Thought. I will introduce schumer i usually wait for the Ranking Member but i was told to go ahead. Several years ago, but when i have a short statement to put into the record because i want senator sessions to several years ago, the obama tii administration promised, quote, refocusing on limited resources and people on violent offenders, people convicted of crimes, note just families, end of quote. But although there has been more funding for enforcement in 2015, the president s promise goes unfulfilled and many criminals remain in our communities. When will enough be enough . Even those with violent criminal histories arent being removed as promised to the extent they should be. And american citizens are paying the price while Law Enforcement officers are instructed to look the other way. The Administration Says it does not have the resources to enforce the law against all undocumented criminals. But a lack of resources doesnt seem to be the problem. Its a lack of will and the policies of thiS Administration prove that. When first preparing for this hearing, several Administration Officials informed this committee that they were unable to testify because the hearing wasnt, quote, in response to a particular crisis. Congressional oversight isnt contingent on any crisis. Its a constitutional responsibility of all of us. And when you listen to the testimony today, i hope you will keep in mind that there are 179,027 undocumented criminals with final orders of removal at large in the United States today, thousands of victims andt many of the agencies own officers who are unable to do the job they signed up to do. To do we still think then that there is no crisis . I reserve the remainder of my rf time, as i said, and call on senator sessions. If somebody comes from the s fo minority, we will do them beforo we introduce our witness. Rity thank you, senator grassley, co for your strong leadership of this committee and for your commitment to oversight in ensuring that our agencies who work for the American People respond appropriately to at americas congressional representatives. Spond you framed the questions well. While we all know that the Obama Administration is removing fewer total aliens than it did a few years ago, the focus of today will be on the dramatic fall in the removal of criminal aliens i from the interior of the United States, something that runs contrary to the direct claims os thiS Administration. Countless times over the last an five fiscal years, members of thE Administration have made public statements about the need to focus limited enforcement resources on criminal aliens first. L it admits normal routine cases has fallen significantly, but a search our policies to remove criminal aliens has strengthened. On may 10, 2011, the president said we are focusing our limited resources on people on violent offenders and people convicted of crimes. Not just folks looking to scrape together an income. Just a little over a year ago, november 20, the president announced we will keep focusing on enforcement keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security felons, not family, not children. Thus the contention is that they had to stop normal enforcement and create executive amnesty programs. Since we cannot possibly remove everyone, thE Administration has said and congress rejected my proposals for reform, i will do it anyway by executive order and allow for example 4 million dopa beneficiaries to stay in the al United States and give them work permits, Social Security give numbers, access to federal and state benefits. And focus only on removing criminals and other high priority aliens. As we will establish today, not only are total removals down, but the number of removals of criminal aliens from the interior of the United States, l the socalled priority, has decreased significantly. The reason for this decrease is not because there are fewer criminal aliens in the united cr states than just a few years ago. We there are hundreds of thousandsy of known criminal aliens in the United States. Rol al in addition, new crimes are rims committed every day by criminal aliens, so while were not seeing a decrease in crimes committed across this country, we are seeing a decrease in dac removals of criminal aliens and it is not that thE Administration has fewer resources than they did in years past. To the contrary, the amount of funding available for the detention and removal of aliens has increased steadily while criminal deportations have plummeted. T h thE Administration is doing substantially less with substantially more. Under the law passed by with congress, any person found unlawfully in the United States is subject to removal. Anyone unlawfully in the United States is subject to removal. They dont have to commit a crime. And those who enter unlawfully and then commit crimes are surely higher priority to removal. There is never a reason to allow a dangerous criminal to live or remain in the United States, nos parent should ever have to bury a child because their government failed to keep violent criminals out of the country or failed top deport them once it discovered them. Vi protecting the lives of innocent americans is one of the most basic duties of the federal government. Our goal should be to keep 100 of criminal aliens out of the United States. And then to promptly remove all such criminal aliens from the interior of the United States if identified. There is nothing wrong or controversial about such policyt indeed