Time get that much time to speak. Number one, the reason why that is, is not anything about affirmative action. Its all because of one guy we were talking about earlier, scalia. You can you can listen to any oral argument on oyez. Org cspan 3 is live on capitol hill this morning where members of a house subcommittee are holding a hearing on u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Live coverage on cspan 3. Such as subcommittee meetings and hearings and so the expectation is for members and witnesses who are physically present to please wear a mask except when you are speaking. Pursuant to notice and this subcommittees rules of procedure and statement of policy for private immigration bills i call up hr 7572, a private bill for the relief of median. The chair calls the bill for the purpose of requesting an investigative report from the department of Homeland Security and the stay of removal on behalf of the named beneficiary while that report is pending. Without objection i ask unanimous consent my full statement on this bill be made a part of the record. Mr. Back, i would recognize you as the Ranking Member and a statement you will wish to make. I will introduce my statement for the record but not make a statement at this time, thank you madam chair. Thank you. I understand that mr. Nadler, the chairman of the full committee, is unable to be with us at this point. I dont know if mr. Jordan is present. If so, he would be invited to make an Opening Statement should he desire. I think mr. Jordan was also unable to be with puus. Request dhs provide the subcommittee with the departmental report on hr 7572 and stay the removal of median el mu stra. I know this request for stay of removal does not provide a final decision on the private bill. The request and stay is simply the first step in the private bill process to learn more about the case from the agency responsible. All those in favor will say yea. All those opposed will say no. In the opinion of the chair the yeas have it and the request will be made to provide the subcommittee with the departmental report on hr 7572 and stay of removal. That i believe will conchewed our subcommittee meeting on the private bill and will begin in four minutes our hearing on the oversight of u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. There being no further business before the subcommittee with respect to the private bill, the meeting is adjourned and we will begin the oversight hearing in four minutes. At any time. We welcome everyone to this mornings hearing on oversight of u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Before we begin i would like to remind members again that we have established an email address and distribution list thats dedicated to circulating exhibits, motions or other written material others might want to offer as part of our hearing today. If members would like to submit materials send them to the email address that has been previously distributed to member offices and we will circulate the materials to members and staff as quickly as we can. I would also repimind all membe that guidance from the office of attending physician states that face coverings are required for all meetings in an enclosed space such as the subcommittee hearings and its expected that individuals in the room will wear a mask except when they are speaking and i would recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Todays hearing the oversight of u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services comes at a critical time. Since january of 2017 we have watched this administration strip away at usciss Service Oriented mission and eradicate common sense policies that improve agency efficiency. Instead, the administration has implemented countless new policies that add bureaucratic red tape, increase costs and restrict and reduce immigration channels. As is often the case today, the covid19 pandemic has exposed this miss management. Now, absent funding from congress, 13,400 u. S. Cis employees face the threat of furlough one month from now. Agency officials have po posed repaying appropriated funds by proposing a 10 surcharge on all request for immigration benefits. The agency blames its financial crisis on reduced filings during the covid pandemic. While this reduction in filings contributed to the crisis, uscis was well on its way to insolvency long before the covid19 hit our shores. Last year this subcommittee held a hearing to examine how restrictive policy and procedural changes led to record high case backlogs and processing delays. Despite large staff increases and decreases in immigration filings over the past two years, the backlog has only grown larger. A case backlog stands at a staggering 2. 5 million cases. U. S. Cis frequently points to the growing case backlog as justification to hire additional adjudicators and since 2016 the agency has added about 5,000 new employees while hiking fees to pay for the added salary costs. We observed this eight months ago when uscis proposed an additional 21 fee increase, quote, to Fund Additional staff, and, quote, perform more National Security investigavett uscis acknowledged the additional staff will not measurely improve processing times. Now uscis has proposed a 10 surcharge on top of the 21 surcharge proposed earlier to repay appropriated funds. The agency is forcing customers to not only shoulder the cost of misguided management and policy choices, but to pay even more for slower services. This really is not acceptable. Additionally, even as the uscis in filings as the cause of the administration continues to take actions to restrict immigration further driving u. S. Cis revenues into the ground. For example, on june 18, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that administrations recession of daca was unlawful. That means the daca program that existed before the president s unlawful action was taken was reinstated. Yesterday, dhs issued a new memorandum reconsidering the daca program and shortening the permissible renewal period. Dhs instructed uscis to instruct all additional daca applications. While the future remains uncertain one thing is clear, holding new daca applications at process facilities uscis was violating the Supreme Courts judgment. Similarly high demand for immigrant visas it seems that thousands of visas will go unused this year. Chairman nadler and i first raised this issue with the administration in may, but we received no response. In fact, instead of advancing priority dates to increase adjustment of status filings the administration appears to have stifled Priority Movement to prevent such filings. Only recently after we sent a second letter did we see more movement in priority days. Unfortunately, given how late it is in the fiscal year this is likely too little too late. Perhaps that was the point. I look forward to hearing from our first witness mr. Joseph edlow, Deputy Director for policy at uscis on these and other issues and the witnesses on our second panel so that we can understand how Agency Mismanagement and the threat of furloughs has impacted immigrant communities, u. S. Businesses and uscis employees. When you consider all that the administration has done to restrict Legal Immigration over the past three and a half years, its no wonder that the uscis stands before us cat in hand asking for money to maintain current operations. The Trump Administration has been characterized by incompetence, and the catastrophic response to covid19, to mismanagement of this agency. However, i hope we can all agree that no good purpose will be served if we allow the immigration system to grind to a halt. Its my hope that todays hearing will further current negotiations by helping us to better understand how we got to where we are, where we are today and that we can find a solution that all of us can embrace. Its now my pleasure to recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee from colorado, for his Opening Statement. Thank you, madam chair, and madam chair, let me tell you it is a pleasure to be back in the Judiciary Committee hearing room. It feels like a home that i havent visited for a while and its nice to get back to a little sense of normality. Thank you for holding this hearing to conduct oversight of the u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This subcommittee has an important oversight responsibility. Uscis has continued its important work in the face of covid19. The covid19 pandemic and the resulting Office Closures and budget shortfalls, the agency has experienced. The agency has gone out of its way to ease the process for benefit applicants wherever possible. Since march the agency has conducted over 106,500 naturalization ceremonies, approved over 87,600 applications for adjustment of status and ensured our agricultural system remains competitive by allowing more than 130,500 h2 a employees to enter the country. While delays remain these numbers show that uscis takes its mission seriously. The agency does face large challenges going forward, including the previously mentioned 1. 2 billion shortfall. The potential need to furlough up to 75 of the agencys workforce and the residual delays in benefit adjudication. However, i have confidence the agency will continue administering our nations Immigration Laws fairly and consistently no matter the circumstances. Mr. Edlow, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer important questions about the work you are doing at uscis. I look forward to hearing the challenges and successes of uscis as well as any ways we in congress can be helpful to the agencys mission. I thank the chair and yield back. Thank you, mr. Buck. I now would like to introduce our first witness, joseph edlow, joined the u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in july 2019. First serving as chief counsel for the agency before transitioning to his current role as Deputy Director of policy in february of this year. Prior to this, he served as Deputy Assistant attorney general in the office of legal policy at the department of justice and assistant chief counsel at the Baltimore Field Office of immigration and custom enforcement. Mr. Edlow also worked for three years in the house of representatives, first in the office of our former colleague, raul labrador, and then as counsel for this very subcommittee. We welcome him back to the subcommittee today and look forward to his testimony. Mr. Edlow, if you would please rise, i will begin by swearing you in. Do you swear or afirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony youre about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information and belief, so help you god . I do. Let the row show the witness answered in the affirmative. Thank you be seated. Note your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety. I ask you try to summarize your testimony in five minutes and to help you stay within that time, theres a timing light on your table. When the light switches from green to yellow, you have one minute to sum up and when the light turns red, your five minutes have expired and we ask you to try to stop at that point. You may begin. Thank you. Chairwoman lauf gren, Ranking Member buck and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Uscis mission is to safeguard the integrity and promise of the nations lawful immigration system by efficiently and fairly adjudicating request for immigration benefits while protecting americans, securing the homeland and honoring our values. I am here today on behalf of the nearly 20,000 dedicated and hardworking professionals. It is my honor to lead them and the daytoday operations of this agency. These are difficult times for our nation and for uscis. The pandemic has affected virtually all aspects of American Life and has had a dramatic affect on uscis operation and revenue. Despite our best efforts we have been forced to issue furlough notices to nearly 70 of our employees. Without funding from congress, we will have no choice but to proceed with largescale furloughs on august 30th. As you know, uscis is unique among federal agencies and we are 97 fee funded. The fees we collect for certain petitions and applications pay for our operations, including the salaries of our workforce. Those fees cover the cost of adjudicating many immigration requests and benefits for which we do not currently collect a fee, such as asylum, refugee status, humanitarian visas, deferred action and satisfactory departure. Unlike an appropriated agency, a fee funded agency must have sufficient funding remaining on september 30 to the carry over on october 1st to begin and sustain operations for the new fiscal year. The pandemic has virtually eliminated this necessary carryover funding. Without funds from congress or a furlough, uscis will run out of money in early fiscal year 2021. We have done what we can reducing spending, instituting a hiring freeze and identifying more than 100 million liquidated obviously gagses. We began working to adjust Agency Spending as we identified our fee schedule was insufficient to recover estimated costs this fiscal year. I have spoken to many of you and your staffs about our crisis and our funding proposal to ensure that uscis continues throughout this fiscal year and start fiscal year 2021 on Strong Financial footing. Most important to me are the men and women of us cis who continue to perform our agencys Critical Mission under such uncertain circumstances in these unprecedented times. Facing a pandemic, uscis employees engaged strategies to continue limited naturalization ceremonies to prevent the spread of covid19. While our slowdown did delay taking the oath for some i am proud to report that all 110,000 of those pending oates will be completed by the end of this week. This is merely a snapshot of the work done by the talented and dedicated workforce. Starting in june we safely and effectively reopened most offices while protecting applicant and employee safety during the ongoing covid19 pandemic. At field offices with we implemented a variety of measures such as providing Hand Sanitizer at entry points, requiring facial coverings, installing fiscal barrier and markings. At asylum offices we began conducting video facilitated interviews using Available Technology including mobile devices provided by uscis to ensure that asylum officer, applicant, interpreter and representative can fully and safely participate in the interview while maintaining social distancing. As our offices resume if Person Services, uscis looks to pick up where we left off. Last year uscis naturalized an 11year high. The agency completed over 103,000 credible fear claims a record high and more than 113 increase since 2015 as well as approximately 79,000 affirmative asylum applications. The dedication and commitment of the uscis workforce is inspiring even as the financial situation in the spector of largescale furloughs have been the toughest obstacle we have faced. I look forward to doing whatever it takes in working with congress to resolve this issue. I would like to acknowledge the productive conversation i have had with witnesses set to appear on the second panel this morning. I believe we share a strong commitment to the workforce and remain confident we can Work Together to find a resolution. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you, mr. Edlow. This is the time when members of the subcommittee may ask questions of our witness for five minutes each and i will begin. As youre aware except for uncapped categories such as immediate relatives, our Immigration Law provide a certain number of employment and family based immigrant visas each fiscal year. There are millions of people who have been waiting for decades until a visa is available to them. According to recent reports an estimated 5 million individuals with approved immigrant visa petitions are waiting in the immigrant visa backlog. Mr. Edlow, do you agree that the immigration and nationality act requires these visas to be issued if there is enough demand . Congresswoman, i agree that we have a duty to get as close to the immigrant visa caps that congress has set per year as we possibly can. And we are making progress this year to getting there. Obviously with the in Person Services closed for a number of months including at Application Support Centers we have not been able to move as many as we would have liked to through the process. That said, as of july 16th, we have already allocated 86. 8 of the fiscal year annual limit for employment based preference categories. Thats over 106,000 visas that have been allocated and most of that as you know, mr. Edlow, several weeks ago we were advised by dhs officials as of april 29th, approximately 126,000 family based visas and nearly 75,000 employment based visas were available and we had mr. Nadler and i had written about this and in june, mr. Nadler and i sent a followup letter to the secretaries of state and Homeland Security expressing our concern that the departments were not faithfully complying with the law to ensure full use of stat attornutorily authorize numbers for fiscal year 2020 and 2021. We copied you on the letter and asked for a response to this letter and a stafflevel briefing by july 6th, but to date, neither has been provided. Now why is that . Congresswoman, i apologize. My understanding was that you had received a response on that letter. It was not drafted by me, but i have seen that response and if you have not got than i will ensure that you and chairman nadler get that immediately. Additionally, we are happy at uscis to provide you a briefing with our role with regard to analyzing and determining how to move the visa bulletin forward and how we work with the department of state on that. As to the department of states role i would defer to them, of course. I will check in on that. Congresswoman i know that letter has been drafted. I understand from our staff that we have not received a response, so well look forward to that. Do to the suspension of Consular Services in and various proclamations overseas demand has decreased in recent months, but its well documented theres a great deal of demand for such visas from persons already legally in the United States. Visa availability as reflected in the visa bulletin is set by the department of state in consultation with consultation with uscis. Do you or other political appointees play a role in that consultation process . Congresswoman, that consultation process is as you said completed by the department of state with consultation with uscis. I have been involved on discussions on that occasionally. By and large month in and month out i am not typically involved in those conversations. In april i was involved, and i believe the letter that we were supposed to have sent back to you would have addressed that and would have identified that. You know, certainly as we were trying to figure out what our next steps were with being able to process under our limitations from the pandemic we did want to be careful as to moving that number forward, but then that number has significantly moved forward in the months following. But our letter explains that. Let me just be frank. Members of my staff have received information from uscis employees indicating that dhs Political Leadership overruled career officials in setting the priority dates for the july visa bulletin. Did you have some role in that visa bulletin . Congresswoman, i have no knowledge of that at all. Okay. And i was not involved in setting the july visa bulletin at all. Then its political interference elsewhere, and we will try to solve that. Im nearing the end of my time. Id like to conclude by saying that while i understand uscis had to temporarily suspend inPerson Services and close field offices earlier this year, that doesnt excuse the administration from comcomplying with its congressional mandate to ensure full use of immigrant visa numbers. Theres many ways to move cases through the system without person to person contact including interview waivers in kier clearly approvable cases although i understand the Agency Suspended processing of those cases as well. In my final minute i would like to raise the issue of the Supreme Court decision. Other members may want to talk later about daca. The Supreme Court rule what the administration did was unlawful and putting aside yesterdays reconsidering and prohibiting new applications the department was clearly in violation of the Supreme Court decision for at least a week and maybe currently. I would just like to note how distressing it is that at the hearing which took place 40 days after the Supreme Courts decision was issued doj stated that the uscis had not found the time or resources to change their website. We expect compliance with the law. We certainly expect compliance with Supreme Court decisions. And i think i dont know whether it was your decision or mr. Wolfs or mr. Cuccinellis or the white house but compliance with that decision was disappointing at best. I see that my time has expired so i will now turn for his five minutes of questioning. I thank the chair. Because of the unique situation, madam chair, im going to recognize the congresswoman from arizona, ms. Lesco for her time, and i appreciate the chairs indulgence. Thank you, madam chair. I have a couple of questions actually about daca. I believe when president obama originally did the executive order that gave Daca Recipients what they get today was unconstitutional because it wasnt done through congress. Of course we have the recent Supreme Court ruling which quite frankly i didnt agree with. But that being it i understand that currently under daca you have to have continuously resided in the United States from june 15th, 2007. Were now in 2020, so does that mean that the youngest person in daca would be about 13 years old that would apply new new applications . For applications when they were accepted, yes depending on where they were born, yes, they would have had to be here in 2007, so yes. Okay. Im just trying to understand because im not in your field so i dont understand why would somebody that is 13 years old not have applied for daca yet . Because the changes were for new applicants, right . Wasnt that the change done yesterday by the Trump Administration. New applications were put on pause . Let me back up a bit and explain. So back in 2017 through acting secretary duke the now that memo has now been rescinded by acting secretary wolfs memo but acting secretary duke rescinded daca and there was litigation that ensued. Due to that litigation the department and government was enjoined to ending the program with regard to renewals. We kept processing renewal applications at that point, however we did stop new applications. So new applications have not been accepted i apologize i dont remember the date off the top of my head but some time in 2017 and 2018. And thats been the status quo since then and until now when we have the Supreme Court that ultimately found the program could be rescinded, there is no question about the legality of rescinding it. It was the manner in which acting secretary duke rescinded it. Accordingly what we took at that point was begin to hold new applications while we continued to talk with our attorneys both within the department as well as within the department of justice to figure out what the next steps would be. But there has not been an opportunity to apply for an initial daca or to have that processed since 2017, 2018. Thank you for explaining it to me. Can we pivot now to the backlog cases . I think theres been in the Opening Statement madam chairman had said youre really far behind in processing, that the Trump Administration has done a terrible job you know, im paraphrasing, something to that effect. Can you respond to that because i have a bunch of information here that actually youve done a lot of processing in different fields. Would you like to respond . I would be happy to. Thank you, congresswoman. So in the queue of cases that are outside normal processing times which are typically referred to as the quoteunquote backlog we do have right now about 2. 5 million. We also have another 2. 5 million cases in processing times, and theres a third group of cases pending that are outside of uscis ability to control. For example we have requests for evidence out where were waiting for something from somebody else. So we are absolutely making progress and doing whatever we can to add efficiencies into the system and using to bring down the time of adjudication. Now, expediency is absolutely critical. But we have to balance that with making sure were doing a fulsome adjudication and properly ensuring that the integrity of the system is met. We cannot allow to be the enemy of making sure that the applications are approvalable assuring their adjudications are within the law, within the scope and im very impressed with the work ive seen since ive taken over the helm. Lets turn now to the gentle lady from washington. Thank you, madam chair. Since its inception the deferred action for Childhood Arrivals Program has benefitted over 825,000 individuals. Thats 825,000 people who have stepped out of the shadows and reached new academic and professional heights and contributed tremendously to our country. Daca also enjoyed broad support among the American Public with 66 of American Voters supporting the program. Id like to discuss the recent Supreme Court decision describing the administrations decision of daca unlawful. Putting aside yesterdays dhs memo, quote, reconsidering the daca program do you agree with the Supreme Courts ruling the decision was arbitrary and capricious . Yes or no . I have said i dont agree with it. Okay, and based on that ruling the administration should have returned the program to its original form. By not processing applications prior to the new memo uscis was in direction violation of the Supreme Court. Do you believe compliance with the Supreme Court is a choice . Congresswoman, Supreme Court compliance is not a choice, however the mandate did not enter i didnt ask you anything other than whether you think compliance is a choice, and you said no its not a choice. Did you consult dhs leadership or the white house on yesterdays memo . Im not going to get into internal conversations i got into about the memo. Youre testifying before the immigration subcommittee. Did you consult with dhs leadership on yesterdays memo. Im asking if you were consulted. The memo was not issued be my. Did you consult or not. Did you consult or not . Ive had conversations but so yes. So then did uscis not accept new daca applications due to the knowledge this memorandum was to be issued . Congresswoman, with my conversation with lawyers we were determining what the next steps were going to be. We immediately stopped rejecting new applications. We were holding them so we had them ready to go should this decision have come out, and the acting secretary if the acth secretary had directed us to accept. But we were aware that there was additional litigation, and we were taking the steps we needed to thank you. I think thats