Transcripts For CSPAN2 Members Urged To Take Action On Borde

Recess at any time. Or attribute of maintaining sovereignty is to maintain and control our borders. This failure has allowed millions of foreign nationals to enter the u. S. Illegally an narcotics to enter our country illegally. It is time to secure the border. Essential issues of the president s 2006 campaign was the promise to build and impenetrable physical tall beautiful southern border wall. The administration is taking steps to fulfill the promise and the subcommittee on National Security is closely monitoring this process. The president issued an executive order on january 25 with the department of Homeland Security to take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design and construct a physical wall along the border. On march 17 dhs requested to request for proposals as the first step in fulfilling the requirements. Dhs is expected to use the prototypes to inform actual construction. Border walls have seen success in recent years. They have. [inaudible] the construction of the security fence on the israel sinai border cut illegal entries from over 16500 down to 43, and 12 in 2014, a 99 decrease. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked that President Trump is right, i built a wall along israels southern border and it stopped all illegal immigration. Great success, great idea. Do those who oppose the wall oppose the success or is it because they acknowledge its potential effectiveness at curbing immigration. I think we have to figure that out. Recent Media Coverage has focused on the cost of building the wall and obviously this is a legitimate issue. Dhs has just begun the procurement process yet opponents of a secure border have employed exaggerated cost estimates about a border wall. Senate democrats recently issued a report claiming the wall would cut 70 billion. Todays democratic witness wrote in january that a border wall would cost as much as 14 billion which is honestly much different than the Senate Democrat estimate. What they did is take the highest historical number they could find and multiply it by the total miles of the border which i dont think anyone is suggesting the way to do it. The American People deserve better than ms. Information. The wall should be built in a fiscally responsible way and there are a variety of creative ways by using the fees from drug dealers to build the wall. Also they need to identify whether it will have a positive effect at the local state and federal level. Today we will hear testimony from doctor steven on a significant burdens and having an unsecured border can impose on u. S. Taxpayers. He estimates that if a border wall prevented between 160000 160000 200000 illegal crossings which is only about 10 over 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 assets. Its more about dollars and cents. Illegal immigration has had significant human cost. Too many humans have been robbed of loved ones through crimes committed by criminal aliens who should not have been allowed in this country to begin with. One of them is agnes who lost her son ronald da silva 15 years ago today. He was murdered by a previously deported illegal immigrant with a long criminal record. She herself is a legal immigrant from hungary. She did at the right way and her son was taken from her by someone who had no right to be in our country. What makes this tragedy so painful that ronalds murder was preventable had the government simply done its job and maintained a secure border, the murder would have never entered our country and ronald would still be with us. Building a wall on the u. S. Mexican border will not stop all illegal immigration but its a first step consistent with expenses in san diego and yuma and has the potential to dramatically reduce it. The United States will need to deploy additional human, technological and legal resources. They will restore the rule of law and deter wouldbe Illegal Immigrants from circumventing the law and the first place. We hope our witness from the Border Patrol council will speak more broadly about what our officers and agents on the ground see and what they need to do to do their job. This will continue robust oversight over these actions in determining how they are meeting the threat posed by the border and we want to make sure taxpayer money is being used well and the barrier is being built in an effective way and we will monitor this as it unfolds. I think the witnesses for being here today and further testimony, and with that, i yield my friend massachusetts. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank you and our staff on both sides and the Witnesses Today on what is a very emotional and legitimately, for some of you today. I look forward to transparent analysis where we have a need assessment and in engineering assessment as to the cost benefit of this potentially huge investment. I cant imagine being the father of two sons who lost a parent to violence. I cant imagine what it is like to be here on this anniversary. For your loss and your passion, i am very respectful in so much that we might have some differences. I understand whats brought you here today and the earnest desire to make sure other parents will never be in the situation you are in. Ms. Espinoza, but i have read in your work is that you see many, many cases, i very much respect your work in the ultimate desire that you have. To you and your colleagues, Great Respect respect for the work you do. I know when i was in the California Legislature having conversations with their state Law Enforcement, the difficult jobs you do and the department of justice