[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                    H.R. 1727; H.R. 5283; DISCUSSION DRAFT OF 
                      H.R. ____, ``TRASHED BORDER ACT'';.
                      AND DISCUSSION DRAFT OF H.R. ____,.
                         ``ENSURING BORDER ACCESS AND 
                         PROTECTION ON FEDERAL LAND ACT''

=======================================================================

                          LEGISLATIVE HEARING

                               BEFOORE THE

                     SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL LANDS

                                 OF THE

                     COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
                     U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                       Thursday, October 19, 2023

                               __________

                           Serial No. 118-70

                               __________

       Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources
       
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]       


        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
                                   or
          Committee address: http://naturalresources.house.gov
          
                               __________

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
53-573 PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2024                    
          
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                   COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

                     BRUCE WESTERMAN, AR, Chairman
                    DOUG LAMBORN, CO, Vice Chairman
                  RAUL M. GRIJALVA, AZ, Ranking Member

Doug Lamborn, CO			Grace F. Napolitano, CA
Robert J. Wittman, VA			Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 	
Tom McClintock, CA			    CNMI
Paul Gosar, AZ				Jared Huffman, CA
Garret Graves, LA			Ruben Gallego, AZ
Aumua Amata C. Radewagen, AS		Joe Neguse, CO
Doug LaMalfa, CA			Mike Levin, CA
Daniel Webster, FL			Katie Porter, CA
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, PR		Teresa Leger Fernandez, NM
Russ Fulcher, ID			Melanie A. Stansbury, NM
Pete Stauber, MN			Mary Sattler Peltola, AK
John R. Curtis, UT			Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, NY
Tom Tiffany, WI				Kevin Mullin, CA
Jerry Carl, AL				Val T. Hoyle, OR
Matt Rosendale, MT			Sydney Kamlager-Dove, CA
Lauren Boebert, CO			Seth Magaziner, RI
Cliff Bentz, OR				Nydia M. Velazquez, NY
Jen Kiggans, VA				Ed Case, HI
Jim Moylan, GU				Debbie Dingell, MI
Wesley P. Hunt, TX			Susie Lee, NV
Mike Collins, GA
Anna Paulina Luna, FL
John Duarte, CA
Harriet M. Hageman, WY

                    Vivian Moeglein, Staff Director
                      Tom Connally, Chief Counsel
                 Lora Snyder, Democratic Staff Director
                   http://naturalresources.house.gov
                                 ------                                

                     SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL LANDS

                       TOM TIFFANY, WI, Chairman
                     JOHN R. CURTIS, UT, Vice Chair
                     JOE NEGUSE, CO, Ranking Member

Doug Lamborn, CO                     Katie Porter, CA
Tom McClintock, CA                   Sydney Kamlager-Dove, CA
Russ Fulcher, ID                     Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 
Pete Stauber, MN                         CNMI
John R. Curtis, UT                   Mike Levin, CA
Cliff Bentz, OR                      Teresa Leger Fernandez, NM
Jen Kiggans, VA                      Mary Sattler Peltola, AK
Jim Moylan, GU                       Raul M. Grijalva, AZ, ex officio
Bruce Westerman, AR, ex officio

                               ---------
                               
                                CONTENTS

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Hearing held on Thursday, October 19, 2023.......................     1

Statement of Members:

    Tiffany, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Wisconsin.........................................     2
    Neguse, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the State 
      of Colorado................................................     3

    Panel I:

    Westerman, Hon. Bruce, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Arkansas..........................................     5
    Malliotakis, Hon. Nicole, a Representative in Congress from 
      the State of New York......................................     7
    Trone, Hon. David, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Maryland, prepared statement of...................    36

Statement of Witnesses:

    Panel II:

    Heithecker, Troy, Associate Deputy Chief, U.S. Forest 
      Service, Washington, DC....................................     8
        Prepared statement of....................................    10

    Panel III:

    Lewis, George, Chair, C&O Canal National Historical Park 
      Federal Advisory Commission, Jefferson, Maryland...........    12
        Prepared statement of....................................    14
    Hankinson, Simon, Senior Research Fellow, Border Security and 
      Immigration Center, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC    18
        Prepared statement of....................................    20
    Ariola, Hon. Joann, Council Member, New York City Council, 
      New York, New York.........................................    27
        Prepared statement of....................................    28

 
 LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON H.R. 1727, TO AMEND THE CHESAPEAKE AND 
 OHIO CANAL DEVELOPMENT ACT TO EXTEND THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO 
  CANAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK COMMISSION, ``CHESAPEAKE AND 
OHIO CANAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK COMMISSION EXTENSION ACT''; 
  H.R. 5283, TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS TO PROVIDE 
       HOUSING TO SPECIFIED ALIENS ON ANY LAND UNDER THE 
  ADMINISTRATIVE JURISDICTION OF THE FEDERAL LAND MANAGEMENT 
 AGENCIES, ``PROTECTING OUR COMMUNITIES FROM FAILURE TO SECURE 
  THE BORDER ACT OF 2023''; DISCUSSION DRAFT OF H.R. ____, TO 
   DIRECT THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR AND THE SECRETARY OF 
  AGRICULTURE TO SUBMIT TO CONGRESS A REPORT ON THE AMOUNT OF 
  WASTE COLLECTED ON CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND ALONG THE SOUTHERN 
 BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, ``TRASH 
 REDUCTION AND SUPPRESSING HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION 
 AT THE BORDER ACT'' OR ``TRASHED BORDER ACT''; AND DISCUSSION 
DRAFT OF H.R. ____, TO DIRECT THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR AND 
  THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE TO CONSTRUCT ROADS ON FEDERAL 
LANDS ALONG THE UNITED STATES BORDER WITH MEXICO, AND FOR OTHER 
 PURPOSES, ``ENSURING BORDER ACCESS AND PROTECTION ON FEDERAL 
                           LAND ACT''

                              ----------                              


                       Thursday, October 19, 2023

                     U.S. House of Representatives

                     Subcommittee on Federal Lands

                     Committee on Natural Resources

                             Washington, DC

                              ----------                              

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m. in 
Room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Tom Tiffany 
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Tiffany, Fulcher, Bentz, 
Westerman; Neguse, Kamlager-Dove, Leger Fernandez, and Peltola.
    Also present: Representative Malliotakis.

    Mr. Tiffany. The Subcommittee on Federal Lands will come to 
order. My apologies for being late this morning.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the Subcommittee at any time.
    The Subcommittee is meeting today to consider four bills: 
H.R. 1727 from Representative Trone; H.R. 5283 from 
Representative Malliotakis, the Protecting Our Communities from 
Failure to Secure the Border Act of 2023; my legislation, 
Discussion Draft of the Trash Reduction and Suppressing Harm 
from Environmental Degradation at the Border Act, or TRASHED 
Border Act; and a Discussion Draft offered by the Full 
Committee Chairman, Chairman Westerman, the Ensuring Border 
Access and Protection on Federal Land Act.
    I ask unanimous consent that Representative Malliotakis of 
New York be allowed to participate in today's hearing from the 
dais.
    Without objection, so ordered. Welcome, Representative 
Malliotakis.
    Under Committee Rule 4(f), any oral opening statements at 
hearings are limited to the Chairman and the Ranking Minority 
Member. I therefore ask unanimous consent that all other 
Members' opening statements be made part of the hearing record 
if they are submitted in accordance with Committee Rule 3(o).
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I will now recognize myself for an opening statement.

STATEMENT OF THE HON. TOM TIFFANY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS 
                  FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN

    Mr. Tiffany. 5.7 billion, that is the number of fatal doses 
of fentanyl that have flowed across our southern border in the 
past year. 5.7 billion, enough fatal doses to kill the entire 
U.S. population 17 times over.
    The Biden administration's failed border policies have led 
to record numbers of migrant crossings and drug seizures 
reported this year. Since President Biden took office, more 
than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern 
border into the United States.
    This crisis is now spilling onto our Federal lands, which 
make up approximately 35 percent of the total 1,965 miles along 
the border. Large piles of trash, unauthorized trails, 
wildfires, and even illegal marijuana grow sites are degrading 
our public lands and imperiling recreation and access for every 
American. Enough is enough.
    The bills before us today will secure our porous border, 
halt environmental degradation caused by illegal immigration, 
and ensure our national parks and public lands remain places 
for public enjoyment, not camps for illegal immigrants.
    I would like to highlight legislation we will consider 
during today's hearing that I am offering: the TRASHED Border 
Act. As somebody who has seen and been to our southern border 
many times, I can speak firsthand to the amount of trash that 
piles up as a result of illegal immigration. It is estimated 
that each illegal immigrant will discard between 6 to 8 pounds 
of trash as they illegally cross our border. Cartels are also 
discarding trash, toxic chemicals, and banned pesticides at 
illegal marijuana grow sites on Federal lands. Illegal 
immigration is harming wildlife, destroying habitat, and 
damaging our natural resources.
    My legislation would direct the agencies to implement 
protocols to limit the amount of waste discarded on our border, 
as well as require public reports about the amount of trash 
collected to ensure there is greater attention and transparency 
brought to this issue.
    I would also like to highlight Representative Malliotakis' 
legislation, which would prevent Federal land managers, 
including the National Park Service, from housing illegal 
immigrants on Federal lands. This bill is a continuation of the 
Committee's oversight on this issue, including our Full 
Committee hearing last month.
    To those who may oppose this legislation, I ask you one 
simple question: If you are willing to let it happen in New 
York City, are you willing to let it happen in the Grand 
Canyon, in Yosemite, in national parks in your district? I 
certainly won't allow the National Park Service to set up new 
migrant camps at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in my 
district.
    Each of these bills represents an important step in 
securing our border and protecting our parks, and I look 
forward to working with my colleagues to expeditiously move 
them through Committee.
    Before I yield to the Ranking Member, I would like to 
express my disappointment at the empty chair at our witness 
table for the Department of the Interior, where they are 
supposed to be. Following standard practice, this Subcommittee 
gave the Department more than 2 weeks' notice for today's 
hearing, and we worked diligently to accommodate a witness from 
any of the Department's bureaus. Unlike the Forest Service, 
they chose not to be here today, and even went so far as to 
suggest that the bills on today's hearing, which affect lands 
under the Department's jurisdiction, would be best spoken to by 
agencies without jurisdiction over those lands. It is 
unacceptable.
    This Committee and the American people will demand 
transparency from the Biden administration and senior officials 
like Secretary Haaland, particularly on topics of national 
importance such as securing our southern border.
    Mr. Tiffany. With that, I will now recognize Ranking Member 
Neguse for his opening statement.

STATEMENT OF THE HON. JOE NEGUSE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS 
                   FROM THE STATE OF COLORADO

    Mr. Neguse. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am grateful to the 
witnesses for being here today and, of course, to members on 
both sides of the aisle for joining us for this important 
Subcommittee hearing.
    I do want to first say, after the chaotic last few weeks, I 
am certainly pleased to be back in front of this Subcommittee, 
and I do appreciate the inclusion of a bill from one of my 
Democratic colleagues for this legislative hearing.
    As the Chairman knows, when I chaired this Subcommittee, 
this Subcommittee produced hearings on more Republican and 
Democratic bills than any other Subcommittee in the U.S. House 
of Representatives. This Subcommittee has a long legacy and 
history of being bipartisan in nature. Of course, that was the 
case when I had the pleasure of serving with Ranking Member 
Fulcher. So, I want to thank the Chairman for, I hope, 
continuing that practice in upcoming hearings, and perhaps 
putting more bills from my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle before this particular Subcommittee.
    I am looking forward to hearing more about Representative 
Trone's proposal to reauthorize the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal 
National Historic Park Advisory Committee through 2034. The 
Commission works to ensure that local communities have a voice 
in the operation, maintenance, and restoration of the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Park, which hosts more than 
5 million visitors annually.
    And again, these are the types of bills and solutions that 
I am proud we consider in this Subcommittee, common-sense 
legislation introduced by Republican and Democratic Members 
that ultimately ensures the continued collaboration of our 
communities.
    I am concerned that some of the other bills that we are 
considering today, and this is in my humble view, seek to score 
political points, rather than ultimately solve problems. And I 
am even more concerned that some of these bills, I don't know 
if we can call them bills, because I believe they are 
discussion drafts, which is not something that this 
Subcommittee at least was engaged in customarily when I chaired 
the Subcommittee, putting forth bills that are not yet ready 
for prime time, but nonetheless asking witnesses, including 
Administration witnesses, to opine on them.
    In any event, there are multiple bills that have no direct 
connection to the jurisdiction of this particular Subcommittee. 
And I want to be clear, because although we have different 
views as to the substance of Ms. Malliotakis' bill, I do 
believe her bill does have a connection to this Committee's 
jurisdiction. But the two discussion draft bills that we are 
considering certainly don't. And in my view, I would think that 
this Committee would have a litany of different issues germane 
to the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee that we should be 
considering.
    I, of course, agree that we have a crisis at our southern 
border, and it is a policy issue and a funding issue that has 
long required comprehensive solutions and increased resources 
for our enforcement agencies. I have been disappointed that so 
many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, when 
faced with this crisis, have instead doubled down on calls from 
some Members of their conference to defund law enforcement, to 
defund the Department of Homeland Security, to defund the FBI, 
to defund the DEA. I certainly don't agree with the position 
that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have 
taken in regards to that; I think we should be providing more 
resources to those law enforcement agencies.
    I also think, to the extent that one is arguing, as I 
believe the Chairman of this Subcommittee and the Chairman of 
the Full Committee are arguing, that the National Park Service 
or the U.S. Forest Service should have some role with respect 
to these issues, that we shouldn't be cutting funding for those 
agencies either. Yet, that is exactly what the Republican House 
conference has proposed for the next Fiscal Year, drastic, 
deep, draconian cuts to the Department of the Interior, to the 
National Park Service, to the Forest Service, and yet 
simultaneously proposing, as I said, not bills, but discussion 
drafts that would impose a variety of different mandates that 
are unfunded in nature.
    So, I am disappointed. I know the Chairman made note of the 
Department of the Interior and the fact that they don't have a 
witness here. I must say, I mean, I was hoping that I might be 
able to ask some questions of, I don't know, the Department of 
Homeland Security, since they have primary jurisdiction over 
our southern border, but they are not at this hearing either. 
Why? Well, because Republicans didn't invite them to this 
hearing, and it makes sense. This isn't the Homeland Security 
Committee. This isn't the immigration subcommittee of the 
Judiciary Committee on which I actually have served.
    I was hoping I might be able to ask some questions of 
Customs and Border Control. CBP might have something to say 
about the issues that we are discussing today. But my 
understanding from Democratic staff is that they weren't 
invited either. They found out about one of these discussion 
drafts from Democratic staff.
    I know I am out of time, and I appreciate the Chairman's 
indulgence, as always. I would just simply say I am hoping that 
after we conclude this hearing we can get back to the way in 
which this Subcommittee has historically been run, and the way 
in which I think it has been run for much of this year.
    With that, I yield back.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you to the Ranking Member. I will now 
recognize the Chairman of the Full Committee, Mr. Westerman.

