now, president zedillo talked about the fortunate elements of timing. timing fell in a way that we would never be able to anticipate when we began this a few years ago. where the timing is concerned, i want to stress that we all realize that what it is that is going on in the united states at the present time with immigration reform and immigration reform debate being, again, after many years on the front burner, is something united states has to solve domestically on its own. we are very much recognizing the individual characters of each of our countries and our political systems. at the same time, whenever it is we do in the united states on immigration policy, and on fixing a brokenness of the system, whenever we do will have critical applications for the region, for our relations within the region, and for the features of all of our countries in north america. it is trying to deal with the sovereign nations and what each of us are doing in our nations, the fact that we are interconnected, and these are ultimately themes that deal with all of us. i a

now, president zedillo talked about the fortunate elements of timing. timing fell in a way that we would never be able to anticipate when we began this a few years ago. where the timing is concerned, i want to stress that we all realize that what it is that is going on in the united states at the present time with immigration reform and immigration reform debate being, again, after many years on the front burner, is something united states has to solve domestically on its own. we are very much recognizing the individual characters of each of our country's and our political systems. at the same time, whenever it is we do in the united states on immigration policy, and on theng a brokenness of system, whenever we do will have critical applications for the region, for our relations within the region, and for the features of all of our countries in north america. it is trying to deal with the sovereign nations and what each of us are doing in our nation s, the fact that we are arerconnected, and these ultimately themes that deal with all of us. though, to o

>> thank you very much, dmitri, and i should say thank you, president zedillo.one of our three chairs. you know, president zedillo started us off in a way that he typically has done in his public service as well as his work in this endeavor, and that is i really touching on the key themes in a very coherent fashion. because this is been an effort that is very expensive. we are talking about very big things here, very long-term commitments and efforts. but nontheless, things have to start somewhere and sometime, and these very important issues of how migration really fits within the broader context of well being for each of our countries as well as for the region over all is what it is that we have tried to get our arms around in begin to point to in this effort. now, president zedillo talked about the fortunate elements of timing, timing definitely fell in a way that we would never have been able to anticipate when we began this effort several years ago. but where the time is concerned, i do want to stress that we all realize that what it is that is going on in

south america with former commerce secretary carlos gutierrez and former mexico resident ernesto zedillo. that is live at nine 11:30 a.m. eastern. a look at -- 9:30 a.m. eastern. a look at the political situation in egypt. the new america foundation will host a discussion about egypt's new generation of leaders in the countries current political structure. our coverage begins at 12:15 p.m. eastern. >> senate chaplain barry black talked about the conflict between religious and secular views. he focused on the role of religious liberty and political freedom in the the founding of the united states and the influence of religion on democracy. from the heritage foundation, this is about 45 minutes. >> we, of course, welcome all of us who join us on these occasions and on our heritage.org website and those joining on c-span. we would ask everyone here in- house if you would be so kind to see that cell phones are being turned off as we prepare to begin. all of us would appreciate that, especially those recording the event. we will post the program on the heritage homepage within 24 hours for yo