[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 166 (Wednesday, November 20, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8355-S8357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OBJECTION
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today, I am announcing my intention to
object to any unanimous consent request to call up and confirm the
nomination of Mr. Jeh Johnson to be the Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security.
As ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I, along with
other Senators on the committee, wrote a letter to Mr. Johnson last
Friday and asked his views on a number of important matters, including
our Nation's immigration policies and the fair treatment of
whistleblowers. We asked if he would cooperate with us on oversight
matters and work with us to improve immigration policies going forward.
We have not yet received a response from Mr. Johnson.
Because the Judiciary Committee has primary responsibility over
immigration matters, it is necessary to know any nominee's position on
immigration policies before we can consent to the confirmation of a
Secretary to head this very critical department. So, until we receive
responses from Mr. Johnson to our letter, I will object to any
unanimous consent agreement to move his confirmation.
I ask that a copy of the letter be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
U.S. Senate,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC, November 15, 2013.
Mr. Jeh Johnson,
2001 K Street NW.,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Johnson: As members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, we have an important responsibility to conduct
oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which
has a broad and critical mission and houses several different
agencies with varying functions. Our committee has primary
responsibility over immigration matters, and we believe it
necessary to know any nominee's position on immigration
policies before we can consent to the confirmation of a
Secretary to head this very critical department We also seek
your commitment in cooperating on oversight matters and
working with us to improve immigration policies going
forward.
At your confirmation hearing, you stated that, ``[i]f
confirmed, I will work to implement all legislation enacted
into law.'' While we may have different views than President
Obama on how to reform our immigration system, we have all
repeatedly expressed our strong disapproval of the refusal of
this administration--and DHS in particular--to enforce our
immigration laws, contradicting duly enacted federal law
through administrative orders and internal memoranda. These
actions have eroded the rule of law and undermined Americans'
confidence in their government. We hope that you will commit
to discontinuing these lawless policies if confirmed.
So that we may properly carry out our constitutional duty,
we request that you provide answers to the questions below on
the important issues that you will confront if confirmed as
Secretary of DHS.
General
1. In what ways, if any, would you depart from former
Secretary Napolitano's policies?
2. Do you find any of former Secretary Napolitano's
actions, or any current DHS policies, to be objectionable? If
so, what? What would you do differently?
3. Will you pledge to cooperate with congressional
oversight efforts and be responsive to all congressional
requests for information in a timely manner?
4. Do you believe whistleblowers who know of problems with
matters of national security should be prevented from
bringing that information to Congress?
5. Will you commit to ensuring that every whistleblower is
treated fairly and that those who retaliate against
whistleblowers are held accountable?
6. Given your past involvement in President Obama's
political campaigns, how would you maintain your independence
from the White House as one of our nation's top law
enforcement officers?
Immigration
1. If confirmed as the head of the Department, you will be
responsible for the enforcement of the country's immigration
laws. Do you have any background or leadership experience in
the area of immigration law or immigration policy?
2. If confirmed, it will be your job to implement our
nation's immigration laws. In your testimony before the
Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee,
you stated that you support ``comprehensive, common-sense
immigration reform.'' Accordingly, we would like to know your
position regarding the following:
a. Should people here illegally be eligible for immigration
benefits, including legal status? If so, should those
individuals be responsible for all costs associated with it?
Should taxpayers shoulder any of the burden?
b. Should people here illegally who are in removal
proceedings be eligible for immigration benefits, including
legal status?
c. Should people who are subject to an order of removal
from the United States by the Department of Homeland Security
be eligible for immigration benefits, including legal status?
d. Should an illegal immigrant convicted of a felony
criminal offense be eligible for immigration benefits,
including legal status?
e. Should an illegal immigrant convicted of multiple
misdemeanors be eligible for immigration benefits, including
legal status?
f. Should illegal immigrant gang members be eligible for
immigration benefits, including legal status?