  STATEMENT OF THE HON. BRUCE WESTERMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
              CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARKANSAS

    Mr. Westerman. Thank you, Chairman Tiffany, for holding 
this hearing. Thank you to the witnesses for being here today. 
And the bills we are considering, including Chairman Tiffany's 
legislation, are of great importance not only to our Committee, 
but to our nation as a whole.
    I want to read a quote to you. ``There is presently an 
acute and immediate need to conduct physical barriers and roads 
in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to 
prevent unlawful entries into the United States.'' You may be 
surprised that I am not quoting myself or any other Republican 
Member of Congress for that matter, but rather a Federal 
Register notice the Biden administration published exactly 2 
weeks ago when they announced they would waive 26 Federal laws, 
including NEPA, ESA, and the National Historic Preservation Act 
to build roads and a wall along our border in Texas, including 
in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
    Any of you who have been to our southern border would know 
this Federal Register statement is an accurate one and, 
ironically, it is the current policies that this Congress and 
the Administration could change that have created this crisis 
in the first place.
    I have been to the southern border, like Chairman Tiffany, 
many times, including our Federal borderlands. These are 
supposed to be some of our most protected places, wildlife 
refuges, national parks, and national monuments. Instead, they 
are littered with discarded trash. Unauthorized trails are cut 
through sensitive habitat, and they are some of the most 
targeted areas for criminals, drug smugglers, and human 
traffickers.
    Last Congress, Committee Republicans held a forum on the 
environmental impacts of illegal immigration on our southern 
border. We heard testimony from Border Patrol agents who said 
that Federal borderlands are particularly susceptible to 
illegal crossings because they are remote, uninhabited, and 
less frequently patrolled. Border patrol agents also identified 
a lack of reliable access as their top concern for securing our 
border and protecting the safety of agents and the public.
    I remember the very first trip I made to the border, and I 
flew in a helicopter the entire Arizona border and other areas. 
And the remoteness of this area is what struck me. But also 
what struck me was the Border Patrol agents telling me their 
No. 1 concern was they had no access to the border, and 
especially on some of the Federal lands, where you couldn't 
have wheeled vehicles. So, there were places where our border 
was wide open, and the only way a Border Patrol agent could get 
there was to either be dropped in by helicopter, to ride a 
horse, or to hike. So, you can imagine what kind of lack of 
security those areas of the border have.
    And according to the National Border Patrol Council, the 
inability to build proper border access roads in the Coronado 
National Forest diminished agent mobility while patrolling, and 
ultimately prevented agents from being as effective as they 
could be otherwise. That is why I am sponsoring the Ensuring 
Border Access and Protection on Federal Lands Act. This is a 
common-sense legislation that will secure our Federal border 
lands and stop putting Border Patrol agents in harm's way.
    My friend, Mr. Neguse, I am not sure where he went, but if 
we are talking about building a road on Federal lands, I think 
that has a direct nexus to this Committee. Yes, it has Homeland 
Security implications, as well, but we are the Committee with 
jurisdiction over Federal lands. We are the Committee with 
jurisdiction over NEPA and the permitting process.
    This is common-sense legislation. It would require Federal 
land managers to construct navigable roads along Federal lands, 
which make up 35 percent of the total miles along the border. 
The agencies would be required to work with the Department of 
Homeland Security to construct fencing, physical barriers, and 
surveillance technology to accompany these roads.
    There are very tenuous borders around the world that are 
protected with high-tech fencing and roads, and it doesn't have 
to be a wall everywhere, but you have to be able to have access 
to get to these places.
    The ironic thing about our legislation is that it requires 
the construction of these roads to comply with NEPA, one of the 
laws the Biden administration decided to waive this month for 
their own construction. You won't find anything in our bill 
that waives NEPA.
    I look forward to discussion today on this bill, as well as 
Chairman Tiffany's and Representative Malliotakis' legislation.
    I want to thank our witnesses again for being here, say hi 
to my friend, Troy Heithecker.
    I am glad to see you up here, Troy, but we really miss you 
on the Ouachita National Forest back in Arkansas, where you did 
such a fine job. And I would also like to echo Chairman 
Tiffany's disappointment at the empty chair next to you that 
was reserved for the Department of the Interior. We are 
grateful the Forest Service decided to show up and answer 
questions about an important topic.
    With that, I yield back.
    Mr. Tiffany. Yes, thank you, Chairman Westerman. We will 
move on to our first panel now, for Members who are sponsoring 
bills today. First, I want to recognize Representative 
Malliotakis for 5 minutes on H.R. 5283.

 STATEMENT OF THE HON. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
              CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

    Ms. Malliotakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to 
thank the Committee for holding this hearing on my legislation, 
H.R. 5283, Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure 
the Border Act. And I would like to thank this Committee staff 
for working with my office in the drafting of this bill.
    The Administration's failure to secure the border has 
resulted in an unprecedented number of individuals flooding 
into our country and ultimately finding their way to some of 
our most northern communities.
    New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrongfully insists that a 
1982 right-to-shelter court decree requires taxpayers to house 
an unlimited number of citizens from outside of New York and 
the nation. He has since taken over schools, parks, and 
assisted living facilities meant for our seniors.
    As of the beginning of this month, New York City has taken 
on the burden of 118,000 migrants, and currently housing 
upwards of 64,000 individuals at tremendous expense and burden 
on the taxpayer, so much so that Mayor Adams said that it will 
``destroy'' New York City, and proposed a 15 percent across-
the-board cut of city services.
    Instead of closing the border, this Administration has 
agreed to turn over our national park into a migrant encampment 
to accommodate 2,500 migrants at Floyd Bennett Field in 
Brooklyn, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation 
Area. This is lands under the jurisdiction of the National Park 
Service, doing so without going through the proper NEPA process 
the Department of the Interior is beholden to.
    I want to thank Chairman Bruce Westerman for coming to 
Floyd Bennett Field last month and seeing firsthand the issue, 
and then subsequently holding a hearing on this.
    The week following this Committee's hearing on the issue, 
heavy rains flooded Floyd Bennett Field, as much as 10 inches, 
proving the point that this is in no way the appropriate place 
to house anyone.
    Created by an Act of Congress in 1972, 5 months before our 
friend, the late Don Young of Alaska, joined this institution, 
Gateway National Recreation Area was one of the first urban 
parks in the National Park System. I must also point out that 
with its creation, Congress prohibited the construction of a 
housing development at Floyd Bennett Field. Gateway National 
Recreation Area may not be to the scale of our more well-known 
parks out West, but it is one of our urban treasures in New 
York City.
    The portion of Gateway National Recreation Area in my 
district contains Fort Wadsworth, which is one of the nation's 
oldest military installations, and it currently serves as a 
domicile and an operational base for members of the U.S. Coast 
Guard and the U.S. Park Police who are tasked with patrolling 
not only the park lands, but also New York Harbor from 
potential national security threats. That park was also being 
proposed as a potential site to house migrants from other 
countries.
    This is why my legislation, H.R. 5283, is so important and 
straightforward. This legislation prohibits the use of Federal 
funds to provide housing to migrants on any land under the 
administrative jurisdiction of the Federal land management 
agencies, specifically naming the National Park Service, the 
Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
and the U.S. Forest Service. This legislation protects our 
lands nationwide, not just those in New York City.
    And before I close, I must remind my colleagues here of the 
mission of the National Park Service. The National Park Service 
preserves, unimpaired, the natural and cultural resources and 
values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, 
education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The 
National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the 
benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and 
outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world. 
Taxpayers of New York City and the United States of America 
preserve these lands for their public use, for their 
recreational activities and enjoyment.
    And I thank you for your time and consideration of my 
legislation. I look forward to it moving through the Committee 
process. Thank you.
    Mr. Tiffany. Yes, thank you very much, Representative 
Malliotakis. We are now going to move on to our second panel, 
the four that are with us here.
    Let me remind the witnesses that under Committee Rules, you 
must limit your oral statement to 5 minutes, but your entire 
statement will appear in the hearing record.
    To begin your testimony, please press the ``on'' button on 
the microphone.
    We use timing lights. When you begin, the light will turn 
green. At the end of 5 minutes, the light will turn red, and I 
will ask you to please complete your statement at that time.
    At this time, I would have liked to recognize Secretary of 
the Interior, Deb Haaland. As you can see, there is an empty 
seat at our witness table where she should be testifying. 
Therefore, I will move on and introduce Mr. Troy Heithecker, 
Associate Deputy Chief at the U.S. Forest Service.
    Associate Deputy Chief Heithecker, thank you for being 
willing to be here today, and you are recognized for 5 minutes.

  STATEMENT OF TROY HEITHECKER, ASSOCIATE DEPUTY CHIEF, U.S. 
                 FOREST SERVICE, WASHINGTON, DC

    Mr. Heithecker. Thank you and good morning, Chairman 
Tiffany.
    Full Committee Chairman Westerman, good to see you, as 
well, and Ranking Member Neguse, if he returns, and other 
members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to 
testify today on the proposed legislation related to illegal 
entry and associated environmental concerns along the southern 
border.
    My name is Troy Heithecker. I currently serve as an 
Associate Deputy Chief for the National Forest System. I have 
been a career employee with the Forest Service for over 25 
years, and have worked from Alaska to Arkansas, and now here in 
Washington, DC.
    The Forest Service manages 193 million acres of public 
lands in 44 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. These 
lands play a pivotal role in providing the public with myriad 
opportunities and benefits from recreation to forest products. 
Law enforcement is an integral part of our mission, and 
partnerships are fundamental to our ability to deliver that 
mission. These partnerships extend to the U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection by providing support to fulfill their mission 
to secure the nation's borders.
    Border management issues are a significant concern for the 
Forest Service. There are 1.5 million acres of National Forest 
System lands within 50 miles of the southern border, and 60 
miles of the Coronado National Forest in Arizona are contiguous 
with the Mexico border. The natural and cultural resources on 
the Coronado are of regional, national, and international 
importance. There are 12 separate and uniquely distinct 
mountain ranges, 8 designated wilderness areas, and 
approximately 174 threatened, endangered, or sensitive species 
in the Coronado. These remarkable lands welcome between 1.4 and 
2.9 million visitors annually.
    The Ensuring Border Access and Protection on Federal Land 
Act directs the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of 
the Interior to construct roads on Federal Lands along the 
United States' southern border to prevent illegal crossings in 
areas of high illegal entry, and gain operational control of 
the border. Implementation of the bill would require the 
construction and reconstruction of 45 to 55 miles of roads 
along the Coronado National Forest and Mexico border on steep 
and rocky terrain, some not suitable for roads.
    With the current annual budget for road construction, 
operations, and maintenance, it would be difficult to meet the 
proposed timelines it would add to the existing road 
maintenance backlog.
    Additionally, there are sections of the border inside the 
boundaries of the Pajarita Wilderness Area, where the road 
construction is not allowed.
    The bill also proposes limiting access to U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection personnel, law enforcement officials, 
emergency response personnel, and other personnel as determined 
by the Secretary of Agriculture. This is a popular area for 
public recreation, and maintaining public access is important.
    In addition, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has 
previously requested the Forest Service maintain public access 
to existing roads for purposes of not impeding their rapid 
access when needed.
    USDA has concerns with this draft legislation, and welcomes 
the opportunity to work with the Committee to explain these 
concerns more fully.
    The Protecting Our Communities From Failure to Secure the 
Border Act would prevent the Forest Service and other Federal 
agencies from providing Federal funds that might be used to 
provide housing to certain non-citizens. The Forest Service 
does not provide funds to certain non-citizens for any 
purposes, including housing. USDA believes that H.R. 5283 is 
not necessary, given that the proposed provisions are already 
consistent with current Forest Service management practices. 
Therefore, USDA does not support this legislation.
    The Trash Reduction and Suppressing Harm from Environmental 
Degradation at the Border Act would direct the Secretary of 
Agriculture to establish and implement policies and protocols 
to prevent and mitigate environmental degradation caused by 
certain non-citizens on NFS lands along the southern border. 
The Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and other laws already 
provide the authorities to protect the environment. The Forest 
Service currently prohibits activities such as littering, 
damaging property, and resource degradation under current 
regulations, and therefore does not believe this requirement in 
the bill is necessary.
    We recognize that litter is a persistent problem on 
national forest lands and, despite trash collection efforts of 
Coronado National Forest employees, along with the help of 
partners and volunteers, the overall amount of trash continues 
to rise annually.
    This bill would also direct the Secretary to submit to 
Congress a report on the amount of waste collected on NFS lands 
where certain non-citizens are being housed or sheltered, and 
on any sites on NFS lands where certain non-citizens have 
illegally cultivated controlled substances.
    Nationwide waste deposition, illegal camping, and 
encroachment, illegal grow sites, and human-caused wildfires 
are caused by non-citizens and citizens. While the agency 
tracks the number and extent of human-caused wildfires, the 
agency does not currently track these damages by citizenships 
or legal statuses, and in many cases it would prove difficult 
or impossible to do so.
    Section 4 of the bill also directs the Secretary to double 
the fines and penalties only for non-citizens for activities 
prohibited under applicable fire and sanitation regulations. 
USDA defers to the U.S. Department of Justice for its views on 
the provision.
    USDA would appreciate the opportunity to continue to work 
with the Committee as it further drafts this bill.
    Chairman Tiffany, members of the Subcommittee, this 
concludes my remarks and I look forward to answering any 
questions you may have.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Heithecker follows:]
 Prepared Statement of Troy Heithecker, Associate Deputy Chief, United 
            States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service
    on Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, ``Ensuring Border Access and 
                   Protection on Federal Land Act'',
         Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, ``TRASHED Border Act'',
                             and H.R. 5283

