The king was preventing people from coming to the country and being able to migrate. I dont want people to take away from this hearing that all of a sudden we forgot about the tired and the poor and the people striving for a better life. Those are probably my biggest concerns when we look at just the precedent we set and we have economic problems and we are getting out of them like we always do and we will always prospered because we are resilient. What about the moral grounds that we would see if we say we are going to forget about 11 Million People and focus on skilled workers and not take care of spouses and equal protection under laws . Do you worry about that . I do. If we look at the statue of liberty what it says give me your tired and youre poor. What i do not want people to take away from this hearing is all the sudden we forgot about the tired and poor and the people who are striving for a better life. Those are probably my biggest concerns when we look at just the president we set and we have economic problems and were getting out of them like we always do and we will always we are resisted. We are resilient. What about the moral ground if we say were going to forget and we only focus on skilled workers. We will not take care of spouses and equal protection. Do you worry about that . The country is in a mess. Our economy is in horrible shape we have a brain drain going on. It has never happened before. America has always been a land of immigrants, not immigrants. Were losing a couple hundred thousand more people could be killing our economy. Until the economy heels the public will not be receptive to the unskilled workers. It is a mess right now. Lets agree and get that over and done with. Lets agree on the dream act and give some kind of green card to the of undocumented workers. That is toxic right now. I am not after mistake we can solve that problem. Optimistic we can solve that problem. Lets make things easier for everyone. Give them green cards. My father has a green card. He has lived here for 30 years happily without having that problem. You do not have to have citizenship to do what is right for people. The problem can be solved. My wife lived here for 25 years on a green card until she decided to naturalized. She could not about in School Board Elections which annoyed her. The statue of liberty is on the cover of all the commission on Immigration Reform reports and on the diversity of visas. If you look at the composition, of current legal emigration to the u. S. , it is very diverse. When approbation was passed, there was concern it was not diverse enough. Since then it has become very diverse. These are adding 55,000 visas that are getting 8 million applications each year, randomly allocated by computerized lottery. That is a somewhat odd way to set priorities. The Commission Said we should set priorities and we should deliver on them. And the Diversity Visa Program it felt then and it would say now it does not rise to that level of priority compared to the other priorities. Alamance time has expired. The gentlemans time has expired. I think it is important we modernize our immigration system. We agree that we have a broken immigration system but we need to find a solution to the promise we have by being fair. We need to be fair to the millions of americans that want to follow the rule of law. We need to be fair to the millions of people who are waiting in line to come legally to the United States and we have to be fair to the 11 Million People who are here illegally. I have a few questions about this. I want to ask, you spoke about the sibling category in your report. Can you explain i agree with the conclusion. We should get rid of the sibling category. Can you explain why you think that is important . Up there are not enough space is allocated for the huge volume of applications. You have eight 2. 5 million person waiting list. The waiting times vary from 12 to 20 years. If youre not going to manage by backlog which is what the Commission Said, we should not be doing. That is a category managed by unconscionable backlogs. One thing i disagree about is the guest worker issue. I am a little bit dumbfounded by it. This report came out a few years ago. 15 years. In my state, in idaho we have a large dairy industry. Two former have experienced i9 audits. 20 of the 30 employees did not qualify. 40 of 57 did not qualify. The one hand and fired all those employees and it went ahead and ask for people to come work at the dairy. They could not find a Single Person who applied for the opposition who spoke english. They do not know if people are legal or illegal. I have not done another inine audit. How can you see that we do not have a need . That is a large number of employees that needed to be hired and not a Single Person who spoke english applied for the position. I do not know the circumstances in idaho, congressman. I am sorry. I would say it is true that in some agricultural areas, employers, particularly in rural areas which is where agriculture normally is anyway. Typically. Not all. Have become dependent on the assumption they can recruit from this undocumented work force. This is different. This is somebody who had to fire everybody who was working at their dairy and they could not find anybody who could speak english. I do not know what their status was. I was an immigration lawyer and i found the same experience. Some of the agricultural areas and industries. It is hard to find American Workers who want to do the job. Your solution is they should do something else. They should pick, and instead of something else. The reality is we should let the market decide that, should we not . It seems that even in the example you gave us that the owner of the farm had already decided he was not going to pick