our country has severe problems. host: we only have a minute or two left and give him a chance to respond. thank you for the call. guest: politicians over the year have spent too much money, earmarks and very corrupting and a way for people to do corrupt stuff in terms of targeting government spending to their friends and allies. that ended after the tea party changed the modern republican party. prior to the tea party, the modern republican party said we won't raise your taxes. you're quite right, president george w. bush did not spend less money on the agenda. every crisis seemed a reason for more spending, not less spending including foreign policy in katrina and other things. there are ways when we fight these problems like fanny and freddy, we should have privatized those entities and not allow them to have government guarantees which cost us the economy for a

couple years there there were republicans fighting for all efforts to do that were fought by the democrats unfortunately to fix fannie and freddie, should bush have fought harder for it? absolutely. did the democrats stop it in the senate? yes, they did we need reform. the first thing obama did when he came in was make that spending in iraq and afghanistan in the base line of the budget to make it infinitely into the future. we took that back and stopped that abuse with the budget deal going into 2011, the republicans in the house and senate. we dramatically have different parties, the republican party both willing to reform entitlements and paul ryan we talked about earlier has four times put forward a budget that reforms entitlements and keeps the country from going bankrupt. obama and the government put no reform of entitlements on the

table, period and added another unreformed entitlement and falls apart and have to tack it together again, obamacare. it's not fair now and was in past years and not fair now to say the republicans have not put on and voted for a plan to reform entitlements to the country doesn't go bankrupt and going to begin to reform the government like fannie and freddie which has republican legislation to fix it but have to get past the dick filibuster in the senate and -- past the democrat filibuster in the senate and need another president. host: it is atr.org, americans for tax reform. with grover norquist, the president of that organization. guest: and twitter @grovernorquist and want their stories of what he had know about how hotels and cable bills have been hit because we want to make this case to fix

this legislatively in washington. host: how often do you tweet? guest: i tweet every day and if you're concerned about my 5-year-old daughter's loose tooth, we're keeping updates on that with some regularity at least every couple days. still loose. host: is there a tax on what the tooth fairy provide? guest: a lot of people tweeted about that subject. it's a fun one. some of my tweets are on the family but is fun and the rest is what is happening with taxes and politics. host: i think we covered it all. we'll take a short break and come back and start on the president's executive action on immigration and what it means for those in our country illegally. and introduce you to a legal fellow at the american immigration council and later the situation in ukraine as the shuttle diplomacy continues between kiev and moscow and tomorrow hear from angela merkel, the german chancellor. and on american history tv,

we'll look at corpus christi texas, and at 2:00 eastern time we'll feature the naval air station in corpus christi which was critical during world war ii. here's a preview. >> paris undefended, fell like a ripe plum into the nazi basket of conquest. >> in france of june of 1940 in europe world war ii, having already begun just made clearer the urgency of getting a naval air station. the funding was authorized to be $24 million. and by the time they finished was well over $100 million. grew bigger and bigger and thus the need for additional auxiliary fields and there

would be five of them in training and it became the largest naval air station not just in the united states but in the world. host: hope you turn in on c-span 2's book tv and c-span 3's american history tv and our focus is corpus christi, texas and check out our cities tour @c-span.org/citiestour. patrick taurel is at the american legal council and want to focus on the president action on illegal immigration. thanks for being with us. guest: good morning. host: i want to step back and ask you from your perspective what are the facts. how many illegal immigrants are in the u.s. right now? guest: according to d.h.s. estimates, 11 million. host: how many have been here and arrived over the last 5-10 years? guest: 2/3 of that 11 million have been here the last 10

years. host: what happened in the reagan administration that led to the debate we're facing today with regard to immigration? guest: two things. first is they passed irka, the immigration control act of 1986 which legalized a substantial portion of the undocumented population at the time. and that legislation left out roughly 40% of the undocumented population at the time which were the spouses and children of those individuals who qualified. now they were left out and were unprotected from deportation and faced the possibility of separation and first reagan and george h.w. bush passed a program similar to the one the president announced to afford some temporary protection for the individuals called family fairness program. >> we'll here kaca and papa. >> talka stands for defered action for childhood arrivals