    Chairman Tiffany, Ranking Member Neguse, and Members of the 
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to present the views of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on three bills pertaining to 
Southern border security on National Forest System lands.
    As an agency in service to the American people, the Forest Service 
cares for shared natural and cultural resources in ways that promote 
lasting economic, ecological, and social vitality. The agency manages 
155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, comprising 193 million 
acres in 41 states and Puerto Rico. To accomplish our mission to 
sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests 
and grasslands, we engage in co-stewardship and cross-boundary 
partnerships with Tribes, and work with a wide range of stakeholders 
across all levels of government, communities, and non-profit and for-
profit entities. These partnerships extend to our work with U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to provide support to CBP's efforts 
to secure the nation's borders while simultaneously fulfilling the 
agency's mission.
    The Forest Service does not have jurisdiction over immigration 
policy and therefore we defer to the Department of Homeland Security 
regarding broader questions about immigration and border security 
policy. We are working with other government agencies, including the 
Department of the Interior, on a cohesive, cooperative approach to 
border security, while Congress and others work to comprehensively 
address immigration policies generally.
Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, a bill to direct the Secretary of the 
        Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to construct roads on 
        Federal lands along the United States border with Mexico

    On H.R. ____, ``Ensuring Border Access and Protection on Federal 
Land Act,'' a bill that seeks to improve security in our southern 
border, USDA has significant concerns with this draft legislation and 
welcomes the opportunity to work with the Committee to explain these 
concerns more fully.
    H.R. ____ directs the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of 
the Interior to construct roads on federal lands along the United 
States border with Mexico to prevent illegal crossings in areas of high 
illegal entry and gain operational control of the border within 5 years 
after the enactment of the Act. The roads would need to be contiguous, 
with line-of-sight visibility, no more than one mile from the southern 
border and accessible to passenger cars. It specifies road 
requirements, access, maintenance, fencing, surveillance, and other 
related technology. Accessibility would be limited to U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection personnel, law enforcement officials, emergency 
response personnel, and as otherwise determined by the Secretaries. It 
also requests compliance with all applicable laws, including the 
National Environmental Policy Act and the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 
2023.
    Currently, the Forest Service has approximately 22 miles of road 
along the Coronado National Forest and Mexico border that meet most of 
the bill requirements. The implementation of the draft bill would 
require the construction and reconstruction of 45 to 55 miles of roads 
on steep and rocky terrain not suitable for roads within a 1-mile 
visibility of the border and would require these roads to be 
contiguous. There are sections of the border inside the boundaries of 
the Pajarita Wilderness area in the southwest portion of the Coronado 
National Forest where road construction would not be allowed. An 
important consideration is the initial investment of over $40-$60 
million and an annual maintenance cost of $240,000-$280,000.
    The associated costs of proposed road construction, operations, and 
maintenance would exceed current financial and personnel capacity of 
the Agency to undertake and would add to the current maintenance 
backlog. In addition, the time required to conduct the road location 
analysis, design, and construction would likely exceed the time frame 
specified in the bill. Finally, we note that in accordance with the MOU 
entered between the Forest Service, Department of Homeland Security, 
and Department of the Interior, the identification, review, approval 
and maintenance of new roads along the southern border is managed by 
CBP, in coordination with the applicable land management agency.
    The bill proposes limiting access to the area along the Coronado 
National Forest and Mexico border. However, it is a popular area for 
the public to recreate and maintaining public access is important. In 
addition, CBP has requested Forest Service not close existing roads to 
public access as they want quick access along these roads, which would 
be hindered by closures.
H.R. 5283

    H.R. 5283, ``Protecting Our Communities from Failure to Secure the 
Border Act of 2023,'' would prevent certain federal land management 
agencies, including the Forest Service, from providing federal funds 
that might be used to provide housing to certain noncitizens (as 
defined in section 101(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) on 
any land under their administrative jurisdiction, including through 
leases, contracts, or agreements. Section 2(b) defines the term 
``housing'' as a temporary or permanent encampment used for the primary 
purpose of sheltering certain noncitizens.
    USDA does not believe that H.R. 5283 would change the Agency's 
current management of public lands under its administrative 
jurisdiction. We do not believe it is necessary and therefore do not 
support this legislation.
Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, a bill to direct the Secretary of the 
        Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to submit to Congress 
        a report on the amount of waste collected on certain Federal 
        land along the southern border of the United States

    USDA shares the Committee's concerns with impacts associated with 
deposition of waste, illegal camping and encroaching, illegal grow 
sites, and human-caused wildfires. We would like to work with the 
committee to further discuss our concerns described below.
    Section 2 of the draft bill would direct the Secretary of 
Agriculture to establish and implement policies and protocols to 
prevent and mitigate environmental degradation caused by certain 
noncitizens on NFS lands that share an exterior boundary with the 
southern border. The Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and other 
environmental laws provide the authorities to protect the environment. 
The Forest Service currently prohibits activities such as littering, 
damaging property, and resource degradation under current regulations 
(e.g., 36 CFR Part 261-Prohibitions) and therefore does not believe 
this requirement in the bill is necessary.
    Only one National Forest, the Coronado National Forest, shares a 
boundary with the southern border. Sixty non-contiguous miles of the 
international border with Mexico are managed by the Forest. Law 
enforcement officers working on the Coronado National Forest conduct 
general patrols and investigations associated with national forest 
recreation and other uses. A considerable focus of their work is on 
wildfire prevention, wildfire investigation, and security details for 
fire management and wildland firefighting operations.
    Litter is a persistent problem on National Forest System lands. 
Coronado National Forest employees collect trash periodically 
throughout the year with the help of partners and volunteers to address 
litter in the Forest. Despite these efforts, the overall amount of 
trash continues to rise annually.
    Section 3 of this bill would also direct the Secretary to submit to 
Congress a report on the amount of waste collected on the Coronado 
National Forest, on sites on any NFS lands where certain noncitizens 
are being housed or are sheltering, and on sites on any NFS lands where 
certain noncitizens have illegally cultivated controlled substances. In 
addition, the report would include acres of wildlife habitat impacted 
by the waste, information on associated unauthorized trails and roads, 
and information on number of wildfires started by certain noncitizens.
    Nationwide, waste deposition, illegal camping and encroachment, 
illegal grow sites, and human-caused wildfires are caused by both 
citizens and noncitizens. While the agency tracks the number and extent 
of human-caused wildfires, illegal grow sites, and pounds of waste 
removed from grow sites, the agency does not currently track and cannot 
determine with any certainty whether these damages are caused by 
citizens or noncitizens. In most cases it would be difficult or 
impossible to do so. Section 4 of the bill also directs the Secretary 
to double the fines and penalties--only for noncitizens--for activities 
prohibited under applicable fire and sanitation regulations. The 
Secretary would also be directed to submit a report detailing the total 
amount collected in penalties and fines under this section. The USDA 
defers to the U.S. Department of Justice for its views on this 
provision.
    Chairman Tiffany and Ranking Member Neguse, that concludes my 
statement. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Mr. Heithecker. I would like to now 
introduce Dr. George Lewis, the Chair of the C&O Canal National 
Historical Park Federal Advisory Commission.
    Dr. Lewis, you have 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE LEWIS, CHAIR, C&O CANAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL 
     PARK FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMISSION, JEFFERSON, MARYLAND

    Dr. Lewis. Thank you and good morning to the entire 
Subcommittee. I am Dr. George Lewis, Chair of the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission, here today 
in response to your kind invitation to testify on behalf of 
H.R. 1727, a bill which simply proposes to extend the 
Commission's life until September 2034.
    The park is enormous in length, 184.5 miles, having been 
cobbled together way back in 1971 from private, state, and 
Federal holdings along the shoreline of the Potomac River. 
Congress at that time envisioned correctly that with this 
diverse acquisition would come considerable controversy. And 
Congress was right, and thus concurrently authorized a 
Commission that could provide the diverse jurisdictions 
bordering this new park a seat at the table on topics involving 
the park and its environs.
    The Commission, therefore, is composed of local folks, is 
composed of 19 volunteers, 2 each from 4 Maryland counties 
bordering the park; 2 each recommended by the Governors of 
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of 
Columbia; and 3, including the Chair, are appointed directly by 
the Secretary of the Interior. Commissioners serve for 5 years 
or until replaced.
    The Commission is apolitical, and its commissioners bring 
with them a vast treasure of public and private sector 
experience and expertise to draw upon when advising the 
Secretary of the Interior on matters involving the 
administration and the development of the park. The duties of 
the Commission are solely advisory. The Commission reports 
through the Superintendent of the C&O Canal Historic Park up 
its food chain to the Secretary of the Interior. The Commission 
holds public meetings, at best, two to three times a year to 
receive input from the public and to address public concerns as 
appropriate.
    The Commission's high value to the Park Superintendent, the 
National Park Service, the Secretary of the Interior, and the 
park's neighbors, visitors, and congressional constituents lies 
not only in its vast experience and diverse expertise, but as 
well as in the Commission's ability to communicate successfully 
with each and all of these entities.
    For your convenience, I have provided the Committee with 
three supporting documents: a brief description of the park, a 
brief description of the mission of the park, and very 
importantly, in my opinion, the professional expertise of each 
of the Commissioners. It is a multiple-page document, but it 
gives you a pretty good idea of all the expertise that we get 
free.
    And each of these volunteers, they are associated with the 
park also by using it, whether it is hiking, biking, 
birdwatching, or whatever.
    I envision this Commission as like the old Leatherman 
pocket knife, a multi-faceted, multi-tool that is there to be 
used in multiple ways, both as the Superintendent, as the 
Secretary of the Interior, as Congress, tools with screwdrivers 
that can unscrew things, can sharpen things, can file things, 
et cetera. And it is a tool that is easy to use by everyone.
    I want to thank you for your consideration and your time. I 
encourage this august body to act favorably on H.R. 1727. I am 
now available to answer any questions you may have.

    [The prepared statement of Dr. Lewis follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. George E. Lewis, Chair of the Chesapeake and 
             Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission
                              on H.R. 1727

Testimony

    Good morning, I am Dr. George Lewis, Chair of the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission, here today in response 
to your kind invitation to testify on behalf of H.R. 1727, a bill which 
simply proposes to extend the Commission's life until July 2034.
    The park is enormous in length; 184\1/2\ miles, having been cobbled 
together in 1971 from private, state and Federal holdings along the 
shoreline of the Potomac River. Congress envisioned correctly that with 
this diverse acquisition would come considerable controversy, and thus 
concurrently authorized a commission that could provide the diverse 
jurisdictions bordering the new park a seat at the table on topics 
involving the park and it's environs.
    The Commission is composed of 19 volunteers (2 each from the 4 
Maryland counties boarding the park, 2 each recommended by the 
Governors of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of 
Columbia, and 3--including the Chair--are appointed by the Secretary of 
the Interior). The Commission is apolitical and its Commissioners bring 
with them a vast treasure of public and private sector experience and 
expertise to draw upon when advising the Secretary of the Interior on 
matters involving the administration and development of the park.
    The duties of the Commission are solely advisory.
    The Commission holds public meetings two/three times a year to 
receive input from the public and address public concerns as 
appropriate.
    The Commission's high value to the Park Superintendent, the 
National Park Service, the Secretary of the Interior, and the park's 
neighbors, visitors, and Congressional constituents lies not only in 
its vast experience and diverse expertise, but as well in the 
Commission's ability to communicate successfully with each of these 
entities.
    I encourage this august body to act favorably on H.R. 1727. Thank 
you for your time and consideration.
    I am available to answer any questions you may have.

                                 *****

                               ATTACHMENT

Description of the Park

    The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal) began as a dream in the 
1820s to access new fortunes in the West, at a time when U.S. 
prosperity depended on its waterways. Stretching 184.5 miles along the 
Potomac River from Rock Creek at Georgetown in Washington, DC, to 
Cumberland, Maryland, the canal served as a major transportation 
corridor. Construction on the canal began in 1828, which was intended 
to connect the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River. Falling short of the 
original vision for the canal, construction ended in Cumberland in 1850 
and the canal remained in operation until 1924.
    C&O Canal became a national monument in 1961, and in 1971, Public 
Law 91-664 established the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National 
Historical Park ``to preserve and interpret the historic and scenic 
features . . . and develop the potential of the canal for public 
recreation.''
    Today, the remnants of the C&O Canal route, the spirit of its 
builders and operators, and a legacy of outdoor recreation and 
educational opportunities endure in this national park unit. Spanning 
roughly 20,000 acres, the park provides a place for millions of annual 
visitors to explore one of the most biologically diverse natural areas 
in the national park system, recreate along its historic towpath or in 
watered sections of the canal, and experience the rich history of the 
Potomac River Valley.
Mission Statement

    To preserve and interpret the 19th-century transportation canal 
from Washington, DC, to Cumberland, Maryland, and its associated 
scenic, natural, and cultural resources, and to provide opportunities 
for education and appropriate outdoor recreation.
Federal Advisory Commission

    The Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park Federal Advisory 
Commission was established by Section 6 of the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Canal Development Act (16 U.S.C. 410y-4). Public Law 91-664, January 8, 
1971, as amended, and in accordance with the provisions of the Federal 
Advisory Committee Act (FACA), as amended, 5 U.S.C. Appendix 2. The 
Commission is to meet and consult with the Secretary of the Interior on 
general policies and specific matters related to the administration and 
development of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
Commissioners

Joseph A. Adkins, Frederick County, Maryland

    Joseph A. Adkins is serving as the Deputy Director for Planning for 
the City of Frederick. Mr. Adkins is in charge for current and long-
range planning for the city. Under his leadership, the city formed its 
first Sustainability Commission and started to have serious 
conversations about resource conservation. Mr. Adkins is very familiar 
with serving on boards being on the Heart of Civil War Heritage Area 
Commission since 1998. In addition to serving on HCWHAC, he has served 
on the State's Task Force on Sustainable Growth & Wastewater Disposal 
as a liaison for the Maryland Municipal League. In addition to the 
basic requirements for this position, Mr. Adkins have actively used the 
C&O Canal for past 45 years with such activities as camping with the 
Boy Scouts, running the JFK (completing it 4 times), family activities, 
fishing and preparing for his bike trip on the Allegheny Passage.
Thomas L. Birch, District of Columbia

