WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Wednesday chaired a hearing on the funding needs of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The President’s topline summary request includes provisions to repair the immigration system, strengthen national disaster preparedness, improve cyber defenses, combat climate change, and prevent domestic terrorism through innovative and community-driven methods.

On the U.S. Department of Homeland Security budget blueprint, Murphy said: “This blueprint shows us how the department's mission is changing and adapting. New investments in cybersecurity are needed in the wake of these unprecedented attacks on our networks, many of which have consumed the news. The Coast Guard, faced with critical anti-terrorism and drug interdiction missions, is need of long overdue capitalization. Natural disasters are becoming more fierce and more frequent, and I would like to applaud both you and the president in your announcement on Monday that $1 billion will be invested through the BRIC program to help communities prepare in advance for hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.”

On immigration, Murphy said: “I understand how important the issue of immigration is to our politics today. I understand it's a lot easier to use the issue of migration as a political cudgel than to see it as a problem that needs to get solved. And today, Republicans often want to take the increased numbers of apprehensions and presentations at the border and blame it on President Biden. That scores political points and it gets you booked on talk shows. But that’s not the truth. And the truth is still important. Migrants, as it turns out, don't really care who the President of the United States is. Why? Because they come here for a complex set of reasons, most of which connected to their life in their home country.

“The bottom line is that President Trump's rhetoric and the cruelty of family separation, it didn't stop people from coming to the United States. Because people are coming here to flee violence and economic desperation in their home country,” Murphy concluded.

Earlier this week, Murphy applauded President Biden’s announcement on Monday that $1 billion will be invested through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program to help communities prepare in advance for hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.  

 A full transcript of Murphy’s opening remarks can be found below:

“Good afternoon I'm going to call this hearing of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security to order.

“As a general reminder, this is going to be a virtual and hybrid hearing. Some of my colleagues are going to be here personally, some are going to be virtually. We’re going to do our best to ensure that everybody has a chance to ask a question when it’s their turn. We also are going to have votes at some point during this hearing, and so our attempt is going to be to keep this hearing running and keep coverage here while we also run down to the floor and vote. And I am glad to be assisted in that effort by the subcommittee’s Ranking Member and prior chairman, Senator Capito.

“Today, we welcome Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and we express to you our limitless gratitude for the work of the 240,000 employees across the department. We recognize the tremendous risks that they have taken and the sacrifices that they have made, especially during the past year and a half. You and I got to visit, along with Senator Capito, some of these heroes at the border earlier this year and I know how humbled you are to be able to lead this group.

“The purpose of today's hearing is to review the department’s FY22 budget request. We eagerly await the arrival of the full request later this week but we’ve got the administration's budget blueprint in front of us and we are going to use that to guide our discussions today. This blueprint shows us how the department's mission is changing and adapting. New investments in cybersecurity are needed in the wake of these unprecedented attacks on our networks, many of which have consumed the news. The Coast Guard, faced with critical anti-terrorism and drug interdiction missions, is in need of long overdue capitalization. Natural disasters are becoming more fierce and more frequent, and I would like to applaud both you and the president in your announcement on Monday that $1 billion will be invested through the BRIC program to help communities prepare in advance for hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.

“And as we heard at a hearing on domestic terrorism before the full committee, homegrown violence still presents the most serious threat to our nation today. And today, this afternoon, our heart breaks again as we read news of another mass shooting, this one in San Jose; eight are dead so far. We don't know the motive, but once again we are reminded that the most serious threat of physical harm to Americans does not come right now from a foreign army or from immigrants, as some would have us believe, but from the increasing tendency toward deadly violence from a small, often heavily armed subset of our fellow Americans.

“Now, as for DHS's work at the border, which I trust is going occupy the bulk of question and answer time here today, let me say a few things before turning it over to Senator Capito. So, I understand how important the issue of immigration is to our politics today. I understand it's a lot easier to use the issue of migration as a political cudgel than to see it as a problem that needs to get solved. And today, Republicans often want to take the increased numbers of apprehensions and presentations at the border and blame it on President Biden. That scores political points and it gets you booked on talk shows. But that’s not the truth. And the truth is still important.

“Migrants, as it turns out, don't really care who the President of the United States is. Why? Because they come here for a complex set of reasons, most of which are connected to life in their home country. Consider this - in 1986, in the middle of Ronald Reagan's presidency, we saw over 1.5 million apprehensions at the southwest border, some of the highest numbers we have ever seen. From 1997 to 2000, we hovered around the same number during the Clinton years. Then, during the Obama years, despite his policies that allowed some undocumented children and families to stay, a policy excoriated by Republicans as an incentive for migration, the numbers of apprehensions at the border were far, far below these numbers of the 80s and 90s, averaging 420,000 each year of his term.

“Then, despite President Trump's supposedly tough immigration policies and the beginning of construction of his border wall, we saw a surge in apprehensions, highest in over a decade, resulting in a $4.6 billion emergency supplemental in 2019. The bottom line is that President Trump's rhetoric and the cruelty of family separation, it didn't stop people from coming to the United States. Because people are coming here to flee violence and economic desperation in their home country. That only thing that stopped that surge happening in 2018 and 2019 was the pandemic, when we shut down the border under public health authorities.

“So, what's happened this year? Well, apprehensions have spiked, but that's because some of those blocks I talked about on children and families entering the country ended. And for good reason. President Trump was turning little kids back around at the border and throwing them back into the arms of traffickers and criminals. That was an inhumane, un-American policy. We should all celebrate its end.

“But also, in November of 2020, Mexico enacted a new law that meant they were be unable to accept many returns from the United States of families with small children. The Trump Administration had ample notice that this law would come into effect, two months, and they seemingly made no plans. So, as a compassionate nation, we chose to house these families. Yes, some of them have been released from custody with a promise to appear before ICE, but so far in this fiscal year, those that have received the notice to appear before ICE have complied over 95% of the time. So this claim that there is some new "catch and release" policy is just not backed up by the data.

“And I have news for my colleagues. The public health restrictions on single adults that remain, barring them from applying for asylum, cannot, by law, remain in effect forever. So when that authority expires - and it will - there is going to be a surge of single adults at the border, created by a ban on asylum cases for a year and a half. That's not anybody’s fault, that's the consequence of the pandemic.

“So, I'm a new Chairman of this committee. I took the job knowing about the politics that surround this issue. But this subcommittee does have a history of bipartisanship. Not every year can we find a way to a budget, but many years, even when politics were really hot on this issue, thanks in large part to then-Chairwoman Capito, this committee did find that path. And so I hope that we get to have a meaningful discussion today about the border and the many other challenges that are facing the department and I look forward to being able to work across the aisle to try to find bipartisan solutions, at least within our budget authority, to the challenges that you face. 

“Thank you for appearing before us today Secretary Mayorkas and I will now turn it over to the Ranking Member, Senator Capito, for opening remarks.”

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