00:00Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Secretary. Thank you for your testimony.
00:05I want to say at the beginning that I think that in terms of roles in the Cabinet,
00:09coming into your job, I think you're the most qualified Cabinet member
00:12in a Cabinet that I think has otherwise been incompetent and unqualified.
00:20You and I are obviously of different political parties, but we share kind of a similar story.
00:24My grandmother, Victoria Castro, came to this country when she was six or seven years old
00:28as an orphan because both her parents had died after the Mexican Revolution,
00:32and the closest relatives that could take her in were not in Mexico.
00:35They were in San Antonio.
00:37And when my grandmother came to Eagle Pass, Texas, the manifest that allowed her to come,
00:41there was a question that was asked on that document.
00:44And the question said, purpose for visit.
00:47And her relatives that were bringing her, they wrote in to live, that she was coming to live.
00:54You have an incredible family story of your parents and your grandfather
00:57coming from Cuba in the 1950s and maybe early 1960s
01:01and a similar background of helping you and your siblings pursue their American dreams,
01:08just like my grandmother did for my mom and for us.
01:12But I feel like today under the Trump administration,
01:15our grandparents may have ended up in a gulag or banished in Guantanamo,
01:21or like the girl that I visited with who was a U.S. citizen in Mexico a few weeks ago
01:25with a brain tumor, having her seizure medication seized at a CBP inland port,
01:33and her mom, who's undocumented Mexican, her caretaker, 24 hours a day,
01:39not allowed to come back with her to get cancer, to get treatment for her condition.
01:42And I want to ask you specifically about a policy decision
01:46where on February 5th, DHS Secretary Noem rescinded temporary protective status for Venezuelans.
01:54This same thing was used for 700,000 Cubans in the 1960s and 70s.
01:59And she stated that in consultation with the Department of State assessed conditions in Venezuela
02:06and that there are, quote, notable improvements in several areas such as the economy, public health, and crime
02:11that allow for these nationals to be safely returned to their home countries.
02:15And you said as recently as a few years ago that returning and failing to renew TPS for Venezuelans
02:23would be, quote, very real death sentence for countless Venezuelans who have fled their country.
02:30That was a few years ago.
02:32And so I wanted to ask you, do you believe after everything that Maduro has done,
02:36and you and I have both condemned him, as I think almost everybody on this dais has,
02:41that TPS recipients forced to return to Venezuela will truly be safe in that country?
02:46And how do you justify the decision to send 350,000 people to Venezuela right now?
02:52Well, 350,000 people have not been sent to Venezuela.
02:54I think you're referring to the TPS cancellation of the temporary status.
02:58So two points.
02:59Number one is, unfortunately, that blanket approval of TPS gave TPS, including to people
03:04that, frankly, we should not have allowed in this country, irrespective of what part of
03:07the world they came from.
03:08Number two is to hope that now people that have received TPS will apply through the asylum
03:12process.
03:13And I believe many of them, if not most of them, will have very credible asylum claims
03:17to make for the reason you've just outlined.
03:19I think the problematic is that when you do a blanket TPS, number one, it's supposed to
03:22be temporary.
03:23None of these TPSs ever go away.
03:25But number two, when you do a blanket, especially in a mass migration event, it is going to
03:30protect and cover people that, frankly, we should not have allowed into this country.
03:34Well, I guess, I guess, I mean, we're both part of the same Latino community.
03:39You're not saying that all 350,000 people were gang members, are you?
03:42Of course not.
03:43The majority are not.
03:44Are you saying that they were?
03:44But if 1,000 of them are, we've got a big problem.
03:46Well, yeah, but so because there is a very small group who are criminals, just like any
03:52group of Americans, you're saying that none of them get any due process?
03:55They're just automatically expelled?
03:57No.
03:57Like no review, no, no nothing for any of their cases?
04:00Well, again, it's not my department.
04:01We don't do asylum claims.
04:02But I can tell you they can apply for asylum.
04:04Well, but she said she consulted with you.
04:04She said that it was her decision and your decision.
04:06And a few years ago, you said it was a death sentence.
04:08Yeah, but the problem is the previous administration did a terrible job of vetting applicants for
04:12TPS.
04:13They just blanket approved it.
04:14They did things that have been done in other administrations before.
04:18But never in this mass migration event.
04:20Look, the bottom line is, of course, the overwhelming majority of them are not gang members, and they
04:23will be able to apply for asylum.
04:25And they have a very credible claim.
04:26I have to yield my remaining time.
04:29I got it.
04:29I got to yield my remaining time to.
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