Transcripts For CSPAN DHS Sec. Mayorkas FBI Dir. Wray Testify On Natl Security Threats Part 1 20221118

Television companies and more including comcast. You think this is just a Community Center . No it is much more than that. Comcast is partnering with Community Centers to create wifi enabled areas. Comcast supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a frontrow seat to democracy. Asked, a hearing on National Security threats with Homeland Security secretary mayorkas and fbi director Christopher Wray and National Counterterrorism direct your christine abs aid. They were in front of the home when security and Governmental Affairs committee to answer questions about immigration at the southern border, Domestic Violence stream is him, global terrorism, and Cyber Threats. Sen. Peters the committee will come to order. First off, i would like to thank our witnesses for joining us and for your continued service to the American People. This hearing is an important opportunity for this committee to hear from our nations top National Security and Law Enforcement officials about the threats facing our nations, and how congress can ensure the federal government is prepared to protect our communities from them. More than 20 years ago, the september 11th terrorist attacks changed our nation forever. In response, congress created the department of Homeland Security, and our entire National Security apparatus focused on keeping americans safe from International Terrorism. However, in more than two decades following those attacks, the threats to our community have evolved and have become increasingly complex. While we must continue to monitor International Terror threats, there is no question that we must be better prepared to defend against what our top National Security officials, including those before us today, have called the most lethal terrorist threat to americans, domestic terrorism fueled by White Nationalist and antigovernment ideologies. Yesterday, i released a report detailing the results of my investigation and alarmingly, my investigation found that dhs and the fbi are not adequately addressing the evolving domestic terrorism threat. Despite a requirement in law written by myself and senator johnson, dhs and fbi have failed to effectively measure and share comprehensive data on the threat posed by violent domestic extremists and specifically White Supremacists and antigovernment violence. Without this comprehensive data, it is impossible for congress and this committee to determine whether our nations counterterrorism resources are effectively aligned to tackle the domestic terrorism threat. We need a datadriven approach to prevent deadly incidents like the january 6 capitol branch, breach the tragic shooting in buffalo, and countless other domestic terrorist attacks that have been fueled by hateful, extremist ideologies. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today about what resources and tools their agencies need to effectively collect data on domestic terrorism and to prevent these crimes. Today, well also have the opportunity to discuss the significant threat that Cyber Attacks pose to our national and Economic Security. Im proud of bipartisan work. Sen. Portman and i have led this congress to enact some of the most significant reforms in our nations cybersecurity policy in history. Our reforms will ensure that dhs has the tools, resources, and authorities needed to protect Critical Infrastructure, state and local governments, and other targets from Cyber Attacks. However, there is more that must be done to continue securing our vulnerabilities from criminal hackers and foreign adversaries, and i look forward to discussing these topics today. One of the most serious threats, and one of the toughest to tackle is the threat posed by increasingly severe natural disasters and climate change. This is an existential threat to our planet, and unless it is addressed, it will have a Significant Impact on our Homeland Security. Today, we will hear more about how our National Security agencies are tracking these challenges and how they are planning to address the security threats they present now and into the future. We also have a challenging situation at our southern border, and today, we will discuss the administrations work to secure both our northern and southern borders, and prevent illegal trafficking and stop the flow of deadly illicit drugs like fentanyl into our communities. Those are Difficult Missions that must be accomplished, ensuring that lawful International Trade and travel can continue to flow smoothly at our ports of entry and keep states like my home state of michigan a hub for international commerce. As our National Security agents continue to tackle these longstanding threats, they must also be prepared to counter emerging ones. Over the last few years, threats proposed by Unmanned Aerial Systems or drones has become increasingly perilous. Small drones which can be purchased off the shelf at any Electronic Store can be weaponized by malicious actors to damage our nations Critical Infrastructure or inflict mass causalities. Todays drones can be used to launch remote attacks on everything from government buildings to crowds at public events, including large sports stadiums. We cannot let the current authorities that help address this grave threat expire in december. I will continue working to ensure those important authorities are extended and they are updated. Similarly, weaponized biological, chemical, nuclear, and radioactive materials also remain a significant threat to our Homeland Security. I have introduced Bipartisan Legislation with senator portman to reauthorize and strengthen the office of has charged with office of dhs charged with overseeing these threats and will continue working with my colleagues to pass it as soon as possible. The scope and the volume of these and many other National Security threats, requires congress and this administration to Work Together to ensure that we are doing everything we can to keep americans safe. Today, im pleased to welcome back each of our witnesses to hear more about how each of our agencies are working to carry out this daunting and essential mission, and i look forward to a ducted productive discussion. Before i turn things over, i want to take a moment to recognize my colleague senator portman who is retiring this year. Rob, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with you over the past two years in this committee. Im grateful for all of your hard work and your diligence to help us pass such meaningful and Bipartisan Legislation through this committee from providing important Financial Relief to the Us Postal Service to strengthen our ability to detect and deter Cyber Attacks, and working to make our nation more secure and more effective for taxpayers. It has certainly been a real pleasure, and i wish you godspeed in all your future endeavors. But all the work you did here will certainly never, ever be forgotten. Sen. Carper mr. Chairman would you yield to me for just five seconds. I want to say, im tom carper, and i approve that message. [laughter] sen. Peters i would also like to thank staff director tom thiessen or pam. Hi, pam. Did i say tom . Youre pam. I know that. I know you so well. You just have an exceptional team. M, youve been exceptional. You have put together an incredible team. Weve worked together, accomplished a lot together. Maybe not agreeing fully, but always trying to find Common Ground. We wish you godspeed as well in your future as well, pam. Thank you so much for that. What that, Ranking Member, portman, you are recognized for your opening remarks. Sen. Portman thank you, mister chairman, and just to respond to those comments, we appreciate the relationship we have had and the work we have gotten done. This committee has done a lot on a bipartisan basis. Some of it does not get any notice because it is noncontroversial by the time we finish our process, but in the process, i want to thank you and all the members of the committee for working with us to pass dozens of bills that are making an important difference to our constituents. And to you and to David Weinberg of your staff, not tom but david, we want to thank you for your willingness to work with us. We have not agreed on everything, but we have been able to find Common Ground where possible move the country forward. So, thank you very much for that. Today is my last hearing as Ranking Member, and it is appropriate that it would be this hearing because it is so important to the oversight responsibilities of this committee. And more importantly, important to our country right now, we unfortunately have a proliferation of threats facing the homeland. And i appreciate the fact that the right people werent here are here today before us to be able to address those concerns. Talk about what the administration is countering the threats. We look forward to hearing from you. As the respective leaders of your agencies, you are pursuing responsible for overseeing thousands of career employees men and women who went up every , day at dhs, and the National Counterterrorism center of what the mission to safeguard our nation. On behalf of the entire committee, i want to thank those employees who are patriots doing their best for that mission. Every fall since the terrorist acts on 9 11, we have had this hearing. We are a little late this year because of scheduling issues, but i think it is important that we hold it. It is a time to stand back a little bit and reflect on where we are and Work Together to address these potential and active threats. I can think of no greater priority for this committee. I am going to start with the crisis at the southern border. Sadly, i am leaving at a time when we really have not made the progress we should have on a bipartisan basis. But again, we have to raise these issues and attempt to solve some of these very significant problems. The failed border policies from this administration have ensured that not only do our nations borders remain unsecure, but foreign adversaries, transnational organizations, and other nefarious actors can too easily interact and therefore enter our country now and therefore threaten the safety and security of our public. This issue has gotten better, it has gotten worse. The past year the Border Control , apprehended 2 million unlawful migrants. That is up 143 since two 019. That chart behind me shows in color the blue, green, and read of where we have been. 21 and 22 figures on the right, we just got the final figures for the fiscal year 2022, and it tells a very dramatic story of failing to secure the southern border. This does not include the number of data ways, got aways. We hear from the Border Control that that number has increased as well. These are criminals who often engage in Human Trafficking and often involve themselves in the drug trade. This is about people, but is also about the fact that we have a Record Number of fentanyl shipments coming through the border, both the ports of entry and between the ports of entry now. We know this from anecdotal evidence, but also because there is a Record Number of seizures of these deadly fentanyl shipments into our communities. Fentanyl is what is causing the most number of deaths at a time we have a Record Number, sadly, of Overdose Deaths in our country. In ohio, we think it is between two thirds and three quarters of the deaths related to this one drug, deadly fentanyl which is primarily coming across the Mexican Border now. So, this has been a tough couple of years, the worst two years of unlawful migration in the worst two years of drug seizures in our nations history. We had this unfortunate, chaotic, and precipitous withdrawal that cause a lot of issues. One was nine people into our country who are not properly screened. There have been three reports from two inspectors general documenting the failures of dhs vetting, so, President Biden requested and received an additional 15 million from the fbi to conduct counterterrorism investigations among the afghan evacuees, released into our country by dhs. In other words he asked for 50 million to give to the fbi to do this additional vetting. And yet, the Administration Says it is not a problem, those two are, of course, inconsistent, perhaps we can talk about those diverging views on this panel this morning. We all recognize a great threat posed by our adversaries, such as russia, iran, and china. Who rely on disinformation tactics to weaken our democracy. I think there is a consensus about that, but, at home we have to be much more careful around issues of