we are united. ukraine, america and the entire free world. [applause] >> c-span. powered by cable. >> u.s. homeland security secretary all hundred mayorkas spoke about immigration and border security at an event hosted by the economic club of washington, d.c.

[indiscernible conversations] >> ok. can i have your attention please? please? have con have you conversation with the secretary of homeland security. thank you. >> thank you. >> why don't we dig right into it. it? why did you want to leave a prosperous law firm job to be the secretary of homeland security? have you had any second thoughts? >> no second thoughts. what a privilege it is to leave a place one loves to go to a

place one loves. the way i bridge the two worlds is by borrowing and stealing talent. so jamie is the chair, , culture of her homeland security advisory council in the department of homeland sec adjustable matthew for our from a law firm to join us. >> ok. let me talk about the elephant in the room. you were the second secretary in the history of our country to be impeached. what was it like living through that impeachment process and is it finally over now? >> to my knowledge it is over. quite frankly, i have said publicly a number of times that i did not allow it to distract me. distract me. that was actually sincere. i focus intensely on my work

throughout -- intently. on, any week where it was an issue of greater prominence in the light of the department. i might've spent 20 minutes on it. i really just focus a work. it it had its impact on loved ones. >> as will rogers once said, paraphrasing, the country is never safe as long as the house is in session come right? so you never know. it may never come back, right? >> one would hope not. >> okay. let's talk about the border. it appears there are a lot of people come in over the border. this is one of the subjects that people wanted to beat you, some people want to be impeached over. it's a really weird getting more people come in over the border illegally or is it just the appearance of the? >> no, no. the number of encounters at the southern border is very high but it's very, very important,

number one, to conceptualize it, and a virtue, to explain it. from a context perspective the world is saying the greatest level of displacement since a leaked world war ii. i think there are, a recent report was there 73 million displaced people and the united states. so the challenge of migration is not exclusive to the southern border, nor to the western hemisphere. it is global. when i speak to partners across the atlantic, it's the first issue that they raise, the first challenge -- >> what is the reason for that? >> well, one has the customary recent of displacement, violence, insecurity, poverty, corruption, authoritarian regimes. now increasingly extreme weather events that propel people to leave. why are we experiencing what we are?

it is for those very reasons why people leave their countries of origin. we also, remember in our hemisphere, we overcame covid more rapidly than any other country. we had any post covid world 11 million jobs to fill. we are a country of choice as a destination. and one takes those two forces and then one considers the fact of having immigration system that is broken fundamentally, and we have a level of encounter that we do. when we speak of a broken system, let me just capture the as succinctly as i can. the average time it between encounter and the point of final adjudication of an asylum claim is seven plus years. approximately 70% of the people

need an essential threshold for a son, the cradle fair standard, about 70% qualify. so they stay for 7+ years and the ultimate adjudication, about 20% qualify. that's quite a disparity of people in the meantime leave, are able to stay. sometimes have children, u.s. citizen children, attend our schools, attended our places of worship but integrate -- >> i understand but why wasn't so we coming in illegally always say they're seeking political asylum? base on what you just said there likely to be here for seven years. why not just say i'm not smuggling drugs. i'm just a political asylum seeker? >> separate drug smuggling for migration. the fact of the matter is that we have an extraordinary number of people claiming asylum, and a greatly reduced number of people

qualifying for it. the reality is that people do claim asylum when, in fact, they are fleeing poverty, generalized violence, and that does not an asylum case make but the initial threshold for an asylum case is low and purposely low, and one of the things the bipartisan legislation would have done is would've raised the bar. >> so in our country at if sy seeks political asylum and illegitimately need political asylum, is that our love of the automotive and get it if they're legitimate needs? there's no quotas or anything on him the people we can except for political asylum? >> there is no quota on the asylum population. in one just has to persuade a judge. >> you have been homeland security secretary under president biden from the beginning of his administration. so hurry people would use since that time have come over the

