>> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and politico, reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> they are coming across our borders in huge numbers. >> this week on "inside washington," the immigration debate. the supreme court steps up. >> together we are going to win on november 6. >> for mitt romney, it is all over the coronation. >> mitt romney, the next president of the united states. >> could this be the beginning of a bid of four friendship?

>> e-mail your member of congress and tell them, don't double might rates. >> in 2003, trust fund resources will be insufficient to maintain the payment of benefits. >> seniors -- n numbers on social security and medicare, not goo newt gingrich decides to pack it in. >> i believe that our be a better candidate. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> let's start with the supreme court and the arizona immigration law. according to a study by the pew hispanics under, the largest waves of immigration from a single country, mexi, isver.

the flow has stopped, and may have even reversed. why? a weaker american job market, tougher enforcement of borders, changing economic and demographic conditions in mexico tell thato arizona. >> this is a wholesale invasion of arizona, an outfit or government -- our federal government is not protecting the state. >> lega trespassing. >> that is arizona governor jan brewer. two years ago, arizona passed a tough new law that critics say amounts to racial profiling. this week, it went to the supreme court. the state of arizona argued that if the federal government monday with the border, -- will not deal with the border, the state has a duty to do with it. brewer said she thought t

hearing went well. nina, you agree? >> it went well for the show-me- your-papers part of the law. >> evan, isn't immigration control the responsibility of the federal government? >> it is, and this is often because the feds dropped the ball. congress cannot handle it. you would think that now, the heat is often a little but an idea is a good time for -- and it is a good time to do federal reform tt islearly called for t. but don't hold your breath. >> if a police officer in phoenix pulls you over for speeding, he can check the immigration status. there is a police officer in phoenix who says this amounts to racial profiling makes his job too tough. do you agree?

that.doesn't hinge on it hinges on a federalism taca. isn't what the obama administration is arguing is that the arizona -- essentially, what the obama administration is arguing is that there was an oversight by enforcing a law that the fed's refused to uphold themselves. >> mark, your thoughts. >> first of all, this may be the answer for the republicans' dilemma on the latino vote. latinos are returning to mexico. latinos are counted, but democrats as being crucial. half the growth of the country's population in 2000-2010 were latinos.

i. three-one margin, -- by a three-one margin, they democrats over republicans. the republicans have made anti- immigrant the court with the nomination of mitt romney. he went after repair rate for a law that entitles people who are undocumented children to go to school at the same right. he attacked newt gingrich for saying that people for 25 years who worked and paid taxes could qualify. he has endorsed the arizona law. it is tied up in the politics of 2012 and republicans are on the short side. >> how big is the problem? the pew center said thaas of rch tampa, there are 2 million unauthorized immigrants and the united states. >> to begin with, in arizona,

there are 40% more border patrol agents and there were five years ago --than tthere were fined years ago. what you have to understand about immigration is that it is a complex problem. you squeeze the borders in texas and california, people go to arizona. farmers depend o immigrants to harvest their fields. a lot of these states that have passed strict laws, step officers say we did not know we were voting for. >> they bypassed the state this year and lost -- >> right. >> let me ask another question about the argument. the solicitor general has taken a beating again. evenotomayor took him ca

task. >> the sections that are at issue, they do different things. trying to uphold s.b. 1070 looks to be a difficult task, and probably justice department officials knew that. there are other sections of the law that makes it illegal for people to work or seek work if they are not legally in the country. theeder government has said -- has ever shame -- has a regime that does not make it a crime to work. >> evan? >> even if hispanics are going on, which appears to the case, there are a lot here. long-term demographics, the country is still going to be more hispanic and that wil

favor democrats. >> bsayi that the numbers going in and going out have is to predict a future you cannot predict. we have tried to decrease immigration and probably an increase in emigration, where jobs are not available when the american economy recovers, as it will, who knows what will happen? romney was ridiculed durg the campaign for sayin, "in the faint hope we will need a self- deportation." -- in the end, we will need a self-deportation." it was seen as weakness. flowing in and out is self- deportation, and now it is welcome. >> 18% unemployeor

underemployed in the country. the reality of this is that in 2000, george w. bush carried white voters over al gore by 12%. in 2000, john mccain carat white voters over barack obama -- in 2008, john mccain got white voters over barack obama. obama won in a landslide because of latino voters. that is something that republicans other than george w. bush do not understand. >> i wanto talk about this more. >> 3, 4, 5, 6, seven years ago, if i do the job as vice president -- i'm sorry. [laughter] >> you guys all got that, right? >> bit of a gaffe there.