the president and his team say this is what theyre vigorously doing. Commit but is it true . In late july the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Heard system from grieving family members who lost loved ones to criminal alien violence. The whole nation watched really. And we heard their moving callsy for action. St their stories represent a small sample of tragic events that oft happen every single day. So this failure cannot continue. The American People have pleaded with congress and the president to create a uniform, fair and lawful system of immigration that serves their interests, protects their security, a policy in which this nation can take pride. But the politicians and b officials for decades have promised to do that to get elected, but have failed to do so. Even the obvious need for the removal of criminal aliens, which administration deems is needed and just, is just not happening. So once again id like to thank the witness. Shes an experienced prosecutor. Were glad to have you here. And youll have to work hard to dig up something on him. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Before i introduce you, id like to swear you in. Do you affirm that the testimony youre about to give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but theh truth so help you god . I do. H an thank you. D i would like to give a short introduction, but for everybody that would like to have a full biography, id invite you to goa to our Committee Website that has such a biography of director saldana. Sarah saldana is director of the u. S. Immigration and custom u. M enforcement, commonly referred to as i. C. E. Director saldana was nominated by president obama and confirmed by the senate in december of last year. T year previously she served as the se u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of texas and as you just heard, severed very well there. For ver and served also as assistant u. S. Attorney for the northern l district of texas and worked in private practice. Im ready for your Opening Statement. Thank you, sir. Before i begin that, i just wanted to thank you personally. I had all my Senior Leadership from across the country, 26 rshp offices across the country, field office directors, senior attorneys, our special agents in charge of our Homeland SecurityInvestigations Unit in last week to maryland actually, week before last i think. And you were asked by our folks to provide a video in support op our Overall Mission and our su efforts. And they got a great kick out os it. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do that. Thank you. Thank you chairman grassley if i may proceed now. Ranking member leahy i believe may be here later. And distinguished members of thr committee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today. As secretary and i have both stated and as the senator sessions has mentioned, it is mo thE Administrations objective and my objective personally to focus on a smart and effective enforcement of our Immigration Laws. This was very similar to my focus as a United States t attorney and assistant United States attorney before that where i had to make difficult decisions over ten years on which cases we could prosecute, which areas we would prosecute them in. I had 100 counties, 100,000 square miles to cover and over 3,000 federal laws to enforce. So we could not take each and every case and we are approaching our mission als similarly at i. C. E. Sion i will tell you, i took this job last year over senator cornyns admonitions because i wanted to lead this Extraordinary Group of ex women and men at immigration Customs Enforcement which have a very significant Law Enforcement mission which i began as United States attorney. And i had the small hope i think i shared with you senator cornye that i could bring even somewhat rational voice to a set of issues that are just chalk full of highly charged often misapprehended by so many in the country and yet of such great importance to the country. Bottom line, those individuals who pose a threat to Public Safety or who are apprehended crossing the border illegally y are enforcement priorities. These priorities were set forth by the secretary a little bit ta more than a year ago. And they guide our enforcement efforts, everything we do cradle to grave. I know most of you are familiar with our priorities. One focuses on Border Security, National Security, Public Safety. Kn priority two includes those people who have committed significant and repeated misdemeanors. And those who are apprehended unlawfully in the country after january 1, 2014. That was intended to stop the flow. And priority three focuses on those individuals who have been issued a final order of removal after that same date. So with these priorities as our guide, we are gaining ground in our efforts to remove dangerous criminal alien from the interior of the country. G despite overall apprehensions oh the border declining, removal numbers are lower, but we are removing at a greater proportion of dangerous criminals in our overall removals, thereby achieving the president s objective of trying to get the most dangerous criminals out from our midst. In 2015, 98 im really proud of these numbers. 98 of all removals lined to one of the three enforcement th priorities before of the roughly 235,000 removals we had in 2015, 59 , almost twothirds, were 9 convicted criminals reflecting a 3 increase over 2014. Thats proportionately. 