Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

New thread starting here - technical difficulties with the other.
Hice says we dont condemn teachers for overcrowded classes or illnesses in overcrowded classrooms. We shouldn't condemn CBP agents for the same.

This argument is a red herring.

Nagda says Flores settlement agreement provides baseline care and has existed for over 20 years. Anti-trafficking laws are over 10 years law. This is the only way US govt treats immigrant children differently.

Losing these 2 pieces of protection is extraordinary, Nagda says.
DHS own advisory committee, which Nagda sat on 2015-16, concluded children should never be held in detention solely for immigration enforcement.

Homan talks over Nagda and says he wants to address her stmt on Flores.
Raskin stops him for time.
Homan claimed 90% of mothers and children at Dilley were ordered deported Mukherjee says that's just not true. They weren't ordered deported until lawyers like her showed up

Once they started that program, every mother and child was granted asylum. Or another form of immigration relief. This shows how important access to counsel is for detained immigrant children and families, she says.

Homan disagrees again, says the 90% number is true because most immigrants dont get relief in the immigration court. Once released, they're in the wind, he claims.

Homan says the conditions were bad because supplemental funding was late.
"No one wants a child to be locked up in a border patrol facility," he adds.
Rep Bob Gibbs says the blame should go to Congress, because of failure to act.

Homan on Flores: when 9th circuit decided to limit it to 20 days - they did that knowing it takes 40-45 days to see a judge. "They knew it was going to happen. I said it was going to happen but I was called a fear-monger." If you put in 20 days, you'll see a surge, he argues.

Rep Gerry Connolly, D-Va now up and he is yelling.
"I never thought as an American, I would hear the testimony I heard today both from our colleagues who visited the border and 3 of the witnesses at the table now" (One assumes he's excluding Homan here)

"This not the way of dealing with the stranger who comes and seeks succor. You can talk all you want about how poor border patrol is overwhelmed. That makes no excuse for how we are treating children," he says, hands waving, voice loud. He's angry.

"If there is one basic thing that should unite us as Dems/Republicans, is how we treat our children," Connolly said.

"I thought it was a novel-reading from Charles Dickens," he says of testimony about children without soap, in filth. Conditions none would ever countenance on their own children.

"The rationalization is inexcusable. Is there no limit to what you'll justify when it comes to the treatment of our fellow human beings? Do you have no shame that its all done in the shadow of the American flag?"

"As an American I have a right to protest because its being done in my name as an American and I disagree," Connolly said.

Costello tells Connolly some agents were handling children with care, but Connolly says, there may be some, but what we heard earlier is directly contrary to that.

Wow.

Homan just spoke over Connolly and Connolly stopped him said you're not talking on my time. And Homan says, sarcastically, to him "Oh, of course not. This is ridiculous."
Connolly points at him, loudly says: You're not at the border. This is my time."

Mukherjee says Homan's claims need to be fact-checked. The federal court has found their claims are specious when it comes to separation.

Homan says the secret is out - if you bring a child here, you won't be detained. And if they get a final order of removal they won't leave.

Mukherjee says data from US govt is very clear. When fams are represented by counsel they show up for hearings 99 percent of the time. When we had the case mgmt system, that the Trump admin rescinded, fams showed up 99% of time.

Republican Rep Kelly Armstrong asks what happens on Day 21, after the limit to detain has passed. Homan says they go up to 40 days.
Armstrong again beating the drum for more funding, says this is how courts will work faster, more efficiently, deploy resources.

Again, I'd like one lawmaker, just one, to ask what CBP thinks the magic $ amount is because of all poured in so far, - here we are.

Nagda again talking about the old immigration family case mgmt program. They could be processed, expedited, live in community, then come to court for their hearing. 99% of them did, she says.

Ann Maxwell of HHS says is already in process of expanding its capacity thanks to appropriations made this year.

Rep James Comer (@KYComer ) takes issue with @RashidaTlaib saying people shouldn't be called "illegal." Comer says no, if you're here in the country illegally, "you're an illegal."

Homan says he's "the only one in the room who understands because he's worn the green uniform." He's the only one that has stood above the body of a little boy who had suffocated in his father's arms. He says when ppl say abolish ICE, it entices people to come.

The more we entice ppl to make this journey, more women will be raped, more children will die, he says. "It's like no one is listening. Sir we can fix this," he says to Comer. "If you dont like what CBP/ICE is doing, then do your job."

Rep Katie Hill, D-TX, says, Homan's not the only one. Her family has roots in CBP/ICE. Her questions arent about attacking the agency, she argues there's a crisis, we need accountability.

We have to protect ppl who are being harmed by traffickers, but there are policies in place here in the US that go against our American values, and one of them is family separation..

