Trump’s Border Chief Slams Democrats with a Wake-Up Call: "You Serve the American Taxpayers"
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00:00I respect the chair's authority, but the chair...
00:02Mr. Holman!
00:03You work for me. I'm a taxpayer.
00:07I'm a taxpayer. You work for me.
00:09Mr. Holman, is there anything you'd like to respond to what you've heard today?
00:13Yeah, I'd like to respond to Acting Chairman Jayapal and your comment about the Trump administration
00:17moving money around for more detention beds.
00:19I'd like to remind you under the Obama administration, we did that most of the years he was president.
00:23We moved money around DHS. It's called reprogramming.
00:26We did that under the Obama administration.
00:28I don't remember any hearings on that.
00:30And I'd also like to remind you that under the Obama administration,
00:34I mean, you're quick to point out that the cages were built under the Obama administration.
00:38I was there. Family detention, we had 100 family beds under the Obama administration.
00:41We built 3,000 more.
00:42So when there was a surge in FY14 and FY15 on the border,
00:46Congress was quick to give all the money we needed to build detention facilities,
00:50get transportation contracts.
00:52We reprogrammed money out of the majority of the years he was president.
00:55That was fine.
00:57Under the Obama administration, FY12, we removed 409,000 people,
01:01half of what was removed last year.
01:03There was no hearings on that.
01:04So this is about transparency. Let's be factual about it.
01:07The time of the gentleman has expired.
01:09Since you did address some comments at me,
01:11I'll just say that I didn't like it under the Obama administration either.
01:14Well, to be honest with the American people,
01:16you can't point out faults in the Trump administration when it happened under the Obama administration.
01:19That's dishonesty. It's pathetic and it's sad.
01:22Mr. Homan, I control the time and I am the chairwoman of the committee.
01:26Thank you for respecting that.
01:28I didn't like it under the Obama administration,
01:30and I'll remind you, Mr. Homan, that you also testified before Congress
01:34in support of the Obama's Priorities Enforcement Program
01:37before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 19, 2016,
01:41which had a very different approach.
01:42Well, can I respond to that?
01:44Can I respond to that?
01:45No.
01:46Of course not.
01:47And Mr. Homan, I want to give you some time,
01:49but I do want to ask one quick question and I want to make one quick statement.
01:53I find it very offensive that anybody would compare any federal employee, frankly,
01:58to someone who, the Gestapo or running Nazi concentration camps.
02:03That is very offensive.
02:04I have 15 seconds and I yield to you.
02:06Thank you for saying that.
02:07I wish so many Democrats in leadership would say that out loud.
02:10Look, you want to know why there's 50,000 people in detention?
02:12You want to know why we have one million illegal entries in the United States?
02:15You want to know why we have these issues?
02:16Because you have failed to secure the border.
02:18You have failed to work with this president to close the three loopholes
02:21we've asked for two years to close.
02:23So if you want to know why this issue exists, you need to look in the mirror.
02:26You have failed American people who are not securing the border and closing loopholes.
02:30Mr. Homan, please respect the chair and the authority of the chair.
02:35The time of the gentleman has expired.
02:37I've asked you politely to let me go beyond my time,
02:40and you let other people go beyond their time, but not to Tom Homan.
02:43He don't get me to go beyond his time.
02:45Mr. Homan, we have approved an agreement between the Republicans and the Democrats
02:50with the ranking member.
02:51We increased the time of one member of Congress who was interrupted by a protest.
02:58That is done with the approval of the ranking member.
03:01Please respect the chair's authority.
03:03I respect the chair's authority, but the chair—
03:05Mr. Homan!
03:06You work for me.
03:07I'm a taxpayer.
03:10I'm a taxpayer.
03:11You work for me.
03:13Mr. Homan, again, it's been one of those days.
03:15I've had time.
03:16I appreciate it.
03:17I think everybody needs to be reminded, entering this country illegally is a crime.
03:20There's no prerequisite.
03:21You've got to commit yet another crime to enforce a law.
03:23That's the law you enacted.
03:25A young lady over here mentioned 26 deaths in ICE custody.
03:28Wrong.
03:29That number's nine.
03:30And one's too many.
03:31But out of the majority of those nine deaths, which is the lowest of any federal and state facility,
03:36most of them died within days of detention.
03:38It wasn't ICE's fault.
03:39They came into ICE's custody in bad condition.
03:41And the year before that, the majority of them were heart attacks.
03:44Heart attacks happen across this country every day.
