The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Tuesday morning which was viewable on the internet. Titled Examining the Adequacy and Enforcement of Our Nations Immigration Laws , the hearing had three stellar speakers with varying areas of expertise (Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County Arizona, CIS scholar Jessica Vaughan and Law Professor Jan Ting of Temple University) and one Democrat choice, Mark Rosenblum , from the Migration Policy Institute. The links on the names go to their written statements to the committee.

There are pieces of the hearing available through Congressmens website, but the whole thing is not, at least yet. Sometimes these things show up on C-SPAN days later.

So here are a few hearing clips, starting with the opening statement of Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte. He posted a text version of his opening statement, which was a preview of the dreary facts to come. The President has used his imperial pen and phone very effectively to destroy immigration enforcement in this country, endangering both the citizens jobs and safety.

Statement of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte; Hearing on “Examining the Adequacy and Enforcement of Our Nation’s Immigration Laws” February 3, 2015 Chairman Goodlatte: When President Obama announced unilateral changes to our immigration laws with a wave of his “pen and cell phone” on November 20, 2014, he indicated that he would allow millions of unlawful and criminal aliens to evade immigration enforcement. He did this with the issuance of new so-called “priorities” for the apprehension, detention, and removal of aliens. Under the Obama Administration’s new enforcement priorities, broad categories of unlawful and criminal aliens will be immune from the law. This means that these removable aliens will be able to remain in the U.S. without the consequence of deportation. To make matters worse, even the most dangerous criminals and national security threats can cease being a “priority” for removal if there are undefined “compelling and exceptional factors.” On the same date, President Obama effectively announced the end of Secure Communities. Despite the fact that the President claims he took action to prioritize immigration enforcement against criminal aliens, he is scrapping a tool that identifies criminal aliens booked in jails across the United States so that federal law enforcement officials can prioritize their removal. Secure Communities, created in 2008, is a simple and highly successful program to identify criminal aliens once arrested and jailed. It protects Americans from those who are a danger to their communities. (Continues)

I was pleased to hear a strong opening statement from Trey Gowdy, who at times has been rather squishy about illegal immigration. A sovereign country should never apologize for having a secure border any more than this Congress or this capitol apologizes for having metal detectors at every single entrance, he remarked thats what we want to hear from our elected representatives.

Congressman Lamar Smith was formerly the Judiciary Chair and knows the issue very well. A Jan. 30 press release emphasized protections for American workers.

Smith first questioned Sheriff Babeu and focused on the danger of releasing thousands of violent criminal aliens. The Sheriff specifically mentioned the Apolinar Altamirano case, where a previously arrested alien murdered a 21-year-old convenience store clerk, Grant Ronnebeck, in Mesa Arizona. The killer had kidnapped a woman and held her for a week, but the authorities allowed bond for a clearly dangerous foreigner and the result was a preventable death.

When Smith turned to Jessica Vaughan about the criminal recidivism, she responded, “What I’m told by ICE officials and I’ve been told on a number of occasions is that they believe, from their internal data, is there is a recidivism rate of about 50 percent of criminal aliens who are released by ICE.”

This is how much the administration cares about the safety of the American people.