emory university. professor steven h.lagamski is the john s. leeman professor at washington university school of law. focusing on u.s. comparative and international immigration. the founding director -- a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law. he recently returned from a two-year leave of absence serving as chief counsel of u.s. citizenship and immigration services. he is the coauthor of immigration and refugee law and policy which has been a required text at 176 law schools since its inception. the professor graduated first in his class at the university of san diego school of law and clerked for the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit. i ask you each summarize your testimony in five minutes or less to help you stay within that time limit.

to her left is representative jessica farrar from texas. representative farrar is currently serving her tenth term as state representative district 148. she was first elected in 1994 at the age of 27. she is the longest serving hispanic member from harris county in the texas house of representatives. rep farrar currently serves a as the vice chair to have the judiciary and civil juris jurisprudence committee and a member of the state affairs committee. rep farrar currently serves on the state committee and serves as its chair. i'm going to hand it over to david to talk a little bit about what's happening with the american worker in the states and some ideas that cap has for how to advance this middle class working class agenda in the states. >> great. thanks, nick. do you want to join us? >> yeah, i'll be there in a second. >> thanks very much for letting me sort of, i think, frame this discussion, because what i want to focus on is why we are