sufficient. Let me switch gears to your website. Last week over a month after the Supreme Courts ruling. One month after the Supreme Courts Ruling Department of justice lawyers representing uscis in a hearing admitted to inaccuracies. Doj lawyers stated uscis had, quote, not find the time or resources to change their website to reflect the new status of daca applications. Is that accurate . I cant speak to the a accuracy of that. You cant tell me what the doj said about your agency not having the time or resources to change their website as accurate . As far as their having the resources i just dont know i need to consult with my youre the Deputy Director of the agency and you cant tell me whether your agency had the resources or time to change the website. The following day after the Supreme Courts decision the website published a statement claiming that the decision had, quote, no basis in law on your website. And then yesterday when the new daca memo was issued there was a banner on the website within minutes. Can you explain to me how there was plenty of, quote, time and resources to post a statement opposing the Supreme Court decision but not to update the website to comply with its order after more than one month . Again, congresswoman, the order did not take effect until the mandate issued. We at that point were consulting with department of justice mr. Edlow, the Supreme Court is not you do not get to decide whether or not youre going to comply with a Supreme Court order. You have had a month since the Supreme Courts decision to change your processing applications and make sure you comply with that order. You have not done that. It is your job to comply with the Supreme Court. This administration does not get to decide which orders it complies with or not. It does not get to decide that it can put up a statement that says the Supreme Court decision that you dont agree with it but you dont actually comply. There are an estimated 300,000 young people waiting for you to do your job and to allow new applications to this program. The Supreme Court rightly upheld this program. Your agency needs to do the same. Thank you, madam chair. I yield back. The jegentle ladys time has expired. I will turn now to Ranking Member mr. Buck. Thank you, chair. And i recognize the gentleman from arizona mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ranking Member mr. Buck and madam chair. There has been some misconception here. The Supreme Court decision in the case of department of Homeland Security vs. University of california did not say that the daca program was necessarily legal. They said the administration failed to comply with the apa in its decision to revoke or rescind or their determination at the daca program was instituted illegally. Thats a completely different animal than what weve heard from our colleagues across the aisle so far today. The reality is they and this gets to the point youve been making about they made their decision. The mandate wasnt effective until last week. In reality it could pursue based on the Supreme Court to expand their memo and the reasons why in why they chose to rescind the daca program. Isnt that true, mr. Edlow . That is, yes. In 2017 uscis said there were still 800,000 people still in the daca program. How many are there today . Its approximately 826,000. And according to press reports the Obamabiden Administration accepted documents such as xbox live receipts from daca residents as evidence of residence. I absolute law agree. I was appalled when i heard that was accepted. Are you familiar of a daca recipient who was smuggling illegal aliens into the country. Are you aware of some of those cases and what happens to those people who are using their daca status to violate u. S. Law and are doing things such as smuggling illegal aliens into the country . Yes, thank you, congressman. I cant say im familiar with those specific examples. But in general if theres a determination made that the individual is committing crimes or has been convicted that case would obviously be referred to Homeland Security for appropriate prosecution and then termination of the daca program. Do you know, mr. Edlow, how many folks have been referred to dhs for investigation regarding crimes committed in the u. S. . Congressman, weve put out several reports on that. I would need to get back to you on the exact figure. If youd do that. Absolutely, sir. And one of the things youre here for today is obviously oversight. But in particular is your concern i mean the chairwoman mentioned the furloughs pending. Tell us about that and the finances trying to keep people from being furloughed so you can fulfill your duties and how long it will take to pay that money back. Thank you, congressman. We are in a tremendous budget shortfall at this point. Prior to covid we were operating at a deficit. Frankly, weve been operating at a deficit for the last several years, but we were in no way in a budget shortfall going to cut into our mission or potentially bring up furloughs. This was the result of covid, and we have charts i believe we provided to the committee to show the significant dip in our receipts during this year, something were still trying to recover from. We have asked for approximately 570 million to finish out this fiscal year and 650 or so million to begin the next fiscal year. As i mentioned in my opening since we are fee funded largely we need carry over. We dont have surplus. We have carry over. So when the reports came out the other day if we didnt furlough employees we would still have some degree of surplus to rollover into the next year, thats just not accurate. Surplus is something that would be unobligated and likely have to return to the treasury. In our case it would be turn over for obligated funds and expenses. The gentlemans time has expired. Well turn now to the gentleman from california, mr. Correa. Thank you, madam chair, for holding this hearing. My district is home to the largest number of dreamers in the country, and ive got to tell you theyre scared. My daughter has a lot of friends who are dreamers. They come to my house and ask what can we do, were scared. And they have a good reason to be scared. Theyre essentially political pinatas. Obama created the program, Trump Administration created the program. The United States Supreme Court said you didnt terminate the program correctly. Go back and do it again. And just a few weeks ago President Trump said im going to provide you with a pathway to citizenship. Were waiting for language so we can act on that piece of legislation. And then yesterday we have a new memo with new instructions. So you can understand these individuals that by definition to be a daca recipient you have to follow the law, gainfully employed or be going to school. A lot of these dreamers are front liners in the fight against covid. Theyre nurses, health care workers. And you know what . Theyre also growing our crops and harvesting our crops and working at poultry plants. Theyre the folks that are keeping us fed while this country burns with covid19. We also have some that have made the ultimate sacrifice defending this country. We have soldiers that are fighting for this country, and yet theyre in limbo right now. So i want to ask you that memo which was the latest twist and turn in the life of these individuals, almost a million, are you accepting new daca applications . Accepting, no we are not accepting new daca applications. Are you accepting new advanced applications. No we are not, sir. By what authority . The memo speaks for itself from acting secretary wolf. I should be putting out Additional Guidance in the coming days how were going to be responding to every type of application and request that comes in on that. Sir, if i can turn briefly to the limbo you referred to and change it slightly. I understand where youre coming from but i also want to address the fact our employees are also in limbo. And weve spoken about this. You have a significant number of employees who are also in limbo. And that is why i do want to make it as clear as possible my primary goal here is to impress upon you the important work my staff is doing im on limited time and let me tell you right now i know many of those workers that work for you. Theyre my constituents. And ive told them were trying to come up with a solution, thats part of the message here today which is how do we get back on track to make sure that you process those applications in a timely manner, which leads me to my next question. Which is Agency Remote naturalization oaths, how are we doing with that right now . Remote naturalization is not something were currently during the pandemic when we had a cancel so many oath ceremonies we were concerned how were going to get through that. Since weve reopened weve been able to get through that entire backlog. I sent you a letter of democrats and republicans urging you to move in that direction. I understand, sir. Is your position you dont have the Legal Authority . I dont think weave the Legal Authority. Im also concerned about the operational implementation of it with regard to getting people their naturalization certificates. Ive got 45 seconds, so let me id like to work with you on figuring out the aspirational aspect of remote naturalization. Ive got a memo here im going to ask for unanimous consent to submit to the record that says you do have the Legal Authority. And the heroes act has without objection. That essentially talked about clarifying urging you to move ahead. Im happy to work with your staff and discuss this more. We need to remember that only part of the naturalization ceremonies that we do are administrative. Theres a large part of this country that is exclusive jurisdiction before the courts. And so i cant do anything im out of time. I would like to conclude. I just want to say, mr. Edlow, lets work on these issues. These are important topics for americans. Thank you very much. I yield. Lets turn now to mr. Bach. I would ask the chair to recognize mr. Stuby for his questioning. Hes recognized. Hello. Hey, madam chair. Thank you for this hearing. I yield to mr. Buck. Hes just yielded to you mr. Stuby. Yeah, im yielding back to him so he can yield to another. Thank you. Were playing a little pingpong here. Mr. Edlow, i wanted to ask you real briefly you mentioned that the backlog and the need for additional funding is a result of the coronavirus issues that we are facing. Would you please expand on that . Yes, certainly. First of all, mr. Buck, just so you understand im not saying the backlog is a result of covid. The backlog is something weve been dealing with for a number of years. Its the ebb and flow of receipt programs coming in and things of that nature. But the funding issue, is, yes, a direct result. We have a chart i believe weve provided to the committee that shows at least frankly during this administration the dip in receipts in the end of february through march and april of 2020 was significant. It was a drop of several hundred thousand to the point where we could not we went from a deficit we could recover from to a deficit where there was no way to complete the fiscal year without additional funding. And the total amount of additional funding from what i heard, the two numbers that you mentioned somewhere in the 1. 3 billion 1. 2 or so. Okay, 1. 2 billion. Are you aware were going to be considering a new bill for Coronavirus Relief that is coming over for the senate, and it has 70 billion in that bill for k12 education. Are you aware of that . I was aware the bill exists. Okay, so youre talking about 1. 2 billion for a federal government function and congress will be considering 70 billion for a local function, k12 education. The cares act had 150 billion in it for state and local governments. Again, not a federal function were talking about. A constitutional federal function, frankly, but a function that congress has considered to help absolutely appropriately with state and local governments. 175 billion in the care act for hospitals. 45 billion in the cares act for fema, state and local disaster relief. A total of 765 billion was appropriated by congress to state and local governments for Coronavirus Relief. And youre asking for 1. 2 billion. And i think its important we put that in perspective. Congress spends billions of dollars in my opinion wrongfully, but we spend billions of dollars all the time, and youre asking for really a drop in the bucket that we should be appropriating to make sure that we are doing our job as a federal government and one of the Core Functions of the federal government. And to hear the politics being played right now is just unfortunate because much of the shortfall of the coronavirus that has affected so many and infected so many. And i appreciate you coming before congress, and i appreciate you and i appreciate your integrity and the fact i know you. We Work Together and i know you wouldnt waste a single dime of taxpayer money. So for you to ask for 1. 