and dapa, deferreded acts for parents of americans and unlawful americans. you have to understand what deferred action is which is a decision by an immigration officer that a particular person after reviewing their case is not a priority for deportation. why would somebody not be a priority? there are two major justifications. there are limited resources and congressional indicates about 400,000 of the 11 million and can't deport everybody and have to make choices about who it is they'll remove from the country. secondly it's a humanitarian vuffings -- justification. the immigration officer reviews the totallyity of the case and says it's not consistent with our values and priorities to deport this person because of the compelling circumstanceses in their case. host: let's look at some of the figures in terms of where the largest populations of these

illegal immigrants. california leads with three million followed by tax, new york illinois, florida new jersey, florida, and north carolina state. guest: no. those that qualify almost half live in the states of california and texas. host: in terms of what the president is trying to do, his action would impact five million children that are here, not the parents, correct? guest: looking in regards to the children, deferred action for childhood arrival program that potentially teakts 1.8 million of undocumented immigrants and grew with the expansions of the programs that were recently announced. the program for parents of americans, parents who have been residing here for more than five years is an estimated impact of roughly four million so in total you're looking at five million. host: 202 is the area code, 748-8000 for democrats and

202-748-8004 and in a minute we'll introduce you to a so-called dreamer that came to this country from peru and at one point heckled the president but was at the white house this past week as the white house and president are specifically talking about his executive action on immigration. anu is joining us from saginaw, michigan democrats line, good morning. >> good morning it. >> i want to talk about the action. caller: and let's talk about the hitch 1 visa that's been given, the spouses are also getting some kind of work permit. and this is there. host: you want to respond? guest: sure. thanks for the call, anu. the president's executive action has various components

and really fall in three general buckets. one is sort of refocusing enforcement priorities, two is the expansion of these deferred action programs that afford temporary, not permanent lawful status -- excuse me, lawful presence to certain individuals who are residing here without authorization and then the third category of reforms to our legal immigration system which include some of the changes you just mentioned. host: next is brian from the independent line with patrick taurel from the american immigration council. guest: thanks, patrick. one thing i had the pleasure of talking with senator levin and the staff and all with me in michigan, we look at mexico and social america and i realize we have a lot of fine people coming this way that want to work. i don't have a prejudice for them. what i do wonder about is why are we so arrogant to think we

don't need these fine people? obviously mexico has a lot of crimes and a lot of how you should call it bad government. they may be fine people. i look at the gross domestic product. they have a world of wealth they could be tapping into. so what good are we doing by allowing -- and that's what we're doing, allowing these people to come here to straighten out their own mess so that we can be strong together. host: thank you, brian. guest: well, brian i agree with you in recognizing the value these immigrants bring to the united states. and there are all kinds of data that supports why immigration is very beneficial for the economy. part of your question gets to the driving force behind immigration and the fact is that there are many. it's a very complicated reason, a series of reasons that drive people to immigrate from one country to another. there are push factors and

there are pull factors. and this recent wave of immigration from specifically the country's of honduras, guatemala and el salvador have been driven in large part by rising criminality and violence in those countries and the inability of the states to protect its citizens from some of the violent gangs that are currently very powerful in those countries. and there's actually an extraordinary article right now in "the new york times" sunday magazine about how so many of those individuals are actually qualifying for asylum once they get here. so i think that we need to sort of understand some of the driving reasons behind immigration and i think that that article is a good indicator of what's going on today in central america. host: frankie is next from maryland. good morning. guest: good morning. can you hear me? host: we sure can. if you can turn your volume down on your television set we'll hear you much better. go on with your question.