    Thomas L. Birch served for more than thirty years as counsel and 
legislative advisor in Washington, D.C. to a variety of nonprofit 
organizations, developing policy and directing advocacy efforts, 
primarily in cultural policy and on issues of child welfare. A former 
legislative counsel to members of the U.S. Senate and House of 
Representatives, he also held elected public office for fourteen years 
as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Georgetown. He was a Peace 
Corps volunteer for three years in Morocco and has served as a board 
member and officer for charitable organizations, including the DC 
Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Friends of Georgetown Waterfront 
Park, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, the American 
Humane Association, and the Ellington Fund of the Duke Ellington School 
of the Arts. He is the recipient of the American Psychological 
Association's Award for Distinguished Contribution to Child Advocacy 
(2003), the Citizens Association of Georgetown Belin Award for 
distinguished community service (2006), the Casey Family Programs 
Leadership Award (2006), and the National Assembly of State Arts 
Agencies President's Award for Outstanding Advocacy (2012). He holds a 
B.A. in American history from Lehigh University and a J.D. from George 
Washington University.
David Brickley, Commonwealth of Virginia

    David Brickley is the President of the September 11th National 
Memorial Trail Alliance, a nonprofit organization developing a national 
1,300-mile trail connecting the three national 9/11 memorials. Coming 
to Virginia from military service in Vietnam where he was awarded the 
Bronze Star as a captain in the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Brickley served as 
Assistant County Executive for Prince William County, followed by 22 
years as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. From 1998 to 2002 
he was the Director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and 
Recreation which in 2001 received the National Gold Medal Award for the 
``Best Managed State Park System in America.'' That same year Mr. 
Brickley received Environment Virginia's Environmental Legacy Award. He 
is a former State Delegate and is the longest continuous serving member 
of the Virginia House of Delegates from Prince William County since it 
was founded in 1731. He is an attorney and holds a jurist doctorate 
from George Mason University's School of Law.
Mark T. Cucuzzella, State of West Virginia

    Mark T. Cucuzzella is a Professor at West Virginia University 
School of Medicine. He is also a Lt Col in the US Air Force designing 
programs to promote health and better fitness in the military with the 
USAF Efficient Running Project. In his community and medical school he 
has been a tireless promoter of nutritional interventions in patients 
with any spectrum of the metabolic syndrome, introducing a low carb 
option for hospital patients. He was a lead writer of one of the first 
grants supporting education of Medical Students in nutrition and 
physical activity through the MEDCHEFS program, now in its 3rd year. 
Mark is also the lead on a large USDA grant to double SNAP benefits at 
Farmers Markets--the goal is reducing food insecurity as a barrier to 
healthier eating. He's also been a competitive runner for over 30 
years--with more than 100 marathon and ultramarathon finishes--and 
continues to compete as a national-level Masters runner. He has won the 
Air Force Marathon twice. He is the race director of Freedom's Run race 
series in West Virginia and director of the Natural Running Center, an 
education portal designed to teach healthier running. Mark is also the 
owner of Two Rivers Treads--A Center for Natural Running and Walking in 
his hometown of Shepherdstown, W.Va. Mark's vision of medical care as 
it should be is housed in his site www.natureprescriptions.org. Mark's 
innovative work and story has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, 
Outside Magazine, Running Times, Runners World, Air Force Times, the 
Washington Post, JAMA, Blue Ridge Outdoors, and other medical and media 
outlets.
George F. Franks III, Washington County, Maryland

    George F. Franks III is the President of Franks Consulting Group 
and owner of Geo. Franks, Hatter, a global e-commerce business. He is a 
former technology executive with extensive international experience. 
George is the founder and President of the Battle of Falling Waters 
1863 Foundation, Inc. and a member of the Board of Directors of the 
Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area. He is a Governor and former 
officer of the Company of Military Historians and the former President 
of the organization's Chesapeake Chapter. George served as President of 
the Capitol Hill Civil War Round Table and is an active member of 
Hagerstown Civil War Round Table, Save Historic Antietam Foundation and 
the Civil War Trust. He is the author of Battle of Falling Waters 1863: 
Custer, Pettigrew and the End of the Gettysburg Campaign and lives in 
the 1830 Daniel Donnelly House on the battlefield--less than a mile 
from the C & O Canal. George was awarded the 2015 John Frye Historical 
Preservation Award by the Washington County (Maryland) Commissioners. 
He studied history at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of 
Pittsburgh where he was graduated Magna cum Laude. AT&T selected George 
for the executive programs in marketing and international business at 
University of Virginia Darden School and Emory University Goizueta 
Business School.
Angela O. Hummer, State of Maryland

    Angela O. Hummer began her career with the Maryland Park Service as 
a Law Enforcement Ranger in 1990. She worked as a ranger at Sandy Point 
State Park and Elk Neck State Park. She was promoted to Sergeant Area 
Manager at Greenbrier State Park in 1995. Angie spent 25 years of her 
career teaching Maryland State Park employees and volunteers First Aid 
and CPR. Angie retired as a Park Ranger Lieutenant from Maryland Park 
Service after 30 years in December 2019. Her last assignment was Park 
Manger at Fort Frederick State Park Complex. Angie holds a bachelor's 
degree from Salisbury State University in Leisure Studies and a 
master's degree from Frostburg State University in Park and Recreation 
Administration. Angie is active in her community. She is a life member 
of United Fire Company in Frederick, Maryland where she has served as 
Secretary for the past 16 years. She is the Vice President of the 
Friends of Fort Frederick. She serves on the Hagerstown Washington 
County Convention of Visitors Bureau Executive Board. Angie was born 
and raised in Elkton, Maryland. In her spare time Angie enjoys making 
wine and quilts and volunteering for Lab Rescue. Angie lives in 
Boonsboro, Maryland with her husband Karl and their two Labrador 
Retrievers Ranger and Tonto.
Stella M. Koch, Commonwealth of Virginia

    Stella M. Koch has been a strong advocate for the protection and 
restoration of local streams, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay for over 
30 years. She presently serves as Chair of the Northern Virginia 
Regional Park Authority, Chair of the Fairfax County Environmental 
Quality Advisory Council (advisory to the Board of Supervisors), and 
Chair of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. She 
worked for Audubon Naturalist as their Virginia Conservation Advocate 
for over 25 years and prior to that taught Biology. She previously 
served on the Potomac River Keeper Board and the Choose Clean Water 
Coalition Steering Committee.
George E. Lewis, Chair, At Large

    George E. Lewis is a Trustee Emeritus of Hood College, founder of 
the Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration Fund, and recipient of the 2014 
Preservation Maryland Volunteer Award. As an early advisor to the C & O 
Canal Trust, a past director of the C & O Canal Association, and 
recipient of the Superintendent's Award for Excellence in Citizen 
Stewardship (C & O Canal National Historic Park), Dr. Lewis has 
demonstrated an abiding and effective commitment to preservation and 
promotion of the C & O Canal, its heritage, and its ongoing vitality. 
Dr. Lewis served with distinction in the U.S. Army as a Doctor of 
Veterinary Medicine for 30 years. He holds a bachelor's degree in 
Animal Science from the University of Florida, a Doctor of Veterinary 
Medicine degree from Auburn University, and Ph.D. in Microbiology from 
the University of Illinois. Dr. Lewis is a 2009 recipient of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution National Medal of Honor, and has 
twice been awarded the DAR Historical Preservation Medal.
Roderick C. Mackler, State of Maryland

    Roderick C. Mackler is an active volunteer in the C&O Canal 
National Historical Park. He was appointed to the Park's federal 
advisory commission in July 2019. He has served as first vice president 
and chair of the environmental committee of the C&O Canal Association. 
A retired Foreign Service Officer, he brings an international 
perspective to the canal. He has attended 12 World Canals Conferences 
on three continents. Finally, he enjoys the opportunity to share his 
love of the canal with others, including giving presentations and 
writing articles for several canal journals.
Stephen D. Nelson, Allegany County, Maryland

    Stephen D. Nelson is the owner of SD Nelson Marketing Solutions, a 
publishing and marketing firm in Western Maryland. Mr. Nelson is past 
president of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce, YMCA of 
Cumberland, and Rotary Club of Cumberland. He currently is Chairman of 
the board of First Peoples Community Credit Union and serves as a 
director on the boards of the Rotary club of Cumberland, Boy Scouts of 
America Potomac District, and the Tri County Council of Western 
Maryland. Mr. Nelson is a Scout master for Boy Scout troop 9 and is the 
recipient of the 2012 Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Community 
Service award. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Geneva 
College. He enjoys the outdoor recreation opportunities available in 
Western Maryland including cycling on the C&O Canal where in addition 
to being a member of the bike patrol, has cycled the entire length 11 
times! Walter S. Stull III, Frederick County, Maryland Walter S. Stull 
is a former member of the City Council of Brunswick, Maryland, where he 
served for 20 years. During his tenure, Mr. Stull served as liaison to 
the C&O Canal National Historical Park, commissioner with the Brunswick 
Planning Commission, and chairman of recreation and finance committees 
and is now a commissioner on the Brunswick Board of Appeals. Mr. Stull 
is a past chair and founding member of Canal Towns Partnership, whose 
mission is the economic vitality of towns along the C&O Canal. He was 
the Maryland Municipal League's representative to the Tourism Council 
of Frederick County and Transportation Services Advisory Committee of 
Frederick County. Mr. Stull is a past president of the Brunswick 
Heritage Museum which houses the C&O Canal Visitor Center. He is 
retired from the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Scott Walzak, District of Colombia

    Scott Walzak obtained a dual Bachelor's and Master's Degree in 
Architecture from Roger Williams University. Scott practiced 
architecture at HOK, an internationally renowned architecture firm 
where he received multiple national and international design awards, to 
include Metropolis Magazine's ``Next Generation Design Award'' in 2011. 
In late 2014 Scott co-founded MakeDC, a Public Interest Design Firm 
focused on providing professional design services to underprivileged 
and underserved residents within the District of Columbia. Notable 
projects included: A Healing Garden for Joseph's House, a hospice 
facility for those experiencing homelessness with Aids and HIV; a 
mobile digital art gallery for Critical Exposure; and an award-winning 
concept design for Net-Zero affordable housing within the District. 
Scott further served as the Strategic Director at Engenium Group, a 
boutique engineering firm where he led the business development and 
assisted in growing the company by nearly 300% within three years. 
Scott joined Georgetown Heritage in 2017 as the Director of Planning & 
Project Management. As the owner's representative, Scott was tasked 
with ensuring a smooth and effective project development process, as 
well as leading the coordination and communications across the various 
project teams where he provided the day-to-day management of all 
design, engineering, and construction projects for Georgetown Heritage. 
Currently, Scott serves as an Architect, Project Manager for the 
Architect of the Capitol within the Office of the Chief Security 
Officer, Security Infrastructure division, where he designs and manages 
various projects addressing the security needs for the entire Capitol 
Campus.
Evelyn C. Williams, At Large

    Evelyn C. Williams is currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at 
Frostburg State University, supervising their social studies student 
teachers. In July 2015, she retired from Washington County Public 
Schools (WCPS) where she served for 20 years as a high school teacher 
and then 15 years as an Administrator. Her last position with WCPS 
2006-2015 was as the Supervisor of Social Studies for WCPS. Each year 
in that position she secured grants to provide buses for every fourth-
grade class in Washington County Public Schools to visit the Cushwa 
Basin of the C&O Canal. Additionally, she helped develop educational 
materials and a panel of volunteers to support the trips. She serves on 
numerous boards in her local community including the Washington 
Historical Society, Washington Museum of Fine Arts and Washington 
County Department of Social Services. She is also a member of the 
Friends of Acadia and the C&O Canal Association where she volunteers as 
a level walker. She believes that one of the keys to foster 
conservation is through voter education. To this end she has long 
served on the Board for the Washington County chapter of the League of 
Women Voters, supporting their advocacy for environmental and 
conservation measures.
Francis ``Champ'' Zumbrun, Allegany County, Maryland

    Francis ``Champ'' Zumbrun served as forest manager of Green Ridge 
State Forest (GRSF) until he retired in 2009 after 31 years working as 
a professional forester for the Maryland Department of Natural 
Resources. During his time at GRSF, Zumbrun also served as a fully 
commissioned law enforcement officer, Maryland Ranger, and as a natural 
resource manager in the state forest and park public lands system. 
Zumbrun holds a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resource Management, a 
master of science in Management; and graduated from the Eastern Shore 
Criminal Justice Academy. Zumbrun is a published author of a book and 
many articles about outdoor recreation and history of public lands 
management in Maryland. In 2009, Zumbrun received a national award for 
``Outstanding Field Forester'' by the Society of American Foresters.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. I now recognize Mr. 
Simon Hankinson, a Senior Research Fellow at the Border 
Security and Immigration Center of the Heritage Foundation.
    Mr. Hankinson, you have 5 minutes.

