Around Orange County and the inland empire, but in l. A. Itself, do you have a goal of what you think is reasonable to sign up over the next year or so . Im striving for 220,000. You are. If that takes us a series of years, so be it, but were putting rhettthe resources behind this. It pays us back many times over. It makes business sense first and foremost but it also makes ethical sense. You alluded to this before but cities may intervene on the other side . Were looking to have a lot of other cities who stepped up saying they want to be a part of it, too. We dont have, quote unquote, local government or the federal part of the government saying were against this because if just a few voices decided to challenge, we think we can get a coalition of cities much larger and that is an important counterbalance for any court. They may win this first round judging by what ive heard from the court its in but it will be appealed, of course. As its being appealed, its very important for americans to speak up and speak out and for cities to be the voice of all americans. Are you confident that ultimately the federal government does have the authority to do i think so and again, in political terms, i think history is on our side. If we need to see the progress come through changes in laws as well as at the federal level, its only a matter of time because it makes sense across the board. Seven out of the top ten in this country were started by immigrants. I gave you the stats of 40 of our businesses in the city of l. A. If we become antiimmigrant or shutting off that valve, i was sharing with you the story. I just came back from asia. And when i was in seoul, when i was in tokyo when i was in different cities in china, they were all asking how can we get more diversity . They realize this is important for competition in the Global Economy today. We cant afford a competition thats backwards, saying how do we, you know, keep these people on the fringes, because theyre not going anywhere theyre going to be here. We need to embrace that diversity, figure out a way to incorporate it and see the population grow in the United States. Two final things and then ill bring in the audience. You mentioned the goal here really is citizenship in the end, not just legal status. And that will require legislation. Do you think this executive action in the long run is bringing us closer or further away from a legislative consensus on immigration . No question i think that it is bringing us closer. To use the metaphor from before, gay marriage civil unions the sky didnt fall. It was a necessary first step though not the ultimate goal. As i joked with friends, whats going to happen when gay marriage goes through, nothing. Thats the point. The world didnt change. Gay couples got married, straight couples got married. I think in immigration, any steps we can take forward will show that it gets a little bit better, not worse so what do we have to fear . The arguments that this is somehow going to be corrosive to our economy has not borne out. I think this helps us get to the steps of citizenship, and i think being able to bring people fully into citizenship, dont ask if tell us how. Because the alternative is something that this country cant afford. The status quo is completely broken for all of us that deal with it. And we need you to be a part of that solution instead of just saying what youre against. Thats the challenge, i think for this congress. Thats the challenge for immigration opponents that are out there right now. Its unamerican but im very hopeful that well move closer to it. Does the magnitude matter . You have the house voting last week to block it. Probably the majority of the senate will vote to block it. Practically every candidate in 2016 will vote to repeal the executive action. Does the number of people who get signed up between now and then assuming it goes forward, is that a significant variable do you think on whether this stays in place . Its an important variable but the question i then have to answer is, okay if you dont like if the president didnt have the power to do this will you do it legislatively . And you as a president will you sign that in . I dont think the white house, this was their preferred mode of option. I think its a question the American People will be asking any candidate and any party what are you doing to fully integrate now my cousins my neighbors, my coworkers . This is no longer something in which people dont know who these folks are. I think increasingly people recognize who they are. The importance, you know when you meet a dreamer who has been a straight a student, only known the United States, gets a scholarship to go to a Wonderful University and cant afford it because theres no financial aid, where do we expect that individual to go and why wouldnt our Company Benefit . I guess im wondering about the challenge of the supporters of the policy, the cities the advocacy groups, the neighborhood groups. If there are millions of people signed up, is this more likely to endure than if there are hundreds . Absolutely. Once people are in there it becomes an advocacy group. Most of the citizens here are legal and not citizens and people who dont have any documentation in single families. I think you have a huge constituency. Once people get in the system, they should be able to, in full trust and faith be able to see the end of that as well. Lets bring in the audience for a couple questions. Over here . I stood up here. It was interesting and thank you for being here today. Very enlightening. A lot of questions but ill boil it down to two. Having covered this issue for many years, i realize there is a great deal of fear and its not just fear from the government or fear of the government or fear of your neighbor, but when you line up and youve seen people cross the rio grande and theyre being he canexploited by the coyotes trying to bring them over there is a fear now there will be an expectation in the neighborhoods as this comes to pass. How do you deal with