taken was against this company, which was a right to give union in control of the utility company that provides electricity to mexico city and surrounding areas. but that was a position of power. we went to dismantle the union and the company, which should be his institutional legacy, which institution would either in 20 years, which would be so enough for example, we might have conflict memories of the character, but he left something for the mexican people to be remembered to. ..

we will be launching the renewable energy and we will be fortunate that joe will be joining us as thick commentator and ambassador babbitt as well. let me start with joe. let's do the three questions and then we'll come back to the panel. >> my name is joe and i'm a senior associate with the center for strategic and international study. andrew i'm awfully glad that you asked shannon the question you did about domestic considerations in this country as to what will happen at the summit, and this is really a political commentary.

just as the mexican president must play to his constituency in regard to immigration, i think that the united states presidents must play to his current constituency and respect to immigration. senate majority leader harry reid has fouled things up on the comprehensive energy and climate change legislation by announcing that he would push immigration legislation this year, and as a result, this is inside the beltway i guess, but lindsey graham, the one republican supporter of the climate change legislation, announced that he would drop off. i think president obama has established a habit of making grand promises, which he sometimes has felt constrained to keep, and this is pure speculation, but i think a lot will depend on how the news

media, a and major news media, played not just the state but the news conference that is held in "the washington post," "new york times" and "the wall street journal" may force president obama to say something that he would rather not say about pushing immigration. it depends a lot i am afraid to say on whether or not it is a slow news day on may 19 in may 20. >> sure. >> i wanted to pursue juan's mystery and talking about calderon's legacy. i remember in this country, the 1994 disaster of the midterm elections for the clinton administration. i remember lots of people saying clinton didn't do anything big. he was always talking about things like school uniforms as a mechanism for creating stability in underserved communities in that kind of thing.

give us, somebody on the panel, give us a list of those kinds of things to which the mexican population would respond, because the u.s. population responded to president clinton's miniature initiatives positively in in the end and reelected resoundingly. >> is there any chance that the signature effort, which has been dealing with organized crime, i mean three years from now we are going to look back and say there were a real gains on judicial reform and for lease reform. at least the counterintuitive but right now we are all pessimistic. three years from now the possible effect is that it is a legacy. let's go to the gentleman down here and then to diana as well. >> this is a question for denise. >> give us your name. >> marcos from-- a few days ago

there was a article in the "new york times". he mentioned that 40% of those who live under the poverty line, that is 50 million people, 75% of those 40% believe that they actually belong to the middle-class. in this context, one of the biggest challenges from my perspective in terms of mexico's political system is how to break up the current political businessmen elites and perhaps and a few people who are basically governing our country and which by the way you have pointed out several times. i would like your perspective on

that. so, why would you say, about why these people, why these 50 million people living under the poverty line still believe they are living-- why? what is your perspective on that? >> before we close this round, in the front. >> shannon o'neil mentioned in passing and i'm diane from the brooklyn. a specific decision which our two presidents could make next week is a timetable for lifting the prohibition against mexican truck drivers driving in the united states. we are not in compliance with our agreement under the-- by our

prohibition and the retaliation against the quotas on fruits and vegetables have heard particularly california. the engagement on that issue of tracking would be a substantive set and i would like your opinion. >> let's go down the line and if you can do quick responses we will have time for one more round. >> the problem with the legacy is that the most relevant issues are quite unpopular. for example, breaking the news to mexicans that oil is going down because we don't have a real energy reform, and then we will have to do this uncomfortable thing of paying taxes. it is news that the mexican public does not want to hear. they do want to hear the rest of the world private companies can extract oil no matter if the oil remains in the hands of the

mexican government and the nation, but it could be a company from pemex. that is not something the mexican public is really willing to accept as tax reform. so the most relevant reforms are heard politically. the sad part of it is that we didn't have the reforms and already it is a hard time to be reelected in 2012. i just want to make a point that i didn't mention in my last intervention. i won't blame all the responsibility on the failure of reforms on calderon. i think he is faced and i'm responsible opposition. there is an open debate of how good or bad was the pri at governing in power, but i think it is very clear they have been

a lack of creative opposition and just from a point of view of a mexican i was appalled at the criticism against president obama during his first year in government, saying he hasn't achieved anything. well, he wasn't allowed to achieve anything by the interest of the opposition. so, we still haven't addressed the issue that reforms will happen if the government managed to have a decent opposition with a view of changing the country but if their position is just concerned for the next election and which issues will favor their candidates, that the country would not change. >> denise. >> i think calderon's legacy is going to depend on whether the national action party is capable of retaining the presidency in

2012. calderon will be viewed as a failed president, as someone who , after 12 years of pan rule was unable to fundamentally change the country in a way that created a broad constituency for reform. however, if his party wins, and that could happen. i mean in my initial comment to give you a photograph of mexico today. that photograph could change as the campaigns evolve, as they are forced to debate. adam kanjorski talked about democracy being the institutionalization of uncertainty and in that sense mexico is an electoral democracy. we cannot foresee who the next

president will be but the trends today in terms of who dominates at the state level, who has the resources, the majority of governorships, the capacity to mobilize the electorate in order to win the presidency, that i think without question today is however, if the good candidate runs a good race but it falls apart, is involved in a scandal, his party once again divide and the band wins, then calderon will be credited for maintaining macroeconomic stability and feeling the ranks of the middle-class. he will be commended for taking on drug traffickers and organized crime. he will be commended for the beginning of an anti-monopoly agenda by dismantling--. he will be commended for taking the initial steps on education reform. he will be viewed as a

reformist, a reformer who couldn't go as far as he wanted to because of the institutional constraints. but that is contingent on the results of the next presidential race. [inaudible] >> i will make a bet today and if i lose, you can face me in three years, come back and skewer me at another one of these forums. the mexican left has no possibility of winning the next presidential election, and i think it is a shame that the left has self imploded, because basically they need a functional, effective counterweight and it needs a functional left that can actually negotiate in congress, and i think we would have witnessed a very different sort of presidency had calderon had a

prd to negotiate with them to form a reformist coalition with. he is trying to do so now and it is interesting to see that the reforms he puts forward are supported by the left, but i think it is too little and too late because the pri is now in control of so many of the key levers, including its majority in congress. in response to your question, thomas friedman's article talked about the three constituency in mexico today, the narco-'s, the no's and then off this. been no's have been winning. who is he talking about when he alludes to the no's. he is talking about the veto centers who do not want mexico to change. when david shirk was presenting an optimistic portrayal of mexico, at one point i thought, he is not talking about my country. he is talking about the place that we would all like to live in, but not about the country that i have seen move sideways

over the past 12 years. yes, perhaps in some senses we have moved that works, but we haven't moved forward significantly either. particularly in terms of our potential of what the country needs and what our competitors have been doing with their last 12 years. >> i want to push you on that point in nice because i actually disagree with you on this. which is i think mexico has moved ahead but it has moved ahead so far below its potential that it is frustrating-- as a foreigner i look at mexico and say per capita income in fact has gone up in and transported seat laws-- there are good things we can talk about but for those in mexico who aspire, who know what mexico could be it has moved so slowly that it is agonizing. is that a fair assessment? >> i think mexico is a more open economy. it is a more competitive place

politically. that is certainly true. it is not a safer or more equitable society. i mean, when you have-- what has been the economic growth in mexico over the past 15 years? it has been 1.5% a year. that was the demographic characteristics that we have is leading to economic stagnation, and i think that that has produced a country that is in response to your question, divided. i mean, i remember ginger thompson's article right before the 2006 presidential race. there was a photo, actually two photos side-by-side. in one photograph, it was all of the lower middle class public dwellings that have been created, where there was a huge public housing boom.

all the people who lived inside those places were going to vote for calderon, because they have become stakeholders. macroeconomic stability of nafta, the economic gains that mexico has witnessed over the past 12 years. mix to those republican know where the slums. the slums that you see outside of any mexican city. all the people in the-- were going to vote for manuel. what you have in mexico today is a stalemate, a stalemate of the no's and the nasa's. 40% of the population calls itself middle class, because it is a beneficiary of many of the reforms that we have witnessed over the past 12 years. but the rest of the country is willing to go out and vote for an anti-institutional populace

politician because those gains aren't sufficient. so i think we have seen mexico move sideways, and moving sideways in many ways in this global economy today means falling back, and it also means that it is very difficult for whoever has the reformist agenda to win because its it's constituency isn't large enough. see what i'm saying? when i say that no's have been winning, who am i talking about? i'm talking about union leaders, monopolist, even party leaders. we talk about mexican democracy, but to what extent is this a fully functioning representative democracy, when there is no re-election. mexican democracy is like a dream job. it is too exotic. why? because it lacks some of the fundamental traits that in a functional democracy would need

to be truly accountable and representative including re-election, citizen candidacies , and at the same time it has all of the elements that make it exotic. such as the prohibition on re-election and such, as very little republic spending. parties that are amongst the wealthiest in the world, they are going to receive, what is it, $300 million in public financing? but zero accountability, because there is no re-election. so, yes i know this ultimately becomes a discussion of the glass half-full in the glass half empty, but if the glass were half-full how would you explain an election in 2006, where people took to the streets for over four months precisely because we have a country of nafta's, mexico, and the country

of the have-nots. without economic growth, that stalemate continues in mexico becomes a fertile ground for any sort of populist anti-institutional politician who railed against the status quo because it doesn't work for half of the country. or, mexico becomes a fertile ground for political regression, via the pri, that is appealing to the country as it was before, because at least there was stability. there wasn't as much violence. there wasn't patronage driven machine that gave things to people who lived with their hands outstretched and frankly i think that that stalemate is what explains the electoral results that we are seeing, which i think are not good for mexico's political process in the future. >> thank you denise.

we are actually attend:30 but we are going to take a couple more of minutes to wrap up, david and shannon. so, david. c. i will take on the calderon legacy issue. for one thing i totally, the great thing is even though she disagrees with me i agree with most of what denise has to say. so i don't know how that works, but i completely agree that it depends very much on what happens. there is still a chance that something could happen to cripple him in some significant way. i would say every election has been since-- and in the last two elections they couldn't agree to get along and they think that is largely why they lost, more so than perhaps we might like to believe. so, assuming the pre-does win, i

think me may look back and see president calderon is the man who took mexico to war against itself and lost, and as a result, lost the presidency, a man who neglected his initial promises when he took office to be the jobs president, but who instead became the war on drugs president. that said, i want to talk very briefly about the secret to being an optimist, and the secret to understanding, to thinking about mexico is a place we would like to be. the secret to being an optimist is to have low expectations and a long-time horizon. mexico has and will continue to make progress in the long run. unfortunately, no idealist can never really appreciate that or be an optimist because in the long run we are all dead as john maynard keynes said.

i tend to focus on the fact that the problem that mexico confronts our enormous problems. and we could focus on mexico's potential. we could focus on what mexico hasn't been able to do, and to a certain extent we should. we need to have that as our sort of guiding motivation, but i think pragmatically, we have to understand that we need to appreciate whatever progress we can make in the short-term, so when they look at calderon, i mean he made very modest progress on some issues that were completely elusive to previous administrations. energy sector reform, sure it is paltry. tax reform, sure it is not enough. justice sector reform, that is going to be awfully hard and costly at nowhere near where we needed to be. pension reform, something we

haven't really been able to deal with effectively in the united states. these are huge problems and even a modicum of progress in the context of divided government, in a context-- welcome to democracy. this is how democracies work. they don't make grand sweeping advances like nafta or health care reform, because only a dictator can do that effectively. i mean, i don't want to oversell mexico as having made the progress that needs to, but i think there is room for cautious optimism about what mexico has done and what it can do in the future. >> but dad, i mean that is assuming that mexico is a normal democracy. the u.s. and mexico are on par and if mexico can't pass reform it is just because of divided government. i don't buy that.

in a normal democracy, you don't have that sort of veto power that-- [speaking in spanish] can exercise over the political process. >> although it would be interesting to ask how much in other unequal societies, as deeply unequal as mexico is, this is more than that. >> we are talking about oligarchical democracies. >> we could go into numbered them. >> that is true but they must have found that caveat. >> would anyone trade a a mexico up today for the mexico of 15 or 20 years ago? >> without a doubt, no. i should point out by the way on health care reform, though our vice president is qualified in it being a big deal, how much in the end of a democratic process it became watered down.