border, the southern border, let's illegally seeking asylum, bringing drugs from whatever they're doing? >> i do want to differentiate because we are in a political environment that demonizes individuals encountered at the border, and there's a vulnerability to painting with a broad brush people who are fleeing and coming to the united states. so i want to separate, and i will be incessant in this, separate drug smugglers from individuals seeking asylum or even if they don't have a basis to stay in the united states, seeking a better life. and so the number of encounters have been very well published this past year, this past month we had about 134,000 encounters. >> but let's say the beginning of the administration. is it millions of people? >> its several million people. >> the perception is why i get

some republicans on the house side perhaps many others that were people up and coming in under president biden and under president trump is that you are not? >> that is, that is true. now, in 2019 there was almost 100% increase in the number of encounters at the southern border over 2018. the situation, the hemisphere was propelled people to leave their country. 2020 was at time of tremendous suppressed migration threat thrt the hemisphere and around the world because of the covid-19. >> people come over the southern port illegal what percentage are really drug smugglers? >> the majority of the fentanyl, over 90% of the fentanyl smuggled into this country is smuggled in passenger vehicles and commercial trucks traveling

through our ports of entry. >> so it's not people carry on the body? >> it is not people carrying it on there but what about people who are hired who want to get a better life, they hire people for money to get them across the border? is that a big problem as a? >> so let me go back and make one other point about the ports of entry. the majority of people arrested seeking to smuggle fentanyl into the country through commercial trucks and passenger vehicles are united states citizens. >> what to do with them? >> well, they are arrested for drug smugglers and under title 21 of the united states code they are prosecuted. so with respect to your question about, you know, people coming across the border, what we need, what we need fundamentally is a reformed system, a legislatively reformed system.

we are in 2024 the world has changed. our immigration system last changed in 1996. when a different -- we are in a different logo. >> and once legislation was legd i think innocent bipartisan legislation, and he got stalled let's say in the house. what that have solved our problem had it passed? >> it would've been a transformative change in managing the number of people we encounter. >> what was the main thing that would've been in that law that we don't have now at you would've liked to have? >> so we would've taken the seven plus year time period between the time of encounter and final adjudication and reduced it to a hospital as 90 days. and that changes and intending migrant risk risktakers. they know they can stay for multiple years and work and make more money than they can and

safety so than in the country of origin, they will decide to make that journey. if they understand that they have to pay their life savings to a smuggling organization only to stay for a matter of weeks, that is very different risk calculus. one of your prior questions was do they pay people to assist them. the world of migration has changed dramatically over the last even 15 years. we are not dealing with the coyotes that i dealt with as a federal prosecutor where they smuggle two, three people at a time. we are dealing with extraordinary sophisticated smuggling organizations in a multibillion-dollar industry that is also international. >> at that industry is it designed to bring drugs into the united states or designed to get people to come to the united states for which they get a fee? >> it is up the ladder. but what we are saying and it should be unsurprised everyone that we're seeing not quite

emerge, i was at synthesis of transnational criminal organizations and the smuggling organizations, or so much money to be made. >> fentanyl is coming from china, is that true? >> well, china is a primary source of precursor chemicals and equipment used to manufacture fentanyl. >> how does he get over from china to let say mexico? >> it is shipped to mexico and it also comes domestically to the united states and follows various transit routes, which is why i engage with my counterpart from the people's republic of china to address this fact. >> people who are now coming over, are we separating families? in other words, under the java mr. schiff there was a lot of controversy children were being separate from paris. is that happening are not happy? >> no. that was a deliberate practice

to deter families from reaching the southern border, was the separation of them. that was condemned across the board. cruelty is that something that is an instrument of the value-based country. and we eliminated that practice here actually was a limited in all fairness towards the end of the trump administration. we issued a policy preventing it and we actually, the president created a family reunification task force that i chair that is actually reuniting separated,. >> so president trump campaign when he first campaign for president on creating a wall, and i get some part of the wall was built but would not and will have helped somewhat if we had a big wall? with that not block people from come even the people like to make fun of the wall, expensive. would not have had some impact on reducing illegal immigration?

