Good morning. This hearing will come to order. This is the hearing of the title is resources needed to protect and secure the homeland. We will review the budget of Homeland Security. We have acting secretary of Homeland Security, the honorable Kevin Mcaleenan here to testify. I want to first of all appreciate and thank you for your long service to this country. And in particular at this moment where we are grappling with so many issues. The aftermath of an unprecedented level of disasters with hurricanes and fires in california, hurricanes, you know, obviously in the gulf coast, the dister that aster oct the border right now. If we could quickly put up our chart. I think ee hawe have our chart. Not only do we have it on the chart, but we had an event in oshkosh over the weekend that required a giveaway. I produced a chart. It shows how out of control the problem is. In the first seven months of this year we have over 300, the total is actually 312,000 individuals coming either as over the border illegally and apprehended either as an unaccompanied child or part of a family unit. I know these are not for public release yet, so they are initial numbers, but in the first three months of may another 65,000 unaccompanied children, but, again, primarily people coming in as family units, and were apprehended at the border in between the ports of entry, and over 97,000 total apprehensions. So were on path of breaking again, you know, from i guess it was march, 103,000. I believe april, 109,000 or 106,000. Now we will be beyond that in may. This is a growing problem that needs to be taken seriously, and it is what you and the men and women that you lead are grappling with. You know, just god bless you for doing it. I mean that in all sincerity. I know because i have been to the border, were going to be going to the border with the Ranking Member and a couple of senators later today. We know what you are having to deal with, and it is an impossible task. So, again, i just appreciate your dedication, your willingness to serve, and i will turn it over to Ranking Member. Well, thank you, mr. Chairman and acting secretary. Preappreciate you being he we appreciate you being here. I will defer on my comments. I know we have members with a meeting coming up and i know you are on a hard stop as well. I know members of the Committee Want to ask questions. Ill ask the same request. Well turn it over to you. That sounds good. Mr. Secretary, it is the tradition of the committee to swear in witnesses. If you will stand and raise your righthand. 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 . I do. Please be seated. The honorable Kevin Mcaleenan is acting secretary of department of Homeland Security and has been serving in this position since april 2019. He had a distinguished career rat the u. S. Customs and border of protection where he served as commissioner of cbp since january 2017. In 2015 he received a president ial rank award, the nations highest Civil Service award. He holds a bachelor degree from Amherst College and j. D. From the university of chicago law school. Mr. Mcaleenan. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member peters. Distinguished members of the committee, senator portman, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. It is a sincere honor to serve as acting secretary and to represent the dedicated men and women of the department of Homeland Security. I really do believe that dhs has the most Compelling Mission in government to safeguard the American People, our homeland and our values. As acting secretary i intend to work with this committee and i have been in the last six weeks and served as an advocate for the department to ensure our people have the resources and authorities they need to carry out their Critical Missions on behalf of the American People. As were highlighting the president s 2020 budget i do want to point out a few of the key areas where theres critical investments across dhs in the multi missions we carry out. I want to assure the committee we will not lose any momentum on our multiple missions from cybersecurity to Disaster Response as we see what is happening this morning with the floods in oklahoma, the tornado that touched down in missouri. We will stay on top of all of these mission sets and i want to highlight some of the investments there. Of course, i will speak to the Border Security crisis, which this committee is very focused on and understands very well. The president s budget requests funding for Critical Missions across the department. For our cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, the budget requests 1. 3 billion to assess evolving cybersecurity risks, protect federal Government Information Systems and critical fraukt. The budget also supports the launch of project 2020, a new initiative designed to get all states to a baseline level of election infrastructure cybersecurity well before the National Elections of 2020. The budget supports day diggsal transportation Security Officers to enhance Security Effectiveness and stay ahead of increasing costs and growing traffic at airports nationwide. The 3. 