domestic speech, we must respond to imminent threats of violence, of course, i dont think anybody in this Company Committee disagrees with that, but censoring constitutionally protected speech is an entirely different manner. To be precise, that should be a redline and i hope that we can all agree that the u. S. Government should not censor the speech of our own citizen. Speech, differences of opinion and political viewpoints are not a threat to democracy but actually the bedrock of it. We know that dhs has disbanded is disturbing disinformation governments board after significant public outcry, but we know it has continued its efforts to curb speech under the guise of countering ms. Information. The entanglement of the fbi and the dhs with social media platforms for the purpose of controlling the narrative is something we need to talk about today. Think it is a deep concern that all americans have that we would not cross that redline. Recent reports allege that dhs is colluding with big tech to moderate content in a way that conforms with the biden administrations political views, including on the afghanistan withdrawal and things like the origin of covid,. Our democracy is also under threat because congress and the administration have been unwilling to confront the systemic threat of u. S. Intellectual property theft by china that is undermining arson nationals Economic Security. Secretary wray has been outspoken on this, his quote is there is no country that poses a broader and more Severe Threat to our ideas and Economic Security than china, i could not agree more. But, every day china reinforces the findings of our various investigations this committee. Showing the staggering extent of the Chinese Governments efforts to conduct influence and espionage operations in our country, and to steal american technology, research, and formation for their own military and economic benefit. So, addressing what the communist party of china is doing is more urgent than ever. And yet, the safeguarding american information act has been blocked from becoming law because of the unwillingness of congress to confront this issue. Cyberattacks are another significant issue facing every sector of our country, we talked about this a moment ago with senator peters, we have made some congress in this committee and i appreciate that, but, cyberattacks are growing and they are a multiplier for our adversaries. We have to understand this is an issue that they are going to continue to use. Our Economic Security is dependent on technology and we have to be sure we are not vulnerable here. Compounding that problem is the inherent difficulty of specific nation states and criminal groups. Terrorism and targeted violence also remain a serious threat to our country. Islamic terrorist attacked a synagogue in texas. A separate an ohiobased operative plan to attack former president bush. I remain convinced that we can deal with these issues on a bipartisan basis as we have in the past, but i am concerned about the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations in the wake of our withdrawal from afghanistan, alqaeda continues to pose a threat, the Islamic State continues to mobilize. Iranian sponsored terrorist groups target key interest and officials consistently, we must remain vigilant as these groups organize and organizations regroup and evolve. We must restore confidence the American Public that we are committed to protect our nation from terrorism, espionage, another Homeland Security threats. There should be a bipartisan effort. We all have the same goal, a safe, secure american homeland. So, with that said i look forward to testimony this morning mister chairman and most portly the responses to questions regarding the record of the administration addressing these threats Going Forward together. I will note that last week we received overdue answers to questions that we had from last years hearing, it took over a here. I would hope that in this case we would get more prompt responses to the committee from questions that are posed. Thank you i look forward to the testimony. Sen. Peters thank you, Ranking Member portman, before i swear in the witnesses i just want to make sure everyone knows how this will proceed. We will have two rounds of questions today and. The first round will be seven minutes for each person. The second round will be five minutes per person due to time constraints with all the witnesses. I am going to enforce those time limits a little more aggressively than i have in the past for everyone. Seven minutes first round, five minutes the second round. It is the practice of the Homeland Security and government Affairs Committee to swear in witnesses so if you would stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing with the truth so help you god . Thank you, you may be seated. Secretary mae arcus is the seventh seven Terry Department of Homeland Security. Over his distinguished 30 year career and nationally recognized lawyer he has served as the departments deputy secretary, as director of u. S. Citizenship and immigration services, and, at the department of justice as assistant to the United States attorney in the Central District of california. Mr. Secretary, thank you again for being here before the committee. You may proceed with your opening remarks. Sec. Mayorkas chairman peters, Ranking Member portman, distinguished members of this committee, thank you for inviting me to join you today. Ranking member portman, thank you for your unwavering support of our department. Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the homeless cardiac being signed into law. Homeland security act being signed into law. This acts brought together many components of the federal government to safeguard the United States against foreign terrorism in the wake of the devastation wrought on september 11, 200 one. It remains the largest reorganization of the federal governments National Security establishment since 1947. It is a testament to the grave threat we face as a nation from terrorism brought to our shores by foreign actors and foreign terrorist organizations. Congress created a department that is significantly reduced the risk foreign terrorism poses to the homeland by increasing our capacity to prepare for and respond to those events. Foreign terrorist organizations remain committed to attacking the United States from within and beyond our borders, they use social media platforms to amplify messaging intended to inspire attacks in the homeland, they have adapted to changing security environments. Seeking new and innovative ways to target the United States. The evolving terrorism threat to the homeland now includes loan lone actors of small cells, domestic violent extremists seeking to further some political or social, or act on a grievance, and homeland violent extremists looking for advance in the interest of a foreign terrorist organization. From cyberattacks on our Critical Infrastructure to increasing destabilizing efforts by hostile nation states, the threats facing the homeland have never been greater, or more complex. Flouting internationally accepted norms of responsible behavior in cyberspace, our adversaries, hostile nations and nonnation state cybercriminals continue to advance in capability and sophistication. Their methods vary but their goals of doing harm are the same. Hostile nations like russia, the peoples republic of china, iran, and north korea, and cybercriminals around the world continue to sharpen their tactics and create more adverse consequences. There Ransomware Attacks target our financial institutions, hospitals, pipelines, electric grids, and Water Treatment plants, attempting to wreak havoc on our daily lives. They exploit the integrated global cyber ecosystem to sow discord, undermine democracy and erode trust in our institutions, public and private. These Cyber Operations threaten the economic and National Security of every american and many others around the world. In particular, china is using its technology to tilt the global Playing Field to its benefit. They leverage sophisticated Cyber Capabilities to gain access to the intellectual Property Data and infrastructure of american individuals and businesses. Russias unprovoked invasion of ukraine intensify the risk of a intensified the risk of a cyber attack impacting our Critical Infrastructure earlier this year. Nationstate aggressions creating a heightened risk of chemical, biological, radiological and Nuclear Related threats to americans as well. While fast emerging technologies like Unmanned Aerial Systems, artificial intelligence, Internet Communications and cryptocurrencies are helping societies be more productive, creative, and entrepreneurial, they are also introducing new risks. Transnational criminal organizations are deploying these technologies to commit a wide array of crimes as they continue to grow in size, scale, sophistication and lethality, with respect to Unmanned Aerial Systems in particular it is vital that congress act before the end of this year to extend our authorities in order to protect the American People from malicious drone activity. The risk of targeted violence perpetrated by actors abroad and at home, is substantial, emerging technology and platforms allow individuals and nation states to fan the flames of hate and personal grievances to large audiences and are encouraging people to commit violent acts. Those driven to ve targeting Critical Infrastructure; soft targets government facilities and soft targets. Government facilities and personnel, including Law Enforcement and the military, and perceived ideological opponents. Addressing these threats requires a wholeofsociety approach across federal, state, and local governments, the private sector, nonprofits, academia, and most importantly every citizen. Congress may not have predicted the extent of todays threat environment when our department was created 20 years ago, but our mission has never been more vital, our components have never collaborated more closely, and our workforce has never been more capable. We must harness the same deliberative and bipartisan spirit in which this department was created to combat the vast threats americans face today. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Director Christopher Wray is the 8th director of the federal bureau of investigation. Director wray began his Law Enforcement career over two decades ago, serving in the department of justice as an assistant u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of georgia. He has also served on the president s corporate fraud tax force and supervised the enron tax force, in addition to playing a key role in the National Security objectives for the department. Thank you for appearing before the committee today. You may proceed with your opening remarks. Good morning, chairman peters, Ranking Member portman, and members of the committee. I am honored to be here today. When it comes to the current threat landscape, what makes our Current Situation unique is the fact that we are seeing so many different threat to areas all elevated at the same time. I am proud of the work that the fbi is doing all across the country and across the world to rise to the challenge and protect the American People. Protecting the American People from terrorist attacks remains the fbis number one priority. The greatest threat we face in the terrorism front here in the homeland is what are effectively loan actors from small cells. Loan lone actors from small cells. Soft targets as everyday people going about their everyday lives. Overseas, isis and al qaeda still aim to inspire and launch attacks against the United States and our allies. As the strike in kabul reinforces the threat of organizations like al qaeda attempted to reconstitute in afghanistan following our withdrawal is very real. Our ability to gather intelligence has been reduced and sent. All of that places a premium on our collaboration with our partners, both within the u. S. Government and international. We have to stand the balls of her feet and use all the tools available to us. On top of that, countries like china, russia, north korea are all grown more aggressive and more capable. They are coming at us to undermine our democratic institutions, our National Security and our rule of law. The greatest therapist from china. They aspire to equal or surpass the u. S. Is a global super power and influence the world with a value system shaped by undemocratic authoritarian ideals. But we are confronting that threat had on. Three weeks ago we unsealed charges against 13 individuals, 10 of them