
issue.
The Administration failures at the border threaten the work
of the rest of the department. An aggressive use of transfer
and reprogramming authority can harm the department's wide-
ranging and so very important priorities.
The work of the Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA, and the Secret Service,
TSA, FEMA, and other components and subcomponents are too
important to be raided to cover for the Administration's
failure at the border.
For these and other reasons, I'm glad we're having this
meeting to dig further into these issues. I look forward to
working with you, Secretary Mayorkas, and my colleagues on the
committee as we monitor the department's finances for fiscal
year 2022 and also look to this next year's appropriation for
fiscal year 2023.
Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr.
Secretary, for being here.
Senator Murphy. Thank you, Senator Capito, and before I
turn it over to you, Secretary Mayorkas, let me just take a
moment to acknowledge that we lost an important leader in the
history of the construction of the Department of Homeland
Security yesterday.
Secretary Norman Mineta passed yesterday. He was Secretary
of Transportation during September 11th and he did play a
pivotal role in the development of the Department of Homeland
Security, overseeing the creation of TSA, and so I just want to
put that acknowledgment on the record as I turn it over to you,
Mr. Secretary, for opening remarks.
summary statement of hon. alejandro mayorkas
Secretary Mayorkas. Thank you very much, Chairman Murphy,
Ranking Member Capito, and Distinguished Members of the
Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to join you this
morning.
Chairman Murphy, allow me to echo your recognition of the
extraordinary contributions of Secretary Mineta to the
formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Every day, the 250,000 extraordinary personnel of the
Department interact with the public on a daily basis, more than
any other Federal agency. While created to respond to a
singular threat in the aftermath of 9/11, our department has
remained agile, adapting to new challenges as they arise, as
responsibilities grow, and as our role increases in scale and
scope.
The fiscal year 2023 Budget is a $97.3 billion investment
in our capacity to meet the shifting threat landscape. The
resources will give us the tools to protect our communities
from terrorism; to enhance border security; to invest in a
safe, orderly, and humane immigration system; to counter cyber
attacks; to safeguard our transportation networks; to
strengthen disaster preparedness and resilience; and much more.
On terrorism and targeted violence, the threat has evolved
over the last two decades and we meet this challenge by
equipping every level of government, the private sector, and
local communities with the tools and resources that they need
to stay safe.
In 2021, for the first time, we designated domestic violent
extremism a national priority area in our Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs, enhanced training
opportunities for law enforcement, and increased our
intelligence and information-sharing efforts. We are asking for
additional funds to expand these operations.
In the wake of incidents like the hostage crisis in
Colleyville, Texas, we have increased our request for the vital
Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $360 million to protect
houses of worship and other nonprofits from terrorism-targeted
violence.
Under this Administration, our department has been
executing a comprehensive strategy to secure our borders and to
rebuild our immigration system. With the Title 42 Public Health
Order set to be lifted, we expect migration levels to increase
as smugglers seek to take advantage of and to profit from
vulnerable migrants. We will continue to enforce our
immigration laws.
After Title 42 is lifted, noncitizens will be processed
pursuant to Title 8, which provides that individuals who cross
the border without legal authorization are processed for
removal and, if unable to establish a legal basis to remain in
the United States, removed are promptly from the country.
We started our planning last September, and we are leading
the execution of a whole of government strategy, which stands
on six pillars, to prepare for and to manage the rise in
noncitizen encounters:
1. Surge resources, including personnel, transportation,
medical support, and facilities.
2. Increase efficiency without compromising the integrity of
our screening processes in order to reduce strain on
the border.
3. Administer consequences for unlawful entry, including
expedited removal and criminal prosecution.
4. Bolster the capacity of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
and coordinate with state, local, and community
partners.
5. Target and disrupt transnational criminal organizations and
human smugglers.
6. Deter irregular migration south of our border in partnership
with other Federal agencies and nations.
We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already
under strain. It is not built to manage the current levels and
types of migratory flows. Only Congress can fix this.
Yet, we effectively have managed an unprecedented number of
noncitizens seeking to enter the United States, and have
interdicted more drugs and have disrupted more smuggling
operations than ever before.
A significant increase in migrant encounters will strain
our system even further. We will address this challenge
successfully, but it will take time and we need the partnership
of Congress, state and local officials, NGOs, and communities
to do so.
To build on our ongoing work in this budget, we have
requested funding to hire 300 new Border Patrol agents, the
first increase since 2011, to ensure the safe and humane
treatment of migrants and to operationalize a new rule on
asylum processing.
We are requesting additional funds to counter human and
drug smuggling operations, to combat the heinous crime of child
exploitation and human trafficking, and to stop goods produced
by forced labor from entering our markets.
Finally, our mission set includes a series of other
essential priorities. DHS, through CISA, protects our critical
infrastructure from malicious cyber activity, a threat
heightened because of Russia's unprovoked and brutal invasion
of Ukraine.
Our budget will expand our cybersecurity services, will
bolster our ability to respond to cyber intrusions, and will
grow our cyber operational planning activities.
DHS, through the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA), protects the traveling public. Our budget invests in
paying TSA's dedicated personnel commensurate with their
Federal colleagues and in ensuring that they receive employment
protections.
DHS, through FEMA and other agencies, continues to answer
the risks posed by climate change and natural disasters that
are growing in ferocity and frequency.
Our budget invests in adaptation, resilience, improved
response and recovery and more.
We cannot do this alone. DHS is a department of
partnerships. I look forward to working with this committee to
carry out our wide-ranging mission on behalf of the American
people.
Thank you.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Alejandro N. Mayorkas
introduction
Chairman Murphy, Ranking Member Capito, and distinguished Members
of the subcommittee:
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss
the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Fiscal Year 2023
President's Budget.
Every day, our Department interacts with the public more than does
any other Federal agency. While DHS was created in response to a
singular threat, among the Department's most impressive achievements in
the two decades since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, is
its ability to evolve to address multiple complex challenges at once.
Through it all, our workforce of more than 250,000 dedicated public
servants has demonstrated exceptional skill and an unwavering
commitment to keep every community across our country safe. The breadth
of our mission and the scale of our impact requires organizational
agility and appropriate resourcing to meet the dynamic and evolving
threat landscape faced by our world-class workforce.
The fiscal year 2023 President's Budget requests $97.3 billion for
DHS. Of this amount, $56.7 billion is discretionary funding, $20.9
billion is for mandatory funding and fee collections, and $19.7 billion
is for the Disaster Relief Fund to support response, recovery, and
resiliency during major disasters. This Budget will help to ensure that
the DHS workforce has the tools necessary to safeguard the American
people, our homeland, and our values. These resources will: protect
American communities, enhance border security, invest in a fair and
orderly immigration system, protect our Nation's networks and
infrastructure from evolving cybersecurity threats, safeguard the
transportation system, and strengthen disaster preparedness and climate
resilience.
Thanks to the resources provided by Congress, the Department's
extraordinary personnel have been able to accomplish highly impactful
work throughout the Biden-Harris Administration to date. The fiscal
year 2023 President's Budget request for DHS will enable us to continue
delivering for the American people.
combating terrorism and targeted violence
Combating all forms of terrorism and targeted violence is a top
priority for DHS, and one that it cannot accomplish alone. As I have
said several times before, DHS is fundamentally a department of
partnerships. Its ability to execute its critical mission relies on
ensuring that its partners across every level of government, in the
private sector, and in local communities have the tools and resources
that they need to stay safe.
Since the inception of this Department, the threat landscape has
evolved dramatically and DHS has remained vigilant against all
terrorism-related threats to the homeland. In the years immediately
following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Department focused on
foreign terrorists who sought to harm us within our borders and to
threaten our interests abroad. This threat evolved to include homegrown
violent extremists (HVE)-the individuals in America who are inspired
primarily by a foreign terrorist organization's ideology-and has
continued to evolve to include those fueled by a wide range of violent
extremist ideologies and grievances, including domestic violent
extremists (DVE). DVEs are U.S.-based lone actors and small networks
who seek to further political or social goals wholly or in part through
unlawful acts of force or violence, without direction or inspiration
from a foreign terrorist group or foreign power. These actors are
motivated by various factors, including biases against minorities,
perceived government intrusion, conspiracy theories promoting violence,
and false narratives often spread online.
Today, U.S.-based lone actors and small networks who are inspired
by a broad range of violent ideologies, including HVEs and DVEs, pose
the most significant and persistent terrorism-related threat to the
homeland. The Intelligence Community assesses that racially or
ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVE) who advocate for the
superiority of the white race, including white supremacists, and
militia violent extremists (MVEs, present the most lethal DVE movement
in the homeland. Per a March 2021 DVE assessment by DHS, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Counterterrorism Center
(NCTC), RMVEs are most likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks against
civilians, while MVEs typically target law enforcement, elected
officials, and government personnel and facilities.
In recognition of the gravity of the threat, I designated domestic
violent extremism as a ``National Priority Area'' in our Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs for the first time,
while simultaneously increasing training opportunities for law
enforcement partners through domestic violent extremism threat
assessment and management programs. The fiscal year 2023 Budget
increases funding for the critically important Nonprofit Security Grant
Program to $360 million, to protect houses of worship and other
nonprofit organizations from terrorism, targeted violence, and other
violent extremist attacks. The hostage crisis in Colleyville, Texas,
earlier this year, alongside other recent tragic incidents, makes clear
the need for this critical resource.
Further, DHS has renewed its commitment to share timely and
actionable information and intelligence to the broadest audience
possible. The fiscal year 2023 Budget includes an increase of $10
million for our Office of Intelligence and Analysis to enhance
information sharing, analytic capabilities, and intelligence production
to combat emerging threats and to collaborate better with public- and
private-sector partners.
securing our border and enforcing our immigration laws
DHS works to secure and manage our borders while building a safe,
orderly, and humane immigration system.
Violence, food insecurity, poverty, and lack of economic
opportunity in several countries in the Western Hemisphere are driving
unprecedented levels of migration to our southwest border. The
devastating economic impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic on the region has exacerbated these challenges, while human
smuggling organizations peddle misinformation to exploit vulnerable
migrants for profit.
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to pursuing every
avenue within its authority to secure our borders, to enforce our laws,
and to stay true to our values. Yet, a long-term solution can come only
from long-needed legislation that brings lasting reform to a
fundamentally broken system.
On April 1, 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) announced that, as of May 23, 2022, its Title 42 Public Health
Order will be terminated. Title 42 is not an immigration authority, but
rather a public health authority used by the CDC to protect against the
spread of communicable disease. Until May 23, 2022, the CDC's Title 42
Order remains in place, and DHS will continue to process families and
single adults pursuant to the Order. However, beginning on May 23,
2022, DHS will return to processing families and single adults using
Title 8 authorities.
Under Title 8 of the U.S. Code, those who attempt to enter the
United States without authorization, and who are unable to establish a
legal basis to remain in the United States (such as a valid asylum
claim), will be removed. They also are subject to long-term
consequences beyond removal from the United States, including bars to
future immigration benefits.
In September 2021, DHS began planning in anticipation of the
eventual lifting of the Order. DHS is leading a whole-of-government
plan to prepare for and manage projected increased encounters of
noncitizens at our southwest border. Several elements of this plan
already are being executed as we manage a historic number of
encounters. In doing so, our objective continues to be the safe,
orderly, and humane processing of noncitizens, consistent with our
laws, while protecting national security and public safety.
The six pillars of our plan are as follows: (1) we are surging
resources, including personnel, transportation, medical support, and
facilities to support border operations; (2) we are enhancing United
States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing efficiency and
are moving with deliberate speed to mitigate potential overcrowding at
U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) stations and to alleviate the burden on the
surrounding border communities; (3) we are administering consequences
for unlawful entry, including removal, detention, and prosecution; (4)
we are bolstering the capacity of nongovernmental organizations to
receive noncitizens after they have been processed by CBP and are
awaiting the results of their immigration proceedings, and we are
ensuring appropriate coordination with, and support for, State, local,
and community leaders to help to mitigate increased impacts to their
communities; (5) we are targeting and disrupting the transnational
criminal organizations and smugglers who take advantage of and profit
from vulnerable migrants, and who seek to traffic weapons and drugs
into our country; and (6) we are deterring irregular migration south of
our border, in partnership with the Department of State, other Federal
agencies, and nations throughout the Western Hemisphere to ensure that
we are sharing the responsibility throughout the region.
DHS has deployed unprecedented numbers of personnel and levels of
technology, and has expanded resources to the southwest border. The
Department also has made critical security improvements along the
northern border, and has invested in hiring additional USBP personnel,
in fielding new technology, and in bolstering infrastructure while also
strengthening efforts to increase the security of the Nation's maritime
borders. DHS has developed an integrated and scalable plan to activate
and mobilize resources and to increase processing and holding capacity
while improving efficiency, and we are implementing COVID-19 mitigation
measures. We are continuing to process migrants in accordance with our
laws, including expeditiously removing those who do not have a valid
basis to remain in the United States. With partners, we have launched a
counter-network targeting operation focused on transnational criminal
organizations affiliated with the smuggling of migrants, and in close
coordination with the Department of Justice (DOJ), we will refer
border-related criminal activity to DOJ for prosecution when warranted,
including that of smugglers, repeat offenders, and migrants whose
conduct warrants such a law enforcement response.
DHS must continue to leverage its dedicated workforce and cutting-
edge technology to continue to secure our borders. The President's
Budget requests $1 billion for investments in effective and modern port
and border security, including the modernization of facilities;
investments in risk-based border security technology and assets; and
efforts to ensure the safe and humane treatment of migrants. The Budget
funds the hiring of 300 new USBP agents and 300 new USBP Processing
Coordinators to respond to migration along the southwest border. The
additional Processing Coordinators will allow agents to focus on their
core law enforcement mission in the field. If enacted, this would be
the first increase in the number of USBP Agents since 2011.
In addition to DHS's work to secure our borders, it is building a
fair, orderly, and humane immigration system. United States Citizenship
and Immigration Service (USCIS) administers the Nation's lawful
immigration system. Last year, USCIS received approximately 9.1 million
applications, petitions, and requests that spanned more than 50
different types of immigration benefits. USCIS welcomed 855,000 new
U.S. citizens and already has naturalized 429,000 individuals this
year. USCIS also approved more than 172,000 employment-based adjustment
of status applications in 2021 and has completed approximately 39,000
affirmative asylum cases and 44,000 credible fear determinations.
