During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Joseph Cuffari spoke about TOPIC.
00:00The committee will now proceed with today's hearing.
00:04I thank the Honorable Joe Kofari for joining us today.
00:12Let me introduce him.
00:16Before I introduce Mr. Kofari, for the record, without objection,
00:21Representative Crane of Arizona is waved on to the subcommittee
00:26for the purpose of questioning the witnesses at today's subcommittee hearing, without objection.
00:34Introducing our witness today, Joseph V. Kofari was confirmed by the United States Senate
00:40as the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General on July 25, 2019.
00:47Dr. Kofari previously served as a policy advisor for Military and Veterans Affairs
00:53for Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona.
00:56And previously for Governor Jan Brewer.
00:59He served more than 40 years in the United States Air Force on active duty in the reserves
01:04and in the Arizona National Guard.
01:08He began his military service after graduating from high school
01:12and enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1977.
01:16He served in a variety of leadership positions with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations
01:25as well as with the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.
01:29He was a commander in the Air Force Office of Inspector Commanders with MacDill Air Force Base in Florida,
01:43England Air Force Base in Louisiana, Naples, Italy, and with North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
01:49In 1989, he received the AFOSI Outstanding Officer of the Year Award.
01:56He also served for more than 20 years in the Department of Justice in a multitude of roles dating back to 1993.
02:05In 2013, he retired from his position as assistant special agent in charge for the Office of the Inspector General in Tucson, Arizona.
02:17In other capacities, he has augmented the United States Senate and the House Intelligence Committee
02:24and the DOJ Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development.
02:28Dr. Kofari earned a Ph.D. in Management in 2002, an M.A. in Management in 1995,
02:38and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management Information Systems in 1984.
02:47And today, he sits before us.
02:50I welcome Inspector General Kofari to testify before us today.
02:59In pursuant to Committee Rule 9-G, the witness will please stand and raise his right hand.
03:07Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth,
03:14and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
03:18Let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative.
03:22Thank you. You may take your seat, Inspector General Kofari.
03:26I recognize the Inspector General for five minutes to summarize his opening statement.
03:34Thank you, Chairman Higgins, Ranking Member Lee, and Ranking Member Garcia.
03:39Members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss my office's recent audit report
03:46entitled, Ice Cannot Effectively Monitor the Locations and Status of All Unaccompanied Alien Children
03:52After Federal Custody.
03:55DHS plays a critical role in administering and enforcing our national immigration laws.
04:01Among the most vulnerable populations DHS encounters are unaccompanied alien children, referred to as UACs.
04:08A UAC is a person as to when they entered the country and were encountered by DHS.
04:17They have no lawful immigration status in the United States.
04:22They have not detained 18 years of age and has no parent or legal guardian in the country available to provide care and physical custody.
04:33Each year, thousands of UACs have entered the United States and are placed into federal custody.
04:38The federal government has a responsibility not just for enforcing immigration laws, but for ensuring the safety and welfare of these at-risk children.
04:48While ICE's immigration enforcement priorities typical weigh the risk an alien poses to the public,
04:54but with UACs, the agency must also ensure a vulnerable child does not become the victim of trafficking or otherwise exploitation.
05:04Our audit revealed significant gaps in how ICE monitors and manages the cases of UACs once they're released from federal custody.
05:13The lack of reliable location data, persistent delays in issuing notices to appear,
05:21and limited interagency cooperation has led to potentially tens of thousands of children effectively disappearing from DHS's oversight.
05:30This is not simply an administrative or paperwork shortcoming.
05:35It's a systemic breakdown that carries real risk to the children themselves,
05:40to the integrity of the immigration system, and to the public trust in our immigration system and law enforcement institutions.
05:49In 2023, my office initiated this audit after two key events.
05:53The first was a change in a 2021 memorandum of agreement between DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services.
06:04Specifically, the parties removed the requirement for HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement
06:10to provide ICE with biographic and biometric information
06:14and all potential sponsors and adult members of that household,
06:20which were then used for vetting.
06:22The second was significant media reporting involving UACs,
06:27which were potentially in dangerous conditions following their placement into a sponsor's care by HHS.
06:36Early into the audit, it became clear that the uncertainty surrounding the whereabouts of such a large number of UACs
06:43warranted a management alert to flag this matter for the Department of Homeland Security,
06:48and Security, as well as Congress, and we issued that in August 2024.
06:54In our final report, which was published in March of this year,
06:57my team found that between fiscal years 2019 and 23,
07:02ICE did not effectively monitor the location and status of all UACs once released or transferred to HHS custody.
07:10In that time, ICE transferred more than 448,000 UACs to HHS, most of whom were released as sponsors.
07:21Of that population, ICE did not issue more than 233,000 notices to appear to the UACs
07:29to generate an assignment in their immigration court.
07:32Our auditors discovered that more than 31,000 releases, addresses, of sponsors were blank, undeliverable, or missing apartment numbers.
07:42We also learned more than 43,000 UACs who were served with notices to appear,
07:49failed to actually appear for their scheduled court date.
07:52As I stated at the beginning of my testimony, ICE's posture for monitoring UACs was insufficient.
07:59The shortcomings leave children, vulnerable exploitation, trafficking, forced labor, or involvement in criminal activities.
08:07Without sustained data sharing coordination at the federal level and staffing and overall policy guidance to DHS,
08:14they will not be able to guarantee that UACs are safeguarded from harm while in the United States.
08:22We made six recommendations to improve ICE's monitoring, all of which they accepted.
08:28In closing, thank you for the opportunity to testify.