2 billion im sure its necessary and its going to be spent wisely and compassionately to make sure people in limbo are treated appropriately and were able to process those folks and welcome them to our country. So i thank you and i yield back. Gentleman, yields back. Congresswoman garcia had to attend a competing hearing in the Armed Services committee. Hopefully shell be able to return, but until then mr. Nagoose will be recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair, for holding this hearing. I want to address the current state of the processing backlog which my colleague from colorado representative buck mentioned. Im sure as you are aware and my colleagues would agree one of the biggest complaints weve received from constituents on immigration relates to processing delays at ucsis. Can you briefly explain why the case backlog has continued to grow . My understanding is overall receipts have decreased for two consecutive years and staff has increased so significantly over the past five years. My understanding is its about 3,000 people who have been added to your payroll since 2016. So what accounts for the backlog . Well, sir, receipts have declined but theyve also increased in other years in 2017 and 2018. And trying to move to be able to complete these cases were not at a point yet where were completing more cases than were receiving in. And thats unfortunately something that we are trying to deal with at this point. Were also dealing with certain things, for example, on the asylum backlog we have about 390,000 cases that are pending. And our asylum folks, the director has done an amazing job especially during the pandemic of preadjudicating these casing to get them ready to a position where they can move forward and try to drill down on some of that backlog. But we have to recognize there are other things that happened during that period of time or prior, for example, putting a lot of our officers dealing with credible fear cases along the southern border that has pulled away from our ability to handle some of the backlog in the affirmative asylum cases. The same thing is true. Were prioritizing and trying to do what we can on the backlog with our field direction and service center. Weve hired more as my time is limited i want to say first thank you for your candor because i do think with respect to one of the issues you mentioned clearly i understand the data might be Different Things to different people, but as i understand the data it shows the processing times on average excuse me, the applications in the aggregate over the past five years has gone down. To the extent this administration has made decisions to allocate resources to your agency for other purposes which in turn indicates the processing times of ucsis i think that is one of the reasons the problems persists. I conquer with my colleague from colorado and representative correa. Obviously we all recognize the budget crisis ucis faces and i think we in Congress Want to assist and do everything we can to provide the administration with necessary stabilization resources needed so the hard workers back in colorado and elsewhere across the country can continue to do their jobs. I do want to ask you and i recognize this might be a sensitive line of inquiry. My understanding is the administration is yet to submit a formal request for emergency funding. While im aware omb has sent a letter supporting your request lack of white house involvement at least in my view is apparent. Im wondering if you spoke with senior white house or dhs officials about the budget crisis or request for funds and have you communicated with them about the need for the white house or, you know, mr. Cuccinelli or others to Tell Congress that they support this request so we can ultimately build a consensus here on capitol hill to get it done . Yes, congressman, youre correct. Mr. Voit, from omb did send a strongly worded letter and additionally acting secretary wolf has sent a letter on our behalf and acting secretary cuccinelli has made numerous phone calls to members of both the house and senate about our issues, so this is something thats a whole of government approach to try to address, and ive had conversations with people in the white house, with omb. Theyre strongly supportive of this. As far as their determination or their decision that no formal quoteunquote formal request has been sent i would defer you to omb on that, but theres no lack of support for this request from the white house, from omb or the department the gentlemens time has expired and i think if i may intervene it would be helpful to get a formal request. I mean, were not doubting your support but theres some processes and i will turn now to the gentle lady from florida for five minutes. You need to unmute your microphone and start again. Can you hear me now . Yes, we can. Its not the first time that weve had a hearing with uscis is and backlogs. I represent an area where i have thousands of constituents that have immigrated here to the United States and we get calls every single day about immigration status and about 70 of the calls were receiving are immigration related, mr. Edlow. And what i hear every single day when i check those logs of calls is that the uscis agency has terrible backlogs. We all know this. Were assisting a professor in my district whos been waiting for three years for uscis to reach a decision on adjustment of her status. Shes provideddential documentation, met all the demands uscis has made and shes still waiting. As you can imagine the backlogs affect immigrants who are actually trying to follow the law. They want to go through all the proper processes, but its affecting families in my district. And actually when immigrant employees cant get their employment authorization processed in time it also affects Small Businesses in my district. You can ask anyone here in south florida businesses are very concerned about the issue that immigration faces. So this backlog has continued to grow. Weve toned to see on increase that has been brought on but the backlog doesnt decrease and now youre here asking for more funding. I know theres a significant problem with uscis with the funding issues. I know youre furloughing many employees. I actually have met one employee that told me just this week that she received a notice from one day to the next shes going to beal furloughed as of august 30th without any sort of back pay or any benefit, and she had to scramble to look for a job. So let me just say that in my district i have an office and people may lose their jobs. Im very concerned about not only of the Immigration Community in south florida but also of the workers at the office who may lose their jobs. If 13,000 uscis employees were furloughed for any significant period of time, lets say 30 days, how would that impact the case backlog . Well, congresswoman, first of all, you know, youre right we are getting a lot of inquiries when it comes to case status and having to deal with people on the backlog. Fiscal year to date weve received over 118,000 congressional inquiries on largely on that point and other people questioning status of various things, and were i believe weve handled about 90 of those thus far. In terms of the individual person that youre referring to if you want to have your staff submit something that would get my chief of legislative affairs some information id be happy to look into that but obviously i dont know the case at hand. Congresswoman, im just as concerned about the staff in kendall and everywhere else in florida and everywhere else in the country by what would happen. Just because of time let me just say before covid, before this Health Crisis and economic crisis were facing we had a hearing and the issue is the same and i dont see any improvement. Let me talk about another program. The Cuban Reunification Program. You earlier stated you get your funding through application fees, is that correct . Largely. 97 , yes. Let me just say i introduced a bill recently ast year to immediately start applications of that program to reunify these families. Theyve been applying for years. Theyve paid all their fees. Some families that cant make ends meet actually had to pay over 1,000 in fees. And this two or three years ago before the Trump Administration stopped the program from one day to the next what is happening with the Cuban Reunification Program which was started under a republican president , president george bush. I have so many constituents. Every day theyre sending me messages. Theyve applied. Theyve gone through the process. They have have paid their fees. You have their money, mr. Edlow. What is happening to that program . Congresswoman, i would be happy to get back to you on that exact program and provide you and your staff a briefing on that. Ive requested information for months. I still have yet to receive an answer to this. Now, again, there are families, there are mothers that have not been able to see their children. Lets make sure not only the gentle lady from florida but the entire committee be briefed on this as soon as possible. I understand that the gentle lady from texas has had to join congresswoman garcia, an important hearing on the murder of vanessa and i will now recognize the gentle lady from texas ms. Jackson lee for her five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. I will shortly be joining my colleagues in the Armed Services committee on the hearing on vanessa who was brutally murdered on the grounds or as a United States military person in the United States army under very tragic and heinous circumstances. Let me, mr. Edlow, indicate were well aware of the plight of the agency because of the decrease in fees and the requests or the need for about 1. 5, 1. 2 billion. I did not hear your answer. Did you say you made the request for emergency funds . Congresswoman, we made a request. We worked with the department as well as omb and we were the ones authorized to bring that to the Appropriations Committee and ive made that clear to the authorizers as well and calls have been made by acting deputy secretary cuccinelli. Well, let me just say members want to be responsive to this system of immigration that has been the cornerstone of the growth and unique experiment of the United States. But we have some grave concerns. So let me publicly say, and ill add i denounce and find abhorrent and outrageous the response of the administration on daca. Daca is part of the infrastructure of my district. I have had daca employees, daca interns. Ive invited a daca mr. Caesar espenoza, a student of a Student Union and im confused by the order that says new applications will be rejected and that it will be a oneyear turn around or a oneyear application process. Would you give me very briefly the thinking of any sense of humanity for a oneyear status in having to reapply again . How does that make sense . Congresswoman, i would refer you to the memo which lays out mr. Wolfs rationale for that. I was not part of that decision. Why dont you briefly characterize it since im sure youve read the memo. I have. As mr. Wolf has said we are in the process of now, and this is what the memo says, of reviewing the daca program to determine what next steps are appropriate, and during that period of time it makes more sense to have people realize this is now a oneyear renewable status. So convey to mr. Wolf the complete, absolute condemnation of the majority at this time in the house of representatives and to acknowledge that is insensitive and inhumane. I think my colleagues have already made a record of the widespread status daca persons are from the military to First Responders to covid19 hospital personnel, and that it is tragic that a nation built on the hard work of immigrants, and certainly those of my descendants, enslaved africans, would do a dastardly deed like this. I would ask my colleague about remote naturalization and how can we help move that forward. That would help with the fees. As you all know theres an enormous backlog. Ive been on this committee now for 25 years i think with consistency. And the subcommittee on immigration. How can we help you deliberate and think on the idea of remote naturalization and also the processing of individuals seeking legal status such as green cards and others . How can we work to get that done . I look forward to working with this committee to address that. As i said i believe there are some legal impediments right now to the remote naturalization. I would say there are increasing receipts when it comes to naturalization, and, maam, i do want to make it known during this administration on average we have seen record highs of naturalizations which includes about 20,000 on average more naturalizations per year than in the previous administration. We are working very, very hard to prioritize naturalizations and do what we can on that front. Well, i dont know how that could be the case when you do have a budget deficit and theres so many people in our respective districts that have not been able to naturalized so i i commend you to doing the right thing and deeply digging into the remote naturalization, and we will address the numbers. The gentle ladys time has expired. Thank you, madam chair. If i may briefly respond. As far as the receipts we do have a lot of pending naturalization cases but those receipts have already come through, so weve already used that to adjudicate cases that are now passed. As far as the naturalization efforts that are pending right now as i said anyone who is going to be oathed but was stopped because of covid has now been oathed. Its just now a matter of getting back into the interviews. We are taking very creative measures to try to get people interviewed as quickly as possible and move that forward. But this is something thats going to take some time, but we are working on it. Thank you, mr. Edlow. I would like to remind members who are physically present that theres a requirement to wear a mask, and that mask should cover both your nose and your face. If you are unable to do that we would ask members to leave the physical space