The brain hasnt seen these yet in life and tell you hit teenage years. The brain is trying to learn how to respond to these new hormones , locking on to receptors. They are its trial and error. It contributes to this roller coaster kind of experience that we watch as parents. Sunday night and ate 00 p. M. Eastern. 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Keep track of the new congress on cspan, cspan2 cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Homeland security secretary jeh johnson talks about security and his departments role. This is one hour. Very quiet. Good morning. Good morning. I am jane harman, president and ceo of the Wilson Center in the front rows we have the Wilson Center next, counsel, corporate councilmembers. I think we have general keith alexander. We do not. Where is he . He is right there. There he is. [laughter] he used to have a really big job. You dont recognize him because he is wearing a suit. I saw that the last time i saw him and he said he had rented it for the occasion. Were supposed to have walter isaacson, but we we will have him later, former dhs secretary. I am the other cochair. Is he here yet . No. Members of the aspen Homeland Security group, members of the aspen security advisory council. I am also a member of that. I am a dhs groupie, and many current and former moment leaders of Homeland Security and many dear to me from past , lives. When secretary johnson was 1st nominated some did not no what to expect did not no how coming , from the Defense Department he would approach the broader Homeland Security mission. Today, more than a year later no one would think twice about his. His leadership. Secretary johnson has more than one the trust of washington, washington, Law Enforcement around the country end of his department staff. He is a rock star at this job. He has led dhs through challenges focusing on major Strategic Priorities like cyber, addressing the Child Migrant crisis, and first and foremost protecting the homeland against a very sophisticated terror threat. The threat that we face today is very different from the one that we confronted on september 11. It is less hierarchical, more diffuse, in many ways more innovative. That is the new danger. The new jihadists collaborate opportunistically. Some have cyber skills, some have social media savvy, many are young, many tragically our our western. Our enemies are making dangerous connections in syria and yemen. We face the most talented bomb maker al qaeda has ever had in and he has targeted western aviation before. We are threatened by radicalization here at home. Dhs operates is in a challenging area. Radical bullies protected by our constitution can become violent action. It is very difficult to find that gray area to intervene. Our society protects freedom of thought including radical thought but inspiring how to build a bomb a bomb in the kitchen of your mom is not free speech. Stopping the threat of dangerous ideologies in partnership with faith communities in Law Enforcement is as crucial and difficult as it has ever been. If all this werent enough, dh dhs tackle some of the more thorny issues, immigration disaster response, just to name two. It is a lot of. One of his trips was to the port first of los angeles which with the port of long beach is the nations largest container port. Surely the challenges there are huge. I joined him on that visit and we did a helicopter flyover. Then the marine layer role then in and we were unable to land. What a metaphor. Navigating through the fog. Of course we persevered, and so has dhs, ably led by jeh johnson. It is our honor to have them at the Wilson Center for the 2nd the second time to address the state of Homeland Security. Please join me in welcoming the secretary of Homeland Security. Jeh johnson. [applause] thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Lets try to get employees lets try again, police. Good morning, everybody. I want to start with a family photograph. You wont believe this. This is me and my kid sister in 1966. I was at years old standing next to my dad. The most striking thing about the photograph is that as recently as 1966, a private everyday family of tourists like ours could drive our car onto the grounds of the u. S. Capitol and parking with no restriction or prior notice. This is the same spot today. The Public Parking lot is gone replaced by Police Vehicles and heavily armed members of the capitol police. Sadly there are threats to our , Homeland Security today that did not exist in 1966. The secretary is responsible for addressing those threats. One year ago i filled up my vision for the department of romance security. I was then new to the job. I can give a Progress Report with the benefit of the years experience. I think the Wilson Center and jane harman for right providing a forum. Her wide support in this town people like her be the lot to people like me. On new years day, i wrote out a set of new years resolutions for the dhs. On top of the list with the manner we conduct security. The reality is dhs is so large , and we are still finding our way. We have filled almost all the senior level that existed in our department. Just prior to the time i took office one year ago the department of fall plan security had no secretary or deputy secretary and senior level positions. We now have a secretary in the a new deputy secretary and the undersecretary, an undersecretary in the new undersecretary for science and technology, new commissioner and a new director for citizen of immigration is services