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robert caro. exploring the american story. watch american history tv, saturday on c-span2, and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> very good wednesday morning to you. you can start calling in now as we show you homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas from yesterday's senate hearing. >> we must invest in addressing root causing creating legal pathways, and insuring swift adjudication of asylum claims. the immigration system, though, is fundamentally broken. a fact that everyone agrees upon. congress must pass legislation to fix it. in the meantime, we are taking action within our authority. we're enforcing our immigration laws, including those of accountability and humanitarian relief. we are enforcing expedited removal, operating repatriation flights, and investigating and

disrupting the smuggling and drug trafficking organizations. we have leveraged fema's coordination capabilities, activated our volunteer force of employees across the departments and expanded our processing capacity. we have proposed new regulation to streamline the asylum process to fairly and efficiently adjudicate claims resulting in the prompt approval of those who qualify and prompt removal of those who do not. >> homeland security secretary before the senate judiciary committee yesterday. among the issues that were focused on in that hearing was the record 1.7 million migrant apprehensions along the southern border that happened between october of 2020 and october of 2021. that was a record of all time. here's senator lindsey graham of south carolina and his line of questioning yesterday. >> of the 1.7 million people who have come here illegally, how many of them have been released

into the country? >> senator, i can break that down to the best of my ability. nearly 1 million approximately i would say 965,000 have been subject to expulsion under title 42 of the united states code. >> okay. that gives us how many left? >> i believe approximately 40,000 have been removed under our immigration authorities that we in the department of -- >> slow down, that gets us to 840,000 people? >> approximately 965,000. >> okay. >> approximately 40,000 have been removed. approximately 125,000 unaccompanied children have been transferred to the custody and shelter of health and human

services. the balance are to the best of my knowledge in immigration enforcement proceedings. >> so what does that leave us? how many people are still here? of the 1.7 million, how many people are still here? >> i would estimate approximately 375,000 are still here. >> okay. >> that is my best estimate. >> do you believe -- you have an immigration hearing and there's a final order of deportation, that person should be removed? >> i do. >> okay. why is 1 million people still here after they get a final order of deportation? >> senator graham, as i responded to -- >> is the system working? >> the immigration system is

broken, has been broken -- >> let me say this. it's really broken if a million people have been ordered to leave and they haven't left. >> that from yesterday's senate judiciary committee hearing. if you want to watch it in its entirety, you can do so at c-span.org. you heard again in the clip, broken. a broken immigration system. the question for our viewers this morning, what changes to the immigration system would you support? if it is broken, how should it be changed. phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. we'll put the numbers on the screen from you and hear from bill up first in cleveland, ohio. bill, a republican, good morning. >> caller: good morning. this is jfk jr. no, i just wanted to confuse some of those supporters down there. you know, in our last administration, we exported cruelty. so all the money that obama come up with to give to those countries down in south america to keep this wave of immigration coming, it was canceled.

all that was canceled. because we wanted to be cruel to people at our border. you know, lindsey graham is talking about he's so upset about 375,000 people left in the country. it's his job to vote to make some kind of immigration policy or a country that the whole country is based on immigration. we're all immigrants. every one of us. let me say something. if they regulate medical marijuana, why ain't q regulated? >> bill in ohio. this is dick, windermere, florida. independent. good morning. >> caller: yes, i have been watching this, and they're saying people are coming here illegally, and the biden administration is not doing anything to stop it. it's not the job of the biden administration to make immigration law. they can stop the illegal immigrants from coming to

america by arresting the employers who employ them. that should be against the law. it should carry five years in jail, and watch how fast they won't employ them. the second thing they can do is make it illegal to give them free medical care and free school for their kids. if you do that, they'll turn around and leave. they want them to come here because they want cheap labor. but they don't want to admit they want them to come here, so they pass it off from one group to the next, and they blame it on biden. it could be easily closed down. that border could be closed down with those laws, and 40% of the people that come here are visa overstays that are illegal, but they need them to pick fruit, to do all the dirty work that americans don't want to do, but they don't want to admit it. thank you. >> ray, maryland, democrat. good morning. >> caller: sure.