but look at this -- the nbc- "wall street journal" poll, romney is trailing obama want latinos. romney-rubio, match made in had been. -- heaven. >> match made in purgatory. [laughter] now, he is smart, he makes a great case, he has a record in florida. >> but? >> but we went through this four years ago. everybody is an amateur running for national office, and the republicans learned painfully in 2008 with gov. palin. >> this guy is no sarah palin. >> no sarah palin, but you are taking a chance. there is questions. does the cuban connection

reached latinos, with the dominant vote in the country among the latino community? >> with rubio on the ticket, does he close the gap? >> ideally, he could solve this problem withepubcans with the hispanic vote. but i've talked to people around romney who say that there's something about rubio that makes them nervous. you can be sure that they are scrubbing his record like you have never seen. little gaps in his story that may be are not little, but he will get a very thorough scrubbing. >> he would definitely not in florida - -- help in florida. but in the last analysis, people vo for predent notice presidents. >> when i hear this guy speak, i

am reminded of tony blair. even when you don't agree with tony blair, you love to hear him speak. >> he is. he's excited, young, like tony blair, tkennedyesque. there is a distinction between cuban-americans and weather non-cuban hispanics consider them rt of the family. he has had to come up th something substantive. a revision of the dream act in that neither does not citizenship but says you don't have to worry about living here the rest of your life. >> for the children. >> children of illegal immigrants who have to meet a requirement, military or school. but the idea is that citizenship is a gift. it could be a lure. therefore we will give permanent residence and you don't have to

worry about deportation. that is the kind of comprise th cou getuppo on both sides of the aisle, and chose the path that romney could pursue. he has not endorsed it, and it will be hard to endorse it, but it will to begin to walk back what happened in the primaries. >> that is the central line of charles' statement. john boehner, speaker of the house, candidly said this could not pass the house of representatives, because of the publican caucus. there and 20 presidential elections since 1928. republicans have won nine of them. in every one of those nine, there was on the national ticket a candidate named either nixon or bush. for 2012 -- 2012, jeb bush.

>> the name "bush"never comes up, except for jeb bush. >> i applaud his ability to lay low. >> i'm not talking about him, i am talking about romney. >> jeb bush was always considered, but for george ran successfully, the one who was the political star and all the policies have been everything. it cannot work out that way. >> if he had different last name, he would be the vice- presidential -- >> yes. >> he says, "im not interested." >> he left the door open. >> change his name. what about jeb ochocinco? [laughter] >> what is the spanish word for

"bush"? >> not going there. >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. [laughter] you should listen to the president, or as i like to call him, preezy of the united steezy. >> the president on "late night with jimmy fallon." was this thing up. -- tnk appropriate? >> i and so close that i did not get it -- so clueless that i did not get it. [laughter] >> i am reminded of the clinton

senio." >> the consensus of the chattering classes is that it was undignified, up but we are all old. i thought was kind of funny, i am a sure it did appeal to young people. >> old? cries of condescension to young people. i know the ad doesn't appeal to our demographic, and i was scratching my head away evan was -- >> not an ad. >> i guess one thing to play the saxophone -- it is one thing to play the saxophone great talking about student loans in that context? i agree, ideas and the like -- it is a little like nixon on "laugh in."

>> it was a campaign -- >> he didn't argue -- >> this is a takeoff on his argument for his position. the question is, is this one as appropriate as potent going on bill clinton going on after his and this nominating speech of michael dukak, maybe not the best hour and half of his life. >> mike it is about t -- but it is about the youth vote. according to a recent poll, only 61% of 18-to-29 voters are registered, only 46% say they. there is and -- they are going to. there is an enthusiasm gap.