the apricots because the market was not working. We need to do something about our guest workers. I disagree with you there. With the commission. With the commission. I apologize. I like your words that we progress because we are pragmatic. It seems to me that your solution is not pragmatic. You say that it has to be a pathway to citizenship for nothing else. In my 15 years of experience as an immigration lawyer i talked to thousands who are here illegally and what they want is they want to come out of the shadows. They want to be legal and want to be able to work into trouble. They want to be able to feel like theyre being treated with dignity. Not very many people told me i want to be a citizen. I have to be a citizen in order to feel like i am a dignified person. If we can find a path to citizenship but better than kicking 12 Million People out, why is that not a good solution . I would say that is not the solution that is in the nations best interest. That is what i said and that would be the most pragmatic solution. One of the reasons i believe that is that if we do not go down that route i am convinced we are likely to find ourselves here again in 10, 15, 20 years. If you ask me with that the better than zero, i would not necessarily disagree. Is that sufficient . Does that actually address the issues that we have in front of us . No. It is not a sufficient solution. My time has run out. The question i have for you and for all advocates of Immigration Reform is whether you want a political solution or policy solution. If it won a political solution you have to insist on a pathway to citizenship. Youre going to be republicans over the head on this issue. Everyone a policy solution there is good will here in the house of representatives for us to come together and have a pragmatic solution to the current problem we have and solve and modernize the immigration system for years to come. Thank you. The gentleman from illinois is recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I would like to say that while we have been here every minute, someone has been deported. Most of those deported have committed really no crime. Other than working in the United States which is a misdemeanor the last time attacked. They are raising their families, they are contributing. Theres always the question about paying taxes. They pay taxes. You can check with the Social Security department. There is a large amount that those unaccounted for. They do not know who toot attribute that money to pray we need to do reform so when they pay tax it goes into the right account and it helps fund and fuel our economy. And what the mayor and the state and federal government to garner this tax dollars and not for it to be in the pocket of sun some unscrupulous employer who is taxing the but not sending the money on. We all know that there was an increase in the earning ability of the undocumented once the became. Everyone keeps talking about innovation. Let me give you a little innovation. We talked about the uncertainty of the market and what we do as a congress. The uncertainty of what we do and what that causes. I want everyone to think one moment. What you think about the uncertainty in the life of a male 11 million undocumented workers when you give them certainty . I will tell you what i believe theyre going to do. Theyre going to buy that house that had they have been thinking about. It will buy that car. 75 of our Economic Activity in the United States is someone purchasing something. I want to to think. Think about people going to insurance agencies into banks to open accounts and to invest and to save. Most importantly, as i and other baby boomers, i am 59 and i am part of that group of people that is going to be hopefully soon going into the sunset. How soon . While we have a lot of people, we have the largest percentage of people ever before in the history of our nation that are leading our work force in the next 15 years. We need to replace them and we need to replace these assets. There are undocumented people in this room, there are dreamers in this room. I am happy that the president uses his executive authority. 500,000 of them are facing deportation. 150,000 of them is in my office and i have to tell you something. He is not a burden. He got legalized and came to my office. We get health care at our place of employment and that is the same place they will get health care. I want to say to everyone that is here, i want to quickly say to those who have come here and i will destroy your name to want to say to both of you, we have a bill. Was introduced by the gentle lady from california. For 10 years, i insisted that Nothing Happened on any other particular part of comprehensive Immigration Reform unless we did it all, but last year, in good faith and to show we wanted to work with everybody, we said 50,000, i will not object we did not want you to get something while someone else lost something. In our bill, 50,000, you get to come from the first day with your wife, with your children because we believe we should welcome you and at the same time that have to make a distinction between serving this country and bringing your talent and sacrificing and cherishing the fact that a family might not be there with you. I will continue to work. I say to my colleagues, we can resolve this and many other issues. Lastly, what to say special thankyou to mayor castro. You just a little up our house. You live us up with your speech at the convention, which your poise, with the way it is you make is also proud and which were story. I would like to say to you that i am so thankful that america gave your grandparents a chance and you are here with us today. I know that the nation is better because of your service. Thank you so much for your testimony