we property rights and these ideas to this land. and something to give us hope and generations of peoplemm immigrants, they pursue that same dream adams our effort as to the combination as well as individuals at one of the great country in the world so that's why think it's important to go back from early on she said the record straight why america. as such an ideal and big hope for people with so many people very different foods. ... that you're an immigrant. what's your story. i'm an immigrant from a china. i was born and raised in china. i came to this country in 1996 as a student and i became a u.s.

citizen in 2013. so. between 1996 to 2013, this is a 70 year period i went through almost all the major legal jungles, our legal immigration system. i was so fed up with it, i almost gave it up. but i almost gave it up. sit back, complain about this. i should fix this. i'm a citizen now, i should fix it. that's what made me too write thisf book. to talk about not only innovation but also to benefit our country as well as creating. >> after 1996 did you return to china? >> i returned to visit but never returned to live it. see what now thatk? you are a citizen canpr you go back? >> oh yes. they're probably not going to

like me very much. [laughter] >> let's go back to the beginning of your book the broken welcome mat. what you think the role of religion in american immigration system is or the importance? >> very much so. my book i spent a lot of time to describe with relief driven by it they were persecuted for what they believed back in europe. they really tried to fix this. a new age of promised land. or they could practice what they believe freely and they wanted that for thets people as well. so is fundamentally important in our country. i would say that's almost like a birthmark with our country. itli has religion, especially christian attitude flavor. but at the same time because our founding father had the insight

with national division but they were all believers or a higher super being to overseas people. that's with driving giving them a moral clarity. we see how they designed the declaration of independence. how the constitution. where's profound moral clarity can you make a major decision they were driven by the moral clarityin. that comes from influence. >> obviously emigration is a contemporarybu issue. on you book a chocolate immigration legislation 1795, 1798.ar what kind of immigration legislation are we talking

about? >> historically our country's immigration, there two aspects of it. people do not like to study. jeff .1 aspect very libertarian. the very first immigration law was very simple. too not write thousands of pages it was veryun simple. any immigration welcome as long as they demonstrate but also a white person. i really emphasized to the moral character. from time to time there was residency requirement sometimes two years, sometimes five years. the reason they have the relevancy requirement they learned it to have estate.

the time to build up that's for this for. other than that he became more complicated. government, more andnd more bureaucracy around immigration. this is the funny part it's not funny at the funny part is every time the add another layer to the bureaucracy this special group, this special name. at the end up doing is making it

complicated. let me give you grace example. two years ago engineers were protesting. what your reason for protesting? based on the estimates the estimate. some of them will never see a green card for over 100 years. to see a green card. they're very educated that working foroo microsoft they are law-abiding citizens. we are making them to wait for over 100 years. to get a green card. that iscr unfair.

supposedly how america is helping neither. >> helen raleigh the next big change in immigration came in the 1880s. why was that? >> it has a lot to do with me. that chapter about judgment it's very emotion about chinese immigrants in this country. it means a m lot to me was it trans immigrants because today we are facing a different kind of discrimination were not part of america. we didn't do much with the country or they take advantage of things. i think it's very important to set the record straight that

early chinese immigrants help build america. it's california agriculture industry.it to become the breadbasket of the united states even before chinese immigrants, korean immigrants who will build the levy standing in deep waters. so i think it is very important. what do we see happening in 1880 was the discrimination against them, against the chinese immigrants because they were blamed by labor unions for stealing jobs. for their willingness to do anythingng at any weight to survive. the 1880s to the chinese

solution act. a it's the only immigration law specifically targeted as a group. especially after that group instrumentally how to build the transcontinental railroad. from the east coast to the west coast. thousands of chinese immigrants die for doing that. the minute they finish their work they were pushed out. they were told they could never become citizens of the country. >> how long was that exclusion act in place? >> exclusion act lasting until the second world war to this end of the second world war when the united states became his allies with china. that's when the united states

decided to cancel the act. >> now, you report from 1790 until 1870 about 9 million immigrants came into the country. after that didn't slow down or speed up? >> it definitely slowed down. this is why it is important for a way for immigrants. factor from immigrant home country is normal because there's economic devastation. or persecution for religious persecution people wanted to leave their country. it takes a special kind of person with a lot of courage to want to leave everything behind the family, the language, to go

somewhere. with the devastation and push people out. this to push out sector. every generation in the sense have their lives here. then they joined oh, they are willing to work for anything for dirt cheap wage. they come the economic threat. they think there is a limited commodity. >> this approach to push people out. we need to set a barrier we cannot look them in.

