Let me just ask you though,
big picture. You have now been in your position for
three years and let's talk about what's happened during those
three years.
More migrants have crossed the border illegally last year than
ever before.
The asylum cases backlog has more than tripled since 2019.
You yourself have said that more than 85%
of migrants crossing the border illegally are being released into
the US as they await their court dates.
Let's just put impeachment aside for a minute.
Why do you deserve to keep your job?
Mr. Secretary Kristen the the the data that you cite
is a powerful example of why we need legislation.
To fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system
and you take a snapshot of the data over the
past three years,
let's take a look before the last three years.
That case backlog, which is about 3 million cases,
has been growing year over year over year.
The time between when we encounter an individual at the
border and the time of final adjudication of an asylum
case has been years,
five to seven years, four years and years.
I remember when I entered the Department of Homeland Security
in 2009,
we were wrestling with these very same issues.
The system has not been fixed for 30 years.
A bipartisan group of senators have now presented us with
the tools and resources we need.
Bipartisan group. And yet Congress killed it before even reading
it.
No doubt there is gridlock on Congress,
but do you bear responsibility for what is happening at
the border with the president himself has called a crisis.
It certainly is a crisis.
And well, we don't bear responsibility for a broken system,
and we're doing a tremendous amount.
Within that broken system, but fundamentally.
Fundamentally, Congress is the only one who can fix it.