chinese Intelligence Officers for a variety of criminal efforts to exert influence right here in the u. S. On behalf of beijing. We have scores of investigations into the china threat in all 56 fbi field offices. On the cyber front, chinas fast Hacking Program is the worlds largest. They have stolen more of americas data than any other nation. But of course china is not our only challenge in cyberspace. Investigations are growing in frequency and complexity, consistent with the evolution of the threat. We are investigating over 100 different ransomware, each with scores of victims. And it has become more difficult to discern where the cyber criminal activity ends. The line between those two continues to blur. Just last month, we announced the indictment of three iranian nationals for their roles in a scheme to compromise the networks of hundreds of organizations, many of which offer Critical Services americans rely on. To these sorts of factors, nothing is off limits, not even boston childrens hospital, which they set their sights on in the summer of 2021. Fortunately, before they could launch their attack, we received a tip from a partner and we were able to identify and defeat the threat, protecting both the network and the sick kids who depend on it. Our opponents are relentless and we have to keep responding. I can assure you we will continue to be aggressive and creative as we run joint operations with our partners. Removing the malware, taking down their buff arms and hunting them down around the world. It does not include things that are our efforts to combat Violent Crime. Our continued focus on Human Trafficking where this august the fbi and our partners located more than 200 victims of Human Trafficking, many of them little kids. Or the work our transnational organized crime unit is doing. The breath and depth of the threats is staggering. I continue to be inspired by their commitment to our mission of protecting the American People and upholding the constitution. I know we will continue to answer the call. Thank you again for having me here today. Thank you. Director Christine Abizaid is the 8th senateconfirmed director of the National Counterterrorism center. Previously, she served on the National Security Council Staff as both director for counterterrorism and senior policy advisor to the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counterterrorism. She has also served as Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for afghanistan, pakistan, and central asia and as a Senior Intelligence analyst for the Defense Intelligence agency. Thank you for appearing before the committee today. You may proceed with your opening remarks. Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Despite significant progress, the country continues to face a diversified, transnational and unpredictable correct environment at home and abroad. An array of vectors whether foreign or state sponsors are shaping the nature of todays threat. This environment exists amid an ongoing transition for the Counterterrorism Community. In todays testimony, i will start by giving an overview of the threat to the homeland and end with some comments on the importance of rct efforts. Regarding the United States homeland, terrorist organizations remain committed to attacking inside the United States. However, unlike 21 years ago, the threat today is more likely to take the form of an individual attacker rather than a network. Since 9 11, 37 of the 45 isis or Al Qaeda Linked attacks have been inspired by these groups rather than centrally directed by ben. This trend toward loan actors threats extends beyond isis and al qaeda. It also characterizes the threats we face from domestic actors. In particular, the racially violent extremist threat has the most obvious links to transnational actors whose plots and professed ideologies encouraged mobilization to violence by those vulnerable to the message and. Messaging. Transitioning to the overseas environment, terrorist movements continue to dominate the threat to americans. Isis and al qaeda continue to aspire to attack u. S. Interests overseas. For its part, isis, iraq and syria remains a centrally Led Organization that will pose a global threat. This despite the death of its emir in february. Isis leaders from iraq and syria have been successful in harboring branches and networks across africa and asia with its two most effective branches operating out of west africa and afghanistan. Likewise, al qaeda maintains its regional affiliate structure in africa, the middle east and south asia. The july death of the al qaeda leader was a strategic setback for the organization, but it does not put an end to al qaeda. Two other prominent al qaeda affiliates also stand out. We continue to monitor for signs al qaeda has chosen successor now three months since his step. We are particularly focused on the role that he brown based legacy leaders i ran iran based organizations may make. They have stopped to plot attacks against former u. S. Officials to retaliate for the death of their commander, raising the threat both at home and abroad. I would like to highlight that the complexity of the International Terrorism environment continues to demand a collaborative and sufficiently resourced counterterrorism effort to mitigate threats to the United States. It is clear that the significant ct pressure along with investment in defenses here at home has resulted in a diminished threat to the United States homeland. The role today is perhaps more important today than more than ever. I want to assure the committee that the interagency enterprise remains committed to this mission and are working behind the scenes to protect the American People both at home and abroad. It is with great gratitude and privilege that i appear before you today and have the opportunity to recognize the Incredible Community of professionals whose dedication to the ct mission has done so much to protect this country. Thank you. Yesterday, i released the report following a multiyear investigation on the growing domestic terrorism threat. This is available through the website of the Homeland Security committee. We found that despite being required by law, dhs and fbi have failed to systematically track and report data on domestic terrorism. They have not allocated resources to match the current threat. It is hard to address this rising threat if we cannot quantify and define the scope of the problem. The agencies appear not to be doing that. Director ray, we have seen think tanks and nonprofits collect more comprehensive data than the u. S. Government has been able to do. Why has the fbi been on able to report data despite a federal law requiring you to do so. I know all too well that there are been frustrations in the reports that have been generated under the law you are referring to. We made progress between the first report in the second report and we continue to make progress. If you go further back in time, we were using paper as opposed to electronic. In addition, state and local Law Enforcement are not required to report domestic terrorism incidents to us. You mentioned the terminology change. We have changed terminology over time for good reasons. There is some risk of having an apples to oranges affect. We are committed to working with the committee on the topic and are Data Tracking that our Data Tracking should not confuse with our commitment. We have searched resources to address that and the pace of investigations and arrests doubled or even tripled. We have been working hard but we need more resources and our fiscal 22 budget specifically asks for more resources to help address the domestic terrorism threat. I appreciate your work on this. The second report was better than the first report. I hope we work closely together to make the third report even better. I appreciate your active engagement. I also remain extremely concerned about the threat posed to our nation from bad actors using Unmanned Aircraft systems. Earlier this year, this committee unanimously passed the bill to protect our nations airports, infrastructure and public spaces from these threats. Secretary mayorkas, could you explain to this committee the consequences of allowing these authorities to lapse . Chairman peters, i am deeply appreciative of your bipartisan efforts to propose legislation to not only continue our authority to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems, but also to expand it critically. At needed that need its very grave. Just yesterday experts were speaking of the increased capability of drones in terms of their visibility, speed, distance and the loads they can carry. This poses a real threat and we see it very often. Sometimes by innocent operators who mistakenly interfere with the airspace and caused aircraft to reroute their journeys to bad actors and we see it quite practically in the war zone that russia created with its unprovoked assault on ukraine. These are sophisticated tools that can carry drugs, back launch weaponry and we must be able to counter it. We hope that Congress Passes the legislation that you have proposed. Thank you. We have limited time. Director wray, the fbis the lead on protecting mass gatherings. How concerned are you about these authorities lapsing . We are deeply concerned. It is important for americans to understand if that authority is not reauthorized next month that public gatherings like the super bowl in arizona, like new years eve in times square, like formula one in las vegas, none of those things will have protection from this threat. And all the times we have deployed, we located hundreds of drones that have been acting in violation of federal law. As the threat continues to grow, we are investigating even as we speak several incidents within the United States attempts to weaponize drones with homemade ieds. Thank you. Ranking member portman, you are recognized for your question. Thank you. I want to thank you and senator johnson to put together this legislation. I am a cosponsor of that. We have to get this one done. I think you for working on this issue. Less than a month when it expires so we have to move quickly. I spoke about the appreciation we have for the men and women you represent. We just learned that five customs and Border Protection agents were shot, one fatally. This just happened. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the agent who was fatally shot. And also with those agents who were wounded. It is a sober reminder of the sacrifices the individuals who you represent today here make every day, and we owe them our support. It is a dangerous time, and this is an unfortunate example of that. With regard to the southern border, we talked a lot about this over the months and years even of how do you take a broken system and fix it . Clearly if you take a look at this chart behind me, it is broken. There was an interest in back and forth recently between the chief of Border Patrol and the state of florida. I just thought i would go over that quickly. This has been the worst year of apprehensions ever appeared the second worst year was last year. These numbers speak for themselves. More than 2 Million People apprehended between the ports of entry in 2022. This summer, the chief of Border Patrol gave his answers under oath. I asked unanimous consent to place it into the record. Without objection. Secretary, i am going to ask you the same questions that the chief of Border Patrol was asked. Please just give me a yes or no answer. The first question, the southern border currently in crisis . Ranking member portman, the entire hemisphere is suffering a migration crisis. We are seeing an Unprecedented Movement. It is not restricted to the southern border. We are seeing an Unprecedented Movement throughout the western hemisphere. The case of venezuela is the most compelling example. Approximately 8 million have left the country. Columbia is hosting 2. 4 one million venezuelans. I would ask you for an answer about the southern border. What are we doing about it . Should we be changing our policies at the border to deal with that . Is the southern border currently in crisis . We are seeing a significant challenge. Chief ortiz stated yes, just so you know. Would you agree the unprecedented number of unlawful migrants are in the United States right now . Yes or no . I believe the number of incomes we have had at the border, i think it is approximately 2. 