people in prison than any other nation in the world. that brings me to the immigration system. in the 1990's, congress made it a crime for immigrants to cross the border. the largest growth in the federal criminal justice system are latinos from the southwest who are arrested merely for crossing the border. now the department of homeland security spends more money on border enforcement than the d.e.a., the f.b.i., and the justice department combined. we're talking billions of dollars. so in a time of fiscal austerity , in a time of sequester, i'm not just appealing to people of color, i'm appealing to all taxpayers to look at how many people's lives we're ruining because they have to have encounters with the criminal justice system. we worked really hard 17 years to get the disparity in sentencing between crack and reduced, signed into law by president obama in 2010. we have the potential of turning gun legislation and immigration legislation into large feeders into the criminal justice system. people don't need punishment, they need help. people should not be in prison because of drug possession. the