and participate remotely noe remotely noting that our colleague mr. Gomer has announced hes just tested positive for covid, and he was a member who was unwilling to consistently wear a mask. Its a reminder that this is very serious. And if youre unwilling to wear a mask that covers both your nose and your mouth please do leave the room, and we will arrange for you to participate remotely. At this point i would like to recognize ms. Scanlon for her five minutes. Thank you very much. I also have been getting a lot of calls about naturalization in my district. I represent the philadelphia region, and i think 10 of my constituents are foreignborn, so a lot of family members et cetera who are anxious about that. We talked this morning a lot about remote naturalization, but what about socially distanced naturalization . Weve seen in other regions of the country theres been drivethru, the use of high school stadiums, things like that. Is the agency doing anything to meet these practical issues in this time . As you see we are doing drivethru naturalizations. Well, not in my region. Well, in your region i will tell you i was there last week where i naturalized at a social distant ceremony i naturalized the last group of pending oath cases that have been rescheduled from during covid. So philadelphia is completely uptodate right now on naturalizations. Now, im not suggesting that weve gotten through all the interviews that weve had to cancel because of covid. We are still working through that, and a lot of that has unfortunately been the result of needing to make sure we have the appropriate barriers in place and that we can do the socially distanced processing and interviewing in these facilities. So getting these facilities ready to be safe for our work force as well as the public is something that took some time, but were naturalizing people outside. Were doing it in a way that keeps people 6 feet apart. What i witnessed was one group going out before i was going in to naturalize. I watched my staff work so tirelessly to quickly sanitize that whole room so we could have the next group moving forward. I was in virginia a couple of weeks ago to do a naturalization maybe we can pursue this because ive only got a couple of minutes. I would love continue working with you on that. I would love to have you. I will go with you in philadelphia, virginia, baltimore or whatever you like. Philly would be best. All right, well do that. Okay. You know, this is only my second hearing of this sort. Last year i was here because its my first full year in congress, and last year we heard about the backlogs and funding challenges, but the very same day that we had that hearing last year we learned that cis officers were being transferred to temporary duty at i. C. E. , and since then ucis has transferred millions to hire agents and again theres a proposal to annually transfer many from uscis to i. C. E. Youre telling us it relies on carry over funding at the same time that funding is being transferred to an Enforcement Agency that husband a separate mission. As far as the individuals that went over a few years ago there was some admin support staff that went over to help out right, so this is at the same time representatives from your agency were coming in and telling us you didnt have enough staff. But they were not the adjudicators. They were not the ones moving the cases. That said my understanding is there has not been a single dollar transferred from uscis to i. C. E. My understanding is that the new proposed fee increases included some transfers. I think there was something in the notice of proposed rule making on that. I do not believe thats in the final rule, but again well get back to you on that. In december of 2019 Congress Passed the libeerian refugee immigration act to create a road map of citizenship for liberians who have been here for a certain amount of time. I think theres about 10,000 eligible. There was only a oneyear window and it took months after december 19 to issue guidance and of course we landed in the middle of this pandemic. So were running out of time. Are you familiar with that program, do you have any ideas how we can get through the backlog . Apparently not a single application for that program has been processed yet. Im familiar with that program and i remember when the bill was issued on that after that passage. We have a very vibrant, one of the larger liberrian communities in my region. With that i yield back. Thank you. Gentle lady yield a back. I would note no other members are present at this point so we will conclude this first panel. I would note, mr. Edlow, that we will keep the record open for five days. Members will have five legislative days to submit additional written questions for witnesses or additional material for the record. And we would ask that you respond to those questions promptly should that occur. At this point im going to ask that we have a brief recess so that we can transition to the second panel. And i would like to remind members once again of the requirement to have a mask that covers both your nose and mouth. And if youre unable to do that we will ask that you leave the hearing. With that we are in recess for about five minutes. I would them. First, i want to introduce shavari delladonni. I think i have mangled your name. I have apologies, who is the director of Government Relations for the american Immigration Lawyers association, where she directs the associations administrative and congressional advocacy efforts with a focus on the Legal Immigration system. Shes been cited in Numerous National media stories and recently authored an article for think immigration on the uscis budget shortfalls. Prior to joining in may of 2019, she served for 11 years as counsel where the uscis counsel. Michael knowles is the president of the American Federation of Government Employee local 1924 aflcio, local 1924 represents over 2500 uscis employees in the National Capital region. Mr. Knowles also served as special representative for humanitarian affairs for the National Citizenship and Immigration Services council 119, which represents 14,500 uscis employees worldwide. Wheth mr. Knowles has worked in the field of human rights and refugee protection since the end of the vietnam war and has served as an asylum officer with the uscis Arlington Asylum Office since 1992. Doug rand is a senior fellow and director of the technology and Innovation Initiative at the federation of american scientists. Focusing on the intersection of immigration policy and artificial intelligence. Hes also the cofounder of boundless, a Technology Company that assists individuals in navigating the immigration system. Prior to this, mr. Rand served for six years under the Obama Administration as assistant director in the office of science and technology policy, and finally, Jessica Vaughn has worked with the center for Immigration Studies since 1992 and currently serves as director of policy studies. Ms. Vaughn is also an adjunct professor for senior Law Enforcement officers at the Northwestern University center for Public Safety in illinois. Prior to her work with the center for Immigration Studies, she was a Foreign Service officer with the u. S. Department of state where she served in belgium, in trinidad and tobago. We welcome all of our distinguished witnessed on this second panel and thank them for participating in todays hearing. Now, if you would all please rise, i will begin by swearing you in. Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony youre about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief so help you god . I do. I do. Ms. Vaughn, you are not unmuted. Thank you. I do. Okay. The record will reflect that each one of the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Please note that each of your written statements will be entered into the record in its entirety, and accordingly, i ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. And to help you stay within that time, for those witnesses testifying in person, theres a timing light on the table. When the light switches from green to yellow, you have one minute to conclude your testimony, and when the light turns red, it signals your five minutes have expired. For those who are testifying remotely, theres a timer on your screen to help you keep track of time. So lets hear from our first witness, ms. Delladonni, and youre going to help me on how to pronounce your name. Please unmute and begin. You can call me shev, but i go my last is delladani. Good morning, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the need for oversight, accountability, and transparency into the u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Especially in the light in light of the possible furloughs of more than 13,000 employees due to an alleged budget shortfall. I am honored to be here on behalf of the american Immigration Lawyers association, a Bar Association of more than 15,000 Immigration Attorneys and law professors. Im here on behalf of our members and the countless families, vulnerable individuals, students, and businesses they regularly represent in front of uscis who will suffer tremendous harm if the u. S. Immigration system comes to a halt. Even more so, i am honored to be here as someone who worked for over a decade with the dedicated Civil Servants at uscis whose livelihoods are now in jeopardy. Having spent the majority of my career at uscis, i am someone who strongly believes in the mission of the agency and deeply care for the people who work there. When the agency has strayed from its mission of focusing on exclusively on the administration of benefit applications and has transformed into a vetting agency more focused on stopping ilLegal Immigration. I was hired in 2008 because of congressional appropriations it received to help eliminate backlogs. Were here today because once again uscis is asking for a bailout and prossing time has skyrocketed. But this time, theres no Operational Plan attached to reduce backlogs. Just one to make customers pay for it. Uscis claims its financial woes are a result of the coronavirus. However, usciss problems existed well before the pandemic, caused by years of fiscal mismanagement as well as the agencys implementation of many policies that negatively impacted its donor revenue. Throughout much of my career at uscis, any time a new policy was being discussed, there was a concerted effort to discuss the Operational Impact it would have and keep backlogs in check, but things changed in 2017 when a new group of Political Leadership took reiggreign. It was made enxplicit that operation and legal concerns didnt matter. This isnt inside information. This approach is clearly written into usciss recent policies that form an invisible wall to immigration. Uscis has decreased efficiency, increased the cost of adjudication, slowed Case Processing, and discouraged people from applying for benefits. Many of these policies are detailed in my written testimony, but today, i highlight one particularly egregious example. In 2019, uscis instituted a policy to reject applications that leave any spaces blank. Even if not material. This has resulted in outrageous rejikzs. For example, a young child asylum application was rejected for failure to write n a for the dates of employment. Even though the application was clearly marked the bill of no employment history. Similarly, multiple cases were rejected because the answer written was none, not appl applicable, or n a, instead of n a despite the form instructions instructing it was okay to do so. This blank space policy unnecessarily adds multiple layers of review and cost by requiring review of the entire application in the first instance, mailing back the application, and reviewing it again upon resubmission. The is no evidence that it helped detect fraud or weed out applications. All they have accomplished with this is deter lawful immigration and put its own workers at risk of losing their jobs. Uscis cannot furlough over 13,000 workers. These are real people with real financial responsibilities. They are not pawned, and if they cant work, there will be devastating economic and social impact on american families, businesses, and students. Uscis request provides congress the opportunity to exercise its oversight authority. Congress must condition any funding on increased transparency, accountability, and efficiency so that the agency can pull itself out of this crisis by its own boot straps. We urge congress to take the following steps. One, reject usciss proposal to pass off its own efficiencies by proposing a 10 surcharge to its customers. Two, impose stringent reporting requirements to hold uscis accountable, such as those in the backlog and Transparency Act of 2020. Three, require uscis to implement Cost Effective measures for applications and petitions including reforming and rescinding policies set forth. Your time has expired. So we would ask that you wrap up, please. Almost done. And verify whether emergency appropriations and furloughs are even necessary. The agency bears a responsibility for correcting its systemic problems and Congress Must hold it accountable. Thank you and im happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, and we will now turn to mr. Knowles for his five minutes of testimony. Thank you, chair lofgren and Ranking Member and other members of the committee. Its a great honor for me to be here and i hope you know how much it means to the workforce to have one of their own here. I wanted to recognize mr. Edlow for his compliments