03:46I don't know how you prevent that.
03:47So nine, not 26.
03:49And finally, I'll say this, sir.
03:50Your comment about me wanting to assault a lawmaker, let me explain myself to that.
03:55Probably not the right thing to say.
03:56But I was angry.
03:57Let me tell you why I was angry.
03:58Because you or no one else in this room has seen what I've seen in my 34 years.
04:01You didn't stand in the back of a tractor trailer showing my 19 dead aliens that suffocated to death
04:05because the smuggler didn't care, including a 5-year-old boy.
04:08What do you think his last 30 minutes were like?
04:10I was there.
04:11I seen it.
04:12I smelled it.
04:13I saw it.
04:14And I had a 5-year-old boy at the time.
04:15I've seen it for the rest of my life.
04:16I've seen people who couldn't pay their smuggling fees got stabbed in the face 22 times.
04:1931% of women are being raped crossing this border.
04:22Children are dying.
04:23Cartels are getting rich.
04:24Why am I angry?
04:25Because you haven't done anything to fix it.
04:28Nothing.
04:30We've been up here for 2 years trying to close the 3 loopholes that Collins said needs to be closed.
04:34And you haven't taken one action.
04:35But if there's a policy or initiative that's going to cause an illegal alien to be arrested
04:40or be detained or be removed, we're going to have a hearing within days.
04:43Within days.
04:44Within days.
04:45But I'm still waiting on a hearing on sanctuary cities because these people's lives have been changed forever.
04:49Where's the hearing on sanctuary cities?
04:51Where's the hearing on the asylum abuse?
04:54Where's the hearing on the TVPRA so we treat children from Central America better?
04:58That's why I'm angry, sir.
05:00I know it's not paying attention, but that's why I'm angry because you have not seen what I've seen.
05:03And it affected me in my life.
05:04I spent my career trying to save lives.
05:06And when I see what's going on in the southern border right now and you're ignoring it for political reasons,
05:10why not have a hearing on that?
05:12Why not fix the problem and close the loopholes?
05:14There's no downside in securing our border.
05:16There's no downside in illegal immigration being decreased.
05:19There's no downside in less drugs coming to this country.
05:21Opioids.
05:22I see opioids kill every man, woman, child three times.
05:24There's no downside in taking money out of the cartel's hands.
05:27None.
05:29I yield back.
05:30Mr. Jordan.
05:32Mr. Holman, the actions you took when you were director of ICE were entirely consistent with the law of the land, weren't they?
05:39Yes.
05:40When someone's prosecuted for a crime, the child can't go to jail with the parent.
05:42It happens to American families every day.
05:44Yeah.
05:45And if we, as you said, I think, earlier, if we don't like the law, last time I checked, it's the folks sitting up here who have got to change it.
05:51Yeah.
05:52And you've offered, I think, no more than four times three changes to the law that would help the situation.
05:58Is that right?
05:59Yes, sir.
06:00Maybe make it a fifth time.
06:01Can you say it a fifth time for this group?
06:02Just, you know, because, again, we're the ones that have to change the law.
06:05So give us that recommendation a fifth time, the three things that we've got to do.
06:08If we would close the loopholes in the TVPRA where children in Central America are treated the same as children in Mexico,
06:14if we would change the Florida Settlement Agreement so we can actually detain families in family settings long enough to see a judge and plead their case,
06:22if we can change the rules of asylum so it makes more sense so 90 percent of the people don't pass the first interview and a lot fewer pass in front of a judge,
06:31those three things would make a big difference on the border and decrease the illegal entry.
06:37Because those three things go to the heart of the matter.
06:39They go to the incentive.
06:40Is that right?
06:41They go to incentive along with the other things such as talking about abolishing ICE, having no detention, free education, free medical care,
06:49citizenship for those who are here illegally.
06:51When you keep offering incentives for people to come to sanctuary cities, come to this country, you'll be protected from ICE.
06:57As long as you keep having this language, more people who are vulnerable people are going to keep trying to come.
07:01Those kind of statements made by Democrats in the United States Congress or in positions of influence in this country, they have an impact, don't they?
07:08They have a significant impact.
07:09When a member of Congress has abolished ICE, when another member of Congress has abolished DHS, when the Speaker of the House says walls are immoral,
07:14when the person who gave the State of the Union response to the President of the State of the Union says she's okay with noncitizens voting, that all has an impact, doesn't it?
07:20Just like the laws that you're sworn to uphold and impact and do when you're the Director of ICE.