guest: all right. i've got it down now. thank you. my question to you is that, you know, we have a lot of crime here but you don't see people here going into canada, running into canada. and what are the grounds for people who are here illegally? i believe that is deportation. and shouldn't we control the people who come here? >> in many ways we already do. and in fact, so the president's new announcement, part of the package is to sort of redouble efforts on -- in particular the southern border. and so recent entrants are a top priority for enforcement. nobody who comes across the border today or attempts to come across the border today is going to qualify for the deportation relief programs we were previously discussing, daca and pad -- dapa. with respect to the criminality we have in the united states,

it's certainly true but you can go to the police station and get help and may not be true in some of these other countries where people are fleeing from. host: we'll go to martin in enterprise alabama. good morning. thanks for waiting, martin. caller: good morning to you. a lot of this immigration, florida is a good example. i think that we should turn florida loose because it's a third world country now. you got the haitians, the cubans, the colombians, all of them coming to get a piece and trying to make the omni taker in these cities the richest man in the city. host: thanks for the call. according to the immigration policy institute, florida has just over 630,000 unauthorized illegal immigrants, kind of in the middle of the pack in the top 10 list. guest: so i think your question raises two issues. one relating to kind of the

myth of immigrants and criminality, and those ideas have been circulating for a long time. and the fact is, studies go back a hundred years showing immigrants commit crimes in lesser numbers than the native born. and in fact, if you're in prison today, it's five times more likely you are a native born citizen rather than an immigrant. and most of the immigrants not most but excuse they, a substantial number of immigrants that are in prisons are there for immigration-related crimes. in fact, illegal entry and legal re-entry are the number one prosecuted crime by the federal government. and with respect to the economy and whether florida is sort of -- their economy is being harmed by the presence of a substantial number of immigrants, i think that the facts cut the other way and why many economists are fully supportive of comprehensive immigration reform as well as the president's executive action. in fact, immigrants are 30% more likely to start their own businesses than the native

born. so i think we want to think about this as an opportunity rather than a problem. host: our guest is a graduate of brown university, earned his law degree from brooklyn law school and is a legal fellow the a the american immigration council. ari is next, houston, texas, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. hi. my issue now is i'm a nightmare, not a dreamer. i don't qualify for the dream act because i came here a year after i turned 16 -- sorry a month after i turned 16. i tried to apply. i sent an appeal that got rejected because i wasn't 16 even though i qualified for every other thing. i just want to know, what about us, like the rest of us who we're here, all my family is legal, i have a bachelor's degree, i'm working on my master's degree at rutgers and it's kind of like i'm here, i'm

educated, i'm ready to work but i have no way of moving forward. guest: where did you come from? host: i actually came from nigeria which is my other problem, which everybody is talking about legals, we always think we have to be latino or from central america or mexico and i'm like, well, there's us, too, like we kind of don't look the same. but we have the same issues. guest: ok. host: we'll get a response. thanks for the call. guest: thanks for the call. i'm sorry to hear about your individual story. ari is right, daca recipients come from every country in the world. in fact, the last time i checked, 192 countries were represented in the applicant pool. and with respect to the sort of your particular circumstances in coming in one month after turning 16 i think it highlights that these programs are pretty narrow in their scope, there are stringent criteria, for the daca program you need to have entered before

you turned 16 and meet an education requirement and have a clean criminal record. everybody undergoes a background check and for the dapa program, there are also similar requirements and you had to have resided here for several years, at least in january of 2010 and need to have a u.s. citizen or lawful permanent resident child and meet other again, stringent requirements. i do feel for the people that are left out of these programs. but perhaps there's some other form of relief you might be eligible for and for someone like ari, it makes sense to consult an immigration lawyer because 14% of the people who sought legal services in connection with daca discovered that they actually qualify for some other immigration benefit. now, for some, there is no line that they can get into. but others actually may be eligible for some kind of better more lasting actual lawful status as opposed to these temporary measures. host: daca referring to the children and dapa for the children's.