Earlier this year, DHS and DOJ published an interim final rule to
improve and expedite the processing of asylum claims for recently
arriving migrants. The fiscal year 2023 Budget includes $375 million
for USCIS to support asylum adjudications, including resources to
operationalize this transformative rule, ensuring that those who are
eligible for asylum are granted relief quickly, while those who are not
can be removed promptly. In addition, the fiscal year 2023 Budget
requests approximately $389 million for USCIS to continue to reduce
application and petition backlogs, to process refugee admissions, and
to administer international programs.
On the first day of the Biden-Harris Administration, DHS issued new
immigration enforcement priorities for the Department, instructing DHS
officers and agents to prioritize the apprehension and removal of
noncitizens who pose threats to national security, public safety, and
border security. On September 30, 2021, I issued a superseding
memorandum entitled Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration
Law. These updated enforcement priorities, which went into effect on
November 29, 2021, instruct DHS officers to prioritize the apprehension
and removal of noncitizens who are threats to national security, public
safety, or border security. To grow and innovate the tools that DHS
employs to enforce our immigration laws and to ensure related
compliance, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will expand
the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program to enable it to supervise a
larger population of noncitizens in immigration enforcement
proceedings. The Budget includes an increase of $87 million to
accommodate this continued expansion of the ATD program.
combating human trafficking, forced labor, child exploitation, and
protecting victims
The DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT) oversees the
DHS mission to combat human trafficking and the importation of goods
produced with forced labor. In 2021, CCHT reduced the processing time
for Continued Presence authorizations from 30 days to 15 days, better
serving victims of human trafficking by affording them a legal means to
live and work temporarily in the United States. CCHT also worked
closely with ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to initiate
more than 1,100 human trafficking investigations, to make more than
2,300 criminal arrests related to human trafficking, and to assist more
than 720 victims of human trafficking. Additionally, ICE continued, and
in some instances strengthened, its valuable relationships with foreign
law enforcement partners to facilitate the arrest of fugitives with
active criminal arrest warrants from their home countries.
The DHS Child Exploitation Investigations Unit (CEIU)-part of the
HSI Cyber Crimes Center (C3)-leads the Nation in the fight against
online child sexual abuse. CEIU detects and apprehends producers and
distributors of child sexual abuse material and perpetrators of
transnational child sexual abuse; identifies and rescues child victims
around the world; and trains domestic and international law enforcement
partners in cutting-edge investigative practices. In fiscal year 2021,
CEIU identified and/or rescued 1,177 child victims in child
exploitation investigations. CEIU also arrested 3,776 individuals for
crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children and helped to
secure more than 1,500 convictions. Additionally, CEIU's Angel Watch
Center issued 1,722 notifications regarding international travel by
convicted child sex offenders, resulting in more than 600 denials of
entry by foreign nations.
The fiscal year 2023 President's Budget requests $18 million in
dedicated funding for CCHT, which would be the first appropriated
funding for this critically important Center. The Budget also would
enable the permanent relocation of the DHS Blue Campaign to CCHT,
ensuring organizational alignment of the Department's anti-human
trafficking efforts. Additionally, the Budget includes $59 million to
support the C3, including its CEIU, which is leading the fight against
the horrific epidemic of online child exploitation. To support these
critical operations, the Budget also provides $25 million to expand the
efforts of the Victim Assistance Program, which delivers essential
support to victims encountered during HSI investigations. This funding
will allow HSI to hire 59 new victim assistance specialists and will
enhance HSI's victim-centered approach as it takes on investigations of
a wide range of Federal crimes, including human trafficking, child
sexual exploitation, financial scams targeting the elderly and other
vulnerable populations, white collar crimes, and human rights abuses.
In response to the Federal requirements under the Uyghur Forced
Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), signed into law by President Biden on
December 23, 2021, DHS is leading the development of a whole-of-
government enforcement strategy as the chair of the Forced Labor
Enforcement Task Force. In the fiscal year 2023 President's Budget, DHS
requests $70 million to secure the necessary personnel, technology,
training, and outreach that CBP needs to enforce the UFLPA and to
prevent the importation of goods made with forced labor from China.
This investment will strengthen CBP trade enforcement activities and
will expand capacity due to anticipated workload increases at U.S.
ports of entry.
protecting the traveling public
The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) key mission is
to keep our traveling public safe. In fiscal year 2021, TSA screened
more than 491 million travelers and prevented a record number of
firearms from being carried past security checkpoints into secure areas
of airports and onto airplanes. On average, almost 98 percent of
passengers waited less than 20 minutes at airport security checkpoints,
while 96 percent of passengers in a TSA PreCheck lane waited less than
5 minutes. These wait times evidence TSA's ongoing efforts to improve
the customer service and air travel experience for the traveling
public, while protecting national security and public safety.
Since the inception of TSA 20 years ago, the screening workforce
that keeps the American traveling public safe has been paid at a
substantially lower rate than the rest of the Federal Government. TSA's
strategic success depends upon how well we attract, hire, train,
develop, promote, and retain our workforce. This Budget invests a
historic $992 million for expanded labor relations support capability,
equal access to the Merit Systems Protection Board, and pay equity to
ensure that the TSA workforce is provided employment protections and
pay commensurate with other Federal employees.
Further, passenger volume projections and workflow analysis for
fiscal year 2023 have determined that, as passenger volume approaches
pre-pandemic levels, an increase in personnel is required to ensure
that security standards at airport checkpoints are met and that the
traveling public does not experience excessive wait times. The fiscal
year 2023 Budget includes $243 million to address these projections and
to hire the personnel that TSA needs to meet this critical mission.
building resilience to disasters and climate change
DHS continues combating the climate crisis and mitigating climate
change-related risks, which pose a grave threat to the safety,
security, and prosperity of our communities. It is vital for the
Department to lead by example by minimizing its own environmental
impact, by promoting resilience against the risks posed by climate
change, and by facilitating adaptation to reduce international and
domestic climate change-related threats. From extreme heat and fires in
the West to extreme storms in the Southeast, flooding in the Midwest to
ice melting in the Arctic, DHS is on the front lines of helping
communities to develop resilience and to respond to these threats.
To this end, DHS is investing in adaptation to support community
resilience, in increasing response and recovery capabilities, and in
making the disaster assistance process more accessible and equitable.
The fiscal year 2023 Budget provides $3.4 billion for Hazard Mitigation
grants, Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants, and
the Flood Hazard Mapping and Risk Analysis program to mitigate the
effects of climate change through community partnerships, improved
disaster resilience, and preparedness strategies. In addition, the
Department's investments in several climate change initiatives will
include a total of $76 million to transition our vehicle fleet to
electric vehicles and $50 million for various projects in resilience,
energy, and sustainability. These investments will ensure that DHS
missions and support structures both can adapt to the impacts of
climate change and can mitigate the Department's greenhouse gas
emissions impact on climate change.
The fiscal year 2023 Budget request includes $19.7 billion for FEMA
to assist State, local, Tribal, and territorial partners and
individuals affected by major disasters and provides a total of $3.5
billion in Federal assistance to support local preparedness
stakeholders through grants, training exercises, and other support
activities.
protecting our maritime security
Since its founding, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has
protected national and economic security in a complex and evolving
maritime environment. In fiscal year 2021, USCG saved nearly 4,750
lives and prevented more than $61 million in property loss. While
executing its counter-drug law enforcement mission, USCG removed more
than 381,000 pounds of cocaine and more than 71,000 pounds of
marijuana, worth an estimated $7.2 billion in wholesale value.
The fiscal year 2023 Budget provides $817 million for USCG's two
highest acquisition priorities, the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) and
the Polar Security Cutter (PSC). The OPC will replace USCG's fleet of
Medium Endurance Cutters that conduct missions on the high seas and
coastal approaches. The PSC supports national interests in the Polar
Regions and provides assured surface presence in those ice-impacted
waters. The Budget also requests $125 million to acquire a commercially
available polar icebreaker to increase near-term presence in the Arctic
until the PSC fleet is operational.
The fiscal year 2023 Budget also provides the necessary resources
for USCG to conduct today's highest priority operations in support of
national objectives and to continue investments in USCG readiness. The
budget invests $124 million to support the operations, maintenance, and
crewing of new assets to include five Fast Response Cutters, National
Security Cutters #10 and #11, OPCs #2 and #3, a commercially available
icebreaker, and three C-27J aircraft. Administration priorities include
increasing operations in the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Basin, and the
Budget invests $88 million to promote USCG missions in these regions,
along with strengthening cyber resilience and investing in the
workforce.
strengthening our nation's cybersecurity
Cyber threats from nation States and state-sponsored and criminal
actors remain one of the most prominent threats facing our Nation. This
threat has been heightened by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. On
March 21, 2022, President Biden warned that evolving intelligence
indicates that the Russian Government is exploring options for
potential cyberattacks against the United States. Within the past year-
and-a-half, we have seen numerous cybersecurity incidents affecting
organizations of all sizes and disrupting critical services, from the
SolarWinds supply chain compromise to the exploitation of Log
vulnerabilities found in Microsoft Exchange Servers and Pulse Connect
Secure devices. Further, ransomware incidents-like those affecting
Colonial Pipeline, JBS Foods, and Kaseya-continue to rise, as high-
impact ransomware incidents against critical infrastructure
organizations have increased globally, affecting organizations of all
sizes. The rate at which cyber incidents occur is increasing rapidly,
and it is the Department's responsibility to help to protect our
Nation's civilian networks and critical infrastructure from these
attacks.
DHS, through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
(CISA), continues to work closely with partners across every level of
government, in the private sector, and with local communities to
protect our country's networks and infrastructure from malicious cyber
activity.
CISA has taken several steps to increase our Nation's cybersecurity
and resilience, including by creating the Joint Cyber Defense
Collaborative (JCDC) to develop and execute joint cyber defense
planning with partners at all levels of government and the private
sector; by launching the Shields Up campaign in February 2022,
recognizing the heightened risk of malicious cyber activity related to
the Russia-Ukraine conflict, to amplify online free cybersecurity
resources and guidance for how organizations of every size and across
every sector can increase their cybersecurity preparedness; and by
working with federal, State, local, and election technology partners to
protect election systems from interference.
The President's fiscal year 2023 Budget request includes $174
million for CISA to continue the work established through the American
Rescue Plan act of 2021, to expand cybersecurity service offerings that
protect Federal networks and critical infrastructure against evolving
cyber threats. These funds will allow CISA and its partners to adapt to
new systematic risks and to maintain the progress gained in taking
actions to bolster critical operational and strategic cyber risk
mitigation capabilities. In addition, the Budget also provides $425
million for the CISA Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program to
strengthen the security of Federal Government civilian networks and
systems. These efforts will close the crucial gaps that exist in large
agency enterprises and will provide CISA with visibility into
unauthorized, potentially malicious activity targeting Federal
networks. The Budget further includes $68 million for the JCDC, an
increase of $15 million, to ensure that CISA can continue expanding
critical cyber operational planning and partner engagement activities.
additional authorizations
In addition, there are two reauthorizations that the Department
requires to continue its work in critical mission spaces.
First, the authority to establish and operate Joint Task Forces
(JTF) sunsets at the end of this fiscal year. JTFs provide a direct
operational coordination layer to enhance the multi-faceted challenges
facing DHS. JTFs remove stove-piped approaches to meeting challenges.
They do this by developing and implementing an integrated approach that
maximizes resources and capabilities within the Department for long-
term missions and challenges. Today, JTF-East is responsible for
ensuring Departmental unity of effort in the southern maritime approach
to the United States and demonstrates the tangible, positive impacts
that JTFs can have on enhancing DHS operations.
Beyond setting cross-Department-wide goals and planning in a
unified manner, JTFs further the Department's maturation by empowering
Department officials to focus the Department's resources to achieve DHS
goals. This realizes the promise in the Homeland Security Act and the
subsequent creation of DHS to bring together organizations with
homeland security roles in a coherent whole to achieve comprehensive
security.
Lastly, the Department appreciates Congress providing authority for
DHS to conduct counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) operations.
Detection efforts and C-UAS deployments during the past 2 years have
confirmed that the threat from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is real
and significant. Components are combating a multitude of threats from
malicious and errant UAS operators, including thousands of illegal
cross-border flights every year, surveillance of our agents and
operations, conveyance of contraband across the border, and the
potential for drones to cause disruptions at airports and other
critical infrastructure with great economic impact. DHS has deployed C-
UAS equipment more than 250 times to protect senior government leaders,
Special Event Assessment Rating events, National Special Security
Events, the southern border, and other sensitive federally protected
facilities.
We look forward to engaging with you, your staff, and other key
stakeholders in the near future regarding the recently submitted C-UAS
legislative proposal.
conclusion
It is among the greatest privileges of my career to represent and
work alongside the dedicated public servants who are DHS and who work
tirelessly, selflessly, and often at great personal sacrifice to
execute our critical mission. The fiscal year 2023 President's Budget
requests the necessary funding and authorities for the Department to
carry out its wide-ranging mission and to remain vigilant to defend
against and combat a dynamic threat landscape, while protecting
privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and to discuss
the Department's fiscal year 2023 Budget request. I look forward to
taking your questions.
TITLE 42: CONSEQUENCES
Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
Again, let me pass along my thanks to your team which is
just doing extraordinary work every day to protect this nation.
Let me try to level set a bit on what the consequences have
been at the border while we've had the Title 42 authority in
place because I'm sure there will be questions at this hearing
about it.
First, Title 42 is a public health authority, not an
immigration authority, correct?
Secretary Mayorkas. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. That
authority rests in the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the CDC.
Senator Murphy. Therefore, when a person arrives and DHS
exercises Title 42 authority against an asylum seeker, are
there any consequences if they come again to the border or are
they just turned back around under Title 42 authority a second
time?
Secretary Mayorkas. Mr. Chairman, the Title 42 authority is
imposed with respect to individuals who are encountered in
between the port of entry, whether they are asylum seekers or
not. I think that's very important.
What happens is that the individuals actually are not
removed. They are not in immigration enforcement proceedings.
Rather, they are expelled. Therefore, they do not have a record
in immigration enforcement proceedings, and what we have seen
is an extraordinary rise in recidivism because there isn't
really a consequence from a law enforcement perspective. There
essentially is only a turnaround, and so while the numbers are
very high, those are numbers that do not reflect the number of
unique individuals encountered at the border but actually the
number of encounters, including recidivism.
Senator Murphy. So let me give you an example. If you have
recidivism rates in a particular sector, like Rio Grande, that
are 45 to 48 percent, that means that in that sector, if you
had 8,000 encounters on a particular week, roughly 3,800,
almost half of those encounters, are going to be repeat
crossers. Is that a sort of correct understanding of how this
works?
Secretary Mayorkas. Yes, without ascribing to the
particular math, which would take me too long, but in all
candor with this committee, which I will always have, the
number of unique encounters has increased, as well.