g. If an illegal immigrant provides information in an
application that is law enforcement sensitive or criminal in
nature, should that information be used by our government and
not be protected under confidentiality provisions? If an
illegal immigrant provides information in an application that
clearly renders him ineligible and commits a serious crime
that would warrant his immediate removal, shouldn't the
government be able to use that information to place him in
removal proceedings?
h. Should people here illegally be required to submit to an
in-person interview with adjudicators when applying for
immigration benefits, including legal status?
i. Should people here illegally that have been denied legal
status be placed in immigration proceedings and removed? If
not, why not?
j. If the Secretary of Homeland Security must revoke a visa
for someone on U.S. soil, should that decision be reviewable
in the U.S. courts?
k. In 1996, after the 1993 World Trade Center attack,
Congress mandated that the immigration service, with
cooperation from schools and universities, collect
information on foreign students. This system took years to
get up and running. In fact, it still wasn't in place on 9/
11. While it is operational today, there is still work to be
done to make that system effective. Most recently, the
Department stopped all efforts to upgrade the system. Do you
intend to make SEVIS upgrades a priority, if confirmed?
3. As a result of some of the actions of Secretary
Napolitano, particularly her Directive entitled ``Exercising
Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came
to the United States as Children,'' several ICE agents,
including the President of the ICE agents and officers union,
the National ICE Council, Chris Crane, filed a complaint
against Secretary Napolitano stating that ``the Directive
commands ICE officers to violate federal law . . . violate
their oaths to uphold and support federal law, violates the
Administrative Procedure Act, unconstitutionally usurps and
encroaches upon the legislative powers of Congress, as
defined in Article I of the United States Constitution, and
violates the obligation of the executive branch to faithfully
execute the law, as required by Article II, Section 3, of the
United States Constitution.'' Moreover, Kenneth Palinkas, the
president of the National Citizenship and Immigration
Services Council, has likewise charged that USCIS employees
are required by the agency ``to grant immigration benefits to
those who, under law, are not properly eligible.'' In short,
her actions have caused a great deal of discontent among
immigration officers and agents, to say the least.
Accordingly, if confirmed, what will you do to improve the
morale of immigration officers and agents who are concerned
about these non-enforcement protocols issued by Secretary
Napolitano?
4. In the more than four years that she served as Secretary
of the DHS, Secretary Napolitano never agreed to meet with
the National ICE Council, the union that represents more than
7,000 agency employees, or the National Citizenship and
Immigration Services Council, the union that represents
12,000 agency employees. Will you meet with representatives
from these unions and, if so, when?
5. During the first five years of the Obama administration,
Secretary Napolitano and former ICE Director John Morton
issued numerous policy memoranda that order ICE
[[Page S8356]]
agents to restrict their enforcement of immigration laws to
illegal immigrants who have been convicted of violent crimes.
If confirmed, will you continue that policy?
6. Do you agree that a person who is in the United States
in violation of U.S. immigration law is subject to removal?
7. Among the aforementioned memoranda issued by former ICE
Director Morton, the memo dated March 2, 2011, designates
immigration fugitives as a priority for removal. Do you agree
that illegal immigrants who ignore deportation orders should
be removed from the United States?
8. Among the aforementioned memoranda issued by former ICE
Director Morton, the memo dated November 17, 2011, identifies
an illegal immigrant with a conviction for drunk driving as a
priority for removal. Do you agree that an illegal immigrant
who has been convicted of a drunk driving offense should be
removed from the United States?
9. All federal employees take an Oath, codified at 5 U.S.C.
3331, to ``support and defend the Constitution of the United
States . . . and that [they] will well and faithfully
discharge the duties of the office on which [they] about to
enter.'' How can an employee fulfill his or her oath if such
an employee is threatened with reprisal for executing the
laws enacted by Congress to which they are entrusted to
administer, and for not complying with an administratively-
created command to the contrary?
