Issa slams State Department for spreading ‘knowingly false’ information about funding for immigration counseling

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized President Biden’s State Department for catching him “in the cookie jar” of taxpayer money spent on advising migrants on how to use the asylum process to enter the United States.

“Your department bears responsibility for knowingly providing us with false information,” Issa told Julieta Valls Noyes, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) at the State Department, during a hearing Thursday’s hearing, referring to the department’s PRM program, which funds a nonprofit organization known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).

“We were told… PRM does not and does not fund legal representation or counseling related to immigration proceedings,” Issa explained, referring to the State Department’s letter to the committee. “Again, later in December, from the Mexican government, PRM does not fund legal representation or counseling related to immigration proceedings in the United States, and the legal assistance provided to individuals in Mexico is for Mexican legal proceedings only.”

Issa continued: “Is this a true statement under the rules of US 18 Title 1001? Either one?”

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“Congressman, US funds,” Valls Noyes replied, before Issa interjected and said, “It’s a yes or no. It really is.”

“Yes,” replied Valls Noyes.

Issa then presented a series of slides from HIAS, in which the group explained in Spanish the best ways to use the asylum system to enter the United States and detailed the legal process for entering the country.

“Do you know about this package that was used throughout 2023?” Issa asked, to which Valls Noyes replied: “Yes.”

“Is it limited to legal activities in Mexico, or does it specifically advise people on pages 9, 10 and 11 how to seek asylum in the U.S.?”

Valls Noyes responded that “this information package was not financed by the PRM” but by “the UN refugee agency”.

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“Was this organization funded by the United States at that time?” Issa asked.

“The organization was there, but this package wasn’t,” Valls Noyes replied.

Valls Noyes stated that she did not “know” about the package until the department began collecting documents to comply with the oversight of the House of Representatives, but reiterated that the package “was not financed” directly by the PRM.

“Madam, let me tell you something very clear,” Issa said. “It is not the intent of Congress to use the fungibility of money to give money to an organization that goes out with people that you fund, and those people and that organization do something that is inconsistent with what you tell Congress about your mandate.”

“Money is fungible. As long as you give money to this organization, which I understand you continue to fund all over the world, and they have a dual purpose and they use that dual purpose to do something that Congress clearly doesn’t want to do. Nowhere in this deck, let’s call it UN-funded for a moment just to make you laugh, nowhere in this deck does it suggest that you can seek refuge in Mexico, which under international law you have not only the right but the obligation to do.”

Issa explained that the State Department had effectively encouraged migrants to avoid seeking asylum in Mexico and instead enter the United States at “federal taxpayer expense.”

“If you are funding a meeting and using the deck, how can you say that you are telling us without fraud or any misrepresentation that this was not funded, or at least not supported, by the United States government, ma’am?” Issa asked later in the hearing.

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“Again, congressman, we did not finance the production of this deck, but it is true that this deck was used in check-ins where we also informed migrants about the possibility of applying for asylum in Mexico,” said Valls Noyes.

“You’re a great diplomat,” Issa replied. “Because diplomats tell people to go to hell and tell them to pack up and enjoy their trip, I think because there’s no truth to what you just said. It’s extremely clear that if a group, I don’t care who printed it or handed it out, a group that you funded, water, transportation and everything else, to bring to an event, to organize an event, under the colors of the United States of America. Not the United Nations. And then you say, ‘Oh, we didn’t fund it. They got the money interchangeably from somewhere else.’ Ma’am, there’s not a single American who would believe that.”

Valls Noyes added that the State Department stopped funding HIAS in 2023 and is acting in accordance with the law, and similar slides are not currently being issued.

“HIAS is the world’s oldest refugee protection agency, working to provide critical services to refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced and stateless persons around the world as a long-standing partner of the U.S. government and the American Jewish community,” 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 gave an exclusive interview to Fox News Digital after the hearing and said the exchange was a “complete lie” from the State Department, which distanced itself from the slides in a letter to committee chairman Matt McCaul earlier this year, saying PRM did not directly fund the creation of the slide show itself but admitted to funding the session in which it was used.

“When they catch you with your hand in the cookie jar, the first thing you do is throw the cookie jar away,” Issa said. “The next thing you do is throw your hand away, and that’s what she did. She was confronted with a document that clearly said this organization advocates for ways to get around being rejected at the border. She said we were just funding a partnership with the Mexicans to get them to comply with the government.”

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“And then when they were confronted with, well, no, you paid for these people at the same time. Well, yes, but we didn’t pay for it. And then when they were confronted with, but you paid for the events where they presented it. She said, ‘But we didn’t pay for the production of the documentary that they presented.'”

Issa told Fox News Digital that he cited the specific law he cited during his hearing “for a reason.”

“It’s not just lying,” Issa explained. “It’s deception, deception. It’s designed to subject you to fines and even up to five years in prison for deceiving Congress. And it’s clear that her denials were designed to deceive at least the public. They certainly didn’t deceive Congress, because it was pretty obvious on the face of it that our government was consciously making it easier for these people to secure, to get around the border, and in no way was it encouraging people to stay in Mexico or to obey Mexican law.”

Issa continued, “You can’t fund an organization, fund the meetings that they had, fund the people that got there, provide a bunch of other funds, food, water, etc., and then say that the presentation that was given wasn’t a presentation that was prohibited by law. She admitted that the presentation would have been prohibited by law, but she just said, ‘we didn’t fund it.’ And you know, that’s kind of like saying we took a person to the bank. Yes, we vouch for them, but the counterfeit bills were printed by someone else.”.”

Center for Immigration Studies reported earlier this year that the Biden administration has been engaged for several years in “transferring taxpayer money” to various nonprofit organizations that “then redistribute it to ensure that hundreds of thousands of migrants can conveniently move toward illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border.”

A State Department spokesman in a statement to Fox News Digital once again denied that the slide presentation was directly funded by U.S. taxpayers.

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“The Department of State’s humanitarian assistance through international and non-governmental organizations does not encourage or promote illegal migration, and U.S. taxpayer dollars were not used to prepare the slides discussed,” the spokesman said.

“In contrast, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration supports programs that help displaced people obtain legal status, documentation, employment, and education in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere so that people can find stability and integrate,” the spokesperson continued. “Any contributions to implementing partners prohibit the use of government funds for activities that ‘encourage, mobilize, advertise, or manage mass migration caravans toward the southwest border of the United States; legal counseling regarding the asylum process in the United States; and/or referrals for legal representation in the United States.’”

Issa told Fox News Digital that “this is not the end all be all” and he intends to “continue this into the next term of Congress.”

“Everyone involved needs to be held accountable because, you know, oversight is not about asking questions and walking away, and oversight is not about asking questions and walking away when you get the answers, even if they’re wrong,” Issa said. “It’s about not letting go until you know the truth and not letting go until those who are trying to obfuscate or cover up are held accountable. And now she’s not being held accountable.”