00:00Please stand to be sworn.
00:03Do you affirm the testimony you're about to give before the committee will be the truth,
00:08the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
00:12Thank you for that positive response.
00:17Please go ahead and give your opening statement.
00:24I'm a former female.
00:27Okay, well.
00:31She's responding to the doctor, not ICE.
00:38You should be assigned to yourself.
00:42Your staff say abolish ICE.
00:45Your staff say abolish ICE.
00:47Your staff say abolish ICE.
00:49You may proceed.
00:50Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the ranking member, Senator Durbin, as well,
00:56and the distinguished members of this committee.
00:58I appreciate the opportunity to be with all of you today and talk about the important matters
01:02and work that the Department of Homeland Security does every single day.
01:06The Department of Homeland Security...
01:07Hey, maybe pull the microphone closer to you, please, and the red light is on.
01:14Yep, it is.
01:15Okay, proceed.
01:16The Department of Homeland Security was established in the aftermath of 9-11, one of the darkest
01:22days in our nation's history.
01:24That resulted in the death of nearly 3,000 Americans.
01:28The mission of the Department of Homeland Security at that time was just as critical as it is today.
01:32We protect our American people, we prevent acts of terrorism, and we defend our homeland.
01:37Every action that the Department of Homeland Security takes is guided by that mission and by that responsibility.
01:44Thanks to President Trump's leadership and the hard work of the men and women of DHS,
01:48our department has delivered historic results and has made our communities safer.
01:53Since the start of President Trump's second term, daily encounters along the southwest border declined by 96% compared to
02:01the Biden administration's daily average.
02:03We've reached the lowest levels ever recorded in U.S. Customs and Border Protection's history.
02:09In President Trump's first year, total Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border were less than the average of a
02:16single month under the Biden administration.
02:18For 10 straight months, the Border Patrol has released zero illegal aliens into the interior of the United States.
02:25And in President Trump's historic first year back in office, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States
02:32as a result of the administration's enforcement efforts from following the law.
02:37That includes 2.2 million that have voluntarily left and returned back to their home countries and more than 675
02:44,000 detainments and deportations.
02:47A majority of the aliens that were arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have a criminal record and have been
02:54charged with or convicted of secondary crimes in addition to their initial crime of being in the United States illegally.
03:01During this period, ICE has arrested over 1,500 known and suspected terrorists.
03:07More than 7,700 known gang members, many of them that were allowed to come into this country under the
03:13Biden administration.
03:15We have also reached the lowest murder rate in the last 125 years since that data was tracked.
03:22Under President Biden, more than 450,000 unaccompanied alien children went missing or were lost due to the dangerous open
03:31border policies that were embraced.
03:33Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services have already located over
03:40145,000 of these children and returned them back to their families and back to people who care about them.
03:47And we will not stop until every single one of those children is found.
03:52Fentanyl trafficking at the southern border is down.
03:56It's been cut by over 56 percent because of that secure border and the enforcement actions that have been taken
04:02there.
04:02And that's compared to the same period of time in 2024.
04:06The Coast Guard has seized enough cocaine the past year to prevent quantities capable of killing more than 193 million
04:14Americans, and it's kept them off of our streets.
04:17In fact, total interdiction efforts under the Trump administration have prevented 1.7 billion lethal doses of drugs from killing
04:26our next generation of Americans.
04:27These results reflect the fact that we are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.
04:33I want to address the dangerous environment that our ICE officers face on the streets today.
04:39They are facing a serious and escalating threat as a result of deliberate mischaracterizations of their heroic work and rhetoric
04:47that demonizes our law enforcement.
04:49DHS has documented an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against our ICE officers and their families, as well
04:57as more than 1,300 percent increase in assaults while carrying out the lawful enforcement operations that they do every
05:05single day.
05:05I recognize that members of this committee may hold differing views about immigration policy, but it's important that we distinguish
05:13between disagreements over policy and the department's operational responsibility
05:18to enforce existing law that has been passed by Congress.
05:21It's our duty as a department to defend our homeland.
05:25The latest Democrat-led shutdown of DHS is reckless, it's unnecessary, and it undermines the American national security, and it
05:34harms the men and women who work at DHS and their families.
05:38Despite the House passing a bipartisan, bicameral, full-year DHS funding bill, it is Senate Democrats who have chosen not
05:45to fund the department,
05:46and have held this department hostage.
05:49As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cyber security, and the
05:59protection of critical infrastructure, are all being strained.
06:03Our ability to provide for a safe and successful World Cup is being hindered, as well.
06:07More than 100,000 dedicated DHS employees are once again being asked to work without pay for the third time
06:15in just five months.
06:16At a time when we've produced the most secure border in history and removed nearly 3 million illegal aliens from
06:23our country, disrupting the department responsible for those gains is indefensible.
06:28I want to thank the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security for their professionalism, for their dedication,
06:35for their commitment to keeping America safe, and continuing to show up and work even though they aren't being compensated
06:41for it.
06:42They've kept us safe, and they have patience, and our success is only possible because of their service and sacrifices.
06:47I also want to thank our angel families that are behind us to tell their stories and testimonies, and also
06:53thank my husband for being here in support as well.
06:55Thank you for the opportunity to testify, Mr. Chairman, and to all the distinguished members.
06:59I look forward to your questions today.
07:01With that, I yield back.
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