 STATEMENT OF SIMON HANKINSON, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, BORDER 
   SECURITY AND IMMIGRATION CENTER, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION, 
                         WASHINGTON, DC

    Mr. Hankinson. Chairman Tiffany, Ranking Member Neguse, and 
members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to 
testify today regarding the impact on and use of Federal lands 
in our present border crisis.
    In my former career as a Foreign Service officer, I 
interviewed thousands of foreign applicants for U.S. visas, 
from immigrants, to students, and visitors. I was required to 
uphold the law and to use my professional judgment as to 
whether each applicant was qualified.
    Under the Constitution, Congress decides who is admitted 
into the country and under what conditions. However, the Biden 
administration has failed in its duty to enforce immigration 
law. For more than 2 years, over 150,000 foreign nationals have 
attempted to illegally cross our borders every month. This 
August saw 304,000 such encounters, the highest monthly total 
in U.S. history, and September will likely break that record. 
These huge numbers don't even include at least 1.7 million 
other aliens who are estimated to have entered illegally 
without being encountered or identified by U.S. authorities 
since January 2021.
    The evidence is clear: the Administration's management of 
our borders has been disastrous. The Department of Homeland 
Security processes inadmissible aliens at a mass scale, and 
moves them quickly into the interior, either in nominal removal 
proceedings that will take years to conclude, or under made-up 
programs that pervert the meaning of immigration parole.
    To justify its departure from historical precedent, the 
Biden administration has insisted that those whose asylum 
applications were denied would be removed from the United 
States, consistent with our laws. In fact, the Administration 
has removed fewer than 1 percent of the aliens released since 
January 2021.
    President Biden's border policies have resulted in numerous 
failures.
    The first failure is allowing illegal border crossers to 
enter and remain in the country. This undermines the rule of 
law. Millions of foreign relatives of U.S. citizens wait their 
turn in the legal immigration system. Allowing millions of 
others to short-circuit the process and take all the advantages 
of being a legal immigrant without any fee, any weight, or any 
background check is simply unjust.
    Furthermore, the class-wide use of parole by the Biden 
administration violates the law. Immigration should be in the 
national interest, not just a political interest.
    The second failure is releasing masses of aliens at the 
border when we know nothing about them, which results in 
preventable crime. There are already over 400,000 convicted 
illegal alien criminals walking free in our communities. The 
Administration's annual target for deporting them is under 
30,000. President Biden thus asks Americans to run the risks 
posed by recidivist foreign criminals instead of their home 
countries.
    The third failure is to make it easy for potential 
terrorists to enter the country. In Fiscal Year 2023, over 160 
people on the terrorist watch list were caught crossing U.S. 
borders. Since 2021, 70,000 special interest aliens from 
countries known to harbor terrorists like Afghanistan, Syria, 
and Iran were encountered, and often released with no knowledge 
of their true histories.
    In addition to these policy failures, the American taxpayer 
has been saddled with increased burdens, including $78 billion 
a year for public schools and $23 billion a year in excess 
medical expenses.
    Today's hearing is about the use of Federal lands, which 
account for nearly 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. 
Building roads along the border to regain operational control 
and deter illegal crossing is a judicious use of public land in 
the national interest. Assessing the environmental damage 
caused to Federal lands by illegal immigration and coming up 
with ways to prevent and mitigate that destruction is a 
valuable effort to conserve public property. However, using 
Federal lands to house inadmissible aliens would both subvert 
the public benefit for which the land was conserved and fail to 
solve the problem.
    From El Paso to Boston, the U.S. cities are paying the 
price of mass illegal immigration. New York City alone is 
spending more than $5 billion a year housing illegal aliens 
and, running out of space, New York now wants to use Federal 
land. Allowing such use would be a mistake.
    Reports from Guatemala down to the Darien Gap indicate that 
mass migration facilitated by this Administration is only going 
to grow. With no effort to control the flow from the south, 
locals would be deprived indefinitely of the use of public land 
that is diverted for migrant shelters. Absent a change in 
national policy, U.S. localities like New York are going to 
have to deal with increasing flows for at least another year, 
and the downstream effects and costs for many years.
    There will never be enough taxpayer money or Federal land 
to compensate cities and states for Biden's failed border 
strategy. The more that U.S. elected officials come to accept 
the current chaos as normal, the harder it is going to be to 
return to a more sustainable management of our borders. The 
Biden administration should reverse its reckless policies in 
the interests of national and local security. Legislation to 
physically secure the border, ameliorate environmental damage 
caused by unchecked illegal immigration, and to stop Federal 
lands being diverted for short-term Band-Aid solutions would 
move us in the right direction.
    Thank you, and I am happy to take your questions.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Hankinson follows:]
 Prepared Statement of Simon R. Hankinson, Center for Border Security 
                and Immigration, The Heritage Foundation
    on Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, ``Ensuring Border Access and 
                   Protection on Federal Land Act'',
       and Discussion Draft of H.R. ____, ``TRASHED Border Act''

    Chairman Tiffany, Ranking Member Neguse, and Members of the 
Subcommittee, my name is Simon Hankinson. I am a Senior Research Fellow 
at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are 
my own and should not be construed as representing any official 
position of The Heritage Foundation.
Introduction

    Most Americans agree that legal, limited, and controlled 
immigration is of benefit to our economy and society. Conversely, it 
seems certain that the unprecedented, mass release of otherwise 
inadmissible aliens at the U.S. border since President Biden took 
office has had a deleterious impact, spreading from the immediate 
vicinity of the border to states and cities far inland.

    Before discussing some of these effects, one should understand how 
we got here.

    According to U.S. law, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is 
supposed to detain all inadmissible aliens--that is, foreign nationals 
without visas allowing them to request admission at a U.S. port of 
entry--who enter the country illegally between ports of entry. Illegal 
immigrants detained pending removal proceedings have a high chance of 
being deported, while those released are likely to remain 
indefinitely.\1\ At various times in the past, DHS has responded to 
surges in the number of illegal aliens encountered at the border by 
releasing them on their own recognizance, having placed them in removal 
proceedings under U.S. immigration law.\2\ Since January 2021, this 
formerly expedient and temporary tactic has become the strategic norm 
and has reached epic proportions. President Biden has added to the mass 
release policy by using the limited parole power in the Immigration and 
Nationality Act at an unprecedented scale and not for intended 
purposes.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Nadwa Mossaad, Sean Leong, Ryan Baugh, and Marc Rosenblum, 
``Fiscal Year 2021 Enforcement Lifecycle Report,'' U.S. Department of 
Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, November 2022, p. 
13, https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/2022_1114_plcy_ 
enforcement_lifecycle_report_fy2021.pdf (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \2\ Title 8 U.S. Code, Aliens and Nationality, https://
uscode.house.gov/browse/&edition=prelim (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \3\ Texas et al v. Biden, Case 6:23-cv-00007, United States 
District Court, Southern District of Texas, Victoria Division, Filed 
January 24, 2023.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Deter, Detain, and Deport to Process, Parole, and Punt

    The Biden Administration claims that today's mass immigration is 
the result of unprecedented geopolitical and environmental 
circumstances.\4\ Their solution is, first, to use foreign aid and 
assistance programs to reduce the ``root causes'' of immigration in 
Latin America and then, while waiting for results, to replace the 
traditional border control model of deterrence, detention, and 
deportation of illegal crossers by creating what they call ``lawful 
pathways'' to allow ``safe, orderly, and humane'' entry of illegal 
immigrants and allowing them to apply for asylum protection thereafter. 
The result has been predictable: The easier it appears to be to enter 
the U.S. and be allowed to remain and work, the more people come. DHS 
has reported over 150,000 people at the border every month attempting 
to enter the U.S. illegally since January 2021. August 2023 saw over 
304,000 encounters, the highest one-month total in U.S. history. 
September figures are almost certain to exceed it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ ``Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection,'' The 
White House, June 10, 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/
statements-releases/2022/06/10/los-angeles-declaration-on-migration-
and-protection/ (accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Biden Administration's ``root causes'' approach has not reduced 
illegal immigration flows as allegedly intended. Meanwhile, having 
fought to eliminate their own ability to remove illegal crossers 
expeditiously for public health reasons under Title 42, they came up 
with a ``Comprehensive Plan to Manage the Border After Title 42.'' \5\ 
The intention of the Rule was to expedite the removal of those who were 
less likely to qualify for asylum and who had not taken advantage of 
the Administration's new parole programs using the CBP One application. 
However, as was widely predicted from the beginning, the Rule's wide 
exceptions, including for families and certain nationalities, have made 
it nearly useless. Even with the new Rule's demonstrable failure to 
reduce the flow of inadmissible aliens crossing the border, the 
Administration's default position remained to let in as many aliens as 
could be processed and nominally put them into the backlogged asylum 
system. In most cases, illegal border crossers were released without 
any way to track them or ensure that they attended scheduled court 
appearances.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ ``Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Border 
Enforcement Actions,'' The White House, January 5, 2023, https://
www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/05/fact-
sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-border-enforcement-
actions/ (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \6\ Simon Hankinson, `` `Alternatives to Detention' for Illegal 
Aliens: Effective with Mandatory Tracking for Entire Process,'' 
Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 3767, May 12, 2023, https://
www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/BG3767_0.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In addition to this ``catch and release'' standard, the 
Administration has redirected tens of thousands of illegal aliens whom 
the Border Patrol would have ``encountered''--that is, administratively 
arrested--crossing between ports of entry by inventing and expanding 
programs to allow inadmissible aliens to enter the United States on 
immigration parole.\7\ They are paroled on the premise that they are 
refugees fleeing persecution who will apply for asylum rather than 
economic migrants. The Administration has provided mass, class-wide 
parole programs for nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, 
and Venezuela and additional ``family reunification'' parole for 
beneficiaries of immediate relative immigrant visa petitions from 
Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, or Honduras and their 
immediate family members.\8\ Over 50,000 more otherwise inadmissible 
aliens are now being welcomed every month into the country at air and 
land entry points by inspectors with the U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection Office of Field Operations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and 
Immigration Services, ``Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, 
and Venezuelans,'' last reviewed/updated September 20, 2023, https://
www.uscis.gov/CHNV (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \8\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and 
Immigration Services, ``Family Reunification Parole Processes,'' last 
reviewed/updated October 3, 2023, https://www.uscis.gov/FRP (accessed 
October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The White House continues to maintain that mass release at the 
border and invented ``lawful pathways'' using parole are necessary 
``unless Congress comes together in a bipartisan way to address our 
broken immigration and asylum system.'' \9\ However, what they appear 
to mean by ``broken'' is that the current laws do not admit the number 
of people they want, and by ``address'' they seek a mass amnesty for 
those living here illegally, which would inspire millions more to enter 
illegally in the hope of benefiting in the future.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ Press release, ``Border Encounters Remain Low as Biden-Harris 
Administration's Comprehensive Plan to Manage the Border After Title 42 
in Effect,'' U.S. Department of Homeland Security, June 6, 2023, 
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/06/06/border-encounters-remain-low-biden-
harris-administrations-comprehensive-plan-manage#::text=Until%20and%20 
unless%20Congress%20comes,in%20migration%20at%20our%20border (accessed 
October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Costs of Illegal Immigration in 2023

    Legal immigration is the tradition and lifeblood of the United 
States, and most Americans support a reasonable amount of it annually. 
Illegal immigration has always occurred along with legal, but in the 
past two years, it has increased to levels that are both unprecedented 
and deleterious to the country as a whole.

    I submit that there are five major ways in which illegal 
immigration hurts America.

    Equity and Sovereignty. Allowing most illegal border crossers to 
enter and remain in the country, often on the basis of parole or before 
they are even placed into removal proceedings, undermines both the rule 
of law and our national sovereignty. Millions of foreign nationals, 
relatives of U.S. citizens, prospective investors, and skilled workers 
wait patiently in the orderly if slow process Congress has legislated 
and funded. To see millions of people--in just a few years--short-
circuit this process and enjoy all the advantages of being a legal 
immigrant without any fee, wait, background check, or legal right sends 
the message abroad that breaking our laws will be rewarded. U.S. 
citizenship must have a value over non-citizenship, or the bonds of 
duty between government and governed will wither.
    The abuse of parole by the Biden Administration also tests the 
separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress 
the prerogative to decide who enters the country and on what terms. 
Immigration must be in the national interest, not just the political 
interest of each successive presidential Administration.

    Economic. Open borders are fundamentally incompatible with a modern 
welfare state. One credible estimate is that illegal immigration costs 
$150 billion a year. The societal costs are difficult to calculate.

    Education. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal 
alien families with children that have been allowed into the U.S. since 
January 2021, over 400,000 unaccompanied alien children (UACs) have 
also been released into the custody of family, guardians, or 
``sponsors.'' Most will be attending school at taxpayer expense. Public 
schools are required to provide a free education to children who are 
residing in the United States illegally.\10\ There were around 4.8 
million public school students in 2020, 6.5 percent of whom were either 
illegal aliens or the children of illegal aliens. Overall, federal and 
state funding for these children is estimated to cost around $78 
billion annually.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), https://
supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/457/202/ (accessed October 16, 
2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In addition, 5.1 million, or 10 percent, of all students in public 
schools have limited English proficiency (LEP). Because the federal 
government provides 7.9 percent of total public-school funding but only 
1 percent of the cost for LEP students, the additional cost of 
specialist teachers for LEP falls on states and localities.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ Federation for American Immigration Reform, ``The Elephant in 
the Classroom: Mass Immigration Imposing Colossal Cost and Challenges 
on Public Education,'' Research Report, September 2022, https://
www.fairus.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/FAIR%20Education%20Report 
%20Sept%202022_1.pdf (accessed October 16, 2023).

    Crime. In the past two and a half years, the United States has 
allowed millions of people to enter the country who tend to be younger, 
more male, and more uneducated than the national population as a whole. 
Because many of those caught and released at the border do not provide 
identification documents to DHS when they are processed into the 
country, we have no way to know whether they have criminal records in 
their home countries or countries they have lived in or passed through 
on the way to our border. Even if inadmissible aliens do provide valid 
identification, DHS does not have access to the criminal records of 
most of these countries--assuming, of course, that such records exist 
in the first place. Thus, we have no real criminal vetting on any 
released illegal immigrant unless he or she has a record in the United 
States.
    Based on per-country estimates of criminal activity per given 
population, we are probably letting in dozens of thieves,\12\ a few 
murderers and rapists,\13\ and a dozen with suspected terrorist links 
\14\ every month along with the majority who are simply economic 
migrants looking to improve their lot. We find out sooner or later, as 
criminals tend to reoffend. A significant amount of crime is committed 
by a fairly small percentage of the population,\15\ often 
geographically concentrated in areas of our large cities. As Rafael 
Mangual writes, ``the vast majority of American prisoners are violent, 
chronic offenders.'' \16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ USA Facts, ``Property Crime Rate (per 100,000 Persons),'' 
https://usafacts.org/data/topics/security-safety/crime-and-justice/
crime-and-police/property-crime-rate-per-100000-persons/ (accessed 
October 16, 2023).
    \13\ Wisevoter, ``Crime Rate by Country,'' https://wisevoter.com/
country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country/ (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \14\ Julia Ainsley, ``Number of people on terrorist watchlist 
stopped at southern U.S. border has risen,'' NBC News, September 14, 
2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/number-people-
terror-watchlist-stopped-mexico-us-border-risen-rcna105095 (accessed 
October 16, 2023).
    \15\ Rafael A. Mangual, Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for 
Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts the Most (New 
York: Center Street/Hachette, 2022).
    \16\ Ibid., p. 12.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Mass release at the border results in preventable crimes. Secretary 
Mayorkas's instructions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to limit 
interior enforcement \17\ has significantly reduced arrest, detention, 
and deportation levels from prior years. There are more than 400,000 
convicted illegal alien criminals free in our communities. The Biden 
Administration's annual target for deporting them is under 30,000.\18\ 
President Biden thus asks Americans--not their home countries--to run 
the risks posed by recidivist foreign criminals. The steady stream of 
arrests by local and federal authorities of recidivist foreign 
criminals, often previously deported once or more than once, makes it 
clear: The ease with which aliens can cross the border undetected makes 
our entire country less safe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\ Memorandum from Alejadro N. Mayorkas, Secretary, U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security, to Tae D. Johnson, Acting Director, 
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al., ``Subject: Guidelines 
for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law,'' September 30, 2021, 
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/guidelines-civilimmigrationlaw.pdf 
(accessed October 16, 2023).
    \18\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement Budget Overview Fiscal Year 2024, Congressional 
Justification, p. 161, https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/
U.S%20IMMIGRATION%20AND%20CUSTOMS%20ENFORCEMENT_Remediated. pdf 
(accessed October 16, 2023).

