00:00Senator Kim. Thank you, Chairman, Madam Secretary. A press release came out from the Department of Homeland Security a couple days ago.
00:07It said that members of Congress in New Jersey that went to the Delaney Hall ice detention facility could, quote, could have just scheduled a tour.
00:17I guess I'd just like to hear from you if you can confirm that you understand that members of Congress by law are allowed to show up unannounced to conduct oversight visits of ice detention facilities.
00:28Yes, they can conduct oversight. But, Senator, what I would ask is that they understand that that doesn't mean they could show up with a mob with the intention to break in and assault law enforcement officers.
00:39That's what happened at Delaney Hall last week. You're familiar with that.
00:42Is that those individuals and those members of Congress were surrounded by criminals, creating criminal and perpetuating criminal acts.
00:49You understand that they were already within the facility.
00:49But when you show up and ask for a tour, we facilitated every single tour that every member of Congress has wanted.
00:55We've always done that. And we have to, when we have a tour, also make sure that we've addressed security concerns and have enough staff and all of that.
01:03And we were accommodating that when those individuals showed up and they decided instead to break in.
01:07You know that they were already on the ice premise, already facilitating into having the tour when there was the arrest of the mayor.
01:16They were not breaking into.
01:17I think they had broken through the outer fence and they were interior on federal property when when they were invited in by ice as the ice was preparing to give them a tour.
01:26That doesn't give them an excuse to start punching.
01:28But you understand that they were not storming the fence.
01:31Well, I don't understand. Are you making excuses for their behavior that day?
01:35I'm just trying to clarify what exactly.
01:38Oversight is an important part of what Congress does and what you provide to our department, and we welcome it.
01:44We give tours when members of Congress ask for it.
01:47We just ask that they not be politicized, that they actually are there to provide the oversight that is needed to ensure that we're doing due diligence in our job.
01:55And if I were to show up at ice detention facility unannounced, I would be let in.
02:01Yes, I would ask that you would be allowing us to secure the officers that we need to give you an appropriate tour, that we'd be able to cover the other bases and posts that they would have to leave to come and facilitate that.
02:13We may have to call other people in to help cover some of that because of the extra responsibilities, but we can do that.
02:18I just wanted to make sure I heard that from you. I wanted to just go back to something that was raised earlier about habeas corpus.
02:24Can you confirm to us that you understand that any suspension of habeas corpus requires an act of Congress?
02:31President Lincoln executed habeas corpus in the past with retroactive action by Congress.
02:38I believe that any president that was able to do that in the past, it should be afforded to our current day president.
02:44This president has never said he's going to do this.
02:46He's never communicated to me or his administration that they're going to consider suspending habeas corpus.
02:52But I do think the Constitution allows them the right to consider it.
02:56When we saw what happened with how well how many times has habeas corpus been suspended in our once that I know of four times.
03:04I'm not certain if the instance that you were referring to was one where the courts subsequently show that Congress is the one that has the ability.
03:12Do you know what section of the Constitution the suspension clause of habeas corpus is in?
03:17I do not. Nope.
03:18Do you know which article it is in?
03:20No, I do not, sir.
03:22Okay. Well, it is in Article I. Do you know which branch of government Article I outlines the tasks and the responsibilities for?
03:29Yes.
03:30Which one?
03:30Congress.
03:31Congress.
03:32Yes.
03:33Stephen Miller has said that he is actively considering that there is active consideration of habeas corpus.
03:38Have you had a conversation with Stephen Miller about suspending habeas corpus?
03:43I have not.
03:44When it comes to FEMA, this is something I'm concerned about being from New Jersey, you know, we've had challenges with Superstorm Sandy and others in the past.
03:54I was alarmed when I saw some reports that the acting head, Richardson, said last Thursday that he's about 80 to 85 percent done with the hurricane season plan, given that we are just days away from hurricane season beginning.
04:07I just want to ask you, is he done with his hurricane preparedness plan?
04:11That he is working diligently with the employees at FEMA and are prepared for hurricane season.
04:17What you reference?
04:18Have you seen this plan?
04:19Have you seen this plan?
04:20Is he presented to you?
04:21Yes, I've been actively engaged in hurricane response and preparation.
