Hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee - the Nomination of Julie L. Myers

Statement

HEARING OF THE SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: THE NOMINATION OF JULIE L. MYERS TO CONTINUE AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE), DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I-CT)
WITNESS: JULIE MYERS, NOMINEE

SEN. LIEBERMAN: (Sounds gavel.) The hearing will come to order.

I'm going to start, because I know Senator Collins is on her way. I thank everybody for their patience as the Senate completed its votes.

Ms. Myers, welcome to this hearing on your nomination to continue as assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- ICE -- at the Department of Homeland Security.

As you have experienced firsthand, this committee subjects nominees who come before it to rigorous scrutiny. During your nomination hearing in 2005, several members of the committee, including myself, raised concerns about whether you had sufficient experience and managerial ability to lead an agency such as ICE, a big, complicated, tough agency. I ultimately voted, respectfully, against your nomination in the committee because of those concerns.

As you know, the Senate never acted on the nomination, but the president did give you a recess appointment. So you have now been assistant secretary at ICE for more than a year and a half, and the relevant criterion then now becomes whether you have been doing a good enough job running this important agency to have overcome, speaking for myself, my earlier concerns.

All things considered, based on your performance -- and, I will say, on more than 20 interviews conducted by members of my staff, of people both inside and outside of ICE and the government who have worked with you -- I believe that you have what it takes to get this job done, and therefore will vote to confirm your nomination.

I've been impressed by your knowledge of the complicated issues facing ICE. You have provided thoughtful answers to our committee's policy questions on a range of topics. Some of those staff interviews that I referred to were done with people who have worked within the system during your tenure at ICE and are therefore close to you, including senior ICE managers, ICE field agents, advocacy groups from outside of the government, GAO officials, and representatives of the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office.

The reviews of your work from these people who are closest to it have been positive. People we have spoken to have described you as a talented executive with a strong work ethic and very good management abilities. You have recruited, I note, and empowered experienced and talented senior managers. You've clearly improved ICE's financial situation, bringing on a permanent chief financial officer reaching out to ICE auditors and helping engineer a dramatic financial turnaround.

So I want to assure you that when we greeted each other before the hearing and I said you looked so much older and wiser --

MS. MYERS: (Laughs/laughter.)

SEN. LIEBERMAN: -- I only meant half of that.

Still, ICE remains an agency with challenges and with troubles. As the committee that originated the legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security, we have a stake in seeing ICE realize its full potential, and we want to work with you to make sure that happens and that it happens as soon as possible.

So I want to take just a moment to focus on a few of the agency's ongoing challenges. Created through an internal reorganization after DHS itself was established, ICE was forced to integrate the employees, missions and cultures of core customs programs at the Department of Treasury and immigration programs at the INS. While various agreements have been drafted to delineate responsibilities between Customs and Border Protection, CBP, and ICE, additional work is needed, we conclude, to ensure proper communication and improved intelligence and information sharing between the two agencies.

Another problem is employee morale, which, according to surveys we've seen, remains low. The Partnership for Public Service and American University, in a survey of the best places to work in the federal government, unfortunately ranked ICE in the bottom 10, out of 222 federal agencies and subagencies rated. ICE ranked 213th on strategic management and 218th on performance-based rewards and advancement. These ratings are based on candid employee surveys. I understand that they may reflect in part the dissonance associated with the merger of the component agencies, and some of the unhappiness certainly predates yourself. But it remains a concern, a real concern, to the committee.

I'm also troubled about the effect ICE's plan to restructure the Federal Protective Service and dramatically cut law enforcement positions will have on the security of federal employees and buildings, and I'd like to hear from you about that.

ICE's responsibility for apprehending, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants is a very important mission. With approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country, but only 27,500 detention beds, there's a real necessity to reserve those beds for -- I think, for those who pose the greatest risk to the broader American community. For many of the others, who must wait (sic) a hearing before an immigration judge, we've got a problem.

And I do believe that we've got to figure out ways to use supervised release programs, or other alternatives to detention, so those 27,500 beds are really being used for those who pose the greatest risk to the community and, of course, the greatest risk of whatever flight means in that case.

We have a responsibility of course according to our national values to treat those we detain humanely. And there are some concerns there based on the record. Three people recently died while in immigration custody, within weeks of each other, bringing the total number of deaths at ICE custody facilities since 2004 to 65. This is a troubling record, which raises questions, and I'd like to hear more about your understanding of how that number was -- occurred and what you're doing to improve it.

When you appeared before this committee in 2005, I also expressed my concern about the treatment of asylum seekers, those coming here -- not sneaking across the border but literally coming to the border, saying that they are -- that they have escaped prosecution or persecution of one kind or another, and they are seeking asylum in the United States of America. The Commission on International Religious Freedom, concerned about the number of asylum seekers who are seeking entrance into the United States because they have been -- they contend that they have been punished, abused because of their religious faith, had reported that they are held in harsh maximum-security facilities along with criminals and are sometimes subject to mistreatment or arbitrary punishments, including excessive use of solitary confinement. In February of this year, the commission reported that most of its recommendations had not been implemented yet, two years later, giving ICE an overall grade of D for its progress.