    Health Care. Total federal medical expenditures related to illegal 
aliens are estimated at $23 billion this year. That is a combination of 
uncompensated federal hospital expenditures, Medicaid births, Medicaid 
fraud, and Medicaid for U.S.-born children of illegal aliens. The 
Medicaid costs for emergency medical services for illegal aliens went 
from roughly $3 billion in FY 2020 to over $7 billion in FY 2021.\19\ 
States like Illinois and New York that have large illegal populations 
have attempted to provide Medicaid for illegal alien seniors, causing 
their costs to balloon beyond initial estimates.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ ``Causes, Costs, and Consequences: Why Secretary Mayorkas Must 
be Investigated for His Border Crisis,'' Committee on Homeland 
Security, Majority Report, June 14, 2023, https://homeland.house.gov/
wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ CHSPreliminaryReport.pdf (accessed October 
16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cost by State and City

    The border cities are hit by wave after wave of illegal immigrants 
released when DHS capacity is overwhelmed. In El Paso, Texas, twice in 
the past year, hundreds of released aliens have slept in the streets 
due to full shelters. Although the border bears the brunt of the 
initial crossings, the long-term costs mostly move further north.
    In Chicago, there were over 400 illegal immigrants sleeping at 
O'Hare Airport as of early October. The city had received 10,000 
migrants to add to its own homeless population, overwhelming shelter 
capacity. Chicago has spent over $250 million this year to support 
illegal immigrants. City residents have complained about the use of 
schools as migrant shelters and about the disruptive and criminal 
behavior of some of the illegal aliens housed by the city.\20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\ Kristine Parks, ``Chicago residents sound off on illegal 
immigrants in neighborhood: `They disrespect us, rob us, harass us,' '' 
Fox News, July 28, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/media/chicago-
residents-sound-off-illegal-immigrants-neighborhood-disrespect-rob-
harass (accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    New York City receives hundreds of illegal alien arrivals a week, 
adding to at least 120,000 who have arrived in the past two years. New 
York will spend more than $5 billion housing illegal aliens in FY 2023, 
equaling the annual budget of the Fire, Parks, and Sanitation 
Departments combined. Mayor Adams has rented hundreds of hotels and 
opened dozens of emergency facilities from churches to parking lots to 
house illegal aliens.\21\ He has tried to pay private homeowners to 
house them,\22\ has handed out flyers at the border to dissuade them 
from coming, and in October went to visit countries in Latin America to 
try to stem the flow, but to no avail. With the federal government 
releasing nearly every illegal alien at the border as long as he or she 
is part of a family unit, and with New York's provision of free health 
care, food, schools, legal counsel, and even bicycles, there is no 
conceivable end to New York's liability without deliberate policy 
changes from the White House.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ Carl Campanile, ``Mayor Eric Adams eyes Aqueduct Racetrack, 
Creedmoor Center for new NYC migrant tent cities,'' New York Post, July 
16, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/07/16/eric-adams-eyes-aqueduct-
racetrack-creedmoor-center-for-new-nyc-migrant-tent-cities/ (accessed 
October 16, 2023).
    \22\ Haley Brown, Bernadette Hogan, and Emily Crane, ``Adams floats 
idea of New Yorkers housing migrants in `private residences,' '' New 
York Post, June 5, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/06/05/adams-wants-new-
yorkers-to-house-migrants-in-private-residences/ (accessed October 16, 
2023).
    \23\ Lionel Shriver, ``The problem with hotels for migrants,'' The 
Spectator World, August 1, 2023, https://thespectator.com/topic/
problem-hotels-migrants-new-york-britain/ (accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Washington, D.C.'s mayor has complained that the city's shelters 
for migrant families are full.\24\ By September, the city had already 
spent $55.8 million to house illegal immigrants in 2023, not including 
costs of education and health care. In New Jersey, the Biden 
Administration proposed sending illegal aliens from New York to 
Atlantic City International Airport.\25\ In Massachusetts, the governor 
has deployed over 2,000 members of the National Guard to help process 
arriving illegal immigrants and help them apply for work permits. 
Massachusetts is spending $45 million a month to shelter illegal 
immigrants in hotels and, like New York, has asked local people to 
house them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ Hector Alejandro Arzate, ``D.C. Has Reached Hotel Capacity for 
Newly Arrived Migrants,'' WAMU DCist, May 3, 2023, https://dcist.com/
story/23/05/03/dc-migrants-hotel-capacity/ (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \25\ Jake Smith, `` `Wild West': Dem Gov Sounds Alarm Over Massive 
Influx Of Illegal Migrants,'' Daily Caller, September 1, 2023, https://
dailycaller.com/2023/09/01/new-jersey-illegal-migrants-phil-murphy/ 
(accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Environmental Costs

    A year ago, I visited Yuma, Arizona, to see for myself how easy it 
was for foreign nationals to cross illegally into the United States on 
foot. I spoke to local Americans, including farmers and ranchers, about 
the impact of large numbers of these people on their land. In the early 
months of the Biden Administration, illegal immigrants were walking 
through and camping in agricultural fields in Yuma, which produces 90 
percent of U.S. salad and leafy greens from November to April. Because 
of strict food safety regulations, each human trace requires farmers to 
destroy all the crops in a given radius from any perceived human 
contamination, from mere footprints to feces and menstrual pads, 
causing millions of dollars in uninsured losses.
    In March, I visited a gap in the unfinished border wall near the 
Morelos Dam in Yuma. At about 20 yards wide, it was supposed to be a 
vehicle gate when finished. President Biden ordered all work on the 
wall to stop shortly after taking office. Ever since, the Morelos Gap 
has been one of the most popular places for foreigners to enter the 
U.S. illegally on foot. It is one of many places in Arizona where the 
border is, for most intents and purposes, wide open. People of unknown 
identity from anywhere in the world can simply walk up and come in. 
Under Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, the illegal arrivals are 
met by the Border Patrol or whatever DHS elements are available and 
channeled into a system that is designed to get them into the interior 
of the United States as fast as possible. Diverting DHS staff, 
including Border Patrol, from regular duty to providing administrative 
and social services leaves the border less guarded than usual, allowing 
even more illegal drugs, people, and goods into the country.
    I visited the Morelos Gap during the day and again at 3:00 a.m. 
During the day, I saw clear signs of mass migration. In a few minutes 
looking in the sand, I gleaned coins from Mexico, Peru, and the 
Republic of Georgia. I picked up a passport from Cuba, debit cards from 
Mexico and Turkey, several Peruvian national identity cards, a Mexican 
refugee card belonging to an Ecuadorian, and a Polish bank card 
belonging to an Indian. Worldwide awareness of our open border, spread 
by family, friends, and alien smuggling criminals using social media, 
is the real ``root cause'' of the mass rush to the border since January 
2021 according to journalists who have spoken with prospective illegal 
immigrants to the U.S. from many countries along the Panama-Mexico 
route.\26\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \26\ Todd Bensman, Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest 
Border Crisis in U.S. History (Nashville: Bombardier Books, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    At 3:00 a.m., I witnessed more than 100 people walking or running 
through the Gap to join a long line to be ``processed.'' Border Patrol 
took their photos, starting the process that in most cases would have 
ended with their release into the U.S. interior a few days later. At 
one time or another, I have learned and spoken French, Slovak, Hindi, 
and Spanish in descending order of ability. That night, I spoke to 
people from Cameroon, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, 
Georgia, India, and Russia. When asked, the people in line told me they 
were here to look for work and opportunity. As a former consular 
officer who has interviewed thousands of visa applicants, it was 
surreal to see the same type of aspiring economic immigrants I had 
interviewed (and usually denied visas to) in embassies overseas now 
lining up for easier entry into the U.S. They get in with no 
application, no fee, no criminal background check, and none of the 
other inconveniences of having to qualify for a visa as our law 
requires before asking to be admitted into the United States.
    After Yuma, I rode along with a Pinal County, Arizona, police 
officer in an area a few hours to the east. He showed us many spots 
where smugglers hide out with drugs and illegal migrants, waiting for 
their ride after trekking through the desert from the border. Illegal 
immigrants discard piles of carpet slippers (to hide footprints), 
backpacks, and plastic water jugs, thousands of which litter the 
fragile desert landscape. Those surrendering to Border Patrol are then 
placed in federally funded housing with sanitary facilities, but those 
attempting to evade detection on entry--informally called 
``gotaways''--defecate and litter all along their trail into the United 
States until being picked up by smugglers' vehicles or disappearing 
into towns and cities. Last May, a thousand or so illegal border 
crossers built a camp in California's Jacumba Hot Springs, an ``arid 
wilderness,'' while waiting for their free ride to be processed and 
released into the U.S. with a ticket to their favored destination. They 
came from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, India, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and other 
countries. The New York Times reported that the migrants cut tree 
branches to make shelters and burn as firewood.\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\ Soumya Karlamangla, ``Scenes from a Migrant Camp at 
California's Southern Border,'' The New York Times, May 19, 2023, 
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/us/migrants-title-42-jacumba-hot-
springs.html (accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies, each 
alien crossing illegally into the United States leaves behind six to 
eight pounds of trash on the U.S. side of the border. Taking into 
account the more than 7 million people who have crossed the border 
illegally in the past few years, that amounts to millions of pounds per 
year.\28\ Between 2007 and 2018, the State of Arizona collected 460,000 
pounds of trash discarded by illegal aliens along its 370-mile border 
with Mexico.\29\ As I have seen for myself in visits to Arizona, the 
Rio Grande Valley, and areas of southern Texas used by alien smugglers, 
the landscape is littered with personal belongings like backpacks, 
clothes, and documents; prescription drugs; water bottles; and other 
detritus left by illegal immigrants.\30\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ Hannah Davis, ``Leftist Hypocrisy: Failing to Criticize 
Environmental Disaster of Biden's Open Border,'' Heritage Foundation 
Commentary, June 6, 2023, https://www.heritage.org/immigration/
commentary/leftist-hypocrisy-failing-criticize-environmental-disaster-
bidens-open.
    \29\ Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, ``Arizona Border 
Trash,'' https://legacy.azdeq.gov/obep/waste.html (accessed October 16, 
2023).
    \30\ Simon Hankinson, ``I Couldn't Believe What I Saw at Biden's 
Lawless Open Border,'' The Federalist, March 31, 2023, https://
thefederalist.com/2023/03/31/i-couldnt-believe-what-i-saw-at-bidens-
lawless-open-border/ (accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The human waste and trash produced by the endless foot traffic not 
only pollutes crops, but also harms wildlife, taints water, and damages 
delicate desert environments. There are 693 miles of federal or 
tribally owned land along the U.S. border with Mexico.\31\ This 
includes ranches and farms, Indian reservations, and protected areas 
such as the Sonoran Desert National Monument, Big Bend National Park, 
and Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Mass illegal immigration 
exacerbates the environmental impact on these areas.\32\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\ Memorandum to House Committee on Natural Resources Republican 
Members from Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Republican 
Staff; Sang Yi and Meghan Holland, ``Subject: Republican Forum titled 
`The Biden Border Crisis: Environmental and Humanitarian Consequences,' 
'' May 24, 2021, https://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2021-
05-27_ oi_border_forum_memo.pdf (accessed October 16, 2023).
    \32\ Davis, ``Leftist Hypocrisy: Failing to Criticize Environmental 
Disaster of Biden's Open Border.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Federal lands are held in trust for the American people by the 
government. Almost 20 years ago, the manager of the Buenos Aires 
National Wildlife Refuge south of Tucson, Arizona, said his staff spent 
over a third of their time installing protective measures and 
mitigating damage from illegal border crossers and alien smugglers 
while ``biologists spen[t] precious time documenting and mitigating 
resource damage.'' According to the Fish and Wildlife official's 
testimony, similar damage was being done in other federal land along 
the border.\33\ Given the current mass illegal migration at the border, 
it seems unlikely that the percentage of time that Department of the 
Interior staff spend mitigating the damage to federal lands caused by 
illegal immigrants and smugglers has decreased.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ Mitch Ellis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ``The Impacts of 
Illegal Immigration on Public Lands,'' statement before the 
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Committee 
on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, June 15, 2006, 
https://fws.gov/testimony/impacts-illegal-immigration-public-lands 
(accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The millions of inadmissible aliens who have been released by DHS 
or who have been able to enter the United States illegally without 
detection over the past two years will add to the stress on our already 
depleted and stressed infrastructure: from roads to schools to 
hospitals to housing. By recklessly increasing the population in short 
periods, we can expect more urban sprawl, conversion of farmland to 
housing, and reduction of natural habitat. According to the National 
Wildlife Federation, the ``rapid consumption of land could threaten the 
survival of nearly one out of every three imperiled species in the 
United States.'' \34\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \34\ Reid Ewing and John Kostyack, Endangered by Sprawl: How 
Runaway Development Threatens America's Wildlife, National Wildlife 
Federation, Smart Growth America, and NatureServe, 2005, https://
www.nwf.org//media/PDFs/Wildlife/EndangeredbySprawl.pdf (accessed 
October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Away from the border, using federal lands to house illegal aliens 
would fly in the face of the public benefit for which the lands were 
conserved, and it would fail to solve the problem. U.S. cities from El 
Paso to Boston are paying the price of mass illegal immigration. New 
York City alone is spending more than $5 billion a year housing illegal 
aliens and, running out of space, has apparently arranged to lease 
federal land to house migrants.
    Local officials have explained the difficulties of managing this 
particular facility,\35\ but I would argue more broadly that using 
federal lands anywhere for the purpose of housing illegal immigrants 
would be a mistake. With no federal effort to control the flow from the 
south, there would be no predictable end to the period during which 
local people would be deprived of recreation areas for which they paid 
taxes. Reports from Guatemala to the Darien Gap indicate that mass 
migration facilitated by this Administration is only going to grow.\36\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \35\ Kenneth Spencer, ``Destroying America's Best Idea: Examining 
the Biden Administration's Use of National Park Service Lands for 
Migrant Camps,'' statement before the Committee on Natural Resources, 
U.S. House of Representatives, September 27, 2023, https://
naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/testimony_spencer.pdf 
(accessed October 16, 2023).
    \36\ Mary Anastasia O'Grady, ``How Colombia Abets the Migrant 
Crisis: A jungle smuggling operation could bring 500,000 aliens into 
Panama in 2023--and later into the U.S.,'' The Wall Street Journal, 
October 16, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-colombia-abets-the-
migrant-crisis-illegal-immigration-border-international-e376978 
(accessed October 16, 2023).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Absent a change in national policy, U.S. localities are going to 
have to deal with increasing flows for at least another year. They will 
ask Washington to compensate them for the costs, but there are no 
guarantees that money will be provided. This will leave cities and 
states stuck with semi-permanent encampments and no revenue for their 
maintenance.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Mr. Hankinson. I would like to now 
recognize Representative Malliotakis to introduce our next 
witness.
    Ms. Malliotakis. My pleasure. Thank you again, Mr. 
Chairman. I am fortunate to have a good friend from New York 
City who is a Republican Councilwoman from Queens.
    And to my colleagues, I would like to welcome my fellow New 
Yorker, City Councilwoman Joann Ariola, back to this Committee. 
She was here recently, where she testified regarding the use of 
Floyd Bennett Field being turned into a migrant encampment, 
which was last month, and we are happy to have her here again.
    She is a lifelong resident of Queens in the district that 
she represents. She is a committed civic leader, a wife, a 
mother, a grandmother, and she has always focused her activism 
on forging positive relationships between the residents of 
Queens and government agencies to promote high-quality 
education for students, improving the quality of life that 
residents deserve, and working with the NYPD on issues related 
to public safety.
    She is a trusted representative for the communities within 
the 32nd Council District. She is someone who has worked across 
the aisle, both with Republicans and Democrats, to get things 
done. And she is also somebody who has engaged me as a Federal 
Representative to see ways that we can work together to improve 
New York City for the better. And I would like to take an 
opportunity to welcome my good friend, Councilwoman Joann 
Ariola.
    Thank you for coming again to Washington.