good morning. and i surprisingly, i'm in agreement with the previous two callers. i did want to say something about the immigration policy, which is that i think we need to do more of an education around these policies than invoke all this emotion. we need americans to understand the history of immigration in this country. and what i mean by that is not just who's coming in and how we have been xenophobically receptive to those coming in, but how our policies have gripped countries in south america, central america, and also other parts of non-western places. and i think if we can inform public policy or national policy with history, we might be more compassionate in how we intervene in immigration. >> another issue that republicans were keen on asking the homeland security secretary about yesterday were those

reports of potential settlement payouts for immigrants' families who were separated at the border as part of former president trump's zero tolerance policies on the border. this is senator ted cruz of texas. his exchange with secretary mayorkas. >> been reported the biden administration is considering paying illegal immigrants whose families were separated $450,000 apiece. that would mean for a family of four, they would get $1.8 million. >> that's not my understanding. >> what is your understanding? >> my understanding, and it's drawn from news reports because this is not something that the department of homeland -- >> you're the defendant in the lawsuits. >> is that it is that amount of money per family, but i may be mistaken. >> that is motnot what has been publicly reported. it's per person. do you think it's a good idea to pay illegal immigrants four and a half times what we pay the

family of a service member who is killed in combat, and if we pay millions of dollars to illegal immigrants in your professional judgment, will we get more illegal immigration or less illegal immigration? >> senator, let me say this. that i do not think a mother would travel to the united states in the hands of traffickers so that she can be separated from her 7-year-old daughter for a period of time the duration of which -- >> can you answer the question? those were two yes or no questions. >> i do not think that it would be a pull factor. >> i said is it a good idea to pay them the money, and would you get more illegal immigration or less illegal immigration if you give millions of dollars to illegal immigrants? more or less. >> i cannot speak to the advisibility of settlement of which i'm not involved. >> that's from yesterday's senate judiciary hearing. asking you what changes to u.s.

immigration system would you support in a system that the secretary yesterday conceded is a broken system, and called on congress to make changes to that system. margaret, kansas, good morning. you're next. >> caller: i would like to agree with the person who called to be more educated about our behavior in south central america. you know, when companies go down like united bananas, whoever does the banana people, all these people take things from these countries, but it doesn't go back to them. you know, your hotels, your coffee, your bananas. so we rebox things and complain. now, as climate change happens, there's going to be more and more and more people desperate to move where they can't live anymore. and so we have to understand how

the world is working. you can't just kidnap people's kids and stick them in cages. yeah, you're going to have to pay for that. you can't hire people to do your roofing and your working and then act like they have done something wrong to come and feed their family. the world is all humans. and we were all immigrants. you know, people migrated all over. so the world is at a scary point. and it's like, you're going to leave people like belarus and that, where they're freezing there? you're going to have people where you have taken things and used them and not provide anything? it's really sad. it's not sustainable at all. no, it's not. it's going to lead to wars. and moral collapse. >> that's margaret in kansas. this is tony, texas, republican. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thank you, c-span.

i love, i wish i could get it in hd. i think what we have to do here is understand that at the federal level, they can make guidelines. they can vote on this at the federal level. right? and they can say, look, you'll get funding if you meet those criteria, but ultimately, it's up to the states. this is a conservative idea here. which wasn't an idea before. the states can determine their immigration on the border, and if they meet the criteria of the federal regulation, then they'll get extra funding. that's why it's important to vote at the state level, conservatives. >> that's tony in texas. more from yesterday's hearing. it was delaware democratic senator chris coons who asked secretary mayorkas how federal legislation could improve the current immigration situation on the border. this is what he said. >> there's areas where our

interests in border management and humane treatment of migrants can and should align. creating a point of entry would protect the safety of migrants. addressing lack backlogs will give stability. you have taken a whole range of initiatives, restarting, for example, the central american miners refugee and parole program which is a safe way to apply for refugee in the united states. creating opportunities for legal migration. improving the expedited removal process, creating a dedicated docket. i think there's lots of things we can and should do to build a safe, fair, and humane immigration system consistent with the rule of law, but we have to have patience to invest in the long term and willingness to make some fundamental changes. how do you think we in congress can support your efforts through

legislation? >> senator, you described a number of efforts that we have under way. promulgating them through policy as well as through regulation. the enduring, the enduring solution is immigration legislation. to fix our broken system, to bring much needed reforms to our asylum system, and to every aspect of our immigration system. so that the best and brightest, as senator klobuchar referenced, the individuals who can provide so much prosperity and create american jobs, will bring their talents and energies to this country, actually have an ability to remain here and make those contributions. it's across the board in achieving the goals of family unity, economic prosperity, and humanitarian relief. the opportunities are

tremendous. they have existed for many, many years, and i do hope congress promulgates legislation for that enduring solution. >> yesterday, from that senate judiciary committee hearing. about 15 minutes left in the first segment of the "washington journal" today for this discussion about what changes to the immigration system do you support. later today, we'll be joined by democrat and republican members of congress. we're going to be joined by dina titus of nevada, democratic member, and mike burgess of texas, republican member. we'll also be talking about president biden's trip today to detroit to talk about electric vehicle investment and what the new bipartisan infrastructure law means for those investments. plenty to talk about today. about 15 minutes left in this segment. we have also been looking for your social media comments as well to this question, what changes to the immigration system do you support?