10. In June 2012, Secretary Napolitano issued a memorandum
ordering the implementation of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
a. If confirmed, will you continue this program?
b. Do you believe that the President has the legal
authority to expand DACA through executive, regulatory or
policy prerogatives?
11. Do you believe that the issuance of prosecutorial
discretion directives, such as those mentioned above, is
within the legal authority of the Secretary of Homeland
Security?
12. Since Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), Congress
has attempted to pass legislation that would amend the
Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize DHS to detain
criminal aliens beyond six months. Would you support such
legislation?
13. In September 2011, Secretary Napolitano suspended the
Border Patrol's practice of routinely screening mass
transportation vehicles and transportation hubs near U.S.
borders, which prompted a strong objection by the National
Border Patrol Council. If confirmed, would you reverse this
policy? If not, why?
14. Beginning in 2010, DHS has included in its statistics
for ICE removals the number of illegal immigrants apprehended
by the Border Patrol and then transferred to ICE for
processing. Do you support this policy?
15. In January 2012, the DHS Inspector General released a
report criticizing USCIS for pressuring its employees to
rubberstamp applications for immigration benefits. In that
report, nearly 25 percent of USCIS officers surveyed said
supervisors had pressured them to approve applications that
should have been denied.
a. Do you believe that current USCIS screening procedures
are sufficient to prevent fraud and threats to public safety
and national security?
b. If confirmed, would you change these policies? If so,
how?
c. Will you commit to ensuring that USCIS background checks
for every applicant for immigration benefits are properly and
effectively conducted?
d. Should employee performance evaluations at USCIS be
linked to the number of applicants for benefits approved, or
adjudicated?
16. Recently, the U.S. arrested a legal immigrant in
Illinois who had been convicted and served ten years in an
Israeli prison for her role in two terrorist bombings.
According to press reports, she was able to obtain both a
green card (in 1995) and citizenship (in 2004) by simply
omitting her conviction on her applications. She continued to
live in the U.S. for years despite the fact that the
conviction was public knowledge. Are you confident that the
current processes for screening applicants for immigration
benefits are able to identify and keep out criminals and
individuals who pose a threat to national security?
17. Some have argued that immigration judges should be
granted broad discretion to allow an illegal immigrant who
should be removed from the country to stay by waiving current
bars to admission and removal grounds for numerous crimes
(such as drug crimes, firearms offenses, domestic violence,
fraud, high speed flight at a checkpoint, and crimes
involving moral turpitude) if the judge finds that the
illegal immigrant's removal will cause hardship to a citizen
or lawful permanent resident or if the judge believes it is
in the public interest. Do you agree with this approach? If
so, please explain why and specifically, whether you believe
current immigration law is too harsh with respect to illegal
immigrants who engage in this type of criminal conduct.
18. On December 21, 2012, ICE announced that it decided not
to renew any of its agreements with state and local law
enforcement agencies that operate task forces under the
287(g) program, stating that ``other enforcement programs,
including Secure Communities are more efficient use of
resources.'' However, Secure Communities serves a completely
separate and distinct function. The 287(g) program trains
local officers to determine whether an individual is lawfully
present, including those with no prior contact with
immigration services. Secure Communities allows local law
enforcement to identify illegal immigrants only after they
have been booked into jail and if their fingerprints are
already in immigration databases. Moreover, ICE's own website
touts the 287(g) program as ``one of ICE's top partnership
initiatives.'' The website used to advertise the success of
the program: ``Since January 2006, the 287(g) program is
credited with identifying more than 304,678 potentially
removable aliens--mostly at local jails.'' Such statistics
appear to have since been removed. If confirmed, will you
commit to enter into 287(g) agreements with a qualified
requesting state or local jurisdiction?
19. After being criticized by certain special-interest
groups, the administration essentially halted all worksite
enforcement actions. According to the non-partisan
Congressional Research Service, in 2011, worksite enforcement
actions resulted in the arrest of 1,471 illegal workers out
of an estimated 8 million--.0001 percent. In the same year,
only 385 employers out of 6 million were fined for hiring
illegal workers. If confirmed, will you commit to reinstating
worksite enforcement, including enforcing immigration law
with respect to illegal alien employees?