that . Thats the first question. And then the second one is i run two newspapers and three web sites and i can tell you on any given day if im not tweeting or im not involved in social media, im doomed. So how do you take this message to social media and deal with the naysayers who, as a man once wiser than me said a lot will make it around the world before the troops puts its boots on. How do you deal with that information in the internet age . Social media is not one world, its a lot of worlds that exist unto themselves sometimes. I think its important not to lose all of our focus and spend all of our time rebutting arguments from folks who may not ever change their minds, but using social media to reach people who need help. Thats what were primarily using social media for in local languages to reach out and find people and say come on in. We have the citizenship centers. We have folks who know this and can answer your questions, et cetera. To the first piece, i think youre right. Its a very fair point that anybody who is pro immigration or pro citizenship in this argument has to have their hearts break when they see the situation on the border and cant have an open border. Like for those children i wouldnt tell any kid who is in Central America or mexico by yourself, go try and cross that border. Youre putting your life on the line, people looking to be exploited, et cetera. So having a Strong Border is very important with a path to citizenship. Those actions to me are very meaningful as someone who is progressive on these issues and wants to see people not be exploited. What we do in our towns once they get there, i think its very important to create relationships directly between Law Enforcement and the immigrant community. Los angeles has really led the way. Before the present chief, bill brat bratton, if you come into contact with a police officer, were not just going to ask for your documentation status and send you to ice for no other reason. Not because of a criminal action but just because of that. We want people to testify, we want them to be witnesses we want them to come and report crimes. And we have a very good working relationship with immigrant communities who trust our police department. That wasnt always the case, but they do now, which makes our streets safer, which helps to solve a lot of crimes and which helps them feel a part of civic life, too. Over here. Question . Hi. Peggy chorowski, a lifetime californian. I agree, the hispanic communities who are here illegally is going to benefit tremendously from this. But i got a different perspective on immigration when i came here to d. C. , and that is a lot of jobs that especially blacks used to do in this town especially construction, have been completely taken over by latino contractors who often use illegal workers and underbid the black contractors. Ive talked to many ive interviewed them. I appreciate your pollyannaish view about the good, but there is no doubt that illegals do take jobs, and when can you how can you face that . Every person i talk to who is going to benefit from this, their first thing they say is theyre going to go get a better job than they have now. So who is going to do all those jobs that Americans Still do . With all respect, i dont think its very pollyannaish its very practical and ive done a lot of research on this. To your question in the Construction Trade and its very important not to conflate that every latino is an undocumented immigrant. Not to say that some dont, but thats in a lot of industries. What weve done in los angeles, and in the hotels there was a lot of employment, so we worked very consciously on an Apprenticeship Program and went into South Los Angeles and worked with the building trade unions to bring what is now about 3 or 40,000 africanamericans who werent becoming plumbers, electricians carpenters et cetera to go specifically into that. We found on the work site in los angeles, if people didnt speak spanish, sometimes they couldnt get onto those jobs. Recognizing that issue, weve taken people on brought people in. Same thing with our Hotel Industry where we saw a lot of africanamericans no longer in those positions. We worked with unite here, other unions, and weve consciously drawn people now to learn those trades become apprentices and get in there with quite good success. There are ways to deal with whatever issues come up with this. I think its just simplistic to say, quote unquote, illegals take jobs. People who are here want to work. And i think thats great. We want hardworking people no matter what their color no matter what their religion, no matter what their background, and i think there are ways to be able to do it. Next question. First of all thank you so much for coming all wait overthe way over to the west coast. We appreciate you spending time with us today. Hard to argue in january. Just a brief question. Pretty simple, straight to the point. Do you feel that individuals who are applying for citizenship should require to learn english . I do. I support that. I think thats a good thing for us to be able to have. I think it is the language of success. I think it caps every generation. Youll have folks that come even from their teens or early 20s and by the time they die, their primary language will still be lithuanian or whatever. But i think its a good idea and something we can do. People want to. Ive never met in my interactions immigrants who dont want to learn english, but can they work it into their two jobs, do we have the adult schools to allow that . Its a big focus on us in los angeles and our adult schools to provide those classes and in the office of international affairs. Good evening, im representing taylor networks. Thank you for being with us. This may seem a little elementary, and i do apologize as i know we typically dont air White Elephants in the room or in public. But do you think america could benefit at all from going back to immigration, period, and reviewing it as a whole as to really if we want to relegate