too many people and when you keep jobs in america. we see these arguments again and again. >> helen raleigh yearbook the broken welcome that you spend a bit of time talking about the 19204 immigration act signed by salmon calvin coolidge. >> drastically lower the quota to the united states. this isft after basically you cn see from the statistics the very the chinese exclusion act was initially targeted only to chinese immigrants.

to prevent chinese immigrants from becoming u.s. citizens. in the 1920s during a wave of isolationist movements, not only the members ofgr your team also the exclusion act become an asian exclusion act. an asian country not allowed. so this whole isolation. >> southern europeans are restricted to, where they during this period? >> yes,at yes. >> what did the great depression do to immigration to the united states? >> the great depression, every timees an economic disaster such as the great depression happened before that there is a crisis. every time when something like that happened people became very fearful. which isee understandable. there's massive layoffs. the struggle to support a

family. they struggled to find a job. the economic crisis alike that, the isolationists will win thet day. you will see more isolationists, more populism talk we don't need illegal immigrants we don't even have enough jobs for america. like i said, it is understandable. nonexistent. we have ability of free people so you think it's a barrier. you're going to shrink the pie. everyone's going to have less. i think again they have proven to the rest of america that we are here. >> host: 1940 was the alien

registration act. and in 1952 the word was removed from immigration. >> yes a tremendous accomplishment. even though i do not particularly like that law and has a limited quota. it's a giant step in the right direction that for the first time for over a long period of time asian immigrants like me who were not born here can finally apply and have alternatives to come. it means a lot. you can see immigration the south asian area it you can see that number gradually going up from that period. >> 1965. now were getting into more contemporary times. there is a major overhaul or add on to the immigration, how would

you describe that? >> what is a profoundly impactful law. i did not like it but it's him profoundly impactful. we have not changed much since then pray to basically laid out the framework of where we are right now. it did a couple of things. one that really emphasize famila reunification is the primary goal. this is very important. because before that that was not the mainor goal but after that t has become a main goal and major ramifications of a lot of problemsms we are facing today. that's number one. number two given it's a priority a family category. here are a parent, spouse, children, your older, younger that wait time is different. the one i like of the act for

employment -based immigration it's limited to 20 or 25%. it's a small portion. the third part this is the first time i sought the first time in choosing the quota but this is the first time to introduce a bigger quota. now there's about 1 million illegal immigrants in the year the quota has barely changed since 1965. really we are now living in an umbrella of 1965. it's really about time we updated it's been a long time td cook so signed by lyndon johnson. 1986 ronald reagan signed immigration legislation. >> so-called amnesty. it is a trade-off.

he was working as a democrat majority of congress. basically the trade-off was the democrats supported border security act. the measures that he and he exchanged and gave amnesty immigrants at a time or at a country. i think he and his party underestimated they were confident we give amnesty to everybody inside the border then we will not have much. he made the mistake he did not understand immigration visa behavior people will follow the law. you give incentives of bad behavior you will receive more of it. and that's unfortunate what they did. and so since then immigrants

keep going up. >> helen, given in the short history we have gone through here, where does that leave us today? with regard to immigration. >> we are in a mess. there needs to be a national sense of urgency. especially the last couple of yearsn in the open border poliy is a total failure. notas only a total failure but t has also poisoned political will to reach immigration reform compromise on both parts. because, as illegal immigrants it's very frustrating to d me we do not have a voice in this debate too. every time you turn on the news channel, every every discussion you have with someone else because every time more in border town all people can think up or talk about his illegal immigration. nobodyl wants to talk about lel

immigration. i fundamentally believe unless we saw these immigration offer the righten incentive and we knw who is coming here. we note their skill set. we seriously need to create a win/win situation. once we create a path like that incentivize behaviors. i really want is to combat how can we set legal immigration to writeme the right incentive to come to the right doors and not through the back door. it is a mess. still when the first two items in the republican platform for the 2044al election. number one, seal the border, stop migrantnt invasion. numberer two, carry out largest deportation in american history. when you think of those?