>> solo, in the 21st century i wouldn't wouldn't necessary propose cementing pillars on the ground and constructing an immovable wall given the dynamism and you know the rapid change in migratory patterns. but i just have to quote second napolitano. when you build a what if it were, they would build a 21-foot ladder. we see breaches of the wall all the time. we're seeing the corrosion and collapse of the wall in other places. but people breached physical barriers. it requires a much more comprehensive approach. >> why wouldn't people come over the northern border? in other words, somehow, come nobody seems to be monitoring the canadian border that much, i guess. isn't it easier to come in the country illegally from canada? >> we monitor the northern border of the united states. [laughing] u.s. customs and border

protection. some of the terrain is very difficult to traverse here we have a different legal structure with canada. we have a safe third country agreement with canada, and the reality, and canada also has different approaches to migration into their country that do some of the countries in latin america. >> if you want to come into this country illegally, but suppose you want to come in, speech let's say one wanted to slap expert what would you recommend to that one person that they do about the best way to get in this country illegally? >> i would, i would caution them and encourage them to apply for a visa. and if, in fact, they seek humanitarian relief to actually avail themselves of the lawful pathways that we have established so that they don't risk their lives in the hands of

smugglers. [applause] >> all right. what percentage of people die trying to get into this country? they are shot by somebody or -- >> i don't, i don't know, david, a percentage, , but i will share with you having spoken to families who cross the area between colombia and panama, the suffering and the trauma is extraordinary. >> what is the confidence and those people illegally over the southern border? is a mexico, colombia, venezuela? where are the most coming from? >> it varies. it's very from time to time. i would you say the population right now demographically the population of individuals whom we are and counting at the southern border in between the ports of entry predominant right now mexico. >> mexico, okay.

let's of those the legislation i didn't pass that supposed -- maybe eventually will pass but until then can you not administrative we do things that within the legislation or are you ready doing the? >> the legislation did a number of things. the two pillars were, gave us the legal tools statutory tools to vastly accelerate the adjudication of claims for humanitarian relief. and that means we could remove people more quickly who do not qualify, and and, quite frae could give a protection with for now it's the. much more rapidly. and it resourced us, it resourced us to a fact that dramatic change. we were talking about a piece of legislation that would equip us with 4300 more asylum officers. more immigration judges come just toss up the entire system in a way that we now just don't

have. >> okay. let me ask you a few of the questions related to this. so right now the homeland, the department of homeland security was created after 9/11. do you feel we are much safer today than we were before 9/11 because of the department? >> i do. much more. >> should a 9/11 event occur again? >> you know, it's our job and not just the department of homeland security but the federal government in partnership with state and local tribal territorial law enforcement and the american citizenry to be vigilant. because the threat landscape as directory of the fbi has actually communicative public look, we are in a heightened threat above is. >> a number of people from homeland security and for the cia or nsa have gone to capitol hill and said that tiktok is a danger to our national security

what the public has been given that much detailed information about what the threat is. how much of a threat to our national security is tiktok? >> the people's republic of china ask adversely to the interest of the united states in different ways -- ask. one of those ways is through the dissemination of this information, intentional communication of false statements. and tiktok is an extraordinary avenue through which to disseminate disinformation to millions and millions of people. >> but newspapers can disseminate disinformation or why is it if it's over social media has to be a band if the newspaper says the same things that's over tiktok it would not be banned because the first amendment. why is the first amendment not protecting the tiktok social media devices?