whether people agreed or disagreed what came out was a compromise of a compromise of a compromise which does go to david's.. shannon you have the final word. >> a few things. on the domestic considerations which is obama's big promises and the tracking issue that diana brings up. this is a big issue, right? the question is, where's the u.s. policy and in part depending on who you talk to, the energy bill and it least-- was dead before immigration came up and this was a way for him to gracefully bow bow out and blame it on something else but whether you believe that are not and where we are on the tracking issue, obama's big problem it seems to me at least at the moment is he is playing to the center with big promises and there is nobody nobody epicenter. so this is a big issue for our domestic agendas as he was seen with health care but it is going to be a big issue in our relationship with countries like mexico that are hoping for big changes and unfortunately, our policy and our party seems quite

divided and polarized in unable to come together even on little things, which frankly tracking should be a little thing. at me just say one thing to add to the middle class today because it is something i think a lot about and write some about. i have to put myself in a cautiously optimistic side. are there huge problems in mexico? yes, but you look at what is happened over the last 20 years and therefore, to be in middle-class mexico you had to be in a government job. that is no longer the case. we have seen per capita income increase and of course inequality still there but we have seen it diversity and how you get to that position. one way of thinking about the middle class, we usually academically think about it in marxist terms, or you are worker or are you a capitalist? that is how we think of it and then there are the professionals in the middle but being a middle-class person can be defined as being a consumer and what we have seen in mexico and

the united states frankly, but mexico in the last 15 or 20 years is a huge explosion of consumption options. whether you like walmart or not, the fact that you can buy lots of things at decent prices in mexico, you may not be earning that much more but your capacity to live a higher-quality of life , assuming gadgets give you a higher-quality of life, have increased significantly. in the last thing, when i go to mexico city or other cities or even rural area sometimes they see mexicans actually is optimist. the reason i do is because you go around mexico and there are lots of one-story houses, but everybody has rebar up for the second story. they think they are going to build that second story so they put the wire up to be ready to do that. so the real question is for calderon and for the next president is, can they make these opportunities for mexicans to build that second floor? >> there was a lot more that we could carry we could carry on with and i see from your hand up and others, hopefully her panels

can stay around for a minute but in honor of the time of others we told you we would and attend:30. denise, thank you for suggesting is, panel 1 for coming to mexico, shannon for making a stopover on your way to mexico from new york and david that wonderful time we have had at the woodrow wilson center. thank you all for joining us and a round of applause for the panelists. [applause] up next federal communications commission chair julius genachowski.

.. telecommunications in los

angeles. this is just over half an hour. >> good morning. i hope everyone is having a great show. l.a. has been a great venue in today's our last day. i've heard a lot of great buzz about the floor in the session. at the end of the day it's not the floor or the session what makes a showy successes all of you. the thank you are being here. this morning were going to be creepy and a few moments. the first on is my honor to introduce someone in a few moments, the fcc chairman, julius genachowski. it's my pleasure, please join me in welcoming mr. chairman. [applause] >> good morning.

how redoing? >> another show. [laughter] >> how many of these have you done? >> i just heard on the waya se an "american idol." >> it is the finals?i >> the grammys and all of the stuff that happens.ahe g i don't know that much about it but.o [laughter]g let's getet into it. you have said the most important priority for yout is the national broadbandea plan and do assembled a team that really worked and enslavedrea probably more accurately six or seven months cahal to produce a report to congress and one of the goals that youve outlined is the broad band adoption and i just thought it would be worth explaining why that is so important.s we know why it is important to our business but why forr america?

>> first i say we would not be here talking about broadband or adoption ifta not for the pioneers of the cable industry. the investors and innovators whoat took some day when we were kids did not exist and turned it into a ubiquitousvic service over 92% of thee people. it is an amazing success story. and important it is followed by a great success andsuc innovation and deployment. i don't say we would be heren' now talking about these be issues. without that history or recognizing that what got us to this point* needs to take us beyond as we tackle these

issues in the future because there is no question that broadband communications isbe becoming more vital or essentials in the lives of every american every day that our platform fortfo economic activity, job creation in the 21sti century, innovation is thel to essential to the global competitiveness as anything else. also to tackling some of the major challenges we face from education to health care, energy, enormously important and the bad news is that the eight united states is lagging for different studies say different things we both know theies numbers bellwethers 16 or 17 members we're not on the olympic podium when it comes to broadband. one steady concerns me a lot looks at a number of metrics nu

related to the competitiveness and innovative capacity of the leading industrial al canies -- countries and ranked the you have 4 to -- yen0t stays 40 out of 41s operator change of innovative capacity that should give us real concerns. adoptions side we average 65% well below 90% ofs, singapore and other asian countries we need to close the gap for more opportunity in the 21st century.s. one. the fact that we have the cable plans that we do in the united states with a capacity for high-speed service, in addition to theplan telephone plan gives the u.s. a potential competitive to manage as may move forward in the decadesrd ahead.i second, the adoption

challenge gettinge more people to adopt broadband is as natural for a government industry situation g as i have e never seen. more subscribers that you and other providers get come in a moreb retake our adoption numbers a and the more than we can do ton accelerate and support adoption the better it is for broadband providers and tha that is a good thing. this is an area of great importance that the cable industry has been productive one of the early meetings we had telling us about the innovative things being done in thebe santa barbara to drive adoption and one thingop led to another and the cable industry stepped up with its programe taking a similar approach.h >>host: one thing leading into another revenue call me to stepr yo up and offer the k initiative? [laughter] >>guest: and you did.d y

when the things that is interesting about my job people come in from different parts of the country and a good idea over here or over there buthaor a central clearing house ist missing for good ideas so they can be copied and you are playing that role and it is great. we're focused on results so we will keep working together to see if the a +t program can increase the rate but it is aa big deal for the country. >>host: you should keepi pushing it.u just died of a little deeper.us we have talked about this before but one challenges demography the way the country is built and part of it is 25% of households that don't have a computer and part ofpar it is the price point*, affordability issue. i think you have tied together very well the fact there are different strands and there really is nou

silver bullet to. i think we understand and willing to do but we a can too gauge that public-privatete p partnership to get the job done. another aspect of the broadband plan produced a recommendation but i want to step back and ask you a morean generic question which isin way eight a are in a time ofe incredible dynamism and asas you know, it consists not just of cableo operators, a close relationship to the studios and a lot of synergy.erg we all tried to figure out with the merging models out with great television and the internet come on then most suspect people had not thought of that cinergy of them emerging models are

distinct platforms is an important component of broadband adoptions were i thought i would give you the opportunity to explain howd g that is. >> at and this is where it think we were going. computers are in a 70 percent of people's homesmet comity be well over 90%. when you think about waterways as the country wear can move the needle on broadband adoption one way that was identified as a potential solution was to look at tv and think about the way that tv can beb helpful for broadband access. there is no long history with trying to promote competition with this set top box and cable car to ita has not worked for cry think increasingly, consumers in

the industry recognizes that it would be desirable forit consumers to have the easy integrated way to run the pay-tv theay- video over thet internet, other video rights think of this as a classico triangle of consumer and innovation and competition ande've what we have been trying to do to take a fresh look and ask what can we do to unleash competition to have this platform be as innovative as other platforms we have seen to better serve consumers? and the cable industry is veryu constructive. submitting consumer principles as part of the broadband work and playing a

very positive role and continuing to play a role in the future. this is also where i ame f hopeful if we can solve the root 6q big can be a win-win to provide better services to thewin, consumers that for a subscriber strengthening ofp the infrastructure for theh country. >>host: when you think about innovation yesterday roberts displayed thela ipad ready basicallyye created an application and he showed a video that showed how you can already with today's technology levering-- leveraging innovation to essentially turni into a remote to. you have not gone to the floor yet but there is a lot going on. what is your reaction when you see these innovationst

that people are now thinkingtion differently about how to leverage the innovations going on around them to get out of the traditionally distribution platform thatm t we had 20 or 30 years? >> it is exciting. these kinds of examples are at the core of the opportunity for the 21st century we lead the world innovation and economic activity you have to do that inn the 21st century but it was probably a hour electricre infrastructure from tv's and refrigerators and computers thatradi drove american innovation in the 21stts century not the electricd grid but information grant and not appliances but applications. an it is grade to see theseindu

opportunities i see jobs created in the united states. i also see solutions to problems we don't want to solve. thinking of kids today how important itsolo is that they have broadband access at home wherever they are to get the best blurting theyn can get and develops the tools they c need toci participate in the economy and they have huge problems low income communities loweries, minority communities and ruralno communities of with the typical public schools in the unitedty states a number of kids to have a broadband at home have less than half.r tha what am i supposed to do? a one to give my kids assignments that access to a great knowledge that is on the internet that teach the skills that they need if they give those assignments than the kids who don't have broadband have to scramble as they could get it at all if they don't to then

leaving behind those who do and threes and this is related to the ipad application that brian showed yesterday because you say how hard is it to go from there to the electronic textbooks for every eve student? how can refigure out how to make that happen?h with the ipad are the candle in every backpack and revolutionize? thisu seems within our grasp if we take on a new challenge. >>host: workingt behind allt of this it is easy to put the application on theod ipad at the end of the dayre it is what is coming through the pipes that matters we have anth incredible industry that produces spectacular content and intellectual property is the foundation for the entire ecosystem. i want to compliment you fortr

the whole output controlled labor but the decision made to allows studios tol work with budget cable operators and other multichannel providers to allow the opportunity to get first-run movies in a window much closer to day and date to draw video on demando platform. that was not without controversy but i do think that is an importantn statement and you might s share how youha balance the openness and the desire to getenn everything on every device all the time with then consumer'ssu choice with the need to protect intellectual property? >> i think this control waivers when we were naming illustrates at one level that we mean what wehat

say i have been very clear how important it is for us to preserve freedom and openness of thes otern interneto i do think it is vital to sustaining and accelerating innovation and competition over the next decade. i have also said we need to do it in a way that encourages ision experimentation with the business model. if we can find a way to make sure investors andve infrastructure and in content and other services are right on, top have thethe way to get a healthyo return, that will not work. i also said we need to do this in a way that applies to lawful content and intellectual property in a meaningful way. none ofgful these are easy.ns o there are legitimate concerns on all sidesal but

this is an example of a concrete way of us balancing goals that i think are quite compatible that we have to serve h simultaneously then need for the open internet and one fed is safe and trusted that allows speakers to speak andentr interpreters tc reach their audience and business models to be developed. >>host: we should probably talko about the elephant in the room. [laughter]se n i promise and no more slides. there it is. title ii. you said this earlier and you canu say it many, many times by recognizing this industry haszin invested over

