[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
OVERSIGHT OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND
IMMIGRATION SERVICES
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION INTEGRITY,
SECURITY, AND ENFORCEMENT
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2024
__________
Serial No. 118-102
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-677 WASHINGTON : 2025
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Chair
DARRELL ISSA, California JERROLD NADLER, New York, Ranking
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona Member
TOM McCLINTOCK, California ZOE LOFGREN, California
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
CHIP ROY, Texas Georgia
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina ERIC SWALWELL, California
VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana TED LIEU, California
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon J. LUIS CORREA, California
BEN CLINE, Virginia MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania
KELLY ARMSTRONG, North Dakota JOE NEGUSE, Colorado
LANCE GOODEN, Texas LUCY McBATH, Georgia
JEFF VAN DREW, New Jersey MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
TROY NEHLS, Texas VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
BARRY MOORE, Alabama DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
KEVIN KILEY, California CORI BUSH, Missouri
HARRIET HAGEMAN, Wyoming GLENN IVEY, Maryland
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas BECCA BALINT, Vermont
LAUREL LEE, Florida JESUS G. ``CHUY'' GARCIA, Illinois
WESLEY HUNT, Texas ERICA LEE CARTER, Texas
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina
MICHAEL RULLI, Ohio
Vacancy
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION INTEGRITY, SECURITY,
AND ENFORCEMENT
TOM McCLINTOCK, California, Chair
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington,
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin Ranking Member
CHIP ROY, Texas ZOE LOFGREN, California
VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana J. LUIS CORREA, California
JEFF VAN DREW, New Jersey VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
TROY NEHLS, Texas DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
BARRY MOORE, Alabama ERIC SWALWELL, California
WESLEY HUNT, Texas JESUS G. ``CHUY'' GARCIA, Illinois
MICHAEL RULLI, Ohio Vacancy
CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Majority Staff Director
AARON HILLER, Minority Staff Director & Chief of Staff
C O N T E N T S
----------
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
The Honorable Tom McClintock, Chair of the Subcommittee on
Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement from the State
of California.................................................. 1
The Honorable Pramila Jayapal, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee
on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement from the
State of Washington............................................ 3
WITNESS
The Hon. Ur M. Jaddou, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Oral Testimony................................................. 5
Prepared Testimony............................................. 8
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC. SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
All materials submitted for the record by the Subcommittee on
Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement are listed
below.......................................................... 37
An article entitled, ``Fraud plagues Biden `parole' program:
Michelle Obama's passport used; dead people named sponsors,''
Sept. 9, 2024, The Washington Times, submitted by the Honorable
Andy Biggs, a Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration
Integrity, Security, and Enforcement from the State of Arizona,
for the record
QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES FOR THE RECORD
Questions to the Hon. Ur M. Jaddou, Director, U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
submitted by the Honorable Jeff Van Drew, a Member of the
Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and
Enforcement from the State of New Jersey, for the record
No response at the time of publication
OVERSIGHT OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES
----------
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security,
and Enforcement
Committee on the Judiciary
Washington, DC
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in
Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Hon. Tom
McClintock [Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives McClintock, Jordan, Biggs,
Tiffany, Van Drew, Nehls, Hunt, Jayapal, Lofgren, Correa, Ross,
Swalwell, and Garcia.
Mr. McClintock. The Immigration Subcommittee of the House
Judiciary Committee will come to order.
Today the Subcommittee meets to conduct oversight into the
administration of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services. The USCIS is responsible for maintaining the
integrity of the immigration adjudication process, including
for naturalization, employment authorization, employment-based
green cards, and certain nonimmigrant visas.
The USCIS also runs E-Verify, which allows employers to
determine the work eligibility of their employees and the
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, SAVE, Program,
which allows States and other jurisdictions to verify the
immigration status of foreign nationals for purposes of
receiving public benefits.
We welcome the USCIS Director Ur Jaddou to answer questions
about her conduct as head of this agency.
During the Biden Presidency, America has suffered an
illegal mass migration on a scale never seen in recorded
history. The 7.6 million foreign nationals have been allowed--
indeed, many would say encouraged--to illegally enter our
country, overwhelming our social services, our public schools,
our public hospitals, and inflicting all manner of crimes on
our people.
The USCIS, under its current Director, has played a central
role in this calamity by abusing its authority and twisting the
law to permit millions of illegal aliens to claim special
privileges not available to legal immigrants or American
citizens.
From the first day of Biden's Presidency, USCIS rescinded
the Trump policies that protected the integrity of our
immigration system. It adopted policies. It transformed
temporary programs into de facto permanent residency programs
and helped lock in decades-old decisions that had obviously
been contradicted by events. For example, temporary status for
victims of a hurricane in Honduras that occurred 20 years ago.
Most infamously, they took a parole authority that required
case-by-case review of individual exigent circumstances to
provide temporary entry to the United States and transformed it
into a fraud-ridden mass admission of more than a half a
million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, up to
1,000 every day.
The administration's illegal parole program purports to
require a sponsor to take personal responsibility for
supporting such parolees during their stay in the United
States, but USCIS has perverted this requirement by accepting
sponsors who receive welfare benefits themselves, who have
submitted fraudulent documents, or who are subject to
deportation themselves.
No attempt is made to determine criminal history or to
check the veracity of sponsors' claims. In some cases, sponsors
advertise their services for a fee. Literally, one parolee can
immediately arrive in this country, receive indefinite status,
and then sign up as a sponsor for the next. This is illegal
chain migration on steroids, all made possible by an agency
willing to contort and ignore the law.
The goal of this agency and its Director is obvious and
it's undeniable: To funnel as many aliens as possible directly
into the country by flying them directly to every major city in
America. In fact, when the Committee staff asked questions
about how the agency ensured sponsors fulfilled their legal
responsibilities, they told us not to worry. That's because the
goal is that the sponsor becomes irrelevant once the USCIS
grants the alien a work permit.
Now, we learn the agency intends to increase temporary work
permits from 180-540 days. If anyone wonders why real wages for
working families have declined under this administration, look
no further than the agency before us today.
Fortunately, the American people are already connecting
these dots in large enough numbers to change the direction of
our government. It shouldn't surprise us that internal USCIS
audits have revealed rampant fraud throughout the program. With
results like these, it's no wonder that the USCIS has
consistently refused to answer questions from this Committee
regarding the CHNV program. We sent the USCIS questions on
March 26, 2024, and despite numerous followups, did not get
responses until August 19th. We sent DHS additional questions
in September after a briefing on the program. Three months
later, the Committee has yet to receive answers. So, we're
going to try again today.
We'll also ask Director Jaddou to explain why the USCIS
asylum backlog has roughly quadrupled in size to 1.4 million
cases. We'd like to know why 83 percent of the affirmative
asylum cases heard by this agency last year ended up being
dismissed or administratively closed.
The USCIS should be denying or granting the majority of
cases so that the alien immigration status has certainty. We
would like to know why the USCIS Director has refused to
implement DHS Inspector General recommendations to prevent
misuse of the U Visa program, and why she seems to ignore fraud
and abuse in programs like those for VAWA self-petitioners, T
visa applicants, and special immigrant juveniles.
I suppose in one sense our Nation should be indebted to the
Director for helping to awaken a sleeping giant on November
5th, and to awaken the American people to the destructiveness
of the Democrats' open border policies. The damage they've done
is immense, but they at least have produced a backlash now that
will give us the opportunity to restore the integrity of our
borders, the force of our laws, and the welfare and safety of
our people. If successful, we will not see the likes of this
administration again.
With that, I yield to the Ranking Member for her opening
statement.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Director Jaddou, thank you very much for being here. Thank
you for your service.
We often hear the majority talk about the need for people
to enter the country legally, making it sound like the vicious
fight that they have waged against immigrants is solely about
the need to come here legally. Yet, for four years, under
Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, the Republicans did everything
possible to destroy the legal pathways that our country
desperately needs, taking away most of the ways that people had
to come legally, even to rejoin family members or to fill job
offers.
They left the agency responsible for this, U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, in shambles, needing to be entirely
rebuilt. You and the Biden Administration have done just that,
rebuild the agency.
Director Jaddou, let's review what you inherited from the
Trump Administration. In 2020, USCIS was broken. Legal
immigration slowed to a trickle. Despite a backlog of over a
million applications, many employment-based visas were going
unused. Applications for citizenship were way down and taking
over a year to process, and processing delays were rampant and
at record high levels.
The Trump Administration stripped away USCIS' service-
oriented mission and eradicated commonsense policies that
improve agency efficiency, replacing it with policies designed
to destroy the legal immigration system and make it even harder
for anyone to apply for a legal pathway.
Now, let's be clear. It is no coincidence that more people
came to the border when those legal pathways were intentionally
destroyed.
