Lawsuits in federal courts . Our members are certainly those volved in all of cases. One thing that weve seen in the Trump Administration is that the mpact on immigration is no loppinger isolated to a certain small set of policy objectives or goals. Really the whole entire mmigration system has seen a real shift in how immigration aw and policy is implemented, the intentions of the system i think have all been sort of challenged. Them members are all of really are actively involved in figuring out what is the policy currently. Nistration theyre actively involved in efforts to try to get the policy the more aligned with needs of the United States and the families who are here in country. Its been a full bore effort. Our topic for today on the washington journal is and campaign 2020. Ot a single democratic candidate says that the current immigration system is working. President trump often calms it a immigration system. If you were asked to fix the start . Where would you guest people have recognized this system has been broken for a long time. First came to washington d. C. In 1999 and there was widespread ecognition them that the immigration system didnt work and unfortunately your question question. Fect we focus too much that its broken and not enough on the that its fixable. Think its built on three pillars which is youve got to ave sensible, sane immigration enforcement. No question about that. You need immigration enforcement. A set of rules that makes sense for families and businesses that use them. Of talk about the fact that since the last am necessity we did not have enough enforcement and thats why were back in the situation that were today. You got to hit the reset button a workable path to status so we could move beyond so much of the tension and disagreement about mmigration today and get back to having an immigration system reflecting our value as and needs. Path to legalization amnesty and a magnet problem like this 20 years from now . I think if you have a see asystem reflecting the needs of and the needs of the families that are here, thats oing to be the greatest incentive for people to come legally. I mean, in you give people an legally or g illegally, people are going to choose the legal way. The problem now is that the pathways in the United States are incredibly difficult nonexistent for many, many categories. In we were building houses the early 2000s at an incredible rate. We needed construction workers build those houses. There is no visa available for construction workers. Ten years for them to get a green card and no temporary system for them. To ere daring immigrants come to the United States to take jobs that we needed. Right. Outad this help wanted keep sign at the border and you cant have that kind of schizophrenia. Particularly when you have the worlds alarmest most powerful economy. Hats what we dont want to fight in the immigration system. Our own economy. The needs ystem with of our economy and families with legal ways for people to get wont have to spend so much time enforcing immigration because people will legally. Host ben johnson, with us until this morning tern if you want to join the conversation. Folks are calling in. One of the pillars of fixing seven stem you said forcement. What are your thoughts on those Democratic Candidates for to abolish o want ice. What would that do . Guest i understand the abolish ice. Ind i think that flows from the fact that the agency has really with prioritizing. It doesnt really prioritize. Murders and people who violate immigration status ith apparently the same degree of urgency. Thats misguided. No other Law Enforcement agency without priorities. And they really engaged in some harmful hat have been and counterproductive and inefficient. Theyre housing a lot of people in private prisons. So i get the fact that the theyre housing a lot of people in private prisons. So i get the fact that the agency needs to be really looked at, determine whether theyve got the right mission and resources. Determine whether they even belong in the department of Homeland Security or separated way. Me so completely revamping and thinking about how we do that etter than were doing it now is fair game. Abolish ice is just a Bumper Sticker though. Fact that its got people sking the question if ice has the right resources. That might actually be a ositive but attend of the day you dont abolish enforcement entirely. Host sam. Thousand oaks, california. Good morning. Independent. Yes, good morning and thank taking my call. So i first came here 30 years legal immigrant to get my masters and then a green card et cetera. Ra u. S. Citizenship for many years at this time took time but was the wait. Nd now i see a lot of legal immigrants here so they didnt have to wait. For legal immigrants when we see immigrants coming in without having gone through the process, they ask the question is that fair. And the second point is that now card and become a u. S. Citizen legally now it takes many years. Know friends and relatives who the process. On it was so long they just gave up skilled so highly they went to canada or europe or elsewhere. Dichotomy. Theres a were losing out on highly skilled people because theyre to wait for the green card process. And at the same time we have a of Illegal Immigrants especially here in southern california. The system truly is not working. Sharing your or story. Hes right. The system is not working. Not fair. I think anybody who is serious about immigration policy and be gration law has to serious about ending illegal immigration. I think Everyone Wants to end including igration Illegal Immigrants. Living in the United States ithout documentation and in illegal status is not an easy life. And its not fair for those went through the process legally. What we have to do is decide hat are the barriers and hurdles that we expect and want to create for people to come into the United States. What is a reasonable period of to wait. I think its fair to say that asking