3 one million this year, is the highest on record. So the answer is yes. When President Biden took office, is it true the number of migrants has increased substantially . Has, and there are it has. We cannot fix the problem unless we acknowledge it. We cannot fix the problem unless we are willing to be honest, saying we have a crisis. And if we do not fix the crisis, the border will continue to see the same results. There has been a problem with our immigration system for years and years. The system for two years and years, but look at the chart. This is the numbers. It has gotten far worse. You and i have talked about this a lot. If we do not figure out a way to provide for deportations when people are here illegally, this will continue. We are looking at a situation, the leadership of these countries actually do not want their people moving into the United States. Some of their best and brightest are li bin because are leaving because we are now putting together policies at the southern border. Not putting together policies at the southern border. Some of these attacks concerned us greatly. [indiscernible] we have discussed this fuller ability. Another example of the issues. My time is expiring. Can you tell us what agencies or agency was compromised with regard to this latest announcement you made with the iranian sponsored attack . I would need to speak with my colleagues to determine whether i would be compromising any security interests. Argue confident the actors are you confident the actors have been expelled . I would have to confer with my colleagues to determine the status of the effort by the bad actors. [indiscernible] i believe so. Thank you. Senator, you are recognized. To each of our witnesses, welcome. It is great to see you all again. Some of you i have known for a while. We do not do these jobs by ourselves. Our families put up with a lot. We just want to thank your families for sharing you with the spirit with us. I joined this committee 22 years ago. Joe lieberman said you should try to get on the Governmental Affairs committee. He said it is a perfect fit for you. And i joint. Two years yariel or later, 911 came along and the whole world changed. What we face todays unbelievable. It is just incredible how the world has changed and in not so good ways. A special thanks to each of you and the people you work with to help us try to address and be ready for the threats. Mr. Secretary, my first question is to you. I know your job is not an easy one. I hope that everyone here today can respect that and that your dedication is commendable. That goes for all three of our witnesses here today. As we continue to see a number of encounters at her southern border, dhs has been leading a whole of government response to address these challenges. Can you talk about some of the changes in migration patterns that we have seen at our southern border and what policies the department has put in place to address these challenges, specifically can you speak to the investments in Border Technology and legal migration pathways and your level of engagement with other countries in the region given the migration patterns have been a challenge. Thank you for acknowledging the challenge that these positions present. Of course, the challenge is all relative. Ranking member portman mentioned the tragic loss of one of our frontline personnel. Several other were greatly wounded. Gravely wounded. The difficulty of this job cannot be compared to the difficulty that our frontline personnel face every day. I appreciate Ranking Member portman acknowledging that. The migration patterns in the hemisphere have changed dramatically. When i was the deputy secretary, we were very concerned about migration from the Central American countries. We have encountered the highest level of encounters by venezuelans, cubans and nicaraguans. It makes the challenge even more acute because our relations with these countries is quite strained. And we are unable to remove as easily individuals of these countries of origin. We implemented a very successful response to the venezuelan migration in particular. We have six lines of effort. Personnel, technology, facilities, transportation. We have increased our process and efficiency. We are increasingly digitizing our processes, modernizing them so that the intake process is enhanced and more efficient. We are delivering consequences for unlawful entry. We have increased the number of prosecution of illegal entry when individuals seek to an evade Law Enforcement. We are conducting unprecedented disruption campaigns against the smuggling organizations and the transnational criminal organizations. We are working closely with our partners to the south. The declaration that was signed at the summit of the americas several months ago speaks powerfully of that. We need countries throughout the hemisphere to enforce their laws of humanitarian relief as well as their laws of enforcement. This is a multipronged effort to address a multinational challenge throughout the hemisphere. Thank you for that response. When i was a stranger in your land, did you welcome me . In an effort to reduce the likelihood that people will risk life to come to this country, some of us think why dont we give them the opportunity if they want to come to go to our embassies and let those intentions be known and work from there. Our laws are laws of humanitarian relief and loss of accountability. We have an asylum system that is a source of pride in our country and we enforce the law. When someone qualifies for humanitarian relief, they are under the law entitled to remain here. If they do not qualify, they are to be removed and we are enforcing the laws. Thank you so much. Senator johnson, you are recognized. Director wray, you made a comment that you were committed to working with this committee. If you will excuse me if i find those words rings hollow. I had to subpoena you as chairman of this committee. I really did not get anything. Repeated letters with no response or a nonresponse. It is one of the reasons i am grateful to all of the whistleblowers for coming forward, people of integrity within your organizations blowing the whistle on the corruption at some of the highest levels of the fbi. Do you commit publicly that the fbi will not retaliate against those whistleblowers . Senator, we will not retaliate against whistleblowers. I take the protections extremely seriously. I will hold you to that. Senator grassley wrote you a letter on july 25, 2020, in which she said that whistleblowers reported that fbi officials initiated a scheme to shut down hunter biden investigation by calling it disinformation. Have you responded to senator grassleys letter that he wrote over three months ago . I know there have been a lot of letters. Have you looked into those charges that there was a scheme hatched to downplay the derogatory information on hunter biden . We have as we speak a number of Personnel Matters underway. We cannot discuss that is always your excuse. I got it. I understand how you remain above the law by using that excuse repeatedly. On august six, we received an unsolicited briefing by members of the fbi which i knew immediately was a set up. No new information whatsoever. I knew it was a set up. Nine months later, i was leaked to the Washington Post to smear me. Ive written you publicly and number of times. Asking who directed that briefing. Are you prepared to tell me in public who directed that briefing now . First off, i cannot discuss specific briefings tell me why you used it to meet with us . It may if i may finish my answer to the question. We have responded in writing to a letter that you sent it is bureaucratic gobbledygook. To provide a Senior Executive of the fbi to walk through in detail but not specifically who directed a briefing that was used to smear me. Have you looked into the leaking of that briefing to the Washington Post . I am not going to discuss specific investigations. As to the briefing, when it comes to election related defensive briefings, there is not the Single Person who makes that decision. That is an interagency process that was set up by the prior administration. There are persons in that interagency, correct . So we should know who those persons are. Why wont you tell us who directed that briefing . I would refer you to the process that was put in place. Have you read senator grassleys and my report on Hunter Bidens corruption, issued in 2020 . I have not had a chance to look at them. Do you see any sign of russian disinformation in those reports . That would be a hard question for me to answer here. It is a very easy answer. There is no russian disinformation. That report is clean of any interference. Although we have falsely accused of spreading russian disinformation. Are you aware of the fbi have any involvement in the october 19, 2020 Public Statement by 51 former intelligence officials . I am not aware of any involvement by the fbi in what you are describing. If it is true that in august of 2020 the fbi initiated a scheme to downplay derogatory information on hunter biden, it would seem like maybe part of the scheme would be to get intelligence officials to issue a letter that stated that the laptop had all the earmarks of a russian information operation. That was totally false. We now know the hunter biden laptop was authentic. The point i am trying to make here is the unsolicited briefing was late in may of 2021 and was used to smear me and interfered into the u. S. Senate election of november 2022. One of the whistleblowers to my committee has stated that the fbi was no longer going to interfere in elections or something to that effect . The fbi is not going to change the outcome of the election again. Well, the fbi tried to buy leaking bat briefing. Are you going to investigate that . Because that is election interference. This letter interfered in the 2022 election to a far greater extent that russia ever could have hoped to accomplish. It has to be investigated. I have no faith that you will do so. Senator hassan, you are recognized. Thank you. I want to thank you for holding this hearing today. Thank you to our witnesses for being here. I want to end my prayers and thoughts for the officers and their families. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Ranking Member portman for his years of service and for his work on this committee and for the bipartisan work she has led. Again, to all the witnesses, thank you. The first party of government is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens and your work is critical to that mission. Director abizaid, i want to start with the question to you. When we help this hearing a year ago, some assessments indicated that in the wake of the United States withdraw from afghanistan, al qaeda would have the ability to reconstitute itself and threaten the United States homeland within one or two years. To the extent that you can discuss it, what is the National Counterterrorisms center conclusion to threaten the homeland . Al qaedas capability to threaten the homeland from afghanistan is quite limited in part thanks to the operation that killed the leader recently. But also the al qaeda in afghanistan are not focused on external operations as far as we can tell. There are other elements that we are concerned about, primarily isis branch there. But the threat from al qaeda should be disaggregated from that given the very unique circumstances around that group and its relationship with the taliban. Thank you. Director wray and secretary mayorkas, do you agree with this assessment . I would add a couple of things. We are very concerned about isisk as one of the threats. As time progresses, i am concerned that we will have fewer good sources of information about what al qaeda is doing in afghanistan, so we have to be mindful the known unknown. We are very concerned about al qaeda and isis and their ability to inspire tax from over there inspire a tax from over there. I think the point that my colleagues have made underscores a broader point, which is that we have spoken about the threats , but we should keep in mind the threats of the past remain the threats of the present. I differ to the experts to my left. Thank you. Secretary mayorkas, every week a new drug seizure along the border makes headlines. But the flow of drugs across the south border is unrelenting. What specific steps is dhs taking to stem the flow of drugs crossing the border . What Additional Resources are you using to address this problem . Thank you so much. It is a fact that the smugglers seek to transport controlled substances, Illegal Drugs into the United States, primarily through the ports of entry and what we have done is we have technological resources that can most effectively detect those substances. Specifically malnutrition