>> the very first bullet points the first point has two parts like seal the border was a second' one? >> and stop migrant invasion. the word invasion. >> guest: i do not like the word invasion. because we know this. we know economic migrants and there are bad actors. we know that too. it's a small number this not going to cause harm. have the capability to cause a bigor harm. but the majority of the people we know and talk to they are not like in an invading army. not going to cause an invasion. i do agree we need to strengthen our border. because right now, it's a

trade-off. sobo when we have a board that u have a border agent who are supposed to protect our border. now they are all in processing centers to help people toro process. and they are not protecting our borders. so something must be done. so i could only agree with the first half of that first bullet point. i really wish the public would return. because on the immigration issue they probably have a hard time to win over both the immigrants and half of america because of that reason. we need to learn to talk about immigration better. anand the second one i definitey disagree. >> on deportation? >> people will commit a crime are those who have a criminal history or we should deport them

immediately. but unfortunately in the last three to half years joe biden let in close to 10 million people. we do not know many of them where they are. i think a mass deportation is a fantasy. i don't know how it's logistic workable. again we talk about compromise. the immigration issue is not in set national security issue. it's an economic issue. so many americans and so many american towns. winter compromise on both sides. you are facing the politicalit will to do this. nobody is doing anything. this is only going to get worse and worse. we as a country cannot afford to keep going on.

>> this is the second edition of the broken welcome mat. what did you update? >> i updated a lot about illegal immigrationst portion. what's happened in the last three and half years. i also on a policy recommendation especially on asylum. my first addition i did not think it was a big deal. i had a very small section we should review it. but the new addition i actually to go back to the history especially a quick example on unaccompanied minors. towards the end of the george w. bush of the second presidency u.s. congress passed human trafficking law. unaccompanied minors cross abort delete we must protect them.

again once that law came into effect that became an incentive for both traffickers as well as families affected to send minors across the border. now we have a huge problem of hundreds of thousands of children came across the border illegally. it is not is an accurate description of a picture. last week hhs, security. how the biden administration and

optics. these elite kits prematurely "that release against you. it turns out we are releasing minors. two human traffickers are minors. so the unintended consequences. that's a sexually up to quite a bit. >> host: here's a book called

the broken welcome mat americans on immigration policy how we should fix it. the author helen thank you u for being with us. >> thank you. >> if you are enjoying book tv sent out for a newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive a schedule of upcoming programs, offer discussions, book festivals and more. book tv every sunday on cspan2 or any time online a booktv.org. television for serious readers. ♪ we canceled cspan2 an intellectual feast. every saturday american history tv documents america story. on sunday book tv brings you the latest nonfiction books and authors. funding come from these television companies and more including charter communications appeared quickstart is proud to

be recognized on the best internet providers. we are just getting started. both 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. along with these television companies support cspan2 as a public service. >> joining us on book tv is a georgia guilder heard frequent guest of ours. you have written what, 50 books, one 100% of them on economics is that a fair assessment? >> no, 21 books probably. depending on how you interpret. >> all in economics? >> the sacrament was and then i got interested in money later and then moved on to technology. most of my books have been about technology. the mixture of technology and

money and crypto currency and a life after google. i think you interviewed me with a life after google several times. >> your most recent book how would you describe the israel task, how israel's genius enriches the challenges what category to put this book in? >> its philosophy, the nature of capitalism. the sources of our superabundance it's the israel and test is a new addition is priced by dennis. dennis has prager university. they have in israel test a video that you can see it prager university.um

which sums up the book how do you report respond to people who expel you and success of achievement, wealth, intellect, do you envy them? and do you hate them and tried to -- do you feel they somehow diminish you? or do you emulate them and admired them and use them as inspiration and learn from them and collaborate with them? that is the essential israel test. >> host: do you see israel to be a country should be emulated? >> guest: yes. israel is the great economic miracle in the world's economy. its per capita