>> because they are young. >> the things that inspired them in 2008 are completely gone. it will be a miracle if they can turn out anywhere near 2008. >> every kid i knew, almost, was registering, can tvassing. >> youth is the perfect distillation of hope over experience. now they have four years of experience with this guy and nobody graduating college can get a job. litning is no loer i the bottle. >> if you listen to the treasury secretary this week, talking about social security not being there for them. >> for a young person coming out of college, it is pretty tough. >> half can't find work. >> the kids to have jobs for

kids to get certain kinds of skills -- our kids to get ceain kinds of skills thaare needed. th areot morin in english literature. i talked to an electrician the other day in massachusetts. they closed down the program to train kids to be electricians because not want it applied. >> people are not buying new houses. they are rehabbing their own. >> americans now owe more in student loans -- it doubled in the last five years what we owe on credit cards. the president wanted tactically this round from the republicans -- won tactically this town from the republicans.

spend $6 going to billion, which is what it costs to make this difference in the interest rate, maybe we ought to think in terms of spending it for people getting out of high school and helping them along anat community colleges. those are the ones who need help. >> in lot of interesting research and data shows that kids don't learn anything in college. they are about the same when they leave as they go in. there is a big question of whether you are getting a man is worth. >> who is the liberal will lead the fight on college costs? >> ieard paul ryan and tk about it at georgetown university. >> it will take a liberal -- >> when you get is a liberal president who instead is demagoguing the issue by

appealing to the best-of young people -- best-off young people. >> the president had an interesting itinerary this week. >> college tours. boulder, colorado --wing state. chapel hill, north carolina -- swing state. >> amazing coincidence. >> amazing coincidence, and presidents never do this. >> peggy noonan in "the wall street journal" this week. "there was a growing air of and confidence around this white house. -- of incompetence around this white house. the general services administration, syndra, and other scandals -- y get the sense that nobody is in charge, that the president is paying

attention to politics." is that fair? that is don't think fair. the gsa thing is a real scandal, but a civil service scandal was not in washington. the supreme court argument was a perfectly good argument by the administration, just is an argument with the court. part of it is a winning argument ought to -- winning argument, too -- i think. >> the reason is an item is challenging the show-me-your- papers pition was purely political, a way to show hispanics that we are pro- hispanic. it will be struck down by a large majority. that is pure intrusion of politics. >> if you are going to argue this thing, why don't you argue racial profiling? >> it has not happened yet. when you print the challenge,

-- when you bring the challenge, you have t show it will be unconstitutional in all applications. there is a racial profiling case waiting in the wings. with this court, they will have to prove it. >> they did not want to it because they want to challenge and out to affect the election -- challenge it now to affect the election. >> there was a good argument enunciated by the chief justice about this. i agree with you about -- there ar things you do institutionally because you are defending a federal law and you want federal dominance. that is the way the federal government works. not to defend federal produce -- that is to defend a federal prerogatives. >> there was one who is concerned this week that when you put together a solyndra, the

gsa, the story about leon panetta is spending $800,000 to fly back and forth to california to visit his home, on top of the secret service, it gives romney and opening in the general election to run a non- ideological campaign against president, that i am the guy who can make things work, i am the guy who is competent. it doesn't get to left-right. >> it doesn't help on friday, gdp numbers came in for the first quarter, and it was low. 2.2% is tragic when you're coming out of a deep recession. after the recession of 1981, 1982, growth of 6.7%. this is the reason that the jobs problem will remain stagnant

between now and election night. >> you look at the election of 1952 -- harry truman did not seem like a great president. all the trivial scandals he was enmeshed in. >> a lot peopl hated him at the time. newt gingrich prepares to leave. >> we will be in tampa as the nominee in august. >> didn't work out that way. that was newt on january 1. if you believe in yourself, who else is going to the -- leave in you -- if you don't believe in yourself, who else is going to believe in you >> there are peoplwho believe in newt. a great poificingife, making a fortune, and i suspect he will do it. >> newt was always on the fine

line between visionary and a fool. but he has been a visionary before so maybe he will come back. >> not at the presidential level. he was not cut out for that job treaty is talented, smart, and often he has very good ideas. i think he would -- i would like to see him as u.n. ambassador. [laughter] completely out of control, would tell them the truth is nobody else would. >> attended of big ideas, and i did not -- hear -- a candidate of big ideas, and i did not hear one, other than colonizing the moon. >> see you next week.