Senator Murphy. Right. And I think that's just important
for this committee to understand is that when you see these
elevated numbers on the border, much of this is frankly a
result of Title 42 authority which is essentially incentivizing
individuals to come back over and over again to our border
because Title 42 does not allow you to set in motion a set of
potential criminal consequences for individuals that present at
the border.
So that will be my last question. If we get rid of title 42
authority, return to sort of the foundational immigration law,
there are both civil and potentially criminal consequence for
individuals that repeatedly seek to enter the United States
that are not available to you under Title 42, is that correct?
Secretary Mayorkas. Mr. Chairman, a court has recently
ordered that when Title 42 is in effect, we cannot use our
enforcement authorities as fully as we had intended, but when
Title 42 comes to an end, we will continue to enforce
immigration law, both in the civil context and as the facts
warrant, in the criminal context with criminal prosecutions.
COMBATTING DISINFORMATION
Senator Murphy. I'm going to have a few more questions
related to the border in the second round, but let me ask you
one additional question on another topic and that is, as you
mentioned, the elevated priority that you have placed on
fighting domestic extremism.
There's, as you know, a whistleblower complaint that was
filed by a senior official at DHS alleging that he was asked to
avoid intelligence assessments on white nationalists amongst
other topics and this speaks to how fraught this work is,
right? There are going to be Republicans when Democrats are
running DHS who are going to worry that a focus on domestic
terrorism and extremism will target voices to the right of the
political spectrum just as there will be those in the
Democratic Party who will worry that if a Republican is in
charge of the Department of Homeland Security that the focus
will be on those voices on the left or they will ignore threats
on the right.
How do you build an enhanced domestic terrorism focus at
the department that avoids these political pitfalls? How do you
make sure that you are standing up capacities that look at
threats regardless of where they may happen to fall on the
political spectrum because the legitimacy of this effort is
dependent upon your ability to answer the questions that come
from both sides on this work?
Secretary Mayorkas. Mr. Chairman, there are a few
foundational principles that are extraordinarily important to
articulate in response to your question.
The Department does not combat speech. The Department is
involved in protecting the homeland, in protecting the security
of the homeland, and we become involved when there is a
connectivity to violence. That is our mission, and we have been
executing on that mission for years and years since the
commencement of this department.
One of the threats is a threat of disinformation. We see it
from Russia. We see it from the cartels. The peddling of
disinformation threatens the security of the homeland, and when
that threat is evident, that is when we become involved. We
recently rolled out, albeit not as effectively as we had hoped,
an effort, a working group to bring together the experts
throughout our department to ensure that our ongoing work in
combating disinformation is done in a way that does not
infringe on free speech, a fundamental constitutional right
embedded in the First Amendment, nor on the right of privacy or
other civil rights and civil liberties.
That is a core obligation of ours, and we set up a working
group precisely to ensure that there are guardrails and
protections in place to protect those fundamental rights.
Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
Senator Capito.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. My first question is about your
Disinformation Governance Board which you have downgraded now
to a working group.
First of all, the name in and of itself has, I think,
implications to all of us. I heard all about this all over the
weekend of concern of sort of an Orwellian, you know, policing
of speech. You yourself have even admitted and you just
repeated it here today that the roll-out of this has been
vastly, you say, misunderstood.
So I think, quite honestly, for the good of the rest of the
department that now is a good time to abandon this ludicrous
and much maligned idea. I wonder, you know, when you say that
we have operational control of the border, is that
definitionally disinformation because from a lot of our
perspectives we don't believe that is true?
So it seems such a subjective and undefined what
disinformation is, I would challenge you to punt this and
rethink for the reasons that you mentioned which are important
reasons to try to deter violence following speech to make sure
that the American people really understand what's going on
here.
So if you want to make a quick comment, fine, and then I'll
get to my questions.
Secretary Mayorkas. I do. Thank you very much, Ranking
Member Capito. I certainly haven't downgraded this to a working
group. That's what it is.
Senator Capito. Well, it started as a board, though, right?
Secretary Mayorkas. Well, you know, we can discuss the
nomenclature, but the point is that the work is so very
important to achieving the mission in a way that does not
infringe on free speech, on civil rights and civil liberties,
or on the right of privacy.
Our work in this department in addressing disinformation
that threatens the security of the homeland has been going on
for almost 10 years. We asked the question within the
Department what efforts do we have underway, what policies and
procedures, what standards of conduct do we have in place to
ensure that that vitally important homeland security work is
done in a way that ensures that it does not infringe on
fundamental rights, and the answer was inadequate.
So we put together a working group to ensure that the
guardrails are in place, that we have clear definitions and
that we have good policies and practices in place to protect
the very rights that also are our responsibility not to
infringe upon.
DEPORTATIONS
Senator Capito. These are very sensitive issues to
Americans who believe fundamentally in the right to freedom of
speech, you know that, and so I think the way that it's been
rolled out, your explanation now, you know, we have FEMA, we
have CBP and CISA who work on all these issues within your
department right now.
So I'm going to move to another issue. I want to talk about
ICE enforcement and removal. We haven't been satisfied with the
reports that you are generating now that don't give us, I don't
think, a good sense of how many people are actually deported,
how many people--you know, whether you're deporting more
criminals or not. You're arguing that deportations for
aggravated felonies have gone up, but we can't get behind the
data.
So I'm asking you right now will you commit to providing to
this committee within 30 days all the raw data behind this
report, at least to the extent that it was provided in 2020, so
we can compare apples to apples of previous reports?
Secretary Mayorkas. Ranking Member Capito, most certainly,
and I'm very disappointed to hear that you feel that you
haven't received the data that we are obligated to provide to
you and this committee.
Senator Capito. Right.
Secretary Mayorkas. I certainly have some of it at my
fingertips, if you'd like to----
DETENTION
Senator Capito. I think it's more of a case of
reconfiguring how the data is presented so we can't have an
accurate view of where these numbers and how they compare to
2020, but we can work with you on this over the next 30 days as
we'll get those figures.
I want to ask about the ICE bed cut because I think this is
important. You have testified that you don't have the resources
or you've mentioned you don't have the resources to really
detain and hold people.
We know that we have appropriated last year 34,000 beds but
because of COVID, you only have those 75 percent occupied which
is sort of ironic in that Title 42 is going away under a COVID
national emergency, yet the ability to use all of your
detention beds is stymied because of the COVID requirements by
CDC. So that doesn't jive at all.
How can you on the one hand say you don't have the
resources and on the other hand come in with a budget that asks
for funding for 9,000 fewer beds?
Secretary Mayorkas. Ranking Member Capito, first of all, we
are awaiting new CDC guidelines with respect to our use of
detention space. Secondly I have to take a step back, because
when we look at the challenge of the border, which has been an
enduring challenge, certainly since DHS was created, whether
it's 24,000 beds, 25,000 beds, 31,000 beds, that's not going to
address the challenge at the border.
There's unanimity in the view that the immigration system
is broken and we need Congress to fix it. That's the
fundamental enduring response to the problem. In the meantime,
as I identified in our six lines of effort that define our
months-long preparation and planning for the end of Title 42,
the CDC's authority, what we are looking gets to at more
fundamental solutions, such as working with countries to the
south to ensure that they manage their respective borders, that
they provide humanitarian relief and stability to people who
qualify under their laws and repatriate individuals who don't.
The challenge that we are encountering at the border is not
ours alone. This is a regional problem. There are more than 1.8
million Venezuelans in Colombia. In the small country of Costa
Rica, that population, the population of that small country, is
approximately 2 percent Nicaraguan right now and growing
rapidly.
This is a regional problem, and we have got to get to the
heart of its cause.
Senator Capito. And I would just add, I know I'm over my
time, that deterrence is something that I don't think you've
placed enough emphasis on.
One of the deterrents is detention. Instead of putting
alternatives to detention where you put a bracelet, where
there's 260,000 people in this country under this alternative
to detention and that number is growing, that's not a
deterrent, and you stated over on the House side that you're
deporting folks but after they have their asylum claims, but
you didn't leave the--this is after six to 8 years after
they've been in the country waiting for their claim.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Secretary Mayorkas. I look forward to responding to that,
Ranking Member Capito, because that six-to-eight-year period
indeed has been a problem for years and years, not just in the
past Administration, all 4 years of the past Administration,
but earlier than that, too. We are the first Administration to
tackle that issue and to promulgate the asylum officer rule
that will take that six-to-eight-year period and reduce it to
under a year.
Senator Murphy. Senator Shaheen.
H-2B VISA PROGRAM
Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here this morning, and
thank you for all of the work that you and everyone at the
Department of Homeland Security are doing in these challenging
times.
Everywhere I go and I saw a report on the news this morning
that we have about two jobs for every worker in the United
States who's interested in working right now who's unemployed,
and there's a connection, I believe, between the most
restrictive immigration policies in my memory that we've had
for the last 5 years and our ability to get the workforce that
we need which is critical if we're going to continue to be
competitive and have a strong economy.
One of those areas of immigration that we have businesses
in New Hampshire that rely on is the H-2B Visa Program and I
very much appreciated the Administration's decision to provide
35,000 additional visas for the second half of fiscal year
2022, but I'm really concerned that despite having this
announcement a month ago, these visas still have not been made
available and so we have employers who are looking at for
seasonal work in particular, looking at the season coming up.
They don't know if they're going to have their visa workers and
for many businesses these are workers who have come back year
after year. They're not planning to stay in the United States.
They don't take jobs away from other people who want them.
How do we move this along? Why is the Administration taking
so long to release these additional visas?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator Shaheen, thank you very much
for your question about the H-2B Program.
We actually have moved with lightning speed in the
promulgation of the regulation to issue 35,000 new visas in the
second half of this fiscal year. That regulation is with the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) now and we
expect it to become public within the next two weeks.
We have moved as quickly as possible, and we have an
extraordinary workforce dedicated to promulgating regulations
as quickly as possible. Fundamentally, if I may, Senator
Shaheen, here's another example of a dire need to fix our
broken immigration system, including the H-2B Program.
Senator Shaheen. I couldn't agree more. I think it's a
disaster and it needs fixing and it needs bipartisan support to
do that.
I would just point out, though, it's my understanding that
the visas were intended for employees to begin work on April
1st and we are way past that at this point.
So for those employers who are calling our office saying
what's going on, where are our employees, what can we tell them
that they can expect?
Secretary Mayorkas. We expect the rule to issue within the
next two weeks, Senator.
Senator Shaheen. And what does that mean in terms of the
ability of people to get here on the ground?
Secretary Mayorkas. I will follow up with your office,
Senator, to get you precise information so that the employers
in your jurisdiction and your state have the certainty that
they need to make their business plans.
DRUG INTERDICTION
Senator Shaheen. Thank you very much. You know, our season
starts Memorial Day, so we don't have a lot of time.
One of the other concerns that I have is the continuing
challenge of the opioid epidemic which now is, as we know, much
broader than opioids. It includes meth and other drugs, but
fentanyl is the big killer that we're still seeing, and I know
that you have included in your budget a plan to add additional
screening of trucks coming across the border.
Can you tell us a little bit about that and what we can do
to ensure that we're doing everything possible to interdict
that fentanyl and other drugs that are such a scourge on our
population?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, the majority of drugs that are
sought to be trafficked into the United States are sought to be
trafficked into the United States through the ports of entry.
There is miscommunication with respect to that undeniable
fact. The effort is not focused in between the ports of entry
but, rather, at the ports of entry, and we have intensified our
use of technology, nonintrusive inspection technology, to
identify when drugs are sought to be trafficked through the
ports of entry. We have a unique effort underway that we also
are intensifying, forward operating laboratories, so that we
have the ability not only to detect but also to analyze and
identify controlled substances and to interdict them.
Our interdiction numbers are exponentially higher than they
were in the prior 4 years.
Senator Shaheen. And can that non-intrusive screening
detect fentanyl which, you know, can be in such small tablets
in any place in a vehicle that's----
Secretary Mayorkas. It is remarkable in its capabilities. I
was in Miami, Florida, a few weeks ago seeing it in action. I,
of course, traveled to the border eight or nine times during my
14-month tenure and have seen it operating in other ports of
entry along the southern border and its detection capabilities
are really remarkable, and I must say, so is the expertise of
the CBP personnel who operate it.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Murphy. Senator Kennedy.
DISINFORMATION GOVERNANCE BOARD
Senator Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Mr. Secretary. It's nice to see you again.
Secretary Mayorkas. Thank you, Senator. Likewise.
Senator Kennedy. I think you're a nice man and I mean that.
I am in awe of Ms. Jankowicz. I have watched her with slack-
jawed astonishment. Who picked her?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator Kennedy, it's nice to see you,
as well. DHS selected Ms. Jankowicz.
Senator Kennedy. Who at the department picked her?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, we don't discuss our hiring,
our internal hiring processes, but I am the Secretary of
Homeland Security and ultimately, I am responsible.
Senator Kennedy. When the department picked her, did it
know that she had said that Mr. Hunter Biden's laptop is
Russian disinformation?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, let me repeat myself and add
one other fact. I was not aware of that. We do not discuss the
internal hiring process. Ultimately, it's the Secretary. I'm
responsible for the decisions of DHS.
Senator Kennedy. When the department picked Ms. Jankowicz,
did it know that she had vouched for the veracity of the Steele
dossier?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, let me repeat myself and add
an additional fact. One, we do not discuss internal hiring
processes. Two, I was not aware of that fact. Three, as the
Secretary of Homeland Security, I am responsible for the
decisions of the Department, and, four, it is my understanding
that Ms. Jankowicz is a subject matter expert in the field in
which she will be working on behalf of the Department.
Senator Kennedy. I can tell. When the department picked
her, was the department aware of her TikTok videos? They're
really quite precocious.
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I was not aware of those
videos. I, as the Secretary, am responsible for the decisions
of the Department. The Department does not discuss its internal
hiring processes.
Senator Kennedy. Well, how will this DGB work? For example,
when President Obama said with respect to Obamacare, when he
said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, is that
something that the DGB will investigate?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, the working group that we
named the Disinformation Governance Board does not have
operational authority and does not have operational capability.
There's a more fundamental principle that really strikes at the
question that you have posed and that is that our mission is to
protect the security of the homeland. We address disinformation
when it threatens the security of the homeland.
For example,----
Senator Kennedy. Okay. Let me interrupt you, Mr. Secretary,
because I don't have much time.
I would like to hear that example and perhaps we can talk
privately.