Despite claiming to be pro-legal immigration from time to
time, multiple Members of this Subcommittee have advocated for
stopping all legal immigration to the United States for a
period of time, and that's on the other side.
This would take us in completely the wrong direction.
Countries that have severely restricted immigration have paid
the price. As the baby boomer population continues to age and
retire, coupled with declining birth rates, America will
continue to need more legal immigration.
The truth is that we benefit from the contributions of
immigrants and their families in every single field of work,
whether it is in the dairy industry in Idaho or the home
healthcare industry across the country or, yes, even the
electric car industry pioneered by an immigrant named Elon
Musk, who was undocumented when he launched his company. The
U.S. needs and benefits from immigrants.
From a purely economic standpoint, immigrants helped us to
recover from the pandemic downturn and grow our economy far
more quickly than we would have otherwise.
Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office found
that immigrants will add $7 trillion--that's trillion with a
``T''--to the economy over the next 10 years, increase Federal
tax revenue by 1.2 trillion, and decrease the Federal deficit
by 900 billion.
Americans are rightly frustrated at an outdated, slow, and
unfair immigration system. We need a full reform, something
that can only be done by Congress and that Republicans time and
time again have refused to do.
The last time we tried to pass a comprehensive reform of
the immigration system in 2013, just imagine that that
legislation received 68 bipartisan votes in the U.S. Senate, 68
bipartisan votes for a comprehensive reform of the immigration
system. Yet, when it came to the House, Speaker John Boehner on
the Republican side refused to bring it to the floor for a
vote. Why? Because Republicans knew that it would pass, and
they didn't want to reform the immigration system.
It is quite convenient to have immigrants to scapegoat and
blame at every turn. America desperately needs Congress to pass
a modernization of our 30-year-old immigration laws, update
visa numbers, so that they meet the needs of today's economy
and families, and legalize the millions of undocumented
immigrants who have carried out the daily labor of our country
in the shadows for decades now.
We need to fund the agency, your agency, that makes the
legal system work. Making the immigration system work will not
only decrease pressure on the border, but it'll help America to
meet its labor needs, unite families, and keep critical tax
revenue flowing to boost our economy, as well as programs like
Social Security and Medicare.
Just think, undocumented immigrants paid $26 billion into
Social Security in 2022, a program that they are not even
eligible to receive benefits.
Director Jaddou, you and your team have spent four years
rebuilding an agency left in shambles by the Trump
Administration. Despite still largely being a fee-funded
agency, USCIS is on sound fiscal footing now and adjudicating
more applications than ever before.
Over the last two years, the agency has naturalized nearly
1.9 million people, has worked to fully vet and admit the most
refugees in 30 years, all while dealing with increased strain
and workload on its humanitarian portfolio.
Without Congressionally appropriated funding, the agency is
often forced to rob Peter to pay Paul. When resources are
shifted to focus on processing green cards or humanitarian
applications, other areas suffer. We've seen that with long
wait times to process waivers vital to keeping families
together and consistent delays in the adjudications of work
authorization and temporary protected status applications.
Stephen Miller and Donald Trump have threatened mass
deportations and a complete crackdown on legal immigration.
Elon Musk, recognizing his own journey from undocumented
immigrant to documented immigrant, has at least recognized
that, quote, ``super talented immigrants deserve additional
legal pathways.''
While he's probably only thinking of himself and the tech
sector, the reality is that we have super talented immigrants
in every sector of our economy, and they deserve the same
respect from a legal immigration system that recognizes their
contributions.
Thank you, Director, for coming today, but most important
for your tireless dedication to ensuring that America continues
to be a Nation that values and respects the contributions of
immigrants.
I yield back.
Mr. McClintock. Without objection, all other opening
statements will be included in the record. We'll now introduce
today's witness.
The Honorable Ur Jaddou is the Director of the United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a position she's
held since July 2021. Director Jaddou previously served as
Chief Counsel at USCIS from June 2014-January 2017. We'd like
to welcome our witness here today and thank her for her
appearance.
We'll begin by swearing you in. Would you please rise and
raise your right hand?
Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the
testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best
of your knowledge, information, and belief, so help you God?
Ms. Jaddou. I do.
Mr. McClintock. Let the record reflect that the witness has
answered in the affirmative. Thank you.
Please know your written testimony will be entered into the
record in its entirety. Accordingly, we'd ask that you
summarize your testimony.
Director Jaddou, you may begin.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. UR M. JADDOU
Ms. Jaddou. Good morning. Chair McClintock, Ranking Member
Jayapal, and the distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, I'm
glad to have this opportunity to discuss the work of U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Our day-to-day work centers on adjudicating applications
and requests for immigration services in a fair, accurate,
timely manner and, above all, with integrity. On a higher
level, the USCIS plays a critical role in helping our Nation
reunify U.S. citizen families, ensure a steady supply of needed
labor for U.S. employers, and implement the Nation's
humanitarian values preserved in our immigration law. It's
important work and we take that very seriously.
I want to take this moment to recognize the dedicated USCIS
workforce of more than 22,500 individuals who work to carry out
this mission every day. In my time as the Director, I've had
the privilege of meeting many of these exceptional public
servants, and hope that today's hearing will allow me to share
more of the great work they do every day on behalf of the
American people.
At the USCIS, the impact of our work is life-changing, with
each application, petition, or request for a benefit
representing an individual or a family, not just a file.
For many immigrants, the USCIS is the beginning of an
American story. These immigrants are healthcare professionals,
lawyers, members of the U.S. Armed Forces, entrepreneurs,
elected officials, and public servants. They're caretakers,
high-tech workers, and laborers, who fill critical gaps in our
workforce. Of course, they are family, friends, and neighbors.
Many of them go on to become proud Americans.
This work we do at the USCIS is more than just a public
service. My own parents immigrated from Iraq and Mexico and
instilled in me a sense of devotion to family, community, and
our great Nation. Their dedication and purpose led me to my
current role. Many in USCIS have navigated the immigration
process themselves or are second-generation Americans and bring
that experience to all they do.
I joined USCIS as the Director in August 2021. Before I
arrived, a perfect storm of policy and operational decisions,
COVID, and a severely outdated fee structure led to a fiscal
crisis at the USCIS. The results were a hiring freeze, the
termination of support contracts, the issuance of furlough
notices to 70 percent of the workforce, and as you might
imagine, very low morale. All of this led to a significant and
unprecedented backlog in adjudications. Although we're still
working to eliminate that backlog, our diligence and focus has
led to the decrease of the backlog for the first time in a
decade, two years in a row.
Despite these and many other challenges that come our way,
I have seen firsthand how resilient the USCIS workforce is.
They adapt to challenges with a creativity and dedication to
deliver on our mission.
Recovery wasn't easy. I set priorities to help USCIS get
back on track fiscally and operationally. My top three
priorities were to strengthen the fiscal health of the USCIS,
reinvigorate our workforce, and make our adjudication processes
more efficient.
With the financial support of Congress and much-needed
investments in our people, processes, and technology, we're now
positioned to better serve the Nation and ensure that the USCIS
can continue to operate effectively in the long term.
On the humanitarian front, USCIS and our partners across
government have modernized and strengthened the U.S. Refugee
Admissions Program, while continuing to reinforce the capacity
of our Asylum Officer Corps. We continue to carry out our role
implementing strategies to discourage irregular migration while
expanding the availability of safe, orderly, and lawful
pathways to the United States.
The USCIS is also implementing better ways to do business.
We're expanding online filing and improving avenues of
communication with applicants. In an increasingly digital
world, we're transforming our agency into one that is secure,
transparent, responsive, and keeping pace with online
advancements.
My goal every day has been to ensure the USCIS is able to
uphold America's promise as a Nation of welcome and possibility
with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve. This
was my commitment when I was confirmed in 2021, and it remains
my commitment today.
This Nation needs--needs--a strong and effective
immigration system and policies which reflect our values as
Americans. That policy must promote family unity, economic
growth, and the value of citizenship. It must support our
humanitarian values and demonstrate our place as a leader among
free Nations. It must promote lawful immigration and discourage
irregular migration.
My USCIS colleagues and I know this, and it shows in our
work. We stand ready to work with you to continue to bring our
immigration system into the 21st century.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jaddou follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. McClintock. Thank you for your testimony, Director.
We'll now proceed with five-minute questions from the
Members. I'll begin.
Our staff asked a series of straightforward questions to
get some basic data figures back in September. Your office has
simply stonewalled us. We informed you to be prepared to answer
those questions today so there's no excuse for further evasion
or obfuscation.
I'm going to ask you now again, how many aliens who have
entered the country pursuant to CHNV programs since October
2022 have changed their immigration status?
Ms. Jaddou. First, let me start by saying I highly value
the role that Congress plays in our oversight. I once was here.
It's an odd position to be sitting here. I appreciate--
Mr. McClintock. I appreciate that, but that's not an answer
to the question that we've been asking since September. Could
you please answer the question. How many aliens who've entered
the country pursuant to the CHNV program since October 2022
have changed their immigration status?
