The chairs authorized to declare recess at anytime. The core attribute of sovereignty is maintaining control over national boundaries. Yet, for years weve witnessed the failure of the u. S. Government to secure southern border. This failure has allowed millions of foreign nationals to enter the United States illegally and has brought huge amounts of illicit narcotics to be smuggled into the country. Theyve had significant consequences for taxpayers, victims of Violent Crime and for the rule of law. It is time to secure the border. A central issue of the presidency 2006 campaign was the promise to build an impenetrable tall southern border wall. They are taking steps to fulfill that and a subcommittee has closely monitored this process. They have issued a executive order to take appropriate steps to build the wall. March 17 they should to request for issues for prototype design for the requirements set forth in the executive order. Dhs is expected to use this prototype to inform actual construction. Border walls have said success in recent years. President trump has seen Israeli Border as securing the usmexico border. The security fence on the Israel Border cut illegal entries in 2011 down to just 43 in 2013 and 12 and 2014. A 99 decrease. Israels Prime Minister remarked that President Trump is right, i built a wall on israels southern border, it stopped all ilLegal Immigration. Great success, great idea. Now, to those who abus oppose building wall dispute that successors the reason they oppose building the wall precisely because they acknowledge its potential effectiveness it curving ilLegal Immigration . I think we need to figure that out. Recent Media Coverage has focused on the cost and this is a legitimate issue. Dhs of just begun the procurement process. For example Senate Democrats recently issued a flood report saying the wall will cost 70 billion. Todays democratic witness wrote that a border wall would cost as much as 14 billion which is much different than the Senate Democrat estimates. What they did was take the highest historical number they can find a multiplied by the total miles of the border which i dont think anybody is suggesting how to do it. Another is meant to confuse the issue and americans deserve better than that. The wall should be built in a fiscally responsible way and a variety of creative ways such as using those seats from drug dealers at little or no cost to the text tightly. At the same time was rarely discussed is whether securing the border will have a positive effect on american taxpayers at the local, state, federal level. Today will here test my from immigration expert on a the significant burden that ilLegal Immigration and having an unsecured border can impose on u. S. Taxpayers. The dr. Estimates that if the border wall preventing between hundred 60000 200000 illegal crossing which is only 10 of the expected crossings in the next decade, then the u. S. Would realize between 12 and 15 billion in savings. That would effectively offset the cost of building the wall even if you didnt use the seas drug assets. Securing the borders more about dollars and cents. Its about a government student be to defend our sovereignty, and protect our citizens. IlLegal Immigration has had significant human costs. Too Many Americans have been robbed of loved ones to crimes committed by criminal aliens who should not have been allowed in the country. One of them is mrs. Agnes gibney who lost her son, ro ronald da silva, 15 years ago today. He was ordered by a previously deported immigrant with a long criminal record. She herself is a legal immigrant from hungary. She did it the right way and her son was taken from her by someone who had no right to be in our country. What makes a tragedy and others like its available is that reynolds murder was preventable. Have the government simply done its job and maintained a secure border the murder would never have been able to enter the country and ronald would be with us. Building a wall cannot stop all ilLegal Immigration but its a necessary first step in consistent with experiences in san diego and human has the potential to dramatically reduce it. The United States will need to deploy additional human technological and legal resources. In addition predictable enforcement will restore the rule of law and teacher what the Illegal Immigrants attempting to circumvent in the first place. We hope our witness mr. Brennan judd will speak more broadly about what our officers and agency on the border every day and what they need to do to do their job. The subcommittee will continue robust oversight over these actions to determining how they are meeting the threat posed by border. We want to make sure taxpayer money is being used well, that barrier is being built an effective way will monitor it as it unfolds. I think the witnesses for being here today for their testimony. With that, a yield to the Ranking Member mr. Lynch. Thank you. I want to thank you and your staff on both sides of the in the witnesses to what is a very emotional and legitimately for some of the witnesses today, issue. I look for to public transparent analysis where we have an objective needs assessment, Risk Assessment and engineering assessment as to the costbenefit of this potentially huge investment. I cannotyou be the father of two sons who lost a parent to violence i cannot imagine what its like to be here to sit on this anniversary. So for your loss and your passion to see something about that im very