technology nonintrusion technology. What we need is more resources like that and we really Hope Congress passes our fiscal year 2023 budget. We are already six weeks into the new fiscal year without the resources we need financially to invest in that technology and deploy additional personnel. Thank you. One additional question. Over the last few years, Cyber Attacks have plagued state and local governments. Senator cornyn and i created a federal Grant Program for state and local entities to improve their cybersecurity. I understand the department of Homeland Security is reviewing applications. But can you explain what the departments goals are for this first year of grants . We are so grateful for that Grant Program. The first year, we are dedicating 185 million to state and local governments. This is all about building the capacity. In cybersecurity, we are only as strong as our weakest link. There are target rich and resource poor localities that we need to strengthen. That is what this program will enable us to do. So your goal right now is making sure that the state and local governments that have applied get the resources they need. Is that fair to say . Yes, it is, senator. Thank you. Senator paul, you are recognized. Director wray, is facebook supplying private messages or data on american users that is not compelled by the government or the fbi . Not compelled . No warrants they are just supplying you information on their users . I cannot be sure as i sit here. Can you give us a yes or no . It is a very specific question. Because if they are, it is against the law. This was done to protect the privacy of people. It is a very specific question. Will you give us a specific answer because this is the law. If you are doing it, we need to go to court. I can tell you i am quite confident we are following the law. But i will also follow up with you. Is the fbi obtaining anonymous social media data and then using Technical Methods to pierce the anonymous nature of the data . Anonymous social media data . Purchased data. Are you purchasing what is said to be anonymous data through the marketplace . I was thinking more in terms of no, i am talking about data that is out there. The manner in which, we usually use the term commercial data. So you will not answer the question on whether or not you are texan names to anonymous data. It is a more complicated answer than i can give here. You have to realize the frustration. We will write you a letter and your team of lawyers will write back that says nothing. We are obeying the law. You are saying that, but you will not tell us the answer. Are you collecting data not compelled by a warrant . That would not be in compliance with the law. We are following the law and we will have somebody who will follow up with you. Are you getting data from them that is not compelled . Are you receiving private messages from social Media Companies through the use confidential human sources . Facebook, social Media Companies . Do you have people you are paying or who are volunteering to give you information even though it would be against the law for facebook to do this. You mean in effect recruiting human source inside the company . Exactly. No. We have people who report to us on their own. Once again, i would like the answer to be more specific from your team. We get back to the idea of whether or not you are getting information from them. The next question is, what you probably will not answer, are you taken information you are getting and going around and coming back and using it to get a warrant . I am not sure i am following. Basically, you get information that facebook is volunteering. The question is, are you getting information they are giving you. Then you are taking it and using it as a predicate to get a real warrant. We get tips and leads from all over the place, from members of the public, from businesses, from Community Leaders all the time and we use them are you getting tips and leads from facebook and social Media Companies . We get tips and leads from companies, absolutely. It includes private information. I am not aware you might think this is a jolly well to get this stuff, but many of us are alarmed because it is against the law. You are going to have to go back with your team and search over whether you are doing better now not to. There are doubts because this has been reported. Even the fbi said that companies are referring information to the fbi with investigative value related to foreign malign influence. There would probably be more tolerance about that if it was foreign malign influence. The question is are you also receive an on socalled domestic . Are they giving you information on private things that you have told them people who question the election i will give you two examples. If we supply information to facebook or other Technology Companies about foreign accounts, Russian Intelligence Service for example accounts, they will look in their system for those accounts and often find other accounts related to those and provide tips and leads back to us about those. A second example is a situation where a Technology Company encounters a threat of violence on their platform and they provide tips and leads to us and we follow up on those. There is not a lot of disagreement about that. The question is when we start to talk about political speech and that is the question. Are you receiving things that could be interpreted, we want to know, whether it is political speech, someone who questions the election. Some went mad about something going on. Not saying they are directly going to commit violence, they are mad about things. With the new york article said is yes, you are getting this. This is from a whistleblower which makes this whistleblowers are saying you are receiving this information from facebook and others and you are going around the constitution to come back and try to get warrants for it but once you read it, there is no there has been no actionable intelligence on this. You should admit to us whether or not you have a Program Going after our speech. We investigate violence and not speech. Thank you to all three of you and the service you give to the country on this. We have lots of cross questions about process. We talked about title 42 for about 18 months and i ask you what happens when title 42 goes away and for 18 months you said we are working on it. Judge sullivan just stepped in and canceled out title 42 so we are in an audit situation where dhs is in one court asking to extend title 42 a little longer and another court asking to cancel title 42 altogether but we are trying to figure out what happens now and how many people are about to cross the border. What is the plan for dealing with this mass migration coming post title 42 . What we requested of George Sullivan judge sullivan was a wind down period of 35 days which was unopposed and granted by the court. What we are doing is precisely what we announced we would do in april of this year and we have indeed been executing the plan. It is six different lines of effort and i will review them very quickly given the limited time. Resources to that southern border, including personnel, technology, facilities capabilities and transportation, medical support, increasing our customs and Border Protection processing efficiency. To mitigate potential overcrowding. We have been digitizing our electronic files, immigration files. We are enhancing the consequences for unlawful entry especially with respect to individuals who seek to evade a Law Enforcement including removal, detention and criminal prosecution. We are seeking to bolster the capacity of nonprofit organizations, state and local officials are working closely with them. We are targeting and disrupting smuggling organizations and the transnational criminal organizations. We have affected more than 5000 arrests and more than 6000 disruption events and that means arrests of individuals, a breakdown of smuggling, of stash houses, the seizure of the instrumentalities that they use, and we are working with our partners to the south to deter irregular migration and i spoke earlier in response to Ranking Member portman question about the fact this is a tremendous hemispheric challenge. We are seeing the movement of people and the demographics we are encountering at the border has changed dramatically. One challenges the numbers just came in for october, the thirdhighest number in recorded history. While those were implemented, the numbers continue to accelerate and this goes back to estimates when title 42 goes away, there was an expectation from intel to be able to say these numbers will surge even greater. What we are trying to figure out is what is the plan . The plan has led to the thirdhighest number for any single month and history. A few points if i may, thank you. Number one, the number of encounters is not equal to the number of unique individuals. We know that. Title 42 creates a potential the ease of recidivism. We are working on with our partners to the south with respect to the end of title 42 and whether we will be able to continue our Successful Program with respect to venezuela nationals and use our title eight authorities but we also have other opportunities ahead of us. As we saw to do earlier, and we will resume this, is an enhanced use of expedited removal which is a title eight authority. We are looking at our consequent regimes and how we can effectively employ them. A lot of people commenting on these numbers going down and they are going up. Counting on these numbers going up counting on these numbers going down and they are going up. We expect it will accelerate even higher. Let me ask a pointblank question. What percentage of the individuals that are encountered at our southern border we know there criminal history from the country they are coming from . I am not talking about if they have an american criminal history. That we know there criminal history of the country they come from. We know that history . I will have to get back to you on that, whether we have the capability of identifying the percentage, which is what you are it is my understanding we do not know the criminal history of the vast majority. Can you give me an estimate on this . I guess. I am quite hesitant to guess on information that is so important to our mission but i will certainly gets back to you with whatever information we can provide. I think there is an assumption the American People feel the 2 million plus individuals encountered in the last 12 months have been invented in some way at our southern border, checked, and we do not know if they are fleeing property poverty or fleeing from the law. We do not know. As my colleagues here will attest as well, we conduct screening and venting of individuals whom we encounter. We have a robust screening and vetting process. It is a recurrent venting and it is not just with respect to criminal history in the u. S. I would like to get a guess of how many people we know there criminal history when they come in. I will get back to you and see if we have that data and if so, i will provide it to you. Thank you. We have asked your team about the information for the mpp and decisionmaking process for the remaining mexico policy on this. He asked about that for a while and recently got a letter back saying there are no responsive documents that have been withheld. Physically you have everything that we would have but the implication is the decisionmaking process of who qualifies for the mpp and who does not was left up to a casebycase basis and there are no guidance documents. I find that hard to believe that there were no guidance documents given to anyone on your team along the border on how to be able to decide get your team is telling me we do not have anything. We never printed anything. I would like to have a followup to get access to those documents. I certainly have some very important points to make in response to your concern. Senator scott you are recognized for questions. Thank you for your calls on of the hurricane and i have had a very experience with fema. You have a great team there and everybody there does a good job. I think the last time you testified i have the opportunity afterward to go to West Virginia and i want to compliment you on what you have done to revamp i am sure it is still hard to catch up with everything that goes on out there but i wanted to thank you for that. I have been disappointed at the border. It seems like it is open. We have people dying but here is my question. It has been reported that Chinese Communist party or operating police stations in