Ms. Jaddou. So, I understand that just before this hearing,
in preparation for this hearing, understanding the importance
of returning those responses to you, you should have received a
response to various questions that were requested in September.
Mr. McClintock. We received a response to one question. I
again repeat my question for the third and final time. How many
aliens who've entered the country pursuant to the CHNV since
October 2021 have changed their immigration status?
Ms. Jaddou. At the moment, I don't have those numbers with
me, but--
Mr. McClintock. This is outrageous.
How many aliens who've entered the country pursuant to the
CHNV since October 2022 remain CHNV parolees?
Ms. Jaddou. Again, I don't have those numbers with me
specifically.
Mr. McClintock. You were asked these questions in
September. You were told in advance of this hearing that they
would be asked again, and you were advised to have answers for
us. These are basic questions of data.
I am astonished and appalled that you would appear before
this Committee with all this advance notice and not be prepared
to answer these basic questions.
Ms. Jaddou. So, Mr. Chair, as you understand, I am the
Director of USCIS. I obviously will do my best to get back to
you.
Mr. McClintock. There's no excuse for your appearing before
this Committee unprepared to ask--or to answer questions that
you were specifically informed would be asked. This is a
dereliction of duty, among other things, and, frankly, a
contempt of this Congress.
Ms. Jaddou. Mr. Chair, with all due respect, this is a
process that you're asking about, the CHNV.
Mr. McClintock. These are basic data numbers. Again, it's
not like you're being surprised by them. You've been asked
these questions since September, and you were told they would
be specifically asked at the outset of this hearing as you
prepared to be here.
Ms. Jaddou. Yes. That's why--
Mr. McClintock. Yet, you come here completely unprepared.
Ms. Jaddou. That is exactly why we--I did my best to ensure
we could answer what I could answer. As you know--
Mr. McClintock. This is one of the saddest appearances by
an agency head that I have observed in now 16 years in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Let me ask you this. You posted a FAQ response back in
October, noting that there's no parole process under any of the
CHNV parolee processes. How many CHNV aliens have had their
parole expire and have not changed their immigration status?
Ms. Jaddou. So, again, those are figures that not only
require review of our systems at the USCIS, but this is a joint
program with CBP.
Mr. McClintock. That you've had since September and were
told it would be asked.
Let me ask again. For aliens who are not reparoled, does
their employment authorization terminate immediately on the
expiration of their parole?
Ms. Jaddou. Employment authorization was granted for the
period of parole. So, if that parole period ends, so would the
employment authorization document.
Mr. McClintock. Well, why would an alien who has no legal
means of being in the U.S. still be able to work legally in the
U.S.?
Ms. Jaddou. The employment authorization document is tied
very directly to the end period of the parole.
Mr. McClintock. What's the largest number of aliens that
one supporter has sponsored between October 2022 and present?
Ms. Jaddou. Again, another question that I tried to get
answered by today but, unfortunately, it requires more work and
not just work at the USCIS.
Mr. McClintock. Let me ask you this: What percentage of
your workforce is still working at home?
Ms. Jaddou. I don't have the answer to that, but what I can
say with regard to--
Mr. McClintock. What do you mean you can't answer that
question? That's another fundamental basic question of the
administration. How many of your employees are still working at
home?
Ms. Jaddou. I don't have that answer with me, but I can get
it for you. That is definitely--but what I can say is that the
USCIS has never been more efficient than it is today and has
never been more secure and more full of integrity than it is
today.
Mr. McClintock. Your appearance here today totally
contradicts that conclusion.
My time's concluded. I recognize the Ranking Member.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you.
Thank you again, Director Jaddou, for being here. As you
just said and as I mentioned in my opening statement, you and
the hardworking staff at the USCIS have done extraordinary work
in getting the agency back on track from what it was handed to
you as by the Trump Administration.
Somehow in Fiscal Year 2023, you completed a record number
of more than 10 million pending cases while constantly having
unexpected issues thrown your way, and you processed nearly
200,000 employment-based green card applications, which is
almost 40 percent more than normal. You ensured that none went
unused and were, therefore, wasted, as happened in the previous
administration.
So, tell me, when you began as the Director, what were some
of the biggest challenges that the agency faced? What was the
primary cause of those challenges, and what did you do to
address them?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you for the question. As you know, USCIS,
our primary responsibility is upholding and administering the
legal immigration system for the Nation. We take pride in that.
We take pride in doing it with--in timely ways, with fairness
and with integrity and security always top of mind.
So, we were so proud to take this agency from a place where
a fiscal crisis, just coming out of the 2020 fiscal crisis, and
we were able to restabilize it financially. We were able to
remove the hiring freeze that was required to recoup the money
that we needed to protect the agency and move forward. We've
invested in technology. We've invested in people. We are now
22,500 strong. Just before that, we were under 19,000. This was
no way to run a legal immigration system.
When our legal immigration system is strong, so is our
economy, so are our families who are wishing to reunite with
their spouses and children, and so are our humanitarian values.
The security and integrity we have in the legal immigration is
strong as well.
I am proud that the USCIS has achieved those over these
last four years.
Ms. Jayapal. So, you inherited an agency that was in a
fiscal hole, that had a hiring freeze, that had not enough
staff, and wasn't processing any applications, and you turned
it around substantially.
Over the past several years, the types of individuals that
have been appearing at our Southern border has shifted from
primarily immigrants from Latin America to individuals around
the globe of various ages and education levels, some with
advanced degrees.
Do you think that our outdated immigration system and the
fact that visa categories for individuals in specialty
occupations and with exceptional abilities are severely
oversubscribed contributed to that shift of what we're seeing,
who we're seeing showing up on the border, that, in short, our
legal immigration system is not working to facilitate our
ability to bring in the talent that we need?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you. That's a really important question.
Immigrants have played a vital role in our economic
recovery. They have played it in all sectors of our economy,
from the high skill to the low skill to everything in between.
We do not have effective legal immigration systems to meet the
needs of the Nation, and that has shown up in each one of our
processes at USCIS.
Ms. Jayapal. Well, it's been 30 years since most of these
things have been adjusted, so we're still working off a 30-
year-old caps in some cases and programs that haven't been
updated.
You don't set immigration policy, obviously, as Director of
the USCIS, but you certainly see the laws' real-life impact in
the cases that your agency adjudicates. Are there reforms that
you would recommend to help the USCIS better fulfill its
mandate?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes. Thank you. That's really helpful and thank
you for asking that question.
First, USCIS has been a primarily fee-funded agency since
it began. Today, it's 96-percent fee-funded. So, that leaves us
at what we can do based on what we can charge people who pay
for other benefits. That limits the work we can do, for
example, on our work at the border. We only can hire so many
asylum officers to do the work we do so well, alongside with
our partners at Customs and Border Protection. It limits us in
our humanitarian work, and it also closes off avenues for us to
grow our technology and our processes. That's the first.
Second, I would very much welcome and suggest that, we are
once and for all, make DACA recipients the Americans they
should be.
Third, our agricultural community. We need to be sure that
our food industry is strong, and many immigrants support us in
our food industry, and we need to make that clear for this
Nation.
Ms. Jayapal. Thank you, Director. I yield back, Mr. Chair.
Mr. McClintock. Mr. Biggs.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Director, thank you for being here. The CHNV program was
paused for about five weeks earlier this year because of
rampant fraud, and we have supporters that were using all kinds
of--in their applications all kinds of misinformation and
fraud. So, I just want to cover a few of these really quickly.
Do you agree that the same Social Security number was used
on at least 20 different CHNV supporter applications?
Ms. Jaddou. So, first let me start by saying--
Mr. Biggs. These are yes-or-no questions, so yes or no.
Ms. Jaddou. I just want to make clear that the role that
USCIS plays is on the supporters.
Mr. Biggs. I'm asking about supporter applications.
Ms. Jaddou. OK. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that question
then? I heard it as a parole--the parolee.
Mr. Biggs. No. The same Social Security number was used on
at least 20 different CHNV supporter applications. That's the
question I asked.
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you. Sorry.
Mr. Biggs. You're aware of that?
Ms. Jaddou. So, yes, I am very aware of--
Mr. Biggs. It has happened at least 3,200 times.
Ms. Jaddou. I don't have the exact number.
Mr. Biggs. That's according to the DHS' report.
Ms. Jaddou. OK. I don't have the--
Mr. Biggs. You don't dispute the DHS's report, do you?
Ms. Jaddou. No, I absolutely will not--I will not dispute--
Mr. Biggs. Also, the same phone number was used on at least
20 different supporter applications at least 3,300 times.
That's according to the report.
Do you agree that that report's accurate?
Ms. Jaddou. I don't have that report in front of me, but--
Mr. Biggs. I'm reading from it.
