[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 170 (Wednesday, November 18, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H8285-H8286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SYRIAN REFUGEES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the issue of the 
Syrian refugees and the Islamic State terrorists who are coming across 
our southern border and, in relation to this, the Office of Refugee 
Resettlement loophole that exists there.
  Also, Mr. Speaker, as I begin my remarks, I commend the House and our 
Speaker for speaking out and taking an action to condemn the Paris 
attacks.
  This administration has announced its intention to resettle 10,000 
Syrian refugees within the United States in fiscal year 2016. Now, I 
want you to think about that number, 10,000 in the year 2016. They will 
go to resettlement communities all across the country, if the 
administration has its way.
  It is important to note that the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or 
the ORR as it is called, does not simply resettle refugees from 
overseas. In fact, the ORR has been resettling thousands of illegal 
aliens that are coming across our southern border.
  I want to read to you from their 2013 report to Congress:
  ``Other Categories Eligible for Assistance and Services.

[[Page H8286]]

  ``Certain other persons admitted to the U.S. or granted status under 
other immigration categories also are eligible for refugee benefits.''
  In addition, certain persons deemed to be victims of a severe form of 
trafficking, though not legally admitted as refugees, are eligible for 
ORR benefits to the same extent as refugees.
  That is correct; the ORR resettles illegal aliens not classified as 
refugees, providing another potential gateway for the Islamic State 
terrorists.
  Frankly, we would know more about the ORR activities if they filed 
their annual reports, as required in section 413(a) of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act, and did it in a timely fashion. The last report we 
have from them is 2013. It is not transparent, it is not accountable, 
and it cannot be trusted.
  I know this firsthand, Mr. Speaker. I wrote Secretary Burwell twice 
last year about resettlement activities at the ORR and have been 
investigating them since July 2014, when Congressman Bridenstine and I 
traveled to a UAC facility at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record those letters to Secretary 
Burwell.

                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                Washington, DC, November 21, 2014.
     Hon. Sylvia M. Burwell,
     Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Secretary Burwell: It has come to my attention that 
     you have failed to submit an annual report to Congress 
     regarding the activities of the Office of Refugee 
     Resettlement (ORR) since Fiscal Year 2012. The Secretary is 
     required by law to submit an annual report pursuant to 
     Section 413(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ``no 
     later than the January 31 following the end of each fiscal 
     year, . . .'' Reports had been filed annually since 1980 
     before abruptly stopping after the FY2012 submission.
       It is important that ORR operate transparently given its 
     role in re-settling thousands of illegal aliens who crossed 
     our Southern border last summer. ORR has released more than 
     45,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) into our country to 
     adult sponsors through September 30th of this year. My home 
     state of Tennessee has had over 1,000 UACs released within 
     its borders alone. I expect a thorough update on these 
     activities.
       I would also note that ORR's budget appears to have grown 
     exponentially. ORR received over $750,000,000 million in 
     funding in FY2012. However, HHS requested almost $1.5 billion 
     for ORR in its FY2015 ``Justification of Estimates for 
     Appropriations Committees''. Without annual reports being 
     provided to Congress as part of the oversight process, it 
     becomes increasingly difficult to approve requested funding.
       I look forward to your immediate submission of ORR's FY2013 
     report to Congress. Also, I expect ORR's FY2014 report no 
     later than January 31, 2015, as required by law.
           Sincerely,
                                                 Marsha Blackburn,
     Member of Congress.
                                  ____