$160 billion building the two-way plant there was a lot of naysayers and o daughters not the least of which was wall street and its was about one decade before people started to see return on investment now we except as a given the ubiquity of the plant, broadband which is exploding year after year , the regulatory impact as a change from a system tola one there is a conversation that is then known about thesati future it has had a huge impact so last couple weeks. i know that you have saidop you have a limited set off objectives you are trying to y accomplish i think it would be worth taking some time to

explore this because at the outset do you understand why there is a concern when people have to makee veryve long cycle decisions? >>guest: we do not led towe the elephant out of the cage.hant let me make a couple ofke a points about this it is an important topic. first. nothing that has happened int's the past few weeks since the decision came down changes one iota of policy, goals or outcomes that the commissions and i have been clearly transparently been, t articulating for many months with the national broadband plan and elsewhere.band second, that court decision in the comcast case that mpac months ago image to the legal

foundation underneath the policies of promoting broadopti band and will raise the cost of the un deficit and basico protections for consumers and promoting small businessa opportunities onnd p broadband, public safety issues come innovation, the competition, as i have said none of that has changeds the court decision did not question any of those goals.h or any of those desired policy outcomes.fm it damaged the legal foundation and underneath thefou house underneath what the fcc fc needs to do given that the commission has said promoting deployment and adoption of broadband as eight central mission for the 21st century.ral it created a problem not one that i desired but we argued

against it and would have been happy to see a different decision and be a happy to be allowed to continue operating under the same legal foundation we operated under but the court raised a very serious question whetherse we can do that in the future as we movean forward on tackling the major global competitiveness issues around broadband berkeley have a problem to solvend.e progressively worked on this at the sec. we're at the beginning. before launching dave proceeding to figure out thet best way to respond. but the design concept that i gave the staff at the fcc's thinking about how to respond was how we get back to a solid legal foundation that lets the agency do what

it needs to do around a broad band that was previously articulated? i said we will reject those extremes and the do nothingt extreme to the point* of view that says there was no change the sec does not needng to do anything at all to helph accelerate the broadband future. >> i think that was may. [laughter] >>guest: and rejected the other extremes and people made the argument that we should take all of the thetle regulations and title ii all 48 and applied them to the full broadband universe and move on.adb we rejected that as well.f our staff has developed a narrow and tailored approach , alternative legal barriersn that has against regulatory creeps

and overreach which is vital to guard against and has as its goal, affixing the legal foundation that existed to put us back in terms of foundation to where we werewe before the comcast decision and lettingcas us move forwardi with the policies that are to vital to the country. does not a ball a massive restructuring the way broadband does business. >>host: so bundling and resale are off the table?e? >>guest: we will rely on the competitive off markets. >>host: we have previouslyusl discussed this is more in common the it behind the jurisdiction? you want to pursue openness the consolidation principles and we have been veryu supportive also disabilities and other itemspla that have captured but if rate

regulation that all of them on title to are off thet table i think the concern which i am sure you th have heard from investors, we gett. it is a limited set of objectives there is more inomm common than people widely understand how we make sure? nobody doubts your goodth faith. [laughter] know that yout might four bair from more of the other regulations if somebody else does not come along? maybe there is a legalt re theory that locks it down but is there the opportunity together with congress openly? anotherwn o path? have heard the concern and how do we address thate question? >> the first thing is

somewhat technical answers in the 17 yearsyear forbearance has been in place with republicans andp democrats coming from many, many things there has never been done forbearance it has not happened in there is reasons for that.e the second is the approach that we put out for discussion, is modeled on, the approach that has worked for a number of years. which has had this treatment very similar for a long time with forbearance in the same provisions applying and there has been a great innovation and confidence there. but third, this to me that you have described a problem

for which i am sure there is a solution.ti and if all of the stakeholders are concerned, operate in the good-faith focuso constructively on solutions, a tackle this theth way the people are here doing businessg bu at this show would have business issuesble let's solve its we can do that. >>host: to be fair you mentioned in the beginning in launching the inquiry to ask a bunch of an questions you. laid out a concept that is also true that you have not t taken off the table the funded the exploration of e the title one solution and i guess it is the question do thi think there is room for exploring self-regulatory

model? and talking for months whether you can stand up for what is very typical a lot of engineering calls to set se up a area where 99 percent of the issues are dealt with engineers and engineeringeri decisions with some kind of backstop and sec authority? is that well worth exploring? >> a lot of progress has been made. >> and coming from the open internetnter area there is where some people agree contact should not happen and gray areas in the middle and increasingly thesag disagreement taster's agreements to come up with a process to deal with those.

i am open what you described as engineers and outside parties as long as there is the ability to have it addressed. if and when may move toward on the mo transparency piece that i suggested adding to the open internet principles andrnet rules, that will ultimately minimize the need for government involvement if consumers have the clear idea of what is con going on and the ability to complain the if engineers are working on startup know what managemente practices are at or to have a conversation first if we talk about other mechanisms we can get to a place where a lot of problemsngly overwhelmingly can be resolved before government gets involved there is it a

important responsibility that says that goes too far. let's move on. >>host: stepping back still related to this debate or set of issues that is a big picture and i am nota expecting you to endorse this view but most people in this audience might, before you arrive in you're very clear you focused on thefo consumer but probablyb testified going back five o years, a very clear that just to take one company, a google which is a company i admiren enormously, it has had the view that we've are some ways although we collaborate and a lot of synergy, some ways it was competitive to them. they have been the biggestgg advocate of some type of regulation in the industry and funded a lot through

third parties that advocate the same view. the point* is not to suggest you should go off and regulate them but do you worry at all since we are converging in the same space we compete sometimes that at the ends of t the day there is a risk that the government ends up regulating one partan of the ecosystem and people make arguments about market dominance and discrimination because at the end of the day the search algorithm isu a fancy name for rly rimination. clearly all of that could be done by the application provider. do worry at the end of the day there could be thee i imbalance? . sam .bout the consumers of those products and services on the edge of the platform? >> welcome in the first thing i

would say, kyl, is that this issue isn't about google, you know, this issue is about the next google, the next ebay, the next amazon. it's about speakers who don't want to be censored on the internet, who were speaking lawfully, but want to have a chance to reach their audience. and it's about making sure that consumers at home who connect to the internet can connect to whatever is on the internet and applicatle who want to put on the internet can do so. our focus has been consistently on that. i was become the doors open tohe any concerns people have been reproached everything with an open mind. but our focus is where i said it's been for a long time, butt, more than happy to keep untercepting these issues ande s we've tried to run a commission

that operates differently in many respects and how it did before. i think we've run the most openn and transparent commission that's ever existed.ised. we've had over 60 public to thethenow, you know, point and this is what you hoped for, were stopped thosein workshops. appiwasw happening as fast as peop are, are comingne in, peop. can ask questions, can participate, fio comments that way. anything step-by-step we're powering the staff, were taking advantage of the marketplace of ideas to produce better outcomes. thate going to continue to do that and it's our job to look ao any legitimate issues people race. >> host: well, if you have aa hd hard job. to i admire for which he done earla today. we entnjoy the relationship and not to thank you for taking the time to beu for ta here.n thanne please join me in thanking the chairman. >> guest: thank you.

[applause]

>> and now local leaders from around the country discussed the pontial impact of arizona's new immigration on their community. speakers include the mayorsaid phoenix, arizona and new haven, connecticut and a member of the arlington virginia county board. this 90 minute forum is hosted by the center for american progress. >> welcome everyone. can you hear me clacks all right, great. good morning, everyone in thank you so much for joining us. i'll come to the center for american progress and today's event is entitled arizona and beyond, when federal government my name failure leads to a people. and

i'm the vice president for immigration policy not to fearyr the center for american progress. and it is my honor to be here beh these three very handsomroo gentleman on a rainy hee friday morning to have a very important discussion about a very topical issue and that some of thely the arizona law recently passed and what it means for a nation going forward particularly as immigration reform is bubbly and appear in washington as awashgt possible legislative battle over the summer and into the fall. f. so what we're going to do is i'm g in going to introduce our panelists. were going to have a very informal conversation, sort of opry will oprah winfrey stylechw and what will do is have a er series of questions and back-and-forth and i like an envelope in and up to the we'llu questions.r theirp ro to my immediate right isdiat mayor phil gordon.phi and mayor gordon is thee chairman -- he's the mayor ofe m course the theme use the chair ofse the u.s. mayor task force n

immigration reform. mayor korten was elected in 2003 with 73% support of phoenixnix voters. your popularity went up in a seven-year reelected.support in 2008 you were voted the bestt mayor inh america by aneca by international think tank inio london and you have made thenal news, mayor and we've seen a loa of you recently and we're very grateful foryseen a it. to mayr next to mayor gordon is mayor destefano in a semi-new haven, aynnecticut. he wasor el oected in 1994. you're serving your 10th term right now. leadership newhavenunde lea was the first city that got international attention becausee of flaws of the ounce of the resident card program which give dentification card to aificatis residence of new haven, connecticut and will besi talkie about that'l later this morning. and while you have been mayor, new haven has received a highlyg regarded award about american city three times as recently as 2008 and since you been mayor, crime is trapped in new haven a

and it attracted high-tech and biotech firms to which i think it's got a tohigh-tech s wh icie we'll talk about this morning. to my left is an old friend. walter serves on the board at arlington county virginia. he was elected in 2003.tters he had been reelected repeatedly. he's the chairman of the boardan in 2008. in he's on more tax forces and skf commissions i can possibly putp him in no card.e but perhaps one of the moreca interesting ones, although they're all important is that for for the national association ofn chinese task force on immigration reform, you are the chair. arlington is described as a diverse and diverse and inclusive world-class community and in march ofch of this year, by assd associated press, it was ratedft one of the counties that is the least economically stressed, which is a designation that i think in our economic times you want to i have your the thank yg gentleman from all being here.h. mayor korten, i have to start withrdon, i ha you.oursof within hours of the arizona , ught been signed into law, hew

published an op-ed in the t "washington post." po and in it you said that our stau was sad frustrated.. we become ground zero for illegalwe've become immigrations week that frustration exploded. so give the audience a birds eyd view of what's happened in arizona.a. it's still very much in the early stages inmuch i the afterf a lodginghouse.pa on thes with happening on the ground. >> well, first of all i thank you everyone for being here. and for inviting me and allowing me to continue to tell the storr and michael just so you know is to geto this law revoked as soon as possible, certainly to getne. it.the law the law was signed three weeks ago and in those three weeks, ts the nation in the world hasn in focused on arizona and phoenix who say that not everyone iseveo like those that you read about in here about and see on

television such as ohio and the sponsor of the law or jdohioor hayward, that many of you may remember.mber but a lot of people. in arizonat that are aware of what's in the law and those people becoming more aware of what's in the law support for that file has been dropping overwhelmingly. but having been in phoenix for so many years, letting everyone know really that we have the epicenter for the immigration debate and the results of a number of debat circumstances, when iirc think that goes back to theu ra reagan era when the fairness doctrine was dropped and instead of requiring both sides and debate to be aired, only one side was even the chance, come depending on who is providingat nine. bu more importantly, language that was never acceptable became mainstream and those that were th med to be in disagreement wi

with what was on television or radio wereton television beingd extremists and hateful andag t language that we've never heard or seen, so it became acceptable in the mainstream media. it became acceptable inle i thee debate.ate. and as a result, the wedge issue that came about as a result of u the economy over the last four years, immigration became fronte and center. as texas and california in the federal government were able tot put more agents in close quarters that were easier to close because of cities that cit were right on the border, arizona was left abandoned and s has hundreds of miles of wide-open deserts and mountains and valleys. and as a result i believe that immigration wouldn't occur because those desert mongols, historically from times and we have become the front point for thl americans in smuggling.

that created a lot of issues within the urbanof population, particularly phoenix dropreadinr houses, reading about tortures and murders, primarily just tort those that were being smuggled,t but became a very visible issuea with the airways only one-sided, one people got-s frustrated, andstra continue to get frustrated in arizona. for years, even myself and goiny to the congress asking for more agents on the board or on one h hand and nature immigrationeitoi policy that would actually fix the immigration issue,poli allo, people in arizona and the u.s. to work here legally, probably 12 million people are here nown instead of being driven underground and fearful that they'll be arrested by a pio ani his individuals.mber two the new court system orem an immigration laws have been changed since the twenties andat encourage undocumented to payrs smugglers that torture or kill

individuals to bring themindivi across. and then some type of legalization for those that are there. we need to do that as we secure the border we need to do it now. i think there are so many people in arizona, but they just just grabbed the faithful with therab silver ring and said we're going to do this, even though secure the border, even while it willth makee us safe him even though it doesn't do anything for the immigration, we're going to sena because e because congress is an act team. [inau [inaudible] >> it gets expressed insed in different ways. me.zona is one extre i'm going to turn to you mayorro destefano to talk a little bit because nearly three years ago o and kind of stark contrast of the debate that's happening in a arizona, in new haven, what pae passedd was a policy that offerd policy eyd. cards to its residentsth ty were undocumented or not.t. and in advocating for the law,

you said you can't police the community of people who won'tto talk to her cards.o wha so what didt you mean by that?by what was the thinking behind the policy and, you know, is a working? >> great to be with you all and i want to thank the for hosting this event. i found myself in a public liry library because it's usually considered safe space as opposed tou city hall. would a catholic peace [inaudible] [laughter] a catholic priest present,riest basically because i was there te with my police chief and the message of there catholic raisei was it was going to be cool andi engaged in a part of a community that when women were being beaten up by their boyfriends or when they were witnessing crime wiessing or when employees were cashing checks for them, we're not n talking to us and he was a concern to our police department

nd to the community at large. it's not good to have neighbors and gauged in keeping the neighborhood safe. out of that came a couple things, one with some policies about how we communicate with people who live in our community, about languaget availability other than english. language.the the second thing was the policed general order that had to do with the fact that you are a su subject of criminal investigation we were not concerned with the immigration that is. and third with the idea of ae i resident card. a lot of these folks on one level were singing to us look w don't have any meaningful proof that can be accepted of who we are. we want to acknowledge who weknd are. we it started out as a concept of an immigrant card.gran we realize quickly that was not the kind ofwe r community. we wanted a resident card.in in new haven, we call it the elm city resident card and it's demonstrated you could show whoi you were, birth certificate or

you could show you lived in new haven and exactly the same sa criteria that another federal agency uses to acknowledgedge people in the united states, the internal revenue service was somewhat less concerned aboutl immigration status and otherif o federal agencies. if you can demonstrate who you work and that you lived in new haven, we provide you an identification card.in new haven it also was used as a substituts for seniors instead of purchasing and did something interesting. one is out there are legislativt body part we had her first base raid assume that the federal government cannot move that quickly even if they had wantede to, frankly, the wholely, we collaboration process got on the radar screen. some elements of the federal government were angry about is r this, which is clear from documents that came out afterwards that they releasedout about the event.