Ms. Jaddou. I won't dispute--yes. I don't have it in front
of me and I would prefer--
Mr. Biggs. So, you would dispute it?
Ms. Jaddou. No, I am not disputing. What I am saying is--
Mr. Biggs. So, you would deflect and ramble around. You
don't disagree with that number. You don't think I'm
deliberately cherry-picking a number and just saying, oh, I'm
just throwing this stuff out. I'm giving you the numbers from
the report. Do you trust me on that? Do you at least trust me
that far?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes.
Mr. Biggs. OK. So, then you agree with that number.
The same email address was used on at least 20 different
supporter applications nearly 2,000 times. Do you agree with
that?
Ms. Jaddou. Sir, if there is a situation where we have
concerns of fraud and integrity, we take action at USCIS. That
is exactly what we have done with regard to CHNV. Where we--
Mr. Biggs. OK. So, let's clarify here. I'm laying
foundation. You don't really want to admit that there's this
much rampant fraud here. You're trying to tell me that when you
find fraud, we cure it. Yet, nearly 2,000 times you had the
same email address used on 20 different supporter applications.
The same exact 184-word text response to a question on the
supporter application was used on more than 1,800 such
applications by nearly 190 different CHNV supporters. More than
460 nonexistent ZIP Codes were used on supporter applications
on behalf of more than 2,800 CHNV aliens.
So, you see, you can dance around and say you don't have
the report in front of you and whatnot, but these are the
facts. This program is rife with fraud.
As of August 6, 2024, DHS had approved more than 80,000
CHNV supporters who were in the U.S. on a temporary basis.
Temporary basis.
I'm going to give you some numbers. The 224 CHNV parolees
approved as CHNV supporters. That seems awkward. The 170
additional parolees non-CHNV approved as CHNV supporters. The
28,322 temporary protected status holders approved as CHNV
supporters. The 19,865 asylees approved as CHNV supporters, 311
DACA recipients approved as CHNV supporters, 1,300-plus aliens
in the U.S. on temporary visas approved as CHNV supporters, 64
refugees approved as CHNV supporters, 1,912 conditional
permanent residents approved as CHNV supporters.
That is the program that you are administering. That's the
section that you're administering. That's the supporters. I'm
not talking the aliens. I'm not getting into the violation of
law of the U.S. Code 1182 when the use of parole is supposed to
be on a case-by-case basis, where Secretary Mayorkas himself
has sat here and under oath said, ``it's supposed to be on a
case-by-case basis. I'm not getting into that.''
What I'm getting into is a program, the side that the USCIS
is supposed to actually administer, and that is the supporter
applications. The fraud was so rampant you closed down the
program, but you didn't fix it. It's still ongoing. We're
waiting for the next report to confirm that these things are
still going on, because it wasn't fixed.
Mr. Chair, my time's up. I yield back.
Ms. Jaddou. Mr. Chair, can I respond to the question?
Mr. McClintock. Sure.
Ms. Jaddou. Yes.
Mr. Biggs. There was no question, because I asked questions
you couldn't answer. That's why I gave a statement. There was
no question for you, ma'am.
Ms. Jaddou. Can I comment on--
Mr. McClintock. No, you can't comment. If you can answer
the gentleman's question, I'll extend you the time to do so,
but I don't want another speech explaining why you can't answer
the question.
Ms. Jaddou. I was trying to explain what CHNV and the
changes we have made to ensure its integrity. I think there
were some points made that suggested we haven't made multiple
changes, and we have.
Mr. McClintock. If you've got excuses, you can put those in
a followup memo to the Committee.
Ms. Jaddou. We'd be happy to.
Mr. McClintock. We will have many other questions that we
won't be able to ask directly at this hearing.
Ms. Jaddou. Be happy to. Thank you.
Mr. McClintock. Ms. Lofgren for five minutes.
Ms. Lofgren. Thank you. I move to strike the last word.
In your introduction, you talked about Ms. Jaddou's service
in the administration. However, I'd like to note she was also
Senior Counsel to me from 2002-2007 and served as Chief Counsel
for the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, this very
Subcom-mittee from 2007-2011.
I would note, despite kind of--well, I don't want to
categorize the tone of the questions, but when she served as
Chief Counsel, although we did have from time-to-time
differences of policy between the Republicans and the
Democrats, we never had animosity among the counsel. We worked
in a way that was very cordial and constructive at that time. I
would like to thank her for the work that she did for the
Committee.
Before I ask you about the improvements made in the CHNV
parole program, I did want to talk about what you've done on
the proposed rule in October of last year, modernizing the H1-B
requirements and providing flexibility in the F-1 program.
I realize this isn't finalized, but you are able to talk
about the purpose of the proposal, even though the rule isn't
finalized. It seems to me that the finalized portion of the
rule addressing the Lottery Integrity Measures would close a
significant loophole that was being misused by certain
applicants.
Can you explain how that rule enhances the fairness and
transparency in the H1-B selection process?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you so much for the question and the
acknowledgement of my time here. I really appreciated my time
here with you.
So, this is an exact example of how we see a problem, we
have taken action at the USCIS. When we started to see the
numbers of multiple filings--and these weren't just onesies and
twosies, these were multiple filings--spike, we were--we took
immediate action. We were transparent. We let the public know,
and we took action with a regulation, and we took action behind
the scenes as well.
We introduced a notice of proposed rulemaking that you
noted. In fact, because we couldn't finalize the whole rule
fast enough in time for the latest lottery to correct that
problem, we took a portion of it and finalized the piece to
create that beneficiary-centric system that eliminated those
concerns.
Ms. Lofgren. Thank you very much.
I would just note that when the first Trump Administration
was closing out, the agency was going to actually close its
doors. There were frivolous activities underway that were not
supported by the fee structure.
The former Congressman Jeff Fortenberry and I actually
worked together to put together a structure to prevent the
agency from completely closing, but it was a mess when you took
over.
I want to credit you for what you've done to turn it
around, and also ask you, could you or would you like to
explain the changes that you've made with the CHNV parole
program so that the Committee can have a full understanding of
the improvements?
Ms. Jaddou. Absolutely. When we do our work at the USCIS,
we are always iterating, reviewing, and making changes because
we see problems. It may be with regard to how we process. It
might be a security issue. It might be an integrity issue. We
have people around the agency and including a full directorate
whose job is to focus on fraud detection, national security,
and public safety.
So, in CHNV, in all our other processes, we saw some
issues. We took action. Here, we've added in the biometrics
collection of sponsors. That includes fingerprints as well as
photos. We've also introduced automated systems, not just
manual systems but automated systems that allow us to connect
to other additional systems, for example, the Social Security
Death Match Index, before a reviewer ever even opens that
request.
We have also trained and retrained and provide guidance and
things like be on the lookout for information for each of our
reviewers who are conducting that work. There are many more
things that we have done, and we will continue to do.
Ms. Lofgren. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, my time is expired. I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. Mr. Chair, may I submit a request?
Mr. McClintock. Yes.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you. I'd like to submit that for an
article entitled ``Fraud plagues Biden `parole' program:
Michelle Obama's passport used; dead people named sponsors.''
Mr. McClintock. This is a unanimous consent request to
insert into the record--
Mr. Biggs. Yes. Correct, sir.
Mr. McClintock. Thank you. Without objection.
Mr. McClintock. Mr. Tiffany.
Mr. Tiffany. Director, there's significant fraud that's
happened in the Afghan SIV program. There's a bribery scheme
that was identified by the Department of Justice and brought to
light where they're submitting fraudulent letters recommending
SIVs to the State Department.
Are you familiar with those SIV cases that are being taken
care of fraudulent--where there's fraudulent applications being
put in?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you. I am familiar with the issue. I'm
not sure I can go into detail, given the investigation.
Mr. Tiffany. How widespread is it?
Ms. Jaddou. Again, it would be--it's not something that I
can explain to you publicly.
Mr. Tiffany. You can't answer the question because you
don't know the answer or are you saying you're hiding behind a
legal shield?
Ms. Jaddou. I think in an appropriate setting, I think I'd
be happy to get back with you on that.
Mr. Tiffany. What would be an appropriate setting?
Ms. Jaddou. I think that given the investigation you've
noted, I think it would be really important for us to do that--
Mr. Tiffany. Mr. Chair, I think that's something we should
take into consideration as we go forward. Do you think there's
national security concerns with this?
Ms. Jaddou. So, let me start by saying in our Afghan
programs, the USCIS--
Mr. Tiffany. So, I got a lot of questions.
Ms. Jaddou. OK.
Mr. Tiffany. Do you think there are national security
concerns, considering this is Afghanistan, the bull's-eye for
terrorism concerns in the world? Do you think there's national
security concerns?
Ms. Jaddou. With regard to each application before us, we
take every case we review case-by-case. We run them against our
security and vetting systems.
