At today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) had a shocking clash with Alex Nowrasteh, Vice President for Economic and Social Policy Studies at the CATO Institute.
00:00Thank you, Chairman. I thank the chair for calling this hearing.
00:04You know, Mr. Nalrester, I assume that when you say you'd like a future with more Americans,
00:10that that includes Jocelyn Nungere?
00:12Do you know Jocelyn Nungere? Have you talked to her mother, Alexis?
00:15I know of her. She was murdered by an illegal immigrant in Houston.
00:20People who were released into this country with a notice to appear in court did not appear
00:23and then violently killed a young woman and is now dead, and her mother lost her.
00:28She's one of dozens, hundreds, thousands of examples of Americans who are dead
00:32because of policies that were advocated for by the Biden administration
00:36and people parading around as libertarians. Ms. Vaughn.
00:39Parading around as libertarians? What does that mean?
00:41It means exactly what it means, Mr. Nalrester, and it's my time, not yours.
00:44That's a personal offense, Mr. Nalrester, and I take exception to that.
00:47I don't have any time to listen to libertarian classroom that is killing Americans
00:52because that's what you're doing, and you're hiding behind a brain that is resulting in the death of Americans.
00:57That's a heck of a thing to say to somebody, sir.
00:59That is totally false, and I take exception to that.
01:01It's true, and everybody in America knows it.
01:02I have not killed anybody, sir, and that is really exceptional.
01:04Ms. Vaughn.
01:05But you go talk to Alexa Nungere and talk about her daughter no longer being with us.
01:09Beneath you as an individual to say that to somebody, sir.
01:11Ms. Vaughn, on June 25th, 2024, DHS Office of Inspector General released a report entitled
01:16CBP has limited information to assess, interview, waived non-immigrant visa holders.
01:21Are you familiar with that report?
01:22Yes.
01:23In that report, is it not true?
01:25It says here that the report found the Biden administration expanded a COVID-era policy of waiving visa applicant interviews
01:32and fingerprint collecting to reduce visa backlogs and staffing shortages, which worsened at the peak of the pandemic.
01:38Is that correct?
01:39Yes.
01:40Biden took this COVID-era policy to admit over 7 million foreign nationals from across the globe into the United States.
01:45Does that sound correct?
01:47Well, yeah, the numbers in later years are more like 9 million a year.
01:52It's certainly significant numbers of people, millions, without having DHS interview them.
01:58Yes.
01:59DHS failed to fingerprint an unknown number of visas applicants during the 2020 to 2023 period, correct?
02:06Yes, and actually part of that responsibility is on the State Department as well.
02:10Do you find this discovery particularly troubling?
02:13Absolutely.
02:14You know, it underscores how much the Biden administration and others before it emphasized swiftness in processing,
02:26just moving these applications through, getting to yes, rubber stamping approvals over making the correct decision.
02:33And it emphasizes that vetting is not just a matter of looking people up in a database that may or may not have relevant information to the decision.
02:43Interviews are a way for them to establish the credibility of the applicant and whether they actually qualify for the visa.
02:50I want to ask you about the visa waiver program as well.
02:52It ostensibly does not require an alien to possess a visa to enter the country, correct?
02:57Correct.
02:58And it's a gaping vulnerability in our legal immigration system, right?
03:02Inherently, yes.
03:03So with respect to that, are you familiar with the South American theft groups, particularly with Chile, who commit burglary tourism through the visa waiver program?
03:13I've heard a lot about them from law enforcement agents.
03:15For a time, Chile, a VWP program, refused to provide U.S. authorities the required background information on its national seeking entry into the United States despite entering a security shared agreement in 2013.
03:25Are you familiar with that?
03:26Yes.
03:27I sent a letter to DHS Secretary Noem and State Department Secretary Rubio to alert them to Chile's abuse.
03:34I'd like to insert that into the record without objection.
03:36Without objection.
03:37And DHS informed my office that Chile is now apparently complying with the agreed upon security agreements.
03:42However, because so many Chilean criminals have established theft rings across the nation thanks to the VWP, these theft groups have recruited Chilean nationals with no criminal record to enter the U.S. through the VWP to commit burglary tourism.
03:53Are you familiar with that extension?
03:55Yes.
03:56Yes.
03:57And it's a real problem.
03:58And this is the kind of thing that multiplies when we have a lack of seriousness on these issues, correct?
04:02Correct.
04:03And it exists with Irish contractors in the Boston area as well.
04:06They totally exploit these people.
04:08Last question here.
04:09With respect to the U visa program, that presents an opportunity for alleged illegal alien crime victims to obtain work authorization and protection from deportation, correct?
04:18Yes.
04:19And on January 6, 2022, the DHS OIG again released a report entitled USCIS U visa program is not managed effectively and is susceptible to fraud, correct?
04:29Yes.
04:30I could go through a whole litany of things, but I don't have the time to do that.
04:33But I'd like to just acknowledge that problem, that OIG has recognized another problem.
04:38And I'll just finish with this since I represent the southwest corner of Austin.
04:42Don't blame me for the downtown Austin stuff.
04:44But, Mr. Brown, I'd like you to be able to have a minute to expand just a little bit further on how that abuse of the U visa program affected your life because of what we allow to occur and what that did to you and your family.
04:56My wife still has trouble talking about it and it felt like we were under siege and it was confusing.
05:07We had no idea what was going on.
05:09And if I didn't have the background that I have, a little bit of law, a little bit of homeland security, I'm not sure most people would even know what happened.
05:19That's my biggest concern is that people who are victimized like this, they don't know.
05:25If they don't know that a U visa program exists, how will they ever know to ask for that discovery?
05:30Time's expired.
05:31We have some prosecutors who we know refuse to disclose or even certify U visas until after a case is concluded.
05:39The gentleman's time's expired.
05:40There's something called the Brady Doctrine.
05:42The gentleman's correct.
05:44I appreciate the gentleman's testimony and sorry that that occurred to you.