and in 17 years as mayor, i'vers never seen hate mail like we had on this yet i think itenev enden incredibly, proactively unintentional constructiveuseque immigssions about immigration and our community. f instead of having a negatived by reason, someone killed by an ws undocumented, more of a positive way to engage the issue and itat brought up this larger issue the role of immigration in ourgrat community of economicwe did well-being. what they did not becomelly demonically different in any way except that one thing that was a powerful surge of documented in the card. it was interesting to me and iir think that has much to do with the ice raid if anything is people thought we were beingayed retaliated against. >> even people who had legalhavl status signed up for the card because ofs and the fear. >> now come i think what happened was a statement of

stat solidarity for the community. what happened was in the ice raid, ice came in and said afterwards they had 21 to serve. they came and arrested 32ople, people, five of whom were beinge served. basica thell other 27 basically won the da lottery that day.y.they they were the right place at the right time to getweright arrest. and this sort of illustratedf just the schizophrenia of the federal government and we'veow w comp companion pieces such as we encourage all undocumented residents to get tax ideas, to pay -- to pay taxes appropriately in the context off rights and responsibilities as . system. so, >> for arizona and connecticut are very far apart arizo geographically.. with varying outcomes in terms of how the debates are playing now. the northern virginia, counties, that are really very close to ne one another are engaging in the issue quite differently for the statehouse. go the three years ago when new haven was having a debate about

the card there also have at the vigorouscard anti-immigrant debe and arlington county respondedny in its own way. how did you respond and wherethd does it stand today? > thank you. b first i can't believe it's beene this many years since the t opening reception. good to be here again and thanks for inviting me. and this is an example of howpl there's a patchwork dress thetc country and that unity remaining to come from the federal government to resolve the wayferences ingovernme the way e is trust. t and the height of the firm inbe 2007, because of the failure ofa the federal government to act at that time the college he began i teen on their own thinking thatn they could legislate immigration trade we now know that there is guided approaches that are unconstitutional and it was proven so by a number of ordinance outward in otherfor u

places. for us in virginia, my state hae now taken a backseat to be proposing anti-immigrant law, l, unfortunately. and when the steak in 2007, 130e immigrants were made in generalw assembly, working with their friends and the governor mansion. arlington, but the history of diversity was one of the firstls school systems to allowation integration with peoplesoft bidy would exclude african-americans without a history of immigrants in thisim dissemination promote from the latino population in central america to t el salvador and south america to bolivia, for example. people beli who look new or dift i e no strangers to us. i have the privilege to havebeen been born and raised in elel sar

salvador and now i served as a member of the county board and f arlington.oa iffeur approach hasrd been different.re with increasing diversity, i too we have the lowest crime index since 1960. we are one of the mostth financially stable communities in the country.ta we have the mostble co foreclosn the region and one of the lowest in the nation. our community is very diverse and about 16% latino, 8% african-american, 9% haitian. so we have a range of includinge people in our way of life. and for us it haspeop been aboub it's not our tax to legislate immigration. instead we focus on teaching a new residents how to immigrate into a community and contrary to what some think most immigrants do want to learn english and if they had a little more timeey after the second or third job and may havehaout

time to learn piano or something like that. but it's a myth that people don't want to learn. but their approach. and in 2007, when our neighbor did pass a solution or an ordere to question immigrants to do soe we did respond in one of my proudest moments on september 18, 2007 for mygues as colleagues accepted a resolution in support of the positiveitive contributions immigrants bring not only to her county but to the state of the nation. she was kind of issue point and i'm happy to also join in and and friendly local motherboard and s say we can't let this hatred in these approaches the b-2 with al level of racial profiling andprt this is veryhi important, incite others who don't have the fullto

knowledge to target an increase cr hate crimes. that's a very dangerous thing government action,there is , whether through their cities, counties, towns or state level, we have to be very careful that it has consequences. and arlington we felt we had to embrace our immigrantion. population. we have the workcenter and the one in virginia that we feeln r workers with a little more employment and it's better to take place in a corrugatedor manner in order to have a secure safe community.mmunity. that's our approach. we're not shy to speak up on thh issue. io fact, they said it was thefit first resolution to deportgrant immigrants in 2009 we have a secondin resolution to try to at to the voices to push our pr president and the currente currc congress to act on comprehensivr immigration reform. and as other jurisdictionsictios around the country will continue to do that and i approaches torn

integrate and assimilate and to not getknock away from our histf dmmigrants and conclusion and n reject those issues and we owe respect to mayor because you'rer approaches the right approach to have a heap states by passing the legislation such as the one that banned approved in arizonao sna i not a week ago. >> said both of you have talkedy about the law enforcement, the committee safety activistst and really being at the heart of the matter a shared concern forconcr everybody frankly. ra so mayor gordon, talk a little bit about what's been the beenhe reaction of the law-enforcementa community. i mean, they have been given a whole new set ofity. ole ne responsibilitw ies. and on the one hand they can be sued for racial profiling or fod not going after people whereaf they have reasonable suspicion they are here legally.shouldn'tr worse law enforcement law enforcement community finding thisnity up?ut

>> unfortunately divided is like america. first for background city ofugh% phoenix is roughly 50% of thee aizoe population of the state of arizona and really 700,000 in the united states.d s most of the land in arizona is government, either nativether american or federal.p phoenix is also one of the witht largest cities, physically about 540 square miles.ly, the valley which encompasses another three and a half million people is within the proximity.t so you have multipley. police agencies often basically 100 sq square miles and then i have current jurisdiction and was designed for the rural areas.we. as result, particularly the as a immigrants have a lot of time citizens knowing who's who is

very difficult, particularly immigrants where they come from other countries, where policetrr aren't honest.'t ho our police department has had a long historyn of opposing these laws for almost 20, 25 years and believe in the model of all police agencies are there to protectll and serve. unfortunately, over the last fouru years unlike the political system, the police management s guide, the resisting the union sideum was hijacked and you have the arpaio guard over our police and other police agencies saying this is how we keep officers take. >> unfortunately can you tell us one who arpaio us. >> he claims to be the type of share from the world. on the other hand, he was noneve

somebody who is never missed ano opportunity for a camera and free publicity stunt.licity so many of you have probably hae seen the pink underwear or thepr green bologna, but it's resolved and a lot of tragedies destined to prisons, pregnant mothersrred being arrested and delivering a baby while handcuffed in the. car, families been split up, citizens being arrested. the police are split on the issue because officers they want to arrest that guys and for years that's what our officers have done. s now they're been mandated as off july 292 basically get off they street after bad criminals aread illegally shared and go afterft people because of status. the problem we're going to havee

and that's where the police areg very concerned is number one,m like every city, not enough officers while a crime has been done for five years, we stillstl have crime and to take officers off the street to go arrest thed individuals on what will be a misdemeanor as opposed to going going after felons makes us less theyl peered more importantly andthe maybe the underlying issue onam law-enforcementon historically c rule written or unwritten has always been the police community needs the community to point out individuals and testify victims. our community canrested fo be arrested for coming forward by pointing out drug dealers, and murderers, by the way, none of whom respect ethnicity or ofs legal status, they don't ask for one passport.a they are not testifying for feaa

that they or their family or their loved ones willthat th be arrested and needs murderous goals away safely and the ability to go after criminals il being affect good and affected the rhetoric that we're a century city, which is not thesy case, but what arizona is doing themaking the health a state for criminals because the entire police department is beingdeparm pulled off in terrorizing over f third of the community. >> mr. destefano, what is sure to have it the own city card has been in place for three years?ta critics charged it was going toe be a hwas magnet for illegal mi immigration, that peoplen wouldl flood new haven, that crime would go up, that property values would go down.ny have any of those dire predictions come to pass?similwa andt similarly, what's the

perspective law enforcement in your community, particularly inu the wake of the arizonar law? >> report to 10% last year. at that lowest institute thatat hasn't been the case. its interest in police a enforcement in new haven has been in support of these has policies. to me talkingwe sbout public safety though. it truly is because i think it e misses some points, which isa that immigration, healthy robust immigration has always our our always economy.e it's always been part of growing markets andc growing wealth in the united states. t's a great new book out either type of the next 100 million talking about change in next 50on over thehe change in years and it resonated with me some of the things here said.ofe he pointed out between 1990 and 2005 a quarter of the ventureene capital businesses started in the united states were started by the immigrants, pointed outi. that half of the skilled

immigrant in the world come to the united -- come to the united states. i mean, all of us know who are involved in these communities that we have growing populations you have growing markets, growing labor pools and you have increased entrepreneurism. the fact is there's always in a strong correlation in this nation between robust immigration and economic growth. and you know, in new haven i want to say a word about this walter alluded to this. there's two kinds of immigration think it's perceived, brown immigration and the united states and other types of immigration summer to make distinctions and it does get characterized a certain waykind right now. so to me in a period of economi ce recovery we have to embrace it. est as immigration has alwaysof been powerful to our wealth, just opposition to immigration has existed from the start of this country. i immigra alway mean, i am strut

italian-american 1924 johnson redirect established racial ian-as that were discriminatory against the southern mediterranean spirit i'm also raal aware 1924, you know, bombings on wall street, socko bombthen daddy and my groups dase, you know, communism was starting out and people were ca. scared and afraid and people put these dramatic quote is onout. immigration. andople wer i think just about ethnic group can identify with this. they started to get back to whye is this happening and what'svett ratcheting up some of the dialogue about this?ppening? and you know, it's an inescapable to note that if you look at the population growth of the united states over the last decade, 83%d i th of it has bee ethnic or racial minorities. and i think to not come levels8% see that play in a factor of how people are reacting to this. t

ifo you look at crime, it is nor driving crime.cting tohis. if you look at economics, immigration has done nothing throughout the nations history other than power our economy in order to be embraced in such not trusting. otina does not encourage or assimilate immigrants. europe does not encourage or assimilate immigrants. a distinction of our nation has this wonderful ability to do dis that. and so i guess -- [inaudible] there's two ways to look at what should drive immigration policy. one is the guy in times square bomber from three weeks ago, pakistani immigrant. did he do it forever to get a cup of coffee this morning i was in connecticut rhode island and i saw possibly at a ball relieved schmitz. island i ever seen edible arrangements? edible arrangements started in yaven.have

two brothers 1999 started theea. business and they've now got 95. franchises. two pakistani immigrant got brothers. so with their vision for america? franchiseso paki one of those, opposition or so positive or one of fear that got a strong sense of prejudice and ignorance running through it. and whenor america's always stod on its values of gross and assimilation and connectedness to one another, we've always -- de've always lived up to our potential and you know what every generation has got to grapple with this apparently. [applause] >> let's get a round of applause. good one. applato then, you want to jump in? >> the mayor has said that i think a lot of people want toul. talk about that our nation is changing and historically we't have exactly what the neighborsg

mayor said, the irish italian, the and the asians and what path in at least the late dirties because of our need for labor particularly in the unskilled areas, agriculture, hotels, et cetera, the wave of brown and e salvador has continued. and what's happening is at least in arizona, the majority is going to be the minority in the next decade and the minority ise going to be the majority. and there are people that are afraid of change, particularly when it's different looking, different speaking, differencing the menu. and people that have been able to capitalize whether it was the or whether in our case it'se thn extremists like jd hayworth or joe arpaio and then politicians start to hype and that's why i

