I also look forward to working in the same bipartisan spirit that the previous Chairman and Ranking Member carried on their work.

I will begin by recognizing myself for an opening statement.

I am particularly concerned about the lack of internal controls, oversight and accountability in the 287(g) program.

Victims of crime and witnesses should be able to come forward and talk to the police freely without fear of being arrested or deported.

As the new Chair of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science, and Technology in the 111th Congress, I am encouraged that one of your first acts in office you issued an action directive on cybersecurity instructing specific offices to gather information, review existing strategies and programs, and to provide oral and written reports back to you by mid-February.

Recently, the House unanimously passed H.R. 559, a bill I sponsored which requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to furnish the comprehensive cleared list to all DHS components and to other Federal and State and local and tribal authorities and others that use the terrorist watch list to resolve misidentifications.

It is important that we sort of evolve into a more proactive approach, because at a certain point the saturation of that list becomes really something that we can't use as an accurate tool to be able to address our main concern, which is ID'ing those terrorists as they move about.

I was so happy to hear that you are looking at that system, because there are hard-working rank-and-file employees working for USCIS, but they don't have the tools available to them to do the processing in an expedient manner.