the u. S. In an effort to surveilled chinese the u. S. Should not allow its most significant geopolitical rival to establish police stations in the u. S. What authority and jurisdiction does that ccp have in the u. S. . I am very concerned about this like you. We are aware of the existence of these stations. I have to be careful about discussing our specific investigative work but it is outrageous to me to think that Chinese Police when attempt to set up shop in new york without proper coronation, it violates sovereignty. The reason this is so important is because we have seen a clear pattern of the Chinese Government, the Chinese Communist party, exporting their repression right here into the u. S. We have had a number of indictments you may have seen of the chinese engaging in uncoordinated Law Enforcement action right here in the United States. Stalking, blackmailing, people they just do not like or disagree with the regime. It is a real problem and something we are talking with foreign partners about as well because we are not the only country this has occurred. They dont have any right to be here, right . We are looking into the legal parameters of it so i want to be a little bit careful not to get over my skis on that. I can tell you from an fbi director perspective i am deeply concerned about this and i am not going to just let it lie. s equity secretary does that impact Homeland Security at all . It is not only a matter of National Security, it is a matter of Homeland Security in a number of arrays and a number of areas of our mission. Do have the ability to shut them down . You have the right to . I would have to defer to the department of justice with respect so it would be under fbi . Or to the extent the remedies might be some part of the Justice Department outside the fbi, that could also be a possibility. There may be a state department we are looking into. Do you know if they are surveilling u. S. Citizen . I do not want to get too far into our ongoing investigative work but we have seen plenty of situations in the past where the Chinese Government under the pretext of going after corruption have essentially used that as a vehicle to surveilled we had situations where they planted bugs inside americans cars for example. One of the things we are seeing more and more is them hiring private investigators here in the u. S. To essentially be their agents to conduct some of this work. This is something we are trying to call out and it is important that chineseamericans who are here know to call the fbi to report when they think they may have been targeted. I would like to get a briefing on what they are doing at some point. Whenever it works out for you. Happy to set that up. To me if it is accurate or not. I am not suggesting this is all accurate. It appears the department of justice have become politicized with regard to prolife. There is a recent rise in fbi investigations of prolife americans which raises concerns that the fbi is weaponizing federal Law Enforcement as becoming a partisan tool which i do not think that has been at your goal when we talk. There appears to be investigations of the prolife community and just the opposite of what happened, we had numerous fire bombings violent attacks, vandalism against churches, and Crisis Pregnancy Centers and days following the leaks of the dogs decision. Is that happening . Dobbs decision. My view is expressed to all of our people including in the context of abortionrelated violence is that i do not care what side of the issue you are on, you do not get to engage in violence. We are equal opportunity when it comes to that. We have quite a number of investigations as we speak into attacks or threats against pregnancy resource centers, faithbased and other prolife organizations and you might be interested to know that since the decision, probably in the neighbor hood of 70 of abortionrelated of violence cases or threat cases are cases of violence or threats against prolife. The victims are prolife organizations and we are going after that through our taskforces, through our criminal authorities. We have about 20 field offices involved in this we take it seriously. I do not care whether you are motivated by prolife or prochoice views, you do not get to use violence. It just seems to me that in department of justice, fbi and particular, they might be doing the right thing but you guys allow information to be to go out. If you read the press, you would think that you guys are only going after prolife groups and not going after groups that attack prolife. I have never understood this about the fbi and department of justice and that you are not more proactive about what you are actually doing because i am prolawenforcement as you know. But i cannot defend you with no information. Center, senator, we do not have the time for me to tell you how frustrated i sometimes get by some news reporting about our work and misreporting about our work. The circumspection that we display with regard to discussing our investigations is based on rules and practices that are important to people having confidence in the integrity of our work and go back decades and multiple administrations. Sometimes it can be very frustrating to agents on the ground when they see things being misreported about their work but we have all been taught that we have to bite our lips and let the facts come out in the right way through court proceedings. Sometimes that can be very frustrating to us and it sounds like you. Thank you. We will have a second round. It is hard for us. Because people come to us with they must have done that. Thank you. Senator romney you are recognized. Thank you. I appreciate the chance to be able to ask a few questions. I began by saying how much i appreciate the work of your agents and how much i respect them. I am convinced one of my sons years ago interview to become a member of the fbi and was turned down. Was able to go on and get a degree at Harvard Business school so he survived. But we learn from that experienced that the qualifications for getting into the fbi are height and as they should be and i have Great Respect for the men and women who work for the fbi. There is a great deal of discussion about the political orientation of the fbi. My experience with the organization is that is not the case by an at large. Im sure there are individuals who have political points of view, may leak things and may do things that are not appropriate from time to time and i hope you evaluate them and where those come from and correct them. Can you give us a sense of how the research how much goes into looking as Violent Crimes of various kinds and Human Trafficking . How much goes into terrorist related prevention . Are there categories of efforts carried out because i think there is a Public Perception that the whole fbi we ought to defund it because it is doing political work. What is the fbi doing . If you were to look at our location of resources and i cannot give you the numbers but if you were to look at the allocation of resources, you would see that the single largest chunk is devoted to traditional criminal programs of which the Violent Crime is by far the biggest. We have safe streets taskforces, organized crime taskforces, Violent Crimes against children taskforces, so those remain our bread and butter and our biggest programs. We do have unique responsibility for National Security threats as well. If you were to look at our strategy he might see the National Security threats listed first because those are places where if we do not do it, no one will. Violent crime, crimes against children, we work much more shoulder to shoulder with state and local Law Enforcement partners. Those National Security threats, terrorism, counter intelligence, cybercrime, get most of the media attention. Day end, day out, the fbi thats most americans and most Law Enforcement professionals, the fbi, they experience most is more focused on the traditional criminal stuff. Thank you. You are spoken about the Cyber Attacks from state actors from china as well as nonstate actors. I do not know that it is possible through a process of defending against attacks to prevent all potential attacks and all the theft that will come from our businesses. It strikes me that the only effective way to stop the attacks that come from the cyber nature is to attack back. The best defense is a good offense. I note your respective organizations are not responsible for the offense of side of this to get china to stop attacking they have private enterprises doing attacks into our systems, fighting against all these things will never stop it unless china recognizes that if they do not stop they will be hurt more than br. We are. Do we have a sufficient effort to push back against Cyber Attacks that come from state announced dead actors and shall be respond on that . I will ask people to respond. When it comes to offense, offense is a critical part of our overall effort to push back against cyber adversaries. In addition to some of the offense of Cyber Operations that we probably could not talk about in this setting. There is a lot of progress being made and what i refer to earlier as joint sequenced rations where week with our partners, Law Enforcement partners, foreign partners, go with the whole two plus two to make five. We are going after the infrastructure, going after their cryptocurrency, going after the individual actors, some of them a can extradite, some we can have charged there. We are engaging in more sensitive counterintelligence type work to amplify those effects. We have found when we go after the actors, infrastructure and money, simultaneously, we can degrade and disrupt their effectiveness. That is really ultimately the real goal to degrade, disrupt and defend in that way. The deterrence model is harder in some ways much the same way we are not going to deter a chinese or russians from spying but we can make it difficult for them to do. We are imposing risks and consequences on the adversaries to hit them where it hurts, to make it harder for them to really come after us with cyber means. If i may add a point. I do not need to speak of the criticality of a strong defense. You are focused on offensive behavior. A few weeks ago i was in singapore to speak to our allies in the Indo Pacific Region about the importance, or the peril of having china owner operates other nations, Critical Infrastructure. And the perils it presents from a cybersecurity perspective. It was a very important dialogue not only with our to go port partners, japanese Partners Singapore partners, japanese partners but others as well. I would just say, i will defer to my colleagues on the cyber specifics but what i would say from a Counterterrorism Community perspective there is so much we have learned as a Collaborative Community about offense and defense at the same time that those Lessons Learned apply to things like transnational organized crime or Cyber Threats position as well to take us take it to the threats actors. Thank you. You to the witnesses for being here. I think the last time i got to visit with you was back in august of this year. We had to cut that hearing short. We were supposed to do two rounds of questions and you said you had to be somewhere so we cut it short. Republicans were not able to ask a second round as we had been informed we would. The report the press reported shortly thereafter that you are flying on a gulfstream judge for a personal vacation to the adirondacks. To me that is not accurate. The hearing was not cut short, we had agreed beforehand on the time and length of it and i was very surprised to find that anyone on at committee was surprised as to how i fly. I am required not only permitted but required to fly on an fbi plane wherever i go. Where you going on vacation . I was, yes. So you left a required oversight hearing in order to go on a personal vocation . Vacation . I took a flight to visit my family as had been previously arranged no no. Chuck grassley asked do during that hearing and said i assume you must have other business. You said yes. He then said, if you have a business trip you have your own plane cant it wait a while . He then said we only just heard half an hour ago that now you have to leave. We were going to have a seven minute round followed by a three minute round. I have seven people on my side of the aisle who are waiting for this additional round. Is there any reason we cannot accommodate them for 21 minutes . You said you had a plane to catch. Now we find out it was for they kaisha and. It was a reference to the following week where grassley