Because of my dissatisfaction on this matter, I introduced an amendment to the overall immigration reform bill, which was considered by the Senate earlier in the year, to improve the treatment of asylum seekers, a very unique category of people seeking to enter into the United States. After negotiating with the Department of Homeland Security, we did reach a compromise that was accepted by the full Senate by unanimous consent as an amendment to the comprehensive immigration reform bill. Unfortunately as we all know the bill did not move forward in Congress.

But I've recently spoken with Secretary Chertoff about implementing the reforms we negotiated, and he did agree with me to work with the committee to do so as much as possible. Administratively I also indicated to him that I would consider legislation to implement reforms that cannot be addressed administratively. Ms. Myers, many of the commission's recommendations in this regard related to policy and programs under ICE's jurisdiction. And I'm going to ask you to do all you can to support implementing the reforms that were embodied in the compromise that we negotiated with the department.

ICE is a vitally important agency with a daunting combination of missions and problems. The problems, I repeat, clearly predate your tenure at ICE. They are not of your making, but of course, if confirmed now, you will have the ability to solve many of them. I appreciate the efforts that you've made in the time you've been in there to address some of those problems. I know that you agree that you and we have a lot more to do before we can have any sense of satisfaction that we're where we want to be. I believe that, given the limited time remaining in this administration and given your demonstrated ability and commitment and performance on the job, you have earned the right to continue leading this agency and hopefully to solve at least some of the problems that I've mentioned.

I thank you for your service. I look forward to your testimony.

Senator Collins.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Senator Collins.

Secretary Myers has filed responses to a biographical and financial questionnaire, answered pre-hearing questions submitted by the committee, and had her financial statements reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics.

Without objection, this information will be made a part of the hearing record, with the exception of the financial data, which are on file and available for public inspection in the committee offices.

Our committee rules require that all witnesses at nomination hearings give their testimony under oath. So, Ms. Myers, I'd ask you to please stand and raise your right hand.

Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give to the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

MS. MYERS: Yes.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thank you. Please be seated.

Ms. Myers, the committee would welcome your opening statement at this time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

In conclusion, I want to thank this committee for its consideration of my nomination. If confirmed, I look forward to working closely with you to keep Americans -- to keep America safer. Thank you. And I would ask that my full statement be included in the record.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Without objection, so ordered. Thank you for an excellent opening statement.

I want to begin by asking the questions that are standard for all nominees. First, is there anything you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office for which you've been nominated?

MS. MYERS: No.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Do you know of anything personal or otherwise that would in any way prevent you from fully and honorably discharging the responsibilities of the office to which you've been nominated?

MS. MYERS: No, I do not, Senator.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Do you agree without reservation to respond to any reasonable summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of Congress if you are confirmed?

MS. MYERS: Yes, I do, Chairman.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thank you. And now we'll begin with the first round of questions of six minutes for each member. Let me begin with a matter that I mentioned about asylum seekers and the report of the Commission on International Religious Freedom. It's my understanding that Secretary Chertoff has asked department officials to consider how the reforms that we had agreed to around the immigration bill can be implemented administratively. Do you know at this point what your role will be in that process?

MS. MYERS: I understand that I will work with the department, provide leadership on the areas where we're the lead and provide ICE's view on areas where CIS may be the lead. I would mention that we thought there were many valuable in the CIRF report, and one thing that the progress report or report card failed to take into account were the steps that ICE had taken, and that was because at that time ICE had not yet met with the members of the commission.

We did have the chance to then meet with them and talk about the steps that we're taking.

In particular, the agency expects to very shortly announce a nationwide parole policy for these asylum seekers. One thing that I thought was valuable and true in the CIRF report was their concern about parole rates being radically different throughout the country. And so we worked on something that would standardize that, consistent with the commission's recommendations.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Take a minute, for the record, to describe what parole means in this case.

MS. MYERS: In this case, we're talking about individuals who have been granted credible fear by Citizenship and Immigration Services, but are still going through the asylum process. And so for those individuals, the agency then determines whether or not detention is appropriate --

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Right.

MS. MYERS: -- or whether or not bond or something -- some other form of release is appropriate.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Right.

MS. MYERS: One thing that the commission's report had noted: that there were some pockets of the country where almost all of these asylum seekers were detained and some pockets of the country where almost all the asylum seekers were released. And I thought that the commission's report raised a valuable point about looking at why that is. And when we looked as agency, we thought we could do a better job in really standardizing what the guidance would be, to make sure that we apply our policies and procedures equally across the United States.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: That's great news. So you intend soon to implement that -- those uniform standards administratively?

MS. MYERS: That's right. We're just -- we're going through a final review by the lawyers.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Right.

MS. MYERS: And I anticipate that that will be out very, very shortly.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: And again, I want to stress what you said: that these are people who come to our borders, say that they have been persecuted for religious or political reasons, and some administrative process has determined that there is some credibility to their fear. They're still going through the process, so I presume the intention of the uniform standards is to allow most of those to not have to be incarcerated while they're awaiting judgment, unless there's some good reason to do so.

