0 legally. and perhaps worst of all, chris, we learned late friday, just late friday they will replace the gang of eight bill a thousand pages with a 1200-page amendment. this is a provision that few people have read and fewer fully understand. we all want immigration reform , but this bill is not the right vehicle forgetting there. >> let's talk about this amendment which has apparently changed the calculus and added more republican votes. it is being called the border surge amendment and let's look at specifically what it would do. double the number of border agents to 40,000. complete 700 miles of new fencing, deploy drones, radar and ground sensors, full implementation of e verify for employers and beef up entry-exit tracking for people on visas. senator lee, is your problem that you don't think even with the congressional budget office said that your gang of eight bill would only reduce illegal immigration by 25%. >> they are talking about the entry-exit problem. 40% of the people who are here illegally overstayed their visas. there will be improvements in that area. as to the border, we particularly mill tar rised the border. we heard for years, let's secure the border and regain our sovereignty. we have secured our border in a way i could not have imagined four or five years ago. this whole border security amendment i think is the most aggressive attempt to control the southern border and regain our sovereignty. this bill reduces our deficit by $890 billion. it is good for our economy. this bill is good for our national securitiment no one can get a green card until the board of security measures are up and running and e verify is up and running and controlling a job in the -- in america. as to the 11 million they will have an earned, hard pathway to citizenship. they need to get in the back of te line before they become a citizen. they can't cut in line. they have to pass two english proficiency exams. i reject the idea of becoming mideastern europe. america is different than mideastern europe. this is a good solution for our national security and for our economy and tough, practical solution to 11 million. and most importantly if we do this bill, amnesty is the status quo. if we do this bill, there will be no third wave of illegal immigration. >> let me ask you about another objection senator lee just mentioned. the idea that this will be a huge 1200-page bill. i heard you complain about that during obamacare. the idea you have this huge bill that nobody has read and why not take it in more incremental bite sized pieces? why not in this case? >> well, let's look at it this way, give the republicans all of the border security you want and all of the legal immigration you want and trust the republicans to deal fairly with 11 million. that's not going to fail to a democrat. i will not accept an agreement of legalization on a pathway to citizenship and then they give me border security, and then they give me legal immigration reform. you have to do it together. we have tied border security and legal immigration reform to green card status. until we secure our border, until we get the legal immigration reform in place, you can't get a green card which would put you on a citizen -- on a citizenship status. we have tied the two together. that's the only way to do this. i have been dealing with it and this is a great solution for our economy and our national security. i am very proud of this bill. >> even if the senate passes immigration reform this week, it still has to go on to the house and senator lee you have said that it will be dead on uh refuel in the house. on arrival in the house. they are talking about the incremental approach i know you favor. let's deal with enforcement first, and after that we can deal with the 11 million illegals in the country. let's look at something john boehner has said. >> it is border security and confidence that we have the border secured before we go down the path of illegal immigration issues issues and legal immigration issues. >> senator lee, lyndsay graham says of democrats say it will kill the legislation. they will not accept the enforcement first and then a promise of dealing with the 11 million people who are already hereafter wards. here afterwards. >> that's what they said and that's what they want to be the case. the house of representatives has it right. in any event the house of representatives said border security first. they are doing exactly the right thing. they are dealing with this in the right sequence. the house judiciary committee passed this week two security measures to bring about robust immigration reform in a stetson by step pros -- in a step by step process. what is making this contentious and making it politically de vie sis -- decisive is they insist on wrapping this into one 1200-peage bill. that is making it decisive. they are putting the most continue -- controversial issue into a 1200-page bill. >> gentlemen, we have two minutes and i want you to split it evenly. there is a lot of politics in this. president obama pushed for passage of the senate bill this week in his weekend media address. take a look. >> that's what comprehensive immigration reform looks like, stronger enforcement, a smarter illegal immigration system, a pathway to earn citizenship, a more vibrant, growing economy that is fairer on the middle class. >> is president obama doing enough to push this? and if republicans are seen whether in the senate unlikely or in the house more likely as stoping this comprehensive immigration reform what will be the political fallout as the gop tries to reach out to hispanic voters? >> well, president obama has been better on immigration than senator obama. senator obama started doing the union's bidding and helped take the bill down in 2006 and 2007. every time we have asked him to do something he has come through. when we ask him to do things on his own, it has been pretty much a disaster coming out of the white house. as to the republican party, here is my firm belief. america is not divided on this, mike. 70% of americans including republicans support an earned pathway to citizenship. you get in the back of the line and learn a language and pay a fine. to the republican party this is a chance to improve our imphee and reduce the deficit by $890 billion to get border security you will never see in your lifetime and regain our sovereignty. if it fails, then we are blamed for the failure. our party is in trouble with hispanics not because we are conservatives, but because of rhetoric. i want to get reattached to the hispanic community and past the immigration reform and grow this party. the party has to be bigger than utah and south carolina. the hispanic community is very close to our values, but driven them away over this issue. let's fix this problem for the good of the country and for the good of the party, and this bill does that, my friend. >> senator lee, let me pick up on what senator graham just said to you. mitt romney got only 27% of the hispanic vote back in november. 50,000 new hispanic citizens reach voting age every month in this country. if your party is seen as killing immigration reform, aren't you going to pay a price for that at the polls for decades to come? >> look, if we turn immigration reform into a political football, everyone loses, chris. we all know that. we have learned that from the past and we don't want to learn that the hard way in the future. what the american people want is they want to make sure our border is secure. they want to make sure we fixed our legal immigration process, especially before we go legalizing much less granting citizenship to 11 million people and treating them all the same record less if they overstayed visas or crossed in illegally in the first plails. we have to -- in the first place. cbo told us that this will be bad for wages. it will be bad for unemployment. this is not the right solution. >> senator lee, senator graham, thank you both for joining us. we will watch what the senate does this week. thank you, gentlemen. >> thank you. >> thank you. up next, a biggy election tuesday in massachusetts: it is the deep blue state of massachusetts. can gabriel gomez pull off another upset? we will ask for john kerry's senate seat, next. ♪