 All right. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for coming today. We are going to begin our press conference momentarily. Our speakers are on their way out. Okay. Thank you. If everyone could just please take your seats. Good afternoon everybody. Thanks for coming out. My name is Jeff DeMers and I'm the state refugee coordinator for the Texas office for refugees. We're honored for the opportunity to highlight the tremendous ways that our partner agencies have stepped up to serve the Afghan allies and guests who have overcome so much to resettle here in the state of Texas. The capacity required to meaningfully engage with and serve this population is dynamic and demanding and the partner agencies in our state are taking a collaboratively coordinated approach. Through the 24 direct service agencies in Texas, including six here in the greater Houston area, we aim to innovate and serve by engaging directly with clients and developing solutions alongside our partners and those they serve every day. Afghan guests will strategically receive client-centered supports including empowering case management, employment, and educational programs that emphasize self-sufficiency and take a thoughtfully holistic approach to the entire family. One of the immediate needs of so many of our Afghan guests is shelter and the innovations taking place to develop public-private partnerships between agencies and companies in this area to provide space has been crucial to the process. We're so inspired by the willingness and dedication the partner agencies in Houston and across the state have demonstrated and want to celebrate them today. The work being done is truly an incredible example of hard work, compassion, and collaboration. Success depends on all of us coming together to identify needs and opportunities to create solutions with, above, and beyond our communities. We are so grateful for our partners, the city of Houston and Texans for making that possible. And now I'd like to pass it over to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to say a few words. Well, you can give him an applause. I feel so much at home for this very special occasion. And it gives me great privilege to welcome the state, the White House and the federal government in the form of an outstanding governor, and of course to salute the CEO of this great city who sets the tone out there. I'm very pleased to be with him, and then very pleased to be with Combined Arms, that there's somebody getting ready to wake up to be able to just personally thank them for being such an asset to our nation and to the world. Thank you so very, very much. I told Martin and the governor that I'm at home, the mayor knows because I served on then Houston Metropolitan Ministries, now Interfaith Ministries Board, and then I had the privilege of being the chairwoman or president of the board. What a privilege, but as well to scounce myself, to immerse myself with the outstanding work of refugee resettlement that is decades old in this organization. And now look at the many partners and friends that are in the room. And so I'm gratified to be here, will not tell you the tall tale of up to ensure that the continued resolution was passed and the early morning will be pronounced refugee resettlement. It was an early morning flight to ensure before dawn that I was able to get here. And I just want to say these words and thank you. One, I feel extra at home because I can say that I know Reverend Dr. William A. Lawson. You look over and you see the wonderful spirits. I know Bishop Fragonza and of course new Rabbi Karpf. They set the tone for who all of us in our own spirits of giving are. We all know that it is better to give than receive. We all know that the expansion of humanity goes beyond our front door and our backyard. And so to each of you that are here, I know that you're part of showing the world the best of America, but most importantly, the best of this eclectic, international and loving city. The privilege I have of representing a large portion of it and for me to be able to say thank you and to commit to you under the leadership of this gigantic and wonderful team. I would like to thank the mayor of America from Delaware, who has been chosen by the president to lead this great effort, that we will stand by your side as the chair of the Congressional Afghan Caucus in the United States Congress, of which I've served on now for almost two decades plus since the war in Afghanistan, having spent time in Afghanistan over several years knowing how wonderful the people are Thursday they are for democracy and freedom, how much they want for their families, their boys and girls. And here we are in Texas on the map for being one of the states with the largest population of refugees, 5,000 plus, and our city being a star, a shining star. So thank you to the YMCA, the Alliance, Catholic Charities, Refugee Services of Texas, and of course Interfaith Ministries. Thank you to the Houston Endowment, Kinder Foundation, and of course the Chow Foundation, part of a $3.7 million private philanthropy fund. And we are right alongside of you. Governor, are you announcing that number? Since we really stayed up all night to get it done, I'm going to share the credit, but the $7 billion that the United States Congress has just given to you in the last 24 