today. Thank you. The gentleman from california is recognized for five minutes. [chanting] [gavel] the committee will have order. This is not the way. All those must leave. [chanting] just so many of you are not in doubt about the rules of the committee. I want to make sure that everyone knows that the chairman of the committee may punish breaches in order and decorum by center or exclusion from the hearing. We just a moment ago did not have order in the hearing room. Members of the audience must behave in an orderly fashion or elsewhere will be there will be removed. Let me say on the side that was not a good action point to the excellent points made by the gentleman from illinois. The way we resolve this is through discussion and careful deliberation about the issues, not by disrupting efforts to educate members of this committee and the public. We will resume the hearing. The gentleman from california is recognized without penalty for the loss of any of his five minutes for that destruction. Can i get an extra minute for this one . May be. First of all. In several ways i want to associate myself with my good friend from illinois. I am one month, nine days older than you. That does not mean there is any real difference in us as baby boomers. Were going to exit the scene and i do not want to exit the scene without resolving an immigration problem that predated my interest and the gentlemans entrance into congress. That group of disruption did not understand my politics. I do believe we can get to unsubstantial if not complete Immigration Reform bill. It is my hope that this is that window of opportunity. I do have some concerns from earlier. I want to associate myself with ms. Lofgren. I heard you say we should grow different crops in california as a resolution to the leading needing labor we cannot seem to find. Is that pretty well correct . I am saying that farmers and employers make decisions incrementally over time based upon the available availability of labor at what price and so we have allowed farmers are dependent on that continuing flow of labor. That is the nature of temporary worker programs and undocumented workers. I want to challenge that for a moment. I was there in 1986 when the law changed. I have seen my farmers, some that i represented in the past, some that i still represent, flowers, tomatoes, strawberries, and my wifes home in monterey county. The majority of all lettuce comes from that county. If we simply say we cannot have labored to pick that and we need to make other decisions, this land is will grow something else. We will import or lettis from another country. If the real question is if we have an Effective Program that gives the opportunity to people to work for a time and periodically return home in a non immigrant, in a migrant way, we can have an Effective Program and in the 1990s, you were studying it at a time when the problem was fixed and it was getting rebroken as we spoke. We had migrant labor that had become permanent. There were beginning to either be in the management ranks of agriculture for they were leaving agriculture. That is understandable. There were tens of millions who would stand in line to get good paid by their standards, migrant jobs here in america and would do so under a set of rules that were fair to them and fair to us. If they were fair, that is a big if, of course because temporary worker programs generally have not have that character. And then i would suggest let me challenge that. I want a successful resolution. I believe it is to deal with people who are already here and empower us to bring in people who add to our economy and deal with lowskilled jobs that in many cases if people come to this country they do them for a short period of time. Is our standard supposed to be an american wage for american jobs or and i want to go to or should it be a wage that is completely fair and greater than the wage someone would find in their home country for coming here and sufficient for them to not only earn a living but also to go home with more money. If that is the standard, is that an achievable standard where it is a winwin . We can get our crops still with in a decent way, they can be better off, and we can have a full flavor for that one portion that would not be subject to shaye migration. Change migration chain migration. The recommendation said that was an attractive goal but not possible to achieve. Not possible to achieve. My premise was that we pay more than they would find in their home country but not necessarily what were paying today with all the rules under the ag program of h2a. You might want to look at the backlogs that have been generated that have lots of people who are not particularly skilled waiting. Theyre in it entitled to a visa but they are in the backlog. I hear you say it could not be done and it was not going to work but i worked with mr. Berman on this community this committee believing it could. You look at canada, canada has made the Guest Worker Program work for a while. It is a good solution. You want the high skilled we want them here permanently. Thank you. Anyone else . Thank you. The gentleman from washington is recognized for five minutes. I come from a district that has lots of technology in the southern part of the district. Home of microsoft and a lot of biomedical Device Companies and rich Agricultural Industry of dairies and specialty crops. Emigration is important from many different aspects. You talked we talked about h1b minute talk about a starter visa program. Would you talk about how that would work in conjunction with the program . The starter visa would do wonderful wonders for seattle and new york and more for Silicon Valley. There are tens of thousands of companies that would be started almost overnight if we