So i support your nomination, and i think youve addressed the concerns of the senators here, and im doing it because i think you have the experience. You really had several stints at the agency, so youve seen the changes over time. And i think youll work with us particularly in an area im very interested, make sure were using modern technology. Because i think with 21st century challenges. And then we got things that were in place before, color tv, sort of 20th century technologies, thats why we have to play some catchup. We have to Work Together and we have to move quickly, and we have to do it given the challenge with constrained resources, and i feel youre going to work closely with us, and i intend to support your nomination. With that, with the finance committee, were adjourned. Let me know the committee record will be open for questions until 5 00 p. M. Monday august 4th, and now we are officially adjourned. This weekend on cspan, the Kentucky Senate race, Mitch Mcconnell is seek
I dont mind sharing one of the most important sort of transitional activities that ive conducted was actually sitting in on a credible fear interview. Its important to note that the credible fear standard is a threshold standard. In other words, it is not the final determination of whether somebody gets asylum. Its simply a threshold determination to determine whether that individual who otherwise is in an expedited removal proceeding can fully assert those claims. I observed the credible fear interview. I understood it to be based on a basic rubric thats used by the Asylum Office to evaluate those claims. It asks questions specifically targeted to determine whether, in fact, the individual could potentially show a credible fear of persecution or torture on various bases. Race, national origin, membership in a particular social group. From that interview, i was satisfied that there is an appropriate matrix of question and appropriate training to our Asylum Officers to assess those indi
This crisis. I look forward to our continuing conversation this morning, thank you. Thank you. I would like to take a few minutes away from this hearing to talk about someone who was a dear friend of mine, a mentor and a member of the house Judiciary Committee, my predecessor representing the sixth district of virginia congressman m. Caldwell butler passed away last night around midnight. He served with a special election in 1972 until his retirement at the beginning of 1983 he served on this committee that entire time, and he served here with great distinction at a time when this committee went through some very difficult issues, including his being very actively involved in the watergate investigation and in the impeachment proceedings relating to former president richard nixon. He was a Public Servant in the truest sense of the word. He has given immeasurably to his country, his state and his community roanoke, virginia, where he lived his entire life and to which he was extremely d
Manner. That said, the Legal Standard to establish credible fear is obviously a threshold standard that only then qualifies the individual for later adjudication. Those later adjudications are now riser to approval rates that approach 70 , which is, to my knowledge, much higher than it has been in previous years. And in acknowledging that concern, chairman, i look forward to a continuing conversation about this issue. The chair thanks the gentleman. Time has expired and the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan, mr. Conyers for his questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Would you discuss director rodriguez, the sheer numbers we are talking about . How many young people have come across our southwest border so far this year and last year and the year before . Congressman, i apologize that as i sit before you, i cant tell you the specific numbers. Certainly those numbers have grown over time. They remain essentially in the tens of thousands, but it is the fact that those numbers cont
Do you check them for ebola virus . Well, i do know that individuals because theyre very concerned about that. I do know that individuals do receive Health Screenings at the border. They do receive Health Screenings. So maybe next time theyre going to ask you, you should check them, see if they have that virus before they contaminate everybody in the United States. So when they come across so what we hear constantly is about and just so we have clear, i wish i had the article, but it appears the american public, 70 of the american public, looks at the children at the borders as refugees. They dont look at them as people coming here to take away jobs from hardworking american citizens. They look at them as refugees. They dont look at them as guntoting, tattoowearing, diseaseridden criminal elements coming to destroy america. But as refugees. I would suggest that people go down to the border and visit. I think you will see that they are refugees too. Theres going to be another trip, bipa