and assistance secretary for customs enforcement, and new chief financial officer, new deputy director, a new deputy administrator of fema. A new inspector general. A new assistant secretary for legislative affairs. And a new assistant secretary for public affairs. We are actively working through slates of candidates to fill the vacancies that has arisen this past year. The last one is sitting back there. John, good to see you again. We are restructuring the whole manner that we make decisions within the department of Homeland Security. An april i originated a Community Effort initiative that has brought about a more centralized and integrated process to make budget decisions acquisition and strategy and other functions. We are moving away from decisions made in stovepipes. As part of the initiative to have the joint requirement consisting of Senior Leaders to identify and recognize investments to maximize efficiency. We have also realigned several major dhs headquarters functions to promote efficiency. Next, as i said here last year we are committed to greater transparency. Government Transparency Breeds credibility and conference one of our executive actions from november 20 is to direct our office of immigration statistics to collect and maintain and report consolidated data on the number of people we every hand, remove return, and or repatriate every year in a manner that could be made public. This is how we collect and report. Ipod chief fisher for making public the Border Patrols use and policy. Last year to make public the recommendations about use of force by the Border Patrol that which is sought by the media. The deputy secretary and i are on an aggressive Multifaceted Campaign to improve morale within the components of dhs. We had the secretary of fords program to recognize those who had made outstanding achievements. Next dhs is one of 16 departments and agencies on the socalled highrisk list. We are on a path to get off that list soon. They have informed us that our Interaction Service a model for how other federal agencies can work to address gao designation. We have improved the departments responsiveness to congress. Despite the challenge of how you count, 92 committees and subcommittees of congress who claim and oversight role over this department. Members of congress on both sides of the aisle including some of our biggest critics have taken note of our increased responsiveness. Finally, and this is my favorite one which i learned about yesterday, earlier this week, in the judgment of the center for plain language, the department of Homeland Security has gone from worst to first amongst federal agencies and our ability to communicate in plain language. One of my personal passions. In these challenging times management reform is itself a Homeland Security imperative. Here is where we are on the substance of some of our Important Missions. I said here a year ago, as long as i am secretary, counterterrorism will remain the cornerstone of the department of Homeland Securitys mission. 13. 5 years after 9 11, it is still a dangerous world. In 2015, we must recognize that we have evolved to a new phase in the global terrorist threat. Today, the terrorist threat is more decentralized, more diffuse, and more complex. We are concerned about the socalled foreign fighters who leaves his home country, travels to another country to take up the fight there, links of a terrorist extremist, and they return home, whether it is this country of one of our allies with a terrorist mixture was purpose. We are concerned about terrorist organizations new, slick, and skilled use of the internet to publicly recruit individuals to conduct attacks in their own homelands. A qa team no longer builds bombs in secret. It is now publicize its can its instruction manual and calls for people to use it. We are concerned about the domestic threat of the socalled lone wolf who may be inspired by the extreme propaganda on the internet. What are we doing about this in 2015 . Is everyone knows, we are taken the fight to these groups in places like iraq and syria. Our Intelligence Community continues to detect terrorist plots at the early stages. Domestically, the fda fbi investigates and prosecutes terrorist plots in the homeland. In response to the recent attacks in paris, ottawa sydney , and elsewhere, and the public calls for attacks in the west, i directed that the federal protective service increase its presence at federal buildings in major cities in the United States. We continue to taylor and enhance our security to every appropriate method. For example, the Visa Waiver Program we offer to 30th nations is a viable tool for International Commerce and travel. It is a program that must continue, but there are ways in which the security of the program can be improved. To enhance security while maintaining the integrity of the program, last november we identified added information to the Electronic System for travel authorization to learn more about those who travel to the United States from countries for which we do not require a visa. We are considering further security enhancements to the program. We are engaging our allies in europe and elsewhere to encourage them to maine gain and share travel information about individuals of suspicion. We are sharing more information and training with state and local lawenforcement in this country, given the manner in which the terrorist threat is involving, the cop on the beat must be as vigilant as the intelligence analyst. Our efforts must include Public Engagement dhs