she's interviewed by leonard lance from new jersey. at ten, former special assistant to george w. bush retraces his journey from the black neighborhood of madison park in montgomery alabama to the white house. we wrap up at 1045 with investigated reporter. he looks at how the pentagon's interest in surveillance led to the creation of the internet. that happens on book tv on c-span2. >> here's jorge on life as a latino immigrant. [applause]

[inaudible] >> hello everyone. i'm jackie. i'm the officer here and it is great to welcome you here tonight. how many of you here for the first time tonight? nearly all of you. welcome. i'll give you a little history where you're sitting. the building opened in 1908 at the turn of the 20th century, this neighborhood was the heart of the jewish community with synagogues in three different locations. the jewish community began to form in d.c. in the 1850s.

after functioning as a synagogue for 45 years, this building became home to an african methodist piscopo church for the next 50 years. when the church relocated up at the building of for sale, the highest bid was from someone who wanted to turn it into a nightclub. it would have made a great nightclub, but it was saved within 24 hours by three local real estate realtors had a new vision. today six and i is the for entertainment and ideas and one that reimagines how religion a community can enhance our lives. immigrants today face challenges similar to those faced by the immigrants were worshiped in this building in the early 1900s. the pain of leaving in home working to make a new life for the promise of a better future, starting a family with limited

means and dealing with hatred from people who forget we are all immigrants. thinking about our own staff come to families who emigrated from the u.s. from around the world including lithuania, austria, ghana, poland, hungary, cuba and ukraine. tonight it's my pleasure to introduce jorge and welcome him back to speak about his new book, stranger. the book is dedicated to 800,000 dreamers. he has been referred to as the walter cronkite of latin america and uses the experience of being thrown out of a press conference in iowa in 2015 within, and that donald trump to explore his own biography and answer questions about our current political moment including what does it mean to be an american.

after more than 45 years of living here he feels like a stranger as do many immigrants today. there's a jewish value that says love the stranger as yourself. please join me in giving a warm welcome tour speaker. [applause] >> i used to have a friend that was so beautiful that when she emigrated to the united states during thanksgiving she was incredibly happy and amanda was beautiful because during thanksgiving she didn't speak a word of english just like me. and then during thanksgiving she

thought thanksgiving was really a festivity about a thing called thanksgiving that we give turkeys for free. and that translation is beautiful because for two or three years she thought it was every november. and she celebrated something that never existed. she was looking at her world in mexico and then at some point she needed to understand something was changing in this country thanksgiving was happening here that it was strange because it had nothing to do with religion and everyone was celebrating. something like that is happening to me.

there's a wonderful friend and writer who told me you are an amphibian and she's right, sometimes i speak in english with an accent and then a few hours before i have to do a news casting in spanish then i talk in spanglish and sometimes lunch along gopher mexico city. and it would be easier believe me if i could tell you i'm just mexican or american but it is not that simple i'm a little bit of everything. when i think of my son he is part cuban, mexican and american.

that's where were going, the way we look here is how the knighted states will look in the future. this is the future. the next 20 minutes i want to talk to you about how i see the future some of the obstacles that i am seeing. these are not normal times. in ten or 15 years from now will be talking about the trump era and we will know that was not normal. it is not normal to have a president who makes racist, sexist comments. that is not normal. today i was doing an interview with the bbc and we had a great conversation. and then at some point there asking me about trump's remarks

and i told them how would you feel if your prime minister would say that a group in great britain is composed by drug traffickers, and rapists what would be the reaction. they cannot even imagine that. these are the times we are living now. for me i've been living here for 35 years, my son and daughter were born here this country gave me the opportunities may country of origin cannot give me. i was a reporter in mexico at some point i did a report on mexican politics which was really a president decided who is their successor.