Mr. Tiffany. Do you believe there's national security
concerns with the Afghans, when there are Afghans coming in
fraudulently with fraudulent applications? The Department of
Justice has referred to them. They know this is happening.
Don't you think that there's national security concerns?
Ms. Jaddou. The security and vetting and the American--the
safety of the American people is number one for us.
Mr. Tiffany. Will you re-vet--so these people that have
been identified, will your agency re-vet them now that you know
some of them have submitted fraudulent applications?
Ms. Jaddou. We look at every case before us, any request
before us, and use the strongest security and vetting we have
available for whatever threat may or may not be in front of us.
That is a connection that we have with our law enforcement and
intelligence partners.
Mr. Tiffany. So, this is the strongest vetting when you
have the Department of Justice that's forwarding these cases
now saying these are being done fraudulently.
Mr. Chair, I think this is part of the reason why the other
side was saying, we've completed 10 million cases. It's not
hard to complete 10 million cases when you're not reviewing
them.
I want to change topics a little bit here. Do you think
that children of foreign tourists should receive citizenship?
Ms. Jaddou. The children of foreign tourists?
Mr. Tiffany. Do you think they should receive citizenship?
Let me give you a context so you can answer.
Ms. Jaddou. OK. I'm not quite understanding your question.
Mr. Tiffany. Since 2009, Communist Chinese passport holders
have been permitted to sidestep the U.S. visa requirements to
enter the Northern Mariana Islands through categorical parole.
My first question is, the Department of National
Intelligence says Communist China is the greatest national
security threat to the United States. Do you agree with DNI on
that, that Communist China is our greatest threat?
Ms. Jaddou. I'm not a foreign policy expert.
Mr. Tiffany. I think most people would say that's probably
the case.
Ms. Jaddou. Sure, sure.
Mr. Tiffany. So, why is the administration allowing this to
continue, where it is not required of a Chinese Communist
national coming into the Northern Mariana Islands without a
visa having a child and that child becomes a citizen? Do you
think that should be the case?
Ms. Jaddou. Congressman, I--
Mr. Tiffany. There are more children being born via birth
tourism on the Mariana Islands right now than there are
domestic children being born because of that loophole. They
don't even have to have a visa to come in here. Here's a
Chinese national, may be affiliated with the Communist Party,
that is able to get citizenship for their child.
I'm just going to close with this, Director. I'm going to
ask you the Vice President Harris question. First, you're a
political appointee, right?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes.
Mr. Tiffany. Yes. Do you have any regrets over what's
happened over the last four years with the open borders
policies in all its different ways here in America?
Ms. Jaddou. I am proud of the efforts that this
administration has made with regard to its efforts at the
Southwest border.
Mr. Tiffany. You have no regrets? You have no regrets?
Ms. Jaddou. Again, I--
Mr. Tiffany. The largest--I'm just going to close with
this: You have been part of the largest human trafficking
operation since slavery in the United States of America. The
people of the United States voted for change on November 5th.
We can only pray, Mr. Chair, that it happens soon.
Mr. McClintock. Mr. Correa.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Director Jaddou, welcome. I'm going to switch topics a
little bit and talk about renewal backlogs. In Orange County,
California, where I'm from, a lot of my constituents have been
calling me regarding the news that the USCIS is eliminating
essential contract work, the California Service Center, yet the
backlogs are still unacceptable.
I get phone calls, for example, from DACA recipients who
are advised by your website not to renew their DACAs until 4-5
months before they're actually eligible for renewal. Yet, I get
calls from employers saying, I have an employee whose DACA just
expired.
Tell me, how are we doing on the backlog?
Ms. Jaddou. So, thank you for raising that important
contract at the California Service Center. I understand--thank
you for the work that you've done to help us promote our hiring
fair so that we can bring on some of those contract workers. We
will continue to do those, and we appreciate the cooperation
and help to promote.
I want to note that we are moving away from paper-based
filing. Where paper-based filing must continue, we are moving
to a system of digitization. That is why we have become more
able to be efficient in our processing.
This contract at the California Service Center was aimed at
the way we used to do business. We are now moving into a new
space and now we are needing new things, and so we are bringing
on some of those individuals to help us.
Mr. Correa. So, ma'am, I've asked your office in writing,
requested to give us some information on the backlog. Is it
getting longer or shorter? Give me an answer here. I've not
gotten that answer.
Ms. Jaddou. Yes. I'm very, very proud of the work we have
done to eliminate--to get toward eliminating that backlog. It
was very large when we landed in 2021.
Mr. Correa. How long was it then compared to today?
Ms. Jaddou. We have decreased it for the first time in over
a decade two years running, and we are on track to continue to
do that. That is despite the number of receipts spiking up. So,
I'm proud of the work we're doing, and if we continue moving in
this direction, we're going to get there.
Mr. Correa. Fiscally, you're a fee-based operation. Ninety-
six percent of your revenue's fee-based. So, you're doing OK
economically, fiscally?
Ms. Jaddou. At the moment, I'm thankful for our fee
structure, but I will say that we continuously need more asylum
officers so that we can continue to do our work at the
Southwest border and achieve our work here on the affirmative
asylum backlog.
Mr. Correa. Thank you. Let me shift very quickly. I
represent Orange County, a large Middle Eastern population. A
lot of Afghan refugees have decided to make Orange County their
home.
A lot of calls, a lot of visits to my office. A lot of
Afghan allies we left behind in Afghanistan are desperately
trying to get to the U.S. the way we essentially promised them.
We said, if you fight along us as allies, we will always
welcome you in the United States. Yet, right now we have a
situation where they are not being processed. They're
essentially caught up somewhere around the world. Heaven
forbid, if they're still in Afghanistan, their lives are in
danger.
Explain to me, what are we doing to make sure we process
those American allies we left behind before they're actually
caught, and their lives are lost?
Ms. Jaddou. So, the USCIS, to help the individuals who are
still outside the United States, we have taken this role very
seriously. Our U.S. Refugee Admissions Program continues to
work on this population, and we have very specific processes
for Afghans.
We also continue to work our humanitarian parole backlog to
try to get through that. It also means that we need to process
the people who are already here working through their
immigration journey so that they could then sponsor their close
family members and ensure that they can come to the United
States.
Mr. Correa. Now, let me say that I agree with my
colleagues, fraud is a very serious issue. I'm going to give
you the last 30 seconds to address what have you been doing to
mitigate/eliminate fraud in the process?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you for that really important question. I
have never seen better cooperation at USCIS with our partners
across law enforcement and our intelligence partners. It is the
strongest it has ever been.
At USCIS, we also have an entire directorate who is focused
on fraud detection, national security, and public safety. We
have people inside each of the operational directorates, teams
of people focused very directly on assisting the officers who
are looking at those cases.
They are on the ground doing the work, advising, looking
out for concerns, making changes, bringing things forward so
that we can make process and operational improvements to
protect the American people and also the integrity of our
lawful immigration system.
Mr. Correa. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm out of
time. I yield.
Mr. McClintock. Mr. Van Drew.
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair.
I don't want to be partisan. I don't want to be mean, so
you're going to have to forgive me in advance. I think you're
doing a bad job. I think your administration has done a bad
job. You've hurt legal Americans, legal immigrants, and helped
some folks that shouldn't be in this country.
We all support legal immigration. There's always this
desire to typecast us as people who don't support legal
immigration. Legal immigrants are some of the very best
Americans that there are. There's nobody better than legal
immigrants. They appreciate America. They come to America
because they believe in our values. They're willing to work
hard. They pledge allegiance to our flag. They love this
country as deeply as we do. Some of these legal immigrants love
the country, sad to say, more than some of our Americans who
were born here.
These individuals, they wait patiently, sometimes for years
and years and years. I know this because I get really involved
in my district on the street, as I'm sure all the other Members
of Congress do.
We see good legal people. I even have families here that
deserve to be here, that have done it the right way, that
haven't crossed the border illegally, that haven't done
anything wrong, that haven't been given preferential treatment
because of virtue signaling. Just good people that love
America, and they're in the back of the line and they're shoved
back there. They wait for years, and it costs money and it's
complicated and it's hurtful.
Under this administration, fraud-ridden parole programs are
undermining their dream. Instead of honoring the commitment of
legal immigrants, we see them, as I said before, being jumped
in line, jumped in line by hundreds of thousands of migrants
under parole programs that lack comprehensive oversight that
they should have, making it dangerous for everyone in America,
as riddled with fraud. In fact, many of these migrants that you
are letting in now have no legitimate path to enter our country
without programs like the CHNV.
I'm going to tell you a story, a story on the street, a guy
I've known for years. His name is Kala (ph). I've told the
story before. He's a South Asian. He's Indian. Came over to
this country and he got a green card. Works hard, works his
back off. Has two kids and a wife. They live above their store,
which is a store and a gas station that they bought. They pay
their mortgage every single month.
He works probably 12-16 hours a day. His kids are at the
top of their class in school. They're obedient. They're great.