say our system has been hijacked, said the governor signed the bill that clearly she knows is wrong. been immoral, it's racist and it's illegal, but she wants to be a lack of it. is and being silently pulsing that. and netflix queues that it's taking away american jobs i can assure you coming from arizona and probably going back to thats 110-degree heat tomorrow, therei aren't a lot of americans eilling to stand in the fieldsgh and pick the food that you and , are eating in 100 times orhe cleaning the for cover them that she would not stutterer slept in or in washing the dishes and they are second and third jobs,e working hard to better themselves for their kids, just like my parents did. a one important point and i saidts at th fe beginning and i don'tor think anyone is it allows thehe

extremists to control the debate. there is not any way that the somebody legally can get to this country as a practical matter it especially if you're coming from south of the border. and my grandparents came from lithuania in the late dirtiesou. and how they've been told to come back in five years, not only my parents wouldn't be here, but my sons and daughters on myself he caused at least out system allowed enough people to come into this country over thed years, that some of the persecution that happened was here today, the system to 20 years if it's working. and we've got to get that changs and then we can stop the spear of hispanics controlling the world, which were all going topg end up in a waste. >> i hope it's one where we can

stand. >> walter, let me get you into this a little bit about talking the need for reform. i d look, you appear prominently fof the president when he was running to be president, for soth regina senators for apromia webcam for warner.when h you are probably one of the most recognizable latino leaders in. arlington, northern virginia, arguably in the country. and so, you have leaned into the time the credits who are now in office and i have this issue is the core two is a personal matter and as a member of why i tend any u.s. citizen. and as they going to lead us to immigration reform and what you think it's going to a take? >> will have to continue to pusr them to make sure to move inate? that direction and yes, t particularly what happens ininus that particular arena, those ins the philosophy and in fact

overwhelmingly my opinion the democrats have reflected that. i am a democrat myself and i do overwh support the chance to makeocratl history by electing a minority president. i wasn't the only reason.upport and i think what we are now and it's an important element to kardon because the fact of his background continues to be a subject for those who are on the ace fight i will never accept the drowning of america, that have a problem with someone tha doesn't look like them being in the leadership role at most just call it what it is. at there's a lot of that going onde and that's part of. it. [inaudible] [laughter]but it part of and sometimes laws how to sort a of authorized the type of sphere, such as the law in are arizona, but separate but equal results for the law of the land at one time in that level is not right in the to be changed in

the goodness that was. not rig now, with our president, remember, the u.s. president signed -- he is the one that eagerly awaits bills to sign or veto depending on the i.d. it is the congress that has goto to get on the ball and get apenn bill to the president which all of us collectively need tt to billsure our representatives. i can tell you that former governor and a u.s. senator fro. nd ninia has issued a letter of support of immigration reform as one is the direct links to issud support the office in other refm a ways. and the president often saysec that he would like to have a bipartisan bill, bipartisan bill. that means his party, democrats andte republicans frankly by far

has been very relax and to come forward with a proposal that we can actually begin to have a the conversation about and have a healthy conversation. wit yenator lindsey graham from actl south carolina has made someersn proposal. he's been a little bit on the ls silent and, he appeared with senator schumer and a good 20th framework aired and these proposals are perfect. we know as we debate the issue, there are somethings are not post" a like. perfect. and i've got to tell you, someue active member that represents over 2400 counties in the natioi now the privilege server share the immigration task force, i've had to debate a resolution in support of conference resolutio form by this organization. i have to tell you some of my in toughest political debates i'vef ever had because they weren thi killings against

supporting anything that saysve comprehensive integration reform, very strong views thatgn we set out eye to eye, shoulder refo to shoulder to reflect at one another and hammer out a resolution which sistr nonogw . public website. with other things about all thab sort of stuff andsi a path to en legalization. we just simply are not going toh deport whatever and documented mound of immigrants may be heret in large part, when we seek totr exclude people, there is aonomy. direct economic impact. exclude northern virginia has the largest foreclosures in the region as a result of they thata resolution expert of their community and without immigrants will not only hold businessesadn that employ people went up into the economy went down.that so there are consequences of the failure of an act team

proposals. now really, what we did is by having this resolution within organization to represent 2400 s counties in the united states. that's a pretty technical numbe of people.m puts 2,400 that's something that can be at's a used with each legislator, whether we support them or not to encourage them to get on the ball and propose a bill that we can debate, that can come to -- and i have to say this. in fairness for the conversatiot that sure i'm the proud democrat. but it's also important that stronger leadership role in the last isu counted, 51 retired att and the 100 senators there come a point in time with just got to move things forward and if theh republicans are going to come t the table, we're going to have to move poin forward.rward.

let's start over again afterarem as ve been debating this for a year and decade essentially. ng it is important we continuesi to pressure, l's sta our leadert be partisan, but we all acknowledge what they were on the far left or in the middlesa that the system is broken. we can't cross arms.re we've got to push people to act. those of us in local governmentm wes cannot punt. i just went to a toughest budget since i've been elected office. we have to cut positions, services we have to make tough decisions and without the t budget. and we got it done.ce we cannot afford a punch. did whether there's an issue lingering there's a problem we need to address it and i can go on about that and in short ilemo would just say that we have to collectively pressure our elected leaders whether we're supporting them or not that we o

have a system of immigration that's broken and we'll have to make sure to make a concerted effort to act and reform. >> mayor gordon, you are spending a lot of time here in washington. comprehensivzona is exhibit a peer what happens when you knock on lawmakers doors? do they suddenly don't make the appointment? >> the doors for the most part have been open and i certainly don't disagree with anything that was said. the problem was even the democrat, the senate, none of the democrats were on board at least until the election andn when they spam the board, the debate and leadership of the democratic dirty is that going to have it until unfortunately after the elections in november- in my opinion, there's notter

enough democratic votes in the senate and socially than there pie in the house and they show o it could push something through that it was important, healthin care, but the hou i think d.c. a bubble in terms of what's going on to our country to duplicate think bills now that are coming, every city, every state is going to have different laws and the one thing i would say is while the president doesn't pass the lawsw the president has executive poi power and the best of the most important thing right now until congress does that isand the realistically probably not tillg next year is to get the justice department to intercede a tom il ntion on the law thator an arizona and any other copycat laws and start working its way through the courts and use that because we have rising tension a for violence.court we have people suffering. wean have parent that are being

deported, who are working to get their children through school that can go to college, can'tavs afford to go to college because there's not a dream that. and the engine, the fuel forcol economic elements, whether it can or technologies, highly fuel skilled mexicans, dominicans,on cubans or the backroom support that's needed through the labor is going to run out and we've got to address this issue toda o we don't have time to wait and . agree the mayor passed a resolution three and a half years ago which was tough even then. in e c weon had jd hayworth leading th. charge as the safest nation, but we passed it and i'm proud of all the mayors that passed it, republicans and democrats. there is a poor particularly across the nation for 100,000 people protesting law on may 1, the same time when those

protesting for it number two to at theame t okay, congress has got the message. we just have to get do it i f think the president at getting t the justice department tomorrow would be the best thing we can do to move this country forward. >> i'm mindful of the time, butu i wantld to get a few morerward. questions and open it to the ofe audience. mayor destefano, he boarded a the bus before dawn on the day the health care book wasthen we' happening inll o washington. but it wasn't to express an opinion on health care. it was to express an opinionopi that 250,000 other people on immigration reform. this is on march 21, i'm sure you remember.n and with theh 21st. message you want to send tohy d? lawmakers? >> you know, it's too early in the morning to be poetic.? >> are doing a great job.e morno >> walt whiettman had this phrae about america and immigration in the toilet to me not thehad thie

argument. to me the argument is when we go to bed tonight, there will bee u kids waking up on the other side of the world. to be going to be tried to figure out how toed deal our jos and her future. i mean, that's how i view the h world for an economici meanthatw worletition. d. largest employer is a world-class research university. h. one b. visas, high skilled visa work off the last year and one day. h1b we wouldn't be trying to steal the talent of the world t. the united states as the nation remains the lead producer of technologies and sciences and a world that is demanding the products and the things on the ideas that we make, why would he seek into advantage ourselves i this fashion by promoting immigration to the nation seemso to me to be a self-defeating purpose. fashither observation i have anythingon by to sway we supporr

bus and sort of the frustration and will be between a rock and a hard place is phoenix and the community finds themselves asoca continuing for the federal government to save us that may be a real long bus trip to haveo have been. and frankly, if are waiting for, the court to save us, the courts to my point of view become increasingly politicized andor courtfor cases to make law that they want tos make. a real cynical view of things fr and i don't know arizona well enough to make a broad, generalization, having said tha is that a real cynical attitude was that some people supported this hoping they would validated so they could make theirttitude validacal statement and at the same time then just have theso court ta tke care of the problee i think change happens because people demand p it. people insist on it. you know, there's a greatople d winston churchill quote about you knans during world war ii.

churchill said americans could always count on to do the right d you thing after they've exhausted every other possibility and iwae think that's the case. t this is a hard issueo and agai. is not the issue and so why do you got' washington? why did 100,000 people come out in phoenix because insisting on and so why the right bank and that's how change happens and that is how doors open. -- a >> alright, last question and then we'll open itow chang up. polling, right? everybody follows the polls. it. polls show support for thet? arizona bob. some of that might be dropping o bit, but pretty consistent high support for the average american. polls also show it but there iso widespreadrt opposition by t latinos. so one for example is doing a this evening in phoenix i believe on the arizona law, increasing attention if you

watch spanish-language at all it's like the lead story every single night. so how are you a feeling asevert local leaders a diverse community where you're seeing a split, if you will, betweening a where one with paid middle of america is on this issue on thi blog and where the latino wher community is, another minorityl? community that are growing communities as you indicated, what are your thoughts and reflections, and then we'll opeo it up to witheng audience. are u >> well, when i remind myopen i colleagues and residents in phoenix and arizona that this country and the state as i think all states were founded on the rights of remin the majority toa protect everyone, minority andtn majority.de in fact, it was the minority that came to butht is tocountryo establish america and that we were doing everything by polls and they would need a phillies

to serve in office a lot of my you kn, constituents properly believe that now. but secondly, you know, themy cn difficulty in the polling industry is how you ask aly, yon question. i think it's fair to say thatol- people are frustrated and wan-t the immigration fix.>> what that means we've allnt imm discussed, but that takes leadership that takes courage that takes frankly and i was part of some of the extreme rhetoric and sensationalism tory put aside now that there is a ot big album and a silver lining i arizona for the arizona law that cut the nation focused, that we have to do something. l got thnation time for parties tn come together and do it americana, arizona and other sommunities have done in the past, which is to fix and move forward and it won't be perfectn but inaction was -- i think the

but inacis clearly showing that people don't and haven't wanted to step on the civil rights.i tn number two, they want somethingt that works in the more the frustration goes on, the more that i think people are going to understand that, you know, the t whole is not the tool. pw having said that, i thinkhik i'm the only anglo or y non-collared elected official,, person of color, but i stood up against the fine arizona. so it gets lonely in that senset those standing up on the black,, hispanic. i'm in one of those categories, maybe all of them. so polls to influence public sood theaters, influences the media. again, i think something asces e

fundamental as got to rely on the course now because, you know, in the 50's it was the law be the land to have segregation. and sheriffs have laws that allowed them to send dogs on the people, you know, and it was legal. ultimately the court that heand. wasn't an argument, that it took too long, we've got to get thet courts involved, we've got to get congress involved in the fight to keep right arts said in cities and states like phoenix and arizona. i would add of course most of the times they're taken by small number of people, you know, if you've got people on the far right and that's the onlyu ask . population have your going to get a hateful answer and promote that type of use.ple as people on the far left geto t the opposite, so you alwaysar wonder where those roles really, how they're done. now,you i think that there's s?

