Thank you for being here this afternoon. As we continue to monitor the challenging situation on the southern border we look forward to hearing your perspective on i. C. E. s operational and Funding Priorities and requirements. As chair of this subcommittee i am committed to ensuring the integrity of our borders and strengthening our immigration system. But i am equally committed to making sure we do so according to all of our laws and in a way that exemplifies our american values. In particular we must assure that in accordance with our laws and values those fleeing must have equal opportunities to seek asylum. We must get this balance right and i believe we can if we work together. It is a false choice to believe more migrants need to be unnecessarily detained and that cruel and exclusionary immigration laws need to be enacted in order to increase security in our country. Our own constitution, federal law and several International Agreements serve as the foundation for the right and preces i believe need to be embodied in our efforts to address the humanitarian crisis we are currently experiencing. We must also be mindful of the resource limitations that we face. There is likely no area of our bill where we have sufficient resources to address noa environments. For instance weve barely addressed the surface to address the sovereign interest in the arctic. The attention is an option that should be reserved where Public Safety or a flight risk is of valid concern. When Public Safety is not a concern i should use alternatives to detention. When used as intended with appropriate Case Management, alternatives to detention have proven to be effective in mitigating flight risks and approving compliance with Immigration Court requirements. For those who detention is appropriate, i remain security concern about substandard conditions at i. C. E. Detention facilities. Negz to what i have personally witness we continue to get alerts from the media, the office of inspector general, the Government Accountability office and embassy organizations about detention facilities that do not meet i. C. E. s minimum standards but are nevertheless allowed to continue operating. Preventing these inhumane conditions can only be achieved if i. C. E. Leadership makes clear that anything less is unacceptable and will have consequences. I will tone to work with i. C. E. To ensure that this happens. On a more positive note, i want to hoy light the good work ooirz does in the areas such as combating Human Trafficking, human smuggling, Child Exploitation and the smuggling of fentanyl and other opioids. In the fiscal year 2019 appropriation the subcommittee provided Additional Resources to Homeland Security investigation for these efforts. This is great example of a mission we have worked together to accomplish shared goals and establishled in our fiscal year 2020 bill. Lastly i want to follow up on a letter i sent you on july 12th about increased interior operation. I suggested you submit some of i. C. E. s written policies and procedures which i describe in that letter. This kind of transparency is very important for us to better understand how i. C. E. s leadership expects its front line officers and agents to operate. I understand you have submitted documents in response, so i thank you for that and i look forward to reviewing them and will follow up accordingly. Before i turn to the director for a summary of his written statement, the text of which will be included in the hearing record, let me first recognize our distinguished Ranking Member mr. Fletchman for any remarks hes like to make. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for your time and your testimony before this subcommittee today. Theres been a lot of change in leadership, positions at the department iprece department in recent months and its reassuring to me to have an acting director with years, really decades of experience at the helal. Thank you for assuming the awesome responsibility of leading this Law Enforcement and Homeland Security agency. I very much appreciated the other day with you and your most able staff to visit with an update. It helped me understand where we are and where were going. Again i thank you for your hard work. I look forward to working with you and look forward tool your testimony today, sir. Madam chair, i yield back. The order which members will be called to question will be based on the seniority of those present. Also to ensure everyone has ample opportunity to ask questions. I ask each member stay within the allotted five minutes per round. Director, please begin your statement. Good afternoon, chair woman, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the subcommittee. As you are aware the United States is currently facing an unprecedented National Security humanitarian crisis at our southwest border. Over the past year a number of aliens apprehended at or near the southwest border has increased significantly. Today, however, i am here to address other parts of immigration system that remain in desperate need of resources and funding as well as the need for legislation that will help put an end to the Current Border crisis. The fact is the majority are released into the interior United States for immigration proceedings and Immigration Courts currently have a backlog of over 900 cases and growing. The officers of i. C. E. Are responsible for managing those cases as well as those more than 3 million aliens currently on i. C. E. s docket. Many aliens do not approve for their proceedings violating the terms of their release and fail to appear for their hearings or comply with removal orders. The result is that the