Our shelters to house these children and families to address this crisis, our government has taken action on several fronts. We set up emergency shelters great we searched agents and immigration areas spread we work to find a safe homes for the children until the cases could be adjudicated. We also worked with the governments of guatemala and salvador to launch what i call the truth campaign, letting the people know about the dangers of the trip to the north, to the u. S. We collaborated with the government of mexico so that nation might better strengthen the integrity of its southern border, and it has. One year later, we no longer have a crisis, at least not of the proportion we had a year ago. It is true that many families and children are still fleeing those countries, but those numbers are clearly down by a little more than half. Is that enough improvement . No. But even though the crisis appears to be over, we still have humanitarian responsibilities to protect the children in our custody and we have a moral obligation to treat them fairly under our laws, and till we change our laws trade i look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today about how they work to care for process and process care for and process so many children. There is still a lot of progress and needs to be made. I like to focus on our Immigration Court system. Tens of thousands of new cases wait times have gotten much worse. Some were informed they might not get a hearing before november 2019. That is why a row to our colleagues on the Senate AppropriationCommittee Earlier this year urging them to fund the president s request for 55 new immigration judge teams. The request appears to have gotten support from both changes. Chambers. We know the cases often advance more efficiently when accompanied meiers have a lawyer. Not surprisingly, most of these minors cannot afford one. That is why in delaware and communities across the country, many lawyers have stepped up to the plate to offer Pro Bono Legal services. I could not be prouder of the Legal Community in my own state. Many miners all over the country still lacked attorneys, so there is work clearly to be done. I believe we should not lose sight of the reason why they said earlier so many failed folks feel the need to flee their country. If we do not realize border integrity with mexico, we need to work with these three Central American countries, honduras guatemala, and el salvador, Mexico Colombia to help root out the causes of violence and poverty in the northern triangle. Not that many years ago we encountered a similar challenge in columbia. Most people would agree that our support along with that of others helped turn that country around with the implementation of plan colombia. We also know that mexican immigration has leveled off in large part because of the economic advances in a country. Central american migration has spiked because of the intense poverty and violence in that region. Young people are particularly vulnerable to gang violence. The governments must take the lead on this, and they are. These three countries have joined together in the alliance for prosperity to improve the lives of their citizens. I hope the appropriates will heed the president s call for new focus in investment there and help sow new seeds of hope and prosperity to benefit generations of children to come. Leaders needles and haystacks , there is a big haystack down at the border. We are trying to pick out the needles. The needles are families trying to get through, human traffickers trying to get through, and the haystack is huge. We need to make the haystack smaller. One of the things we need to do that is support the administrations proposal with a new version of plan colombia. If plan colombia worked, this will work as well. Thank you all. If you take a look at what is causing our unsecured border, i would say the root cause is our insatiable demand for drugs. In testimony before this committee if you really want a metric that shows you how unsecure our border is, it is how much of the drugs are we actually interdicting. It is about 5 to 10 even though we are spending 25 billion on the war on drugs. That is a root cause, but within that overall root cause with the overall problem, their individual situations and these are unaccompanied children coming in from Central America. There is root cause there. It is called deferred action on childhood arrivals. Would you raise your right hand . Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Thank you. Our first witness will be juan ozuna. In my pronouncing that correctly . He is a director of the he served as executive deputy general at the doj. He worked on immigration policy and other issues. From may 2009 to june 2010, mr. Os was an assistant attorneyuna osuna was an assistant attorney. Mr. Osuna . Mr. Osuna good morning, mr. Chairman if i could ask a favor, im not real good at acronyms. Dhs, ive got that. Ice, ive got that. Reading your testimony, you use a lot of acronyms. If you persist in doing that you are going to lose me. Show some temperance there pl ease. Thank you. Mr. Osuna thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the mission of the Departments Executive Office for immigration review. We carry out this mission through our core Immigration Judges in 58 Immigration Courts around the country. All our cases start when the department of Homeland Security files a charging document with one of our courts. Among the many challenges facing our