genuine concerns and weddings we have to acknowledge. and many of the numbers shownowe that one out of 4% in the unites state will be in the backgrounde etatl b, maybe earlier, that word is happening. so the drowning of america ise r taking place and that makes indeed people nervous. there is also the gray ofous. america therein he does care and other important elements in order to the pool of workers an. drink people that would be able to respond to those things. ngw, we can take the rightond ti approach and reject that we want to have the best and brightest in our community by educating te them and then d we'll be at a disadvantage in the world market. we're not competing in for we'le example part of the urban policy tax forces the governor appointed and our theme is to put virginia as a unit and other

places around the world and now virginia beach with northern virginia. we need to be able to have our act together. and we feel were doing our partt with the public school system is doing our p 1% of the nation and we've hadpa valedictorians.com r matter what high school and are unable to go to the bestad colleges because of theircome ot homigration status. we want to continue the best and the brightest? is not what we want our kids too go and test and they are thenish unable to go to college. so we can do that. policy may influence where the wind is blowing. we're not going to trade political convictions no matte what. and the vast majority of my constituents reject the heat approaches, such as the bill and the state of arizona and others

that have been proposed.e bill f having said that, we also need to recognize that as a country, as a model and the world for democracy and tolerance andhe wl remember these things almost don't need to be set, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, or how we reach a point in time. we were simply going to ignore those? you know, of tho we have genuin security concerns, absolutely, no question about it. no one is denying we have at on. point we have to make very, very clear, no one are the murderers, kidnappers, drug dealers, that'e how it is. no one has defended that element and take a hateful t approach j think that somehow that's part of what our agenda is. it's fun and we reject thatakine view. at the same time, we have to be very careful that sometimes the

secure communities approach in which possibly -- a areneaked >> a dhs program. the importantly, criminal aliens. -- >> correct. and is it the murderers were after? sure. world so after program the mom s her newborn kid to school,pu get stopped by traffic infractions and ends up being deported orhe does that what we really want? no. we want to make sure to stay vigilant and not go where the wind is going because some polls to a certain thing. we have to question where it's coming from. vigive to say the accumulation of the variety, latinosuse of wp overwhelmingly reject the views in the deal such as arizona. now, it's also important to note that immigration isn't the only subject that they care about. but whether you're a documented

or we'll be here for generations, such as in new mexico and other places, latinon overwhelmingly reject this typei of approach, particularlyelming against the republican party.teo time and time again we see the republican governor signed the bill and in arizona propose a bill for republican bill makers and that is and consistent witht happens in other parts of the country. so someone may want to take a poll.n we have to look at numbers withn ind.den m we have to be open about how we havnformation came out, but i personally reject that we're at going to be driven by where the wind is blowing and instead we need tout? be firm and hold to n convictions. and i'll just end this part by saying a b lifetime ago in the higion to construct a metro endt system was proposed. sa no, no that'swashing going toto have been, as the wot thing that will ever a happen.

today we're in the westernever . amateur reject and there's a subject i will talk about. bkgrd at some point someone rejected the idea of have to make some ta adjustments.jected tt idea but i just want to look at the ad point that sometimes you have to take a stand and you have to find a solution to a problem,t p the immigration in this country is broken. ourcry is bressure lawmakers.o fix it >> were the polls are consistent across all ethnic groups in both parties is on finance solutions to immigration reform. that's where they'll go to. any last comments and will open t's wherestions. >> you know, i don't try to rationalize the poll. say what they say and they rationize they say. i think what it says is americans are paying attention to this issue. they're engaged on this issue. they're going to the worstattent o recession and economic times f their lifetime for the most they're goh i guess is the rationalization of what their

position mayin be. th bute i just sort of step back ai say and even in the way, be. although they may or may not feel this way, the arizona law is going to contribute to the solution because -- and it's not just a southwestr thing. it's a thing that happened in my neighboring stateontribute of n speak onot english only in apend village that clearly does not ni have a lot of non-english speaking people.e these are all the steps towardvt solution. .. these are all the steps towards solution. and again, if you just look at the curve of citizenship in the united states, it's been an ever broadening curve from when we started as a nation in 1776 to redefinition in 1863, to re -- was it the 20th amendment in 1919 or the 19th amendment in 1920? women's right to vote in 1919 or 1920, right? civil rights legislation in

'64/65. we've had this broadening definition of civil rights. this nation always gets it right >> on that note of optimism we will open it up to questions and back withlady in the a nice string ofo pearls. >> thank so much for this panel. it was really interesting to find out how your localities are dealing with this issue and i was wondering, you alluded to it at the very end here but i was wondering if i'll the panel could speak about secure communities because of course arizona a lot addresses enforcement effortend. and kinds big splashing this issue but your community is design come instead of doing workplace raids on illegal immigrants under the bush administration, now we are going after immigrant terminals and it seems that you know this has been a program that has beea expanding federally, and we have

had a debate recently in the washington area about thisbeen program and if it would possibly expand into d.c., and in the washington hispanic d newspaper, the free spanish-language paper it had an extensive articlend i about this expansion and enumerated all theth offenses fr which people would not be brought into, to have their backgrounds checked against national databases so it included things like minor traffic violations and smallnot drug possession.back butgr in practice, it seems the secure communities is actually picking up a lot of people were brought in for broken tail light and speeding tickets and things viat that. the national immigration lawougt center is preparing a lawsuit against ice for these violations of the policy but in the end, the practice is actually having negative t consequences in terms enforcement and their cse

relationship with the immigrant community. i was hoping you could speak a little bit about how you feel in your localities, your cities about this program and oelat hos affecting the administration of law enforcement? >> a terrific question.and gentleman. affti >> to me, securen communities, . you look at shootings and >>micides in new haven, of which we y have way too many and it ia continual challenge for us, 80% of them are committed and the victims are for the re-entry population. we want to talk about secure a communities, let me talk aboutn what we are doing with re-entry population.lk everybody comes back. talk about secure communities. 70% of them all involvedtalk a narcotics, all involve narcotics trafficking of onebommuti kind r another. you want to talk about secure communities and domestic violence?ing it is a powerful issue, violence against children.

none of these are driven by failure to adopt an immigration policy or what we are seeing dth a significant undocumented population. i am sort of dodging your question, but when i go out andi standgnif up in front of hundref enthused and animated citizens,p and you look at what isf happening in their neighborhoods and in their homes in on the way to their schools, it tends to wi deal with narcotics, re-entry populationtheir n and abusive ps or abusive adults. >> mayor gordon.s, >> i have to say that when you first hear it, secure may communities g, and going after e hardest criminals, elements, it sounds like a good thing. it sounds g like it is the most

targeted deficit. the reality is, as the young lady mentioned, the policy andpp discussion we have weather is elected officials or the chief of police level and the sheriff is one thing. the real life on the streets is anotheron reality. the example i gave your about te undocumented mom who was driving her newborn child toife schoold stopped by -- backstop with a broken tail light. there was no prior conviction.up i did affect question aboutorted i.c.e. w personally and one of e nato conferences and they did not want to answer the questiont they talked about the differente categories of hardened criminalo and so on. in my state, there is what wequl call a a rule state and that ise essentially thes localitiesule s cannotta do that which the state does not authorize. in other words the state gives the localities permission to do certain things. t venture to an agreement withh

i.c.e., the immigration and and citizenship enforcement, to thee impose secure communities in certain localities withoutratin having the due process, the public process. they have to have them whenever there is going to be a new assignmented cmu oriented task h locality. i have pubc to tell you if it ct to theo county board this board member would have rejected that position because it is not conducive. just as we went to our budget, one of the c proposals in myion locality was to cut to community policing, substantially. i mentioned earlier that aro toy we have one of the lowest crime indexes in the nation, the lowest since 1960 for our community at large part because invested in the community as members of the community, all kinds of gaining trust of all the residents that they serve and they have been c sworn toom protect. of we are not saying only protect d those of a certain race,

ethnicity or color but although the residents of the community. we then prevent crime and when youin have punitive approaches, wheree because it is fear in our community, it is the wrong way to go about it. there is a lot more review of that secure, so-called secure community needs to take place and i'm glad to hear about aan challenging the court. i think my not be the only one. if adjustments need to be made, they need to be done. it's >> any comment? >> just briefly, arizona's law goes into effect in and the end ofme july, which mandates the opposite and again, while i tried to give it a linear that e have become estate and using the far right language because now d officers will have to be arresting people that they have sonable suspicion"an

where their status is notgu leg. that prevents people from coming forward and testifying and becomes ahave haven for the criminals. i do believe that what phoenix has, and most major cities have, which used to be known as operational order, in our casehd 1.4, officers don't ask about ordegrationaj status. they go when they don't arrest n people based on civil stops,ons, traffic't criminal stops, dui's or crimes, felonies. but they also make a decision on the street as to whether that person, not because of their race or language come is going to appear in court. if the person is likely not to come to court, they don't have papers, they don't have al license, they don't have a

paycheck on them, then people are going to be taken to jail because that is the obligation.a no matter what their legal statushethe is. if they have a driver's licensea if they have work stubs, if they have a telephone number, if they officer passed asked if they live somewhere then why would you put somebody in jail for jaywalking or for thatmber, mat, petty thefts? that system is imperfect.or fora no system is perfect, but that kept our cities safe and secure. for the fifth-largest city in the united states, for five years, even with the proximity of the border, part one and part two which is property andn th en personal violent crimes, every category has gone down for fived years, 15% last year alone and homicides and 25% the years. before. despite all that, that is whats keeps a community safe, so if there. is-- by the way an

aggression on the part of anmun officer, no department is safe. our laws require us from documenting those arrested and ftops and turnovers to i.c.e.. if officer gordon has 52 stops? and turnovers to immigration because of criminal arrests, and officer jones on the same squad has won every six months, that is what we are tracking. weather was black, brown, white or whatever. o i think that is what keeps our community safe and by the way, 90%, you take a national average of all crimes, violent crimes, felonies are committed by repeao offenders.f somebody that is committing aate crime, that is where we should focus. >> thankrs you. let's take a few more questions.

>> charlie erickson with hispanic link news service here in washington. a question primarily for mayorc gordon. what you reflected on here is the same rhetoric that everybody has been talking about wanting to have things change, but youth all seem to let the president off the hook on this, and i hav think you have done it again with this groupin here. here is the guy who can really make change, who made a promise to the people, to the 12 million people who are reallyyou' suffeg because we don't have any law at this point or any amnesty if you will permit the dirty word. when you came to washington, did you ask for an meeting with the president? do you feel you could have an impact if he talks to the president about this?eting wi do you feelth that he is being t

off the hook by the people who areut saying they are for immigration? >> i can answer that directly. number one i've been in washington d.c. for three weeks in a row. 198,000 miles in the last two years. every trip is to work with the white house and congress and justice and homeland security on this. i met with the vice president to an a half weeks ago. i talked to mr. mignon is, the head of governmental affairs almost on a daily basis and m david agnew who is in the whiten house, as well as homeland security. i want to acknowledge first of all, i don't think we have let the president off the hook. that is why do you are hearing what you heard today, including

the ability and the executive order to put justice in the department. i know for a fact that he is intimately involved in our government. ali f and that i have talked to him and the word i can use, i amed very to optimistic that the jue department will be filing a lawsuit shortly. can i guarantee that? no. but i am very optimistic and it is because the president is directly interceding on this. >> can you answer the question and? >> i thought i did, charlie.ent? [inaudible] 's pie of aspirin meeting with the president and i have met president. i think it is important-- we are not letting the president off the hook on this or any other subject. the president can do his part to get us in that road at putting

an end to the-- for example. p that is something that innocent people who may become u.s. citizens slater, who may be victimsthe of this, we continuo pressure him and a variety oft ways. remember, the president committed publicly and private and publicly, the of video on march 21 at the rally at the mall. he came on video toit address hundreds of thousands that had gathered there to say he is committed to immigration reform. the president does sign a billta thatve comes to his desk. that is the goal that we have to continue to c push.n a bi he can input, he can push people along and we need to influence him so he understands he has the backing by the vast majority of americans to move this forward. remember, the civil rights fight was not one overnight. it is the concerted effort throughout the history to have--