hours, I believe it is going to be well placed across America for the heroes and sheroes that extended themselves when our best and our most precious were on the front lines fighting for democracy in Afghanistan. And then to be able to welcome hardworking families to say to them that our door of humanity is always open. Those dollars will be well invested and well spent, and we'll show the world what the true character of America is all about. My promise to each and every one is to keep our doors open, our bipartisan doors open, because that's what America is. It is a pot that has many, but we're so delighted that we come to be one when we share and give and tell the world who we are. I'm delighted to be able to be here. I congratulate each and every one, and it is my privilege, I believe, or will you do it? I'm going to do it. It's my privilege. We wouldn't be in this way. We didn't have an enduring person who is serving as the mayor of the city of Houston. It has been proclaimed by the governor. We're going to take it as the most international. He went to one part of town, but I'm claiming the whole city as the most international and loving city. But it takes a CEO, a captain, a general to set the tone, and that is what Sylvester Turner has done. He is a people's mayor, and he leads us to our better angels. Ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of the city of Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner. Let me start off by thanking the congresswoman. She's way too generous with her remarks, so certainly thank Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lay. Let me also quickly echo the sentiments of so many others, and thank her and the members of Congress for what they did in the wee hours of the morning. That $7 billion will go well for the resettlement program, so please give it up again to congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lay. Governor Marco, we call on her time and time again, and time and time again she comes up and she comes to our rescue, so we really appreciate that. And then I'm certainly honored to welcome you personally to the city of Houston, and hope your stay has already been enjoyable and for your stay the rest of the day. So thank you for being here. And then I also want to acknowledge and thank all of the partners, every single one that has stepped up from day one to make sure that the resources were made available. Families were taken care of, truly showing the spirit of this city. So let me thank you all so very, very much from the depths of my heart. Governor Marco, congratulations on your new role as the White House coordinator for Operation Allies. Welcome, and I look forward to working with you along with so many others in our city. I know the challenge is great, but with your leadership I'm confident that you will help our nation succeed and help and support our Afghan allies. I want to acknowledge and thank the Alliance, the Bilingual Education Institute, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston, Houston Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Refugee Services of Texas, the YMCA of Greater Houston, Combined Arms, and so many others for stepping up to help us resettle our Afghan allies. As the most internationally diverse city in the country, and I mean the most diverse, Houston has had a long history of being a welcoming city for refugees. Over a quarter of our population was born in another country. We speak more than 145 different languages. You went to lunch in one of the, if not the most diverse area, not only in the city in the state, but in the country. I think what you went to lunch over 100 different languages are spoken in that area long. Over a quarter of our population was born in another country. Governor, if there's one thing that I know I would like for you to take away from this visit. I hope that you will see the amazing work these organizations have been doing to make Houston home for our new Afghan neighbors. Since the very beginning, they came together and started planning on how they would receive our Afghan allies. They did an outstanding job at working with the city of Houston and my office of New Americans to make sure the city was always informed of their efforts and all of their activities. We offered our support and applauded their success. Houston is an example of what a welcoming city should be, and I underscore that a welcoming city. Whether it was opening our city in the past to help people from other states whose homes were devastated by Hurricane Katrina or helping asylum seekers from Central America and Haiti or welcoming our Afghan allies, Houstonians have always been there to lend a helping hand. And no matter what challenges the future may hold, we will always be a welcoming city to those in need. It matters not whether they were born, where they were born, where they live, what language they speak, whether they're documented or undocumented. I just happen to be their mayor and I'm proud of it. In fact, on Tuesday, December 7th, I will join with our partner organizations who are with us today to officially welcome our Afghan allies to our city. In closing, I also want to encourage all Houstonians to do their part to support these organizations in their work to help our new allies resettle in their new homes. Remember, for many of us at