Statue of liberty, there is a poem by m. Lazarus who says bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses wanting to breathe free. 12,000 refugees at displaced population of almost five million. Weve seen these heartbreaking pictures of children who are being killed. And think about i guess were talking about 400,000 syrians being killed in this. What about what our and b is as human beings what our obligation is to other human beings. These are people who are fleeing isis. These are people are fleeing an assad regime that uses poison gas against civilians. The u. N. G process is first, refugee, first vets people hands them to us. Average a over on year and a half before we vet them, is that correct . Yes, thats correct, senator. Senator franken and have we had any dulls that came over in syria engage in some sort of errorist plot . No, senator, not to my knowledge. Senator franken you know, my grandfather came from russia. He arrived and saw that on the statue of liberty. He was one of those huddled mazzes yearning to breathe free. One s our you know, awful thing happening is one too many. But weve had 400,000 people killed. Lets weigh those things. And lets talk about what kind of country we are. Are we a country thats just terrified . Are we are we political leaders . Are we Office Holders whose job terrorists e in the and tell them that were not going live up to our values that are there on the statue of liberty. Or are we going to be a bigger people. I think its great that we have given more financial said in the Syrian Crisis than any other country. But the number of people that we ve brought in is, i think, a disgrace. 25 to minnesota. 25 people. I just think that this is really a matter of sort of values here. I think when you come right down to it. And i think our country is my hed by refugees like grandfather. I dont think we should have a test that you should ask someone from syria whether theyre muslim or not. I have a feeling that isis terrorists might lie. Theyre very tricky, you know . They might say theyre christian. We have a member of this committee that suggested that that be the i think we have do a gut check here and see whoer as a people. We benefit from our immigrants. We benefit from our refugees and witness stand we dont benefit as a country when little and ren are drowning families goes through these hardships and see their families die. Thank you. Senator franken, an eloquent station. We should all consider what youve told us. Senator. Go back to your opening comments and the comment that you refered to that you refered to as being transparent on the prosecutions. I want to have you come back and read that in a republican. This committee, im relatively new. Ive been here for less than two years and im already tired of people talking past each other in this committee. Heres one of the problems we have. And i want to thank people who have come as refugees and served our nation. You see National Cemetery and see a lot of muslims who died for this nation. This issue should be about the integrity of the process. It should be about recognizing and not finessing the fact that 1 5 of the prosecution related to alleged facilitators are through the refugee program. Why is that important . Because it does a disservice for the legitimate refugee who is had no intention of wants to harm this country. And they are willing to serve it. We do the refugees a disservice. We need to tom stop talking about a republican position and dem cralt position and come up with a responsible, compassionate position for these refugees. We also should come up with a responsible policy so that theyre not forced to make the heartbreaking decision to lead their nation. I dont think people were born and say i want to come to the United States. They leave their nations because theyre threatened with their lives. Thats a profound decision. Its one that i hope i would never have to make in the United States. Most people want to live in their nation of birth where their families exist. Where r done chure their culture resides. I want to start mr. Rodriguez by you reading that package or that passage. It was extemporaneous. The problem was, i think i can tell you what i meant to say. My request to you, is actually if you were aware of the fordham report, then you should have said 1 is too many. Clearly 18 is 18 times too many. What can we do within your agency and other agencies to make sure that were sharing that information where were integrating and providing information on patterns of life so that we can find people are abusing our good will and potentially try to do harm to this nation. Because if one succeeds then it harms our ability to go help the refugees that we should find a safe place shir in this pla or somewhere else. What precisely have you done to you know, the dialogue, the public dialogue out. What precisely have you done . That what saying constructive actions have you taken where most of us this happens where we dont pass the baton and we dont share information . What can you point during your tenure to try to eliminate that gaps . Im going to el you two concrete things that have occurred. There are things that my predecessors have done. Tell you about two concrete things. First, during my time as director we took the interagency check. Which is the multiagency check of intelligent agencies, Law Enforcement agencies. This is now a recurrent check which means that from the time it is first initiated prior to interview. Theyre after. If knew information go into that data base. E are able to notified thank you. If you could respond back in a written form. I guess my final question is rodriguez. U mr. Have you heard about this Fordham School . I would like to get a response on your agency on what if anything may have been able to do in the process to have identified in this threat. Or the pattern of life that. And there are things that we can learn from this. It would seem to me if this report is legitimate. And it appears to be. Er operate to improve the integrity of the season so that we dont have to continue to have this circular discussion about refugees or not. We are on a nation founded on immigration. Were in the time now where people can be radicalized on twirt. We have to make sure that those who are coming here want to honor our nation for honoring them as female who are legitimately at risk. We expect them to dom this country and participate full any. By eliminating in the last. But give credibility to some of the arguments that have been expressed today. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses for being here today. A number of the commenlts made comments made, this morning on this panel reflect the fact that story. Or most of us do. That is very near to us both in time and personal meaning. And im proud to say that my dad came to this country in 1935. He was 17 years old. He spoke virtually no english. Had not much more than the shirt on his back. And essentially no one. And this great country gave him a chance to suck seese seed. Arguably he was the refugee. And certainly his parents when he enabled them to get here by borrowing money that he could scarcey pay back. Of he other on the eve holocaust. We have welcomed many refugees over the years. They were seeking to escape similar kinds of persecution and violence there our churches and synagogues, nonprofits across the state have volunteered to help settle those refugees. The integrated refugee and mgranted services in kentucky. It has doubled the number of families. A similar outpouring of community support. I visited the refugee carp in tripsingring one of my there. Some of whom are on this committee, i believe. We seldom our state. Im not sure that he still. Zbot. Name is ismael de he fell to. And was resettled until connecticut with his bife and thrifeyoing. Is that the university he was attending was shutdown. And the leaders of his place of worship were arrested with no one to lead his church, he stepped in and fulfilled that role for almost a decade. He was prevented from becoming a breast priest because of the religious persecution in this country. Other Church Leaders were murdered. He was eventually targeted. He escaped to this country and e now works as a hospice haplain in nagatuck. Mr. Dezbot is serving the people of connecticut, not just benefiting from the greatness of this country, but contributing to it. And giving back. There is a fear today. Its understandable. That our nation is at risk. We are at war with extremists violence that violence presents dangers to our country. And the apprehensions created by hat ongoing war. Extremism. You should not be permitted to overcome our basic ideals but we do need be careful and thoughtful about the way we do our refugee programs. The question that i am asked and how do we k you is improve vetting and screening now . How do quzrenkten it . Because we must if there are weaknesses in it. I noted in your testimony that you talked about pilot programs under way that will strengthen and increase its efficasy. The increased reliance on poe en lrble biometrics. Potential biometrics. And it presents challenges but they too have to be explored. So my question to you is what efforts have been ongoing and what can be done to improve those vetting programs. First of all, we are for the information against which we vet dependent on Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies. Theres an ongoing process. Among those agencies and with their International Partners to seek new sources of information to fortified information sharing. Thats something that increased since september 11th. We benefit tremendously from the wealth of information created by the work that those agencies do. Secondly, we have been in process of focusing now on specifically on syrian and most recently. And in social media utilized by those applicants in certain defined cases, its possible place where is we may find derogatory or concerning information about those individuals which would then inform our. Its onthe pilot now. There is active work going on for defined categories of people right now in that area. What can with be done to improve the ability of biometric information so that checks can e more effectively done. And he is here today. Those are efforts that are being lead by the Law Enforcement and intelligence agencys that has been identified as a critical area of further development in the world that we do. And again, we benefit in the world that we do as those improvements come with us. Efforts are necessary. But theyre also urgent. I agree sir. Soir i would like to get written answer with the chirs permission. My time has expired, thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator cruz. America has shown an safe haven. Im the son of a refugee who came to america seeking freedom. But immigration laws are not a suicide pact. The refugee should not become a vehicle. Murder orists to come innocent americans. Americans are oncerned by the willful act of terrorism. That was characterized a few minutes ago when senator al frankel said we should not even ask refugees are muslims. If one is trying to predict terrorists from coming in. The second from my democratic stance is that we shouldnt even ask. To me, its nuts. As we look that what is happening in syria and whats happening in the middle east. Isis is evil. They are waging a wear of cide against cristians christians. They are murdering jews. Ey are murdering fellow muss williams. Yes, sir the refugee programs eams to have an enormous conference for Syrian Muslim efugees and seems to actively. Eep out. Syrian christian refugees. The obama admitted 249 refugees from syria. 224. He went 5. 2 . 2000, 249 were muslim. Thats 898 . And only 29, 1. 3 were christian. In 2016 to date the o obamaed a administration has admitted 99. 2 . And 49 were christian. Thats 4. 1 . 2004, and more than 14,000 of them were muslim. Fewer than 100 were christian. Now, those numbers are not even close to the proportion nal population in syria. 10 of the population of syria was christian. Yet, 0. 