respectful inasmuch as we may have differences i understand as best i can for what is brought you here today i to see other parents not in the position you been in. Ms. Espinosa, what ive read in your work more globally as you see many cases in your ultimate desire that you had. Mr. Jog im Great Respect for the work you do. I know having conversations with the state Law Enforcement and the difficult jobs you do and will work with you on that. The other two witnesses, thank you for being here. Let man to that that this crucial work we take is very serious. It should be factbased. Look at this issue so you can identify what issues will work and what the cost to be for the taxpayers. What the president is proposing will not work and recently the Oversight Committee they represented district having a higher miles of the border. He wrote, he he called the wall the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border. He also wrote, quote, true Border Security demands a flexible strategy that includes a mix of personal, technology, and changing taxes. All of which came at a lower price take. Im in agreement with my colleague. The president claims the wall cost ten or 12 billion. Most analysis of place number for hire. We estimated the border wall will cost nearly 22 billion in upfront Construction Costs low. Other independent studies have estimates up to 40 years 70 million. This is the same they were getting including those helping Everyday Americans to provide returns to the american public. They propose billions towards the wall including proposed budget that would cut nearly 6 billion or the funding to National Institutes of health jeopardizing medical advancements to cure chronic diseases and save lives, including cancer. Additionally the wall will undermine the National Security by redirecting funds from programs that actually worked to secure our border. The money would be pulled from airport screening programs that help secure these major points of entry where drugs are more likely to be trafficked into our borders. Despite the president s rhetoric authorized immigrants dropped from 12. 221. 2 million in 2014. During the same time where people became unauthorized to be in the United States by overstaying visas them by coming across u. S. Border with mexico. 40 of the people in the United States have overstayed their visas. The president s proposal to build a solid concrete wall across the lincoln or southern border fails to be workable or costeffective. His request to congress to appropriate billions of dollars of shortsighted. Shortsighted request for congress breaks one of his most fundamental Campaign Promises that the American People would not pay a dime for the wall on the usmexico border. Mr. Chairman, we have a short video to play. Without objection. We are going to build the wall, we have notes choice. Who is going to pay for the wall . Mexico. Who . The wall is going to be paid for by mexico. And mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico is going to pay for. I will have mexico pay for that wall. Who is going to pay for the wall . Mexico. Who . Mexico. Do you believe that mexico will pay for . No. You must be talking about having mexico pay for do you think that is a viable option . No. Thank you mr. Chairman. When announcing his when announcing his president ial bid the president stated i will build a great wall and nobody builds walls greater than me, believe me. And i will build them very x very inexpensively. I will have mexico pay for that wall, mark my words. And love quotes. As of february 2016 Campaign Rally the president reiterated that mexico will pay for the wall 100 . Of course these are only a few of the countless times the president has overpromised and under delivered for the American People. Now, less than 100 days into presidency he has abandoned this promise and changed his tune. Earlier this week he tweeted, mexico will pay for the wall quote eventually and in some form. With his track record, nobody should believe that. Instead, his demanding American Families have the burden of finding additional billions of dollars to build this wall. Until earlier this week you signaling he would be willing to shut down the government to get the leverage to take the money out of the wallets of hardworking families. We have problems to address in securing our borders, we all agree. The president s propose border wall does nothing to advance our National Security. Not only should it not be built, it should not be built on the backs of hardworking American Families. I yelled back. I will hold the record open for five legislative days for any member who would like to submit a written statement. Will now wreck nicer panel witnesses. Pleased to welcome mr. Stephen, phd and director of Research Center for immigration study, mr. Brandon john, Border Patrol council, ms. Maria espinosa, mse glad youre able to get here. Welcome to all. All witnesses will be sworn in before they testify so please rise. Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear the testimony youre about to root give will be the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you god . Thank you, please be seated. All witnesses answered in the affirmative. In order to allow time for discussion please limit testimony to five minutes. Your entire written statement will be made part of the record. Mr. Cammarata you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I would like to thank the chair and the committee for inviting me. Im director of research for the center of immigration studies. My testimony is based on recent report published by the center. The analysis reports the fiscal costs of illegal Border Crossers based on fiscal estimates developed by the National Academy of sciences, engineering, medicine early this year. Last year for immigrants by education level. These calculations are based on pretty wellestablished facts about Illegal Immigrants. First, there is agreement that Illegal Immigrants overwhelmingly have modest levels of education, the vast majority did not graduate high school in the home country or have only the equivalent of a high school education. Also those who come in with the lower education education combining them with the National Academy studies show that on balance if you take all of the taxes that they are likely to pay in their lifetime, given the education levels and all the services and costs they create theres a net drain on taxpayers of about 75000 per illegal border crosser, or about 7. 5 billion per 100,000. This figure is only for the original illegal immigrant. It doesnt count the descendents. We can do that, thats in the study from the academy. If we apply those estimates the cost will rise to about 94 billion per illegal immigrant and their defendants or about 9. 4 billion per 100,000. To be clear, the fiscal cost of Illegal Immigrants is not due to the fact they dont want to work, its not due to the fact that many work off the books. Rather it reflects their educational attainment. The modern American Economy people with the skill profile, nativeborn immigrants or illegal immigrant pay less in taxes than these and services. Theres absolute agreement in that. What these cost estimates do is give us an idea not only of what illegal Border Crossers cost but all so let us evaluate the likely savings that different enforcers create first taxpayers versus what the strategies might toss. For example a newly released study indicates that 1. 7 million Illegal Immigrants were successfully cross our borders in the next ten years. If thats the case and nobody knows what that and given these costs, it means that if we were to stop just 19 make 12 of those crossers over the next decade it would generate 12 to make 15 billion in savings which might be enough to pay for the wall. It could pay for itself even if it only kept out a small fraction of the people expected to come. Recently the Cato Institute evaluate my analysis and argued that they were not as unskilled as i thought they were, but even so they still found that the average illegal border crosser would pay the fiscal deficit of 43000 or 4. 3 billion per 100,000 illegal crosser. Now they also tried to argue that it shouldnt count because the federal government is building the wall. This doesnt make sense to me but ultimately if you count the state local cost seems reasonable to me to do so. And finally i want they employ a concept of net present value which calculates the fiscal impact they have the effect of reducing the size of the join that unskilled immigrants will create because it discounts the cost in the future. If you didnt do that discounting the costs are much higher. About 150,000. If you want to do a different calculation that is what you would get. The bottom line from this analysis is that unskilled immigration which characterizes most ilLegal Immigration is very costly to taxpayers given their education and given the realities of the modern economy that pays less educated relatively low wages coupled with a large and welldeveloped administrative state. Its not a moral defect on their part. Is simply the reality of education. Thank you for allowing me to testify. I look for to your questions. We now recognize mr. Judd. Chairman, congressman, i appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I want to emphasize for 2000 miles with the border. But what i will advocate for is the border wall which helps us secure the border. I want to point out what happened give a historical analysis of why the borders on secure today. In the mid 80s the United States face the first ilLegal Immigration crisis. They had a proximately 2000 miles of United States mexico border. Other than barbed wire fences there are no vehicle or pedestrian borders. It was overwhelmed and congress chose to deal with illegal aliens in the United States by passing the Immigration Reform act of 86. The act promised to secure the border and ensure the United States would never put in the same situation again. The x field. It failed in large part because they put the cart before the horse. Without securing the border first the government legalized those who willfully violated u. S. Wall. By so doing we broadcast a clear message to the world that our laws could be made void if enough people enter the country illegally. The message was heard worldwide. IlLegal Immigration exploded. After 86 the high numbers took place in San Diego California and texas. The Border Patrol thought of it could control these two quarters then be able to control ilLegal Immigration and narcotics smuggling. They left other areas like the yuma arizona. The prevailing thought is that it did not exist on either side of the border to allow smuggling organizations to move organizations to the inhospitable areas of arizona. The prevailing thought was wrong. For more than ten years the tucson Border Patrol was overrun because we didnt have the foresight to realize smuggling is big business and the cart