>> well, it's not to be an issue of the first amendment. it's an issue of security. as we are talking about a company and an algorithm that is controlled by a foreign state that ask adversely to the interests of the united states -- acts -- weave an obligation to protect american. >> that the presumption is people are not smart enough to know that it's disinformation and they can't make the decision for themselves. is that right? >> we are talking about many, many young people that access tiktok. i would posit that in this country we don't have the level of digital literacy that i think we would all want. we are all vulnerable to disinformation, and the reality is that we have an obligation to safeguard against it. we are talking about the intentional dissemination of

false information. >> i should disclose that my firm is an investor in bytedance so my firm date invested the money going to another subject. so what is speedy you know my answers would've been the same had i known that at the outset. [laughing] >> okay. i didn't think you're going to change. do you have children you ever watch tiktok for you tell them not to do that? >> you know, the one maxim from law school that remember very clearly, i don't think our older daughter looks at tiktok, our younger daughter does. the law of useless as a maximum of member. if i admonished are 19-year-old daughter cannot access tiktok, i'm not sure i would succeed. >> do you ever watch tiktok is so? >> she is a digitally -- no. i do not. she is a digitally literate consumer of information.

>> what is the biggest security threat to the united states right now, in your view? >> so i would come in the terrorism context, i would say the threat of foreign terrorism has reemerged with the greater level of significance. and the threat of domestic violence extremists. individuals or loose affiliations of individuals who are radicalized to violence because of ideologies of heat, which are only increasing, especially after the october 7 terrorist attacks against israel. antigovernment sentiments, false narratives, other narratives propagated. >> but you feel better about her homeland security today than you did ten years ago or 20 years ago? >> i do. i think the department and the homeland security enterprise writ large has matured and advanced tremendously. >> antedate who are the best at

cyber terrorism? is that china, north korea? who would you think has a great capabilities and doing damage to our country in terms of foreign countries through cyber? >> i i would say there are four. china, russia, iran and north korea. >> okay. in our country you can go if you're really good at cyber something like that you cak for a venture firm can make lots of money and so forth. if you go work in u.s. government you will not get paid as much. so is a u.s. government able to get top-flight cyber people who can compete with the people from overseas or do not have the best people in our government working on these problems because we can't pay them enough? >> we had the best people in the government, and there are the best people in the private sector as well. you raise an issue where we had

the debate in germany, to draw come to attract the best cyber talent, should we increase the salaries of those individuals to be able to better compete. we of course cannot close of the divide but we could shrink it speedy how did it come out? >> and so i lost this debate because we did increase in the salaries. and my position is very difficult for me to stand in front of a group of border patrol agents that risk their lives every day, risk their lives every day and say i've got to take cyber tell it come off get a kick up their salary above it to come to work for the united states of america. because i will tell you that the compensation in public service is different than material compensation. >> so speeders there's a commitment to service. if one does not feel that that is enough, then one should

choose otherwise. i disagreed with the plus-up. >> so it didn't get out? >> it got done pics and i were paying people 5% more? >> we are paying people that more and look, a i talent, we have ai recruiting effort underway, and i have hit the road in recruiting data scientist and the like. i don't talk to them about the salary. talk to them about what it means. >> are using and i now already to kind of help? >> we are. we are at our department is leading in -- >> can you give examples without violating nasa's agreed without a isotopic? >> let me share with you one example of how it is demonstrated its capacity for good as well as otherwise and then i'll share with you a couple pilots that we have going

on. we fight online child exploitation and abuse, 80 million images disseminated worldwide last year. i don't think people understand the extent of the problem. we used ai to take a photograph of a young girl who disappeared at the age of about seven and we used ai to extrapolate what that young girl would look like now ten years later. ten years later. our ability to make that extrapolation using ai was so effective that our law enforcement officers were able to identify that 17-year-old, finder, and rescue her. [applause] remarkable. let me, let me flip it. let me flip it. we then see ai being used to