in california when they work with you. The the other two witnesses, thank you for being here. Let me just add to that that this crucial work we take is very serious. It should be factbased so we can identify what measures will work, with the benefits would be and what the cost would be to the taxpayers and all americans. What the president is proposing simply wont work in my view and will divert resources away from the area critical to protecting the health, safety and security of americans. He addressed his concerns with the president s plan. He wrote an oped in the Washington Post in which he called the wall the most expensive and least effective ways to secure the border. He also wrote, true Border Security demands of flexible strategy that includes a mix of personnel and changing tactics all of which, at a lower price tagged in a border wall. I am in agreement with my colleague. The proposed rule is incredibly expensive with little return on investment despite the fact that he claims it would cost ten to 12 billion. Most analysis place the number far higher. The department of Homeland Security conducted an internal study that estimated the border wall would cost nearly 22 billion in upfront Construction Cost alone. Other independent and Congressional Studies have estimates up to 40 or 70 billion. This is all in contrast to the same administration that was proposed adding including helping everyday americans. It is troubling that they propose billions towards the wall while slashing critical programs including his proposed budget that would cut 20 of the funding, jeopardizing medical advancements to cure chronic diseases to save lives including cancer. His law will undermined our National Security by redirecting funds from programs that actually work to secure our border. This would be pooled from Airport Security programs that help securities major points of entry where drugs are much more likely to be trafficked into our borders. Despite the rhetoric during the obama administration, the number of unauthorized immigrants dropped from 12point to million down to 1. 1 million in 2014. During the same time, more people became unauthorized to be in the United States simply by overstaying visas and coming across the u. S. Border with mexico. 40 of all individuals have overstayed their visas rather than coming across the border. The president s proposal to build a concrete wall across the length of our southern border fails to be workable or costeffective. His request for congress to appropriate billions of dollars is shortsighted request for congress and breaks one of his most fundamental Campaign Promises that they would not pay a dime for the wall on the u. S. Mexico border. We have a short video to play. Without objection. We are going to build the wall. We have no choice. Who. Who is going to pay for the wall . Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico will pay for it. Whos going to pay for the wall. Mexico who . Mexico. You believe mexico will pay for it. No. Hes obviously talking about having mexico pay for it. You think thats a viable option. No. Thank you, mr. Chairman. When announcing his president ial bid, he stated i would build a great wall and nobody builds a better wall than me, believe me and i will build them inexpensively. I will build a great wall on our Mexican Border and i will have mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words. At the february 2016 Campaign Campaign rally he reiterated we will build a great wall and mexico will pay for 100 . Of course these are only a few of the countless times he has overpromised and under delivered to the American People. Less than 100 days into his presidency, he has completely abandoned this promise and changed his tune. Earlier he tweeted mexico will pay for the wall, eventually and in some form. With his track record, nobody should believe that. Instead he is demanding American Families have the burden of finding additional billions of dollars to build this wall. Until earlier this week, he was signaling he would be willing to shut down the government to get the leverage to take this money out of the wallets of hardworking families. We have a real problem to address in securing our borders, we all agree, but agree, but the presence proposed border wall does nothing or very little to advance our National Security. It should not be brought build on the of hardworking American Families. I will hold the record open for any members who would like to submit a recognitio written statement. We now recognize our witnesses. Maria espinosa, director of the remembrance project and mr. Former assistant secretary for border, immigration and trade policy, department of Homeland Security. Glad you. Glad you were able to get here. Welcome you all. All witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. If you could please rise and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Thank you, please be be seated. All witnesses answered in the affirmative. To allow time for discussion, limit your testimony to five minutes. Your entire written entire written statement will be made part of the record. Thank you, i would like to think the chair and the committee for inviting me. I am director of research at the center for immigration studies. My testimony today is based on the recent report published by the center. This reports the fiscal cost based on physical estimates developed by the engineering and medicine for immigrants by education level. These calculations are based on established facts about Illegal Immigrants. First, there is agreement that Illegal Immigrants have modest levels of education. The vast majority didnt graduate in their home country or have only the equivalent of high school education. Immigrants who come to america with modest education, regardless of legal status create more costs than they do in taxes. Combining them with the net fiscal estimate from the academy study shows that on balance, if you take all the taxes they are likely to pay in their lifetime given their education level and all the services and costs they create, there is a net drain on taxpayers of about 75000. Illegal border crosser or 7. 