along with the Justice Department are engaging immunities, organizations, institutions here at home that are themselves in a position to deter others who may be turning towards violence. In 2014, dhs held over 70 of these roundtable meetings in 14 cities around the country. I present participated in these meetings in chicago columbus, ohio, minneapolis, boston, los angeles. We are doubling down on our if you see something Say Something campaign. Yesterday i rolled out this new enhanced program, but it must be more than a slogan. Our counterterrorism efforts also include the joints in aviation security. I directed that we enhance 80s and security at overseas airports with flights directly to the United States. Several weeks ago, tsa made further enhancements, and we are reviewing whether more is necessary. As secretary, i made it a deep dhs priority to establish clearance by personnel before a passenger gets on the plane bound for the United States. At present, we have preclearance in 15 overseas airports at which we have screened more than 16 million passengers before they arrived in the United States. The newest of these operations at our dobby in the uae, since that time, we have screened 364,000 passengers in that year and crew bound to the United States, and denied boarding to 571 individuals, including a number that were in the terrorist screening database. We want to build more of these at overseas airports where make sense from a Homeland Security point of view, and in a way that u. S. Air carriers will support. Last year, we put out a solicitation and received 25 letters of interest from airports around the world. We are taking steps to fix our broken immigration system. Some say we should have waited for congress to act, lets not forget that we did wait for years and congress did not act. The president continues to urge congress to finish the job and pass a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill. He is willing to work with any serious partner, democrat republican, or independent, who wants to fix the system. In the meantime, we must improve the system within our existing legal authorities. We did that. The president announced a set of reforms on november 20 last year. We have established a new program for deferred action for undocumented adults, those who have committed no serious crimes and have been in this country since january 1, 2010, and have children here who are citizens and lawful permanent residents are eligible to reconsider for this program. The reality is that these immigrants are not enforcement priorities. Therefore, we want to encourage these people to come out of the shadows, be accountable, pay taxes, and get on the books. Our executive actions also prioritize the removal of felons over families, includes a number of measures to further secure the border, discontinued the secure Communities Program and replaced with a new program. Streamline Legal Immigration to boost the economy and promote naturalization. Support military families in enhanced options for foreignborn high skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses. We are taking a number steps to further secure the border. Im on a mission to strengthen Border Security and to replace public misperception with facts. In june 2013, Research Conducted a survey and ask the following question, just your best guess compared with 10 years ago, do you think the number of immigrants entering the u. S. Illegally today is higher lower, or the same question mark amazingly, 55 of respondents answered higher, and only 15 answered lower. The reality is on the slide. In 2000, apprehensions on the southern border which are a direct indicator of total attempts to cross the border illegally, exceeded 1. 6 million. Apprehensions on the southern border have dropped considerably since then to around 400,000 a year in recent years. Apprehensions are at the lowest rate since the 1970s. These numbers are no doubt partially due to Economic Conditions and trends in the United States, mexico, and Central America. They are also due to the very large investment this nation has made an Border Security over the last 15 years. Todays Border Patrol has the largest deployment of people vehicles, aircraft, boats, a quick and along the southern border in its 90 year history. This includes a budget of 3. 5 billion, a total of 23,000 personnel, and 20,133 Border Patrol agents. Without a doubt we had a challenge last summer. We had an impressive than a number of unaccompanied children and knows who crossed a narrow area of our southern border into the rio grande valley. In search of a Family Member and a better life in this country. We responded aggressively with more people and resources on the southern border. Beginning in midjune, the numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border declined sharply. They are now at far lower levels. But, we are not declaring mission accomplished. The president and i are committed to building an even more secure border and a smart strategy to get there. Much illegal migration a seasonal. The poverty environments that are the push factors in honduras, bought a mullah el salvador still exist. The economy in this country is a pull factor. It is getting better. Theres still more we can should do. We are pursuing a risks based strategy for Border Security. This means focusing resources where our intelligence and our surveillance tells the threat exists. This is a smart, effective, and efficient use of taxpayer resources. There are more aircraft, surveillance, Radar Technology a