generate an image of a child that doesn't exist, , or a child that does exist, and depicted that child, real or artificial, depict that child being sexually exploited. and it causes our law enforcement officers to devote resources on a decoy or eric mission. so its potential for good and its potential for harm our real. >> can you tell what i will look like in five or ten years? lab expert we will not change one bit. >> really? i like that artificial intelligence. [applause] let's talk about your background. you don't come to the cabinet with the conventional background of the people who have this position. so where were you born? >> i was born in havana, cuba,. >> really? what age do julie? >> my parents got my sister and easier to the united states as

political refugees when i was about one. >> did they come legally or illegally? >> they came in legally. my father was a bit prescient, although we didn't leave early but we left early enough. >> so there isn't that big a cuba to wasn't that a cuban jewish community but your mother and father were both jewish. your father was -- his ancestors came from speeding his father was in turkey, his mother from poland. >> and your mother was asked to nazi jewish my mother fled romania to france. france to cuba. late. her father lost eight brothers and of the family in the concentration camps. they left so they couldn't get to israel and are policies at that time were not as welcoming as one would of hope at a time

of great human distress. >> okay. they came to the united states legally. where did they come? >> so we arrived in miami and we lived in miami into my father found a better work opportunity in los angeles, california,. >> grown up in los angeles? >> i grew up for most of my life in los angeles. >> you speak spanish fluently? >> i i speak it. my grammar is not something that he take great pride in. [laughing] >> so where did you go to high school. >> i went to beverly hills high school. >> beverly hills high school. a lot of movie stars kids and things like that? >> you know. it's interesting would you consider jack abram a movie star? i don't have any movie stars. when your puppy whenever his beverly hills high school, they think of the clampett family. there were four elementary schools that fed into the high school. ..

i very much wanted to give back so i went into public service and i had my eyes on the united states attorney's office in los angeles. they required three years of experience soi gained three years of experience at a private loss firm and went into the us attorney's office >> and you were a litigator? >> you were a federal prosecutor . >> you went in as a federal prosecutor and were a us assistant attorney. >> for 8 and a half years specializing in sophisticated broad cases. >> did any of your people get off when you took them to trial or did you convict everybody ? >> one individual . we ended

up resolving the case after a adverse verdict. in a case that was quasi-criminal. didn't suffer an adverse verdict encourages case to retry obviously discovered double jeopardy but this was a quasi-forfeiture case . in the first case the jury voted to for the defendant. the judge actually issued verdict , a ruling notwithstanding the verdict and felt the jury had aired greatly and he took it to trial again. >> so you became the us attorney. >> let me share something, when i became the us attorney at the age of 38 , i think i might have been ultimately confirmed that 39 but when i was us attorney i

communicated to all the supervisors in law enforcement during my tenure the acquittal rates would go up . and i received a standing ovation . and i'll share with you why and jamie knows this as a former deputy attorney general. law enforcement will never take issue with an adverse verdict . if one took a tough case to trial and one invested everything one could in reaching a just outcome. but what law enforcement will criticize is a prosecutor who is hesitant to take a tough case to trial even though it's a just and righteous case and sometimes you take tough cases and the jury does the right thing.

so many times when the play is cast in hell the actors aren't angels. we have tough witnesses, they come with their own baggage. i could tell a story that would make everybody in this room? about an acquittal. we had one case where two defendants one , the united states marshals and the guards in the detention center, the warden and united states marshal during trial communicated to me a deep concern if this individual was not convicted because the guards and the marshals who had seen everything said that they around this individual they felt they were around what the warden said it is loose but there was something about this individual. that case rested on a very difficult witness who was a drug user and the jury just couldn't do it and they felt they couldn't rely on this one witness. not exclusively but predominantly in finding beyond reasonable doubt and that individual who was accused of stealing drugs

from drug dealers in gratuitously setting one of them on fire to their death and chopping the other one up, gratuitously. got that individual acquitted. law enforcement, we took it to trial. we took it to trial, i was on that case intensely. they thanked us for doing everything that we could just as the investigator had done everything he could. >> but the person got off and what happened to the person? >> maybe ran for congress or something like that. >> so did you ever convict anybody that you thought shouldn't have been convicted? >> absolutely not. >> never, this is a matter of evidence, it's a matter of integrity . never had one