and i were going to see each other in iowa when i had other business in iowa and i did in fact see them. You had to leave the hearing early because you were going to see him in iowa . No. You left an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee required by statute so you could vocation with your family. I find that unbelievable and frankly, indefensible. Is it your practice to use government planes . Q flew a gulfstream 550 that was originally purchased for counterterrorism purposes. Did you enjoy the flight . Did you pay for it . Yes, i paid for it. Will you turn over all receipts to subcommittee . We will comply with oversights oversight requests related to the plane. Will you turn over the receipts i will turn over commit it will turn over receipts related to the use of the plane. I am required even for personal travel to use the fbi plane. How convenient for you. I pay every single time that i use the plane for personal use. I am glad it is available for you to get away from your required hearings before this congress where you denied the ability of members of congress to ask you questions because you had to go on a personal vacation using a government plane. Lets look at some things while you have been vacationing that your fbi has been doing. According to numerous whistleblowers who have come forward to members of this body, members of the house, the fbi has been sending more than a dozen armed agents to of pennsylvania home of a catholic prolife demonstrator to arrest him at gunpoint in front of his children despite the fact he posed no risk of violence or threat and previously offered to turn himself in. Numerous whistleblowers have alleged d. C. Has pulled them off working on child sex abuse cases, Human Trafficking cases, in order to work on january 6 matters to give the appearance they say there are hundreds of new domestic terrorism cases in the country when in fact there are not. They have also said d. C. Has ordered use of swat teams on nine violent nonviolent suspects who may have attended jan six. All of this according to whistleblowers, in order to make it look as if there is a massive surge in domestic terrorism all across the country when in fact, theyre being patted by political directive in your office. They also say d. C. Leadership suppressed investigations into hunter biden contrary to fbi procedure and has also retaliated against fbi agents and whistleblowers who contacted congress which by the way they are protected by statute to do so. This is what is happening at your fbi while you are evading oversight hearings. Do you think you are still up to this job . I absolutely think i am and i think our workforce feels the same. Well, i do not and frankly i think you should have been gone a long time ago. Given your behavior i think it only makes it more clear. Any travel plans today we should be aware of that you have . We are supposed to have a second round. Will you be here . Yes. Thank you. You are recognized for questions. There we go. Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. I wanted to thank dhs before i get started for extended tpf to several countries last week to provide critical relief to thousands of families. The families appreciate that very much. We know Congress Must take action to enact Immigration Reform that scares and provides that provides a path to citizenship for tps recipients, dreamers, and others. Difficult subject like all things are about rising antisemitism. Everyday we see more and more attacks, outbreaks of antisemitism here in the u. S. The recorded incidents nationwide i believe are at an alltime high. Not a day goes by without another report of an antisemitic hate crime. Jewish communities around the world are facing increasing discrimination and threats. A whole governments of approaches needed to effectively address antisemitism. Many individual agencies play a Critical Role in combating antisemitism, we need closer interagency coordination to share best practices, share the ever important data that keeps us safe when we share it, intelligence the same thing, identify gaps in our efforts between agencies and streamline overlapping activities and roles so we can best combat antisemitism where we see it. Secretary mayorkas how is dhs coordinating with other federal agencies in the fight against antisemitism . Would you support the development of a National Strategy that uses the whole government approach i believe it was in new york city, the rise of antisemitism and where we become involved in the department of Homeland Securitys, connectivity between an ideology of hate regardless of the ideology and particular and violence. That is where we become involved. We are working very closely with the fbi and our federal state local tribal territorial campus Law Enforcement partners to address violence and increasing level of violence, born of ideologies of hate and quite clearly, antisemitism is one of the rising ones. It was at a high level to begin with. We are grateful for your aunt this committees support of the nonprofit security grant row graham. We are seeking in the fiscal year 2023 budget and increase from from 250 to 360 million. That assists religious institutions, faithbased institutions, and other nonprofit organizations to really raise their level of security in response to increasing violence borne of hate. The fbi in the department of Homeland Security have published an unprecedented number of alerts, bulletins, to our local state Law Enforcement personnel. About an increasing threat level borne of ideologies of hate. I want to move over to you because i know thats the fbi as you stated found antisemitic hate crime rose by 6 in 2020, the highest total in 12 use 12 years. In your estimation, what is driving this alarming trend . How is the fbi working with communities again to be sure we are coordinating and wouldnt support a National Strategy to combat antisemitism . Certainly i would support a National Strategy. Second, the percentage is even worse you summarize. I think it is 63 of all religiously motivated violence extremism incidents are motivated by antisemitism and that is against a population that is only 2. 4 i think of the American Public. It is pretty stark. From our perspective we see the Jewish Community getting it from all sides which may contribute to what is driving it because not only have they long been a target of foreign terrorist organizations, and we disrupted attacks by foreign terrorist organizations against synagogues for example but in addition to that, they are the targets of Domestic Violence extremist and as you may remember, we disrupted an attempt to blow up a synagogue and the Las Vegas Area a couple years ago for example. We are trying to tackle its both through the domestic terrorism lens through our taskforces and through the hate crime lens through civil rights programs. We create in domestic terrorism his crime fusion cell which brings us two things together which ensures we are pushing out information to our partners. To be better able to anticipate what might be coming and prevent attacks. That really goes to my next question because we do believe hate crimes are vastly underreported because of fear sometimes. Since the enactment of the covid19 hate crimes act last year do you feel there has been an improvement in reporting hate crime to the fbi and reporting in general . How has that been helping us . Two things. Overall, reporting of hate crimes has gone up. Friendly the Jewish Community has been ahead of other communities that are victims in reporting historically. So we have been trying to preach the importance of reporting and we have seen reporting coming up. The only caveat i would put on that is we are in the midst of a multiyour transition to a different statistics reporting mechanism that has been anticipated for about a decade i think. This particular year the number may be somewhat flawed in terms of or underreported in terms of recordkeeping because of the transition that Police Departments are making over from the old system to the new system. I would expect as we go forward next year and beyond and will get them back to being more comprehensive and i fully expect it to show exactly what you are saying which is that hate crimes are on the rise. The analyst in me hopes everyone converging to this is all using the same algorithm so we have good reports. Thank you so much. Before i begin i want to express my sorrow with the news from puerto rico today and read operation agents who perform a very dangerous trough. I thoughts are with our injured agents and their families. News like this today underscores why our work and oversight is so important and we owe it to our agents and officers to do our part to secure the border and keep our community safe. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. Fiscal year 2022 so i Record Number of encounters at our southwest border. Under half of these migrants were removed, the Current System had multiple points of failure throughout the summer. In arizona local governments were forced to step in to provide Emergency Support to avoid a street releases. Border areas outside of arizona had seen significant street releases some coming in recent weeks. The releases directly onto city streets are inhumane and leave migrants vulnerable to elements. The administrations continued failures on the border places arizona communities and our Nation Security at risk. The ongoing influx of migrants puts serious strain on our resources and enforces forces our Border Patrol agents out of the field and into other roles. With the announcement title 42 will be terminated in december i am worried dhs is not ready and porter communities and migrants will suffer the cost for this lack of preparation. The current strategy being implemented at our border is not working and a change is necessary. These current levels of migration are unprecedented. Following the recent ruling regarding title 42, arizona is concerned we will soon see numbers search even higher and may need to send a clear message to potential migrants that we will be fair and humane but we will secure our border and enforce our law. Given the recent developments regarding title 42, do you have a plan to ensure those who enter without inspection are facing swifter and more certain consequences . We do. Thank you very much for recognizing the tragedy that our air and read operations personnel suffered off the coast of puerto rico. We prefer the family of the officer who lost his life and we pray for a swift recovery of those injured. We do have a plan. I think there are a number of examples. One is how we have approached the increase of a number of encounters of venezuelan nationals i a lawful pathway for them to arrive safely and in an orderly way should they qualify and should they pass through our screaming and venting and to deliver a consequence regime should they not avail themselves of that lawful pathway. The asylum rule we have promulgated is a way of taking a broken asylum system and we are grateful for your bipartisan work with senator cornyn in your proposed bill, a starting point to fix a broken asylum system. We promulgated a regulation in the absence of muchneeded legislation to fix the system which takes it 68 year asylum period which is just unmanageable and reduces that potentially to under one year which is going to change the patterns of individuals seeking asylum and his country. With respect to the fact you mentioned porter patrol agents have not been housed in the field, we have two parts of the so that we can get those agents out in the field doing what they swore to uphold which is the detection and interdiction of individuals to enhance their swift removal. Thank you. According to data from the executive office for immigration review, in a 2022 over 20 of initial cases were completed with the removal order. While that is a steep decline from 50 that we reached in a 20, that number is still far too high. In order for this to function we must ensure individuals who refuse to comply and who are removed from the u. S. Actually experience that enhanced consequence regime. How is dhs planning to ensure they are probably removed from the country . The data evidence is quite powerful that individuals who are represented by counsel have a much higher appearance rate in the Immigration Enforcement proceedings. The immigration system is extraordinarily complex and we are dealing with vulnerable populations without counsel. Number two we expanded our alternatives to detention and technology iced technologiz ed the ankle bracelets but by phone systems that does