gave the entrepreneurs the ability to do that. It can start a company but you cannot work for a period that is brain dead. We would have a boom in entrepreneurship but we have not seen before. It should be done independently of Everything Else were doing. Just get that done so we can fix the immediate problem. There is the issue of habs. H1bs. There are debates about whether they take jobs away. And in other parts you do need h1bs. The more urgent thing is to give green cards to the millions who are already here. Let them start their companies. Let them buy houses, let them enjoy the rights that americans enjoy. We talk about Startup Companies but a lot of research there is great basic research that is happening at our universities. How do you think the relationship of our emigration program has an impact in the education were able to deliver in medical areas and Technology Areas . We need researchers coming in and people in the system. To commercialize more research. That would lead to a big boom in startups. The system does not work right now because the researchers can i get resident visas. Is the same problem that everyone has. It has slowed down immigration for no reason whatsoever. We were talking about health care and obviously we talked a lot about technology and we forget that there is [indiscernible] many needsacross the health care system. Elaborate. It is clear from a number of reports that with the baby boom generation retiring and with a new healthcare environment, there is a shortage of Health Care Workers at various levels. In a number of areas that are not medically served appropriately. Certain specialties issues that are [indiscernible] there are a number of issues. It is hard when you come from eight [indiscernible] when you come in like i did. Going to Research Field and it took several years to get to that because of the restrictions that are placed. We always advocated that when you go through the immigration pathways especially the field immigration pathways there should be marketbased characteristics of that people gravitate, people with skills gravitate to where the demands are and where their skills are really needed. Health care is no exception. I have had the privilege of working with senator conrads office in the past of which i am a graduate. And theyre looking for physicians who served under serb areas. Underserved areas. We talk about agriculture, you are talking Seasonal Workers. In the example that my colleague from idaho brought up earlier in the dairy world and we have many Dairy Farmers in my district, these are not Seasonal Workers, these are your round workers. Struggling to make sure they have a strong work force. Do you feel differently about the ability to address those issues versus the Seasonal Workers . This, too. If they are year round of the are not really temporary. Really temporary. Seasonal is more temporary. There is still an employment you have got to consider whether the jobs are attractive enough for the underemployed u. S. Workforce who could be attractive if they were attractive but i do not know what the conditions are in the forms and carries that you are much folks are paid . Do you think it is a financial issue . These are not necessarily the most skilled, but different skilled. I do pick strawberries in the summer in oregon. I think we went to the same school. Did we . I did not know that. It was interesting, difficult, and well paid job for a College Student during the summer. I do not think there are any jobs like that anymore. It is a different workforce that is the strawberry picking in oregon now. There has been a shift. Did we really go to the same college . We did. In portland. I think i used all of my time. I thank the gentle lady. It is good to have mayor castro here from san antonio. San antonio is like my own hometown, corpus christi. You have a pretty good basketball team. I wanted to visit with you a little bit. I really do sympathize. We have a big problem. I think we all agree that our immigration system is broken. We have a lot of cases at our office. My heart is broken by some of the family issues that i see. Also my heart is broken by the fact that many of these people who are in this country without copper documentation are basically an underclass and are not afforded the full protection of the law. If youre here illegally and you see a crime on the street, you are afraid to call the police for fear of you getting involved in it. Youre open to exportation by unscrupulous employers. It is a real problem. It needs to be addressed. I have spoken with a lot of republican colleagues. Some of them democratic colleagues. And a lot of folks back home on the issue. It seems like the stumbling block for everyone is the pathway to citizenship you have been talking about for a long time. The promises of the 1986 Immigration Reform when it granted citizenship to so many people we were going to seal the border and make sure that this was a onetime deal. We see that has failed. My question to you is how do we not end up in the same situation 10, 20 years down the road if we do this again . My fear is that what we are saying by a pathway to citizenship is that all right, you have come over here illegally, let seal the borders with hundred percent so no one can cross it illegally. You will still have people overstaying their tourist visas and student visas. Theyve done it twice. We will wait them out. It creates this underclass of people who cannot have a real job. Selling bootleg dvds in the flea market or working in whatever underground economy. How do you craft this so we do not fall into the same trap . Thank you for that question. It is good to see a fellow texan from south texas. First, i believe as a nation we are stronger because we ask folks to take an oath, and allegiance to the United States of america. No question about it. That requires full participant nation in the democracy of citizenship. I cannot imagine an america where we consign these folks to an underclass status. We would be telling them you will never ever be able to become a citizen. What we put into law to not invite people to do the same thing again . That is my concern. First of all, the only way you will accomplish that is with a comprehensive approach. You do not want to find yourself. 