-- charntse. you're -- parents. you're next. caller: good morning, guys. the question i have is we as american citizen shoes probably be the one to vote whether or not these people should be deported or not. these people are still criminals and i know as an american citizen if i cross the border into any other country without the proper documentation, what is going to happen to me? host: how do you respond to that? guest: violating the immigration law is a civil offense, sort of being here without authorization. but, you know, i understand your concern, doug. i think that with respect to the criminality, i greased -- i addressed that and immigrants are committing crimes at lower numbers. and to the democracy aspect, the senate did vote overwhelmingly, bipartisan a year ago, two years ago, excuse me, for comprehensive immigration reform.

actually, the majority of the american public supports that, the majority of the american public supports the president's executive order and opposes congress' efforts to block it. host: headline from the heart forth current. maria perely invited to the white house to talk to the president and is a daca recipients geared action for arrivals and joining us live via skype from hamden connecticut. thanks for being with us. caller: thank for you having me. host: when you met with the president this past wednesday, what did you tell him? caller: we shared our stories and there were me and five other dreamers and we each shared a personal story, how we arrived in the united states and the sacrifices our parents made and what we were currently doing and how the daca program benefited our lives. then we also spoke about what's going on in congress and how daca and dapa is being attacked

by certain republicans. and that this is a victory and just a temporary damage to the whole problem and we need to continue to work to pass immigration reform bill that would create a permanent solution that would include many more people than just five million. we were in there 25 minutes or so discussing those things and kind of letting each other know things we kind of already knew so making a promise to him we could celebrate the victory and continue to fight for a immigration reform bill. host: you came to the united states at the age of 5. tell us your story and what you're doing today. came at the age of 5 and didn't become aware of my status and grew up in connecticut. not a lot of diversity in that town, much less undocumented folks. it wasn't until i got to high school an couldn't drive or work legally and i found myself making lies to my peers and friends as to why i couldn't do these things and then when

college came around, i was a senior, i realized i couldn't go to the college of my dreams because since i wasn't documented, i wasn't eligible for financial aid or student loan for grants and therefore my tuition came out of scholarships and pocket and it was really tough for me to really own my status and was really ashamed of being undocumented and then i started to get involved and went to gateway community college for two years and became the student government president over there and did really well and currently now where i'm a junior at a university studying political science and involved with the dream as the largest immigrant network in the country. i'm no longer ashamed of my status. i don't have an issue coming here and telling you that i'm undocumented or telling my peers in my class that i'm undocumented. and a lot of that has to do because of dapa and i needed the confidence to come out of the shadows and really talk

about my status without being fearful and without also being ashamed of what other people may think of me. guest: host: not only did you meet with the president but heckled the president in the past and this is one of those headlines as a quinnipiac student explain what you told the president not this past wednesday but at previous events where he was talking about immigration. caller: so i interrupted one of his speeches when he was supporting governor maloy back in november and my mother was next to me and i interrupted him when i said, i'm a dreamer and live in fear my mother will be deported and would you include administrative relief? at that time we had heard that he was planning on including more individuals than we had thought but we needed to make sure that he was going to include parents of dreamers as well, parents of daca recipients and parents who did not have any u.s. citizen children or legal permanent residence so we were trying to show the urgency.

unfortunately, what ended up happening on november 20 when he made the announcement, dapa was only for parents of u.s. citizens and legal permanent residents. while we were in the meeting with the president on wednesday, one of us raised the question what about the six million plus folks who are left out? the president told us he had gone as far as he possibly could have legally and included as many people as he could. and i believe him. there was a time when i was really upset after the announcement. i couldn't feel as happy as i wished. my sister is a legal permanent resident and therefore my mother does qualify and that was a huge relief for me but there were people and friends i had worked with on this campaign to win this relief and their parents didn't qualify and their parents will continue to live without any relief in fear of being deported and not being able to work legally and not being able to drive in certain states. so the work i did in the past, interrupting his speech was

really something that needed to get done as well as a lot of other pressure and techniques that we use to really get him to go as big as he possibly could and he ended up doing so as he told us in that meeting on wednesday. host: the white house releasing a photograph this past week of a handshake between you and the president when he was campaigning. as you mentioned, in connecticut. and there is your hand in pink. let's go to barbara joining us from texas. the democrats line as we talk about the issue of dreamers and imlegal immigration. good morning, barbara. caller: i went to a immigration meeting in sabada, texas, to get information to help someone. and we were told in that meeting that a lot of people are going to be able to come in as long as they were here before some part of 2012 if they were here when they were, like, 5, the ones that didn't have proof that they were born here and were born by mid wives