to make sure that we move to the tha of the quality. we still have some challenges to go but this is an issue we willo continue to work hard t on and e can't just throw up our arms and also feel that this isn't going to go anywhere. now is the time to riseard. up,r optimistic and take on the fight and encourage the president tote move forward on immigration reform. >> marie in the back.a inhe >> thank b you berea.>> y just to. follow-up on the question, yesterday on the hill religious leaders met with senator mccain and he repeated his talking-u about voter secury first, although later he also said he would be willing to participate in a white house summit on immigration, so i was wondering mayor gordon, if you woods, press for such a summit number one and the second question, if you could tell us,r what is going on with the

investigation on the rand hearst murder, because groups on the right are using dab as yet another talking point for bordee security, and i don't know if a there is a question on whethere or not this was possibly linked to drug trafficking because apparently he had some marijuana storage areas there. i was wondering if you could address that part of the equation as well. thank you. >> well, numberri one, i have definitely asked them push for a white house summit, and there have been meetings behind the scenes, and there is a lot of discussion onmmit this with sent , with several republican senators that are publicly not supported, but have wien working onand it. i know that first-hand. number 2, with respect to border security, maybe i should lay out

first of all in my view and what i testified for and what i continue to ask for and what imo think makes the most sense isw n number one, people should understand the border ofwhat i'o i think is overrated hundred miles for long. in most cases, between the numb border of mexico and populatedon areasde of arizona, you have several hundred miles, maybe 120 miles at a minimum, so you have thousands of square miles desert that include canyons that are thousands of feet high and mountains and rivers and topography that you couldn't build a level while wall if you tried, much less one that could go do what ben hyde. so it is almost impossible physically to secure with having more agents in more helicopterso and foreign intelligence and more corporation with thehe

federal mexican police, which has been goings w on. these operations that you read about taking out the syndicateso which have been very successful which have kept the crime down and lowered it not only in arizona but across the nation. some of you may remember that there was a big operation with the phoenix police in the state police and theona feds that bre up three weeks ago the largest in the history of the u.s., and was u.s. wide.o. so those operations are the target where we need the resources to secure the border, but even without them as we get immigration reform, it is not going to happen. withesou respect to the rancher, there were a lot of allegationsn made. it was drugrunners, it was immigrants. on't think at this point,g based on at least last week there is nothing that has been released publiclyruigra.nt again the picture of what our

border looks like, you can't tell the border, it is nothat defined. there are thousands of acres and whether it was immigrants or whether it was national from the u.s., one doesn't know. but it is being used as a catalyst. i would say clearly that arizona law would have no effect had it been in place in terms of protecting this rancher. again, dealt with only urban citiesld have. adults with-- nothing to do with securing the border, so it isths really a tragedy and by the way tragedies are happening all border.e people are smuggling drugs andi gunsl , but it is being used to keep the immigration reformns b policy. >> the gentleman there.

if you could identify yourself. >> thank you. the my name is josh and i'm with the jewish council for public affairs. on a personal note i'm an arizona native who was recently moved tome washington and the lw has not made me miss arizona much. ize faith community has been mentionedon, and has been very actively advocating for immigration reform and calling into question the arizona law. my questionthe is, what can fos who are concerned about what is happening in arizona who don't live in arizona do about thisben and by extension what can we doe to support communities that hava done positive, proactive things? there is the discussion about like thoughts and i know there is controversy about that. >> i'm going to be direct care. pressure your republican representatives, both in the house in the house representative sam the u.s. senate. they have been reluctant and essu not wanted to

engage in meaningful conversation, putting together a bill, some kind of ata frame tht can have some debate on theful florida senate and senate and move forward. there is a bill, there is a house version through the leadership of congressman but by and large, that is sealed in a solution that we have got to pressure republican t lawmakers,and larg representatives, to move forware and give him the ball and then start having meaningful conversations to debate a r meaningful bill. at the local level, it is widelg known that legislators of the town, city, county, state, a anything related to immigration is unconstitutional and that has been proven so by a number of proposals that have been thrown out ofitut court. as an elected official i telln r

you, i have been more watchful today and we always have been about where we use our money and where do we spend it.ee i don't want to spend money on protractede losses that go on fr it ever. it able to buy their community and we need to encourage those to put resources into issues that generate economic development byill encouraging tm to open businesses, start developing perspective so people can engage in their community, citizenship classes, tosi coallenge the community. it sounds funny inmm a way to se f th ce they are play on words but i say to immigrants in my community, it is not with the county can do for you, is what you can do for the county. it is a chuckle because they are play on words.it w when you say, what does that mean because the government doesn't have all the answers. understanding that they are wanted, they are part of the fiber of our society, and not the thing that makes us a better

community, we lower unemployment, we create jobs and people will learn and understand society. those are the kinds of approaches that in our local official world, to the national association of hispanic council we focus onu . not the divisive rhetoric that we don't have the authority to legislate. >> i think it is a greatn question. politics i think there are times when issues become ripe and they are going to be dealt with. this is what you woulddon't toi ripe issue, and i think in fact a good place particularly for faith-basedgh organizations whih our membership organizations, i whether republican or democrat, is to create opportunities for citizens to engage this issue, and i knows it is sometimes hard tozati imagine how little meetis in out-of-the-ways fo places-- e

supportive federal politicians in place, i think any way to introduce this in a positive fashion into a public dialogue is a good thing, and i think that is where we should all be focused right now. a pli where can we create positive dialogue, what kind of nation do we want to be, how did we get to be where we want to be and we should take nothing for grantedi when we were doing the card, i went to speak to a group and i will never forget one sunday afternoon. i saw my job is preaching onoin this. llworked it into my remarks me started doing me.i this was not in and of itself unusual. [laughter] the group i was speaking to have been founded over 100 years ago as the immigrant aid society. i was like guys, i don't think you can take it for granted. as i i think there are lots of gret faith-based organizations. >> i would say having dealt with this issue for years it is republicans and democrats.

there areof some democrats who and-- that aare some lot of them have been hiding a t under the desk o and hoping ites wouldn't come up. doesn't i would c say go for both and it is a bipartisan issue. it is a weird one and johnlot of mccainep seems to have lost his maybe the faith event that happened yesterday jc will get him pointed in the his right direction again. suzanne, i see you bearin there. >> i am suzanne from the "associated press." i have two questions. you sort of touched on thisss. mayor gordon, what a lot of the outrage mentioned the cat kidnappings and tortures are mentioned, but we don't hear a lot of peer about any kind of the federal, state, local efforts to really focus in on that, and abt they think it's something like that was going on in washington when things happen heard called trinidad there wasomet an big ce

in the police way of doing things there. what i'm wondering is, is enough being done not order security t wise but within thehere state of those different levels to really focusno down on this? there are 300 kidnappings happening. is that still happening thatfocn that many o kidnappings are happening and that period of time?mean, the second question - is you ha? a an anti-smuggling law and when that was passed, there was criticism that it would affect law enforcement l relationships. has that affected the law enforcement relationship with the community? can you tell me if you have seen any consequences? thankseuld af you.e coun >> certainly. one, with respect to talking about andityou tell promoting te that does occur in arizona and the city of phoenix, we do talk about wit it. unfortunately, because it isari primarilyin immigrants, undocumented.

locally probably every other night you will see some 15 or 32nd coverage on localrobly somevision, but it became so commonplace it is not even in o the local papern most of the time. it is just not getting covered nationally. a lot of these individuals by the way, our police have to come at the last minute because they are getting calls from seattle, new york or tampa saying their loved one is going to be killed orndiv raped if they don't get e money and they ran out of money. so you understand the coyotes are bringing them across they ay border, stashing them and all types of neighborhoods, middle e middle class, upper class, middle class, locking them and in very unsafe conditions aftero they have paid money to come across. some of them are in the 5000-dollar, range. and then a new crew then extort them by calling the family members for more and in some cases more. so we are talking about that, and i hate to say this, but

because unless you are involved in the smuggling business or you are an illegal immigrant, undocumented there aren't very many citizens that are affectedr despite the fact of the potential for gunfire or othercu things that are goingme on. number 2, with respect to the anti-smugglingdesp law, any time arizona has been passing more and more laws and the sheriff this is sweeps, which are just as bad, where he just goes into targeted hispanic areas, since his deputies then and makes up reasons to stop, broken tail light, jaywalking, you name it,d ja chills individuals to come forwardyw and identify where drg dealers are and where smugglers are leg and where these drop hos are. why? because they will be arrested and deported for and. so, yes it has, and the phoenix

police have worked decades for eight community called trust. it is very successful.ked ca i would like to say we have 3000 iolice offersde as and 540 squae miles. that is about a police officer per square'd mile because of th three shifts, 24 hours a day, week.days a one officer per square mile, bu for all the residents that are s there, i would say there are 3 millionar eyes. we have pairs of eyes helping our officers. that is why crime is gone down . nobody can afford an officer on every corner and even if they could you still need people people to testify. so it has had an impact and by the way it is not just impacting phoenix. is impacting the nation. most people i don't think realize and the organization, we are just a gateway. there is not enough to-- business in arizona to be housing the 12 million

individuals that are here undocumented. that is because the need is in new haven and in dallas and denver and everywhere else. the smugglers are going across borders. they are going across states. they are very violent and now with the federal mexican police taking out a lot of the organized leaders, it is evenkiu more violent in the potential for realt violence in any citys great. if not for the moral reason, nor for the legal reason. it is not for the economic reason of solving immigration reform. it is certainly for the public safety reasons that we have gotg to stop this idiotic rhetoricot and get our bill passed. >> on that note, stoppingid idiotic rhetoricioti and gettina bill passed, i declare this event done but the issue is far from done. i'm hoping the panels can stay for a few minutes afterwards ifn

people want to ask questions. thanksfo everyone very much for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> a preview of mexican president felipe calderon's visit tube washington next week.

now the latest on financial regulation legislation in the senate. we are joined by stevens loan of congressional quarterly. what are some of the key changes that have happened this week in this bill over the past week? >> i think one of the most surprising changes that came through was the amendment from dick durbin, the majority whip from illinois. he has an amendment that he is put up for many years that went through this week, and basically allows the federal reserve to limit the fees that debit card issuers can charge to retailers for processing a debit card transaction so you went go to

swipe your debit card at the cash register, they will limit the amount of fees that the debit card issuer will charge in the process of a transaction. >> one of a number of amendments considered over the past week. how are these changes to the regulation bill, what is that going to do when the bill comes for a final vote to the floor? >> well i think it is, the to remains to be seen. depending on how these changes are perceived, they could make it harder for people to decide how they are going to vote, if it is seen that these amendments are making the bill more extreme so it has the potential to sway people on how they both. >> you both a moniker articles that senate democrats have to overcome tension in their own party to win passage of the bill. what did you mean by that? >> there is some frustration on how the amendment process has worked out whether everybody can get their amendment to the floor. byron dorgan the democratic senator from-- had a change on

the senate floor on thursday, where he basically said, expresses frustration that is built, his bill which would ban speculative credit default swaps , wasn't being allowed to get to the floor and chris dodd countered. he understood the position that jordan was then, but dodd had to get this bill moving and we can't let it be weighed down by everybody's amendment. everybody's amendment is going to get a shot here. >> what are we going to see next week as the senate returns? >> one important amendment will be one from sheldon whitehouse, an amendment that would allow each state to set a cap on excessive interest rates that are charged by credit card companies operating in that state. this is something that the financial industry is really going to fight hard against, but it seems that we are seeing a tide shifting more in the direction of an anti-bank sentiment, so this is kind of

one of those amendments that might seem far-fetched at some point that could really gain some support if it is seen as hurting the banking industry. >> what can you tell us about the latest timetable that majority leader reid has for the bill? expecting them to file a cloture motion on monday. this is a motion that if it is approved it it will limit amendments that can be filed to the amendment, to only those that are germane so it gets a process going a little bit further. the motion will be filed on monday. the vote might not be made until wednesday. we are still thinking this is something that could happen by the end of next week if everybody gets their ducks in a row here. we will be voting tuesday, wednesday and thursday next week and we still could have voting on friday. in theory we could wrap this bill up in ex parte. >> for an update on the senate financial regulations bill, with stevens loan from congressionally-- congressional quarterly. thank you. >> thank you.