He believes in America so strongly. I have conversations with
him all the time.
One day I went there and he's got tears in his eyes after
years and years of waiting and other people jumping the line
who couldn't give a damn about America. I say, ``hey, what's
up? You're crying.'' He said, ``Today I was sworn in and I
became a United States citizen.'' We made him wait all those
years and he shouldn't have.
When we allow hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants,
migrants to leap ahead in the line, we lose the trust of people
like Kala who have waited for years to become Americans. We
lose the trust of legal immigrants who come here in good faith
seeking a better life and we lose the trust of the American
people.
I'm telling you, I'd love to take you out on the street.
I'd love to take you to my district or any district and talk to
Americans and how tired of it they are. They're sick and tired
of it.
This American system is a great system, and it's a system
where you're supposed to follow the law, the rule of law, and
it's supposed to be equal for everybody.
So, I have questions for you. I'm going to ask you for a
simple yes or no, because we're running out of time. It's an
easy question. The USCIS, has it diverted resources from legal
processing, from processing legal immigration applicants, to
address issues stemming from parole programs like the CHNV
programs, yes or no? Are we removing some resources? I know the
answer already.
Ms. Jaddou. No.
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair. OK. Well, I disagree with
you. We are and we have to.
Do you believe that the current administration of the CHNV
program has strengthened public trust in our immigration
system? This is where I'll take you out on the street if you
want to talk to people. Yes or no?
Do you think people have more trust in our immigration
system now than when you started four years ago, yes or no?
Simple question.
Ms. Jaddou. Creating lawful pathways is one piece of the
strategy.
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair. Yes or no? Is there more
confidence now than they did before? Yes or no, is there more
confidence?
Ms. Jaddou. Effective border management that's enduring
requires both--
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair. Yes or no, please
Respectfully, yes or no. Do people have more confidence now on
the street? The American people who pay the taxes, who pay your
salary and my salary, do they have more confidence now than
they did four years ago? Yes or no?
Ms. Jaddou. I have not surveyed the American public--
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair. You can't answer the
question because you know the answer is no, they don't,
according to what happened in selection.
Mr. Chair--
Mr. McClintock. I'm afraid that the gentleman is not going
to get a straight answer from this witness and his time has
expired.
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair. I know. So, Mr. Chair, I
yield back. I would like to submit for the record a question,
which I don't have time to get to right now, regarding the
visas for foreign nationals to operate as airline pilots. I
would like a response from you as well. That question I ask be
put in.
Mr. McClintock. The Members will have the opportunity to
submit written questions to the answer at the conclusion of the
hearing.
Mr. Van Drew. Thank you, Chair.
Mr. McClintock. The Chair recognizes Ms. Ross.
Ms. Ross. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Director, for being here today and for your
public service over the last several years.
I will actually continue on the path of people who have
come here legally and really the system has been so backlogged
they have not been able to either remain here or improve their
status. One of those many groups impacted by you and impacted
by the backlog is the situation of so-called documented
dreamers. These are people who were brought to the United
States legally as children, but they lose that protection when
they turn 21, and their families may still have all their legal
documentation, and then there would be a 21-year-old who would
have to self-deport to the country that they barely know.
Because our immigration system has been broken for so many
years, and there are so many backlogs, that's forced these kids
to separate themselves from their families. We know that there
are about 250,000 documented dreamers, the vast majority of
which are pursuing careers in the sciences, the STEM field. In
my district I even have a documented dreamer trying to pursue a
military career. They want to contribute their skills to our
economy and they want to stay with their families.
A bipartisan bill I introduced in the House called the
America's CHILDREN Act would solve this issue by providing them
with lawful permanent resident status. It passed the House in
two different forms in the last Congress. We also had another
chance to help these dreamers with a bipartisan border deal
that failed to advance in the Senate last May.
So, it has bipartisan support on the Senate side as well.
That bill would have amended the law so that these children
would not have lost their status and would have a legal path to
citizenship when they turn 21 years old. It also gave more
funding to asylum officers and made the noncustodial asylum
processes for border entrance more efficient by creating a more
streamlined channel.
Changes like these are desperately needed to overhaul our
broken immigration system and ensure that we stay competitive
as a Nation to attract the best and brightest to our shores.
They also help you do your work.
I would love to know what the USCIS has done to provide any
kind of relief for documented dreamers and what you hope USCIS
could do in the future for this population.
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you for that really important question.
These children of our highly skilled workers has been
something that has been on my mind for a very long time. I had
a meeting with a group of documented dreamers, and it was very
touching and very emotional. So, I appreciate how much work we
need to do here. We have taken steps. We have made some changes
in our policy manual to assist, but there's, frankly, a lot
more to do. As you noted, the only final action, the real
action that needs to happen is a change in our statute, and
that is something that we cannot do. We will continue to look
at ways to assist and try to put some Band-Aids here and there
where we can, but the crux of the problem lies in the statute.
Ms. Ross. To that end, because the Senate bill would have
both enhanced your resources and directly dealt with this
issue, were there any other aspects of that bipartisan Senate
deal that was blocked last year that you would like to see
incorporated into future legislation, particularly as they
relate to your ability to fulfill your mandate and help remove
some of these backlogs?
Ms. Jaddou. Absolutely. I mentioned earlier that we are a
fee-funded agency, 96 percent fee-funded. So, the work we do at
the border alongside our partners at Customs and Border
Protection, the work we do on the refugee program, these are
all unfunded, and we are constrained on how much we can do.
Therefore, we have to, as I heard earlier, rob Peter to pay
Paul to be able to meet not only our mission but really our
statutory mandate. That cannot be done unless we are
appropriated by Congress.
Mr. McClintock. Thank you.
Ms. Ross. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. McClintock. The Chair recognizes the Chair of the House
Judiciary Committee, Mr. Jordan.
Chair Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Director, in recent history has there ever been a parole
program of this magnitude?
Ms. Jaddou. Which parole--are you talking about the CHNV?
Chair Jordan. The CHNV. Two years, 531,000 people get
deported.
Ms. Jaddou. There have been parole--
Chair Jordan. Of that magnitude? In a two-year timeframe,
that magnitude?
Ms. Jaddou. I don't have all the numbers in front of me,
but I'm familiar with the historical use of parole through
multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat. There have
been many uses, some large, some small, and some have been very
large.
Chair Jordan. OK. So, this is not unique you're saying?
This is just run-of-the-mill type of parole that you're doing?
Ms. Jaddou. I'm not saying it's run of the mill. The
parole--
Chair Jordan. You give it a whole new term, ``lawful
pathway,'' some term I never heard before, because we didn't
pass any law saying you should do this. So, is this--I'm just
trying to get--is this a special deal you guys are doing?
Because it sure seems like it.
Ms. Jaddou. No. What I am suggesting is that this is not
something new.
Chair Jordan. Not special?
Ms. Jaddou. This has been something that has been used.
This parole authority has been in the statute for decades, and
it has been used for multiple--
Chair Jordan. I'm just saying is the way it's being done
now somewhat unique, somewhat different? Because that's our
impression on this side. I'm just asking, do you think that?
Ms. Jaddou. The CHNV process is one piece of an effective
forward management strategy.
Chair Jordan. That's the piece I'm asking about.
Ms. Jaddou. Effective border management that we want to be
enduring, not short term, but enduring, must include both
enforcement and enduring and meaningful lawful pathways.
Chair Jordan. I'm still stuck on this--
Ms. Jaddou. The CHNV is one piece of it, but so is the rest
of our lawful immigration.
Chair Jordan. I'm asking about CHNV. It seems like it's
something out of the ordinary to me, and I think probably every
Republican up here would say it's out of the ordinary. The
American people would probably say it's out. The $30,000 a
month coming in from four countries that you selected that
started with Venezuela and then you added the other three, that
seems somewhat different than the normal process.
I'm saying, how about this? What's the goal of that
program? Why this unique approach, what we think is unique, why
do that type of approach with the CHNV?
Ms. Jaddou. As I stated, if we want to have enduring border
management, border control, we need to have all our immigration
systems working together. That includes enforcement, so Customs
and Border Protection and ICE, working hand in hand with us at
the USCIS. We each play different parts of that management
strategy. That includes the enforcement of my partners, but it
also includes all the lawful immigration that we process at the
USCIS. So, it is not just the CHNV. There are multiple other
things that we do at the USCIS. Every single day, requests come
in for all sorts of lawful immigration pathways.
Chair Jordan. OK. We have this specific program for four
countries. Why do we need that specific program for those four
countries? Tell me the why.
Ms. Jaddou. I'm not--
Chair Jordan. Migrants coming in from those four
countries--
Ms. Jaddou. I am not going to--I'm not able to speak to the
management piece of paroling the individuals in and the numbers
of people that are coming from these specific countries. Part
of that management was an identification of a need for
meaningful lawful pathways for certain populations.