who are immigrants and who are native do you think we could benefit at all from retaking that course and even going back to reviewing whether Christopher Columbus even actually discovered the land, what happened with the indians so forth and so on, that we could actually get an education that would then allow all of us to make an informed decision as to comments, behaviors and actions that relate to immigration said Civil Services and otherwise . I think you make a great point. We should all know our history before we say who was brought here willfully who was brought here unchained, who was brought here forcefully and when did they i am great themselves . I love the line that no one actually originally came here even those who were originally here 10,000 years before anybody else. I think thats important, but i think we can sometimes get so caught up in the history piece back and forth about who is right and who is wrong that we forget to solve the practical problems. I love history. I love trying to untangle the morality. We all have blood on our hands and weve all been victimized. I think everybody can lay claim in some ways to both. What is american is not only where you came from but where do you want to go who do we want to be . We see industrialized nations struggling with population growth. Like japan and korea, the same thing, when we have an asian population and folks being brought up in a low birth rate. The focus in the United States has always been immigration, to keep the economy growing to see innovation happening. Why should we have students and as soon as they invent something then say start your business anywhere but america. So i think going back to that could inform the future, but i appreciate you bringing that up. Can i ask you real quick, what these californians are considering would be to extend the medical program to the undocumented. Would you support that . Absolutely. We wind up paying an emergency room. Preventative care is always cheaper than what we pay. Same argument on homelessness, for instance, when folks say we cant afford to house the homeless and i say one individual costs thousands of dollars when they have to go into a hospital or nursing home. One final question. Going back to your original question in terms of Economic Impact. What do you see the Economic Impact of the executive action and potentially eventually comprehensive Immigration Reform, on housing, for example . Ownership, specifically. Thank you for that too. Los angeles is now unfortunately, the least affordable city in the country or the region. Its not the highest rents. You can find them other places but given wages and rents, that gap. We want people to earn more money. We want them to be able to start businesses legally. We have a Record Number of jobs we think, in los angeles but not a Record Number of payroll jobs. A lot of those are either people starting their own things or off the books and we need to bring people onto the books. That gives me more money to pave my roads, to hire more Police Officers, to have paramedics. So the economic effects the 2 million we estimate, but its also an effect on my city. I cant afford to have immigration of immigrants because we have to pay for that. Its the same thing as poverty wages. We often say, lets not raise the minimum wage and then we all pay for it anyway, in the emergency room or food stamps. When people arent home, we have afterschool programs we pay for. Lets find a way for people to become citizens get a decent wage, have access to housing and even home ownership. Thats the american dream. Thats what im fighting for every single day in l. A. And i know my colleagues are around the country. You give us a lot to think about. Thank you for being here. [applause] thank you so much mayor garcetti, for joining us. Our next panel is new faces, new places, a conversation with mayors. And joining rahm on stage are the honorable steve hogan, mayor of aurora, colorado the honorable ralph becker mayor of salt lake, utah and the honorable tom tate, mayor of anaheim, california. Joining ron on stage is amy sullivan correspondent and director of next Economy Program which will help moderate. I will turn it over to you. Hi, amy. Welcome, mayors. Let me start and amy and i will kind of take turns grilling you, but let me start with a point we discussed with mayor garcetti, which is although there are a few big cities that have undocumented immigrants which would be potentially eligible for executive action. In fact, the best estimates from the migration policy is this is substantially dispersed much more than, for example under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. They only account for 40 of the total pool of the eligible population. There is a lot of people out there. Orange county with anaheim, estimate of 150,000 people. Suburban denver 41,000 Salt Lake County 22,000. When we get beyond chicago and new york and l. A. Is the infrastructure in place to work through this process in cities of your size . Mayor . I think the short answer is yes. The city of aurora is about 350,000 people. We are already a city where the caucasians are a minority. 6 asian, 19 africanamerican 28 hispanic, 1 to 2 whatever. That leaves less than 50 caucasian. And its been that way for a while. And we find ways to get things done. We have no choice. The federal government doesnt work. State government is dealing with many of the basic issues that the federal government used to deal with. That leaves local government to do the rest and we think we do it pretty well. Certainly in Salt Lake City, we certainly wish we had the resources of a larger city like los angeles, but i think were confident that a combination of City Government, nonprofit faithbased organizations, partnerships at the state level that we are pretty well prepared to be able to house our immigrant population and provide for them. Salt lake citiesy is a Refugee Resettlement city. We have 50,000 resettlement and several languages in our city. We are dealing with fol