here's a look out upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country:

book there we want to introduce you to the first time author, hellen raleigh, her book is called "the broken welcome mat." miss raleigh win did you come to united states. >> i came in set 96. as a graduate school student. >> from? >> guest: from mainland china. >> host: when did you become a u.s. citizen? >> guest: 2013. >> host: when did you start to -- the process of becoming a u.s. citizen? >> guest: well, the day after i arrived in the united states, in 1996 as a student, i wanted to stay here, united states. so i come back from that day took me 17 years to jump through all 0 the legal hoops to become a naturalized oceanid. >> host: what are the hoops you lad to john jump through? >> guest: so, first is to maintain legal status. and our immigration law is stacked against the people like

mow who doesn't have a family here because our immigration law heavily favor family preference. because i don't leave a family here i need to first maintain my student status, and then find an employer. that's the only way i can become a legal resident here is through employment. so i got a job offer from the citibank and work for several fortune 500 companies to maintain my h1v work visa. and eventually daimler chrysler was waiting to sponsor my work visa because the supply of the visa less than the demand so i was stuck in for five years with zero progress. so eventually i got married. at the end of the process i got married so that's how i became u.s. citizen through marriage. >> host: do you think if you hadn't gotten married you'd still be in the system. >> guest: probably not because

by the end of the five year waiting run out of options and you talk about a hurdle. that's another hurdle. when you do not how long you can legally stay, cannot buy a house, i cannot easily change jobs bus the next employer has to be able to ready to assume all the legal costs and risks to help continue the process and not many police employers wastio that. i'm at the thorns rope back then and have to leave. >> host: so you right about rite about this in your book, the broke welcome mat, is the burden on employers or schools to say, yes, we want her to stay, and then they have to prove that you need to stay? >> guest: the burden is really mostly heavily on the applicant. so, this is another problem with our immigration system. you can -- somebody like me who

has skill sets, who has knowledge, education, i have two master degrees from the united states, and i can't sponsor myself. ... green card in canada but they don't allow us to do that here in the united states. >> let's say you wanted to come over to the u.s. today from mainland china what would be the process, could you just get on a

plane and fly over? >> if you are just an visitor you can come here as a tourist and if you want to immigrate, you can go to marriage, employment or family, but there is a very long wait. for example based on the current status now i can sponsor my siblings. nobody will even review her application page. that is a line, that is a weight. >> 14 years. is it different country by country? >> like china they've supplied

the country of immigrants much longer. it's still very complex. >> could your sister come over before that 14 years is up to visit? with >> what would you like to do how would you like to change immigration? >> in my book i offer several solutions. the key is number one to make the system simpler.

we have a complex system nobody could decipher. when you have a complex law it is more complex than the tax code. it increases the wait time for the cost, it's discouraging people who go through the process so we need to make the law simpler and change the system from a family reunion base into a marriage based, focus. it's to give the process to those that have skilled

knowledge this way it will create into this person will be successful based on their skill set and advantage so those are the keys. and i do also believe to support this kind of reform we have border security and national security because those things to bring a challenge. my only disagreement is we can't get past the voters activity national security because number one it doesn't help the country and number three you lose the other half of the country. so voters activity has to work hand in hand to make the system simpler so people that we want can benefit the country.

>> what about increasing the h. one b.? >> increasing h. one b. is an interesting question. going back, the current system is a legacy of the law. it wasn't set by the market demand. it was based on whether we say 81,000 it has nothing to do with reality if you look at countries like canada and australia they

know how many jobs are on the annual basis. so that is the number. to me we should get rid of the system. >> was there any point in the process but you could have taken a short cut? >> no especially if you want to follow the law. part of the system is to present your fingerprint.

when i got married that is a status change. keep in mind when i got married in this process now every time i change the status we have to provide a fingerprint is to provide a set of finger prints is fine but the way they did it, they communicate with me and at this time and location.

so i copied the first letter in the second letter and. that they would reschedule me so i called the customer service number and ask can you help me to make this appointment. our federal government, i could not communicate with this and that will show you how bureaucratic our whole system is a so there is no shortcut really. >> let's go to the illegal immigration issue 1986 there was

essentially about 11 million in the country now do you think they should be allowed to stay? for >> i have a chapter in my book so to me there are but two sets of population one is talking about who is already here. the population already dropped 60% because of the rhetoric and the other is better border patrol etc.. based on my research most of them are migrants.

in order to do that you have to risk everything to do to write so to me for this population they don't have a criminal record they should offer them a temporary work visa. for people that want to become immigrants in the process but many of them want to be able to make money and go forward we should make this easier for them and the reason i believe that this approach i don't know if

you are familiar with this program from 1940 to 1965 over 6 million workers came here and went back. it was down about 90%. you have to create a win-win situation.

it is an easy come and go. the broken welcome mats america's un-american immigration policy and how we should fix it. thank you for being on the tv. >> thank you. booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members what they are reading this summer. >> i am reading a book i am enjoying tom friedman's latest thank you for being late i'm a big fan. the technology is today and where we are going to be in the next ten years with a lot of