I want to continue probing how your DGB will work. When
President Clinton was being investigated for having an affair
with a White House intern and he said, ``I did not have sex
with that woman, Ms. Lewinski,'' is that something the DGB
would investigate?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, again, let me be clear that
the Department's responsibility is to address disinformation
that threatens the security of the homeland, and, importantly,
the working group was established because this disinformation
work has been ongoing for nearly 10 years. The working group
was established precisely to protect against the infringement
on individuals' First Amendment rights, precisely to protect
the right of privacy.
Senator Kennedy. Can I ask you a couple more before I run
out of time? I think the Chairman may let me go over a minute.
I hope he does.
Will the DGB be given its own place, its own enforcement
powers?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, as I've articulated, the
working group does not have operational authority or
capability. Its purpose is to make sure that the work that is
underway in protecting the homeland that has been executed for
nearly 10 years is done within guardrails according to policies
and standards that ensure that that work does not infringe on
peoples' fundamental First Amendment rights,--right of privacy,
civil rights, and civil liberties.
Senator Kennedy. Right. Yeah. The government's going to
tell us what's true. What could possibly go wrong? Can I ask
you one last question?
Secretary Mayorkas. Of course, and that is quite incorrect.
That is quite incorrect.
Senator Kennedy. Is the DGB going to accept referrals from
the public or people can call in and say I think Senator so and
so said something untrue and I want you to subpoena him?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, it is so very important that I
correct a misstatement that you made that DHS is going to be
the truth police. That is the farthest thing from the truth.
We protect the security of the homeland and, once again,
allow me to articulate what I have said previously, which is
that the working group does not have operational capability and
authority. It is to make sure that there are policies in place,
standards in place to protect the very rights about which you
inquire.
Senator Kennedy. Mr. Chairman, this will be my last
comment.
Mr. Secretary, I meant what I said. It is nice to see you
and I do think you're a nice man, but I would call me as soon
as you get back to the office and I would ask that person who
recommended Ms. Jankowicz to you and I would fire him on the
spot.
Senator Murphy. Senator Hyde-Smith.
Secretary Mayorkas. Good morning, Senator.
LIGHT ENFORCEMENT AIRCRAFT
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, as you've mentioned, equipping our Border
Patrol with the workforce tools and technology needed to secure
our borders is vital to meet the growing crisis that we face on
our southwest border, and I'm sure you're aware that the CBP's
light enforcement helicopter fleet is critical to providing
surveillance and supporting Border Patrol agents on the ground
disrupting unlawful activity.
The fiscal year 2022 Omnibus included nearly $10 million
for light enforcement helicopters. These funds will purchase
two rotary wing aircrafts to replace the existing rundown
helicopters. Many of the helicopters in the current fleet are
near the end of their life cycle.
Mr. Secretary, this year's budget request includes $20.5
million to support CBP's light enforcement platform aircraft.
Will this include a focus on rotary wing aircraft, and have you
been able to ride on one of these helicopters just by chance,
and, if not, I would like to invite you to do that, but my
question is will this include a focus on rotary wing aircraft?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I do not know the answer to
your precise question I apologize for that, and I will follow
up. I will say that we are investing in aircraft. We are
investing in technology that is an extraordinary force
multiplier to achieve border security. CBP's Air and Marine
Operations is an extraordinary force in achieving that security
and its personnel are remarkable in their dedication and
talent.
I look forward to following up on your precise question.
MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you. I appreciate that. Like many
of my colleagues, I've traveled to the southwest border and
seen the work the Border Patrol agents do on a daily basis, an
unbelievable task.
We've heard statistics of border security operations under
your leadership versus previous DHS Secretaries. During the
month of March, there were 220,000 encounters at the southwest
border, 220,000.
As Secretary of Homeland Security, would you consider the
220,000 migrant encounters in March a threat to the homeland
security?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, let me, if I can, articulate
something. I'm not sure that you heard me earlier this morning
say that the number of encounters does not equal the number of
unique individuals encountered at the border, because under
Title 42, the CDC's public health authority, individuals are
expelled. They are not placed in immigration and enforcement
proceedings. That expulsion and the fact that they haven't been
in enforcement proceedings allows for a high level of
recidivism.
We have a responsibility to secure our borders----
Senator Hyde-Smith. So do you think those who were
encountered is a threat to our homeland security?
Secretary Mayorkas [continuing]. Senator, allow me, if I
may, to say that it is our responsibility to secure our border
consistent with our laws and that is precisely what we do.
If an individual is encountered at the border and makes a
claim for asylum relief under our laws and his or her claim
fails before an immigration judge, then we remove that
individual.
Senator Hyde-Smith. I understand that.
That word ``encounter,'' do you think it is a threat to our
homeland security?
Secretary Mayorkas. I believe that I have answered your
question that we enforce the law that Congress has passed, and
the law provides that individuals who are encountered and who
do not make a claim for relief are removed promptly.
Senator Hyde-Smith. So you're not answering the question,
though.
Secretary Mayorkas. I believe that I am. If I may, Senator,
those who do not make a claim for relief and who do not have a
basis to remain in the United States, or those who do make a
claim for asylum and whose claim does not prevail before an
immigration judge, are removed from the United States.
Senator Hyde-Smith. But the number of encounters, whatever
that number is, the number of encounters, do you think that is
a threat to our homeland security?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I believe that CBP, the
extraordinary 23,000 individuals on our border now and more
coming through our intensifying efforts, ensures that there is
not a threat at our border through its enforcement----
Senator Hyde-Smith. So you don't think there's a threat at
the border?
Secretary Mayorkas [continuing]. Through its enforcement of
immigration law that Congress has passed.
Senator Hyde-Smith. So you don't think it's a threat to the
homeland security is what you're saying?
At what point in your judgment does the growing number of
encounters become a threat to our homeland security?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, what I believe is that the
encounters that we are experiencing now are placing a strain on
our resources, which is why we have such a comprehensive plan
that we are executing to address that challenge. It has six
border security pillars, six vital lines of effort that we have
been executing since September of last year. If indeed we
experience greater numbers, it will place a further strain on
our resources.
We are looking at how we could address that further strain.
Some of those six pillars get to the heart of the matter,
working, for example, with our partners to the south of our
border so that they manage their respective borders.
Senator Hyde-Smith. But at what point do you say that it's
a threat to homeland security? You're saying because you had
these people in place that there is not a threat at this time--
because they're doing their job and they're in place, it's not
a threat.
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, it is our responsibility to
ensure that a threat does not materialize. That is why we have
such a comprehensive plan to address what could be an
increasing challenge at our border, and we are working in
partnership with countries to the south not only to manage
their respective borders, but also to tackle the transnational
criminal organizations and the smuggling operations.
Fundamentally, I have heard the articulation of a problem at
the border and yet no enduring solution because the enduring
solution is legislation, and everyone agrees that the
immigration system is broken and so----
Senator Hyde-Smith. Closing the border would not be a
solution?
Secretary Mayorkas. [continuing]. Senator that would be a
dramatic change in law, given the laws that Congress has
passed.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you.
Senator Murphy. Senator Hoeven.
Senator Hoeven. Just to follow up on Senator Hyde-Smith's
question. You're talking about more legislation. Why don't you
enforce the tools you have? Why don't you enforce the Remain in
Mexico policy? Why don't you enforce the Third Safe Country
agreements? Why don't you keep Public Health Order 42 in place?
And why don't you finish building the wall so that your Customs
and Border Patrol officers and the Border Patrol can actually
get control of the border? Why not enforce the laws that you
have now instead of sitting there asking for new ones?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I'm grateful for your
questions because we are indeed enforcing the laws.
Senator Hoeven. The statistics would say otherwise. 1.7
million illegal encounters last year, more than one million so
far this year.
Are you going to sit there and pretend that's not going on
and say that you're actually enforcing the law?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, we most certainly are, Senator, and
let me share with you how we are doing so. Please remember that
the Title 42 authority is not an immigration law. It is a
public health authority that rests in the exclusive
jurisdiction of the CDC. The CDC decides whether the public
health imperative compels Title 42 to remain in place or not
and it has made a decision----
Senator Hoeven. You don't need to explain what it is to me.
My question to you is when the Administration lifts it and
you're already at more than a million illegal encounters this
year, what are you going to do because that number's going to
go up dramatically? So you're content to let these numbers
continue to escalate?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, absolutely not, Senator, and allow
me to share with you exactly what we are doing.
Number 1, we are surging resources, personnel,
transportation, medical support, and facilities. Number 2, we
are increasing and enhancing CBP processing efficiency through
enhanced central processing----
Senator Hoeven. Meaning you're just going to have more
people come across faster. Your plan is designed to have more
people come across faster. Is that what you're saying?
Secretary Mayorkas. [continuing]. No, quite the contrary.
Number 3, we are imposing consequences, expedited removal,
criminal prosecutions with----
Senator Hoeven. Let me ask you this question. The Supreme
Court told you to enforce the Migrant Protection Protocol. That
decision came down in August. Why are you not enforcing it?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I'll have to get back to you
on what the----
Senator Hoeven. The Remain in Mexico Policy and the Third
Safe Country Agreements. Why are you not enforcing them?
Even if you disregard Public Health Order 42, which you're
trying to do, why are you not enforcing Remain in Mexico and
Third Safe Country?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, we are enforcing the Remain in
Mexico Program.
Senator Hoeven. How many people through Remain in Mexico
have you enforced under the Supreme Court directive? Because
last I checked, it was about 400 people total.
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I will get you the precise
data, but let me share with you a very important point that
undergirds our implementation of the Remain in Mexico Program,
which is formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols.
We require the agreement of the Sovereign Nation of Mexico
and we have negotiated for the implementation of that----
Senator Hoeven. Which you said you had in December.
Secretary Mayorkas. We continue to implement it under----
Senator Hoeven. How many people have you required to remain
in Mexico under that protocol?
Secretary Mayorkas. I look forward to providing that data
to you, Senator.
Senator Hoeven. All right. Do you have preparations in your
budget if Public Health Order 42 is lifted and how many more
illegal encounters do you anticipate having? Right now you're
up to a million in the first half of the year. What do you
anticipate when you lift Public Health Order 42?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, thank you. So, first of all,
allow me to express my appreciation to Congress for the
appropriation that we received in fiscal year 2022 to address
the number of encounters at the border.
In the service of fiscal responsibility and our
responsibility to secure the border, we are utilizing those
funds and we, of course, provided a spending plan as to how we
are doing so.
We also are looking at what our resources are within the
Department.
Senator Hoeven. The plan, the six-point plan that you put
forward is simply a plan to have more people come through
faster and to process them quicker. It was not a plan to deter
people from coming across illegally.
Let me ask you one other question. I was down in the Rio
Grande Sector last year and I just got back the week before
last from the Del Rio Sector and Del Rio Sector is now
overtaking the Rio Grande Sector for having the most people
crossing illegally and they have far fewer resources than the
Rio Grande Sector.
Last year when I was at the Rio Grande Sector, CBP officers
said people were coming in illegally from 50 different
countries, 50 different countries. This year when I was down at
the Del Rio Sector, you know how many countries they said
people were coming in from illegally? Do you know how many?
Have you had the briefing? 100 countries. Last year 50
countries, this year a hundred countries.
How can you say what you're doing is in any way effective,
and are you the least bit concerned that people are coming in
here illegally from a hundred different countries? You don't
think that's a problem? You don't think that creates drug
issues, human trafficking, and risks of terrorists? Is that
what you're telling us?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I have a number of responses.
If I may, Mr. Chairman?
I'm not exactly sure how you can say that targeting and
disrupting transnational criminal organizations and smuggling
operations actually invites migration. I'm not exactly sure how
you can say that deterring irregular migration by having
partners to the south of our border interdict migrants and
manage their respective----
Senator Hoeven. How can you disregard the simple numbers?
That doesn't even include the got-aways which could be another
40 percent more.
Secretary Mayorkas. Mr. Chairman, may I----
Senator Murphy. I'll let the witness respond, but the
Senator's time has expired.
Secretary Mayorkas [continuing]. The point about
individuals coming from different countries around the world
underscores a very, very important point that I articulated at
the outset, that the challenge of migration that the United
States is experiencing is not exclusive to the United States,
and in fact it is not exclusive to even the Western Hemisphere.
This is a global challenge. We have seen unprecedented
numbers of displaced persons around the world. Senator, I am
confident that you would not have me propose that we return
Ukrainians encountered at the border to Ukraine. This world is
experiencing conflict. This world is experiencing economic
downturn, violence in particular countries, authoritarian
regimes.
I am confident that--perhaps I shouldn't be--that at least
some colleagues would not want us to return all Cubans that we
encounter at the border because of their claims of fear of
persecution by reason of the authoritarian regime there. Quite
frankly, it is that flight from that authoritarian regime that
lands me here in this country serving our country for more than
20 years.
Senator Hoeven. Your Border Patrol and Customs and Border
Protection professionals will tell you that they could secure
the border if you would enforce the tools and the laws that you
have. You're not doing it.
ILLEGAL WEAPONS TRAFFICKING INTO MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
Senator Murphy. The Senator's time has expired.
Thank you, Senator Hoeven.
I don't see any other colleagues here. I have one
additional question for you, Mr. Secretary. You've had a long
couple weeks. I think this is your last stop in preparation for
the budget process.
I wanted to talk to you about the investments that we're
making in our ports of entry because, I think as you correctly
noted to Senator Shaheen, when it comes to illegal flows of
goods, those flows move through the ports of entry, not through
the points in between.
Mexico has one single gun store and it's on a military
base. So it's not surprising that almost none of the guns that
are used to commit crimes in Mexico come from Mexican gun
stores. In fact, 70 percent of the guns that are used in crimes
in Mexico come from the United States. 50 percent of the guns
used for crimes in Honduras and El Salvador come from the
United States.
There is this vicious cycle of violence that exists whereby
guns and firearms from the United States illegally trafficked
into Mexico and Central America are used to commit an epidemic
level of violent crime which then creates the conditions upon
which individuals flee to the United States and present at the
border.
Just an absolute stunning number of illegal weapons moving
from the United States into Mexico and down into Central
America.
How can the investments that you are asking for at our
ports of entry help you identify the goods that are moving out
of the United States into Mexico and Central America, in
addition to the goods that are moving the other direction?
What's the comprehensive strategy to try to deal with this iron
pipeline of illegal weapons that are fueling the violence in
Mexico and Central America?
Secretary Mayorkas. Mr. Chairman, this is a challenge that
I have addressed with my counterparts in different countries
south of our border. You correctly identified the flow of
firearms south from the United States as a problem that we need
to address, and in fact are addressing.
I would like to share with you that it is not only through
the work at the ports of entry that we are tackling this
challenge, but we actually also are doing it with our Homeland
Security Investigations personnel.