not allow people to make calls. But actually it enables us to keep track and make sure they are checking in with us. The expansion of alternatives is an effort we have underway. The act which you just referenced and highlighted in our Budget Hearing earlier this year creates Regional Centers across the u. S. And these centers would colo locate offices and agencies that play a role in the as introduced the text placed a Border Patrol in charge of detention but this year we have seen additional agents being pulled out of the field due to processing needs which has limited some operational control. Which dhs components would be best suited to take over the responsibility of those Processing Centers . Your bipartisan bill is a very important start to fix a broken asylum system. I would want to study which personnel would be best suited. Our goal is to make sure our Border Patrol agents are out in the field doing the work they signed up to do and that frankly they are funded to do. We have made tremendous strides in getting them out in the field. This is a problem that arose last year given the increase in the number of encounters. I can provide a specific data but with respect to your detailed question i would want to study the profile of the individuals that should maintain the custody of migrants encountered and placed in those Processing Centers at the border. I know my time is expired me ask a quick followup . Real quick. I her concerns of some of the timelines in the bill we introduced maybe too restrictive. Now that you had time to implement those, we would like to get your feedback on what a more feasible timeline would be in which interviews can be performed . We would be pleased to provide that. Thank you. We have one, perhaps two senators to finish up the first round then we will take a short break. Then we will be back for the second round. You are recognized. Think you and thank you for all being here today. As you recall, mr. Secretary, significant concerns about the critical with internal investigations of agents. These units have operated since 1987 but there investigations were never authorized because they are not legitimate federal criminal investigators and their actions seem to shield cbp agents from liability. I was pleased to hear there was a directive to end the use of critical by the end of the fiscal year prior to his resignation. However, the existence of such an entity for over three decades is a disturbing and undermines transparency needed with the nations largest Law Enforcement agency. I hope you share my concerns regarding the need to protect the integrity of dhs and all the components. You agree there is no place for Shadow Police within customs and Border Control and can you speak to efforts that department has taken to ensure entity similar to the critical teams are not reestablished . There is no place for a shadow Investigative Authority and any part of the department or any part of the government and what we have done is commenced a wholesale review departmentwide of our investigative discipline and accountability processes. What is the status of the termination i will check and get back to you with respect to the status. Please do. Next question is for you both. Earlier this year that apartment released a report that detailed the need for information sharing as a means to addressing violence and extremist activities. I was pleased to see your agency plans to develop a central case and is meant system, information sharing mechanism for investigating allegations. Can you provide an update on where dhs is with these developments or roadblocks . Am not aware of any significant roadblocks and in partnership with the fbi we have promulgated more products and more information sharing products than i can remember for the dhs in the many years i have been there. We are really building a cohesive operation in disseminating that information throughout the country to really ensure our local communities are aware of the threat information and Law Enforcement is able to prevent it to the best of its capabilities. Director rate the department of justice similarly responded to Bidens National the changes that would make to improve sharing with state, local, tribal and territorial partners as well. What changes have been made at the fbi to eliminate gaps in information sharing . I think we engage in information sharing on this with state and local partners in two ways. We have lots of state local Law Enforcement agencies as Task Force Officers on those taskforces. One thing we have done over the last while now is improve the amount of training we provide to participants on those taskforces and to state and local agencies more broadly about indicators of violence, mobilization to violence, symbology, things like that to put them in a better position to be the eyes and ears we need them to be and have information flow in a Virtuous Cycle back with us. That would be one thing i mentioned. Including with the fusion centers, which is a very important piece of the information sharing infrastructure that exists and this country. And in that spirit, a couple most critical areas in which to apply improved information sharing is when it comes to combating gun violence and domestic terrorism, according to a report issued in may last year, the fbi and dhs determined the domestic terrorism imposed by low offenders were radicalized online and looked to attack soft targets with easily accessible weapons. We have seen too many instances even since then, highland park, uvalde, buffalo, even in my home state of california at the geneva presbyterian church. The Common Thread in each case was that you switch with the perpetrator acquired a weapon. Can you detail steps being taken by the bureau to ensure threats to our schools and places of worship and other important places are identified and neutralized . I guess there are a number of things we do on that front. And it comes to schools specifically we have been engaged in a very proactive Outreach Campaign to schools to an active Shooter Training for example at schools lots of our field offices meet with schools in their areas of responsibility to help them identify that or what to be on the lookout for. One of the things we have learned in is studying this issue over time when it comes to School Shootings for example, is that there is almost always somebody a classmate, teacher, family member, someone who saw the transformation in the person and if they had known to speak up, known to report it might have been preventable. In those instances we have successfully prevented a School Shooting for example, and those often dont get reported but there are many which we have successfully reported have always been because somebody in that situation did report. We are trying to get the word out that way. Our next system doesnt background checks to ensure people who are legally prohibited from having firearms do not to get them is very active processing background checks and with the recently passed legislation, there will be additional steps we are taking to implement that. Think you very much. Thank you, senator padilla. Senator ossoff, you are recognized for your questions, and after this question we will take a five minute break. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you to our panelists for your service to the country and the national defense, the defense of public safety. Director wray, always a pleasure to see a fellow georgian. Thank you for your continued service as well, each time we have engaged in a setting like this one, i have asked you to assess the drivers of elevated levels of Violent Crime in georgia, and nationwide. According to fbi data, Violent Crime did increase from 2020 to 2021. Could you please provide the committee with an updated assessment of what is driving this dynamic . So, there are a lot of things driving the Violent Crime crisis that is occurring in this country, in georgia, and elsewhere. There are a few things. The traditional drivers are all there, drugs, illegal gun trafficking, gangs, socioeconomic factors, those are all still present. But in addition to that, we are seeing, and i hear this from chiefs and sheriffs all of the time as well as from our own agents, an alarming uptick in the incidents of juveniles engaging in violence. Often graduating from carjackings to even worse violence. And that is a real challenge for the legal system because we are not set up to very effectively deal with crimes committed by minors. We are also seeing, not everywhere but an awful lot of places we are seeing way too many dangerous offenders, getting back out on the streets. The only thing more frustrating to the hardworking man in Law Enforcement than having to arrest somebody who should have been behind bars is having to arrest the same person over and over again. That is a product of any number of things. It could be backlogs or certain prosecution practices. Certain bail practices. The juvenile issue that i mentioned. So those are some of the things that are driving it. In georgia, in particular, pretty much every week i feel like our Atlanta Field Office is engaging in some kind of operation, where they are seizing drugs, guns, cash, meth, fentanyl. So theyre experiencing a lot of the same things that we are seeing nationally, certainly neighborhood gangs are a big phenomenon in our home state. We are also seeing two other things i will add, that have a little bit of a georgia wrinkle to it. One is juveniles who postcovid have not returned to school, so that may contribute to the juvenile affect. And we are seeing violent criminals who are either detained or imprisoned because theyre serving a sentence who still have access to cellular phones, and are able to continue to participate in the activity, despite best efforts by correction officials to continue to participate in the violent activities. One last one is an alarming phenomenon of switches which convert otherwise lawful weapons into fully automatic, and that increases violent potential. Thank you, director wray. You have a new sac in that atlanta office, we welcomed her upon arrival and wished her and her team the best. What can the fbi continue to do and what more can you do to help protect communities in georgia who are fearful, who are fearful that they may face carjacking, or mugging, or aggravated assault out on the sidewalk, or the Shopping Mall . What are you doing and what more can you do . Will you continue to work with local Law Enforcement to crack down on the Violent Crime that is preying on innocent citizens . Violent crime is a major priority for the fbi, as i said in response to the earlier question, i still think it continues to be the place where we have the most single allocation of resources in terms of personnel. We have safe streets task forces that focus on the gang violence, we have other kinds of Violent Crime task forces, all of which allow us to bring together what the fbi has to bear with the state and local partners who participate on the task forces. We do active Shooter Training to help the Community Better protect itself, our lab, close to half of the work they do from a forensic side is in support of Violent Crime cases often for our state and local partners. Senator scott and i had a conversation about the tip line that we have out in West Virginia where we prioritize getting threats to life out to state and local partners on the Violent Crime side. There is a whole host of things that we are doing. This remains top of mind for me, and for my team, when i am talking to chiefs and sheriffs this is always the first topic we talk about, and the last topic we talk about. It is so much on everyones mind. Thank you, director. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us. Could you please assess the most significant threats to Port Infrastructure in the United States . Of course we have in georgia we have the port of savannah, the fourth busiest deep water port in the country. With respect to the infrastructure itself . To ports. To ports. One of the concerns we have is the cybersecurity threat. To ports, we are encouraged increasing the level of technology by which our ports operate. And that is why not only does customs and Border Protection have a focus on cybersecurity the documents and records that have allowed us to conduct an 18 month investigation into the medical mistreatment of women. We held that hearing earlier this week. The bipartisan findings that senator ron johnson and i have presented in our deeply disturbing. I look forward to doing so, senator. Lets take a recess for five minutes and we will reconvene