then my boss told me are you crazy, what are you doing. i said i'm just reporting what's happening. the president is going to choose his successor. and he said no, you cannot say that. so he wanted me to rewrite it, i didn't. someone else wrote a report and that i quit. the 24 i have no possibilities of getting another job. i had no money and the only country that open the possibilities to me was the united states. this country gave me the opportunity to be an uncensored journalist. that's what i wanted. that was los angeles of the united states my only goal is

that the immigrants who came after me would be treated with the same generosity with which i was treated. i remember when ronald reagan was president and i started working with my fellow journalist and colleagues of course i was expecting the boss to say you cannot say that but nothing happened that's beautiful. and in that idea of a generous country open to immigrants giving opportunities that's how i always felt america was going to be. and then came donald trump. it is not only donald trump. it started well before. but for me it was when this candidate coming down from the

escalators and trump towers and he lost his campaign in june and then he said openly, mexican immigrants are criminals, drug traffickers, and rapists. right there a national tv. and i'm saying of course that is not true, i am a mexican immigrant. who's going to stand up and say what you're saying is a live. nobody said anything. so i did what any journalists did come to when was last time you wrote -- other than that, nobody would have done that. i wrote a letter to donald trump and put it on fedex pettit package and sent it to trump towers. the next day i was in my office

and somebody came to my office my phone started ringing i started getting texts and i thought something was wrong with the phone and simply told me, trump publish yourself number on the instagram. myself phone number and many things happen, first i had to change my number which by the way i love my number, it was so easy and when you're an immigrant like me and whenever you call the phone or the gas company and first you say jorge is a problem because if you're jorge you're in trouble because nobody can pronounce it.

so i ended up george very soon. and then after you go through all these explanations then it's always beautiful to end up with 1212. that number, i completely lost it. i got hundreds of texan messages. some criticizing me some attacking me and telling me to go back to my country and others asking for sending me songs and poems in asking first child all kinds of things. it was not really that bad. but the fact is, i had to change my number. then we made a plan. my good friend was a producer

for a show that i was doing now he's working at abc and going to be my boss one day again. he came to my office and he told me you have to go to iowa. he said you have to go to dubuque iowa. so this is the plan. i had to change my cell phone number but still we have many questions to the candidate because we needed to confront him. he did not want to talk to me but i wanted to talk to him. so television doesn't happen you created and you produce it. that's what we did. we planned on going to dubuque, iowa where the candidates were going to be speaking. not to new york because of be

possible to ask questions with hundreds of journalists. we thought in dubuque, iowa there be just a few journalist following the candidates and we are right. we showed up a few hours before and then we made a plan. i was to wear a microphone so my voice would be the same level as his then we had the three cameras well positioned in the lighting was right and then i made a plan. i saw how he interrupted everyone asking questions and they would never finish their question; plan was to finish the question at the end and also something that had to do with body language. if i waited and asked my question sitting down he would be ahead of me and there would be an imbalance that would impossible to maneuver.

i decided test my question standing up. says any journalists would do you never wait for a candidate to tell you now is your turn. i noticed a space and a pause then i said mr. trump i had a question about immigration. he heard he knew what was going on. he did not look at me he said next question but i was right there so i knew exactly what to do. i kept asking my question and then he said, go back to univision. let me show you what happened. >> i have a question about immigration. >> next question.

>> sit down. sit down. >> i have the right to ask a question. >> no you don't. you haven't been called. >> go back to univision. >> you cannot depart 11 million people, you cannot build a 1900-mile wall. you cannot deny citizenship to children in this country. >> sit down. >> i am a reporter. >> do not touch me sir. i have the right to ask a question. >> i have the right to ask a question. >> i have the right to ask a question. >> get out of my country. get out. >> on the u.s. citizen too. >> univision, no. it's not about you. >> it's about the united states.