We have a number of operations in place. I would look
forward to providing you with greater information, given its
law enforcement-sensitive nature.
Senator Murphy. Great. Just two additional comments and
then I'll recognize Senator Murkowski.
You know, no matter how many times you say that this
governance board is a truth police or a censorship bureau, it
doesn't make it true. It just doesn't make it true, and folks
can try to make this out into something that it is not, but
we've got a serious problem with foreign misinformation in this
country, and I guess you could argue that we should stand down
and let the Russians pollute America with dangerous
misinformation about the war in Ukraine. I don't want our
government to stand down given those threats.
Second, you were very careful in answering Senator Hyde-
Smith's questions about whether these migrants present a
threat. I'll just give you a data point. Immigrants to this
country commit violent crimes at a rate much lower than that of
individuals born in America. In fact, undocumented immigrants
in America commit crimes at a lower rate than those that were
born in America. That's not an aspersion on folks that were
born in this country. I include myself on that list. It is just
a fact of the matter that this notion that there is an elevated
threat to the homeland from people who are seeking refuge and
asylum in this nation. It's just a fact that the data suggests
that in fact there is no greater threat, in fact a lesser
threat of violence from those individuals than there are from
individuals who began their life in the United States.
Senator Murkowski.
H-2B VISA PROGRAM
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Secretary, welcome. I am sorry that I haven't been here for
much of the exchange. We've got multiple appropriations
hearings going on, and I understand that you were asked a
question from Senator Shaheen with regard to H-2B visas.
As you know, we've had multiple conversations critically
important to us in the state. The salmon are going to be
hitting us in a couple months here and we need the workers and
the H-2B workers have been a critical piece of how we're able
to advance our strong fisheries.
I do appreciate the announcement of 35,000 additional visas
in March, but we're now into May. We still don't have a final
rule and again we've got seafood processers as well as tourism
businesses that need to apply for the announced visas, and I'm
wondering if you have identified when exactly the rule will be
released, the final rule.
Secretary Mayorkas. Thank you, Senator. The rule is with
OIRA now. We worked as expeditiously as possible to get it out
to the public. Given the urgency that you have identified and
that we well understand, and to echo, I expect that it will be
issued in its final form within the next two weeks. I will
provide to you, as I represented to Senator Shaheen, more
precision subsequent to this hearing.
Senator Murkowski. Okay. I appreciate that, and I would
just urge two weeks is really a long time for us as I think I
have made clear. So if that can be expedited in any way, I will
look forward to following up with you to get more specificity
on that.
Very quickly with regard to Coast Guard and icebreakers, we
have been told that we are going to see a gap here with regard
to the Polar Security Cutters coming online as a consequence of
what we have seen with delays last year.
The President's budget includes procuring a commercially-
available icebreaker. I've been told that if it is purchased
and if the Coast Guard receives the legislative request that we
included in the Coast Guard Authorization Act, we could have a
vessel operational within 18 to 24 months.
So I'm just asking if you can commit to overseeing that
timeline to ensure that we're not going to have this
significant gap between now and 2027 when that first U.S.-made
Polar Security Cutter comes online.
Secretary Mayorkas. I most certainly can, Senator. I well
understand the importance of the ice cutters, and this
commercially available cutter is a bridge to that period. I
commit to you to oversee the timeframe to make sure that that
bridge is delivered in the fashion that you've identified as
needed.
U.S. COAST GUARD FUNDING FOR CHILDCARE CENTERS
Senator Murkowski. Good. I appreciate that. One more on
Coast Guard then quickly. The Coast Guard Unfunded Priorities
List included requests for childcare subsidiary increases and
additional funds to Kodiak's Child Development Center. We
mostly funded that through the infrastructure law.
I am encouraged the Coast Guard is prioritizing these, but
it's curious that they didn't make it into the final budget,
and as I'm talking to Coasties all over but most certainly in
Alaska, they are raising this as key to the retention.
I'm just curious as to whether or not there was a reason
that it didn't make it into the final budget.
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I'm going to have to follow up
with you. Forgive me. I don't know the answer with respect to
the disposition of childcare centers funding in the U.S. Coast
Guard request.
RESOURCES FOR IMMIGRANT CARE
Senator Murkowski. Fair enough. We will look forward to a
follow-up there.
So you have recently confirmed that the department is in
talks with the Department of Veterans Affairs to possibly
divert resources, whether it's doctors, nurses, the like, to
care for immigrants, some of whom have entered the country
illegally at the southern border.
It seems to me that revoking Title 42 is going to be
creating more problems than it will resolve, and if in fact
this proposal moves forward, it's going to be the veterans that
would pay the price, and in Alaska we have significant
shortages in key areas within our VA system.
So the question is, is why the department would ask the VA
to reallocate resources with regards to doctors and nurses that
are taking care of our vets, particularly when they are in an
overstretched VA system right now? Can you tell me why we're
even considering this at all?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I didn't know the answer at
the time in my prior hearing. I know the answer this morning,
and we are not making that request of the Veterans Affairs
Department. The Veterans Affairs Department will not be
allocating resources to the border.
Senator Murkowski. That will be a huge relief to the
veterans in my state. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Murphy. Thank you, Senator Murkowski.
Senator Murray.
USCIS WORK AUTHORIZATION BACKLOG
Senator Murray. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Secretary Mayorkas.
Senator Murray. Good morning.
Senator Murray. Good to see you. In recent years Congress
has appropriated substantial funding to reduce the backlogs at
USCIS. Those backlogs can mean a work authorization does not
get renewed in time and an applicant falls out of status and it
could mean losing a job and being at risk of deportation just
because of bureaucratic delays.
We need an immigration system that works. So how has USCIS
used that funding to reduce the backlog?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, your question goes to a very
important and significant challenge that we are encountering.
It's not just that we inherited a broken immigration system but
we inherited a broken immigration system that also was
dismantled. The agency responsible for work authorizations,
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), was on the
brink of bankruptcy, and it is funded, as you well know and as
we have discussed in the past, through fee rules. We are
working on a fee rule to fund that agency.
In addition, the agency just announced the promulgation of
a rule to extend work authorization precisely for the reason
that you have identified. We also, of course, are requesting
appropriated funds to assist us in working through the backlog,
additional dollars in the fiscal year 2023 President's Budget.
Senator Murray. Yes, I saw that and I appreciate it. What
strategies are in place to make sure that that funding is used
effectively to reduce those backlogs?
Secretary Mayorkas. It's a multipronged approach, Senator
Murray. It is additional personnel. It is processing
efficiency, and it is efforts like the rule that is being
promulgated to provide relief so that there isn't a gap in an
individual's ability to continue to work when the law so
permits.
DETENTION CENTER ISSUES
Senator Murray. Okay. And I was really glad to see the
Administration request less funding for detention beds in this
budget. This is a step in the right direction, and I want to
make sure we're doing everything we can to fix our broken
immigration system, but I continue to hear that immigrants in
detention centers are unable to have confidential conversations
with their lawyers, send requested documents in a timely
manner, or even have access to a functioning phone.
Among the existing issues at detention centers, the lack of
counsel, access to counsel really is unacceptable, and I wanted
to ask you today how is the department making sure that
individuals in detention centers have access to counsel?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator Murray, I've addressed this
issue as recently as earlier this week. First, allow me to say
that the conditions in detention facilities and compliance with
our standards of detention, have been an area of focus under
this Administration. In fact we have closed or curtailed the
operations of facilities that have been consistent failures in
adhering to our system.
I spoke earlier this week with USCIS as well as with ICE
about delivering greater access to counsel for people in
facilities, how we can provide a greater level of space for
private consultations, how we can have greater connectivity,
whether through telephone or Internet. We are looking at all of
the options with great urgency.
Senator Murray. Okay. I appreciate that. And, finally, let
me just turn to the asylum process. We need to be doing
everything we can to reduce barriers to access, especially for
people in more rural areas.
One way to do that for people in my home state of
Washington would be to conduct the asylum interviews in USCIS's
field offices.
Have you considered having asylum officers travel to field
offices to conduct those interviews?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I will get back to you with
respect to that particular proposal. I know that we are looking
at a number of different ways of enhancing the efficiency of
the asylum system. The asylum officer rule that we promulgated
and that will go into effect at the end of this month is one
important step.
I will follow up. The Asylum Officer Corps has, of course,
over the last year or so struggled given the Coronavirus
Disease 2019 (COVID) restrictions, but I will need to get back
to you on that particular proposal.
Senator Murray. Okay. If you could find out for me and see
if there's any barriers that prevent the department from doing
that, I think that would be a great relief to a lot of folks.
Secretary Mayorkas. Thank you, Senator. I will.
Senator Murray. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
Senator Murphy. Senator Tester.
NORTHERN BORDER REASSIGNMENTS OF U.S. BORDER PATROL
Senator Tester. Alejandro Mayorkas, good to have you in
front of us.
Secretary Mayorkas. Good morning, Senator. Great to see
you.
Senator Tester. Are you having fun yet?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I am very fulfilled and very
challenged and very proud to work alongside incredible people
in the department.
Senator Tester. Thanks. Thanks for your work. Thanks for
being here. It's a tough job, maybe the toughest job in the
Federal Government right now.
There was a plan released that says that DHS will continue
to augment CBP operations by bringing in law enforcement agents
and officers from other parts of the country as needed.
I've got a 155-mile border with Canada. Are we talking
about reassigning northern agents to the southern border?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, we indeed have employed
temporary duty (TDY) of agents from the northern border. We are
very mindful of the need to keep the northern border secure.
We've made those decisions with that critical mission in mind
and I should say that I've also worked very closely with our
counterparts, my counterpart in Canada to ensure that there is
no inadequacy in the security of the northern border when we
divert resources.
U.S. BORDER PATROL RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT
Senator Tester. So as I've talked to some of the folks you
have working on the northern border in particular, the
reassignment has some impacts on retention. Truthfully, we've
got people--I mean, it's tough on marriages when you're not
living close to your family.
So is DHS doing anything to reduce frequency of
reassignments? Are you taking that into account?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, we most certainly are, and you're
absolutely right, Senator, that it puts a lot of strain on our
Border Patrol agents and our Field Operations personnel. We're
working on retention efforts. We're working on recruiting
efforts. We are, of course, in the----
Senator Tester. How are they going, by the way? How's
recruitment going? How's retention going?
Secretary Mayorkas. I can provide you with, specific data
subsequent to this hearing, but this is an area of priority for
us. It has been straining our personnel. The work of the Border
Patrol agents and Field Office personnel is extraordinary.
Senator Tester. Okay. So I will tell you we got a long ways
to go and I say the same speech in front of the VA Committee,
too. We've got to hire nurses and docs for the VA, but having
being a former Ranking Member on this committee and now Chair
of the Defense Committee, I can tell you that there's a lot of
hires that have to be made.
I really don't think it's smart to have the Defense
Department down in the southern border. I don't think that's
what they signed up for and so I would hope that--and I know
you will--but we've really got to put the pedal to metal on
this.
Secretary Mayorkas. May I speak to that briefly, Senator?
Senator Tester. Yes.
Secretary Mayorkas. You know, DHS has relied on the
National Guard every single year, I think since 2006. I may not
have the precise year.
Senator Tester. No doubt about it.
Secretary Mayorkas. That is one of the reasons why, of
course, that in our fiscal year 2023 budget, for the first time
since 2011, we're asking for more Border Patrol agents.
Our attrition rate, this is Department-wide, is
approximately 5 percent thus far this fiscal year for CBP. As
of April 9th, it's approximately three percent. I don't know,
Senator, how to annualize that, but I will get the data to you
and I do have Border Patrol hiring data.
Senator Tester. So I think the point to be made here, and,
look, it's hard to find employees in the private sector, it's
hard to find employees everywhere, but the point to be made
here is there is some urgency. There's been urgency for 15
years, maybe longer, to get people to the border that are
trained, qualified, and able to do the job. It's a different
job.
By the way, I applaud your efforts on the National Guard
because it's a different job. It's a different job than the
National Guard does and so that's important.
When we're pulling folks off the northern border and
putting them on the southern border, you know as well as I do
that the bad guys know where the weakest link in the chain is,
that's where they're going to go and they'll go to the northern
border to come across if they want to do something bad.
How do you stop that from being true? I mean, the focus is
on the southern border rightfully so, I get it, but the truth
is, is that the northern border could become a problem, too, if
in fact these surges aren't operated correctly.
Secretary Mayorkas. I would say that three prongs of action
come immediately to mind.
Number 1, extraordinarily talented personnel who know how
to identify the threats and how to address them swiftly. Number
2, technology is a force multiplier. Number 3, critical
partnership with our Canadian counterparts to the north.
DRUG INTERDICTION
Senator Tester. I got a statement and then I got--with the
Chairman's consent. Our ports in Montana are still operating at
reduced hours. We've got supply chain issues in this country.
We got a lot of stuff out of Canada. We send a lot of stuff
north to Canada. There's still some vaccine issues with truck
drivers that I wish we could--I know it's a fight between the
CDC, but we got supply chain issues and if we want to solve it,
trucking is one of the ways to get products into this country.
With reduced port hours and the mandate on vaccines, it's a
problems and I'm not saying that people weren't doing this
stuff with the best intentions, but I don't think we can have
it both ways. Okay?
The second thing I wanted to--and this is a question. So
I'd like to get those ports opened up, if possible. A lot of
talk about drugs, a lot of talk about drugs coming from the
south in Montana. I heard Shaheen talk about it in New
Hampshire. She may have talked about it earlier in this
committee.
The first question is, is are these coming through on
backpacks of illegal immigrants? Are they coming through our
ports in trucks and cars?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, the narcotics come through
primarily the ports or they're sought to come through primarily
through the ports of entry in cars and trucks. We have
interdicted more narcotics than ever over the past 4 years.
We've done a remarkable job, and, interestingly, I've heard a
lot of statistics about the rise in fentanyl. The number of
opioid deaths, overdose deaths, in 2020 increased over 2019 by,
I think, more than 50 percent.
The opioid crisis has been an enduring crisis year-in and
year-out, and we have got to tackle the underlying issues. In
terms of the interdiction, we've done a better job than ever
before, and that's once again because of the great work of CBP.
Senator Tester. All right. Thank you.
Senator Murphy. Senator Capito.
DISINFORMATION GOVERNANCE BOARD
Senator Capito. Thank you.
On that issue of narcotics, obviously my state has the
highest percentage per capita of deaths by overdose from
opioids, very, very sad situation, and it is coming from the
southern border.
So when you think about it, when you have this flood of
humanity coming over and with, I think, not enough deterrence
or no deterrence in some cases, it diverts your workforce away
from interdicting these drugs because we know they're coming
in.
