Johnson, the executive director for the American Immigration lawyers association, talk about prospects for Immigration Reform in 2018. Washington journal is live, now. Good morning, it is wednesday, january 3, 2018. At noon, the second session of the 115th congress will convene pursuant to the u. S. Constitution. In the senate, the session will begin with two new faces when doug jones and tina smith are sworn in. We have a threehour washington journal ahead for you and we will spend our focus on what is expected to be a major issue, immigration. Toare opening our phones immigrants only, to hear your story of coming to an living in the United States. Recent legal immigrants can call in at 202 7488000. If you are a legal immigrant who has lived in this country for five years or longer, 202 7488001. Illegal, undocumented immigrants, 202 7488002. You can also catch up with us on social media on twitter, on facebook, facebook. Com cspan. A good wednesday morning. Immigrants only in this first hour, you can start calling in now. We want to hear your stories and experiences in the United States. Some big news yesterday out of washington, on some key Republican Leaders including the longestserving senate republican, orrin hatch out of utah announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of his term. Here is the story. He served 42 years in the senate, more than any other republican in history. He said yesterday it is long enough and will not seek reelection. Among those likely to give the race a look is mitt romney, the 2012 republican president ial nominee. Coming alongside orrin hatchs announcement yesterday included the announcement of bill shuster, House Transportation Committee chairman announced he is stepping down at the end of his term. Politico noting that since he is term limited out of the chairmanship after three terms, many had speculated this would be his last year in congress. More on those announcements later in our program. Since both men plan to serve out their terms through the end of the session, they will both be involved in this immigration debate, which is sure to be a top issue. It is already complicating the spending negotiations that are going on ahead of the latest spending deadline, january 19 here is the story from the Washington Examiner immigration complicates trumps spending. The white house has drawn a series of red lines along deferred action for childhood arrivals program, demanding that containedlation funding for a border wall. Those discussions expected to happen on capitol hill when the White House Legislative Affairs director mark short and budget director Mick Mulvaney are expected to meet with the socalled big four congressional leaders, democratic and Republican Leaders in the house and senate. President trump is expected to talk about this issue separately at camp david this weekend in his meeting with just the Republican Leadership. Paul ryannnell and both headed to camp david in maryland this weekend. Yesterday in the White House Briefing room, Sarah Sanders was asked about what the president wants when it comes to negotiations around the future of daca. The president wants to have responsible Immigration Reform. He said before that he would like to include a daca resolution in that process, and we hope to be able to work with members of congress to get that done. That is a big priority for the administration in 2018. We have laid out what our principles on Immigration Reform look like, and they need to be part of any package that includes daca. Host that is Sarah Sanders and the White House Briefing room yesterday. Want to hear from immigrants only in this first hour. We want to hear about your stories coming to and living in the United States. Recent legal immigrants, 202 7488000 is the number for you. If you are a legal immigrant who has been in the u. S. For five years or longer, 202 7488001 is the number. A phone line for Illegal Immigrants, 202 7488002. We will keep the phone lines open to just immigrants only in this first hour, to hear your stories. You heard Sarah Sanders in the White House Briefing room, and the president took to twitter to talk about Immigration Reform and various issues surrounding it. A couple of tweaks from the president emma kratz doing. Othing for daca they are just interested in politics. Daca activists and hispanics will go hard against democrats, will start falling in love with republicans and their president. We are about results. One more treat from the president , talking about brandon judd, thinking the National Border control council and brandon judd for their kind words. We will be bringing more and great folks and will build the desperately needed wall. We will keep an eye on his twitter page. We are talking to immigrants only in the first hour of washington journal, to hear your stories of living in the United States. Maria has been in the United States for five years or longer, living in pennsylvania. Caller good morning. I have been here 30 years. Call, through what they through the family, my family had been here. I was the last to come. I have been successful. I am a professional. I think this country gives a very Good Opportunity to everybody. That is why everybody wants to come here. In terms of the Illegal Immigrants, i think they really need to wait in line. I think i waited around seven years before i was able to come here, but i did wait and i did come legally. I had to go through requirements like being checked medically, taking sure you do not have diseases that you do not want the United States or people in the United States to have. I think it is very good country, a great country, actually. In the beginning i did not feel that way, but now that i have been here for 30 years i appreciate the United States. Host why didnt you feel like that in the beginning . Caller i was enjoying myself and my country. I was working, i had friends. I was much younger and it was a challenge to be able to come , do training again, start from the beginning. , earningstart working like five dollars per hour and moving up slowly. It was a struggle and i was already independent. I was 30 years old when i came here and i was living independently at home, but my parents wanted me to come because they felt the United States was a good country. After that, i was able to do my training here and i am now, i think i am pretty successful and happy. Host if the system were changed, the president looking to change the family based immigration system for legal immigrants, turning it more toward a meritbased system, would you have been able to come if that were changed, from what you understand of what the president wants to do . Know mymaybe not, but i profession, and my brothers and sisters, my brother came in through the u. S. Navy. He joined the navy. My sister came in as a nurse. This was a while back, more than 50 years ago. Times change and i really do not know how the government is run. Host thanks for calling to share your story. That legislation that the president is supporting is. Alled the raise act it would create a meritbased point system for immigrants. It would allow green card preferences for spouses and minor children of u. S. Citizens, but not most extended Family Members. It removes current per country immigration caps and would eliminate the visa lottery system. 