0 2012, what do you see? more and more. and 75% for democrats and an increasing population, i mean, look, they either want to be parties of regions of certain states, county, municipalities, or they want to be a national party. they cannot be a national party until they take this issue off the table. >> how about this, though, in d.c., ted cruz was blasting any type of gop-backed plan that might support amnesty. is that going to be an obstacle right out of the starting gate for any kind of bipartisan agreement or talks at least? >> look, i was on right wing talk show, radio talk show this morning, and it was pretty ugly. and it was -- they are still back in romney land prior to the november shellacking of 2012. democrats have always been the party of immigrants, and i think democrats also have an ability, as we have shouldered in the past, to get something done. barack obama has 2 million deportations under his belt. that's not exactly something to be proud of. on the other hand, the democrats have always forged forward on this immigration issue. isn't it a great time? let's forget about for one moment what's motivating people, and let's just think, we can't protect our women in the armed forces, what do we say to the millions of undocumented women that are exploited every day? people dying in the deserts, families being destroyed. you know what, if they want to join us in a quest to make a better life for immigrants, latino immigrants, asian immigrants, both even higher in terms of percentages for democrats, do they want to make end roads there? welcome. we welcome you to this debate so that we can debate other things while immigrants don't suffer. >> sounds to me like you're making a big umbrella there. >> i'd love to work with the republicans on this issue. >> congressman luis gutierrez, thanks so much. that brings us to today's big question, can republicans share their image as a party of no? still ahead, leading to prisoners across this country to being released. why the government thinks certain people have served their time and then some. also ahead, this -- >> we're still on the journey to the truth and it may be the fact that we don't ever really know what happened that night. >> the family of murder victim meredith kercher speaking out one day after amanda knox was convicted again in her murder. what knox is saying about this new verdict coming up. you need a bunch of those to clean this mess. then i'll use a bunch of them. then how is that a bargain? 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[ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying "progress-oh!" share your progress-oh! story on progresso.com. sleep train'sor presidents' day presidents' day sale is on now. save up to $500 on beautyrest and posturepedic. get a sealy queen set for just $399. even get 3 years interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. plus, free delivery, set-up, and removal of your old set. keep more presidents in your wallet. sleep train's presidents' day sale is on now. superior service, best selection, lowest price, guaranteed. ♪ sleep train ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ president obama has picked the chief of the navy cyber unit to be the next head of the national security agency. mike rogers has served in the military for more than 30 years. confirmation hearings can begin as early as next month. thousands of prisoners could soon be set free throughout this country, but it's not what you might think. the justice department is asking the justice department to ask some workers to apply for clemency. there are more low-level non-vinyl drug offenders who remain in prison and would have received a lower sentence if convicted of the same sentence today. ari melber has reported on this, welcome to you. >> thank you. >> so this new action is an extension of the president's communication of these eight people in december who have been sentenced under the old federal guidelines. give me your reaction to this. >> this is significant. we don't usually see prosecutors who are overseeing all of these charges that put people away. we usually don't see prosecutors saying prison populations are out of control than any other nation on earth, and we need to do something about it. this particular action, as you mentioned, does stem from something that the president had done, which is to say people who are stuck in jail on laws that we've already changed shouldn't have to stay there in these old laws. this deals with this by trying to say, okay, let's have a process where people can appeal, if i was caught on the same thing today, i wouldn't have got this sentence. >> as you know, the "new york times" reported, they've sent a letter to your new good buddy, eric holder, our a.g., with concerns about the bill saying mandatory minimum sentences are a tool in persuading law enforcement to dismantle large thug organizations and violent gangs. to they do make a good case for mandatory minimums in some cases, certainly. >> it's interesting, i'm glad you read that part of the letter, because that is their defense, right, and it's not a statement mandatory minimums are just or work when applied, it's a statement they work as a threat to get people to cop a plea. that may be true. if you threaten someone with a death penalty for a shoplifting charge, they may be more likely to admit to shoplifting, whether they did it or not. that's human psychology, that's what you see in a law and order episode where they get someone up against the wall. the attorney general are making a different argument, which is when we apply these mandatory minimums, when we have this many people in jail for nonviolent offenses, it doesn't work, it creates a cycle of recidivism. when you look at that prison population, largest in the world, one out of seven of these prisoners are in on crack charges, one out of seven. we're not talking about violent crime, we're not talking about big financial embezzlement that effects a lot of people, we're not talking about assaulting a police officer or federal officer, things that many of us consider very serious and meriting jail time. one out of seven in on nonviolent crack offenses. >> interesting. the president was asked about the recent statement that pot was bad but not necessarily like drinking. he's a bigger worry here. let's listen to that. >> okay. >> my concern is, when you end up having very heavy criminal penalties for individual users that have been applied unevenly and in some cases with a racial disparity. >> so where do the pot laws fall into all this? >> well, i think what the president is referring to is the rates of usage are similar across our entire population, but african-americans are not double, not triple, but four times as likely to end up in jail for a pot charge. when i was working in the public defender's office as an intern, i remember you'd go in and see all the people who were arrested the night before who couldn't afford a lawyer, right, people with no money. overwhelmingly young african-american men, and overwhelmingly drug charges, marijuana, in addition to other drug charges, and i remember looking at that being young, coming in and looking at that going, huh, i've met a lot of white people that smoke pot, too. i don't see any in here. the data bears that out, president bears that out. we can have a theoretical discussion whether pot is dangerous, do we want to encourage it, no, a lot of people say smoking too much pot is a bad idea, then we need a factual conversation about how the laws are applied and if they are not fair, how to fix them. this is all a part of that piece. >> okay, sure we'll have that conversation on "the cycle," no doubt. >> one thing we cover, justice. >> appreciate that, ari melber. as another plug, you can check out the series on msnbc.com, also you can watch him on "the cycle" week somedays at 3:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we have developing news from washington, d.c., capital police announcing they'll not pursue charges on michael grimm, following the state of the union, congressman grimm has apologized. still ahead this hour, amanda knox convicted again of murder, but she's vowing to never step foot in an italian jail again, is that possible? and developing news from washington, the president is expected to make remarks on the long-term unemployed in this country as he meets with ceos. those comments live, but the agenda panel weighs in. stay with us. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. kelly khalil started her company loverly in 2012 with one mission, to make wedding planning easier through her bridal search engine. with retail partners approaching daily and content increasing, she hit a nerve and her company is growing. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. 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