We also know that the more people that come in puts more
money in the hands of the cartels which allows them to up their
ability to have a more robust drug trade. So there is a
correlation here and I'm concerned about that.
I want to ask you--oh, I do want to make a quick comment,
too, about the Disinformation Governance Board. I know that you
have a large Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Why
should we continue to fund them if you're creating a whole
other--establishing a new board or working groups? What's wrong
with what they're doing in this area?
Secretary Mayorkas. So I'm going to respond to both
questions in reverse order.
Senator Capito. Okay.
Secretary Mayorkas. I'll take the working group, the
Disinformation Governance Board, which doesn't have its
separate budget. What it is doing is drawing personnel from
different parts of the Department, including from the Office
for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Privacy Office, and
the Office of the General Counsel, by way of example, to make
sure that these experts are developing the guidelines and
standards that should have been in place for many years but
haven't been, and to ensure that this critical mission-focused
activity of stopping threats to the homeland that are created
by disinformation intended to harm us is addressed in a way
that does not infringe on fundamental rights.
The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is involved
in the working group, as are the other offices and the
operators themselves. CBP, addresses disinformation propagated
by the cartels, who provide disinformation for the expressed
purpose of having migrants with false information come to our
border.
Senator Capito. But aren't you actually telling me that
we're already doing this?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, we've been doing the
disinformation work for years, but what we haven't had are
sufficient standards and policies in place and harmonized
efforts so that the efforts in different parts of the
Department are not in conflict with one another, that they
abide by fundamental rights and responsibilities to make sure--
--
DRUG INTERDICTION
Senator Capito. Let's go to the drug control question
because I'm going to run out of time.
Secretary Mayorkas. The drugs primarily are sought to be
brought into the United States through the ports of entry.
Senator Capito. Right.
Secretary Mayorkas. Through the ports of entry, through the
trucks and cars, and what we have done through the able use of
technology and operational talent, such as the forward
operating labs, is to interdict more drugs than in prior years.
TELEWORK
Senator Capito. Right. I mean, we don't know--you don't
know how much is getting through, but I can tell you it's
getting through and it's getting through to a lot of places and
causing lots of heartache.
Let me ask you this. The 250,000 people that are so ably
working at the Department of Homeland Security, and I express
my appreciation to all of them, are they all back to work?
Secretary Mayorkas. They are.
Senator Capito. No remote?
Secretary Mayorkas. I'm sorry. No.
Senator Capito. Is there remote work still or are they all
back in their offices?
Secretary Mayorkas. There are different mechanisms--they're
all working.
Senator Murphy. I know. I'm asking if they're back
physically to work.
Secretary Mayorkas. No.
Senator Capito. Lifted the restrictions.
Secretary Mayorkas. Some of them are working remotely.
Senator Capito. And why is that?
Secretary Mayorkas. Because we believe in remote work as a
capacity to deliver to workforce if the mission allows it, if
the quality of the work is not compromised, as a benefit to
our----
Senator Capito. So that's been a permanent change that's
going to occur. Is that what you're saying?
Secretary Mayorkas. That's been ongoing for years, a move
to----
Senator Capito. Are more people remote working than there
were before COVID?
Secretary Mayorkas. I'd have to get that number for you,
Senator.
Senator Murphy. Okay.
USCIS PROPOSED FEE RULE
Senator Capito. Okay. Really quick on the USCIS, the fee
issue, you haven't moved forward with the new rule to help
cover the costs. The last Administration proposed a fee
increase but left-wing advocacy groups sued to block it in
court and further limited the agency's resources. You've had
to--you mentioned that they've made a special consideration for
work permits because of the backlog.
Are you planning on coming forward with a proposed fee
increase? When would that be and how much cost would you be
covering with that?
Secretary Mayorkas. So our financial personnel at USCIS are
working diligently to finalize a proposed fee rule.
Senator Capito. And that will have a raise in the fee?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, yes, yes, it would.
Senator Capito. When would we expect that, do you think?
Secretary Mayorkas. I can get to you the precise timeframe,
Senator.
ASYLUM OFFICER RULE
Senator Capito. Okay. Can I ask one last question? On the
Asylum Officer Rule, you've put a lot of stock in this in your
six-point plan that this is going to have a great effect of
expediting the asylum claims and the removal.
So if somebody comes through an asylum officer, they have
to have their claim heard. You said, I think, within 24 months,
is that--was it 2 years or 1 year?
Secretary Mayorkas. Senator, I've set forth in the
memorandum that I issued describing our detailed six pillar
plan that the asylum rule is an element----
Senator Capito. Right.
Secretary Mayorkas [continuing]. But I don't want to
overstate because it's going to require a ramp-up time. It goes
into effect at the end of this month.
As I mentioned, the personnel at USCIS are not--the
staffing is not at the level that we need for it to be. It's
going to require a ramp-up, but the timelines in the Asylum
Officer Rule apply not only to the asylum officers themselves,
but also to the immigration court judges. Should individuals
receive a negative ruling, an adverse ruling from the asylum
officer, they have a right to appeal.
Senator Capito. Right.
Secretary Mayorkas. That's what our law provides, due
process, but the immigration judges under the asylum rule will
be operating within a timeline, as well.
Senator Capito. Is that the whole thing, 2 years, because
if you get a no and you can appeal it to the judge, are we back
to the six-to-eight-year timeline?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, no. It's all in.
Senator Capito. All in is 2 years?
Secretary Mayorkas. All in.
Senator Capito. I'm concerned that this might be more of
a--have more of a pull factor and I'm sure that this is one of
the considerations that you have.
So I guess my last question would be what metrics are you
going to use to determine whether this has been successful? Is
it going to be the amount of time that you've heard the claim,
the amount of denials that have occurred, the amount of people
that have been removed after their denial? What kind of metrics
are you going to set up to make sure that we're measuring this
and we can see whether it's been successful or not?
Secretary Mayorkas. Well, I think there are a number of
metrics, but, Number 1, of course, and I don't mean to say
Number 1 is the top, but just to identify the different
metrics, Senator, is speed.
Senator Capito. Right. So the timeline?
Secretary Mayorkas. The timeline, because the principle
here is justice delayed is justice denied, regardless of the
disposition. Number two is the rates of approval and denial or
denial aberrant with respect to other parallel process of
immigration court proceedings. Three, how effectively are we
managing the outcomes of the Asylum Officer Rule adjudications?
Senator Capito. So that would be are you removing or is
that what you're saying at Number 3?
Secretary Mayorkas. Yes.
Senator Capito. I mean, I would anticipate isn't the law
that if you are denied a claim that you would be removed from
the country?
Secretary Mayorkas. Oh, that is indeed the case, Senator,
and if I may make one note, we have more than 11 million
undocumented individuals in this country, and our enforcement
processes cannot address it, nor necessarily should they with
respect to each and every individual for reasons that I have
articulated in memoranda. It just speaks to the compelling and
urgent need for legislation to fix our broken immigration
system.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
Senator Murphy. Thank you. I think those are all really
important questions. I think as you dramatically reduced the
amount of time that it takes to process a claim, I can't help
but think that that won't have a deterrent effect, but I also
appreciate the fact that this can't happen without continued
appropriations. The fee structure just simply does not provide
enough resources no matter how high you raise that fee in order
to move this time from 8 years down to 2 years and so this
committee did the right thing by coming together and providing
some supplemental appropriations to USCIS to deal with the
backlog. That's going to have to be an ongoing commitment of
this committee to get that time down to a point that it is both
fair but also an effective deterrent for those who are seeking
to abuse the asylum process.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
With that, with no other members seeking questions before
the committee, we're going to hold the record open until May
11th for members to submit questions for the record. Appreciate
it if the department could respond as soon as possible.
Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick Leahy
Question. The O and P visa process for artists visiting the United
States is critical to international cultural activity. What steps is
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services taking to make the O and P
artist visa process more reliable, and to comply with the 14-day
standard processing time required under statute?
Answer. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is
actively working to promote efficient and fair adjudication of
immigration benefits, in part through updating guidance in the USCIS
Policy Manual.\1\ Notably, USCIS recently issued policy guidance
instructing officers to give deference to prior determinations when
adjudicating extension requests involving the same parties and facts
(including those for O and P petitions, among others) unless there was
a material error, material change, or new material facts that adversely
impact eligibility. USCIS will continue to update and clarify the O-
and P-specific policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual, as needed.
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\1\ https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual
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USCIS recognizes the 14-day processing goal set forth in INA
214(c)(6)(D) and strives to quickly adjudicate all O and P petitions
while ensuring that the petitioner and beneficiary are eligible for the
benefit sought.\2\
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\2\ INA 214(c)(6)(D) States: ``Any person or organization receiving
a copy of a petition described in subparagraph (A) and supporting
documents shall have no more than 15 days following the date of receipt
of such documents within which to submit a written advisory opinion or
comment or to provide a letter of no objection. Once the 15-day period
has expired and the petitioner has had an opportunity, where
appropriate, to supply rebuttal evidence, the Attorney General shall
adjudicate such petition in no more than 14 days. The Attorney General
may shorten any specified time period for emergency reasons if no
unreasonable burden would be thus imposed on any participant in the
process.''
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Question. The shared border between the United States and Canada
remains closed to nonessential travel. This closure has had a
significant impact on families, businesses, tourism and homeowners on
both sides of the border. Are there discussions underway to reopen the
border between the U.S. and Canada or to modify the current travel
restrictions, to meet both economic and public health needs? If so,
when does the Department plan on releasing the details for reopening or
modifying the travel restrictions?
Answer. The United States is maintaining current travel
restrictions due to the uncertainties around the Delta variant and the
rise in domestic cases, particularly among the unvaccinated. The United
States continues to consult with the Government of Canada on the
evolving public health situation. U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) provides up-to-date information via the CBP Information Center
website (https://help.cbp.gov) to keep the public informed of current
travel restrictions for entering the United States.
CBP is coordinating with the Canada Border Services Agency on land
border and preclearance operations related to Canada's decision to
allow fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents to enter
Canada for discretionary purposes, as of August 9, 2021. Targeted
restrictions on non-essential travel at our shared land border have
helped the United States in its efforts to mitigate the spread of
COVID-19 while maintaining essential flows of critical supply chains,
cross-border trade, and travel.
Question. I am glad that President Biden recently lifted the
historically low refugee admissions cap set by the Trump administration
and raised the Fiscal Year 21 admissions cap to 62,500. However, much
work remains to be done in order for the United States to rebuild our
decimated U.S. refugee admissions program and resettle increased
numbers of refugees every year. The Department of Homeland Security
will play an instrumental role in that process. Please describe in
detail the steps that DHS is taking to work toward the Biden
administration's stated goal of resettling 62,500 refugees this year
and rebuilding the capacity of the U.S. refugee admissions program.
Answer. DHS, along with other U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
(USRAP) partners, is committed to rebuilding our refugee adjudication
capacity in accordance with Executive Order (EO) 14012, Restoring Faith
in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and
Inclusion Efforts for New Americans, and EO 14013, Rebuilding and
Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of
Climate Change on Migration. DHS is acutely aware of the work that is
necessary to rebuild the program and meet the revised refugee ceiling
of 62,500. USCIS, a component within DHS, is diligently working with
other partners to reinvigorate our refugee program and increase refugee
admissions.
In particular, USCIS has already taken several immediate actions to
rebuild the refugee program and increase refugee admissions in fiscal
year 2021. First, after the 11-month long agency-wide hiring freeze
ended this spring, USCIS began actively recruiting to fill all
currently vacant positions that support refugee processing.
Second, USCIS has implemented operational and policy changes to
support remote case processing during COVID-19. Since last summer,
USCIS has been conducting refugee applicant re-interviews via video-
teleconference (VTEL) and recently started conducting initial refugee
applicant interviews via VTEL, where possible. By May 26, 2021, USCIS
conducted 212 re-interviews and 53 initial interviews by VTEL. USCIS is
looking into expansion of this process efficiency to additional
interview locations to the extent feasible.
COVID-19 continues to challenge in-person processing. However,
USCIS has also resumed in-person international refugee processing
circuit rides on a smaller scale. Deployments are based on identified
USRAP processing priorities and are dependent on movement restrictions
issued by local governments due to COVID-19; post-by-post restrictions
issued by DOS; and the ability to safely conduct in-person interviews
while protecting the health of USCIS officers, Resettlement Support
Center staff, refugee applicants, and interpreters.
USCIS has conducted a detailed review of the cases of applicants
who have already had their USCIS refugee interview. USCIS is
prioritizing resources for cases that can be approved for resettlement
in the near term.
In addition to the process improvements outlined above, USCIS is
investing in a case management system that will allow for more
effective tracking of workloads and cases and will provide officers
with additional adjudicative tools. This system is expected to fully
deploy in fiscal year 2022 and will track data on production rates,
details on case outcomes, and other key metrics that will provide
leadership with the information they need to effectively manage future
resources.
Question. I strongly criticized the Trump administration's decision
to utilize Title 42 of the Public Health Safety Act to rapidly expel
large numbers of migrants in direct contravention of existing laws
protecting the right to apply for asylum. The Biden administration has
largely kept in place the Trump administration's Title 42 policy,
despite the fact that the public health rationale for it wanes as
COVID-19 cases hit record lows, nearly a third of Americans are
vaccinated, and millions more get vaccinated each day. What steps, if
any, is DHS taking to wind down expulsions pursuant to the Title 42 CDC
``Order Suspending Introduction of Certain Persons From Countries Where
a Communicable Disease Exists?'' If no steps are being taken to depart
from this Title 42 CDC order and policy, why not?
Answer. The Order Suspending Introduction of Certain Persons From
Countries Where a Communicable Disease Exists was issued by the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC). DHS's role is to assist the CDC with
implementation of its Order. As such, in consultation with the CDC, DHS
may make case-by-case determinations to except certain individuals. CBP
officers/agents may except individuals, with approval from a
supervisor, from the Order based on the totality of the circumstances,
including consideration of significant law enforcement, officer and
public safety, humanitarian, and public health interests. The CDC
recently issued an order confirming the exception of Unaccompanied
Children (UC) from its order.
To address the challenges along our southwest border, DHS has
leveraged the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) coordination
capabilities, activated our volunteer force of employees from across
DHS, and expanded processing capacity.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Jeanne Shaheen
h-2b visas
Question. The H-2B visa program is a critical tool for seasonal
employers that need foreign workers to fill temporary jobs when no
Americans are available. I hear frequently from small businesses in New
Hampshire that struggle to find workers during their busy season and
who rely on this program. I have been hearing from small businesses
across my state who are desperate for the release of additional H-2B
visas this year, and I appreciate the decision to provide 22,000
additional visas for fiscal year 2021. I am glad that those visas have
finally been made available and employers can now apply. But I'm
concerned that this number was too low to meet the need, and I am
further concerned that employers may not be able to receive these visas
in time to meet the demands of their busy season.