>> so that is what happened. [applause] >> we plan everything, but we never expected that in the united states and canada would call a bodyguard to throw reporter out of a press conference simply cause that reporter wanted to ask a question. when he said go back to univision he said he didn't know me. let me think about it what he was really saying is, go back to mexico in your country. that's what he was saying. there's a funny moment he threw in air kiss did you notice it he

moved his mouth like this. that was a signal to the bodyguard to take me out. so you never ever get her cell phone number to donald trump. the second lesson, if you those un air kiss, run. because the body carts coming after you. look what happened. hates is contagious. we have a candidate who is telling you go back to your country in just a few seconds later one of his followers outside the press conference is telling me get out of my country. to think that person would have said the same thing that donald trump had not go back to univision before. i don't think so. i think hate is contagious. and that is the example i am seeing on the effect of trump

nowadays. there's something bigger happening. i think that there's a huge demographic revolution happening in this country. when donald trump announced his candidacy was june 2015, but on july 1, already more than half of the babies under one year of age in the united states were members of a minority. by 2044, i'll be 86 if i'm lucky to be here. every single group in this country, everyone latino, whites, african-americans, everyone in this country is going to be a minority. there's a huge change happening in many people, and i believe donald trump and many of his followers believe that, money

people want to change what is happening. i think donald trump has a nostalgic view of the united states. he wants to go back to 1965 when almost 85% of all people in the country were non-hispanic whites. but we cannot go back to that view of this country. there were 85% of the population not hispanic whites. now about 62%. thirty-two years there will be less than 52%. there's a fear i believe among many people that what they understand as their country is being transformed. the anti-immigrant sentiment that were seen the has to do precisely with that, were trying to change and revert the way we live in the united states.

with the daca, trump had the possibility to take that for a few miles of his wall, useless wall because as i said almost 40% of all the undocumented immigrants come here by playing through visa. it doesn't matter how tall you have it or how wide you have, they come by plane. so if he wants to have 300 miles wall, let them have it. it's really a stupid wall. it's the new toy he wants for christmas it's not easy to accept but many were willing to do that. but then he added something else, donald trump wanted to end chain migration. family reunification is simple.

you enjoy spending time with your family? i'm sure you do and that's exactly what happened since 1965 and what those ideas congress change the law in the land a 1965. it has been very good to us i think were doing pretty good i don't see anything wrong with that. but then donald trump needs to change migration but here's the problem, melania but melania's

parents melania's parents got their green card recently i think it's beautiful there in the process of becoming u.s. citizens. but then, how come chain migration is okay for the trump but chain migration or family reunification is not okay for the rest of america. i don't see that. at the end, there's no agreement with dock at this moment because of many reasons, the supreme court and in the court of appeals they want to visit the case the sense of urgency is not there is more. i believe by including chain

migration i think it's a diverse multicultural multiethnic and that's precisely what we have to defend. but then, we have a president that for the first time his offending and attacking minorities. this is not normal. i tend to do something every once in a while fox news invites me to go to the shows and i accept. and you know i do it, because it's great to have a conversation with you. most of us are convinced that immigrants are good for this country and we need to open the conversation with those who

don't agree with us. i know that they are going to kill me when hannity and ingram invites i know they're going to kill me. i know that at some point i'm going to have a minute to tell them this idea, to tell them that it's impossible to be inclusive. but i am not a criminal that the other day i was with laura ingram and she showed me a picture of a dreamer who had committed a crime. then she wanted to infer that because of her all the other dreamers were exactly the same. it would be absurd if i would sell whites in this country i like stephen paddock, the what or like they're all like adam -- the man who killed 20 kids in

the children in sandy hook. you cannot do that they constantly criminalize what we do. i think it's important to talk to them because otherwise the conversation is going to end. and maybe donald trump is watching maybe some of his followers are watching so again these are not normal times. i want to show you a video in which i put together some of the racist remarks made by president trump. i say that and i really can't believe it but here's a president making racist remarks and then we will talk. >> the rain drugs, their bringing crime, their rapist, donald j trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of

muslims answering the united states. i think there's blame on both sides. look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides. the grandmother and kendall is on record saying he was born in kenya. but we have a representative says he was a long time ago a they call her pocahontas. i have a judge who is a hater of donald trump. the judge who happens to be mexican which is great.

