I appreciate her leadership on this and her willingness to get us on the right side of history on this one.

It was alarming. It is something to smell it, it is another thing to smell it and see it.

You have written protocols that support that need? Just yes or no, because I am out of time.

That is also part of protocol, so it is required. If there is a deficiency, an agent has the ability to alert, to fill that deficiency?

As I have said from the beginning, the reason for these investigations is not to punish people; it is to keep this from happening again.

Thank you, Chief Hastings. That is deeply concerning. The committee was told by the OIG that CBP has received the reports.

What about pediatric equipment? One of the lessons learned for me with Jakelin's passing is not having the appropriate cuff to take her blood pressure.

Thank you. That is a great lesson learned, and it is certainly something I saw, so I am pleased that Border Patrol is addressing that.

I thank all the witnesses for their valuable testimony and the Members for their questions.

Now, Chief Hastings, I deeply appreciate the work that the men and women of Border Patrol do every single day and have done in the past year to mitigate the situation we saw at the Southern Border.

Many of the DHS employees AFGE represents put their lives on the line at work every day.

DHS also ranked last out of the 7 National security agencies.

Chairwoman Torres Small, Ranking Member Crenshaw, and Members of the subcommittee, on behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), which represents more than 700,000 Federal and District of Columbia employees…

The best way to create engagement and high morale is to participate in effective, collaborative dispute resolution.

the Members of the subcommittee may have additional questions for the witnesses, and we ask that you respond expeditiously in writing to those questions.

I co-sponsored legislation introduced by Chairman Thompson, the DHS Morale, Recognition, Learning, and Engagement Act--very cleverly creating the MORALE Act--to require action on DHS's part to respond to its employees' concerns.

The timing of this hearing coincides with the recently released 'Best Places to Work in the Federal Government' rankings.

In December 2018, Jakelin Caal Maquin and Felipe Gomez Alonzo died while in CBP custody after being detained in the district that I represent.