that they could, you know, get information -- like receipts that they had -- maybe their parents had paid for years to a landlord o, or they need to start keeping all kinds of paperwork to prove that they've been here before a certain amount of years. host: patrick taurel, you want to respond? guest: for information about the program, visit a website which is www.adminrelief.org. but one of the questions you're asking about is emerges two different issues, one of which is what are the eligibility criteria, who actually is going to be able to qualify for this and how do you prove you qualify. in the daca program, if somebody wants to apply for that program they have to include a couple ingreendyents in their entire application. first they have to include several forms which are signed under penalty of perjury, asking all the relevant questions about eligibility. and then in addition to that, it's not enough to say that you

qualify, you also have to demonstrate that you meet the requirements by providing documents like the kind that you mentioned, barbara, including proof you've been living here for a certain amount of time and so on. in addition to that, you have to pay an application fee, the program is entirely funded by those application fees and then of course submit to a background check as well. host: michelle is joining us from minneapolis. caller: thank for you allowing me to call in. i'm about three or four points and would like to get through. number one is that there's two parts of this thing that the president did recently. sure i can see because we have limited funds that you may have to prioritize. you want to get the bad guys out and the drug dealers out and you want to get the crime bosses out but again they shouldn't have been here in the first place, number one. who gives him the right, the president the right to give people social security and then let them work? host: on that point?

guest: sure. actually, congress does. the congress is delegated to the secretary of homeland security who is one of the president's appointees the authority to issue work authorization including to certain undocumented immigrants who are not residing here lawfullyly. host: maria praeli, do you want to respond to the issue of social security, somebody your age are familiar with? >> the social security we have with daca makes you eligible to work or drive. i want to make clear it's not a temporary program, it's a two-year program that doesn't give us a lot of other benefits that others might be criticizing, it just gives us permission to work and drive. a lot of these folks are already working so now it's giving them the opportunity to contribute more and the ability to do so because all the undocumented immigrants contribute through taxes in one way or another but this program really will enforce that and allow a lot of folks to work legally and contribute back to the economy even more than they

do so. and like i said it's only a temporary thing and we're going to continue to fight it until we can get some legislative change until we can get an immigration reform bill because a lot of the individuals are making the complaint we didn't wait in line and we need to get out of here. and i asked them, how can you tell me that without even thoughing me aened and there is no line to get behind and what we're pushing congress to do and why we want a reform bill so they can create a line and we can get in back of it and eventually wait our turn so we can become citizens and obviously this will take a very long time and be a very long pathway to citizenship with many requirements and many fear we'd have to meet. but many don't understand many of us and myself have been here over 16 years. i am a really good person, as many other folks who are undocumented here are. we're just asking for the opportunity to live a little bit more freely, to have a little bit more opportunities and to really see that the

number isn't much of a difference between you and i. host: i'm curious, do you have a passport? caller: i have a passport from korea which is my country of origin. host: we're joined in baltimore on an independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. yeah. i would hope you would give me a chance to express a few things. me i know

was a drug house for illegal immigrants. no one wants to enforce any laws follow up on anything because our illustrious mayor, the govern previous gone er wants to run for governor host: the patrick, what's your response? guest: i understand your concerns, bruce but at this points in time, the southern border has never been more secure. in fact, that's been a real priority of the obama administration. they have been pouring resources into it and crossings are at their lowest they have ever been. a point that the previous caller raised about the social security cards, yes when someone has work authorization, they are able to receive a social security number but the head of the social security