>> let me try to be very honest with you. i don't know if donald trump is for races. but i know it's coming out of his mouth and this is what is coming out of his mouth. now that's what i'm saying these are not normal times. so here's a question for each one of you. if this happens, what should we do what should we do? and as a journalist it's been a dilemma force because we have a candidate making these remarks and how do we respond as journalists. my first responsibility is to report reality. if something is read i say it's red 17 people diocese 17. this most basic responsibility. if you watch the newscast and read what i write than that

means we need to look at what i'm saying. there's another more important responsibility and that is to question those who are in power who give voice to the voices. if we don't do that is going to do it. sometimes you have to look at this and this is not easy to digest you looking at the

violation of human rights you have to take a stand. otherwise just does not look right because otherwise if you stay silent you are complicit. if we stay silent in front of this we are complicit you have to do it in a nonviolent way. but you cannot remain silent. because it's too important. because these are our time so we have to respond to that. i'm not the only one here. each one of you has a responsibility in private conversations with your friends come at work and at school, that's your responsibility.

i was talking today and he feels the same way, this our responsibility to do that. everything i'm saying to tonight i've learned from the dreamers. thank you for being here. in the dreamers you remember in 2010 when they walked all the way from miami to washington, d.c. i thought they're going to rest them and for them to a country they don't know. after talking with them many times, they taught me the best lesson which is, first of all we have to recognize our fears. they exist on our real. their fears to be arrested and deported. after that you have to conquer fear and do something about it.

and they have been incredible. biscuits are rebellious, radical and they are in your face which is a very different strategy than their parents. the parents decided at some point they needed to be invisible and silent to survive. guess what, their parents were right. because in the 80s and 90s if you are very open you would be arrested and deported. part of being invincible was a way to survive. they might be a generation that will be sacrifice, i hope not. that was a way to do it. thinking the dreamers. they are americans they grew up speaking english and i listen to some of the conversations

they're asking their parents why didn't you speak up and say anything. the answer is, as we couldn't. it was not the right thing to do. now they have a different strategy and with that strategy they're changing the united states change in her immigration policy in this country. i live about 45 minutes away, park of florida where the shooting happened recently. i've been speaking with many of the students and their doing exactly the same thing as the dreamers. they're not taking no for an answer. they're not patiently requesting the change, they are demanding a change. they are doing everything that is affecting the political and they're going to be in your face and look what's happening we have the dreamers of the student

survivors changing the conversation on two important issues in this country which are immigration and gun control. so for me, i let them lead. they know what to do and that's a new way to communicate and change the united states. again, they understood that if we stay silent we are complicit in responsible. let me finish with the quote from the holocaust survivor. he said the child he always helps the oppressor never the victim. so don't been neutral. [applause]

[applause] >> we have a few minutes if you want to make comments or questions. that i will stay here to sign your copies. if you comments is fine as laser not too long. >> i had extra joy in reading the partner book but your father conversations with him. when i was five my mother's goal -- for our generation -- i was hoping he could speak about your own mentors and the people you look up to those they gave you the opportunity someone his inspiration in your career since

your hook pioneer in american let journalism. >> i followed two great journalists, mexican one in 1960 there was a massacre, hundreds of students were killed by the army and there is one journalist that with a tape recorder that she went and recorded all the testimony from the survivor from that massacre. because of that we know what happened. she's one of my idols in the italian journalist who is fearless against all kinds of regimes. at the end of her career she became too radical for me but those two journals have been my

icons. and then i dedicate the book to the dreamers because what i did with donald trump they taught me how to do it. if a dreamer would've been in that situation here she would've done the same thing where even better. >> i just want to speak to everyone here and say thank you for coming out to give the talk. [applause] the question i have is that i view donald trump is more of a symptom of what you talked about this large cultural and demographic shift taking place in the country. as far as i'm aware for my limited knowledge of history, anytime these demographic shifts whether by race or power, or money tend to take place usually the group empower her liked it

doesn't roll over and let that happen, unfortunately there can be violence and a lot of political tour morning and i think were seeing that now to anticipate things getting worse before they get better? and if you do, because i haven't heard great wings that we can do to help read verse this in the country, what are some concrete things we can do to help? >> things are going to get worse. i'm getting ready for another three years and maybe another seven years. getting ready for that because is the one empower the republican party seems to be getting closer to him, he's been isolated at the white house which is incredibly dangerous.

i think he has created a hostile country for many immigrants. honestly i think he's the most -- president when a million mexicans were deported. he wants to cut legal immigration by half, let's never forget the president who killed daca's donald trump. things are going to get worse, but the only thing we can do is resist against, no is the most important word we can use at this point. maybe we don't have an alternative or option. at the end i'm sure we will prevail. our idea of america will be here in 20 or 30 years. it depends on how we react.