border crisis has become a National Crisis which requires a strong intear yr enforcement component that lends certainty. The reality is our immigration laws are only in force at the border if you fail to provide adequate resources and ordered removed and with this in mind i come to ask in providing i. C. E. The funding it desperately needs to address not only the ongoing crisis the Current Situation at our border directly impacts this agency and its research requirements. Cbps 780,693 encounters, this represents all southwest border encounters to date. Notably in the last few months i. C. E. Alone has been forced to release more than 215,000 members of families into the interior United States due to the flores Settlement Agreement. I. C. E. s resources has been overburdened by the record number. And congress repeated failure to fund at i. C. E. Requested levels. I. C. E. Is currently detaining due to its very limited detention capacity i. C. E. Must generally reserve its detention space for those who require congressionally mandated detention as well as those who pose National Security, Public Safety or flight risk. However, based on increased enforcement activity on the border transportation funding is urge nltly needed. To ensure the National Security and Public Safety of the United States and the faithful execution of immigration laws passed by congress, i. C. E. Officers may conduct targeted Enforcement Actions against any removable alien. Despite what is often sensationally misreported these are not discriminate raids or sweeps. Approximately 90 are aliens who have prior criminal convictions, face pending charges, or immigration fugitives. However, the crisis on the border has negativity impacted i. C. E. s interior Enforcement Mission and thus the Public Safety of our communities. Resources dedicated to removing dangerous criminals from the streets have been redeploy today manage increased work loads, resulting in 114 decrease in criminal alien arrests this fiscal year. Additionally i. C. E. Has reassigned to help manage the team daukts. The failure to increase funding for operations over the course of the last decade has created a tremendous strain on i. C. E. s ability to arrest specific aliens, fail to comply with removal orders or release conditions including those who have absconded while on atd. It has failed to fund the necessary resources that make the program effective. Without the necessary numbers of fugiti fugitive officers as well as sufficient space for those to be detained once they are arrest while congress has increased the number of funded doj Immigration Judges and support positions during our recent budget cycles and i would like to highlight legislative changes urgently needed. The fy 20 budget request only addresses the symptoms of the crisis. It does not solve the problem. Legislative changes are the only viable option to swiftly put an end to the Current Crisis reducing the victimization of migrants looking for a better life and starving the cartels of a major seshment of their illicit criminal enterprises. The factors they create will only result in more illegal immigration and worsen the humanitarian crisis. We ask you to clarify the governments Detention Authority with respect to alien minors, amend the traffic and victims protection reauthorization act to provide for the prompt repateeration and address the federal career standard, the current standard has proven to be ineffective in screening out those fraudulent claims. These despicable smugglers have created an entire illicit industry with untold millions of dollars being made through the sale, rental of children. Despite this activity Homeland Security investigations has reassigned hundreds of special agents and analysts. These same loopholes also encourage further illegal immigration as the record numbers indicate. These are not talking points. These are facts based on over 25 years law experience. By faithfully executing the laws established by congress to protect the integrity and credibility of our countrys borders as well as our National Security and the safety of our communities nationwide. The increase in the flow of Illegal Migrants and change in those arriving at our borders are putting the migrants particularly Young Children at risk of harm from smugglers, traffickers, criminals and the dangers of a difficult journey. And theyre placing unsustainable pressure on the entire immigration system. Failing to adequately resource interior resource efforts such as fugitive operations, detention beds and i. C. E. Attorneys creates nothing more than the appearance of border enforcement creating a factor that ultimately drives more people to make the dangerous journey to the United States, incentivizes more illegal activity and delays justice for those with meritorious claims to asciolism. As a nation of laws we owe it to the citizens of our country to maintain the integrity of our immigration system especially when faced with a serious ongoing crisis. They have done this despite villainization, personal attacks and the toll it takes on their families and personal lives. They pay this price every day for simply doing their jobs under the laws passed by congress. A crisis at hand, a change is needed and it is your responsibility as members of the congress to act. Thank you again for inviting me to testify today. I am honored and humbled. I ask you provide the funding sought in the present fy 2020 budget. I look forward to your questions. As you know we have serious concerns about i. C. E. s ability to manage the budget within the means provided by congress. The lack of transparency into how i. C. E. Executes its budget