MS. MYERS: Chairman, the intention of the standards is to make sure that we closely identify the factors that make detention appropriate or not appropriate in a particular case. Of course many of the individuals who are granted credible fear ultimately do not obtain asylum.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Correct. Understood.

MS. MYERS: But I do believe that this parole policy is something that's consistent with the commission's recommendations, and it'll be something that you and your staff will find favorable.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Good. Excellent.

Let me go to a very different subject, which is the studies of employee morale, which generally at DHS have been low. And I mentioned the one that particularly was not good for ICE. And I want to know what your reaction is to those and what you intend to do to try to improve the employee morale.

MS. MYERS: Chairman, we took very seriously the findings in that review and also in an internal review that we conducted on our own. We are a new agency, and so developing a cohesive ICE culture has been a challenge. I believe we have made substantial progress. I believe that's been noted by the unions that represent most of the ICE employees, as well as by many of the officials that you have talked to.

During my tenure I've taken a number of steps to try to improve employee morale. The first has been to get a sense of what the needs are in the field. I formed an assistant secretary advisory group that looked to leaders all throughout the country and talked to them. What are the core concerns they have? What things do they think need to be improved and changed in order to make ICE an agency of excellence? We want -- if someone wants into come to law enforcement, we want them to come to ICE and stay at ICE throughout their career. And so I think hearing from the field in all our different disciplines has been a very helpful thing for that.

The other thing that really came up time and time again is that the management side of ICE was not strong when it was formed and that agents and officers in the field really felt a lack from unified agency policies and frankly from cohesive leadership, not only in acquisitions but in CFO, IT and the like. So we really strengthened that side in order to give the agents a sense of unified policies and also to give them the management support that they need.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I've got a little time left, so -- but I've got a big question. So you can give a short answer. I was troubled to read in the GAO's recent review of the department's overall progress that among the areas that GAO listed as still unachieved is the effort to implement effective visa security measures.

And I wanted to ask you how you respond to GAO's assessment that ICE has failed to successfully expand the Visa Security Program and is therefore not meeting its mission to enhance security of the visa issuance process.

MS. MYERS: Mr. Chairman, I would tell you that the expansion of the Visa Security Units has been a challenge of the agency since the beginning of its creation. And in part over the past 18 months, I think we've realized as an agency that we needed kind of broader support within the inner agency and within the administration in order to really get out to the highest risk visa issuing posts.

Over the past year we've worked with the Department of State, with the White House and others to really gain the support of expanding the Visa Security Program and getting the ambassadors to agree and see that they add value. And to be frank in the beginning of the program that's been a challenge. You know, the ambassadors are very tight for space and they did not see how adding the Visa Security Units would really add value to their embassies.

I think we've been able to show them how having these units in place really helps us identify threats that we didn't know were threats and kind of get ahead of the curve before these individuals come into our borders. But I think that's due in great part to the support of the departments -- the Department of State and now the White House.

VSU has issued a five-year plan which, if we receive funding from Congress to do this, will allow us to cover 75 percent of the high risk posts within five years. That's our goal, that's what we're seeking to do and we're confident that when GAO comes to look at this again, they'll see substantial progress.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: What percent are we at now would you say?

MS. MYERS: I think we are at less than 25 percent.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah, see.

MS. MYERS: We're at eight countries at this point.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: We've got a ways to go.

How much money is involved -- do you know offhand to support this expansion?

MS. MYERS: This would be at least over $100 million. I can get you the precise numbers.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. Well, it's real important to do -- an important investment in security. Thanks very much.

MS. MYERS: Thank you.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Senator Collins.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thanks, Senator Tester.

That completes the first round. We'll go to a second round. I want to say to you and members of the committee that I -- that I have questions, but I'm going to submit them for the record because I have a plane to catch as you probably know. (Laughter.) The Jewish holiday begins tonight in which we begin a process of asking forgiveness from God for any of our shortcomings. If I don't get on that plane, I'll have to ask forgiveness from my wife. (Laughter.) And, you know, so -- Senator Akaka will chair, and I think thank you very much. We'll attempt to move your nomination as quickly as we can.

Look, the obvious thing to say is that you've impressed all of us over the time you've been in office. But the other obvious thing, that you know and live with every day, is that you are on top of an organization that is critically important to the people of this country. I mean, it is not just -- it is obviously critically important, insofar as there are elements of law and justice here that we're all about, but you are touching both matters of fundamental national and personal security, but also on questions of immigration -- very passionately-felt concerns.

And, therefore, the devotion and the urgency with which you continue to do your work is really very important to our country -- more than, really, most people, including some, frankly, who come before us for consideration for offices that some might consider more prominent or more important. You're -- you have awesome responsibilities. I thank you for the good job you've done and I look forward to working --

MS. MYERS: Thank you.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: -- with you in the next year and a half.

Senator McCaskill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source