to our professionalism and our dedication, and to all of your committee for your hard work supporting us so we can do the work of the american people. My main message today is keep us at work. Dont send us home. Im a little concerned that some of the dialogue today seems to not recognize the urgency of the situation. The plight of 13,000 federal employees is not merely their own plight, but the entire immigration system of the United States is hanging in the balance. And it would be a great tragedy if a furlough were to be allowed to go forward because various parties on the hill and the administration cant seem to agree on what needs to be done and when. For folks who are viewing on television might not understand the word furlough. Its not a vacation. Its a layoff. Its actually people being without work, having their benefits disrupted, and it could become a permanent separation from duty if measures are not taken to restore our operations. I liken the word furlough to a freefall. A freefall, if you would imagine somebody jumping out of a plane and not being sure when or if their parachute is going to open. Our employees are deeply, deeply concerned. Deeply shaken. Their confidence in the administration is shaken, and frankly, their confidence in the hill is shaken. Because theyre just not quite sure people value their work and the importance of their work to our country enough to act swiftly, so were here today to implore everyone concerned, red, blue, left, right, center, administration, congress. Please act now. Were well aware of the concerns that many have about the crises facing our country, the pandemic, the crisis of immigration, our agencies certainly are broken, it needs to be fixed. Many of us have been calling for years for comprehensive Immigration Reform, but these things cannot reasonably expect to be fixed in 30 days. So our union does not wish it to be seen that were coming here asking for a blank check for our boss. Were asking that you keep us at work and that you work diligently with our administration and with each other to create an action agenda that will incorporate accountability, guardrails, and other things that are very necessary to get Immigration Services back on the right path. I think the views of our union are well known to the committee and to the public. We have been very outspoken in the last three years about some of the horrible and harmful policies of the administration, particularly in the area of humanitarian affairs, refugees and asylum, their protection is at risk in our countrys compliance with their obligations to protect the persecuted. It leaves much to be desired. So all of these things we continue to speak loud and clear. We will continue to do so. We have filed numerous amicus briefs. We recently filed substantive comments opposing the new asylum regulations. We intend to continue to do so. But the most urgent thing i must ask is please, let us stay at work and please, congress, do your work and get us the funding we need and we ask the agency to please do the right thing. Use the money for what its been allocated for. We certainly oppose the reprogramming of any funds for any other purpose than Immigration Services. Your time has expired. We would ask you to wrap up please. Right. I would just say that, just to reiterate, the failure of the Immigration Service would be devastating to the entire country. Our economy, our health care system, our humanitarian programs, our educational system, our agriculture, all of it is at risk. So lets stay on the job and get the job done. Thank you for listening to me. Glaung very much. We will now hear from ms. Rand. Youre recognized for five empti minute. It is an honor to appear before you to address the oversight of u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. My name is doug rand and im providing this testimony in my personal capacity. I wish to emphasize that uscis is simultaneously suffering from three crises. First, a mismanagement crisis that is the cause for the bailout in congress. Second, an accountability crisis that this Congress Must remedy, and third, a naturalization crisis that could disenfranchise over 300,000 future americans by this november. In midmay of 2020, uscis suddenly announced without a 1. 2 billion bailout from congress, it would need to furlough over 13,000 of its employees because of projected revenue shortfalls from covid19. Its clear, however, there agencys troubles are due to mismanagement and deliberate policy choices that long predate the pandemic. Lets rewind the clock to the end of 2016. The Obama Administration increased user fees to put the agency on a Firm Financial footing for years to come. Over the next three years, annual revenue shot up by over 700 million even as the annual number of cases dropped by 5 , but apparently, all of the extra money wasnt enough for the Trump Administration. Even though uscis had an 800 million carryover balance at the end of fy 2018, last november, it warned it would be over 1. 5 billion in the hole by the end of fy 2020. One month before the Novel Coronavirus causing covid19 was even discovered, uscis was already projecting that a massive cash crunch would occur right around now. Thats because uscis knew well before the pandemic that it was jacking up expenses even faster than revenues, especially payroll expenses. Since 2017, uscis has increased its head count by nearly 20 . Why . First, uscis has declared an ambition to more than double the size of its fraud detection National Security directorate with nearly 1,000 additional hires, even in the absence of any publicly disclosed evidence for the need for such. Second, they have created massive new red tape requiring more staff to complete more cases. The agencys internal cost to process just five of its most common forms has shot up by over 500 million per year. This is the inevitable consequence of a flurry of unnecessary policies. Three of the most potential are the green cards for applicants, the elimination of the h1, and they have made green cards vastly more complex and time consuming for nor legitimate reason. On to the accountability crisis. For nearly two decades, they have been relatively underscrutinized by committees in congress because it always had some sort of funding. Take the new role that seeks to eliminate fee waivers for low income applicants and transfer user fees to i. C. E. Despite multiple directives from congress not to do so. I have read the hundreds of pages, and you can take me word for it, nowhere does uscis adequately explain why it needed 1. 3 billion worth of extra revenue each and every year even in advance of the covid19 pandemic. With any bailout, they must be transparent and submit to a thorough independent audit so the public and this congress can understand how this debacle happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Finally, with a general election just a few months away and the right to vote at stake for hundreds of thousands of americans, they have created a naturalization crisis. The average processing time for citizenship application has doubled to ten months and is much worse than average in many of you own congressional districts. Theyre waiting as long as 18 months in santa ana and houston and well over two years in north dakota, phoenix, miami, and seattle. Worse still, theyre not remotely on track to naturalize the next 315,000 people in line for naturalization who would normally be eligible to vote this november but still havent had their interviews yet. These aspiring americans are young and old, republicans and democrats, living all across the country, an estimated 68,000 are in california, 3300 in colorado, 200 in north dakota, 800 in pennsylvania, and 6100 in washington state, all of whom are at risk of not being able to vote this year. This dereliction of duty is hiding in plain sight. Unless they can immediately expudied their interviews, these 315,000 citizens, some of whom have been in line for nearly two years, will be disenfranchised. Thank you for your time and i look forward to any questions you may have. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back and we will now hear from ms. Vaughn for five minutes. Thank you very much. The opportunity to testify today. The Trump Administration has implemented many sound policies and regulations to restore the integrity of our Legal Immigration system. Its now administered in a way that aligns more closely with our national interests, better protects u. S. Workers and makes it more difficult for bad actors to play the system. Claims these are done to block Legal Immigration are baseless. According to data, in the last year, processing times have been constant or improved for majority of applicants. Some of the processing backlogs have been significantly reduced, and uscis approved the highest number of new citizens in 11 years. Nevertheless, a variety of chronic problems aggravated by external pressures including the coronavirus pandemic continue to challenge the agency. Besides the crushing workload, rampant fraud, and influx of friv lns applications, uscis operates under an obsolete funding process that hampered its progress. Moreover, there are too many large benefit pracs like daca and asylum applications that are a fiscal drag on the agency because the applicants dont pay the full cost of processing their applications. The new fee real will help in the short term, but to insure the agencys sustainability, congress should reduce the number of fee exempt programs and reform the fee collection and appropriations process to give congress more oversight over how uscis uses its revenue and also provide that stability. Uscis has the challenge of balancing the imperative to balance applications with the expectation to be adjudicated in a reasonable timeframe. Further, the agency is constantly subject to pressure from groups that sponsor Foreign Workers and aid workers that think they will favor their clients or own practices. They have succumbed to this pressure at the epence of correct and fair adjudication. It was unfair for the nation and those in the workforce who suffered harm because of rushed decisions, tolerance of fraud, or questionable prioritization of cases. With serious consequences some case. Recall the case of a woman who five years ago killed 14 americans and wounded 22 others in a terrorist itack in San Bernardino, california. Investigations after the attack revealed uscis and the state department were careless with her application, missing several indicators that should have led to a denial. At the time of her attack, her brother was busy arranging a fraudulent marriage. More recently, the trump has prosecuted and denaturalized dozens of terrorists, human rights violators and serious criminals who lied, used false documents that put them on the path to citizenship. Denaturalization of these people is not an attack on immigrants but an attack on fraud. Often, it is legal immigrants in the community that tip off authorities as to who these people really are. Two days ago, the department of justice announced a settlement deal with a Technology Staffing company that flagrantly discriminated against u. S. Workers in hiring. They have placed hundreds of visa workers at Companies Like anthem, capital one, and cvs and sponsored some for green cards while illegally shunning u. S. Workers. Its not antiimmigrant to bust these companies. It opens up opportunities for all u. S. Workers. Last november, a federal grand jury indicted two south korean nationals for submitting 117 bogus applications for alien workers, enabling 125 aliens to live in the u. S. After paying fees of tens of thousands of dollar. They put fraudulent tax and other corporate documents in their clients documentations and falsely claimed their clients could not find suitable u. S. Workers. These illegal schemes prevent access to the system. So immigration adjudications can nut be done on the cheap or consider pointless red tape. The new set of fees that uscis is about to implement will help, but its not enough because of the other chronic problems in funding. To many of the application fees are still set artificially low. Under the new fee structure, asylum applicants will pay a fee for the first time, 50, but the actual direct processing cost for these applications is 366. When you count the indirect processing cost, the fee really should be set at 1,800. So asylum applicants, most of whom are actually not found qualified for the benefit, will continue to be subsidized by legal immigrants and their sponsors. Waivers are another problem. So its time for congress to consider moving to an appropriation of the fees that uscis cleblollects in order to that stability. If you could wrap up, that would be helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All of our witnesses testimony is supplemented by their full written testimony. Now its a time where members of the committee can ask question of the panel. I will begin. You know, i want to talk to you first, mr. Knowles, because i am so concerned and sympathetic with the professional staff at uscis. I want you to know that our staff and the staff of the Appropriations Committee has been in communication with uscis for months, trying to come up with a solution. I am confident that mr. Edlows testimony today that he wanted to find a resolution is in fact correct. Im not sure everybody in the administration is where he is, but were doing our best. However, we actually need a formal request to the Appropriations Committee that meets their requirements and