Katie Britt Asks AG Pam Bondi About Removing Backlog In The Asylum Program

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) questioned AG Pam Bondi about border security.

Transcript

00:00How are you? Wonderful, thank you. Let's actually continue on that line of

00:06questioning. I'd like to give you an opportunity to kind of answer anything

00:09that you would like, but I want to thank you for what you have done to

00:14actually close our border. When we're looking across our nation, we know that

00:17fentanyl is a leading cause of death between the ages of 18 and 45. This

00:21administration under President Trump and your leadership has said, hey, we are

00:25going to shut down the border. We're going to put the safety and security of

00:27Americans first. You have made significant strides to go after gang

00:32members, cartel members here in our interior. You have worked diligently to

00:36remove impediments to being able to prosecute those individuals. We had them

00:40in front of judiciary yesterday, a group of experts in law enforcement across the

00:45board telling us that we have thousands of cartel and gang members here in our

00:49interior. So thank you for your commitment to eliminating that threat. Talk to me

00:54about what is in this budget that will allow you to continue the work of

00:57that you're doing and remove these cartel and gang members from our cities, our

01:02streets, and our communities. Thank you, Senator. This budget requests $10 billion

01:07to bolster drug enforcement efforts and $3.2 billion for programs to combat

01:15transnational organized crime against America. And transnational crime, that's

01:21these gangs that have infiltrated through Biden's open border policies have

01:25infiltrated our country. Sinaloa, they want to talk about Mexico, MS-13, TDA,

01:30Venezuela. They opened their prisons in Venezuela and let these people come to our

01:37country no longer. They are so well organized. They have formed huge organizations

01:44within our country and our DEA, our ATF, our FBI working hand-in-hand are doing

01:51everything and with state and local authorities are doing everything we can

01:55to stop that throughout our country. And that's why I would ask everyone to

02:01support the big beautiful bill because that helps our budget as well for national security.

02:06Absolutely. And and General Bondi, I want to thank you and your team. I know that ATF

02:12has seized more than 2,000 firearms going to Mexico. So despite the conversation we

02:21just heard, you have placed a seriousness on securing our border both ways and

02:28making sure that American citizens are safe. So thank you for the work that you are

02:32doing and all law enforcement officers that report to you. Thank you. I want to talk a

02:36little bit more about the asylum program. We have seen that be abused massively. We

02:42unfortunately, people who actually need it, are caught up in backlogs. Under this

02:47previous administration, numbers skyrocketed. I know that you and and the

02:53people who work with you have prioritized us to make sure that we get the fraud

02:56out of the system. We saw President Biden actually, you know, eliminate that program.

03:00Thank you for placing emphasis on it. When there is someone who needs to claim

03:03asylum, we want them to have the opportunity to do that. But the fraud is

03:07preventing us from actually hearing these cases. So talk to me about what you're

03:10doing there and what we can do to make sure that we remove that backlog and any

03:16duplicity that we see in the system. Thank you for that question, Senator. As of May

03:222025, there were 3.8 million pending cases. And that was a decrease of more than 235,000

03:31cases over a four month period. My budget request $844 million for Eeyore for immigration to support

03:40the enforcement of the federal immigration laws. This supports 734 immigration judges. Excellent. We got

03:47rid of the bad ones who are lazy and not doing anything. And we have ones in there now who are moving cases.

03:51And we will continue to do that. But more importantly,

03:55the big beautiful bill adds $1.25 billion for immigration. And that's so important because

04:04we have to eliminate that backlog. And our lawyers, everyone's working tirelessly to do that. And as

04:12far as the anti-fraud program, asylum, we're doing everything to revitalize that as well. Thank you so

04:18much. In my remaining few moments, I want to just tell you I was heartened to see your memo that created

04:24the Joint Task Force October 7. Thank you for your commitment to getting justice for those victims,

04:30for addressing the threat that is posed by Hamas, and for combating anti-Semitism. We have seen a rise

04:38in that in the last two years here on our soil and particularly in college campuses. And so when

04:44we're making sure that anti-Semitism, terrorism, and civil rights violations are adjudicated and given

04:51the proper weight of the Department of Justice, I could not be more grateful. Can you talk to us a

05:00little bit about the work that that task force has done, what you're seeing, and any priorities that you

05:05are pursuing to ensure that we eliminate anti-Semitism here in the United States? Yes. Thank you,

05:11Senator. We, it's staff with dedicated prosecutors, agents, analysts, and linguists. And we are working

05:20hand in hand to support, to support all of the efforts. You know, if you're a Jewish college student now,

05:30you should be able to freely wear your star around your necklace and around your neck on a necklace and

05:39walk into college campuses. Absolutely. I had a young man tell me he had to take it off at a university

05:44because he was scared to death. And I was glad he took it off for his safety. You shouldn't have to do

05:50that. You should be proud of your religion and you should be safe to practice your religion in this

05:56country. And we will continue to do everything through the October 7th task force to protect,

06:03to protect everyone in this country. Well, thank you so much, General Bondi,

06:06for your commitment to law and order. I appreciate all you're doing to keep Americans safe. Thank you, Senator.

06:10Senator Fischer.

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