20. If confirmed, what specific measures will you implement
to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security is in
compliance with all legal requirements of the Secure Fence
Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-367)?
21. In 2010, Secretary Napolitano suspended our nation's
only comprehensive border security measurement, known as the
operational control metric. More than three years have
passed, and the Department of Homeland Security has failed to
replace this metric. If confirmed, would you hold your
department accountable by regularly releasing a comprehensive
border security metric that measures the percentage of
illegal border crossers that escape apprehension by the
Department of Homeland Security?
22. Do you believe that the Department of Homeland Security
has the ability to achieve operational control of every
sector of our Southern border? If confirmed, would you commit
your department to achieving this standard?
23. Do you support the transfer of unused and unarmed
Department of Defense assets, such as detection and
communications equipment, to the Southern border in order to
help DHS achieve operational control of every sector of the
Southern border?
24. Our Southern border ports of entry are outdated and in
a state of disrepair--harming legitimate trade and travel,
while making our nation more vulnerable to sophisticated
criminal and terrorist organizations. If confirmed, what
specific measures would you take to revitalize and improve
security at our Southern border ports of entry?
25. Do you support making E-Verify permanent and mandatory
for all employers?
26. Serious national security issues have come to light in
recent months with respect to the EB-5 Regional Center
program, which allows foreign nationals to obtain a green
card if they invest in the United States.
a. Do you concur that more needs to be done to reduce
national security risks and to prevent fraud and abuse in the
program?
b. Do you have any plans to administratively improve the
program?
c. Will you make it a priority if you are confirmed?
27. DHS currently receives a portion of funds from each H-
1B visa application and provides these funds to USCIS for
fraud and abuse prevention efforts. However, ICE has a
responsibility to prosecute the cases but does not receive
any of these funds. Will you
28. Oversight conducted by the Judiciary Committee has
revealed that DHS is not enforcing the law prohibiting the
admission into the country of those who would be a public
charge. This has been confirmed by ICE and USCIS officers and
data on both admissions and removals. Oversight also
discovered a number of administration activities, including
advertisements in immigration materials and at foreign
embassies, encouraging foreign nationals to use federal
welfare programs. Can you please describe, in detail, how you
would restore vigorous enforcement of the public charge law
to protect taxpayers, including what efforts you would
undertake to reduce noncitizen enrollment in means-tested
welfare programs? Please be specific in your answer.
29. Dating back to 1996, Congress has mandated in six
statutes that a biometric entry-exit system be implemented.
In 2012, Rebecca Gambler, GAO's Director of Homeland Security
and Justice Issues, testified before the Judiciary Committee
that ``DHS faces challenges in identifying overstays due to
its general reliance on biographic entry and exit
information, rather than biometric information, hindering
DHS's efforts to reliably identify overstays. . . . Without
[biometric] exit capability, DHS cannot ensure the integrity
of the immigration system by identifying and removing those
people who have overstayed their original period of
admission--a stated goal of US-VISIT.'' For precisely that
reason, a biometric--and not a biographic--exit system must
be implemented to achieve real border security. Secretary
Napolitano refused to implement such a system, variously
claiming it was too expensive and/or that the technology did
not exist. However, an internal 2009 DHS report found
conclusively that biometric exit is effective and efficient,
and current data from industry demonstrates that the
technology is affordable.
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a. Do you disagree with GAO or that a biometric exit system
must be implemented to ensure real border security?
b. Do you acknowledge that federal law requires DHS to
implement a biometric entry- exit system?
c. If confirmed, will you commit to implementing this
system within one year?
We appreciate your pledge of ``transparency and candor with
Congress,'' and look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Chuck Grassley.
Jeff Sessions.
Michael S. Lee.
Orrin Hatch.
John Cornyn.
Ted Cruz.
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