 STATEMENT OF THE HON. JOANN ARIOLA, COUNCIL MEMBER, NEW YORK 
                CITY COUNCIL, NEW YORK, NEW YORK

    Ms. Ariola. Thank you, Chairman Tiffany, Ranking Member 
Neguse, and Full Committee Chairman Westerman, and, of course, 
Representative Nicole Malliotakis and the members of this 
Committee.
    ``Protection of public lands must not be a pendulum that 
swings back and forth depending on who is in office. It is not 
a partisan issue.'' These words were spoken by President Joe 
Biden just 2 years ago. In the time since they were spoken, 
however, the protection of our public lands seems to have 
become a very partisan issue.
    As a result of the grave mismanagement of the situation at 
our southern border, our cities have now become inundated with 
migrants for whom we have no room nor financial means to 
provide shelter to. In order to alleviate the situation, there 
are some in government who wish to place newcomers in our 
national parks, effectively closing those parks to the public 
and transforming them into housing compounds. This is something 
that we should all be united against.
    We should all recognize that the thought of transforming a 
place like Yosemite National Park into a sprawling tent city is 
something that should never stand. It is something that we need 
protection against, and that is the protection that comes with 
H.R. 5283. This is a protection that would not only cover 
national parks like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but it is 
one that would cover each and every national park in the 
country, as well.
    As Barack Obama once said, it is not just the iconic 
mountains and parks that we protect, it is the forests where 
generations of families have hiked and picnicked and connected 
with nature. It is the park down the street where the kids play 
after school. It is the farmland that has been in the family 
longer than anybody can remember. It is the rivers where we 
fish. It is the forest where we hunt. Those words are 
especially true today, even if that national park is seen by 
some as just an old airport in Brooklyn.
    That old airport in Brooklyn is Floyd Bennett Field, and it 
is especially important for the people of New York City, and to 
the people of my district, in particular. In a city which 
suffers from a lack of green space, Floyd Bennett Field draws, 
on average, nearly 1 million visitors each year to its meadows, 
fields, forests, and shorelines. Remote control aviation 
enthusiasts make use of the old runways. Students utilize the 
sporting fields and wait all year for field trips to the 
seasonal petting zoos and pumpkin patches. And families make 
use of the campgrounds to enjoy the thrill of gathering around 
a campfire and sleeping under the stars without ever having to 
leave the five boroughs. Fishermen dot the shorelines, 
momentarily forgetting about the stresses of their home lives 
while they hope for the next big catch. And birdwatchers patrol 
the meadows in search of rare migrant bird species.
    All of these things stand to be in jeopardy, should we 
allow Floyd Bennett Field to be transformed into a tent city 
for those crossing our southern border. Thousands of asylum 
seekers being placed in the middle of the park would mean that 
the many daily visitors who rely on this urban oasis to get a 
fleeting glimpse of the great outdoors would be unable to do 
so. Sections of the park would be completely sealed off from 
the public, converted into tents and support facilities. The 
campgrounds would be made into an administrative center for the 
new complex, the runway turned into living space, the meadows 
suddenly too busy for activity for birds to arrive.
    The list of changes would go on and on, and would radically 
alter the park as it is known and enjoyed today. That is why it 
is so vital that we act to protect this space and all other 
national parks. These places were meant to be enjoyed by all, 
not turned into temporary housing as a result of a complicated 
immigration issue thousands of miles away. And that is why I 
urge everyone to sign on to H.R. 5283, so that we can ensure 
our parks remain protected, and that whatever fallout from any 
other political issues in the future do not jeopardize the 
amazing green spaces that are loved and enjoyed by millions of 
Americans all over the country.
    Thank you, and I am willing to take any questions from the 
panel.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Ariola follows:]
    Prepared Statement of Council Member Joann Ariola, 32nd Council 
                       District, NYC City Council
                              on H.R. 5283