court, the largest is our growing pending caseload, which you referred to earlier. There are more than 450,000 cases pending in Immigration Courts around the country. This grew during recent budget cuts. While Immigration Judges were shrinking, we continue to receive new cases resulting in a rising backlog. From last summers search, the course received more than 80,000 cases. We are taking steps to increase our capacity to adjudicate cases there is vigorous hiring effort, and hiring judges is our first priority. With 18 judges we added two weeks ago, there are now 247 Immigration Judges around the country and others are in the various stages of the hiring process. We took steps to respond to last years border search to adding new priorities to our existing priority. Specifically we added unaccompanied children and adults who arrived with children. We depend on our partners at dhs. We are processing these cases as quickly as possible consistent with due process. The focus of our limited resources on these priority cases has had a Significant Impact on the nondetained nonpriority cases awaiting adjudication. Thousands of these cases have to be rescheduled into the future to make room for highpriority cases. 45 of case completion so far has been an priority categories, individuals detained by ice and those who cross the border since last year. The numbers provide insight into the work the Immigration Courts are doing. From july 18 2014 to june 30 of this year, immigration course received approximately 35,000 cases of unidentified children. Many of these cases may not be currently pending before the court because the children are pursuing relief from removal which requires work by the u. S. Immigration services, which has initial jurisdiction over these cases. The pending caseload is a proximally 23,000. The goal of holding an initial hearing for unaccompanied children within 20 days after receiving a case 23,000 children have had a date scheduled, and the date has passed. Another lie ordered the removal in absentia are resulted from a girl you to appear by an individual to a properly noticed hearing. Children who appear in Immigration Court proceedings without an unaccompanied adult may require special care and modification modifications of core procedures. We have faced guidance for adjudicating cases of unaccompanied children. Circumstances in particular, the Immigration Court may require specialized dockets for childrens cases. Following last summers search all courts are equipped to handle a juvenile docket. Immigration judges also receive specialized training, most recently in april this year regarding criminal cases. We recognize that the presence of a representative can increase Immigration Court efficiencies especially with children. We have taken steps to encourage pro bono counsel to provide representation. To assist in these endeavors, we operate an Illegal Program under which custodians are provided with Important Information on pro bono resources and the roles and responsibilities. A few months ago we launched programs that operate in 24 cores and provide direct representation to unaccompanied children. Last years border search post significant problems for all federal agencies, including ours. We responded by taking steps to respond to these cases as quickly as due process allows. Making docket adjustments, reprioritizing certain cases. Here in continuous and frequent contact with our federal partners at dhhs and hhs dhs and hhs. Thank you. Im happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you mr. Osuna. Mr. Greenberg is the acting assistant secretary at the department of health and Human Services. Before joining hhs Esther Greenberg directed the Georgetown Center university on poverty, inequality, and Public Policy. Mr. Greenberg. Mr. Greenberg thank you for identifying me to testify today. I will be describing the sense of responsibilities of the department of health and Human Services in relation to unaccompanied children and talk about a set of Key Developments relating to those responsibilities. When unaccompanied children are referred to us by the department of Homeland Security, we initially place them in one of the network of shelters, while staff work to determine if they have an appropriate sponsor with whom they can live while they are waiting immigration proceedings. When they arrive at a shelter, a child is provided with a complete medical examination within 48 hours. Trained staff at the shelters conduct screening to determine if the child may be a victim of abuse or crime or human trafficking. Children and care receive medical, dental, Mental Health services, Education Services recreational opportunities, a legal rights presentation and access to legal services, access to religious Services Case management, and clinical counseling. While the children are in care we have a responsibility to place them in the least restrictive setting in the best interest of the child, taking into consideration the risk of harm to themselves or to the community or risk of flight. Initially we seek to place children with a parent or close relative. If that is not possible, a more distant relative or a family friend. If we cannot identify an appropriate sponsor and the child does not get repatriated or obtain immigration relief the children will remain in hhs care until he or she turns 18, at which point we will remand the 18yearold to the custody of the department of Homeland Security. We seek to show that partnerships are safe and