Hill notes that Homan has been invited back to the Trump admin to be a border czar. He says he hasn't decided on that yet. She asks if he's a Fox News contributor, he concedes, he is.
He listed a key achievement online, she notes, he removed 369k aliens from the US in his career.

Hill says, did you list that?
He says, yeah, probably.

Mukherjee holds up emails that she says feature Homan on a thread, upholding family separations after they were meant to end.
He's in the middle of ongoing litigation, so his comments to Hill were very limited.

Rep Jim Jordan back up, says Homan is only upholding laws he's sworn to protect when director of ICE.

Jordan is saying the flow of immigrants would stop if we built a border wall.
Homan: every place you build a border barrier, it stops the flow.
Counter argument: washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…

Rep Robin Kelly says she's frustrated when Homan says that all dems want to abolish ICE; she does not, she wants to see it improved. She knows ppl who are R and D who feel, in general Congress needs to step up.

She wants to focus on Homestead, Fla. facility. Mukherjee interviewed children there, asks her to describe what her concerns are.
She says: its overflowing. It can handle 1,000. They're about to reach 3K.

They found a 14 yo boy who was legally blind, weight 66lbs, 4'9" tall, indigenous language speaker. He was detained there in Homestead for 120 days, Mukherjee said.

She req'd his full file. There were multiple instances where he had been assaulted, incl. punched by other children in groin. She called his father because she was worried he didnt have resources to reunite.

But the father was and had been trying to reunite, he was desperate to get back together. Mukherjee says she had to threaten to sue Homestead to get him out of there.

Rep Tlaib is now up - not testifying as a panelist, but now questioning as lawmaker. She's submitted a July 17 2018 letter into the record from doctors that blew the whistle about immigrant children in danger, about to die in custody. They said no one at DHS OIG ever responded.

Costello says we take whistleblower concerns extremely seriously but she's not familiar with this issue. Promises to get back and see what happened here.

Tlaib is talking about something she said earlier today when agents told her: stop sending money, its not working. I'm not a medical care worker, i'm not trained for this. One agent said the sep policy isn't working.

Tlaib says we talk about dehumanization of the children, but we understand there's stress for agents too. Says she can feel the stress from Homan. Says he hesitated to shake her hand. She paused, wondered why he wouldn't shake her hand after she told the truth about what she saw.

She says, I'm not blaming the agents, I'm blaming the broken system.
She says she's concerned about the trauma created for a generation. She says she knows Homan can't talk about it, but she says, she agrees with the agent who said family sep isn't work.

"We can agree the family separation policy must stop. I don't want an agent to kill themselves. I don't want a tearful agent at top level, saying put me at the border because that's where I belong, not here." - Tlaib

.@AOC found an April 2018 memo that directed pursuit of prosecution of all amenable adults, including those presenting as a family unit. Memorandum for secy Nielsen, April 23, 2018.
It's from Homan. He signed it.
Homan says he'll have to see it.
She says she's happy to show.

He provided the recommendation to pursue family sep, AOC says.
Homan says, he gave Nielsen many recommendations to save lives. Concedes he signs it.
AOC: but the recommendation here included family separation
Homan: I recc'd zero tolerance.

AOC: Zero tolerance was the policy that separated children a the border. She says with all due respect, legal asylees are not committing any crime.
Homan says if you want to seek asylum, go through legal port of entry.

.@AyannaPressley back up.
On Wed. we heard from Yazmin Juarez. Background: courthousenews.com/immigrant-mom-…
Today, Pressley says, she wants to focus on saving a life.

In Homan's expert view, how can he advise her to elevate the case of those immigrants who are not rec'ing proper care? Like a woman who didn't receive care in detention and now out, has lost consciousness and her family is desperate.

Homan is taking issue with Pressley bringing up Yazmin Juarez's baby dying. She brought it up because she's putting in context of what horrible things can happen and how they can move forward to stop this in the future.
This is something Juarez asked for during her hearing, btw

He says she isn't bringing up factual information. Mariee died out of custody, he says. "Context, context, context," he says.

Then after some back and forth, Homan says he will make a phone call to help the woman who lost consciousness. Cummings tells him, I'm not knocking you, we both want to help someone who is dying.

Mukherjee says children reported to her that officers pushed children who had to use the bathroom, stopped them from using the toilet. 3 children reported that a kid was grabbed by the back of neck and was pulled out of his cage

Other children reported guards yelled at them and they were terrified of guards. So much so, that they couldnt even bring themselves for more food. That said, she also heard about one guard who was kind and gave little ones extra chocolate pudding when he was able to.

I have to take a short break from live-tweeting. You can continue to watch the hearing live here: c-span.org/video/?462505-…