thoughtful processes that the better question is what changes to immigration can and will congress pass? this saying most of the people crossing the southern border are refugees. they're not illegal immigrants. given that, more immigration attorneys and social workers need to be hired to make the process of serving the people go faster. what's really happening is political bs of the gop. one saying when referring to those record 1.7 million apprehensions in 2021, saying when the border patrol arrests a record number of immigrants, it sounds like they're doing their job. border states are responsible for their borders and should be prepared. carl saying in a world where capital can cross borders, it is a systemic and inequitable act of barbarism, the kettle workers at the border, the best solution to the immigration crisis is to abolish the capitalism and imperialism that harms migrants. one more saying the solution

lets more women than men in. this is eric, washington, d.c. line for democrats. good morning. >> caller: hi, good morning. >> go ahead, sir. >> caller: the reason -- actually, i'm an independent. the issue of immigrant, i don't want to overgeneralize all immigrants because there some people who come from the country who are running from war. i think the issue should be, the case should be determined case by case, if somebody is here, i think that person should be able to sent back, but if people have come here just because they're fleeing from war or the government persecuting them, their case should be judged different. >> tony is in connecticut. independent. good morning. >> caller: hey, good morning.

long waiting for this. last i saw, the panama government said there's 400,000 illegal immigrants coming up from central america, south america, all around the world. i watched the hearing yesterday. and mayorkas, you should show the other party. cruz asked him a number of questions he couldn't even answer. he came unprepared. my question is, when trump was in office, they had the aoc and people like that were coming down to the border to check and see the immigrants, especially kids, dying in the river, right in the rio grande river, where is aoc now, where are these people? their silence is deafening. what about all the people that are coming in with covid?

we know that. they said that. they said it on c-span. these people are being spread out across america. if you laid a map out of where they spread these people and where the covid outbreaks were, you would find some kind of correlation. the hypocrisy is just terrible. terrible as far as what's going on. dead children in the rivers and the cnn and other stations, they don't even report it. it's disgusting. we need to build a wall, retain millions of dollars to let the materials for the wall sit there and be guarded or whatever, and where are the people coming in? around the places the walls aren't being built. >> tony in connecticut. this is greg, huntsville, alabama. good morning. you're next. >> caller: good morning. three quick points to make. i have been hearing the number 11 million for about ten years now. we're just talking about 1.7

million in a month. you know -- >> 1.7 in the latest fiscal year. so october 1st to october 1st. >> we could raise that to 12.7, but we need to quit saying 11 million. there's 30 if there's 1 here. there's 30 million if there's 1. we actually have, what, 11 million job openings for the unemployed. you know, we're kind of hurting for employees. that's what it takes to make businesses run. we have a huge, huge labor shortage. i personally own a business, and i'm now paying $10 more an hour than i was paying employees, and they're impossible to find. the last two i hired were late on the first day of work. money is really not a motivator right now. i have never seen anything like this, been in business for 31 years. never seen anything like this. >> what kind of business is it, greg? >> i own an irrigation company. i also have concerned because

our infrastructure does need repair, but biden wants to do an infrastructure bill. this bill is going to put a lot of people to work or a lot of union workers to work, more than likely, and it will go to major cities and go where the boats go, but we're going to be looking at another strain on machinery and materials. a shortage of all pvc. my pvc went from 13 cents a foot to 31 cents a foot overnight, and 31 cents to $1.31. that's insane. i mean, you can't keep up with material costs. look what lumber has don glas has done. but we're going to take more materials, asphalt, iron, steel, and try to put more people to work. there's nobody out there to go to work. we're going to build an infrastructure. there's nobody to go to work. we need a method. we need the nonsense, the name calling, we need, if you want to be bipartisan, build that wall,

open the door, bring people through. issue them a social security number, and let them earn their way to citizenship. immigrants built this country, and let them go to work and earn their way in. we need more good hard working people with a good work ethic and give them an opportunity to do it. you don't have anybody hiring illegals, you don't have people cheating, you don't have immigrants dying in the rio grande. help them come across. enter them into the system, and let them work their way into citizenship. we need them. what are we producing now, 1.7 kids per household, we're at 2.7. we're not going to support social security, any social programs 20 years from now, but i promise you, 20 years from now, they will be legal. wait until the hispanic labor unions take place like other immigrants have done with unions and we'll have the hispanic brotherhood that we're paying a ton of prizes for. there's our next problem. >> greg, you mentioned the infrastructure bill. it's now the infrastructure law.