scintilla of doubt with respect to the guilt of the individual. >> so us attorney and you finish that and you go back to the practice of law . you went to not only los angeles. did you get involved in the campaignwith barack obama running for president, were you involved in his campaigner anyway . >> so you ultimately get involved in the transition with barack obama. >> i lead the criminal division at the department of justice transition team. >> you to the composition initially, what was your position. >> director of us citizenship andadministration and agency within the department that administers legal immigration . >> and after that you got promoted to be the deputy homeland security under janet napolitano. and so that didn't convince you that this was a complicated area and you shouldn't want to come back as secretary? >> complicated, difficult, challenging and

extraordinarily fulfilling. >> so you go back after pres. obama leaves office. you join blooming hill in what city? so your partner there, how did you get connected to the biden administration, did they remember you from the obama administration, they call you up and said we like he was deputy, nowyou can be there secretary ? >> i wouldn't say it was in that way. but i was extraordinarily proud to be contacted by the incoming president, the president-elect because. >> and did your family say you're making a lot of money here, your way up here in compensation and you're going to get go down here again, was not a factor ? they didn't care quest is not that they didn't care. it is what it is.

>> so what was your confirmation letter, was that unanimous? >> i wouldn't say it was unanimous. i will tell you that i was confirmed unanimously twice. until i touched in. i was confirmed unanimously to be the director of us citizenship and immigration services . and after that i did not enjoy too easy confirmation proceedings. my confirmation as a secretary was along party lines. >> not entirely, there were a few republicans in the state senate who voted to confirm me. >> so you have to pay yourself for legal services or getting confirmed, you have to pay accounting fees or how do you get confirmed without having to spend a lot of money legal or accounting things to fill out forms? >> by filling them out myself.

i didn't spend any money. >>let's talk about the department of homeland security. how many people work at the department of homeland security? >> about 600,000, they are the third largest department in the federal government. >> and do they work remotely? >> some remote and some in person and some don't have the option . >> what are the main parts of it? you have several parts together , what are your main divisions? >> i don't think people reallyunderstand the expense of our mission. in the immigration area and in others us customs and border protection, why do i say others ? trade and travel, tsa. immigration and customs enforcement, us citizenship and immigration services, cyber security and infrastructure agency . fema,

the united states secret service . those are seven united states coast guard, the eight. >> the expense of our portfolio is extraordinary from online child sexual exploitation and abuse crimes of exploitation human trafficking to facilitating lawful trade and travel to search and rescue and security in the arctic and indo specific to addressing the flooding yesterday and today in houston. texas. where we have a number of fatalities and the frequency and gravity of extreme weather events is only growing. the cyber attacks from china, russia, iran, north korea. it's extraordinary. >> you get the weekend off, youdon't have to worry about some crisis somewhere? >> my goal is to take half a saturday . >> and how do you stay in

shape, are you an exerciser or a warrior? >> let me tell you, if sheds weight, i would disappear. i worked out. >> and you go to a restaurant in washington, do people give you tips or something about some homeland security violation somewhere ? >> you mean do i walk into a restaurant without someone commending us for the extraordinary work we do,does that happen a lot ? giving the american people safe and secure ? i have some of those fromtime to time. >> what's the latest complaint you get about tsa agents ? >> let me say this. 10 years ago, 10 years ago the concern was am i going to