    ``Protection of public lands must not become a pendulum that swings 
back and forth depending on who's in office. It's not a partisan 
issue.''
    These words were spoken by President Joe Biden just two years ago. 
In the time since they were spoken, however, the protection of our 
public lands seems to have very much become a partisan issue. As a 
result of a grave mismanagement of the situation on our southern 
border, our cities have now become inundated with asylum seekers for 
whom we have no room nor financial means to provide shelter to. In 
order to alleviate this situation, there are some in government who 
wish to place newcomers in our National Parks, effectively closing 
those parks to the public and transforming them into housing compounds.
    This is something that we should all be united against. We should 
all recognize that the thought of transforming a place like Yosemite 
National Park into a sprawling tent city is something that should never 
stand. It is something that we need protections against, and that 
protection comes in the form of H.R. 5283.
    This is a protection that would not only cover national parks like 
Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but it is a one that would cover each 
and every National Park in the country as well. As Barack Obama once 
said, ``it's not just the iconic mountains and parks that we protect. 
It's the forests where generations of families have hiked and picnicked 
and connected with nature. It's the park down the street where kids 
play after school. It's the farmland that's been in the family longer 
than anybody can remember. It's the rivers where we fish, it's the 
forests where we hunt.'' Those words are especially true today--even if 
that National Park is seen by some here as ``just an old airport in 
Brooklyn.''
    That ``old airport in Brooklyn,'' Floyd Bennett Field, is an 
especially important area for the people of New York City and to the 
people of my district in particular. In a city which suffers from a 
lack of green space, Floyd Bennett Field draws on average nearly one 
million visitors each year to its meadows, fields, forests, and 
shorelines. Remote control aviation enthusiasts make use of the old 
runways, students utilize the sporting fields and wait all year for 
their field trips to the seasonal petting zoos and pumpkin patches, and 
families make use of the campgrounds to enjoy the thrill of gathering 
around a campfire and sleeping under the stars without ever having to 
leave the five boroughs. Fishermen dot the shorelines, momentarily 
forgetting about the stresses of their home lives while they hope for 
the next big catch, and birdwatchers patrol the meadows in search of 
rare migrating bird species.
    All of these things stand to be in jeopardy should we allow Floyd 
Bennett Field to be transformed into a tent city for those crossing our 
southern border. Thousands of asylum seekers being placed in the middle 
of this park would mean that the many daily visitors who rely on this 
urban oasis to get a fleeting glimpse of the great outdoors would be 
unable to do so. Sections of the park would be completely sealed off 
from the public, converted into tents and support facilities. The 
campgrounds would be made into an administrative center for the new 
complex, the runway turned into living space, the meadows suddenly too 
busy with activity for birds to arrive. The list of changes would go on 
and on, and would radically alter the park as it is known and enjoyed 
today.
    This is why it is so vital that we act to protect this space, and 
all other national parks across the country. These places were meant to 
be enjoyed by all--not turned into temporary housing as a result of a 
complicated immigration issue thousands of miles away. And that is why 
I urge everyone to sign on to H.R. 5283, so that we can ensure our 
parks remain protected, and that whatever fallout from any other 
political issues in the future does not jeopardize the amazing green 
spaces that are loved and enjoyed by millions of Americans all over the 
country.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you very much, Councilman Ariola. We 
really appreciate you coming back down to DC to testify once 
again.
    Next, we are going to recognize Members for questions, 
alternating between Majority and Minority, and first we will 
have the Chairman of the Full Committee.
    Mr. Westerman, you have 5 minutes.
    Mr. Westerman. Thank you, Mr. Tiffany. And again, thank you 
to the witnesses.
    Councilmember Ariola, just over a year ago, on October 12, 
2022, President Biden stated that national parks are 
``treasures and wonders that define the identity of us as a 
nation. They are a birthright that we pass down from generation 
to generation, and they unite us.'' In your experience, do you 
think the recent actions to establish migrant housing on 
National Park Service land in New York City has lived up to 
President Biden's ideas for national parks, and has this united 
your community in any way?
    Ms. Ariola. It is completely contrary to his statement, and 
it has not united our community. It has really divided it in 
the fact that they will no longer be able to utilize that green 
space.
    Mr. Westerman. That is my assessment, as well.
    Mr. Hankinson, as I mentioned in my opening statement, 
Federal lands are the areas that dangerous criminals and drug 
smugglers target because they know they are remote and under-
patrolled. Your testimony touched on the impact that illegal 
aliens have on the country, including increased rates of crime. 
Can you expand on the effects that dangerous criminals who 
cross into our country on Federal lands have on our society?
    Mr. Hankinson. Thank you. I would say that criminality is 
pretty evenly spread among populations. The murder rate in the 
United States is about 5 in 100,000. The population crossing 
the border illegally skews younger and more male. And we have 
no records on them. If they don't have a criminal record in the 
United States, even if they surrender to Border Patrol and they 
get fingerprinted, we have no idea of what their history is.
    And the fact is that if you get the daily CBP reports and 
ICE reports of arrests, many of these people that they are 
arresting who have committed crimes have been arrested multiple 
times and they have been deported once or more than once. And 
how do they get back in? They don't surrender at the border. 
They cross at one of the many places where it is easy not to be 
detected, and they disappear into that statistic of gotaways 
that I spoke about.
    So, these are preventable crimes. You can't prevent all 
crime, but you can certainly make a difference by making an 
attempt to patrol the border and to catch people who are trying 
to come back in.
    Mr. Westerman. Thank you.
    And Deputy Chief Heithecker, President Obama's Homeland 
Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, wrote in 2009 that 
environmental laws and designations such as wilderness areas 
that she was talking about, she said, ``Restrictions can impact 
the efficacy of Border Patrol operations and can be a hindrance 
to the maintenance of officer safety.''
    The Forest Service's own testimony cites wilderness 
restrictions as reasons why the construction of a patrol road, 
which would enhance border security and officer safety, would 
be prohibited. Does the Forest Service agree with President 
Obama's own Homeland Security Secretary that restrictive 
designations like wilderness areas along our southern border 
can hurt the efficacy of Border Patrol operations and endanger 
officers?
    Mr. Heithecker. Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman.
    I would have to defer to CBP on efficacy of how they patrol 
those borders. As you know, that is not within our mission to 
respond to that.
    Mr. Westerman. I know you mentioned the terrain would 
prevent roads. But if you look at the draft of the legislation, 
we are talking about being able to construct roads even as far 
as a mile off of the border to account for terrain. And I know 
that where there is a will, there is a way you can build a 
road. We have built a lot of roads in some very treacherous 
terrain around the country. But if you don't have access, you 
are just having an open area with no way to enforce the laws 
that we have.
    Mr. Hankinson, Chairman Tiffany mentioned in his statement 
the amount of fentanyl that is illegally flowing into the 
country, an astonishing 25,500 pounds, that is what we 
confiscated this last year. Under the Biden administration, we 
have seen record increases in fentanyl seizures. In your 
opinion, will we be able to stop the flow of fentanyl into this 
country if we don't secure our southern border?
    Mr. Hankinson. No. And I wouldn't suggest that we could 
ever stop 100 percent of the flow of contraband and drugs into 
the country, but we could make a tremendous improvement on the 
situation now, which is that not only are drugs being stopped 
at ports of entry, but they are going around through 
individuals with backpacks right along the border, where it is 
easy to cross. It is a percentages question, and I don't 
believe we could do a whole lot worse than we are doing now.
    Mr. Westerman. Yes, and I actually was down there and saw 
migrants come across with three backpacks full of drugs, and 
the Border Patrol caught them. They dropped the drugs, and two 
of them made it back across before they could arrest them. And 
it happens every day. Every hour, it is happening there.
    I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Mr. Westerman. Next, Mrs. Peltola, 
you have 5 minutes for questioning.
    Mrs. Peltola. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning.
    This really is a serious issue, everybody in this room 
knows it. The viewing audience knows this. This issue did not 
invent itself in 2020. These immigration issues that we have 
with South America and south of our border have been going on 
since the 1980s, policies enacted in the 1980s or acted upon by 
the administrations of that time, and it has only gotten worse.
    But aside from larger philosophical discussions on policy, 
I just want to ask Mr. Heithecker if he could elaborate a 
little bit on how this proposal pencils out in terms of both 
budget and timelines.
    My understanding from your testimony is that the roads will 
cost $40 to $60 million. The estimated yearly maintenance costs 
would be about a quarter of $1 million a year. And just 
recognizing that the major maintenance issues and deferred road 
maintenance issues that your Department has now totals $7.66 
billion. And I am sure the meter is still running with 
inflation costs and all of that, and I believe that that $7.66 
billion, already kind of piled-up need, pent-up need, is about 
58 percent of your agency's entire deferred maintenance 
inventory. Can you explain that or elaborate on that, please?
    Mr. Heithecker. Yes. Are you specifically asking about the 
percentage of our deferred maintenance budget that is----
    Mrs. Peltola. Well, yes, and just the incongruency here of, 
this is an important issue, but in other committees there is 
talk about making cuts to your agency and having a stagnant 
budget because of continuing resolutions and inflation being 
the thief in the night. All of these things, and how it just 
doesn't pencil out.
    Mr. Heithecker. Thank you for the clarification. As I 
mentioned in my opening statement, we take these border 
management issues very seriously. We obviously have problems 
that we need to deal with.
    Currently, for road maintenance, we have 380,000 miles of 
road that we have to maintain. We are funded at about 20 
percent of the level that we need to maintain those roads. So, 
adding additional roads just adds to that deficit across the 
board nationally.
    Mrs. Peltola. Would the Forest Service be able to meet the 
requirements of ensuring border access and protection on 
Federal lands and maintaining the existing inventory without an 
additional appropriation?
    And again, we all know this is not an appropriations 
committee, but if you could just speak to that.
    Mr. Heithecker. Yes. As I mentioned, we only have about 20 
percent of the budget necessary to maintain the roads that we 
currently have. So, we would just be adding to that additional 
maintenance backlog.
    Mrs. Peltola. And could you talk about the timeline that is 
specified in the bill, and the actuality of meeting that?
    Mr. Heithecker. As I mentioned, with the current resources 
we have that timeline would be a challenge. We have to go 
through NEPA, we have to go through consultation with federally 
recognized tribes. And depending on the level of analysis and 
the impacts that we recognize, we could be looking at anywhere 
from 4 to 7 years to try to get that road analysis and NEPA 
completed.
    Mrs. Peltola. OK. There have been a couple of comments 
about how the Secretary of the Interior isn't here, and I just 
wondered if she had confirmed that she accepted the invitation 
to appear here, or if there might have been a scheduling 
conflict.
    Mr. Tiffany. All we know is that she is not here, and no 
representative from Interior is here. I am not sure how many 
employees there are in the Department of the Interior, but I 
suspect they should be able to find someone that would attend a 
hearing, especially an important hearing like this.
    Mrs. Peltola. I am glad that the Forest Service is here, 
and you are under the purview of the Department of the 
Interior. So, I mean, I guess that is a good de facto person.
    And I guess I am not always in favor of the actions taken 
or not taken by the Department of the Interior or the 
Secretary, but she is still a member of the Administration's 
Cabinet, and I just think it is good of us to maybe give her 
some grace in her absence. Thank you.
    She might be in Alaska. There is a huge convention going on 
up in Alaska right now, so I know she will be there on Sunday, 
so it could just be that she is on the other side of the 
country.
    Mr. Tiffany. Sure. Part of the message we received also is 
that they have appeared before this Committee enough.
    Mrs. Peltola. And maybe, and I am just guessing here, but 
it might also be the treatment when she does appear here, the 
hollering, name calling, and things like that.
    Mr. Tiffany. First of all, if it is before this 
Subcommittee, no one is hollering----
    Mrs. Peltola. Yes, good point, thank you.
    Mr. Tiffany. No one is name-calling. Now, are there tough 
questions? No doubt about it. But there is a lot to be answered 
for, and I think that is the case here also.
    Mrs. Peltola. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I digress in 
these comments, but I thought they were worthy.
    Mr. Tiffany. The gentlelady yields?
    Mrs. Peltola. Thank you. I do yield.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you. I would like to recognize the 
gentleman from Idaho for 5 minutes, Mr. Fulcher.
    Mr. Fulcher. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Ariola, thank you for the testimony, and welcome to the 
fight on the challenge to secure the southern border. New York 
has some geography between it and the southern border, and so 
does my home state of Idaho. And like you, we are impacted, as 
well.
    And in my state, our governor recently designated a 
National Fentanyl Awareness Day, as opioid-related deaths have 
nearly doubled in Idaho over the last decade. In 2022, there 
were 358 overdose deaths, and 50 percent of those were from 
fentanyl. From July to August of this year, U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection seized more than 25,500 pounds of fentanyl, 
compared with 12,800 pounds over the same period in 2022. And 
just as a reminder, that is in Idaho. It is a fair distance 
from the southern border, but nevertheless, it is impacting us, 
as well. I can only imagine the drastic impact on states closer 
in proximity. I have been to the southern border, as well, and 
this is just a drastic situation that we have to do something 
about.
    I do have a question for Mr. Hankinson.
    In your testimony, you pointed out five major ways in which 
illegal immigration hurts America. I would just want to ask, 
with your research, and given the negative effects of fentanyl, 
like in my state, what are some of the steps that we can take 
to try to deal with that crisis?
    Mr. Hankinson. Well, one thing we could do is put the 
Border Patrol back on the border. And one of the reasons they 
are not there in large numbers is because they are being pulled 
off to do processing of illegal, inadmissible aliens who are 
then being moved into the rest of the country. So, we need to 
address that flow.
    We know that about 85 percent of them are not going to 
qualify for asylum because they are here looking for a job, 
which you can't blame them for doing, but you can certainly ask 
them to wait their asylum process in Mexico, under the Migrant 
Protection Protocols, or in a country where they have 
previously gained asylum or protection, right the way down 
through South America. And when we dismantled that, and we 
accepted that every person asking to get in would be dealt with 
after they already were in the United States, we had to divert 
resources off the border.
    So, one thing that could be done, a concrete thing, is to 
reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols and safe third 
country agreements and ways in which to process people outside 
the United States so that Border Patrol can get back to 
patrolling the border.
    Mr. Fulcher. Thank you for that. And I shared with you, Mr. 
Hankinson, just a little snippet about some of the impacts we 
have seen in Idaho. And I know you have looked into this in 
depth. Are we unique, or do you see similar ramifications in 
other local communities that have impacted other local 
communities?
    Mr. Hankinson. Well, New York is obviously the biggest 
example, but across our big cities--Washington, DC, there are 
over 1,000 people in Washington, DC shelters that are 
displacing people from Washington. There are tents all over 
this town. We have all seen them, including outside my 
apartment.
    There are 400 people living in Chicago Airport's bus 
terminal who are inadmissible aliens who have been let into the 
country, presumably to claim asylum at some point. Chicago is 
scrambling to figure out what to do with them all.
    El Paso has seen people released into its streets, sleeping 
on the sidewalks more than, I think, two or three times since 
this crisis started.
    And then I was hearing yesterday that in Boise there is a 
homeless population down by some sensitive areas in the river 
that used to be recreational grounds that everybody could 
enjoy. And the homeless populations all over the country are 
being exacerbated enormously by indigent illegal immigrants 
coming to the country who have to be taken care of by local 
communities.
    Mr. Fulcher. Thank you for that.
    Mr. Chairman, I do have more questions, but I am going to 
use the rest of my time just for a statement because Mr. 
Hankinson kind of covered a portion of the next question that I 
had.
    This is a result of this Administration's policy. No more, 
no less. Not only is it critically unfair to Americans, this is 
horrifically bad for the immigrants. We legally--legally--
immigrate more than every other nation in the world combined on 
an annual basis. To take the border and open it up--I would 
argue absolutely for political purposes--is a travesty.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you to the gentleman from Idaho, and now 
I will take 5 minutes for questions.
    I just want to piggyback on what Mr. Fulcher just talked 
about, because it was said earlier that this was not invented, 
this issue was not invented in 2020. That is correct. But it 
has been put on overdrive here in America.
    And yesterday, on the Floor of the House, I think 
Representative Cole said it very well, always in his measured 
tones. When he talked about Jeh Johnson, who was the Secretary 
during the Biden administration, he defined a crisis as 1,000 
people a day coming across the southern border illegally. There 
are now 10,000 a day.
    This is a direct result of January 20, 2021, when President 
Biden announced that there will be open borders to the world. 
And everyone heard that, and all the maladies that come with 
that are happening, including trashing our Federal lands down 
on the southern border, and in New York City and many other 
places. I mean, it is a direct result of one person's actions 
and one administration's actions.
    Mr. Heithecker, why are you here today?
    Mr. Heithecker. Well, you asked me to be here. That is one 
reason, and to represent the stance that the U.S. Forest 
Service has.
    Mr. Tiffany. To testify on behalf of the Forest Service, 
right?
    Mr. Heithecker. Absolutely.
    Mr. Tiffany. And the Forest Service is testifying today 
because you received an invitation from this Subcommittee to be 
here today over 2 weeks ago, which you complied with. Correct?
    Mr. Heithecker. Correct.
    Mr. Tiffany. Can you think of any reason why the Forest 
Service was able to show up and testify before us today when 
your colleagues at the Department of the Interior were unable 
to do so?
    Mr. Heithecker. I can't speak to why the Park Service isn't 
here, but I am happy to be here and happy to answer your 
questions.
    Mr. Tiffany. Is the U.S. Forest Service housing illegal 
immigrants?
    You said something about funds for housing that are being 
allocated from the Forest Service. Is the Forest Service using 
funds to house illegal immigrants?
    Mr. Heithecker. No, we are not.
    Mr. Tiffany. Not even indirectly?
    Mr. Heithecker. No.
    Mr. Tiffany. You said that some of this bill that we 
introduced, the TRASHED Act, is already provided under the law, 
that it is unnecessary, right?
    Mr. Heithecker. [No response.]
    Mr. Tiffany. So, why isn't it being enforced?
    Mr. Heithecker. If you look at our numbers of law 
enforcement, we have roughly 400, a little over 400 law 
enforcement officers in the field. That is over 193 million 
acres. You can do the math on the challenges there that they 
have in patrolling those lands. It is difficult.
    Mr. Tiffany. Does the Forest Service ever work with the 
Department of Homeland Security in any way?
    Mr. Heithecker. We work very closely with Homeland 
Security, as well as Customs and Border Protection.
    Mr. Tiffany. You say it is already provided under the law. 
Shouldn't they be enforcing this if you can't?
    Mr. Heithecker. Are you asking should Customs and Border 
Protection be providing protection over the environmental laws?
    Mr. Tiffany. Should they be enforcing the law to not allow 
people to be able to come across the southern border illegally 
on Federal lands that are under your jurisdiction?
    Mr. Heithecker. Yes, they currently do, and that is part of 
an agreement that we have had in place for over 15 years now 
with Customs and Border Protection.
    Mr. Tiffany. So, they have control of the southern border?
    Mr. Heithecker. They have jurisdiction to implement their 
laws that they follow on the southern border on National Forest 
System lands, yes.
    Mr. Tiffany. Because you are not saying what Secretary 
Mayorkas said, that yes, we have control of the southern border 
when the head of the Border Patrol said this year we no longer 
have operational control of the southern border. You wouldn't 
be making the same statement as Secretary Mayorkas, would you?
    Mr. Heithecker. If I understand what you are asking 
correctly, no. We have acknowledged that there is a huge and 
significant border management issue down there.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you.
    Ms. Ariola, how have things changed since the last time you 
were here? How long ago was that, was that 2 months ago?
    Ms. Ariola. It was less. It was just a few weeks ago.
    Mr. Tiffany. Just a few weeks ago. Have things changed for 
the better in New York City?
    Ms. Ariola. They have not. Our numbers have risen to 
119,600 that we have in our care, and over 126,000 total if you 
count the gotaways.
    Mr. Tiffany. So, the situation is getting worse in New York 
City.
    Ms. Ariola. It is getting worse every day. We are getting 
anywhere from 800 to 1,000 migrants per week.
    Mr. Tiffany. There was a representative from New York who 
said just last week that we should allow Palestinian refugees 
into America and, in particular, they would be welcomed in New 
York City. Do you think that is a good idea to do that at this 
time?
    Ms. Ariola. I do not. There is no more room in New York 
City.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you. My time is up here.
    I really appreciate that all of you would share your 
testimony. We have no other Members that are here that want to 
question, so thank you very much for your valuable testimony, 
and Members for your questions.
    Members of the Subcommittee may have some additional 
questions for our witnesses today, and we will ask that they 
respond to these in writing. Under Committee Rule 3, members of 
the Subcommittee must submit questions to the Subcommittee 
Clerk by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 24, 2023. The hearing 
record will be held open for 10 business days for those 
responses, if you choose to do them.
    If there is no further business, without objection, the 
Subcommittee on Federal Lands stands adjourned.

    [Whereupon, at 11:16 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

            [ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD]

    Prepared Statement of the Hon. David Trone, a Representative in 
                  Congress from the State of Maryland
                              on H.R. 1727

    Thank you, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Westerman and 
Ranking Member Grijalva, as well as Federal Lands Subcommittee Chairman 
Tiffany and Ranking Member Neguse, for bringing forth my bill, H.R. 
1727, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Commission 
Extension Act, to be heard by the subcommittee. I was proud to 
introduce this bipartisan measure to ensure the C&O Canal National 
Historical Park Commission continues its critical role of preserving 
and supporting the C&O Canal.

    The C&O Canal National Historical Park is 184.5 miles long and 
covers 20,000 acres winding north and west along the Potomac River from 
the heart of Washington D.C. to Cumberland, MD. The watered canal, 
contiguous towpath, hundreds of historic structures, and pre-Civil War-
era towns all tell the story of how the C&O Canal once served as a 
crucial commercial link while highlighting the canal's lasting 
significance to the community. The park also preserves pristine views 
of the Potomac River.

    First established in 1971, the Advisory Commission operates at a 
nominal cost, serving in a purely advisory role to the National Park 
Service. Every 10 years, Congress must reauthorize the Advisory 
Commission. The Commission has been reauthorized three times with 
overwhelming congressional support as the body plays a valuable role. I 
urge the subcommittee's support for H.R. 1727 and the safekeeping of 
the canal for years to come.

                                 [all]