Ranking Member Henry Cuellar Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee’s hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

Thank you, Chairman Amodei, and I would like to join you in welcoming Patrick “PJ” Lechleitner, the Acting Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or as we all know it more commonly “ICE”, who is no stranger to the Members of this subcommittee. 

Welcome, Sir.  We appreciate your years of public service and your willingness to lead this multi-faceted organization.

As the Federal agency charged with the enforcement of violations of customs and immigration laws, the scope of the investigatory and operational work ICE is tasked with has a wide net, including: Combatting the cartels and other transnational criminal organizations; illicit drug trafficking, including deadly fentanyl, human trafficking and smuggling networks, and violations of trade and intellectual property laws that seek to undermine our economic security. 

I look forward to today’s discussion of the President’s FY 2025 Budget Request and how the proposal will better enable ICE to fulfill its critical national security mission and keep our communities safe.

In particular, I am interested in how investments in Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) we secured in fiscal year 2024 and proposed investments in fiscal year 2025 will increase the government-wide efforts to combat the opioid epidemic that is impacting American communities, large and small. 

As we see deaths from synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl, continue to rise combatting the transnational criminal organizations and disrupting the networks responsible for bringing these deadly drugs across our southern border and distributing them into our communities is critical to stemming the flow.

As I mentioned to the Secretary last week, I was pleased we were able to get you the resources you need to increase your detention capacity and maintain important facility oversight to better align with what you are seeing along the border. 

I look forward to hearing more from you on that and how a border supplemental would further enhance that capacity. 

We also had a robust dialogue last week about expedited removal and what legal authorities you may need for those in alternatives to detention to ensure its maximum use to get our non-detained docket to more manageable levels.

There is no shortage of issues to focus on at ICE, such as: addressing challenges with the care and oversight of those in your custody and ensuring meaningful and fair access to counsel; or streamlining and automating processes – especially those that are integrated with the Department of Justice and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). 

I’m sure we’ll hit on some of these issues today, and I look forward to your testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I yield back.