one point in time, maybe our grandparents, our parents, those before us came from some other place. But when we came here, we found a welcoming community. Houston will be measured, but not by so much we do for those who are here, but how we extend a helping hand for those who find themselves in need, come to a place they've never been before, but they find welcoming smiles, a hello, and people that are graciously extending a helping hand. That is what Houston is, that is who Houston is, and that is what we know people will find when they come to our city. So welcome aboard. I wish I had a cowboy hat to give you and a cowboy boots, but you'll have to come back in February to get that during the Houston Life Stock Show in Rodeo. Thank you. You can do better than that for a great city. When you clap for the mayor, I wanted to take one moment, just as Governor Merkel comes up, to indicate that I teach my grandchildren and everyone brags about grandchildren. It's better to give than receive, but then as I stood there, I looked at the word respect in many languages, Martin. And I want you to know of the respect that we have and that Governor Merkel has gained or did gain in his service as Governor of Delaware. And that respect was mutual between our President Joe Biden and our Vice President, but our President had known him for a very long time. And when I stood up and took credit for $7 billion, it should be that it was cooperative and collaborative because of the heart of President Joe Biden, who said, let us do the right thing, let us set up a great team, which I met under Governor Merkel, and let us show who we are. And I'm glad that we as members of Congress accepted that hand of friendship so that we now have this institution, but we have a man who has been respected and has lived his leadership as a public servant in the view of respect. And I'm delighted to say thank you for accepting the President's call. And I want to say to the President of the United States, thank you for the kind of heart you have where you want to show what America really is. And he will continue to do that along with our Vice President, Vice President Kamala Harris. So Governor, you're with a good team. Make sure you tell them that we thank them for the great work and the person they've chosen to do this job. Governor Merkel of Delaware. But you can come and fill in, brother. Come right in. Well, thank you, Congresswoman and Mayor. And I have to say, I appreciate your mentioning the President in addition to being a man of a big heart. He is a very good politician. And if he were here, he would be whispering in my ear and say, you should be yielding back your time to the Congresswoman and Mayor because they are such articulate spokespeople for this issue. You know, it is just so great to be in Houston. And I've learned in life that everything starts with great leadership. And there's a reason that Texas is leading the nation when it comes to resettling our allies from Afghanistan. And there's a reason that Houston is leading in Texas. And it starts with extraordinary leadership. There's no substitute for having elected officials to have your member of Congress as the chair of the Afghan Caucus and of the Pakistan Caucus is truly a remarkable thing to have a mayor. We spoke a few months ago, a few weeks ago when I called the mayor to tell him a number of Afghans were coming his way. You just could not have been more supportive. You could not have been more excited and you could not have been more welcoming. And I just want to thank the two of you so much for that leadership. We've had an incredible day here. I do want to give a special shout out to your state refugee coordinator, Jeff Dammers, who is just doing an amazing, amazing job. Yes. And we have had the chance to meet today with the resettlement agencies, with the Alliance. You have something here which is truly remarkable. The level of collaboration that we are seeing amongst the resettlement agencies, amongst the resettlement agencies and the veterans community with your philanthropists. And the Congress will mention some of the philanthropists who have contributed to this remarkable fund that is helping to support the resettlement of our allies from Afghanistan. This is all incredibly intentional and it's very difficult, but the fact that you are achieving so much success is not by accident. In large part I think it's the fact that you have people in positions of leadership, not only in government, but in the civil sector, in these resettlement agencies who understand the field, they know each other, they've been working together for years, they trust each other. Earlier this morning we sat, they were all seated next to each other and in some communities they might even see themselves as competitors because they're all seeking funding from the same organizations. But in this case, Martin, to you and your colleagues, your peers who are here today, the level of collaboration and commitment is just something really special and remarkable to see. As the Congresswoman mentioned, as the Mayor mentioned, President Biden asked me a few months ago to take this role as the White House Coordinator for Operation Allies Welcome. And he was very clear, he said his expectation was that we would provide a safe and dignified welcome to our allies from Afghanistan and he