10 are 20 years now. The legislation should include enhanced Border Security. Enhanced interior security. Would you support the idea i would support technology that ensures that people who are here are here legally. Whether it is that or Something Like that, there are more people more qualified to speak on that. I would say including an ability for employers to verify the legal status that is better and more comprehensive. We tried to do that and failed, but you will still have the underground employers if you have people who are overstating their student visas. My concern you have answered this in different variations time and time again. This is a very generous pathway to citizenship. Maybe may be we tight unit and find a compromise, and how to avoid creating an incentive for people to keep coming here . That is what my constituents and that a big stumbling point. You solve the issue that you have in front of you that you improve the ability to see the folks who should not be here and ensure that people do not overstay their visas. I i say im out of time, but do not see how you do it. How do you track them . Throwing our hands up is not an option. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. Garcia for five minutes. Thank you. Mayor castro, what type of work did your grandparents engage in . My grandmother ended up working as a maid, cook, and babysitter. There you go. Highly skilled. I wonder if there were canadians is not like texas or miami where people just want to be there. I heard your testimony. I worry about it. You say that our country is a mess and i hope youre just talking about our immigration. What brings people to our country is opportunity. For the moment, we are only you agree that suffering is for the immigrants who do not have documentation families separated and being deported. Why should we decide and not decide on those who have been investing and in your long time . The issue of the undocumented is toxic. America is divided. It is toxic because we have given up. If youre given the choice to pick strawberries in florida, would you have taken that choice . I might have under my circumstances. Under your circumstances, the answer is no, right . The green card is a wonderful way of being here. If the only difference between the green and the citizenship is a right to vote. The republicans know we will lose the battle if we just legalize 11,000 people. [talking over each other] people would choose that. The other question i asked, do you think there is some kind of paradise, the folks who have been here for 10 or 15 years aching strawberries are potatoes or corn or apricot . Do you think that is a particular good circumstance for the last 10 or 15 years . How about you . Is that a good thing . Are they happy to do this . Do they want to be in this permanent underclass . I do not think so. Is there any history of any country that did not have immigration heading toward its borders . Say that again. Is there a history of any country that was successful in not having immigration . From the battery in nash babylonian empire, every nation has immigration. The commission was a strong supporter of the substantial Legal Immigration system. Do remember what the cover of your report says . The statue does not say you. It is the palm. It is on the pediment. I think we make a mistake when we engage in this debate and encourages some paradise. You spent how many years trying to make your status permanent. More than 15. You would agree that is not a particularly terrible place to be. Even those like yourself making a good salary, but finding the impediments, that is not a good thing. No, it does not. I would assume that youd want the status for all others who are in a similar situation. Yes. I think the issue here is that the folks on the other side this is no paradise. These people work hard on the american dream. They want an opportunity. A pathway to citizenship does not mean that we will find these guys up for citizen. That is a choice that is made. Im sure you would love for people to be registered to vote, mayor. That is a choice that people make on the dislike citizenship, correct . Sure, it is correct. I yield back the remainder of my time. The gentleman from North Carolina is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Castro, i recognize your resistance to finding a middle ground, something short of citizenship. I ask you, if you are an illegal immigrant in the United States was in the business of enforcing our immigration laws and your choice was convicted criminal or almost citizen, you would choose almost citizen, would you not . As i said before, do i believe that something is better than zero . Sure. I also do not believe that addresses the entirety of the problem here. Redirecting your attention back to a previous question, which was considered hypothetical, if you were given the opportunity to write the law and ensure that it passed and we found ourselves ten newsletter with a large appellation of Illegal Immigrants in the country, would you enforce the law or would you come back and find another pathway to citizenship . I would suggest that it is not a hypothetical question. It is precisely the question that we are dealing with right now. 25 years ago, we passed a comprehensive