3 billion for tsa includes funding for an additional 700 screeners and 350 computed units. For fema this budget provides a significant increase in Disaster Relief fund, begins implementation of new requirements in the disaster recover reform act and provides critical positions. For the u. S. Coast guard it continues efforts to fund the offshore patrol cutter. With regard to Border Security and Immigration Enforcement as you are well aware we are in the midst of an ongoing security and humanitarian crisis at the southwest border. I think your chart puts that in stark context, stark relief, mr. Chairman. Almost 110,000 migrants attempted to cross without legal status last month, the most in over a decade, and over 65 as you highlight were families and unaccompanied children. That means over 40,000 children entered our immigration system in a single month. The president s budget will help address this for 2020. First it requests 523 million for the humanitarian crisis. This money will allow us to provide better care for those we come into contact with through apprehension, custody, detention and removal. Second, to address the Border Security aspects of the crisis, it requests 5 billion in funding for construction of approximately 200 miles of new border wall system, a proven deterrent requested by our front line agents, and it also calls for 750 Border Patrol agents, 273 cbp officers and over 660 i. C. E. Front line and support personnel. The budget requests will make much needed upgrades to sensors, commanded control system and aircraft to help our men and women combat criminals profiting from human suffering. While the 2020 budget will help address the crisis we will need additional funding much sooner. Given the scale of what were facing we will exhaust our resources before end of this fiscal year, which is why the administration sent a supplemental request to congress over three weeks ago. In addition to the 3 billion in that request for health and Human Services to care for unaccompanied children, the request includes 1. 1 billion for the department of Homeland Security and would provide 391 million for humanitarian assistance including temporary migrant processing facilities at southwest border, 530 million for Border Operations to include surge personnel expenses and increased transportation and detention costs. 178 million for operations and support costs including pay and retention incentives for our operational personnel as well as upgrading our i. T. Systems. The supplemental request is critical, but unless Congress Addresses the pull factors, namely our vulnerable Legal Framework for immigration, children will continue to be put at risk during a dangerous journey to our border. Without these authorities and resources the situation will remain untenable, and while dhs will continue to do all it can to manage the crisis in an operationally effective, humane, safe and secure manner, every day that congress does not act puts more lives at risk and increases the burden on the system. Mr. Chairman, mr. Ranking member, i have been doing this for a long time. This is the third time i have been in a leadership role during a migration surge at the border of families and children, both in 2014 and 2016, at the end of the last administration. We have more than doubled those two crises combined in first seven months of this year and were still in the middle of that effort. Were doing everything we can to address it. As you will see, as you go down to the border again today. On the medical front we had about ten people providing medical care at our top Processing Center as of a year ago. We now have 50 in that center alone. 24 7 coverage in the highest sectors we are expanding. We have health and Human Services, Public Health service, Commission Core on the ground with us, working to protect especially children that come into our custody. We have expanded our facilities. We have already put up 1,000 spaces of soft sided facilities in two locations. We will have 10,000 by the end of next month to address this growing crisis. Weve gotten tremendous support from the department of defense, national guard, from our state and local partners and we are working closely with nongovernmental organizations and charities to try to help those in need but none of that will be enough. We are still seeing too much tragedy and this week and this month have been no exception. 40 of our agents are off the line doing processing, transportation and care, hospital watch, and feeding and cleaning of migrants in our custody. This leads to significant Border Security risks that i dont think we can tolerate given the drug epidemic and the dangers to our communities across the country. On my second week in this job i went to see the 9 11 memorial and museum to get reinspired at the origin of the department of Homeland Security and it is a good reminder that Homeland Security when we started was nonpartisan. It was a nonpartisan mission allamericans supported, and i know this Committee Works in that spirit. Through your prior hearings to become expert on this and help inform the American People, for your efforts to go to the border, and i know you are going again, this is a unique approach the committee is taking to grapple with the problem based on a shared set of facts and solve it. I want to work with you and the Ranking Member and both parties. Our front line agents and officers need it and they deserve that support from this committee. The children being put at risk do as well, and security of our border and the future of our region depend on it. