let's welcome back friend of the show, raul reyes, a "usa today" columnist. raul, i find any immigration plan that does not offer a pathway to citizenship to be unacceptable and offensive, because what it sets up is a group of americans who are legally here, but are second class citizens are not able to vote, but they're able to pay taxes. isn't that -- what do they call that, ari, taxation without representation? i think we're against that in america. >> correct, the whole idea behind the kids act, it actually is, in a larger sense, undermining immigration reform. because to me, it's really just a distraction. although it might sound good, when we look closer at the ideas in this kids act, as you mention, it sort of gives these young people a second class kind of citizenship. which it puts them, they're not fully american, but they have more connection to the country their parents brought them to, so it's an in-between state. it doesn't promote assimilation. and also for these people later down the line, it sets them up for possible discrimination, although t

. >> joining me now, nbc news latino contributor raul reyes.g saying this came from the border patrol really reminds me of michele bachman when she was talking about the vaccination for the hpv where she said some random mom came to her and told her this. she didn't get her team to research any of this. she rejurch tated it on the "today" show and the mom was never found. steve king is saying some random border patrol person said this to him and he presented it as fact. >> right. and the crazy thing here, aside from the fact that these comments are highly offensive to latinos, to immigrants -- >> boehner called them hateful, hate speech. >> he's right. but the bigger problem is, you know, it is good that speaker boehner and eric cantor have denounced these remarks. what makes the headlines? it's these remarks. right now the gop's problem, we've heard a lot about their latino problem. their problem, in a sense, is steve king is becoming their face on immigration while the house is trying to work on immigration reform. they are attempting to do s

joining is me now is raul reyes.hank you so much for being here this afternoon. >> my will pleasure. >> so speaker boehner has said he might support something like a dream act but will not commit to a full path to citizenship. i want to listen to what obama had to say about why he thinks the house is having so much trouble. let's listen. >> the house has been struggling with a lot of legislation lately. you have, i think, some in the house who believe that immigration will encourage further demographic changes and that may not be good for them politically. if we can see some leadership from members of the republican party, some of whom i disagree with on a lot of issues, but, you know, who do seem to recognize this is the right thing to do for the country, that eventually we'll get something passed out of the house. >> what kind of behind the scenes is maneuvers do you think are taking place to ensure that someone in the house will step up and be that leader that he's describing? >> i'm not sure what those maneuvers

and raul reyes, a usa today columnist and nbc latino contributor.et's continue that conversation that kristen welker and i were having about this tone, this cadence, this volume, everything about the way the president spoke yesterday. is this a president we have not heard from before? >> i think we have actually heard from this president. we've heard more and more from him as this president has continued to grow and evolve, as we do with all presidents. i listened to this speech again this morning, and i heard nuances there that i did not here on yesterday. i think the more you sort of dive into this thing, the more personal you know that it feels. and so i'm actually deeply proud of this president and that he did it sort of on the fly yesterday. >> what nuance stuck out to you that you saw today that you didn't see before, goldie? >> i think the biggest nuance that i saw that i think everybody missed is that this president spoke honestly about wrapping his arms around black men and boys around this country, who may be the victims of violence from i

let's turn to raul reyes, and a former republican official and msnbc contributor.entlemen, we have worked up a couple reasons why this matters. of course, as you know, it is not just entertainment. the guy has some power. and you were arguing this week that this undermines national republicans and is not actually as out of sync as we might think from the rhetoric. >> right. that's the larger problem for the gop. when we look at these clips, hear this crazy rhetoric, it is easy to see he is an extremist. he is an important voice. he is a leading voice on immigration. it was his bill. i think it was last month to defund president obama's, for action plan that all the republicans. >> the six republicans. >> so everyone is in there with him. the big problem for the party, there is somewhat of a void on immigration reform in the house. and steve king is filling that void. >> robert, i'm sure there are better people who could fill that void. but didn't this week. i want to go to number four on our top five list. if it is "disrupt," you know we're disrupting the way we do