Chair Jordan. OK. Well, can someone who is paroled in then
become a supporter and sponsor for some new parolee?
Ms. Jaddou. The CHNV--86 percent of supporters--
Chair Jordan. That's a simple question. Someone that's come
in under this program, can they then become a supporter or
sponsor for someone else who is coming in?
Ms. Jaddou. The 86 percent of them are U.S. citizens and
lawful permanent residents--
Chair Jordan. That's not what I asked. Can someone do that?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes.
Chair Jordan. Yes, that can happen?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes.
Chair Jordan. OK. Is that unique? Is that something that's
kind of new?
Ms. Jaddou. Historically, I'd have to think I--
Chair Jordan. Sure seems like it's new--You've got a
special program for four countries. You come in under that
program, and then, shazam, you can sponsor someone else to come
in. I think that's probably pretty new, probably something that
hadn't been done before. Do you know that?
Ms. Jaddou. Our law passed by Congress has many instances
in which, for example, a U.S. citizen can sponsor--
Chair Jordan. I'm not asking about a U.S. citizen. A
migrant who comes in under the program; can they then become a
sponsor or supporter of some new migrant coming in. You said,
``yes, that can happen.'' That's not a U.S. citizen.
Ms. Jaddou. Right. We have other places in our law that do
similar things. So, the CHNV, again, is a piece of an entire
border management strategy, just one piece. It cannot work
alone. Neither can enforcement measures work alone, if we want
it to be long lasting, and that's why this process is
important.
Chair Jordan. OK. All right. Director, thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. McClintock. Mr. Swalwell.
Mr. Swalwell. Thank you.
Thank you, Director, for--
Ms. Jaddou. There you are.
Mr. Swalwell. --the work that you and your team continue to
do. Any shortcomings or issues with your team, I believe, are
because we are asking you to do things that the law doesn't
allow you to do, and that's a failure of us to put in place a
comprehensive immigration policy that reflects the demand to
come to America.
I just want to say to my colleagues as we go into this new
Congress where I am and where I think many of my colleagues
are, we want security at the border, and where we can work with
you to find security at the border, you will find in me an ally
and a partner who will want to bring security at the border.
When it comes to violent, undocumented immigrants, I want
them out of the United States. I personally think they should
serve their sentences if they are in custody here before
removing them and sending them back to their countries because
you risk that they could come back. If there are folks who have
hurt people, put others in harm's way, have committed sexual
assault, they should be gone. I don't think you're going to
find a lot of people on our side who are arguing for violent
undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States.
My concern, though--and I hope the Director can speak to
this--is that we also have a workforce crisis in America. We
have a workforce crisis as it relates to agriculture. We have a
workforce crisis as it relates to hospitality. We have a
workforce crisis as it relates to food and beverages,
particularly our restaurant industry.
So, Director, I ask if there is going to be a massive
deportation as the President--that the President-elect has said
he's going to do, what type of pressures will that put on you
to address and process legal immigration pathways? Could we
actually harm ourselves? If we don't do this right, if we don't
prioritize violent offenders, if it's just a grab all/catch
all, could we affect our ability to attract the best and
brightest to take the jobs where we have vacancies in the
United States?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you for that question.
Legal immigration, in many industries, can often be the
backbone of that industry. You noted some of them, and it is
our job at the USCIS to administer the lawful immigration
system. The more effectively we can do that, the better we can
assist our economy at all levels where immigrants are needed in
certain labor forces.
Mr. Swalwell. The President-elect has said he's going to
put in place a Department of Government Efficiency. I think
both sides would like to see the government always be more
efficient. On your side, will there be a movement, or are you
looking at a way to completely digitize the process for
applicants? I know right now, it still is very dependent on
paper filings. Is that something that could reduce just your
workload and also more expeditiously process applicants?
Ms. Jaddou. Again, a question I get really excited about.
We have grown leaps and bounds in using our technology to help
us better process and become more efficient, but also smarter
and have more security and integrity in our systems.
Instituting technology throughout our process is the number one
thing that we can do to make us work smarter, faster, and safer
for the American people. That's what we're doing.
Mr. Swalwell. Thank you, Director.
I also just want to point out to my colleagues the census
data last week noted that my Congressional district is the
eighth wealthiest Congressional district in the United States.
I'm not doing much to contribute to that number, but many of my
constituents are and that reflects that 40 percent of my
constituents were born outside of the United States. They come
largely from places like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China,
North--or Korea, Philippines, and they reflect the best of our
community, and they reflect a resilient mindset that has grown
our local economy.
I'll just leave my colleagues with this: Recently a foreign
minister of another country told me the population of the
United States is three billion people, and I thought that he
had misspoken. I said, ``Actually, sir, it's closer to
somewhere between 300-400 million.'' He said, ``No. You have
three billion people in the world who will give up anything to
come to the United States, and if you all can figure out a way
to get it right, you can take the cream of the crop to help
your economy.'' I hope we can work at the next Congress to try
and make that happen.
I yield back.
Mr. McClintock. The gentleman has put his finger on exactly
the problem that we face.
Mr. Nehls.
Mr. Nehls. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Eric, you mentioned just a minute ago about a large--your
district is a lot of migrants, 40 percent in Pakistan. I'm
going to make a safe assumption, most of those individuals, it
probably took them a decade or so to get here, and they did it
through the legal channel. I think at the beginning of your
talk you talked about we've got to get these bad hombres out of
here, the ones that are committing crime.
Do you think the Director would agree with you on that?
Mr. Swalwell. If the gentleman would yield?
Mr. Nehls. Sure.
Mr. Swalwell. I'll let the Director speak for herself, but
I will just say I am in agreement with you that I want to bring
down those processing times, and I want the bad guys gone.
Mr. Nehls. That's right. Even Eric Adams is now on board
with President Trump and Tom Homan, and we're going to get them
out. We're going to get them out of our country.
The Tren de Argua, tell us a little bit about that, those
that are listening on this. Tell us a little bit about this
gang, Tren de Argua. Are you familiar with them?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes. Thank you for the question.
At the USCIS we are always in constant communication with
our law enforcement and intelligence partners to learn about
new threats--
Mr. Nehls. OK. Yes.
Ms. Jaddou. --so that we can apply that new knowledge into
every step of our process.
Mr. Nehls. OK. So, tell me a little bit about Tren de
Argua. You're just--tell me about that gang. What do you know
about them?
Ms. Jaddou. I probably don't want to accept too much of
that--
Mr. Nehls. Are you kidding me? Oh, my goodness gracious,
yes, you're hiding from it. They're a very violent gang out of
Venezuela, which is part of that the CHNV.
Ms. Jaddou. Yes, they are.
Mr. Nehls. They're coming in here. They're killing our
American people. They're taking over some States. They're
taking over city blocks. How do you feel about that?
I tell you, in some sarcasm, I want to almost thank you
guys for the job you have done because you totally blew it. The
American people are sick and tired of what they've seen over
the past four years, and you should all be fired. Well, you
will be here shortly, because the American people say we're not
going to tolerate this anymore. I don't know, quite honestly,
how Mayorkas and some in the administration even sleep at night
with the job you've done with this parole, and you put some
fancy words, you try to change a definition to justify this
incompetence. It's criminal, quite honestly, what you've done.
When you see the families of these victims that have been
tortured, raped, brutally murdered by individuals coming into
our country, violent criminals--and I sent letters to Mayorkas.
I got nothing. I heard nothing. The Border Patrol, everybody
knew about Tren de Argua, the gang. They didn't do nothing.
They did nothing. You didn't think the people were paying
attention, the American people. You think they're too naive.
They woke up, and now you're gone. I can't wait until January
20th when President Trump will secure our border and put the
American people first.
I yield the rest of my time to the great Chair.
Mr. McClintock. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
First, I just need to note Mr. Swalwell said, ``The
Democrats want illegal aliens who have been convicted of other
crimes to be deported once they serve their sentences,'' that
is demonstrably false. Sanctuary cities and sanctuary States
like California specifically forbid notifying ICE when they're
about to release a prisoner who's here illegally so they can be
deported.
I'd suggest that the workforce crisis we face is by adding
millions of cheap illegal labors to the labor market to
dramatically reduce the wages of working American families and
working legal immigrants.
Mr. Swalwell was right about one thing, billions of people
want to come to this country, and if we allow them, we have no
borders and, therefore, we have no country.
Director Jaddou, our Subcommittee has noted that in
millions of cases credible fear interviews are not even
conducted before migrants who have illegally entered the
country are then released into the country. How do you explain
that?
Ms. Jaddou. Thank you.
This is exactly the point that I've been trying to express
for many years now. The USCIS, being a fee-funded agency has to
use fees we charge others to support the work we do at the
border alongside our partners, Customs and Border Protection.
That is not funded by Congress. It is funded by fees.
