Exclusive: Representative Darrell IssaThe House Foreign Affairs Committee member, R-Calif., criticized President Biden’s State Department, saying it has its hands stuck in the “cookie jar” over taxpayer money that’s going to counsel migrants about how to use the asylum process to enter the United States.
“Your department is responsible for deliberately providing us with false information,” Issa told Julieta Valls Noyes, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) at the State Department. Thursday’s hearing, Referring to the department’s PRM program, a non-profit organization called the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) was funded.
“We were informed that … PRM did not and does not fund legal representation or counseling related to immigration proceedings,” Issa told the committee, citing a letter sent by the State Department. “Then, later, in December, on behalf of the Mexican government, PRM does not fund legal representation or counseling related to U.S. immigration proceedings and that any legal assistance provided to those in Mexico is for Mexican legal processes only.”
Issa further asked, “Is this statement correct under the rules of US 18 Title 1001? Any of them?”
Representative Darrell Issa questioned State Department official Julieta Walls Noyes strongly during Thursday’s hearing. (House Foreign Affairs Committee)
“Congressman, the U.S. Treasury,” Valls Noyes responded, after which Issa interjected, “It’s a yes or no. It really is.”
“Yes,” Wallace Noyes replied.
Issa then presented a series of slides from HIAS that explained to the group, in Spanish, the best ways to use the asylum system to enter the United States and detailed the legal process for entering the country.
Issa asked, “Are you aware of this packet that was used in 2023,” to which Valls Noyes replied, “Yes.”
“Is it limited to legal activity in Mexico, or are people clearly advised on pages 9, 10 and 11 how to seek asylum in the United States?”
Valls Noyes responded, saying that “this packet of information was not funded by the PRM” but rather by “the UN Refugee Agency.”
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Issa asked, “Was this organization funded by the United States at this time?”
“The organization was there, but it wasn’t a packet,” Walls-Noyes responded.
Valls Noyes said she was “not aware” of the packet until the department was collecting documents to comply with House oversight, but again said it was not “directly funded” by PRM.
“Ma’am, I want to make something very clear to you,” Issa said. “The intent of Congress is not to use interchangeability to give money to an organization that works with the people you’re funding and those people and that organization do something inconsistent with the mandate you told Congress.”
“Money is interchangeable. As long as you give it to this organization, which I understand you’re still funding around the world, and they have a dual purpose, and they use that dual purpose to do something that Congress clearly doesn’t want. Nowhere in this deck, we’ll call it UN-funded for a moment, just to make you happy, nowhere in this deck is it suggested that you can seek asylum in Mexico, which under international law you not only have a right to but an obligation to do.”
Issa further explained that the State Department is effectively encouraging migrants to avoid seeking asylum in Mexico and instead cross into the United States. United States “At federal taxpayers’ expense.”
“If you financed the meeting, and you used the deck, how can you say without deceit or some sort of confusion that it was not financed by the United States government, or at least enabled by it, ma’am?” Issa asked later in the hearing.
Migrants walk along a highway through Suchiate, in the Chiapas state of southern Mexico, on their journey north toward the US border, Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)
“Again, Congressman, we did not fund the construction of the deck, but it is correct that the deck was used in briefings where we were also briefing migrants about the ability to seek asylum in Mexico,” Valls Noyes said.
“You’re a great diplomat,” Issa responded. “Because diplomats tell people to go to hell and tell them to pack up and wait for the trip, I think that’s because there’s no truth in what you said. It’s very clear that if a group, I don’t care who printed it or distributed it, a group that you were funding the water and transportation and everything else to bring you to an event, to host the event, in the name of the United States. Not the United Nations. And then you say ‘Oh we didn’t finance it. They got the money from somewhere else.’ Ma’am, there’s not an American who would believe that.”
Wallace Noyes further stated that state Department HIAS will cease funding in 2023 and will be fully compliant with the law and similar slides will not be released as they are currently.
“HIAS is the world’s oldest refugee protection agency, working as a long-standing partner of the U.S. government and the American Jewish community to provide vital services to refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced and stateless individuals around the world,” a HIAS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “HIAS complies with U.S. law and our grant agreements, including those applicable to the HIAS project discussed at yesterday’s hearing.”
Issa spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital after the hearing and said the exchange was a “blatant lie” on the part of the State Department, which earlier this year distanced itself from the slides in a letter to committee Chairman Matt McCaul and argued that PRM did not directly fund the creation of the actual slide show but did acknowledge funding the session in which it was used.
“When you get caught putting your hand in the cookie jar, the first thing you do is deny the cookie jar,” Issa said. “The next thing you do is deny the hand and that’s exactly what she did. In the face of a document that clearly stated that this organization was advocating ways to avoid being rejected at the border, she said we only gave money to work with Mexicans to comply with the government.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discusses Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a press conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, March 2, 2022. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz/Pool/File Photo)
“Then when asked, they said, no, you paid for these people together. Well, yes, but we did not pay for it. Then, when asked, but you paid for the programs where they presented it. But we did not pay for the production of the document they presented,” she said.
Issa told Fox News Digital that the specific law he cited at the hearing was there “for a reason.”
“It doesn’t just say lying,” Issa clarified. “It says deception, fraud. It’s intended to make you vulnerable to fines and even up to five years in prison for deceiving Congress. And clearly, the purpose of their denial was at least to deceive the public. It certainly did not deceive Congress because it was blatantly obvious that our government knowingly facilitated these people, prevented them from getting to the border and in no way encouraged people to stay in Mexico or obey Mexican law.”
Issa continued, “You can’t fund an organization, fund their meeting, fund bringing people there, provide a lot of other funds, food, water, etc., and then say that the presentation that was given was not a presentation prohibited by law. They admitted that the presentation was prohibited by law, but they just said, ‘We didn’t fund it.’ And, you know, that’s like saying we took the person to the bank. Yes, we vouched for them, but somebody else printed the counterfeit notes.,
Center for Immigration Studies reported earlier this year The Biden administration has for years engaged in “giving taxpayer funds to various nonprofits” who “then distribute them to hundreds of thousands of migrants moving to make illegal U.S. southern border crossings comfortable.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a State Department spokesperson again denied that the slide presentation was directly funded by US taxpayers.
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“The Department of State’s humanitarian assistance through international organizations and NGOs does not encourage or promote irregular migration, and U.S. taxpayer money was not used to construct the slides,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added, “To the contrary, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration supports programs that help displaced persons obtain legal status, documentation, employment, and education in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere so that people can find stability and integrate.” All contributions to implementing partners prohibit the use of government funds for activities that “encourage, mobilize, promote, or manage mass migration caravans toward the southwestern border of the United States; legal counseling on the United States asylum process; and/or referrals to legal representation in the United States.”
Issa told Fox News Digital that “this is not the end all be all” and that he intends “to continue to pursue this in the next Congress.”
“Everyone involved needs to be taken out because you know surveillance doesn’t mean asking questions and walking away, and surveillance doesn’t mean asking questions and walking away when you get the answers, even if they’re false,” Issa said. “It’s about not stopping until you have the truth and not stopping until those who attempt to obfuscate or cover up are held accountable. And right now, he’s not being held accountable.”