and president biden selling that law around the country. he was in new hampshire yesterday to talk about the investments in that state when it comes to the infrastructure law, and today, he's headed to detroit, to general motors factory there for electric vehicle assembly in detroit. he'll be expected to speak later this afternoon and we'll be carrying it on c-span or you can watch it as well on the new free c-span now video app. tim in kentucky, democrat, good morning. >> caller: good morning. i think it would have been better to rephrase your question for the changes about immigration. i think it would have been better to say what do you think is going to be done about the immigration problem? and the answer is the same thing that's been done for the last 50 years, with the exception of donald trump, nothing. have a nice day, john.

>> david, rochester, new york. independent. good morning. >> caller: yes, hi. thank you for taking my call. my statement and question is this. why aren't we -- not we, but why isn't the government with all of its resources going after the people who are hiring these people? let's talk about that. let's talk about the fact that they are able to get their resources and their acts together to go after poor folks who are maybe peddling some illegal substance in the neighborhood. they can kick in doors to take their resources and take the money that they made, but they're not going after all of these rich white guys. that's all i would like to say. thank you. >> from today's "wall street journal," the opinion page, jason wright's column, border crisis has biden's presidency on

the edge. hard to know the extent to which president biden's job approval can be linked to the continuing chaos at the southern border, but we know that illegal immigration has become a top concern of voters and the amnesty provisions democrats want to include in their build back better reconciliation bill are unlikely to help matters. anxiety typically increases during economic downturns, when foreign workers get blamed for unemployment, that's nut the situation today. the economy is not in recession, and the number of available jobs far exceeded the number of people looking for work, even as employers have increased pay and offered signing bonuses. the current concern about illegal immigration, he writes, has less to do with the labor market and more to do with the hundreds of thousands of people entering the country illegally when the biden administration officials play down the crisis and sit on their hands. joe, new jersey, republican. good morning. >> caller: hello.

most of the immigration regulations need to be -- one thing i would do is impose a tax on the money that immigrants send back to their home countries by working in the united states. one thing that i think might help is if here in new jersey, we just had an election. a man who was a truck driver beat one of the most powerful legislators in new jersey by spending only $1500. if a young professional or young lawyer is interested in a political career, i would start an independent party consisting of only myself, and i would put ads and have flyers and call myself the immigration reform party. all it would take was one or two congressmen to lose their jobs by immigration reform party members and things would change in the immigration mess we have

now quite quickly. thank you. >> last call, susan in kingston, illinois. democrat. good morning. >> caller: hi. yeah, i know how to fix the immigration system and i don't think it looks -- it makes politicians look foolish, the first thing they should do is you have to acknowledge the people that do immigration legally. and they're on the list and waiting in line, they hired lawyers and that is not fair when people come in illegally. but the people that have been here, you know, 25 years or 30 years, i put a number limit on it because once your integrated into america, i don't think anybody, it doesn't matter what your color is, i don't think you should have to leave. i think it is a numbers thing. somebody here five years and under or maybe two years and

under, you know, that is different. but if you could prove you've been here in america for over ten years and there is a lot of sad situations where fathers get kicked out of america or moms do and the kids are here and i don't think that should happen at all with anybody. even -- but if they just crossed over this year, i think that is a different story. but amnesty is a different deal. i won't -- you don't have a country if you don't -- if you keep giving amnesty to people. it is not really like a real country any more. but that is all i wanted to say. thank you. an and i'm sick about hearing this white, white, white, on tv, that is very prejudice to hear. i have respect for anyone who has respect for their identity and heritage and i don't think you should be ashamed of what you are. thank you. >> susan in illinois, our last caller in the first segment of the washington journal. >> get c-span on the go.

watch the days biggest political events live or on demand any time, anywhere, on our new mobile video map. access top highlights, listen to c-span radio and discover new podcasts all for free. download c-span now today. ♪♪ congressman and dr. michael burgess back with us. he's a republican representing the 26th district of texas, a