i know the Administration Knows how do that because they make those requests frequently, so we hope to get past that barrier. And im hoping that this hearing will help move us past some of the barriers that seem to have come up. But i want to mention, if i may, a question. You have we have heard a lot about the mismanagement and poor implementation of policies that led to the budget crisis. Now, you worked at uscis for more than ten years, through three different president ial administrations. And you have discussed in your testimony certain factors that previous administrations would consider prior to implementing policy changes to insure it goes smoothly. Now, what factors would a responsible leadership at the department consider when rolling out new policies and procedures and how might we work with the administration to make sure that an orderly process is included so that we dont end up back in the same spot, you know, in another month . Thank you, chairwoman. Yeah, i have experienced working through three different administrations and working on rolling out policies, and what was very almost a reflexive nature of what would happen in the prosof rolling out policies was that the impact on the operation and the adjudications would have a coequal voice at the table. It would be discussed, if we do this, then x is going to happen to adjudication. It would look at the Bigger Picture of how it would work in the grand scheme of things. But whats also important is also constant review of the impact of the policy after its been rolled out, what is the actual effect . You can assume an effect before it rolls out, but then you have to continue analyzing what that effect is, and thats why ala has been a big supporter of the bipartisan case lacklog and Transparency Act because it mandates the reporting requirements to make sure its paying attention to the impact of the policies they roll out. Thats very helpful. So i would like to ask mr. Rand, your testimony was very helpful, but you are here not only because of your expertise but because of your knowledge about the intersection of immigration policy and science. Are you seeing an impact on science in the United States through the way the administration is administering our Immigration Laws at this point . Thank you, chair lofgren. Certainly, were seeing an impact. Its an incredibly adverse impact from the attire of array of policies from the administration continues to impose to restrict Legal Immigration across the board. I mean, its almost impossible to think of any policy over the past three and a half years that has actually improved the ability to serve its traditional role as a magnet for international talent. I would just point out one thing, many i could point out, in mr. Edlows testimony, he talked over and over again about safeguarding the immigration system and insuring only those eligible for a benefit receive those. Lets talk about science for a second. Theres a green card category, also known as the genius visa, for people of extraordinary ability that has been traditionally a way for the United States to attract the best and brightest from around the wuvl. Approves are down 26 points. Thats a quarter. It defies belief that a quarter of the genius visa applicants suddenly dont deserve them or never did. Including a Nobel Laureate who was rejected. Why . Because uscis wanted more information on the interpreter who translated the nobel award. So this administration is doing extraordinary, absurd things that are harming americas longterm competitive in science, technology, engineering, and math. Thank you very much for that testimony, and my time is expired. I would now i understand mr. Buck had to leave, but ms. Lesko, youre recognized for your five minutes. Thank you, madam chairman, and thank you to all the witnesses today. Before i ask questions, i first want to make a statement that i think its absolutely astonishing that a number of my democratic colleagues on Judiciary Committee and in the whole caucus refuse to say anything or condemn outright rioting, looting, in our cities. Deny that there really was any takeover in seattle, the chop zone, even though there were shootings and killings. I think its perfectly fine to set up sanctuary cities, really prioritize illegal aliens, but then chastise me when my mask falls down, oh, my goodness. Down here, and my nose is exposed. I just find it absolutely ludicrous. In any case, i have a question for ms. Vaughn. Ms. Vaughn, what is the importance of uscis detecting fraud . Well, its critically important for a number of reasons. First of all, its important for our National Security, because we know from postmortems of case after case of terrorists who were foreign nationals who carried out attacks here, that they often use immigration fraud as a way to get into the country, to further their agenda and carry out these attacks. As i mentioned, the San Bernardino attack is one of the most concerning examples. Inoth the other reason fraud is a problem is because it destroys the integrity of our Legal Immigration system. Theres no point in having rules for the limited green cards and visas that are available if theyre going to be subverted through fraud. And the people who suffer from that are not only the sponsors of these immigrants or workers but also those who are coming on legitimate applications who find that their application times are taking longer and longer because the agency has to weed through so much fraud and frivolous applications. The asylum system is the most obvious example of that, where we find that only a small percentage of the people who actually submit those applications will be found qualified for that, if they even show up for their shehearings. I saw this morning Something Like 300 some thousand asylum applications that are now pending, and the wall street journal had an article this morning about a woman who is a uighur from china who is also a student in rhode island whose application has been on hold for years because the agency has this backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases, many of thome were illegal Border Crossers who heard if they made an asylum claim, they would be allowed to stay in this country almost indefinitely. Those are all the cases, who by the way, have not been paying a fee for the asylum applications that are clogging up the system that prevent uscis officers from moving forward with these cases. And getting to approve the bona fide cases within them. And the same is true of familys based applications and employmentbased applications. Thats what happened with daca was implemented. Daca cases were made a priority, even though they too were not paying a fee that covered the full cost of the application. At the time, that meant u. S. Citizens trying to sponsor their spouses and children and employers who were trying to get needed workers here, getting green cards approved, all those cases were shifted to the slow lane so that daca cases could be prioritized. And this eventually is a real drag on the system. I dont think that taxpayers should have to cover the cost of our Legal Immigration system. But i also dont think that legal immigrants should have to subsidize the processing of benefits for people who havent come here legitimately and who are merely trying to game the system and commit fraud. Thank you. And i only have 16 seconds left, so i yield back my time, madam chairman. At this point, i would like to recognize the gentlelady from washington. Thank you, madam chair, and thank you all so much for being here. I really appreciate it. This is a subject thats near and dear to my heart. As some of you know, i am one of only 14 naturalized citizens to serve in the United States congress, and it took me 17 years to get my citizenship, and a series of alphabet soup of visas. It was a difficult process. But you know, i know that im one of the lucky ones. And i really deeply appreciate the work that the employees at uscis do. Thank you, mr. Knowles. I appreciate the work of ala and all of you that are here talking about how critically important naturalization and Citizenship Services are to this country. And despite the Trump Administrations harsh rhetoric that would have you believe that no one is in compliance with u. S. Immigration laws, there are actually millions of people that are bending over backwards to do everything that we ask of them, and yet trumps uscis, uscis as it has evolved under this president , is making that process as difficult and slow and expensive as possible. People across the country are experiencing this every day as they face unprecedented wait times, overly stringent vetting, and will soon pay drastically higher fees. So let me start with you, do you agree with the statement that there has been purposeful attempt to dismantle uscis and Legal Immigration processes . Thank you, representative. Yes y do agree with that statement because if you look at the policies that have been enacted, they deliberately decrease efficiency, drive up the cost of adjudication, slow down Case Processing and discourage individuals from applying because the system has gotten so hard to navigate. Its become much more complicated, complex, and although the claims are that its for fraud detection or to weed out frivolous applications, there hasnt been evidence to that. Mr. Rand, for an agency to under go such drastic changes as we have seen ament uscis, is that a decision that stems from the agency itself or from the white house . Where is that coming from . Thank you. I think its pretty clear that its the white house that is dismantling from the top down our immigration system. And its eliminated at this point any dissenting opinions from the political ranks throughout dhs. The white house and uscis leadership are working together hand in glove every day to create these massive new barriers to immigration, including Legal Immigration. Look at the fact that uscis is still on paper headed by ken cuccinelli, a man who has compared immigrants to rats, and often uses the White House Briefing room to spread misinformation. So as much as the white house would like us to think its around undocumented immigrants, people who have not been afforded any fair process to legalize their status, it seems this is a concerted effort to end Legal Immigration as we know it. We have heard about the budget crisis facing the agencies. Is it your bleach that this crisis is a result of decreased applications due to the pandemic or an outcome of an agency that is trying to dismantle itself . They proposed in their first rule of november 2019 it would have a 1. 5 billion deficit at the end of the fiscal year. Clearly, coronavirus isnt the only problem. There may have been a decrease in receipts, but what we have seen is there has been a decrease in receipts well before that, but an increase in personnel, and an increase in processing times. So clearly, thats not a Good Business model if you want to be an efficient and work like a business. You have to be able to maximize your efficiency to deliver the best service. So yes, i think i do think its been an intentional to do that. You have seen some policies they rolled out. For example, i think mr. Rand mentioned the adjustment of status reviews. These are individuals who have been in this country for years on end. Who have gone through the system, have been vetted multiple times. The average Case Processing time for those have increased by 58 in the matter in two fiscal years. Mr. Knowles, my time is running out, but i first want to say thank you to you and the many dedicated employees at uscis. We deeply, deeply appreciate you what you do. Do you agree this shift we described here is at the root of the budgetary problems facing the agency . Excuse me. I believe that that is a large part of it, certainly the pandemic is sort of a perfect storm scenario. But yes, i think the budget crisis is largely the result of the administrations policies on immigration. The gentleladys time has expired. Thank you, madam chair. I yield back. Thank you very much. The gentleman from california is recognized. Thank you, madam chair. First of all, let me start out by mr. Knowles, i want to thank you and your members of your group for your support and good work. Supporting our community as they try to become citizens and pursue the american dream. A lot of your Union Members are my constituents, and i hear from them every day. Success stories and also horror stories. Again, thank you very much. And as you were talking, i was texting a couple constituents who are very concerned about this issue. Wanted to address some questions, comments, to mr. Doug rand, actually, to all of you. Im going to ask the same question to all of you. Doug rand, you mentioned there was an increase in personnel of 20 or 20,000 new hires to detect fraud. Is there any way to figure out whether under the cost benefit analysis, whether this increase in personnel to detect fraud actually resulted in a more more fraud being detected or simply just slowed down the system . Because as you know, and i know, if you apply an adjustment to status for citizenship, and you lie on that application, later on, the authorities can come back and pull that adjustment of status or that citizenship out from under you. My question to you is, is this new fraud effort yielded any results . Representative, i appreciate that question. I can say very confidently that uscis has provided no data or backup to the public to justify its huge staffing surge in terms of fraud detection. If that effort is