>> i think you as an immigrant who is actually naturalized. when you tell someone that questions given your humanity much less your americanness because you are born here and how do keep about your wits when you see that so often these days. the big difference nowadays is that you can say no in many different ways. you can create movement that in the past would have been impossible. i've been having this discussion about what's new with the survivors in comparison to what happened in colorado and columbine. what's the big difference

because and columbine. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] so use the tools. i was doing an interview with senator corey booker and we had two options, i could do an interview with him for univision and maybe two or 3 million people would watch it or we can

do it on facebook and twitter. in 7 million people would watch and that's the difference. so i did it right there and you can watch and when you go home at 1230 tonight. that's a big difference, use it. you know much better than i do. >> i love your perspective as a journalist of focusing on the questions. how has the everyday person that we continue to engage in that dialogue with people that we don't agree with that have views that we think are crazy and insane to what we believe and who we are. >> what i notice that is very helpful is just to show humanity the faces in the names.

we're not talking about illegal aliens. no one is illegal. show faces, that's what the dreamers have done beautifully. they put real faces to the drama they are living. and then follow the right example, don't sit down, speak up and stand up. and even sometimes we become annoying. you cannot start correcting everyone whenever something happens in private conversation but sometimes it is the right time to say no and to speak up at work, and school, and social situations in which some people make racist jokes, don't laugh, just a turn around and do something.

now i think it's the responsibility to do something about it. >> my name is dixie. i was listening to your audio the letters you wrote your senate daughter and i related to that. i was wondering for dreamers if they were to write books about their experience what recommendations would you have. for example i listen to when nancy pelosi read eight hour's worth of stories about dreamers and they are very inspiring. what kind of recommendations which you have for dreamers to write their own stories or books? in the past that mike what would you do? been thinking about this myself for some time and thinking more about wanting to share my story and how my mom sure her story i

think we've done an incredible job of highlighting our own stories and our movement in the united states. not if it would be possible without the courage and sacrifices her parents made for all of us whether you are on document or are first-generation we know how much work it has been. so just trusting and believing that you have the agency to leave believing that you have the story that others want to hear. so blocking that fear out 50 but we have it in us. everyone has their own stories to share focus on the pain i

think a lot hope can be found in our pain. a lot of vision can come from our hardest times in this country. >> there are many historical but in a way rosa park disobeyed, right, they are disobeying in the letter at the end of the book is telling my children, disobey. there are times in which you have to disobey. i'm not promoting violence, nothing will be achieved with violence that we can disobey and creative specific ways. >> my question for you is that you talked about the vision for the future.

i want your perspective on what you will be telling your grandchildren when you are 86 and looking back, sarah. what is that story you will share with them. >> in 1984 chev it said where you looked into the future and the future is ours. he was talking about us right now. that's if you tracy from this country. i will always be an immigrant and i will always be grateful for this nation for the possibility this nation gave me. i'm convinced that in the future it's never going to be easy but it needs to be an inclusive and tolerant future. i'm not optimistic at all with donald trump. think it's very difficult at

this moment but in the future he won't be here and his idea of america will not be here. how can i not be hopeful and inspire when i see what's happening? that gives me hope and inspiration. that would be the stray want to tell. >> thank you if i can. >> thank you for coming. curious if you can know you've noted how you think the u.s. relationship might change with the new administration in power

in mexico. >> mexico will not pay for the wall. something so easy but it's been one of the worst presidents we've ever had a terrible and weak president. they invited donald trump and did not have the courage to tell him to his face, we want -- for the wall. it's been the same story six years ago and 12 years ago he says the elections were stolen from him there is evidence that might be true. the question is if this will remain the same.