How did the Administration determine that 22,000 additional visas
was the appropriate number for this fiscal year?
Answer. The Secretary of Homeland Security acted in accordance with
section 105 of Division O of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,
Public Law 116-260 (FY 2021 Omnibus). Before authorizing the additional
visa numbers, the Secretary of DHS, in consultation with the Secretary
of Labor, considered the needs of businesses and other factors,
including the impact on the U.S. job market and potential implications
for U.S. workers, as well as the integrity of the H-2B program. The
determination to allow up to 22,000 additional H-2B visas reflected a
balancing of these factors.
Question. Given that the demand appears to exceed the allotted
visas, what steps does the Administration plan to take to remedy the
discrepancy?
Answer. The H-2B visa program is one among several employment-based
visa programs that are oversubscribed (i.e., the number of petitions
exceeds the number of available visas set by statute). For example, the
H-1B program is also oversubscribed, receiving far more petitions
annually than cap numbers available, resulting in the need to conduct a
registration and selection process to determine who can file a cap-
subject petition.\3\ DHS supports efforts by Congress to set annual
visa caps that adequately meet demands while addressing the impact on
the U.S. job market.
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\3\ Congress set the current annual regular H-1B cap at 65,000
visas, plus 20,000 under the advanced degree exemption. For fiscal year
2021, USCIS received 274,237 H-1B registrations and selected a total of
124,415 registrations projected as needed to reach the fiscal year cap.
For fiscal year 2022, USCIS received 308,613 H-1B registrations and
selected a total of 115,217 registrations projected as needed to reach
the fiscal year 2022 cap.
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To the extent that Congress vests DHS with this authority, DHS will
consult with DOL to determine the number and parameters of any
additional H-2B visas to supplement the statutory annual cap.
Question. Given the time-sensitive nature of seasonal labor, how is
your agency working to ensure employers have the workers they need in
time for their busy season?
Answer. USCIS provides information about premium processing on its
website. For those who choose to use this service, USCIS will provide
an initial adjudicative action within 15 days. This service is widely
utilized by H-2B petitioners. Additionally, DHS is working closely with
interagency partners at the Department of Labor and Department of State
to facilitate processing for H-2B workers.
drug interdiction
Question. New Hampshire has been hit particularly hard by the
devastating opioid epidemic that has swept the Nation. We must ensure
that the Federal Government is doing everything possible to get
resources to those fighting the opioid epidemic and to stem the flow of
heroin, fentanyl and other deadly opioids into the country. In recent
years, Congress has provided significant increases in funding for
technologies to improve drug interdiction efforts at the border.
Please provide an overview on the Department's progress in
procuring and deploying new technologies at our Ports of Entry and
along the border capable of detecting and identifying illicit drugs
such as opioids and fentanyl?
Answer. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has procured and
deployed advanced small-scale Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) equipment
that efficiently and effectively identifies dangerous narcotics,
including fentanyl and other opioids. The ThermoFisher Gemini, with a
library of over 14,600 chemicals, enables CBP personnel to quickly,
confidently, and presumptively identify harmful substances with at
least a 10 percent concentration. The Gemini is deployed at CBP
locations worldwide.
To augment the bulk identification technology of the Gemini, CBP
rapidly deployed BTNX Inc. Rapid Response\TM\ Fentanyl Forensic Test
Strips (``BTNX Test Strips''), which use the lateral flow immunoassay
test principle to identify fentanyl and fentanyl analogues in liquid
and powder substances. When used properly, BTNX Test Strips can
identify trace levels of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues at
concentrations as low as 20 ng/ml or .000002 percent. CBP's NII and
Laboratories and Scientific Services (LSS) directorates have deployed
BTNX Test Strips and training nationwide, with additional test strips
available upon request through LSS.
Additionally, CBP has worked with procurement, field locations, and
LSS to test and procure enhanced chemical identification capable of
identifying a wide range of chemicals at purity levels less than 1
percent. The MX908 is a high-pressure mass spectrometry (HPMS) device
that identifies a wide variety of chemicals at trace concentrations and
concentrations less than 1 percent.
CBP Operations Support/LSS also stood up Forward Operating
Laboratories (FOLs) at ports of entry to address smuggling of unknown
substances. LSS forensic scientists are permanently assigned to the
FOLs to work side-by-side with CBP frontline officers, providing on-
site, rapid scientific and technical services. Each FOL is resourced
with laboratory equipment for the analysis of unknown substances and
suspected controlled substances. At the height of the opioid crisis in
2018, when fentanyl and fentanyl analogues were smuggled into the
country through international mail, LSS stood up FOLs at the John F.
Kennedy International Mail Facility and Memphis Express Consignment
Courier Facility. As of June 2021, LSS operates 13 FOLs across the
Nation, four of which are located along the Southwest land border. Over
the last 18 months, FOLs have analyzed over 23,000 suspected controlled
substances.
To support CBP's deployment of handheld detection technology, LSS
established the 24/7 Narcotics Reachback Center at the CBP National
Targeting Center. The Narcotics Reachback Center provides rapid
adjudication of data collected by CBP frontline offices and agents
using handheld analyzers to presumptively screen suspect substances.
Trained LSS scientists evaluate spectral information in real-time and
provide a presumptive identification of the unknown or suspect
substance to the submitting officer/agent within 30 minutes of
receiving a call. The Narcotics Reachback Center services CBP
nationwide and supports CBP operations where and when LSS is not on-
site.
In addition, CBP leverages license plate reader (LPR) data to
support frontline operations and investigations. LPR data has enabled
CBP to successfully link narcotics trafficking routes and identified
stash house locations as well as other law enforcement functions, such
as apprehending a child rape suspect and identify links as part of a
sex-trafficking investigation.
Question. Does the Department need any additional authorities from
Congress to improve illicit drug interdiction?
Answer. Improvements in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's
(CBP) capacity to interdict illicit drugs at the border is not a matter
of only authority but one of authority, capacity, and logistics. While
the Department can readily identify improvements in interdiction, the
Department must consider first whether CBP may implement such
improvements under its current authorities, whether CBP is able to
absorb the cost of such improvements within its current baseline, and
how such improvements could affect commerce. When the Department is
satisfied that improvements can be introduced within these constraints,
the Department will promote the improvements through the regular-order
budget and the legislative processes.
dhs procurement
Question. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated just how important it
is to ensure that our Nation has a domestic supply chain for materials
and items that we may need during a national emergency. We shouldn't
rely on foreign sources to produce these critical items when we need
them the most. What is the Department doing to bolster the domestic
supply chain for items that we may need in the event of a national
emergency?
Answer. The Department of Homeland Security, working with its
Components, is executing the requirements of Executive Orders 14001 ``A
Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain'' and 14017 ``America's Supply
Chains,'' which focus on strategies to bolster the domestic supply
chain for national emergencies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) is working within its delegated Defense Production Act role, and
the Agency continues to engage with interagency partners that receive
funding for industrial expansion efforts, such as with the active
Department of Defense and the future Department of Health and Human
Services Title III programs. FEMA's statutory responsibilities do not
include bolstering the domestic supply chain for national emergencies,
and FEMA has no appropriation for such a purpose.
cybersecurity
Question. The President's budget includes $20 million for a new
Cyber Response and Recovery Fund.
Please provide an overview on how the Department would utilize this
fund to address cyber-attacks.
Answer. The concept of the Cyber Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF)
comes from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission's 2020 recommendations.
As proposed in the President's budget, the CRRF would allow
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) to support critical
infrastructure, including private entities and State, local, Tribal,
and territorial governments, in responding to, and recovering from, a
``significant cyber incident,'' as defined in Presidential Policy
Directive (PPD 41): United States Cyber Incident Coordination.
The proposed ``no year'' funding (i.e., available until expended)
would allow CISA to support non-Federal critical infrastructure cyber
response and recovery from a significant cyber incident through the
provision of services, technology, or capabilities. This set up would
provide CISA with greater flexibility for responding to cyber events
that are often unpredictable.
Should a significant cyber incident be declared in the first year
of the CRRF, CISA will emphasize using the Fund, if activated, to surge
cyber incident response capabilities or help victims evict adversaries
from their environments to support the immediate needs of critical
infrastructure entities. The CRRF could be used to support response to
a significant cyber incident and, in some cases, funds for recovery and
reconstitution. Eligible activities could include:
--Technical Incident Response--Services aimed at finding the root
cause of an incident
--Analytic Support--A range of analytical services provided in
response to receiving a request or reported vulnerability, to
include examining the technical issue, code, computer system,
storage medium, and/or physical memory
--Threat Detection--Deployment of threat detection platforms to
identify potential malicious activity using network sensor
systems for detection
Eviction and Mitigation--Support to reasonably assure that an
intruder has been removed from a victim network and known weaknesses
that allowed the initial intrusion have been remediated.
Question. How can DHS increase its cooperation with industry to
ensure that threat information is appropriately disseminated between
public and private entities?
Answer. CISA is continuously evaluating existing information
sharing programs to improve their timeliness, efficiency, and
effectiveness, while also evaluating the potential for new
opportunities to increase threat information sharing with our partners
in government and in the private sector. CISA is currently undertaking
a wide range of efforts, outlined below, to increase cooperation with
industry to ensure that threat information is appropriately
disseminated to our private sector partners.
Pursuant to fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA), CISA will establish a Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC)
to coordinate joint cyber planning with interagency and industry
partners. Today, CISA builds and maintains close operational
relationships with key industry partners who provide unique and
valuable insights on current cyber vulnerability and threat
information. These information sharing relationships increase CISA's
visibility and understanding of the domestic cyber landscape and
provide vital support to our cyber defense mission. With the
implementation of the office for joint cyber planning, CISA will
formalize and expand operational coordination with industry partners
through collaborative development of cyber defense operations plans to
protect domestic critical infrastructure. The JCDC will also include
key interagency partners who will bring their own cyber capabilities
and authorities, and will consult with State, local, territorial, and
Tribal (SLTT) and international partners. Through integration of these
key partner communities, the JCDC will become the one-stop-shop for
public-private partnership in planning cyber defense operations.
The Secretary of DHS established the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory
Committee, pursuant to fiscal year 2021 NDAA, Section 1718, to bring
together experts from SLTT government, industry, and other relevant
entities to provide advice and recommendations to the CISA Director on
matters related to the development, refinement, and implementation of
policies, programs, planning, and training pertaining to the
cybersecurity mission of the Agency. Per the NDAA, the Director may
task the Committee to examine a variety of cybersecurity topics
including, but not limited to, information exchange; critical
infrastructure; risk management; and public and private partnerships.
This advice could include options to improve timely information sharing
regarding cybersecurity threats. A public version of the Committee's
recommendations will be made available.
In coordination with interagency partners, CISA is defining the
expanded set of the roles and responsibilities established in the
fiscal year 2021 NDAA, Section 9002, Sector Risk Management Agencies
(SRMA). In particular, each SRMA shall facilitate ``in coordination
with the Director, the sharing with the Department and other
appropriate Federal department of information regarding physical
security and cybersecurity threats within the designated sector or
subsector of such sector,'' including-
A. ``[F]acilitating, in coordination with the Director, access to, and
exchange of, information and intelligence necessary to strengthen
the security of critical infrastructure";
B. ``[F]acilitating the identification of intelligence needs and
priorities of critical infrastructure owners and operators in the
designated sector or subsector of such sector, in coordination with
the Director of National Intelligence and the heads of other
Federal departments and agencies, as appropriate;
C. ``[P]roviding the Director, and facilitating awareness within the
designated sector or subsector of such sector, of ongoing, and
where possible, real-time awareness of identified threats,
vulnerabilities, mitigations, and other actions related to the
security of such sector or subsector of such sector"; and
D. ``[S]upporting the reporting requirements of the Department under
applicable law by providing, on an annual basis, sector-specific
critical infrastructure information.''
CISA is spearheading the NDAA-required report, in consultation with
the heads of the designated SRMAs, which reviews the current framework
for securing critical infrastructure, develops recommendations, and
suggests necessary revisions to the partnership structure. This process
is currently underway, and as the SRMA for eight of the Nation's 16
critical infrastructure sectors, CISA will directly apply this expanded
guidance to enhance information sharing between CISA and private sector
partners in these eight sectors.
DHS will stand up a Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), pursuant to
Section 5 of the Executive Order on Improving the Nation's
Cybersecurity, to review and assess threat activity, vulnerabilities,
mitigation activities, and agency responses to significant cyber
incidents. Through the CSRB, relevant information will be compiled from
CSRB incident reviews, including incident-related decision-making
processes, actions, and outcomes; Requests for Information; stakeholder
communications; and incident activity and recovery actions and
outcomes. In addition to administering the CSRB's operation, DHS will
use the results of these reviews to determine necessary and appropriate
enhancements to threat information sharing between public and provide
sector entities.
The Private Sector Clearance Program was established to ensure that
select critical infrastructure private sector owners, operators, and
industry representatives--specifically those who have a demonstrated
and foreseeable need to access classified information--are in
leadership, managerial, or executive level positions and are in a
position to capitalize on the value of the classified information
shared are processed for clearances. Security clearances enable
selected owners, operators, and representatives to access classified
information and more fully participate in the protection of critical
infrastructure and the security of the homeland.
CISA operates the Cyber Information Sharing and Collaboration
Program, which serves as a bi-directional forum for CISA and private
industry to collaborate on significant risks, develop sector and threat
focused products, and provide briefings on new trends, threats, and
capabilities across sectors. This trusted sharing between CISA and a
network of high impact companies, Information Sharing and Analysis
Centers, and service providers allows CISA to better understand the
nature of vulnerabilities pre- and post-disclosure and in turn provided
timely and thorough mitigation guidance.
CISA continues to enhance the Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS)
capability, which provides a machine-to-machine platform for CISA and
the private sector to share threat information and benefit from the
collective knowledge of participant organizations. AIS enables the
real-time exchange of machine-readable cyber threat indicators and
defensive measures, such as information about adversary techniques, to
help the AIS community monitor and defend networks against known
threats and ultimately limit the use of an attack method.