bearing any fruit, we have yet to see any evidence of it despite anecdotal, of course, that are always going to be available. I would point out that safeguarding our nations immigration system doesnt just mean insuring those who arent eligible dont receive a benefit. Everybody agrees with that. It also means insuring that people who are eligible do receive their benefit. And that is something that this administration has guaranteed is not going to happen. Take the public charge rule. Thousands of people are going to be denied green cards based on wealth, health, education, disability, and a host of other arbitrary factors, even if they are unlikely to use welfare and other social safety net programs in the future. So this administration failed to admit that integrity goes both ways. Not just about preventing fraud. Mr. Knowles, does that public charge rule take into consideration the taxes that these individuals pay into the system at every level, federal, state, and local . You know, i cant quite speak to the agencys policies on that, but i believe i could say that our union agrees with the statement of mr. Rand that he just made. Mr. Rand, let me ask you that same question. Does the public charge rule, does it consider the taxes that these workers pay into the system, federal, state, and local . Absolutely not. They just look at the cost and not the expense or the benefit side of having a productive worker in our society . Thats correct. Okay. Very quickly, im running out of time, a minute and a half here, a little less. Im going to ask a quick question to the other members of the panel, which is, should we support a full audit, full transparency . Mr. Knowles. Do you support audit transparency . Always. Ms. Vaughn . Yes, i do support audits and transparency for the process and especially on the matter of fee waivers. I think that everyone should get more information on the extent thank you very much. Im running out of time. Madam, do you support that . Absolutely. Transparency is necessary to shine a light on the broken system. So many other questions, but very quickly, ms. Vaughn, im going to come back to you and quickly ask, do you support a meritbased immigration system . Yes, i do. Where would a farm worker fit in that system . Well, farm workers right now come in mostly through the h2a nonimmigrant visa program. A temporary work program. In our current immigration system theres a lot of undocumented immigration, farm workers out there working without a green card. How would they fit into that system . The gentlemans time has expired. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. We will now recognize the gentlelady from florida, ms. Powell. Thank you so much, madam chair. Im with my colleague, my good friend, representative jayapal. Im one of the 14 naturalized citizens in this country. Its incredible to me how we refer to immigrants like representative lesko, as aliens. You know, were humans. We contribute greatly to the economy of the United States. Actually, immigrants contributed more than 11 billion in taxes. And the reason why there are so many undocumented immigrants in this country is because of the failure of the agencies that processes these applications. Most immigrants that i have spoken to want to go through the process to get legal documentation so that they can continue to pay their taxes, stop hiding behind the attacks of the Trump Administration, and continue to do the work that they came to do. Most of them have been here for decades. We need to find a way for us to provide, to process these applications and provide a path for legal, whether its citizenship, legal resident status, but the attacks against immigrants has got to stop. Theres so many myths, and i would like for mr. Rand to comment on this. I know that since the Trump Administration took over in 2017, refugee admissions dropped to the lowest since 2002. He has enacted stricter restrictions to hb1 visas. Hes trying to follow a meritbased immigration system. If you could comment on how this would affect the american economy, because i know that mean some of my colleagues who talk a lot about the economy may start paying some attention. I can tell you in my area, mr. Rand, most republicans i have an area where theres thousands and thousands of immigrants that live in my area in south florida that came from another country who are entrepreneurs contributing to the economy, and republicans have asked for Immigration Reform. They want them to remain here legally, but theres not a path. But i want you to talk on the effects that the Trump Administrations immigration policy can affect your economy and our economic recovery, if you can comment on that, please. Thank you so much, representative. I think one could go on and on about the economic benefits of immigration. That is something theres almost no dissent among reputable economists about. Immigration of all skill levels, highwage and lowwage, builds our economy. Its a myth that immigrants steal jobs from u. S. Workers. We should be so lucky as to have more immigrants who become new americans like yourself and so many others. And i would just also add that when comprehensive Immigration Reform passed the senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, at that time in 2013, the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted if this had passed and increased dumation, this would have been Social Security trust fund on much firmer footing, this would have increased our gdp dramatically, it would have reduced budgets dramatically, and would have increased u. S. Worker wages. Without a doubt, if you do the opposite of this, which this administration is trying to do, our economy is going to take a hit in the near and long term. Mr. Rand, and since were on the topic, do you think that immigrants, undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from nativeborn americans . There is no evidence in the economic literature of that despite what many people would say rhetorically. And thank you. And mr. Knowles, i want to shift to you. Theres been a lot of criticism, particularly from my colleagues across the aisle, that asylum and refugee applications are not vetted properly prior to this administration. Do you agree with that characterization . I absolutely reject that charactersizati characterization. I think we could say the asylum and refugee programs have been among the most rancorous, most professional. We certainly provide Vital Services to protecting refugees. We also do a good job of fighting fraud and combatting terrorism. Were on the front lines. Thank you. I would appreciate more support for what we do. I know. Youre career professionals and were going to do whatever we can to support all of the employees who are especially now facing furloughs in the future. But can you just describe quickly how asylum applicants were vetted in previous administrations so people understand theres a very strict vetting process. You know, when you hear fraud, and we dont have a lot of data thats being provided. The gentleladys time has expired. The witness will be if you could very quickly. Yeah. I could just say that the vetting process is very careful. I would say extremely careful. And if you just look at our performance standards for asylum officers, 60 of our performance metrics and measures focus on how well we determine credibility, how well we do security checks and the like. Perhaps you could provide more full some for the record. Thank you very much. Mr. Scanlan, youre now recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much. Mr. Rand, just to follow up on one point. I asked the uscis representative about the suggestion that funds be transferred from cis to i. C. E. , and he said they hadnt transferred that money. Is there any evidence that they had interest in diverted funds to i. C. E. . There are certainly explicit implications in that the Trump White House has requested the authority to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars of user fees to i. C. E. In its budget request and they reiterated this request in its proposed fee rule, so they have asked for permission. We dont have evidence that they have actually executed those transfers in defiance of congress, but i would say all that mr. Edlow told the subcommittee is to his knowledge, such transfers havent happened in the last two fiscal years and this administration has lasted for more than two years. So i think it would be worthwhile to get a clear answer to that question. At the same time, mr. Edlow and others have admitted even if funds werent transferred, Personnel Resources were transferred over to i. C. E. At a time where they can ill afford to lose any of its resources in its losing battle to beat back skyrocketing backlogs and wait times. Thank you for helping to clarify that. Given your background, which includes having worked at cis for more than a decade, can you describe in lay terms the impact the proposed furlough would have on cis personnel . Absolutely. I can give you examples of individuals who i know have gotten furlough notices. You have a singlemotor of a toddler who recently purchased a home. You have a recent masters degree graduate who just secured a position as an asylum officer, and is dependent on Health Care Insurance for Chronic Health care conditions. You have a dedicated employee whose served the agency for more than 20 years and is nearing retirement, and you have an experienced professional with two Young Children whose spouse has already been laid off due to covid19. So those are some. But thenerize al theres also tt of what will happen to u. S. Families, businesses, people wont be able to vote in time, individuals stuck in the backlog for naturalization wont be able to vote. Daca recipients wont be able to renew their benefits. Asylum applicants will face delays and critically, businesses won be able to hire or defeign essential employees needed to recover from the Global Economic crisis were now facing. Thank you, and just to clarify, so we have people in this country who have met all the requirements for citizenship, just because of the backlog, they havent actually received their citizenship yet, and as a result, they cant vote in this years election . So theres a backlog of individuals waiting to be to be administered the oath ceremony. After they are, theyre citizens and would be eligible to register to vote. We have heard a lot about mismanagement and policies that have led to the current to the crisis. But what factors do you think responsible leadership should consider when rolling out new policies and procedures for uscis. I think the issue is to consider how much, to be able to properly balance the fraud detection, the need to detect that and extreme vetting, right. There is a difference between understanding who is eligible and not eligible but the vetting this administration has taken goes to such an extent that it is pushing people back and Holding People back even though they are eligible. It is not about security, it is about deterring from being american citizens. So nobody is suggesting that we tear down the borders and let everybody in. Absolutely. As an employee of uscis for over a decade, it is important to protect our homeland with administering the immigration nationality act honoring our heritage to welcome immigrants to benefit our country. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification given some of the rhetoric that weve heard. Are there any accountability mechanisms that congress should consider before agreeing to ciss request for emergency funding. So, you know, as i mentioned in my testimony, there are a few. First, we really need to make sure theyre inefficiency is not passed off to the customers unless by their choice. The second is reporting requirements. Because since uscis 97 fee funded, congress does not have the opportunity to provide over sight and reporting requirements need to be about the status of the backlog, about the processing of different cases. In addition, they need to implement cost efficient measures. The gentle ladies time has expired. It would be wonderful if we could get the complete list for the written record and well take that into account. All time has now expired and we do have a deadline of 9 00 to conclude. So i will thank the witnesses, both mr. Edlow and the second panel for being with us and participating in this hearing. Without objection, by unanimous consent, i will put into the record statements from 20 organizations that have ask the to have their statements made part of the record. Ill close ill note also that members have five legislative days to submit additional written questions for the witnesses or to provide additional material for the record. And if we do have questions for you, wed ask that you do answer them. We appreciate your participation here today. Ill just close by saying, its obvious that we need to come up with a solution for whats going on here. And that involves money. But it also involves policy. You know, when the Nobel Prize Winner is being second guessed, the Nobel Committee is being second guessed on the scientist, houston, we have a problem. So lets hope that we could resolve some of those problems, get the agency right on the backtrack and certainly do it in a time frame that allows the much valued professional staff to have to stop worrying about their own personal future which is only natural. At this point, i will thank everyone for participating and we have adjourned. Thank you, madam chair
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