somebody who is looking a job thats available now with employers who need the orkers now asking them to wait ten years for a job thats available now doesnt make a lot of sense. Kinds of hose dichotomies and tensions between he needs in the United States and the availability of visas that causes people to come round the system rather than through the system. So i agree with you that it is ot fair and weve got to make it more fair all the way around. North carolina. Republican. I would like to add a few personal bout responsibility by these adults that are bringing these children border illegally. Had these children, they knew their living situation. Nd just like me and i got neighbors, we know how many have an we could have to family and our income and our careers and all. Part in our decisions on do we have children. And those same standards should not be erased because the border is where theyre i think america knows he democrats have bent over backwards to let them enter our illegally flooding the zone to take vote because they do vote. Just not right to hold and cans at one standard then watch on tv thousands, hundreds of thousands of people caught a month and then that lets us know that when we see the mart and hispanics, how many of theme are here illegal . North s jeff in carolina. Well, i mean, with theres a lot to unpack there. Listen, i think we want to create a system where people are coming here legally. Get i would like to see it away from is all of the political fighting that gets us away from good policy decisions. Theres debate about do to let them that doesnt help anything in figuring out the policies we need to address challenges in front of us today can agree that the Current Situation isnt working. To come together and figure out how to make it work better. There is absolutely a sense of selfresponsibility that everybody has in living their one of the factors that we have to consider in analyzing judging those folks is that the circumstances in the triangle of Central America have changed dramatically in the last ten years. Heres been a 300 increase in the murder of women and girls in honduras alone. That gang question violence and its not even fair to call them gangs. Sophisticated y violent criminal organizations taken over many cities in those countries and they of those e lives people. Extortion, violence, rape. Those things are part of their lives and thats changed bad he occasion has gotten mother looks at the life of her child to say out worth it to me to get of here to be free from this violence. E thats why we have an asylum system. Hereshould be able to come to determine if they meet grounds for asylum. If not they would have to go but if they do they should be allowed to come into the United States. Its not endless numbers. Its not everybody. Its in line with our values and system. T with our host the numbers of those cases a day in court about 850,000 is the back log . Guest yes. Host what are the various plans to address that . Are out enty of plans there. Im not sure how many the Current Administration is solutions. O real you need an Immigration Court system thats functional so the to do is get u to it out from under the control of the political machinery. Administration has shined a spotlight on the fact that we dont have an court or have independent determinations about judgeses in front of the because those judges are employees of the department of ustice and they can be controlled entirely by the attorney general and weve seen that happen. Independent court who can make decisions about the best and fastest way to review cases. Determinations have to be fair and based on facts and thats of were going to need more judges too in that get m but thats how you more of these cases processed. Mentionedrlier it was the initial adjudicators looking at the cases. Think you can increase the size of that and give them responsibility to make determinations, findings of asylum findings on the front end. You can alleviate some of those cases. What i think is a mistake to do, what is i think an affront to happening is whats now which is to try to change the you will radios of the game that an entire group of people coming from a particular area of the world are entitled to asylum. You just cant do that. Sweeping s of statements are not appropriate and theyre not aligned with our judicial terms of our system. And you cant house people in prisons where private prisons are making billions of dollars off of our unwillingness really address this back log. Its not efficient and incredibly expensive. Are many programs where people can be released from information, given representation, 99 of folks come back when we give them information and representation. Forward. Path online its aila. Org. Next. D is pensacola, florida. Caller good morning, mr. Johnson. Ive been reading from the Time Magazine that the actuary of the social 2014 ty administration in estimated that undockmented 100 billion aid over ial security taxes he past ten years and we need those Social Security taxes being paid because americans are aying they wont have their retirement. Will you please speak to that . Thank you, sir. I would agree that theres a misconception that people in our in our economy are undocumented and undocumented are not contributing. Taxes. Y the overwhelming majority of the undocumented population is payroll taxes taken out of their paycheck. Heyre making contributions including Social Security. So internshiping its fair to acknowledge that these workers an important part of our economy and make contributions. To say think its wise that its okay for them to undocumented. Those would be much larger if legal status. Its fair to defend them from of stereotypes thats happening as human beings and as workers. Productive, decent folk. But that does not mean that we hould not all be committed to ending undocumented immigration. Everybody in the United States and to be here legally they ought to have permission to wek and work above board and have to create a system where thats possible and get the workers that we need. Or less. We do it in the way thats sensible for the families and usinesses that use our immigration system. 