the political system in mexico is incredibly corrupt. the wife of president -- a 7 million-dollar home a 7 million-dollar home from a government from a government contractor. and you know it happen, nothing. so if that happened imagine what would happen in the next election also in mexico there's a new generation of those like you using social media to denounce this so the consequences are that mexico

might choose a president, and anti- trump president for very simple reason, his been attacking mexicans for two years and it is quite likely that mexicans might want a president who speaks for themselves. it's a matter of dignity. even with the feed free trade agreement and sand of the matter of dignity. i think the candidate who can capture that will win the next. a few more questions. >> my name is stephanie this is michelle, wondering if you had any -- we have to have fighters

everywhere and on all fronts. we have to have good attorneys working to protect clients we have to have advocates working with advocates and organizers where in the map can we actually advance and how do we defend our community. what i think is important is to be real about what's possible and what's not. when i was younger and working for hope i remember my families talking and they would say you can maybe do this and then we have people who put themselves

in the system but they have no pathway to address the status so been real and then plugging in where you can either campaigns you can be a part of? our community is under attack in a way we have never seen. there a lot of advocates in the room to make sure of what's happening and there's not enough capacity. so, how do people weather your student or in the workforce right now, how do we show up in this moment. we have a nationwide injunction which means there are before recipients who don't know they could request a renewal. there's been news and it's confusing. and they need help. the families need to make sure

that they don't have anything in their background so can we show up for them, kelly the american students go to a local clinic to help process applications, there's so much more work to do i see sylvia back there, whether are a lot of people in this room and outside of the anymore bodies and minds. there's people not doing this work would come in and say we've thought about it so you have it in you to lead and to help us find new ways. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for inspiring me to be

an officer. and now a consultant with the world bank from los angeles i've been working with migrants and refugees. so it's inspiring. a lot and are failed in journalism about sensationalism and marginalization in the feel that has driven this presidency. can you speak on the tips for how you see the role of journalist the next ten years, how several shaping and how do you want to see it? i know we have to document and be there and reporting and been an advocate he has a other journalists were making it hard

for us. >> i think we have to tell stories. it is a very simple definition that we have to report reality as it is not as you wish it to be. sometimes what you see on cable news is not a reality of what you see. i come from the universal -- from mexico and just imagine when i was young the president was saying i won the election when he got elected i think there are six or 700 and he won 100% of the vote. that means that day nobody got sick, everybody showed up and everybody who showed up voted for him. that is fake news.

so this is nothing what were seen right now. in comparison to what i have lived it's really nothing. it is affecting the election by the way we perceive our own country but happy i it's a matter of credibility. we had some hurricanes recently and mail me and i chose personally two people from the weather to follow in two or three websites. i chose them because i needed to know what would happen to my family and my house. that's what we should do. when you choose who to follow you need a trusted journalists. especially when were surrounded by fake news and that is not going to end.

>> my wife is a huge fan so it's really great when i hear you speak there's a few things that are personal to me. because she says i'm an immigrant and i'll always be an immigrant and there's nothing more complicated than that. there's a lot of intersecting of things that were always trying to do. how can we work together when the hate is easily unified and they're not like us and simply go away? . .

because we don't need one just chavez we need thousands of them do so i do understand featurette

divides. 25%. that means even within the community. it is real and happening. to understand the point of view of. i understand your perception but my question is can you compare

the stipulations of. i wish i could know for sure something is going to happen after i die. i really hope that i could see my father again, i really do but i don't know. it's like a prayer. thank god that we have the supreme court and social media

and other countries but i've no because he would be deciding absolutely everything because of the economic circumstances. we saw the same thing happening before. i'm very hopeful and inspired by what is happening to terri

[applause] we need all of your voices. thank you. thank you for joining us. we have additional copies in the lobby where you enter in if you are headed out if you would like to have your book signed [inaudible]