CISA's Stakeholder Engagement Division has requested funding in
fiscal year 2022 to execute a stakeholder mapping initiative as a
foundational component of the agency's broader stakeholder engagement
capability. The stakeholder mapping initiative builds upon CISA's
growing stakeholder data and knowledge base to map individual
stakeholders and stakeholder groups to operational planning scenarios--
in advance of the need--in order to streamline response efforts to
crisis and enable more targeted, efficient strategic planning with
external parties. By leveraging established relationships with these
entities, CISA will maximize its impact on key stakeholder communities
and amplify our value through collaborative partners. Examples of using
these relationships includes bi-directional sharing of sensitive threat
information, targeted promotion of available products and services, and
quick-turn opportunities to collaborate with CISA.
CISA collaborates with the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis
to provide Classified Intelligence Forums. The Classified Intelligence
Forum consists of engagements that provide cleared members of the
private sector as appropriate, with access to draft and finished
analytic products to solicit feedback and gain overall customer
insights that can inform the development of future products or
briefings that those members and their sector counterparts can use in
their decision-making processes.
CISA Cybersecurity Advisors (CSAs) offer cybersecurity assistance
to critical infrastructure owners and operators and SLTT governments.
CSAs introduce organizations to various CISA cybersecurity products and
services, along with other public and private resources, and act as
liaisons to CISA cyber programs. CSAs can provide cyber preparedness,
assessments and protective resources, strategic messaging, working
group support and leadership, partnership in public-private
development, and incident coordination and support in times of cyber
threat, disruption, and attack. CISA continues to work quickly and
diligently to hire against existing CSA vacancies and increase the CSA
footprint in the field in order to expand engagement with the private
sector, including in threat information sharing and dissemination.
CISA collaborates with government and industry partners to
strengthen information sharing and incident response coordination
through exercises, such as the biennial Cyber Storm series. Each
iteration of the exercise engages more than a thousand participants in
the simulated discovery of and response to a large-scale, coordinated
significant cyber incident impacting critical infrastructure. The
findings of each exercise are shared with participants and the broader
cyber response community to support continual improvement.
CISA is currently in the planning stages for Cyber Storm VIII,
slated for the spring of 2022. Two of the proposed objectives of this
exercise are to:
--Strengthen information sharing and coordination mechanisms used
during a cyber incident; and
--Foster public and private partnerships and improve their ability to
share relevant and timely information across sectors.
u.s. refugee admissions program
Question. We are in the midst of the largest worldwide refugee
crisis ever recorded. I am pleased that the President has finally
announced his intention to resettle 62,500 refugees in the second half
of this fiscal year. However, the enormous cuts to refugee resettlement
over the past 4 years under the previous Administration have severely
decimated the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program's capacity. What specific
measures are you taking to increase the rate of refugee arrivals in the
second half of the fiscal year to ensure we can meet the Presidential
Determination for this year and to restore the long-term capacity of
our resettlement program?
Answer. DHS, along with other U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
(USRAP) partners, is committed to rebuilding our refugee adjudication
and resettlement capacity in accordance with Executive Order (EO)
14012, Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and
Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans, and
EO 14013, Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and
Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration. USCIS worked to
increase admissions in fiscal year 2021 by developing additional
efficiencies to complete post-USCIS interviewed applications remotely,
resume in-person interviews of refugee applicants overseas, begin
hiring additional staff, and engage with USRAP partners to reinvigorate
our refugee program and increase refugee admissions.
USCIS has taken several actions to rebuild the refugee program and
increase refugee admissions. First, USCIS conducted a detailed review
of the cases of applicants who have already had their USCIS refugee
interview and prioritized resources for cases that could be approved
for resettlement in the near term.
Second, after an 11-month long agency-wide hiring freeze ended this
spring, USCIS began actively recruiting to fill all currently vacant
positions that support refugee processing.
Third, USCIS implemented operational and policy changes to support
remote case processing during COVID-19. Since last summer, USCIS has
been conducting refugee applicant re-interviews via video-
teleconference (VTEL) and recently started conducting initial refugee
applicant interviews via VTEL where possible. By May 26, 2021, USCIS
conducted 212 re-interviews and 53 initial interviews by VTEL.
Finally, while COVID-related restrictions continue to impact
USCIS's ability to increase in-person interviews of refugee applicants,
beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, USCIS resumed in-
person international refugee processing circuit rides on a small scale.
Deployments are based on identified USRAP processing priorities and are
dependent on movement restrictions issued by local governments due to
COVID-19; post-by-post restrictions issued by DOS; and the ability to
safely conduct in-person interviews while protecting the health of
USCIS officers, Resettlement Support Center staff, refugee applicants,
and interpreters.
In addition to the process improvements outlined above, USCIS is
investing in a case management system that will allow for more
effective tracking of workloads and cases and will provide officers
with additional adjudicative tools. This system is expected to fully
deploy in fiscal year 2022 and will track data on production rates,
details on case outcomes, and other key metrics that will provide
leadership with the information they need to effectively manage future
resources.
unaccompanied children
Question. I was deeply disturbed by the treatment of children at
our Southern border under the previous Administration, and I have been
very concerned about previous reports of unaccompanied children
remaining in Border Patrol custody for extended periods of time.
What steps has your agency taken to address these problems and
ensure that children are treated safely and humanely when they arrive
at our border?
Answer. CBP makes every effort to process those in our custody as
quickly as possible--especially children. In accordance with the
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), CBP must
transfer unaccompanied children into the custody of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
within 72 hours of unaccompanied children determination, determining
that they are unaccompanied children, absent exceptional circumstances.
To expedite processing of migrants, including unaccompanied children,
CBP has augmented its Southwest border personnel and facilities, and
leveraged available support across the U.S. Government.
U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) prioritizes unaccompanied children
referrals and transfers to HHS ORR, but the ability to do so is
directly tied to ORR's capacity. By March 2021, the number of
unaccompanied children entering USBP custody far exceeded ORR's
capacity to provide placement. In response, and in conjunction with
FEMA, HHS began rapid expansion of ORR's housing/placement capacity
through Emergency Influx Shelters (EISs). USBP continues to work
closely with HHS to expedite the transfer of unaccompanied children
into HHS custody.
DHS successfully established the interagency Movement Coordination
Cell (MCC) to bring together personnel from FEMA, ORR, U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and CBP to ensure the rapid transfer of
UCs from CBP custody to ORR custody--whether to licensed bed facilities
or EISs. This interagency approach has been remarkably successful in
reducing the average time in custody that UCs spend in CBP facilities.
Thanks to interagency cooperation and focus on building ORR
capacity, in April 2021, the average number of children in CBP custody
decreased to 2,895 from 4,109 in March 2021--with the number of
children in CBP custody below 460 in mid-May 2021. In March, UCs spent
an average of 115 hours in CBP custody compared to just 26 hours in
May.
CBP has significantly expanded the scope of its trauma-informed
medical support capabilities to ensure children are treated safely and
humanely. For example, CBP now has more than 800 contract medical
personnel providing 24/7 medical support at over 70 facilities along
the Southwest border. CBP continues to enhance its trauma-informed care
practices for children in custody through awareness and training;
trauma-informed medical support; and trauma-informed holding practices.
CBP's trauma-informed medical support includes health interviews
and medical assessments by trained professionals. This includes
behavioral health considerations and emphasizes psychological triage,
psychological first aid, behavioral health referrals, and appropriate
prioritization for transfer. CBP's trauma-informed holding practices
ensure a safe and secure environment that minimizes time in custody,
improves the child's ability to maintain family connection via phone
calls, provides recreation opportunities as feasible, and includes
caregivers who can provide a reassuring adult presence. The role of
caregivers in our facilities now includes providing opportunities for
recreational time for children as operationally feasible. CBP has
always been, and continues to be, committed to the safe and humane
treatment of all individuals in our custody, especially those most
vulnerable.
Question. How is your agency working with the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services to facilitate unaccompanied children's
expeditious release from Border Patrol custody?
Answer. Unaccompanied Children (UC) are typically processed by CBP
at the Southwest Border and then ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations
(ERO) transfers unaccompanied children from CBP to the custody of HHS
ORR. Pursuant to the Flores Settlement Agreement, the Homeland Security
Act of 2002, and the TVPRA of 2008, DHS must transfer unaccompanied
children to HHS ORR custody within 72 hours of determining that a UC is
an unaccompanied child except in exceptional circumstances.
ICE continues to partner with CBP and HHS to improve transfers into
the care and custody of ORR. These partnerships have proven to be
extremely effective in reducing the average length of time in DHS
custody, to include decreasing the amount of time that a child is in
transit to an ORR shelter. ICE's effort to partner with CBP and HHS has
resulted in the transfer of thousands of unaccompanied children into
the care and custody of ORR in under 72 hours as required by statute.
CBP implemented a Movement Coordination Cell (MCC) to work with HHS
ORR and other appropriate agencies to coordinate the placement and
expedited transfer of UCs out of CBP custody and into appropriate HHS
facilities and care. The MCC is an interagency effort among CBP, ICE,
HHS ORR, and FEMA. The goal of the MCC is to rapidly transfer custody
of UCs from CBP to ORR. The MCC effort began on March 29, 2021, and
since its inception, the MCC has assisted in reducing the number of UCs
in CBP custody as well as their average length of time in custody. CBP
is also working with HHS/ORR on enhanced data transfer to assist in the
expeditious placement of UCs in appropriate facilities, which would
further reduce time in custody.
In April 2021, the average number of children in CBP custody
decreased to 2,895 from 4,109 the previous month, with the number of
children in CBP custody below 460 in mid-May 2021. In March, UCs spent
an average of 115 hours in CBP custody compared to just 26 hours in
May.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith
Question. Mr. Secretary, the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T)
fiscal year 2022 Budget Request highlights prior year research efforts
and milestones, including Project JUSTICE and the fully operational
sUAS test facilities. The budget overview also lists future objectives
to ``publish JUSTICE demonstration, test and evaluation results, and
associated analyses to DHS Components, first responder and emergency
management service organizations.'' Additionally, the budget overview
States, ``DHS lacks installed technologies to maintain persistent air
domain awareness of all manned and unmanned aircraft in the National
airspace...evolving technologies and critically strained resources make
it imperative for S&T to advance technologies that produce efficient
force-multiplying aerospace for operational elements of DHS and the
Nation's law enforcers and first responders.''
In prior year appropriations, including fiscal year 2021, the
committee/Congress acknowledged the critical value in the establishment
of the S&T common test site for demonstration and research of UAS,
provided additional funding for the Demonstration Site to conduct on-
site testing and evaluation of Enabling UAS technologies, and
encouraged the close collaboration with the FAA UAS Center of
Excellence. The DHS UAS Demonstration Site provides an effective and
efficient operational testing and evaluation capacity for S&T and the
operational partners that it supports, including CBP, Coast Guard,
Secret Service, and Nation's law enforcers and first responders.
Numerous exercises are necessary for technology evaluation across a
range of scenarios and environments at the Demonstration Site.
Please provide a spend plan for the fiscal year 2021 funds
appropriated for the Enabling UAS Demonstration Site. How will S&T
continue to prioritize previously appropriated funds for the
Demonstration Site to conduct on-site testing and evaluation of
Enabling UAS technologies for DHS components and law enforcement
partners?
Answer. Efforts towards Enabling UAS, including the Enabling UAS
Demonstration Site, are executed as part of S&T's Air Security project,
within S&T's Air, Land, and POE Security program. S&T's fiscal year
2021 Spend Plan includes $2 million for the Enabling UAS demonstration
site:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planned in
Activity Description FY 2021 Spend Obligated fiscal year
Plan 2022 Q2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enabling UAS Demonstration Site....... Joint Unmanned Systems $2,000,000 $250,000 $1,750,000
Testing in
Collaborative
Environments (JUSTICE)--
Testing and evaluation
of UASs.
Total Enabling UAS Demonstration Site $2,000,000 $250,000 $1,750,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S&T will continue to support the Enabling UAS Demonstration Site
through S&T's agreement with the U.S. Army Development Command
(DEVCOM), Ground Vehicle Systems Center and through strategic IAA
partnerships with other U.S. Government entities that enable S&T to
offer value to the Homeland Security Enterprise. With continuing COVID
restrictions the potential for testing & evaluation to resume pre-
pandemic conditions soon remains low. S&T will continue engaging with
the Army and the vendor to administer the residual funding in early
fiscal year 2022.
Question. Mr. Secretary, with the expected surge in flight travel
over the next few months, both business and personal, how is the
Department of Homeland Security making sure TSA is adequately staffed
at airports across the country in order to accommodate this expected
increase? What opportunities are there that would allow TSA to
significantly grow its TSA PreCheck program and can these opportunities
be deployed in time to help with the travel surge that is expected this
year?
Answer. As of November 1, 2021, TSA has hired 7,630 Transportation
Security Officers (TSO) thus far in the calendar year, amidst
unprecedented hiring competition in nearly all industries.
TSA is continuing to innovate on solutions to attract more TSO
applicants and hire more quickly in competitive locations. To increase
hiring volumes, TSA is expanding advertising campaigns to amplify the
``now hiring'' message. In an effort to maintain parity with private
industry pay rates, TSA has also instituted recruitment $1K to $2K
sign-on bonuses to all TSO new hires through FY22. Further, retention
incentives are being strategically leveraged to align TSO pay rates
with local wage growth in hard-to-hire markets--both to retain current
staff and attract new candidates. Finally, TSA is hosting ``expedited''
hiring events in 12 or more competitive markets per month, including
locations such as Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis, Boston, St. Louis,
Maui, and many others. These events enable prospective TSO applicants
to consolidate hiring steps into one-day and significantly reduce
Federal hiring time; which is essential in this competitive recruitment
market.
TSA's Universal Enrollment Services provider, IDEMIA, offers a
nationwide network of over 440 enrollment centers in support of the TSA
PreCheck(r) Application Program, and there is currently plenty of
enrollment center capacity and appointment availability. TSA provides
individuals with a simple enrollment process, including the ability to
start TSA PreCheck(r) enrollment online, which shortens the in-person
enrollment time. On average, an individual can complete the in-person
enrollment process in five to 10 minutes for new applicants to the
program. For renewing members, TSA offers the ability to renew a TSA
PreCheck(r) membership fully online, with no in-person visit required.
TSA is also working to expand the number of enrollment providers,
as required by the TSA Modernization Act of 2018. In January 2020, TSA
awarded Other Transaction Agreements (OTA) to Alclear, LLC (CLEAR),
Telos Identity Management Solutions, LLC, and Idemia Identity &
Security USA, LLC (TSA's current enrollment provider). TSA estimates
the new enrollment providers under the OTAs will begin operations by
the end of 2022, but timelines are tentative and dependent on each
vendor's ability to meet TSA's requirements.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
Senator Murphy. And with that this subcommittee meeting is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:18 a.m., Wednesday, May 4, the
subcommittee was recessed to reconvene subject to the call of
the Chair.]