07:28It has a significant impact.
07:29If this would have been fixed years ago, we probably wouldn't have seen zero tolerance.
07:33We wouldn't see the conditions on the border today.
07:35Because the laws haven't been changed, because of the statements that have been made, there was a crisis.
07:38There is a crisis on the border.
07:39That just didn't happen yesterday.
07:41You think about this.
07:42There was a crisis.
07:43The administration asked for help.
07:47Democrats say it's contrived, it's manufactured, it's fake, it's not real.
07:51Then when the crisis, the real crisis, gets actually worse, the Democrats blame the administration for the very crisis they helped create by the things they said and the fact it won't change the law.
08:00But somehow, it's your problem.
08:02Somehow, it's the President's problem.
08:04And we have Ms. Costello, who went down there, her team went down there and looked us all over as the Inspector General, said there's some concerns that she has and the cause of the concerns they're trying to ascertain.
08:15She also said agents are doing, I think your statement was agents are doing their level best.
08:20Is that right, Ms. Costello?
08:22That's the experience of our inspectors at their visits.
08:25So the Inspector General goes down there with your team and you conclude the agents, the people that Mr. Holman used to represent, are doing their darn best they can do, but they're overwhelmed.
08:36And then you also said in your statement, in your answers a few minutes ago, you're trying to ascertain the cause.
08:43And that's pretty simple to figure out the cause.
08:45It's the numbers.
08:47In October, 60,000 apprehensions and inadmissibles on the border, October of last year.
08:53You know what it was in May of this year?
08:56144,000.
08:58We know the cause.
09:00They're all coming.
09:01And they're coming because things the other side's saying and the fact we won't change three fundamental things in the law.
09:06And it also might help, Mr. Holman.
09:08It also might help because these are the ones that these are apprehensions people presenting themselves at ports of entry.
09:13It also might help if we build a border security wall, right?
09:15Instead of having the Speaker of the House say they're immoral, even though there's one in her state, it might actually help if we built a border security wall that the American people voted this president in office to do.
09:24It might actually help if we did that.
09:25Would you agree, Mr. Holman?
09:26Absolutely.
09:27Every place they build a border barrier, every single place they build a border barrier, illegal immigration decreased.
09:32Yeah, it would help with some of the tragic things that we have heard about, tragic situation that we have heard about the last couple days, this entire week in this committee, that no one wants to see happen.
09:44The young mother who lost her daughter.
09:47It's tragic.
09:48No one wants those.
09:49But if we did the things you're talking about, we could help avoid some of those kind of incidents from happening in the future.
09:55Is that right, Mr. Holman?
09:56Yeah, if I can respond to that.
09:57And you're the guy who has lived it, breathed it, felt it, managed it.
10:01You have more expertise in this area than anyone in this room.
10:04Is that right?
10:05I believe so.
10:06I know so.
10:07But let me respond to the one child that died.
10:08It's tragic.
10:09Tragic.
10:10It sure is.
10:11But, you know, as long as we're showing a lot of pictures, if I can have just 30 seconds.
10:14Here's a picture.
10:15Her name is Serenity.
10:16She was nine months yours.
10:17Nine months old.
10:18Nine months.
10:19Raped and murdered by an illegal alien because open borders policy.
10:22Here's Irana.
10:23She was five years old.
10:25Raped repeatedly and murdered by an illegal alien.
10:27Here's Louise Solomon.
10:29She was 93.
10:31Multiple rapes and murdered by an illegal alien.
10:34Here's a 16-year-old.
10:35Here's a law enforcement officer.
10:36I got hundreds of these in my desk drawer.
10:38So I've seen tears for people today, and I understand that.
10:40It's tragic when anybody dies.
10:42But let's not forget the angel mom and dad who I've all met and got to know.
10:46Their children died, and they're separated forever.
10:49It's not a matter of location.
10:51They're dead.
10:53And a secure border would help prevent some of this.
10:55Sanctuary City does not help this.
10:57Sanctuary City, this will increase because of the push of Sanctuary City.
11:02Come to our country.
11:03We'll protect you.
11:04You can even commit a crime, be in a county jail.
11:06We're not going to license you to jail.
11:08So he'll go out, recidivism rates.
11:10Anybody can look them up.
11:11Fifty percent reoffend the first year, up to 75 recidivate within five years.
11:17They're in the country illegally in violation of federal law.
11:20They're locked up in a county jail.
11:22Let us have access to them and do our job.
11:27Let us have access to them and do our job.