also kpar baits our concerns. Under a continuing resolution operations should continue at the level funded in the prior year appropriation. For the current year that means i. C. E. Should have maintained an average daily population of 40,525 during the cr period. And yet for the First Quarter i. C. E. Used detention beds searched from 44,000 to over 46,000. And this was before the significant migrant surge at the border. During the period of the cr did i. C. E. Make any attempt to operate within the funding levs identified by congress for custody operations . And if so, what specific actions did it take . Thank you, madam chairwoman. We continually look to utilize our detention resources in the most efficient manner as possible. Instructions standing instructions to our field offices, our 24yearold field offices continually look at their populations to ensure those individuals that are detained are the most appropriate for the detention. Those Individuals Congress has mandated must be detained by law. 40 of the individuals currently in i. C. E. Custody are subject to mandatory todention under the immigration and nationality act. The vast majority of those other individuals are individuals who are Public Safety threats, gang members or individuals who may not reach the mandatory detention threshold, but we have felt that theyre appropriate for detention and not appropriate for any sort of release back to the community. With regard to your question during the cr, the numbers began an up tick the middle part of last summer and continued to rise through the fall and not to the level weve seen unfortunately during the calendar year fy 19. However in order for a whole sale system we made a conscious decision to try to detain as many people as we possibly could to help prevent a rush on the border. Unfortunately, the numbers continue to come as a result of the fact many of those people we cant detain because they are uac or families. To better understand how i. C. E. Budgets for its operations, the report that accompanied the fy 2019 appropriation directed i. C. E. To brief the committee on a detailed plan for operating within its budget. This was due 60 days after the date of enactsment and was to be provided monthly thereafter. Today we have not received even one and by now we should have received four. Why has i. C. E. Failed to comply with this briefing directive . Ill have to look into that specific directive. I do know we are holding weekly migration callwise the four corners staff during which time both cbp and i. C. E. Provide detailed information with regard to their Ongoing Operations to include detention and funding execution. We have posted a lot of our material on the website. We will go through them and certainly have a detailed response on each one of those. Just as a followup, you know, the departments funding transfer authority exists to address unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances, but it seems clear to me that i. C. E. Operates under the full expectation it will be bailed out by this transfer authority that it has for some other means. As the acting i. C. E. Director for the coming fiscal year i hope that you can commit to operating within the funding level that is appropriated by congress. I certainly will do my best to do so. I can tell you weve had numerous budget meetings with very hard decisions made all the time with regard to what operations were going to have to curtail or what Funding Initiatives we might not be able to do as a result of the limited funding. Our detention model has been accurate for the past three or four years, the model we utilize. And we ask for 52,000 beds in the fy 19 budget. Just as reminder as we move forward, you know, appropriation bills are also law, and including continuing resolutions with no Less Authority than the immigration and nationality act. Na in fact, the authority of the appropriations bill is derived exactly from article 9, section 7 of the u. S. Constitution and i quote, no money shall be drawn from the traeeasury but in consequence of the appropriations made by law. So when Congress Enacts appropriation bills it does so based on informed analysis provided by the Appropriations Committee on how best to target to use the use of limited resources. So i just want to emphasize that transfer authority is provided by congress to allow executive Branch Agencies to respond to unforeseen events and circumstances and not to routinely augment appropriations for a particular activity. I will pause on my questioning and i will now turn to the chair of the full committee. Passing our final bill of the session. But i am pleased to be here with my colleagues to welcome you. I am very concerned that this administrations policies negatively impact the wellbeing of our immigrant populations. Im especially concerned about the affects on vulnerable populations like unaccompanied children. In april 2018 your predecessor, director holman, signed an agreement with hhs that provides for information sharing between your agencies regarding the vetting of potential sponsors for unaccompanied children. The mere existence of this agreement has had a Chilling Effect on the number of potential sponsors who otherwise had been willing to take these children out of federal custody and care for them. Not only does this make the mental and emotional stress these children already face even worse, it has led to significant additional federal costs as children remain in hhs custody for far longer than necessary. Its clear to me that this agreement is misguided at best. So if i could ask you a few questions first. How many arrests have been made of sponsors,