asked me to lead not just a whole of U.S. government effort, but a whole of America welcome and that is exactly what we are seeing. It has been truly inspirational in a number of communities across the country and certainly right here in Houston to see how welcoming you are and I give so much of the credit honestly to our veterans because across the country they have been the most, yes, that they deserve that. They have been the most credible and the most authentic and the most powerful voice because they served with these folks in Afghanistan. These folks in Afghanistan were by our side and so when our veterans tell us that it's our obligation to provide this safe and dignified welcome, we hear it, we don't hear it because we're blue, we don't hear it because we're red, we hear it because we're Americans and we are all in this together and the Congresswoman mentioned a moment to go, the bipartisan nature of so much of this work and I think what a great example right here in Texas and we are so grateful to all of you. I had a chance earlier this morning with my team to meet a newly arrived Afghan family and to hear their story, to hear about their life in Afghanistan, to hear about getting out from the airport and their time in transit and their message is I've heard this all over the country when we asked about what is it that they wanted to make sure we most heard from them. It was about their sense of gratitude. They have a one year old child and their belief and their optimism that that one year old is going to grow up in a safe, welcoming environment where he will be able to go as far as his potential will take him and I'm highly confident that this generation of Afghans, our new neighbors, are going to bring new ideas and fresh energy and fresh perspective to this country as generations of immigrants have done before and as clearly so many have come to Houston to live out their lives and to build their great American lives right here at home and with the help of all of these incredible partners I have no doubt that that family like so many others are going to be successful. One of the things we are particularly focused on is how we understand the need to put folks on a path to self-sufficiency as quickly as possible. So the folks from Afghanistan who are coming here to Houston are fortunate and that your job market is so great in large part because of your civic leadership, your government leadership and of course your business leadership as well. So be sure if you would to reach out to the resettlement agencies if your business or a business that you know is interested in hiring our allies from Afghanistan from you know highly skilled folks who speak English really really well to folks who need to learn English but who can do other kinds of jobs. The idea of making sure we provide a good welcome, one of the things we've heard over and over again from folks who have been here for a while is the fact that when they came here they felt welcomed into their communities, into their neighborhoods and it makes such a difference as they go about the hard work frankly of building new lives. So anything that we can do to provide that welcome and for those of you who are interested in how to do that reach out to the resettlement agencies here in Houston. They're doing a remarkable job under really difficult circumstances but you can help as a volunteer, they need more volunteers whether it's to pick up people at the airport to get kids connected to school or to be a friend who brings over a hot meal. These are all things that we take for granted but that are so incredibly important. So to the mayor and Congresswoman, thank you so much for allowing us not only to come to Houston but to providing such a warm welcome and to all the partners that we've met throughout the day. Thanks for the extraordinary work that you are doing and I think it's very fitting that the last speaker is a veteran. I mentioned earlier and I have seen this all over the country. Our veterans have taken the leadership role when it comes to making sure that all of us provide the warm welcome that we owe to our Afghans. So the CEO of Combined Arms, Mike Hutchings, we had a chance to meet with him and his team members a few minutes ago and Mike come on up to the podium. Thank you. It's funny, in 2012 I had the pleasure of leading a rifle platoon of United States Army soldiers over grape rows in fields fighting the Taliban on a daily basis. And if you had told my 2012 self that I would have the opportunity to stand beside such leaders for our nation, I would have told you you were crazy. So thank you all, everything for the support you have for our Afghan allies, I appreciate it. So Governor Markel, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, Mayor Turner, Demers, it's an honor to be here today and to discuss the needs of the Afghan wartime allies with you all. After the fall of Afghanistan it was astonishing to see hundreds of veteran nonprofits and refugee agencies come together across the nation and around the world to work with the federal government and provide support for the Afghan people. I'm honored to be a part of a veteran organization that's leading extraordinary work here in Texas to help with the resettlement of Afghanistan's. For years Combined Arms has been supporting the Afghan community in addition to our primary mission of connecting veterans and military families to life changing resources through our state of the art technology. For us at Combined Arms this is more than personal and it's seen as our moral obligation. 