30 years 30 years years weve host for 30 years weve held the immigrants responsible. That doesnt work. Just one ceo going to prison would eliminate illegal employment at once. Ceos dont like prison. Uest im a believer that if youre going to have consequences those consequences ave to be evenly spread out across all of the actors nvolved in the behavior youre trying to conform. Employers should face the same of penalties. We should take that serious. Same time, we cannot believe, fool ourselves into we can enforce our way out of this situation. Another issue thats come up in campaigns is this idea of criminalizing or decriminalizing immigration. The fact of the matter is that most immigration violations are violations. That section 1325 debate weve heard. Guest exactly. That relates to someone crossing permission. Ithout but all that to say the majority f the rules relating to immigration are civil rules. They can be enforced in a civil manner. That the solution to our problems is simply adding more criminal pent penalties sort of one employer being perpetrate walked into rison away from solving our immigration problem. We have to learn the lessons in criminal learn Justice Reform is that one size fits all. Increased punishment. Mass incarceration didnt get us warresults we wanted in the on drugs and massive incarceration and increased one size fits all strategy is not going to get that Immigration Reform we want either. William, north carolina. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Talking about immigration nd the inability to get workers. Im a retired military person. I have a top secret clearance. To school and i was a upervisor in Satellite Communications for over ten years. I came out and i wanted to be in construction. I wanted to get my general contractors license. Make a long story short, ive waiting over 30 years to permission to get take the test. Not flunk the test. Test. He Job Opportunities are not for black kids. Host william youre going in and out. Guest first of all, thank you for your service. Those that say that theyre willing to put their lives on defend this country are absolutely heros. To thoseould stay true values and principles. And one of them is we should not let folks pit americans against people against people. We definitely have serious challenges in our economy and access to about jobs. The ability of workers to move n order to pursue Job Opportunities in other places. Maybe theyre tied down by a have other factors. We should be able to address those challenges and those challenges are not going to go because weve gotten tougher on immigration. Those challenges are only going we call that challenge out and say lets focus some time and attention on sure ng hangout we make everybody in our economy has a wage. T job at a decent got access to healthcare and education. Those arendamentally, the things that america was fighting for when you were serving. Basic principles that we cant stand up Fake Solutions to real problems that were going to solve those problems by either restricting immigration or less or more immigration, thats not going to happen. A labor on is part of force. Immigration is part of an economic system. Mmigration is part of our culture and history. But its not the answer. Immigrants didnt build this themselves. We all did this working shoulder to shoulder in deciding what create life we want to for each other. We need to get back to creating that environment. Oklahoma. A, prussia, king of pennsylvania. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Personal history that makes me feel strongly about immigration. Survivors from world war ii. Im first generation american i turned out pretty good. I have a regular job, a family. In my ewhat active community. O im very much lets solve this problem of immigration. Changing the rules on people is absolutely not fair. Were talking a lot about fairness and ethics. Like that topic, i would to make a special point about diversity. Cspan often and i like the guests and im learning a lot. Point here is why is it so using theese speakers word we go to church with other people. We go to work with other people. Not all of us have church. There are synagogues and temples and other faiths that use other buildings. Would like to promote diversity by asking all those on span and people across our politics to say we pray together. Sense to you, ke mr. Johnson . Guest it does. Up. L just pie straight thats probably my own bias in terms of my faith experience. Right. Ure absolutely theres a lot more faith experiences out there. Certainly i will try to be acknowledging that. I mean, probably acknowledge dont pray. I really think the heart of what i was trying to get at is that in this together. And i think the more that we llow politicians in their efforts to differentiate themselves the more that we differentiate us and divide us then i think we lose that sense of togetherness. To get e is only going better if we reek news that we are all in this together. Enemies need to make out of the people who have something that we dont. We need to figure out how do we out of our lifes experience the things that we want and need and deserve for work that we contribute, for the taxes we contribute. Have. E dreams that we all nobody has a monopoly on any of have things and i think we to figure out how we Work Together to achieve a Better Future for everybody. How long have you been at the aila. Most will tell you too long ive been executive director for three years but ive been working in or around the about 19 years now. Why did you get involved in this work . Guest its an amazing community. I fell in love with the people this work. Its the honor of my life to across h these lawyers the country. They Work Together. Information. Share ideas. Theyre committed to a larger