00:00Response, please go ahead and give your opening statement.
00:08Christine Odie, you should be inside of yourself.
00:11I'm a former female.
00:12Okay.
00:13Well.
00:14I'm sorry, your agency.
00:15See my voice.
00:17She's responding to disaster, not ice.
00:23You should be inside of yourself.
00:34You may proceed.
00:36Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:38And thank you to the ranking member, Senator Durbin, as well, and the distinguished members of this committee.
00:43I appreciate the opportunity to be with all of you today and talk about the important matters and work that
00:48the Department of Homeland Security does every single day.
00:51The Department of Homeland Security.
00:52Hey, maybe pull the microphone closer to you, please.
00:58And the red light is on.
00:59Yep, it is.
01:00Okay.
01:01Proceed.
01:02The Department of Homeland Security was established in the aftermath of 9-11, one of the darkest days in our
01:08nation's history.
01:09That resulted in the death of nearly 3,000 Americans.
01:13The mission of the Department of Homeland Security at that time was just as critical as it is today.
01:17We protect our American people, we prevent acts of terrorism, and we defend our homeland.
01:23Every action that the Department of Homeland Security takes is guided by that mission and by that responsibility.
01:29Thanks to President Trump's leadership and the hard work of the men and women of DHS, our department has delivered
01:34historic results and has made our communities safer.
01:38Since the start of President Trump's second term, daily encounters along the southwest border declined by 96 percent compared to
01:46the Biden administration's daily average.
01:48We've reached the lowest levels ever recorded in U.S. Customs and Border Protection's history.
01:54In President Trump's first year, total Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border were less than the average of a
02:01single month under the Biden administration.
02:03For 10 straight months, the Border Patrol has released zero illegal aliens into the interior of the United States.
02:10And in President Trump's historic first year back in office, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States
02:17as a result of the administration's enforcement efforts from following the law.
02:22That includes 2.2 million that have voluntarily left and returned back to their home countries, and more than 675
02:29,000 detainments and deportations.
02:32A majority of the aliens that were arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have a criminal record and have been
02:39charged with or convicted of secondary crimes in addition to their initial crime of being in the United States illegally.
02:45During this period, ICE has arrested over 1,500 known and suspected terrorists, more than 7,700 known gang members,
02:56many of them that were allowed to come into this country under the Biden administration.
03:00We have also reached the lowest murder rate in the last 125 years since that data was tracked.
03:07Under President Biden, more than 450,000 unaccompanied alien children went missing or were lost due to the dangerous open
03:16border policies that were embraced.
03:19Under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services have already located over
03:25145,000 of these children and returned them back to their families and back to people who care about them.
03:32And we will not stop until every single one of those children is found.
03:37Fentanyl trafficking at the southern border is down.
03:41It's been cut by over 56% because of that secure border and the enforcement actions that have been taken
03:47there.
03:47And that's compared to the same period of time in 2024.
03:51The Coast Guard has seized enough cocaine the past year to prevent quantities capable of killing more than 193 million
03:59Americans, and it's kept them off of our streets.
04:02In fact, total interdiction efforts under the Trump administration have prevented 1.7 billion lethal doses of drugs from killing
04:11our next generation of Americans.
04:13These results reflect the fact that we are enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.
04:18I want to address the dangerous environment that our ICE officers face on the streets today.
04:24They are facing a serious and escalating threat as a result of deliberate mischaracterizations of their heroic work and rhetoric
04:32that demonizes our law enforcement.
04:34DHS has documented an 8,000% increase in death threats against our ICE officers and their families, as well
04:42as more than 1,300% increase in assaults while carrying out the lawful enforcement operations that they do every
04:50single day.
04:50I recognize that members of this committee may hold differing views about immigration policy, but it's important that we distinguish
04:58between disagreements over policy and the Department's operational responsibility to enforce existing law that has been passed by Congress.
05:06It's our duty as a Department to defend our homeland.
05:10The latest Democrat-led shutdown of DHS is reckless, it's unnecessary, and it undermines the American national security, and it
05:19harms the men and women who work at DHS and their families.
05:23Despite the House passing a bipartisan, bicameral, full-year DHS funding bill, it is Senate Democrats who have chosen not
05:31to fund the department and have held this department hostage.
05:34As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cybersecurity, and the protection
05:45of critical infrastructure, are all being strained.
05:48Our ability to provide for a safe and successful World Cup is being hindered, as well.
05:52More than 100,000 dedicated DHS employees are once again being asked to work without pay for the third time
06:00in just five months.
06:01At a time when we've produced the most secure border in history and removed nearly 3 million illegal aliens from
06:08our country, disrupting the department responsible for those gains is indefensible.
06:13I want to thank the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security for their professionalism, for their dedication,
06:20for their commitment to keeping America safe.
06:22And continuing to show up and work, even though they aren't being compensated for it.
06:27They've kept us safe and they have patience, and our success is only possible because of their service and sacrifices.
06:32I also want to thank our Angel families that are behind us to tell their stories and testimonies, and also
06:38thank my husband for being here in support as well.
06:40Thank you for the opportunity to testify, Mr. Chairman, and to all the distinguished members.
06:44I look forward to your questions today.
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