Therefore, we are limited in the numbers of--
Mr. McClintock. Those fees--until we opened our borders,
those fees were more than adequate to conduct those interviews,
and under your administration they are not. One of the tactics
you seem to have employed recently is simply to close cases of
asylum claimants without ruling on their legitimacy that
effectively grants them permanent residency. Why are you doing
that?
Ms. Jaddou. Granting permanent residency--I'm sorry, sir,
Mr. Chair--
Mr. McClintock. Instead of ruling on asylum claims, the
cases are simply closed out.
Ms. Jaddou. Oh, on those cases. So, many cases in the
asylum backlog are wrongly in asylum backlog. They're actually
maybe defensive asylum which should be before the Immigration
Court and we have, as we open each of these cases, discovered
that, in fact, we do not have jurisdiction and it belongs
elsewhere.
Mr. McClintock. My time has expired.
Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Garcia. Thank you, Chair McClintock.
Thank you, Director Jaddou, for being here today.
As a proud immigrant and a representative of one of the
largest immigrant populations in the country, I see firsthand
the challenges faced by individuals and families that are
navigating our immigration system. The USCIS plays a critical
role in upholding the premise that we are a Nation of
immigrants.
This Congress I led several efforts, including a letter to
USCIS, expressing concerns about significant backlogs in
processing applications and affecting the availability of work
permits for long-term immigrant communities. Many of these
individuals have worked for decades, paid local, State, and
Federal taxes without the freedom and peace of mind that comes
with the work permit.
Can you discuss what steps USCIS is taking to specifically
address the backlog in processing work permits? I'm referring
to form I-765 and how you're prioritizing cases for individuals
that have been waiting in the system for years, sometimes
decades?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes. Thank you.
That is an area that we have been heavily focused on, our
backlog. As you stated, work authorization, work permits are
critical for an individual to put food on their table, put a
roof over their heads, be self-sufficient. It's also critical
to the community and the economy that they live in so that
their economies improve.
We have worked quite a bit to improve our processes on
employment authorizations. We have digitized quite a bit of
that. We have used technology to help us move faster, and we
have, across the board, on all our work permit processing, some
better than others, but overall, we have achieved incredible
strides, and we're going to keep going.
Mr. Garcia. Why do some work permit renewals take longer
than mandated processing times? What additional resources or
policies are needed to reduce the significant delays? How can
the USCIS significantly reduce those backlogs?
Ms. Jaddou. What I would like to continue doing is exactly
what we're doing, which is bringing in more technology to help
us, and that is exactly what we have done. The difference is in
processing times, there are many factors, and including there
will be court orders, for example, that require certain
timeframes. There are also different statuses underneath the
individual that give them the ability to work. We need to take
different steps, depending on the form, depending on the status
of the individual.
Mr. Garcia. Changing gears, according to the USCIS
website--and previous members have addressed this in part--DACA
recipients are currently advised not to apply for renewal until
4-5 months before their current DACA expires.
Given the incoming administration's stated desire to
conduct mass deportations, how will USCIS protect data to
ensure that it is not misused or not used for enforcement
purposes?
Ms. Jaddou. That's a really important question. As I stated
earlier, this population should not be living in two-year
increments, and that is what they have been doing for the last
12 years, which is why I strongly support the idea of finally
providing a pathway to legalization for DACA recipients.
With regard to their information, it is guided by the forms
that they fill out every two years, and that information is
generally protected unless there's a fraud or law enforcement
or intelligence matter.
Mr. Garcia. Do you feel secure in saying that you're
confident that a subsequent administration would respect the
information on those forms?
Ms. Jaddou. I can't speak to what another administration
would or would not do. I can speak for the administration that
I currently serve in.
Mr. Garcia. Do you expect that the fee for naturalization
services will remain or increase over the coming four years?
Ms. Jaddou. I certainly can speak about what we did in this
administration, and our fee increase in the naturalization
space was quite minimal and, in fact, in some cases lower for
many, but I can't speak to what a future administration might
do.
Mr. Garcia. Thank you. My time has expired.
Thank you for your indulgence, Mr. Chair.
Mr. McClintock. Mr. Hunt.
Mr. Hunt. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Do you know how you reduce illegal immigration according to
the left? It's really simple. You make illegal immigration
legal. Biden was upset that the American people were
complaining about the increase in legal immigration numbers at
the border. What did Biden do? He legalized illegal immigration
by expanding the intended use of parole to fit his needs.
The American people may be asking, what is parole? The
USCIS says that parole allows an individual who may be
inadmissible or otherwise ineligible for admission to the
United States to be paroled to the country for a temporary
period. That's right. They created a lawful pathway for illegal
aliens who would otherwise have no other entry into America. It
should be temporary, but it's not.
Specifically, the Biden Administration expanded its parole
authority by creating a new parole program specifically for
citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. As of
October 2024, more than 530,000, 530,000 Cubans, Haitians,
Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans have flown into America under this
program.
President Biden doesn't care that he has allowed over a
half a million people legally into this country as he vacations
in Nantucket with billionaires and won't encounter any of these
people there. Just look at what happened to the people who
arrived at Martha's Vineyard. They were barely there for 16
hours, and Martha's Vineyard kicked them out.
It should come as no surprise that the CHNV program is full
of fraud. There was, in fact, so much fraud that they had to
stop the program entirely in July of this year, as you know,
ma'am.
This rampant fraud and abuse shouldn't come as any surprise
because Biden doesn't believe in the rule of law. We've seen
this--and I'm from Texas--it has been despicable what has
happened at our Southern border. It's the opposite of what I
would call the rule of law. Biden only believes in the rule of
law when it benefits him, his son Hunter, as we saw a couple of
days ago, and other members of the Biden crime family. The
border didn't benefit him, so he expanded parole. Having Hunter
being a convicted felon didn't benefit him, so he gave him a
blanket pardon for the last decade.
I have a question for you, ma'am. This is one I want to
revisit back with Mr. Jordan. Does the parole program allow
non-U.S. citizens to be financial supporters of parolees? I'm
talking about the CHNV.
Ms. Jaddou. Can you repeat?
Mr. Hunt. Does the parole program allow non-U.S. citizens
to be financial supporters of parolees?
Ms. Jaddou. Yes, that's correct.
Mr. Hunt. Why would you allow that?
Ms. Jaddou. Every supporter we confirm has the financial
ability to support--
Mr. Hunt. Every? All of them?
Ms. Jaddou. That is what--we will not confirm if a person
does not have the financial ability to support an individual. I
will note we allow for co-supporters.
Mr. Hunt. They're not citizens?
Ms. Jaddou. They may be. They may be.
Mr. Hunt. Are they tax-paying citizens?
Ms. Jaddou. The 86 percent of supporters, 86 percent, so
the vast, vast majority are U.S. citizens and lawful permanent
residents.
Mr. Hunt. What I'm getting at is you have the tax-paying
public that's funding noncitizens to be financial supporters of
parolees. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds, ma'am?
Ms. Jaddou. I also want to note when a person enters on
parole, they are eligible to apply for employment
authorization, and most of them do, and they become very
quickly self-sufficient.
Mr. Hunt. Switching gears, so why was the program shut down
in July? At that point, over a half million people had entered
our country.
Ms. Jaddou. Every day at the USCIS, we are looking at all
our processes to ensure we are doing the best we can, both at
efficiency, at integrity, and security, all of it.
Mr. Hunt. By that point--
Ms. Jaddou. When we see a problem--
Mr. Hunt. By that point, 400,000 people had already
entered. So, it took you that long to figure that out?
Ms. Jaddou. In fact, we have been studying every process as
we have studied CHNV. We have made changes throughout. We
decided, most recently, that we needed to make some additional
changes that required us to momentarily pause while we could
institute additional changes, notwithstanding the many changes
we have been making throughout, to stay many steps ahead of
people that are trying to get around it.
Mr. Hunt. Do you think that 530,000 people is acceptable?
That's almost the size of a Congressional district. You have to
admit that that is an unbelievable high number of people that
entered this country that are not citizens. You have to admit
that, correct? That's the size--almost the size of a
Congressional district in the United States. There's 435 of
them.
Ms. Jaddou. As I've stated, effective border management has
got to be a combination of the enforcement that we have in
place--
Mr. Hunt. There's been no enforcement. There's been no
enforcement, because we had 21 million people enter this
country illegally, and you have to admit that 530,000 people is
unacceptable.
I yield back the rest of my time. Thank you.
Mr. McClintock. The gentleman's time has expired.
If there are no further questions, that will conclude
today's hearing.
I want to thank our witness for appearing before the
Subcommittee today.
Without objection, all Members will have five legislative
days to submit additional written questions to the witness, or
place additional materials in the record, although I hope that
they will have more luck at getting a straight answer than
we've gotten today.
Without objection, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:48 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
All materials submitted for the record by the Members of
the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and
Enforce-
ment can be found at the following links: https://
docs.house.gov/
Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=117744.
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