administration testified earlier this week before congress that actually, you know, the deferred action program and all of these folks who are already here already working now actually working on the books and paying in to the system is going to shore up a lot of the funds that they need to keep operating. it's going to be very beneficial to the social security administration. >> we will go to salz bury north carolina carolina. caller: those people re going to blame the president for doing something temporary. get congress to pass a permanent bill. it's only temporary. if you want to put the pressure on someone put it on congress. the approximate the president -- i don't understand these people. they want something passed but yet they are not pressuring the right people. host: can you answer that question: how are you pressuring congress? what do you expect to do in the

future? >> we have pressured congress repeatedly. the dream act, which is kind of like a version for young folks living here trying to go to college. since 2001, and it failed again in 2010 and a senate passed an immigration notice summer of 2014 and the house refused to bring it up. we advocated for that. people need to understand dakca i don't want to have to reapply every two years and i have been here over 16 years. the daca program is needed because congress is refusing to act. the last session was the most inactive congress in history. >> tells you allegations of something. i want to say that we are -- i was on capitol hill asking republicans in the senate if they wanted to deport me asking them why they are trying why they are beating around the bush and not getting to work and

passing a reform bill trying to take away the only relief that i have. to i want to make it clear it's not like we are just going to the president and asking him to grant united states all of these things. we have worked very hard for this daca program, advocated, pushed, been in fronts of the white house, attended meetings and not forgotten about immigration. we have tried and we will continue to advocate in the future because we understand that that is going to be acceptable to us. we understand it's not going to be forever. it's something we need in the meantime until congress can get nair their act together and pass a reform bill for us. host: we will go to hemphill texas. did you want to follow up on another point? we will go to hemphill texas. rocky is next. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i went to a high school that was 70% hispanic, and i want to tell you, hispanic people are great people. i loved them.

i played football with them. i spoke fluent spanish. but i have a bit of a problem. many of my hispanic friends do not want 11 million illegal hispanic immigrants to take away -- well i shouldn't say take away. maybe the idea is that i don't really see maria wanting anything other than amnesty and it really upsets me after doing 30 years in the military that i have somebody telling us our congress is a do-nothing congress. i don't appreciate that, maria? >> i am not saying congress is worthless. i understand the value that they have. i am a political science major, and i do understand the way congress works. but it is important to look at the facts that the past session has been the most inactive session of congress. it has not passed as many things

and an immigration reform bill which is what everyone wants the majority of the american public wants, these folks who are good individuals can have a line to get in back of and what the president is doing is trying to get a lot of the criminals and other undocumented folks here out of the country to try to provide a lead for the folks who are currently here looking for more opportunities and looking for a better life some temporary relief unless congress can pass the reform bill. host: we will go to clark in bloomfield, new jersey. good morning. caller: hi. you know i am listening here i am listening to this. and can you hear me? host: sure can, clark. go ahead. you are on the air. caller: i am going throughout the year, i live in the same area, you know for 20, 30, 50 years, and the past 20 years, i am now a minority in my own

country. this is not arizona or texas or any place. the construction -- they are doing construction here on a city block apartments condos. the union guys put a route up there. there is fallacy going around here and the statement that you are making like things like the majority of the people are for this what the president does. that's outrageous. that's an out and outly. nobody is in favor of this. host: we will get a response patrick? guest: i understand your concerns, clark. the poll i was referring to was put out by cbs news i believe it was last week or two weeks ago. you can take a look at it there. on the question of union support, actually unions are fully behind the president with this announcement and with

comprehensive immigration reform more bradley. the sciu has provided a website that provides application for applicants called "iamerica and i would direct people there much host: let's go to john in huntsville, alabama. republican line. caller: good morning. host: how are you today? caller: good sir. thank you for asking. not withstandtion all of the current issues with immigration, the daca program is good but it's being laid out for things that are already in place, which it should be. if people can get to this life, all our an skeft orders but it has to be legal. the union guy we just talked to. i have to agree with him, you know, i am in construction and i will work because these builders hire nothing but