appropriate. We require verification of the sponsors identity and relationship to the child. Good potential sponsor must undergo background checks and complete an assessment to identify risk factors and other serious concerns. In a set of cases, caseworkers perform home studies as an additional safety measure. As part of the placement process, potential sponsors must agree that they will ensure that the child appears at Court Proceedings and must agree to inform the department of justice and department of Homeland Security of any change of address. In addition, when we release a child to the sponsor, we provide the address information to the department of justice and department of Homeland Security. I now want to highlight some Key Developments since last years hearings. Last year it was the highest number of children in the history of the unaccompanied children program. This year the numbers are down significantly, though still high in historic terms. Last year we received over 57,000 referrals from the department of Homeland Security in the first eight months security. In the first eight months of this year, we received fewer than 18,000. The ucg continues to operate. It has an ongoing role to facilitate requests from the department of Homeland Security or hhs if needed and this can include requests for additional capability, operational coordination planning support, situational assessment, critical transportation capabilities. For us, operating the Company Children program presents multiple challenges because of uncertainties about how many children will arrive and when. Incorporating lessons from last summer, we developed what we refer to as a bed capacity framework to ensure that we have enough yearround standard beds with the ability to quickly add temporary beds when there are seasonal fluctuations. This is the model that reduces funding during periods of low capacity while preserving the ability to respond to future increases great since 2011 we have reduced the amount of time children stay in shelters from an average 72 days to a little more than 30 days. We have maintained the average this year at 34 days. While we seek to ensure that all releases are safe and appropriate, we know that sometimes a child may develop concerns about his or her placement. In april, we expanded our helpline in order to receive calls from children who are in distressed circumstances. In addition, starting this month, hhs is beginning to offer post Relief Services to a child and sponsor in the First Six Months after release is a placement has been disrupted or is at risk of disruption. In december of last year we publish our interim final rule that outlines safeguards at all of our facilities have to implement to protect children in custody from sexual abuse. Last september we provided funds to two grantees to expand legal representation and on june 15, we issued a proposal proposals for contractors to further expand the provision of legal services. We welcome working with the committee in congress in efforts to improve the program. I will be happy to answer any questions. Senator johnson our next witness is mr. Philip miller, assistant director of the Field Operations enforcement and removal operations for the u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the u. S. Department of Homeland Security. That is ice, and it is easier to say than the long title. Mr. Miller has served any variety of positions. Mr. Miller began as an immigration spectrum in 1996 and becoming a deportation officer in 1998. Ice special agent in 2001 and Field Office Director of the new Orleans Field Office in 2009. Mr. Miller . Mr. Miller thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the role of ice in addressing the ongoing challenges surrounding unaccompanied children arriving in the United States. I currently serve as assistant director for Field Operations for ice enforcement and removal operations, where i oversee, direct, and cordon eight activities throughout the nations 24 field offices and their sub offices. This includes the transportation removal of unaccompanied children to further agency goals and ensure compliance with agency policy. In 2014 there was an unprecedented influx of unaccompanied children from Central America to the United States. Through the whole of government we continue to address this humanitarian Border Security issue in a manner that is comprehensive, coordinated, and humane. As part of the unified effort, ice is responsible for quickly and safely transporting unaccompanied children from the custody of u. S. Customs and Border Protection to the custody of hhs. And if ordered the removal of these children following the conclusion of immigration proceedings. Was of these functions are Critical Links in the overall process. Not all children are housed in ices detention facilities. During the time that ice maintains physical custody of unaccompanied children, and pending their placement with hhs, such minors are separated from adult detainees. Unaccompanied children are provided with regular access to snacks drinks, counselor officials, telephones, and other resources. Ice transports children via ground, commercial air, and ice charter flights. All 24 ice field offices have backup and primary field juvenile coordinators, each of whom receive annual specialized training. These field office juvenile coordinators, a duty i personally performed in 1999 serve as a local subject Matter Experts on proper processing transportation, and placement of una