>> to address a joint meeting of congress. now some of the key issues expected to be discussed by the two leaders including immigration and border security, drug trafficking and the state of mexico's economy. from the widow was in center, this is about an hour and a half. >> this should be a very exciting, interesting and polemical discussion we help. it is a real pleasure to have some distinguished panel panelists who i will mention and introduce briefly in a moment. thank you all for your mobility, moving to this round. we originally on the fifth floor and we are fortunate to have c-span and voice of america today and this is a rounded work much better for the filming of an event like this. we want to welcome the media as well. next week president calderon of mexico will be in washington for a state visit with president obama, the second day visit of the obama administration. this is a culmination of a number of other high-level visits obama has been twice to

mexico in the first year and a half of his administration. we have seen secretary clinton, secretary napolitano, attorney general holder and many others go to mexico as well as a number of mexican officials here. this has been an intense period with the u.s.-mexico relationship primarily on security issues but clearly there are issues like migration which are hot button issues in both countries, issues of competitiveness that tied together with trade, development concerns, questions of even energy and renewable energy, a great deal that could be on trucking disputes. lots of things that could be on the u.s.-mexico agenda and and the home of focus on amendments for the border which we may hear about next week as well. this is an opportunity to focus, focus on the administration in both countries have but also focus on all of us who are interested in u.s. relationships. this was actually i should say

denise dresser's suggestion and we are glad you could join us to take stock of where mexico is which is where we will start talking about it where the u.s. mexico relationship is. we are trying to do both within the context of an hour and a half. let me do a quick infomercial, which is we have been working very hard with a number of colleagues on the projects which some of which would have seen in some you will see shortly. on monday want to highlight david shirk and-- have been putting together the security cooperation. you will see a number of papers coming out on this. one of the writers of this, one of our board members who has been one of the people who is advising us, as well as-- somewhere in the premise well. it should be interesting for anyone following this issue. it is they were paper and renewable energy and will eventually come out as a bulletin. rob donnelly just publish something on immigrant political

participation that came out on monday. and, it katie putnam organized today's meeting is back there and chris wilson. they have something called more than neighbors which is a factor in u.s.-mexico relations that should be a tuesday or wednesday of next week. we are sorry will be flooding your e-mail boxes but the bottom line-- and a book which is out there, which we just got copies of called mexico's junk-- democratic challenges on amazon we are told. it is a number of colleagues. a number of very distinguished mexican and u.s. scholars have contributed to it. without further ado let me introduce our panel said we are going to do this is a conversation here. tinny dresser is a columnist. she's written her last book actually which i will forget the title onto nice. it was a history, a somewhat ironic-- satirical history of

mexican politics, one of the most creative things that i have seen in any country and i said to denise once, think you took this from the cartooning heritage. jon stewart in a way. it is the mexican tradition of cartooning but irony and the sarcasm. she yesterday won the national journalism prize in mexico. congratulations on that. she is a person who is prolific as a public intellectual, a scholar and as someone who really moves forward to the pace of mexico. juan pardinas is a columnist and as i said to people earlier, one of the new voices in mexico though he has been around for a while. he is one of those voices you will hear more and more from overtime and has been active with a project on transparency, and municipal finances as well as finances in general, and has been doing a lot of work really

to make public financing work sensible and more transparent and accountable to every citizen. shannon o'neil is what the council on foreign relations. she is an article that was out in foreign affairs about a year and a half ago on u.s.-mexico security issues that is frequently consulted, but more partly she is a book that will be coming out. and a well, don't don't look for a get on amazon but soon, that'll that will be sort of looking at where mexico is today and where mexico in the united states are today and i think you'll find it interesting. she has been doing a great deal of work on these issues. david shirk is a fellow at the woodrow wilson center. he has been a prolific author and scholar on mexico and has been doing some of the best work out there on rule of law issues, on the effects of security cooperation, but also is a fantastic book on contemporary mexican politics and has written broadly on a number of other issues involved in the

u.s.-mexico relationship and i am very proud to have them here at the wilson center this year and is a colic in our joint project on u.s.-mexico security cooperation. without let's jump into the substance of the santa anita bike and turn to you first, tell us what mexico is today. what is the mexico that is the partner of the united states, the mexico that under calderon, as he comes up here, what is happened to political reform, what is happened to the world of the military and society? >> i think that too frequently, tension in the united states is focused exclusively on the war on drugs, on organized crime, and the violence that has accompanied it, to the detriment of a sustained analysis of mexico's domestic politics and domestic political economy. and i would like to focus on the trends that will be key to understanding mexico's future that go beyond the drugs and organized crime agenda.

for the next three years, mexico will be a country where everything is determined by the forthcoming presidential election. that will be key. the second term, because he faces presidential elections in 2012, the last three years of his term will be focused on retaining the presidency in the context of declining, the declining political fortunes of his party. if you look at the polls today, the former moving party, the pri 's position to regain control of the political system. the current governor of the state of mexico is a front-runner and most of the polls and the pri's position to win 10 out of the 12 governorships that are up for grabs in july.

why is this the case, after only nine years, nine years since we celebrated mexico's transition to the electoral democracy and are out clamoring and celebrating the victory? why are we facing what could be a potential political regression i frequently explain this in terms of the-- of mexico. in the context of increasing security and drug trafficking and violence in the perception that the mexican state is failing to address those issues successfully. i think there is a nostalgia for rule and order, poor experience for the people who really knew how to do things in the pri is marketing itself that precisely as that sort of party.

and, the pri is building as i speak here, a coalition, i think a very successful political coalition, that includes the oligarchs, union leaders, the corporatist structure, what remains of it that is still very strong. and a vested interest firmly entrenched in the country's economic structure that would like nothing more than to perpetuate the status quo, where rent seeking is the norm in the politics of extraction have become a characteristic sign of mexico's political economy. this populist nationalist distributive tradition that continues as mexico is still fueled by oil. so we are witnessing the reemergence of the pri, and i view this as a potential political regression but it can

also be explained to a large extent by the collapse of the mexican left. i think the prd, there is enormous responsibility for this outcome, because if you look at the polls, many of those who have left, who have left the prd have joined the ranks of the pri and there has been no effective counterweight, and the possibility of creating a coalition, a collision between the prd and the funds has not been possible, because of prd's recalcitrance of internal divisions, question about legitimacy of president calderon's government and i think the collapse of the left is also key to explaining why does the pri is returning without having modernized itself. so how does this leave felipe calderon, who is coming here next week, in terms of the rest of his government?

well, popular opinion supports the president as someone-- if you look at the polls, people appreciate the fact that he is at least waging this war, even though it is not effective, but his party time and again is being punished at the polls. i think a widespread perception of what they call the administration of inertia, despite the fact that some reforms have been passed. energy reform, fiscal reform, pension reform, these minimalist reforms that we could argue are right steps in the right direction have proven to be too small in terms of creating a dynamic market economy, creating jobs and raising the type that could lift all boats. this is not been the case, and i

think to a large extent it hasn't been the case because the national action party has failed to take on the old regime. the national action party, both under felipe calderon has in many ways accommodated to the traditional institutional framework and particularly at the local level where the fund has suffered its greatest defeats in the last several years, you see a great deal of questions posed for basically acting as the pri did once he came into power, acting in the same corporatist patronage driven way that the pri did for so many years. there is disappointment that the democratic process. there is disappointment with the national action party, and felipe calderon's war on drugs is not popular enough to translate into electoral gains

for his party. and he has not been, he was not forceful enough in his first three years to push reforms that would have made the political system more representative, more accountable for that would have made the economic system much more competitive. so, what is he trying to do now? i think he viewed the midterms, the past midterms as a wake-up call and now you see him trying to push forward a series of reforms that he didn't add the cage during his first three years. he is trying to position himself as a reformist that he wasn't in his first three years in order to present their performance-based electorate while at the same time trying to smoke out the pri or put the pri into a corner where it has to adopt a public position on reforms that the president is

advocating, such as re-election, citizen candidacies, and anti-monopoly agendas. but i say that these reforms necessary and important. many reforms they celebrate because they have been on the agenda of many democracy and citizen led groups for many years. mexico has an electoral democracy that basically announced the rotation of the elites. still has to become more representative and more accountable. calderon has finally made this agenda his. the problem is that these reforms in the context of divided government and a lame duck presidency, because of the divided congress, have less than zero chance of being enacted. so, while the president is to be commended for their performance-based that he is adopting, at the same time it is pretty clear that these reforms will not the past and the

remainder of his administration. why? because it would need support of the pri. today the pri has a majority in congress with the green party. if it wanted to, he could enact these reforms on its own, without even the support of the left or the national action party and i would argue that that is not-- that will not be the case because of the interest of the pri coalition and because the pri believes this doesn't have to barter dries itself over and ask these reforms. it is enough to position itself as a party of experience, of security, of continuity, and continue to advocate war to prop up the patronage driven machine that is leading to its electoral victories at the state and local level.

so, what does this mean for mexico in the next three years? it means an electorally driven agenda. it means mexico continues to muddle through politically and economically. you are not going to see dramatic, aggressive reforms passed, and you are probably going to witness, unless something dramatic happens, the reemergence, the red-- resurrection of the pri, the party at the door of blows the most after only 12 years since mexico experienced the transition to democracy. >> thank you today's. juan, where do you coincide and where do you differ? >> i mostly-- i would like to have a different approach. we now have several mexico's. the experience of someone who lives in mexico city, it is very

different than the experience that other people are having. is how we experience against organized crime. it is totally different, and mexico is becoming a real federal country that, each region is having very distinct problems as a whole. these contracts are an optimistic view of the country. the pessimist view is based on the news we have had in the last months and years around the war on drugs. there are things happening that would be unbelievable just a few years back. things that have happened in the last month.

the social support in some areas of monterey for the organized crime, that was something unimaginable in mexico just a few years ago. and how the different levels of government are coping with the threat. it is also like a source of pessimism. which would be my source of optimism? i see is as a very strong movement of federal society in mexico that i haven't seen before. in several regards. for example in mexico we didn't have collective action as a legal system. we didn't have the possibility of consumers organizing to protect the right. through organization that was born in civil society by the leadership of some citizens, they are starting to push in congress the idea of having collective action pass.

it actually happened last year. then we saw in the last midterm election in 2009, a huge movement promoting the black vote, saying that no party or candidate was good enough for the expectations of the people, so they weren't saying, you should go to the polls, but cancel your votes. this movement was highly criticized but in mexico city for example it got 10% of the votes. it was the fourth-largest fourth largest political force in mexico city area. and i think it was like a spark for the initiative of political reform that was put forward by president calderon. in some regards, i see a society much more organized and much more condensed and how the country could change in the future, and that gives me a

sense of optimism. also, regarding the war on drugs, the contrast between the different regions in the country, i think we are seeing a collapse of the federal system in mexico. our federal system of security is not working. we have police, becoming the first line in the war against organized crime. and i want for a few seconds to just walk in the shoes of the policemen in mexico. the drug dealers know where your family lives, where your children go to school. the daily route you take from your home to your job. then one day they come and say if you don't work with us, and if you don't receive the this amount of money, we are going to give you are going to pay a very

high price. so i think the way our institutions for security are organized are not aligned with human incentives. they don't respond to human nature. a lot of people in the room-- i am sure i would be cooperating with drug lords that my family is threatened. if we have institutions that do not work with human nature, we have a problem. so we are putting these people-- we are giving them small salaries and asking them to become heroes were martyrs in this war against organized crime. so the whole structure of the system is not working and i'm a bit worried how the lack of urgency of the mexican political parties, the mexican congressman are addressing these issues.

nobody wants to be like the elephant in the room. it took three years for the mexican government to address the fact that the municipal policeman are becoming corrupt and penetrating and had been penetrated by the mafia and actually working with them. in a way, as the mexican taxpayer i am financing that kind of body guards of the drug warlords. through our taxes, we are paying these policeman that are being forced to work with them or corrupted her crew were store threatened. few governors have addressed the issue with the current distribution of the federal responsibilities regarding national security. this cannot go on. one of the biggest criticisms we

could make to president calderon regarding the war on organized crime is not that it started. when it began in 2006, he didn't have any other alternative, but he initially has not come with an institutional criticism or how their responsibilities are distributed and how it should change in the long-term to create a new and stable system of security in mexico. so there has not been an institutional response on which would be the long-term. would we see the municipal police and the state police, the federal police in 10 or 20 years to come? that his lack of the institutional change. it is also a source of worry. regarding the fact that-- is coming back. if we see the polls t,