bill and here we have a low estimate of 11 million illegals in the country. Some estimate millions more. What is the mistake that we made in 1986 that we do not need to make this time around to ensure that we do not have to do this again . I think one of the things we can do was mentioned earlier and that is to continue enhance Border Security and to work on interior security. Technology has benefited us during that time. We have an opportunity. You have an opportunity. Congress has an opportunity to pass a comprehensive, well thought out bill. No one can guarantee. It you are right. Some folks will probably fall into that in the years to come. So the mistakes we made is that we do not enforce the law . Well, i think someone else will have to speak to that. We cannot throw up our hands because we think therell be challenges later. That is not an option. Doing nothing is not an option. I agree doing nothing is not an option, but enforcing the law needs to be a part of the future. My fatherinlaw is british. He is an engineer. He has managed worldwide construction for two pharmaceutical countries one based in the United Kingdom and one based in switzerland. Through all the years i have known him, he has complained the most about immigration laws of the United States and the difficulty it has been not only for him to work in the United States, but for Getting Team Members in from other countries to work on large Construction Projects and pharmaceutical Research Facilities here. You have experience in australia. It is a snapshot. It if one was a u. S. Citizen engineer and wanted to go to australia and manage a billion dollar construction project, how much of a hassle would it be . It makes it very easy to come there. Canada is the same. They are welcoming immigrants to come there. It is hard to get green cards and many other countries. Australia, they welcome anyone who graduates from the university. Your father in law is else in Silicon Valley. The companies are starved for talent. They want to hire the best from all over the world. But we do not let them. If we were playing football as a country, we said the only people you can hire our people from within the company. We are basically locking out the worlds best talent. There are numerous hightech companies there and a large number of software companies. I have heard from them that when they have difficulty adding some and into the United States, often what they do is have them located in canada and skype in their input. I pay the taxes in canada and not in the u. S. In Silicon Valley, that is commonly happening. Everywhere else but Silicon Valley. We want people here so they will pay taxes here and interact and start more companies after they finish projects. Thank you. The gentleman from new york is recognized for five minutes. Thank you. You have indicated throughout your testimony the need for policy or practical reasons to emphasize as we tackle this immigration issue of highly skilled visas. You have founded a company of 1000 plus employees. You have written a book. You work at one of our most distinguished universities. You have contributed much to america. We have a history of dealing with refugees with a passion that makes sense for who we are and what we represent in our democratic values. With the history of making sure that we grant visas in recognition of the fact that we need to draw from people all across the world. That is the premise of the diversity. That makes a stronger. The need to emphasize and promote family unification for reasons of fairness, efficiency, and reasons that clearly make sense to the integrity of our democracy and the wellbeing of our economy. The gentle lady from california has made a point to some of the most significant Startup Companies, the Silicon ValleySuccess Stories were from yahoo, google, intel, they did not come to this country through the highly skilled immigrant visa program, but through other means of immigration. There is an interview on november 20, 2012 at the Wharton School of business. Their distinguished school in pennsylvania. You stated, i was in new york in the 1960s as a child. Being in america is quite an experience. I left in the late 60s, but i always wanted to come back. The first chance i got was in 1980 when my father got transferred to the consulate in new york city. Would you agree based on your own experiences in america that the notion of family unification, of the unit being together, has been and should continue to be an integral art of what we do when it comes to comprehensive immigration law. There is no dispute on that. The only thing i argue about is that we want to bring in additional skilled workers and grow the economy. Your own experience the measures importance of family importance. You are right. The children are immigrants that is correct. We need balance. How we find Common Ground in terms of the Immigration Reform . On one hand, you have mass deportation that was presented as an alternative. On another, a pathway to citizenship, but mayor castro, you indicated that seems to be a false dichotomy. The most of her. Construct is on one hand, mass deportation, and the other is open, unsecured borders. Neither is appropriate. And that is appropriate construct, mass. Deportation on one hand, and the other open, unsecured borders, how do we find Common Ground . Based on those two wide ranging extreme alternatives . Would you not agree in that scenario, that a pathway to citizenship is one alternative, compromise, but possible, and ultimately attainable, firm but humane, and that the only other possible compromise that was raised by others is permanent secondclass status notwithstanding the fact that those permanent secondclass residents would have passed the background check, pay back taxes, pay the