, 10+ years ago am i going to board my flight and reach my destination safely? that was the concern . am i going to reach my destination safely . now the concern is how household will my travel experience fee? how long will i need to wait in line? we have moved a lot. >> sometimes people get on the plane and they are drunk or they hit a flight attendant and then i never read abouttheir going to jail, they just seem to go away . >> david, i share your perspective. i remember as an assistant us attorney anyone messed around in a plane up in the air they were prosecuted, it was a federal offense. the level of disruption in a post covid

world is unprecedented in scope and scale and i actually believe that the enforcement regime is not active enough. >> so you share my view. >>i do . >> so if pres. biden is reelected, would you continue to serve in this position ? >> i will tell you that i believe in the president and i believe in his prerogative to design who his cabinet is. >> if the president is not reelected and your best friend andworst enemy approached you and said they were offered the job who would you recommend to take it, your best friend or your worst enemy ? >> i don't have enemies. i would absolutely ask my best friend to take the job and if i had an enemy i would consider them unqualified.

>> because they are your enemy. okay. so today people are worried about immigrants coming in illegally but how many illegal immigrants do you think we have in the country now and once somebody is in the country illegally, what percentage actually ever gets sent out ? >> we have thus far this fiscal year removed or returned more individuals than any administration i think for at least 10 years so we are removing and returning more and more than any administration including the immediately proceeding administration. when we took office i believe the accounting was 11.4 million undocumented people in the united states. we don't have an update to that number now

but it's been millions and millions because our system has been broken for decades. >> you are responsible for overseeing domestic terrorism to ? >> we deal with the domestic violence extremism which is the form of domestic terrorism that were most focused on. we deal with it, we deal with it with our partners across the federal and private fbi. >> so on the secret service, recently i think our candidate running for president robert kennedy's father was assassinated, they didn't have secret service protection and he's asked for protection , hasn't receded, who makes a decision on who gets secret service attention when you're running for president ? >> i do and what we do is we set up a process, we have defined criteria in the process, the process provides for a bipartisan group of congressional leaders to make

recommendations to me after they have analyzed the factors that we have established. this is protocol established prior to the trump administration and so we resuscitated it. it is apolitical, it is bipartisan and the factors are apolitical and i followed in each instance the recommendations of the bipartisan group, there's been no light between or amongst us. >> i work in the white house 100 years ago or so, it was present president and vice president got secret service protection. >> as they do now. >> but it seems as if a lot of white house aides have secret service protection, it seems like it's proliferated . how do you decide who gets it ifyou're a white house aide or not ? >> it is based on a threat assessment and very sadly the threat environment in which

we are living is more acute. and it was when you had the privilege of serving. we are now in a world where a former government official, not of course the former president but a former government official is receiving protection because of the threat landscape . >> what about baseball owners, do they need secret service protection? >> if i recall my reading of the standings circa this morning you aresafe and secure since you are resting in first place . >> we will see. >> we will talk again either before or after we talk about

brooklyn. >> on the whole people watching this, you would like to say to them that they are safer today in the united states and they were 10 or 20 or 30 years agobut we still have big risks .>> i would say the following, i would say we are safer today than we were yesterday. the threat landscape is heightened. and everyone needs to be vigilant. because what we have observed, if one takes a look at the domestic violence that has occurred whether it is the tragic shooting in buffalo, new york, in the supermarket, whether it is the july 4 parade in a suburb of chicago, whether it is texas, what we have learned is that the individuals, the assailants were exhibiting signs of radicalization into

violence before they committed their heinous acts. and what we, you know the to the see something say something campaign that seconds napolitano developed really i think to the general public speaks of the abandoned bus stop or in the airport. it doesn't necessarily the individual who is exhibiting signs that should cause us all to worry. so the question is and what we are building is an architecture where people understand what the indicia are and know that what helps they can call you. because it's not to call the accountability regime law enforcement because nothing has occurred yet to call a trusted source whether it is a teacher, a faithful leader. on mental health practitioner to say look, this individual is coming to school in a hazmat suit or this individual has withdrawn from all social interaction . and it is communicating messages