50% of the Combined Arms staff are veterans and we know firsthand the sacrifices of the Afghan people. We've stood amongst giants in Afghanistan, US service members, Afghan armed forces, frontline civilians, combat interpreters alike. The Afghan community are our brothers and sisters and Combined Arms is committed to the current and ongoing support of those who serve beside us. We look forward to increased interagency and public-private collaboration to ensure the Afghan community will feel comfortable calling America their home. There's an opportunity in front of all of us right now and it's the opportunity to come together as one cohesive effort to stand united and to provide security, stability, and the potential for success to the Afghan people. Thank you. Gentlemen, we have time for about one to two questions and then I'm going to ask all of our speakers to stay here and ask all of our agency CEOs to come forward. Is there a question in the audience? Elizabeth Troval. So the question is what I've learned about the experiences of our Afghan allies as they resettle here in Houston and across the country. So first of all, I mean the main reaction that I've gotten is one of gratitude for the welcome from everybody from the president on down to local communities. And this despite the fact that obviously these have been, it's really difficult to take your family to a place where you've never been before. Perhaps some of the family members don't speak the language. So I think what strikes me and as I mentioned earlier, it's good they're here at a time which is great for the job market. It's really difficult that they're here at a difficult time for the housing market. So the work that the resettlement agencies and the state refugee coordinator and others are doing to provide to find housing for them. This is really hard work, but they're doing it really, really well and our allies from Afghanistan are grateful. And I think what they feel most grateful for is that they feel welcome, that they're wanted. And imagine how difficult it would be if they didn't feel wanted. You know, in the past we have had, you know, other groups of immigrants who have not been wanted. And so I am particularly grateful. Again, I really, oh, it's not exclusively about the veterans, but I think the veterans send the message to the rest of us about how important this is. And when our veterans speak, it's like EF Hutton, people listen. Probably you're too young to know that reference. You know it, good. But so anyway, I think they feel like people are very anxious to get to work. They're anxious to get their kids in school. They're anxious to make new bonds in the community. And so they're raring to go. Welcome. Do we have one more question? Yes, Richard. Louder, Richard, I'm sorry. Well, let me say that the administration and many members of Congress are united on wanting success for Afghanistan in the world family. At the same time, we are aware that what we planted there, the seeds of democracy, people who are in Afghanistan are still hungry for what the United States created. It is not the look of how we left. It is really the look of what we left. And it was in the minds of Afghans through our veterans and others that democracy is something they love, they want, and they don't want to be denied. So the idea of funding is one where we want to be sure that the dollars, humanitarian dollars are used for the Afghan people and their needs. Not as a sense of punishment, but certainly to recognize that it is the people that we want to give to. So we know that they are receiving dollars from other in the Southeast Asia region. We know that Pakistan is very interested in creating a dialogue and continuing to be there for the United States in a dialogue. India is in the region, Bangladesh is in the region. The region has its challenges. But I can assure you that what we want is best for a government that will respect the desires of its people. And we hope to give the Taliban through the United Nations as much help as possible. But we also want to recognize the needs of the Afghan people that are there. And I think you will find out that the Biden Administration is continuing to work on those that our veterans are working with that want to leave. And we want to make sure the Taliban allows them to safely leave. All of that goes into how we craft a policy that recognizes Afghanistan and the people who are there as well as the need for Afghanistan and its leadership to become part of the world family. And that is to provide human dignity for all those within its boundaries and for all those who may desire to leave. Thank you so much. Thank you to all of our speakers. Thank you so much. Right now we're going to transition into our listening session, which is going to start in about five minutes. So we'll end the press conference. I'm going to ask all of our agency CEOs to please step forward now for photography. If you're registered for the listening session and you have a yellow armband, please proceed into the Great Hall. Our staff in the back will get you into the Great Hall. Thank you so much.