'My Wife Still Has Trouble Talking About It': Witness Tells Chip Roy About Abuse Of Visa Program

In a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) asked Managing Attorney Cody Brown about the U visa program.

Transcript

00:00they totally exploit these. Last question here. With respect to the U-Visa program,

00:06that presents an opportunity for alleged illegal alien crime victims to obtain work

00:10authorization and protection from deportation, correct? Yes. And on January 6, 2022, the DHS OIG

00:16again released a report entitled USCIS U-Visa program is not managed effectively and is

00:21susceptible to fraud, correct? Yes. I could go through a whole litany of things, but I don't

00:26have the time to do that. But I'd like to just acknowledge that problem, that OIG has recognized

00:31another problem. And I'll just finish with this, since I represent the southwest corner

00:35of Austin. Don't blame me for the downtown Austin stuff. But Mr. Brown, I'd like you to be able

00:41to have a minute to expand just a little bit further on how that abuse of the U-Visa program

00:45affected your life because of what we allow to occur and what that did to you and your

00:49family. My wife still has trouble talking about it. And it felt like we were under siege

00:58and it was confusing. We had no idea what was going on. And if I didn't have the background

01:05that I have, a little bit of law, a little bit of Homeland Security, I'm not sure most people

01:12would even know what happened. That's my biggest concern, is that people who are victimized like

01:17this, they don't know. If they don't know that a U-Visa program exists, how will they ever

01:23know to ask for that discovery? We have some prosecutors who we know refuse to disclose

01:29or even certify U-Visas until after a case is concluded. There's something called the Brady

01:35Doctrine. The gentleman's correct. I appreciate the gentleman's testimony and sorry that that

01:41occurred to you. Yield back. Chair recognizes Representative Scanlon.