5 billion. 100,000. This figure is only for the original illegal immigrant. It doesnt count their descendents. We can do that. If we apply those estimates the cost would rise to about 94 billion or about 9. 4 billion for 100,00 100,100,000. 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. It reflects the educationa attainment. People with this skill profile, legal immigrant or otherwise pay less in taxes than they use services. Theres almost absolute agreement on that these estimates do is give us an idea of what they cost but also evaluate the likely savings that different enforcement strategies create for taxpayers. The newly released daddy indicates that perhaps 1. 7 million new Illegal Immigrants will successfully cross our border in the next ten years. If that is the case, if that were to happen, it means if we were to stop 19 at 12 of the crossers over the next decade, it would generate 12 or 15 billion in savings which might be enough to pay for a wall meaning it could pay for itself even if it only kept out a small portion of the people expected to come. The nato institute evaluated my statements and they concluded that the immigrants werent as unskilled as my data represented but they still found that the average numbers they found were 4. 3 billion. 100,000 crossers. In their analysis cato tries to argue that state and local government costs shouldnt count because its the federal government that build the wall. This argument doesnt make sense to me but its up to congress whether to count the state and local costs. It seems reasonable to do so. Finally, they employ a concept called net present value which calculates the fiscal impact, but this concept commonly used by economists has the effect of reducing the size of the drain that unskilled immigrants will create because it discounts the cost in the future. If you didnt do the discounting, the costs are higher, roughly double. If you want to do a different calculation where you dont discount the future, thats what you would get. The bottom line is unskilled workers is very costly to taxpayers given their education and given the realities of the American Economy that pays less educated wages coupled with the existence of a large and well developed administrative state. The fiscal cost is not a moral defect on their part. It simply the reality of education. Thank you for allowing me to testify and i look forward to your questions. Thank you we now recognize mr. Jog for five minutes. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I want to emphasize that i will not advocate for 2000 miles worth of border. That is not necessary. What i will advocate for is a border wall in strategic locations which helps us secure the border. I want to point out what happened and give you a historical analysis of why the border is unsecured today. In the mid80s the United States faced its first illegal immigration crisis. The Border Patrol had approximately 4000 agents charged with controlling 2000 miles of the international border. Other than wire fences there were no Border Patrol on property. They were overwhelmed and couldnt deal with the influx of the illegal aliens so they pass the Immigration Reform act of 1986. A promise to secure the border and ensure the United States would never be put in the same situation again. The act failed. It failed in large part because the United States government put the cart before the horse. Without securing the border, the government legalize several million persons who willfully violated u. S. Law. By so doing we broadcast a clear message to the world that our laws could be made void if enough people entered the country illegally. The message was heard worldwide and illegal immigration exploded. After 86, illegal border crossings took place almost exclusively in San Diego County and el paso texas. They thought if they controlled these two corridors they could control immigration and smuggling. They threw threw many resources at the serious but left other areas, yuma arizona and tucson arizona sectors wide open. The prevailing thought was the infrastructure did not exist on either side of the border to allow smuggling organizations to move their operations to the inhospitable and barren desert areas of arizona. The prevailing thought was wrong. For more than ten years, the tucson Border Patrol sector was overrun because we did not have the foresight to realize smuggling is big business and the cartels are flexible and adaptable. In essence we created the problem in tucson and the citizens and ranchers paid for our mistakes. Unlike today, in the mid 80s and early 90s, isis didnt exist. Criminal cartels didnt control every facet of illegal activity on the border and transnational gains went prevalent in the United States. Today however this is our reality. If we refuse to learn from failed order Security Policy in the past we will never secure the border. We must take a proactive approach and it must at what the proper mix of technology, infrastructure and manpower. It must be comprehensive. We must acknowledge shutting down the Rio Grande Valley sector without addressing other areas will cr