86 being admitted by the administration or christians. United aw, why is the states admitting a lowlevel of refugees . Mens of refugees is based on vulnerabilities. Syrian refugees another although although christians were 10 of the prewar syrian population. That only about eight have flead. One of them is that many of the christians still reside in syria. They were low kealted in there beforehand. They were located in there beforehand. We have a. One of the other difficults we face is that some of the christians have lead has flead to lebanon. But were trying to build it up. Persecuting christians and den discovering and would like to like to endiscover to wage genocide against them. Yes. And any person that disagrees with them. So we tharted our program to include syrian who is waited for visas based on the number states. Let me shift to another question. Could i just add my time is expiring and i want to add one more. Mr. Rodriguez, the house of representatives recently obtained a leaked internal memorandum that admitted that refugee fans those commit but notess to investigate. I think i won it. Seed you be willing my i it right here. Yeah, it is the document that i thought it was. This is a draft document. It is my understanding it was never issued. Whoever wrote this didnt know what they were talking about. For this simple reason, they assume that we were not collecting finger prins. That we were not taking photographs and interview. Even back then and well before that. All three were over the age of 14 years ode. So you dont know who prepared this document . I dont know who prepared this document. I appreciate you answering the committee inrying after this hearing. We ought to be. Whoever it was was deeply misinformed. Nd the memorandum says, isis refugees is particular already to frau. Where at times the testimony of an applicant alone is significant for approval. As a result, a rage of back bad actors as well as purdue. Supporting documentation. Having exploded this program. And the the apply cant. Including the asai lent and refugee receive the government issue. That the applicants sup plide. This document could be used such a water fountain. Without supporting information tell us who they claim to be and were letting them in. How rector of the f. B. I. Can we possibly be confidence that the refugees innocent americans. What i am tell yog you is that i would give it there. Whoever that person does. Were ke talk about real gas. Areas of risk. To and he didnt take to pass. You disagree in i disagrees. Sit true or false that the testimony of the applicant alone can be significant for approval. It is considered. It depends on the case. Usually we do extensive documentations. Rians present with extensive documentation that we review it. My time has expired but i would like to get an answer to this question. Is it drew or false that the testimony of the applicant alone can be significant for approval . There are cases where the testimony is not necessarily corroborated by documents. But it is always tested against forecast information. And the way that youre asking the question, senator. Are you saying its true. Im just trying to understand how i am acknowledging that yes, testimony can be the basis for the grant of a refugees but it needs needs to be dested about other things that we now about the country conditions at a minimum. Thank you. Sir. Well, mr. Rodriguez, all of you work for the people of the United States. This is the calmness of the yuths. Answer. A right to he took too long to get you to acknowledge the answer. And i dont appreciate it. And i just tell you, oh, ins doubt. Yes, the director came before the house and now testified that the challenge will be talking about the hopeful defeat of isil, at least taking away their. He said the challenge will be through the fingers of that come of isis are going to very, very dangerous people. They will not all die in syria and attacks. Who do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years. The added count is like. Especially in western europe. Ecause when when he is supplied. Killer and here through chill and innocent people. What hes saying is, we dont have a system that can stop that from happening. And im on easy dfment but youre in charge of it. He admits there are dangerous. I just want you to know. They say hes a willful. And were not going to be intel dated from it. Im not going to be intimidated and others arent. From discuss tgsdange your. By splb saying. You opposed cuban refugees. Im not apomed. Our that we are careful about it. Engaged and concerned about the dangers we faced. Ere we had an exit about that. Estity mated 27 victims of anna kill them. Not in syria. This is what the this is box food things in for flouting on the rotation. Or. 23 to 27 on our killings first year in the United States. 1 of the victims are murdered. Ut being too western western over the refugees to make the refugee to me. And remember it 18 years or young every. My father is almost always involved. Of physical and and the expert. Thats something we need to know about. Meet ioned the female lation. This is the f. B. I. Report im reading from. And it was may of this year. First line. More than 500,000 women and girls across the country most of thun themlying in areas of undergoing female mute liization. It goes on to say a major cities like new york, minneapolis. And washington. There are wear a large hes half coalesce. And it doesnt occur. So this is a real problem. Its not a made up problem. Swrp. So let me say i believe that the like on in syria is catastrophe. There is no easy. Weve got four million people. Were going to fix this problem. By bringing in. From syria. I cant possibly. The problem was statesmen snirp. Ut and we eaped in that depurt erring of. And our bet solution in my opinion is to help 1. By helping people in the region stay close to their home and women. T a see sire very and what if. Is it out. As being in danger . Its just not possible. Focus. We needed to do the right thing. We are the most dangerous one. And doing all they can. I would like the 27th and off. They will try to work together. To try to. Ways to create more safe. I think thats doable. Were just not getting any report. The administration. Weve got to set our example. And leave their country and be with the United States. There iss one expert. Institute of main. Its not good policy to see how many people you can take people if the United States wants to hem the world, and overall gold should help these countries. People from the country. The American People think its uneasy about i this. And were not getting very, very good things. Our government officials are who are in charged with these programs. I believer you have anothery. Youd like to ask. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. And director combs item. The federal government could not prov