illegals and come tax time, you know, they 1099 them. i am pretty sure that they don't report, you know, the earnings that they made probably more the people don't have any choice but they accept it, they pad their pockets. it's a big, huge problem. host: john, you made your point. let's go to maria from connecticut joining us. >> thank you. i think it's two different issues. we are not talking about allowing more undocumented folks into the country to come here illegally. we are talking about the issue that there is over 11 million undocumented individuals. many have been here for over 10, 15 years. i don't think the question is really, you know, how do we stop illegal immigrants coming over all the time and keep coming how are we going to stop people from coming but more like how do we address the issue? the interior issues that the united states has, which is that they have a large undocumented population and these people like myself, are in limbo. we can't do anything. there is nothing for us to do

because there is no pathway for us to take until congress passes an immigration reform bill. i want to reiterate that the daca program isn't eligible for everyone. you know, it's come here in the last four years or so if you have come here in the last four years or so, you are not eligible for the program. it's not about all individuals are going to have access to, you know, to be able to work legally and drive legally and not live in fear of dedeportportdeportation. they have to meet strict criteria and it's not just for people who have come in recently. as i say, you have had to be here for many years to qualify. host: how many siblings do you have here in the u.s. and what do your parents have? >> i have one, an older sister. and it's just my mother and she is a housekeeper. host: craig from east brookfield, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: okay.

i would like to make a couple of points. one point is from what i have read, is one of the greatest portions of the illegal aliens are actually people who came on the green card that came here legally and then over stayed. i mean i have some friends from africa that had done that that have come and then just stayed. and the fact that the illegal aliens are a portion. and then what i would like to switch over to is the birth rate of the whites and the blacks and the fact that over the last 50 years, the united states has increased its population roughly two and a half million people. and over the next 10 years, the centers for u.s. census projects 28 million. so almost three million a year in growth and this is what -- this is what our question-and-answer is based upon. our economy is based upon that influx of population that, of course your houseing, your cars your industries, your electric

company. one other person is illegal, legal, over stayed their green card or is an american-born person when they are in an apartment, the electric company doesn't care who is paying the bill. wal-mart doesn't care who is paying the bill. the schools don't care who is paying the bill. the priests, everything is moved by this influx of people. guest: thanks for the call. you are right about the visa overstays. the undocumented population is a hard one to know a lot of facts about because they are undocumented, but the estimates that i have seen indicate that roughly 60% of the undocumented population came in without inspection and about 40% overstayed visas. so a pretty substantial percentage. host: let's go to ken in concord, california. good morning. independents line. caller: hello. first comment i wanted to make was the comment about the

congress being ineffective. passing more bills doesn't make them more effective. more laws aren't necessarily good. host host: linedar next from tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. the reason the congress did not act was because the american people was not behind the immigration and the next election will show it. host: maria, how do you want to respond to those senators? >> i did not hear the second one that well. if you could repeat it. i'm so sorry. host: basically saying the american people don't want congress to pass any dream legislation. >> a lot of the polls have recent done say the vast majority of the american people do want a reform bill to pats. the population -- a lot of the population support the daca

program. i am only in one state n one town. i am not surveying all of the folks across the nation but according to some really good poles, paifshlth the vast majority are in support of these things. host: as an activist and a student and somebody who had time to meet with the president on this issue, bottom line: what is your message? >> i think that people need to look beyond the whole legal undocumented status. they need to understand that we are people. you know, i am a real person. i have been here for over 16 years, and i am just looking to have the best life i can and have equal opportunities with other people. and it's so much more than just saying, you don't belong here because you don't have a 9-digit social security number. i came here when i was 5 because my sister's left leg it was amputated and the u.s. had better medical services. my mother and i came here because my sister didn't have a leg and the services here were

better than peru. we over stayed our visas like a lot of folks do. like i said, people really understand that we are humans we feel that we have smokes like they do and constantly hating on me when they don't know me, it's something that is hard to grasp. and i think that folks need to understand it's far more than a 9-dict number. we are human and we are waiting. we want reform to pass. we are going to continue to push for immigration reform. evenldz, we can be here legally and con and contribute more to the economy he than we do already. host: maria space faeli joining us and patrick ferrell, thank you for your perspective