00:00The gentlelady yields. Mr. Biggs, the gentleman from Arizona, is recognized for question.
00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And so much of what I just heard is untrue.
00:16But what I would say, too, is, you know, when you cast aspersions about the Inspector General Kufari,
00:24I wonder, did you read the report that he submitted for this?
00:28Did you read the report that we're discussing today?
00:31I did.
00:32No, I know you did. I wonder about the people who are telling lies about you, whether they did.
00:38And then they say, we can't believe a thing you said.
00:41Well, everything you said undermines what I think everybody on this committee should be worried about,
00:47and that is this horrible scourge of trying to find these kids who brought in and let in.
00:57You know, just absolutely mind blown by people making these assertions.
01:04But have you been down to the border? I've been down to the border many times.
01:10I know you have, Mr. Kufari.
01:12I have as well.
01:13And have you brought people to the border? Have you interviewed people that are in detention?
01:19Have you interviewed children who come across without parents?
01:24This government under Joe Biden, under Joe Biden, received hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children.
01:34Is that fair to say, Mr. Kufari?
01:37So the number is around 448,000.
01:41And of those, do we know where all those 448,000 unaccompanied children are?
01:49As of the date of the report, we did not.
01:53Like I mentioned, ICE and HHS are now going out in tandem to go and identify where these children are located.
02:01Are you familiar with the case in Orlando, Florida, where 22 children at one time or another were placed with a strip club?
02:10That's a new one.
02:13Yeah.
02:14Well, that happened.
02:15That happened.
02:16And you know what?
02:18That's not the only time that type of thing happened.
02:21Multiple children going to the same address, which turned out to be vacant addresses.
02:25Is that right?
02:26That's correct.
02:27There was one instance where our audit team, and I have some of those senior members here with me today, went physically out to look at addresses.
02:36There was one address where 35 unaccompanied alien children were designated to be, and it was a non-existing address.
02:47Were there records kept about the vetting of the sponsors that were being placed to where these children were being placed under the Biden administration?
02:57The change in the MOU between HHS and DHS in the summer of 21 removed the requirement for DHS to do the vetting.
03:08That vetting then fell on HHS to do, but it was only for the adult sponsor, not for all the individuals in the home.
03:16Are you referring to the Mayorkas 2021 memo that deprioritized unaccompanied children cases, labeling them non-criminal?
03:24I think that he issued that memorandum in the fall of 21.
03:29This is a change in an MOU that happened in the summer of 21.
03:33It predated that.
03:34Okay.
03:35So, Mr. Perry brought up offenses against children.
03:41And it doesn't take much to go to 18 U.S.C. section 2251 and then also the aid and the vet statutes to realize that the policies, when you are labeling what's happening, the unaccompanied children as non-criminal.
04:00If you've ever stood there and watched a three-year-old and a five-year-old come over in a group put together by a coyote with a ten-year-old, not related to those two younger kids, bringing them across, you'd have to say there's some criminal conduct there.
04:16There is absolutely abusive children going on there.
04:20That's what was going on wildly often under the previous administration.
04:25And I'm sorry that you had to endure the B.S. that you've had to today.
04:32Your report is right, and I hope my colleagues read that report and tell me where any of it's untrue.
04:40And I will yield the balance, but I do have some UCs after you're done.
04:46The gentleman yields the balance.
04:48I'd just like to point out to my colleagues that at any given time in American prisons there are 750,000 to 850,000 incarcerated Americans that are parents of minor children.
05:02So when my colleagues discuss our efforts to keep families together during a deportation process, that's important.
05:10The gentleman yields his time.
05:12I have some UCs, sir.
05:13The gentleman has unanimous consent.
05:16This is a letter to Assistant Secretary Contreras from October 24, 2022.
05:22Another one July 15, 2022, to Secretary Mayorkas and Secretary Becerra, signed by many members of Congress.
05:29Another to Secretary Becerra, dated September 10, 2021.
05:35Another one to Secretary Mayorkas, dated March 3, 2021.
05:39Another to ORR and the Administration for Children and Families, dated February 24, 2022.
05:47All asking questions about where these children were and the policies.
05:52Another is an article entitled, Tom Homan, Detailed Search for 300,000 Kids the Biden Administration Lost.
05:58Another said ICE.
05:59This is another one dated from July 14.
06:01ICE finds 10 unaccompanied migrant children at marijuana grow sites.
06:05Another one dated February 14, this year.
06:07ICE officers granted access to unaccompanied minors' database.
06:10Another one from the New York Times, stating,
06:14Alone and Exploited Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S., dated February 25, 2023.
06:20Another one from April 17, 2023, from the New York Times.
06:24U.S. was warned of migrant child labor but, quote, didn't want to hear it, close quote.
06:29Another one from May 8, 2023.
06:31What we know about unaccompanied children arriving at the southern border.
06:36Without objection, so I added into the record.
06:39I didn't say to myself question inviting them to that .
06:43I'm just watching an interview with the problem with that있
06:56justchnitt the verb from you and human.
06:57And this is very well, getting to our people,