                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                Washington, DC, December 17, 2014.
     Hon. Sylvia M. Burwell,
     Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Secretary Burwell: An article titled ``Crossing alone: 
     Children fleeing to U.S. land in shadowy system'' was 
     published in the Houston Chronicle on May 24th, 2014. The 
     Chronicle's investigation revealed that over one-hundred 
     ``significant incident reports'' were obtained from the 
     Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through a 
     Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) and detailed 
     instances where children were abused by Office of Refugee 
     Resettlement (ORR) staff members between March 2011 and March 
     2013. The article contains several troubling statements:
       1) ``No shelter worker has been prosecuted under a 2008 
     federal provision that makes sexual contact with a detainee 
     in ORR's care a felony.''
       2) ``Youths in ORR custody in Texas were molested as they 
     slept, sexually harassed and seduced by staff members during 
     the past decade, records from state childcare licensing 
     investigators and law enforcement show. They were shoved, 
     kicked, punched and threatened with deportation if they 
     reported abuses, investigators found.''
       3) ``The Office of Refugee Resettlement relies on state 
     childcare licensing and local police to investigate abuses of 
     the children in its care, instead of notifying the FBI of 
     serious allegations. In the hands of local police and 
     prosecutors, criminal cases have crumbled because of sloppy 
     detective work, communication gaps with officials and 
     jurisdiction confusion.''
       On May 17, 2012 the President issued a memorandum regarding 
     implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 
     (PREA). The memo stated that ``Each agency is responsible 
     for, and must be accountable for, the operations of its own 
     confinement facilities, and each agency has extensive 
     expertise regarding its own facilities, particularly those 
     housing unique populations.''
       On March 7, 2013 the President signed the Violence Against 
     Women Act (VAWA) into law. Section 1101 of VAWA amended PREA 
     as follows: ``Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     enactment of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act 
     of 2013, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
     publish a final rule adopting national standards for the 
     detection, prevention, reduction and punishment of rape and 
     sexual assault in facilities that maintain custody of 
     unaccompanied alien children.''
       According to the Chronicle's investigation and a letter you 
     received from fifty-nine House Democrats this week, your 
     department has still not published a final rule. This delay 
     directly violates Section 1101 of VAWA. Your failure to act 
     timely is unacceptable given the seriousness of these issues. 
     As a result, please provide responses and document 
     production, as requested, relating to the following 
     inquiries:
       1) Has HHS published a final rule adopting final standards 
     for the detection, prevention, reduction and punishment of 
     rape and sexual assault in facilities that maintain custody 
     of unaccompanied children? If so, when did this occur?
       2) Please explain why HHS delayed, or continues to delay, 
     publishing a final rule, as required by law.
       3) In FY2014, ORR released 53,518 unaccompanied alien 
     children to sponsors within the United States. Please produce 
     any significant incident reports filed by, or on behalf of, 
     unaccompanied alien children against ORR employees in FY2014, 
     regardless of the format in which they are stored. If you 
     redact information, or are unable to produce said reports, 
     outline any legal privileges or exemptions the department is 
     relying upon.
       4) Please disclose the number of ORR employees currently 
     being investigated by law enforcement for sexual misconduct 
     or abuse involving unaccompanied alien children.
       5) Please disclose the number of ORR employees disciplined 
     or investigated by HHS for sexual misconduct or abuse of 
     unaccompanied alien children in FY2014.
       6) What efforts has ORR undertaken to work with federal law 
     enforcement to prosecute employees accused of child abuse 
     within its facilities since 2011?
       7) What initiatives has ORR undertaken on its own to 
     protect children from abuse within its facilities since 2011? 
     Please include any internal rules or memorandums that were 
     drafted to address this issue.
       ORR's failure to timely comply with the law is unacceptable 
     and not in keeping with the Administration's pledges of 
     transparency. Please provide responses to the above 
     inquiries, along with requested documentation, within fifteen 
     days of receipt of this correspondence.
           Sincerely,
                                                 Marsha Blackburn,
                                               Member of Congress.

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. We know that there are more than Mexicans and Central 
Americans coming across that southern border, and we know that once 
they are here, the ORR has no way of tracking them and keeping up with 
them.
  In April, a Judicial Watch report cited a Mexican army officer and 
police inspector who advised that ISIS was operating training bases in 
close proximity to the U.S. southern border. Another report from August 
2014 advised that social media traffic indicated ISIS was planning to 
infiltrate the southern border in order to carry out a terrorist 
attack.
  Due to these findings, all of our resettlement services must be 
temporarily suspended. I am currently working on a solution with 
several of my colleagues to address the loophole that allows 
nonrefugees to be resettled.
  In the past 3 weeks, Islamic State terrorists have bombed a Russian 
jetliner, committed suicide bombings in Beirut, and massacred French 
citizens in Paris. They are now exporting their terror. There is simply 
no method that will allow us to determine with 100 percent accuracy 
whether Syrians or illegal aliens that we resettle into the U.S. are 
really ISIS jihadists.
  Mr. Speaker, is the ISIS threat contained? No.
  Can we guarantee that Syrian refugees who are resettled into the U.S. 
will not commit acts of terror against Americans? No.
  Do we know who these people are? No.
  Are they properly vetted? No.
  Would it be responsible to bring Syrian refugees into this country 
after the attacks in Paris? No.
  Do Americans across this country want the administration to resettle 
Syrian refugees into the U.S.? No.
  Is the administration dangerously naive on this policy? Absolutely.
  I encourage my colleagues to look closely at the issue.

                          ____________________