that speak of an interest in committing a violent act, who do i call, what outreach do i make . to prevent something from materializing. >> sometimes when you see people who do these mass shootings they go on to their social media and said they said somecrazy things two days ago but you don't have a resource or capability to look at all crazy things on social media to figure out who might do something crazy . >> that is correct. but if they are publishing that so that others can see it, what do others do and that's the muscle that we need to build in this country. how to come to help someone and prevent something from happening. i would say we are safer. the threat landscape is heightened that

everyone needs to bevigilant. homeland security is an all in proposition . >> a member of congress says i have a security problem in my district and i like to look into it so this person voted to impeach you, what would be your reaction. >> the political position of an individual is irrelevant to a security analysis. >> so it doesn't affect you. you don't remember the name or whether they voted against you. >> i don't have that good of a memory. let me be clear. that i have some very productive relationships and good relationships with some of the people who voted to impeach me. >> but you don't hold it against you. >> i'm not a person that holds things against people, i live my life to the best of my abilities in a way that would make me, my parents and

others proud and others are going to live their lives and make their decisions. >> the first homeland security seconds was a big burly man, former governor of pennsylvania. >> a great man. >> you're not a big burly man so you're shorter. >> so when people see you. >> i see where this is going. >> when people meet for the first time and say i thought that i was going to be big, he's in charge of homeland security but these diminutive . that's never been a problem. >> not for me. >> but let me, so i have to share a story. but before i do you mention secretary rich, a great american. when his portrait was unveiled at the then headquarters he said this is very very typical of washington. first, they paint you and a

quarter, then they frame you, then they hang you out to dry. so i was as the new assistant united states attorney i was dealing with a defense lawyer. and he had not met me. and he apparently gathered from my voice that i was tall and vague. and so when he first met me, in court, at a status hearing he actually thought i was an imposter. he did not believe i was who i was but then when the judge called the case, he realized i actually was alejandro mayorkas. the judge had not met me before, the defense lawyer was about 6 foot five

and i am almost the inverse. a little taller than that and the judge looked at me and looked at him and said you know, you should be really happy we don't settle this case the old-fashioned way. >> so to be very serious i want to thank you for your service to the country and many different positions. i would not be as magnanimous as you if these and people were voting to impeach me, i would have their names memorized but thank you for what you've done for the country and thank you for being a good sport today . >> thank you david . >> i think you can legally take this too, this is a map of dc. [applause]

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talks about president biden's economic record in the real the economy is playing in campaign 2024. the shell of the university of california national center for free speech and civic engagement talks about the podcast speech matters about free speech issues on campus and beyond. c-span's washington journal, joining the conversation live at 7:00 eastern saturday morning on c-span, c-span now are online at c-span.org. click sunday on q&a, raymond, president of the university of maryland baltimore county and author of the resilient university talks about the role of college presidents, the campus protests of the war in gaza and political involvement in education. quakes people think education is where they have expertise because we all graduated in high school and college.

there is something in this world of education and we need to respect people to ask questions, and to make suggestions. but never should people have the kind of -- or they say, you he to do what i do. quakes with his book, the resilient university, sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen q&a and all of our podcasts on our free speech -- free c-span now app. congress returns next week for legislative business. their final work weekefe the memorial day break. the senate returns monday. senators wil vote on judicial nomitis for u.s. dtrt and circuit courts. late in the week majority leader chuckchumer plans to schedule a procedural revote on a bipartisan border security llhat was blocked earlier this year. the houses back tuesday at noon

eastern. lawmakers will consider bipartisan legislation directing the justice department's sptor general to conduct inspections of all federal prisons and make recmeations to congress to fix any problems. later in the week mbe will debate legislation dealingith regulating digital assets t securities and exchange commission and the commodity futures trading commission. watch live coverage of the house on c-span. the senate on c-span two, and a reminder you can watch all of r congressional coverage on our free video a. c-span now or online at c-span.org. representative susan chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee spoke with reporters about the party's tragedy about elections in vember. she was a featured guest at the christian science monitor series and washington, d.c. she talks about the youth vote and engaging voters in purple districts.