014 pr i know the numbers are as you say, but thats proportionately. When we drill down further and look at interior removals only, that figure relative to the total jumps to 91 are criminals. T with respect to all aspects of our enforcement including transfer of undocumented immigrants, we focus on individuals who threaten Public Safety and are working with approximately 3,000 state and local Law Enforcement agencies to take custody of dangerous individuals and convicted criminals including felons, significant repeat misdemeanorsf criminal gang participants, before theyre released into the community. Of course this committee very well knows that there are also l times when despite our best efft efforts, and i will assure you there is no one sitting on their laurels at immigrations and Customs Enforcement including the director. We are very actively continuinge to pursue criminal aliens, but s they do despite our best efforts get released from our custody. We cannot remove any undocumented immigrant, and this is really important, really important, i want this committee, but the American Public equally important, that i. C. E. Doesnt willynilly release people. We have to have a final order of removal from the immigration courts. And appropriate travel documents to the country of origin. In addition, the decision that limited our ability to remove ly and detain removal of aliens. It restricts the amount of time an individual can be held in ort postorder custody. Six months typically. And then thereafter unless there is a showing that removability is likely. G whether the result of protected appeals or refusal of a country to accept them back, this decision accounts for somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 betwe convicted criminal alien releases in recent years. That number has dropped significantly over time and thiy remain a key objective to keep that number going down. I mentioned one aspect of our interior enforcement including the transfer of undocumented immigrants from state and local custody. We use our Priority Enforcement Program or p. E. P. To expand our access to these dangerous criminals. The United States government th faces daily criticism for not ts being flexible. P. E. P. Is an example where we are flexible. Its an approach that works with state and local governments, something very important to me when i was in dallas working with 100 counties and 100 sheriffs that we have a Good Relationship with state and ork local Law Enforcement and that we tailor or program to ement Community Safety needs and to iy develop process to fit the needs of that specific jurisdiction ensuring that we remove as many convicted criminals as we can without Damaging Trust with c local communities. Maging this trust is critical, so communities feel secure reporting crimes. Thereby making everyone safer. Ms i do have good numbers with respect to the First Six Months of p. E. P. , the number of f jurisdictions who had previously not cooperated with us who are doing so now, its over 50 at this point. And each day our objective is to conduct interior enforcement strategy in a way that supports Community Policing. Rategy i think its an encouraging sign that for example counties like los angeles which the deputy and i personally work very hard to a speak to their local electedl e of officials and try to get them back to the table have done so. A state that with texas has so many undocumented immigrants. P. E. P. Is allowing ice to reestablish these crucial local relationships that are so important. Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify. You have my commitment to work with each member of your lationh committee to forge a strong and productive relationship currently and in the future. Fog i appreciate it. P before i ask questions, i want to announce that after i ask my questions, senator sessions is going to take over and then i was told i could go ahead without a Ranking Member being here but if any of you have the responsibility of speaking as a Ranking Member, id be glad to defer to you before i ask questions. Go ahead. Okay. On june the 29th of this year, n the department requested a reprogramming of 113 million from your agency for Immigration Enforcement to the dhs. And by the way, thats what this questions about, but i have an introduction before i ask you this specific question. Yet less than a month later youh testified before this committeee about how i. C. E. Employees must every day exercise prosecutorial discretion and focus the l agencys limited resources and the words limited resources were yours in order to ensure the deportation of of of removals of im sorry here. Just a minute. Well, anyway, we have the removals of criminal aliens for fiscal year 2015 were down 22 from fiscal year 2014 and down 38 from fiscal year 2012. And then removals of criminal aliens from the interior of ther country as opposed to the border for fiscal year 2015 were down 27 for 2014 and down 53 for 2012. And yet you willingly gave away 100 million despite your repeated complaints about how 1m youre doing the best you can with limited resources. Pe so, my question is how do you justify this reprogramming and how many additional criminal aliens could have been taken off the american streets with 113 million that you dont now have in your budget . Yo [ inaudible ] mike. Yeah. Im sorry. Thank you. Yeah. Thats i think the number you stated is out of our six plus billion dollar budget. We can always use resources. We im not familiar specifically with i think these are