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today and i look forward to the dialogue this morning. Thank you, mr. Secretary. I am happy to defer my questioning to you or to senator portman to keep things moving. Did you want to ask your questions now . Yes. Okay. Go ahead. Senator peters. Well, thank you, commissioner mcaleenan, for your comments. I know you mentioned in your opening comments the challenges, the medical challenges in particular you are having along the border. But last evening it was reported that a young girl from el salvador died last year while in custody, but her death was undisclosed publicly until last night, which made her the now the sixth migrant child to die after crossing the southern border in less less than a year. Now, we all agree we must absolutely secure our borders, but the death of children and i know you agree with this. The death of children in custody is simply unacceptable, but first we must identify what went wrong and ensure this doesnt happen again. So some brief questions. Yes or no. Does every child in cbp custody have access to a pediatrician . No. Does the cbp have clear protocols regarding the transfer of children to a hospital when presenting acute symptoms, especially when we look at the aggressive nature of this current flu outbreak we are seeing along the border . Yes. And as commissioner i directed that all children coming into our custody being screened by a certified medical professional, and thats what weve undertaken steps to accomplish, both with our extension of our contract to get medical professionals into our contract as well as partnering with the u. S. Coast guard and the Public HealthService Commission corps and that effort is extensive and ongoing with 65 people being brought to the hospital every day, watched and supported by agents and officers. It is a massive effort going on the border to protect children, and i know we have saved dozens and dozens of lives over the past several months. Although theres been cases, a rekent case of a 16year old who passed away who was not taken to the hospital. So there are obviously gaps that have to be filled. He was both screened and offered medical care, and we will look forward to the findings of the Inspector General to see if we could do better. One of the key areas there though i have to highlight is the fact that hhs does not have enough funding for bed space for teenage males, and thats thats the main arriving unaccompanied child right now. So were not able to move teenage males as expeditiously as we should be to the better situation for care within health and Human Services, and we need that support from congress in the supplemental. I have asked many of your colleagues in prior dhs leadership and i will ask you again today, how long is too long to detain a child . So detention for a child is for the safety of the child. Thats the only reason to do it. We dont believe that children should be detained in Border Patrol stations very long at all. We would like to move them as swiftly as possible to health and Human Services, to a more appropriate setting for unaccompanied children where they can be placed with an appropriate sponsor through hhss processes, and i think thats the best approach. I would like to get that on 24 hours to 48 hours, and try to comply at all times with the standard and the trafficking victims reauthorization act which is 72 hours. I get the sense you are saying any time is too long to detain a child so you try to an unaccompanied child. A child arriving with a parent, i do believe we should be able to have an appropriate setting with access to educational, recreational space, medical care, and a courtroom where we can finish an immigration proceeding upon arrival at the border as opposed to as quickly as possible. Not finishing that. As quickly as possible, yes. Theres no desire to detain children in any capacity for very long at all. It has been reported that dhs is requiring fema, tsa and other components to contribute staff to various Border Security admissions, securing our northern and southern borders must be our top priority. We have a northern border of this country as well, two borders. Im concerned about the potential impact on readiness in my state of michigan as well as other northern border states. So my time is short, but could you give me quickly a brief synopsis of the specific duties that these folks are being asked to do on the southern border, fema, tsa . So as in any crisis, we do call on volunteers from across dhs to respond. Last year our 17 during the crisis of hurricane harvey, hurricane maria, we had up to 2,000 people deployed across the department at any given time. We have right now 250 volunteers deployed. I have asked our leaders to make a Risk Assessment and carefully decide who is available to come support this crisis but theyre doing all kind of duties, from attorneys to commercial drivers license holders that are helping transport migrants to folks simply helping with food service and care of people in our custody. So it is a variety of missions and were very fortunate to have volunteers willing to help out in a crisis. Obviously a shortage of personnel is an issue for you, and even before the recent increase in migrant traffic at the southern border it was clear that cbp was not adequately staffed to secure our borders and facilitate the other mission, which is to move legitimate trade and travel at our ports of entry. The cbp workload staffing model developed under your leadership as the cbp commissioner identifies a shortfall of thousands of cbp officials. Again, this is even prior to the current situation. To help address this gap in personnel, senator corn enand i have introduced bipartisan legislation, also senator portman has joined as well, to give Clear Authority and direction to hire muchneeded cbp officers to the levels identified in the model that you put together. Im especially concerned about critical personnel moved from michigan to the southern border while michigan continues to man two of the three b