fine, or gotten an education, served in the military i got into the back of a very long line could you comment, mayor castro, on those possible compromise alternatives and what seems to be most consistent with who we are . I believe you laid it out well in the extremes you have. Mass deeper tissue up 11 million Million People, that will not happen. We will not open up the borders. The bipartisan proposal and the president s proposal represents an effective compromise. This is our earned citizenship. The alternative is a recipe for creating a class of second class, noncitizens of the United States. Thank you. Last but not least, the gentleman from georgia is recognized for five minutes. Thank you. One of the good things about being last is that you get to listen and hear a lot of questions and hear a lot of hyperbole. I have heard a lot of discussion and a lot of well what if we dont do this it will be horrific. I come from northeast georgia. Mary agricultural district. It is on the border of atlanta. It is an mixed blessing of the need for immigration and workers and the need for industries, but we also deal with the hard paying tax payers who are concerned about being fair, open, and honest. They have a deep faith. If the only way you can show your true face is by opening up your arms and forgiving and not having any rules, i believe you can hold both. Im a lawyer as well. I hold both grace and law. We need to look at that. The question that comes to mind for some of this room, we have dealt with it in a way that is still in progress. What can we do as the state because the federal government has not . What concerns me is that comprehensive Immigration Reform. I will start with you, mayor. When i hear comprehensive in this hearing today i hear comprehensive is that it has a specific outcome. It is not company has and it does not lead to a specific end. I heard in recent testimony and questions that compromise between two untenable paths is not compromise. Compromise between two things that would never take lace is not compromise. Youre taking two extremes and basically saying there is a compromise in the middle and the reality is that you are not compromising. Those things would never exist. It is a fantasy. You also said he felt it was in the nations that citizenship right path to citizenship. Is that correct . True. The believe that all immigrants come across the border legally or really believe for the same reasons . Yes or no . I cannot say every single one of them comes for the same reason. So is there at least room for discussion look, even in the diversity of my district which is very conservative, there is a need to deal with all aspects of this from the security aspect to the legal aspect, but also from the ones who are already here. If we only insist on comprehensive and we sort of demonized the process if the only way is to have a citizenship ending, are we not doing a disservice to those who come to work and have a deep love for the country they came for, and they came for economic reasons . They lived here for 30 years on a green card. My concern is that compromise in your mind only is compensable with only a desired outcome at the end. I think the only effective way to address this is to make it is to great pathway to citizenship. Youre talking about 8 to 10 years that is not my question. Im dealing with the definition. If we only do comprehensive reform under the guise of an outstanding outcome or intended outcome, and i have trouble with that. What we are setting ourselves up for is that if one side is coming to the table with open and honest ideas for reform, but is in the end i disagree. You state that it is in that nations best interest that there is only one path and that should be citizenship when it really there are other alternatives that are out there. I do not think you can tag the two. That is what i have heard. Look, i do not believe circumstances are easy for anyone. But also, do not lose sight of the Hardworking Taxpayers who have been here. They do hard work as well. They get up and go to work everyday. We we need a balance for the two. That is my concern. I yield back. I believe if we give these visas to all of the undocumented it does not have to be all or none immediately. It can be done over time. They want the right to live here with dignity. We are making this country suffer through needless debates when it can be resolved right now. I think were looking at it from a perspective of an overall look. I appreciate you coming here. The main concern is lets not trap ourselves in that definition reasons of comprehensive for other things. We can not say in the end, it did not fit the view of comprehensive. I thank the gentleman for his questions. I thank all the questions from the committee. I also thank the panel. You have endured more than three hours of questions. Thank you for making this trip to washington to participate. We will excuse you now and turn to our second panel. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] during the presidency of her husband at james madison, she is known for saving a portrait of George Washington and other valuables from the white house. Meet dolly madison, one of the women who served as first lady. Here is a look of some of what we are covering this morning the house will debate on a measure that would require the president to submit a plan that would balance the budget in 10 years. Watch that live at 9 00 eastern here on cspan. On cspan 2, leon panetta who is stepping down from his pentagon post. That is at 9 30 eastern. On cspan 3, funding for Technology Research and development, live from the House Committee at 9 30 eastern. Some of the automatic spending cuts delayed by congress in december are scheduled to take effect next month. In 45 minutes,