50,000 per year. David perdue, one of the key sponsors, and tom cotton, both republicans in the senate. We will be going through a lot of the legislation that is proposed to change the immigration system today. We are spending this first hour hearing stories of immigrants only. Ed is a recent immigrant living in boley, maryland. Maryland. Bad. R both good and i am a professional. My wife is here. I came two years ago. I went through all the background checks, criminal background check, Health Background check, professional background check with my professional board exams. I passed and i am working professionally. That they takes all my money from tax. That is the sad story. And they take, almost half of my money away from tax. It is a beautiful country. It is giving me the room to grow more professionally, but that is what i can say. Host were you not expecting the tax rate that you are in when you came to this country . Was that a surprise to you, in terms of what you would be paying in taxes . Or you are saying you pay more in taxes somehow . Caller the picture i had of america was the hollywood picture, everywhere beautiful, eating on the street and drinking wine. But when i came here having to work 12 hours and sometimes i do two jobs before i got my professional job. , my taked of the day home by the end of the day is like 40,000. I dont get it. It is still ridiculous. Are watching and listening to the tax reform debate on capitol hill, were you in favor of the tax reform debate . Caller yes, of course i am in favor of these tax cuts, but it is not clear what is going to happen. Nobody knows. The republicans dont know. The democrats dont know. Until we actually see what is going to happen to housing and it,s and everything about that is all we can say, is a good thing. Everybody wants their taxes to be cut. Host that is a call from maryland this morning. Some facts on immigrants, both lawful and illegal from the pew research center. Lawful immigrants accounted for three quarters of the foreignborn population in the United States, 33. 8 Million People out of 44. 7 million in 2017. The total foreignborn is somewhat below the historic high of 14. 8 in 1890 19. 2 Million Immigrants lived in the United States. About one Million Immigrants receive lawful permanent resident status each year. Most are sponsored by Family Members. 51,000 people granted green cards, 64 were relatives of u. S. Citizens. Those stats from the pew research center. There are 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States back in 2015. The u. S. Civilian workforce included 8 million unauthorized immigrants, accounting for 5 of those who were unemployed and looking for work. We will go through more of those ofs, plenty reports reports from pew and others. The 115th congress is complicated spending complicating spending debates. We are talking first to immigrants only, including william in tennessee who has been in the country for five years or longer. Caller good morning. I have been here since the year 2001. 21 days before nine 11. 9 411. [indiscernible] so the idea that i have come here to take jobs, the jobs that were open were lowpaying jobs and i refused to take it and i got my old job. That paid nine dollars. I went to school. I went to job corps. [indiscernible] moved to tennessee and [indiscernible] and then i quit that job. [indiscernible] because Company Stole my money and nobody tried to help me out. [indiscernible] still, they are coming host you said you came in just before 9 11. Did you feel like there was a change in this country after 9 11 when i came to new immigrants like yourself . Caller yes, yes. [indiscernible] and they stayed there for two weeks and came to the u. S. The life of the migrant here is not that easy. We work hard. Jobse been working two since 2012. [indiscernible] paysome depot job just eight dollars. I said i want my money. In kenya and uganda, and my two little brothers. So i work all the time. From 2015, i started working two jobs. I was putting 70 hours a week. Host casey is in lanham, maryland, then in the country five years or longer. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing well. When did you come to the country . Caller in 1980, so i have been here for a very long time. Almost 40 years. And it is interesting how the immigration issue is being used as a political football, especially by the republicans unfortunately. It is completely detached from reality. Aboutne or suggestion where we should go with immigration is not new. The elections were just held in alabama that led to the victory of the democrats. A big part of that is the immigrant population, the naturalized americans. Nobody looked at that. The reality is they overwhelmingly voted for the democrats. It was not even close, so the idea that somehow the democrats having aamed for problem with immigration policy is not connected to reality. This is a nation of immigrants. A nation built by immigrants. So Many Companies were started by immigrants, and one of the isy reasons why america dealing with the issue on so many levels, a particular special breed. It takes a lot for a person to leave their country and go to another country, regardless of what their problem is. It is a very determined, purposeful person. That is why when they come here, they are generally more successful and educated than many natural born americans. That seed being planted is the reason why america is as great as it is. This president is himself a secondgeneration american and married to an immigrant several immigrants, actually. Being around people talking as if immigrants are a plague that need to be dealt with, in reality we should be encouraging emigration because that is how the country was built. Host casey from maryland, mentioning the president s tweets. Plenty of reaction. Here is jim himes, democrat out of connecticut. Congressman himes writing it was a bizarro tweet from the man who needlessly terminate terminated the daca program, throwing the lies of 800,000 young people into chaos and confusion. All daca junior not recipients are latino. That does not matter to you since you are just dog whistling to your base and the altright. The American People see right through you, mr. Trump. Don bier, a democrat out of virginia reminding the president that he ended daca then you declare your intention to use dreamers as a bargaining chip to get money for the useless and deeply unpopular wall that you promised mexico would pay for. We are fighting to protect dreamers. Gabriel is waiting in clayton, North Carolina, in the country for five years. Where did you come from originally . Caller from cuba. Herether had immigrated and also served in the army, and all of us had come from cuba and settled in america, and essentially walked through all the steps that were required to gain citizenship through the Legal Process that was here. I want to say for one, good morning, and a personal thank you to brian lamb who heads this program and overall at cspan, is an excellent gentleman who does not get enough credit. Host i am sure he appreciates that. Caller i will run through and say, we started with nothing when we came here, absolutely nothing. The most important and critical element that has played into our history and trajectory as a family of immigrants, is our willingness to work exceptionally hard. That is missing in a lot of young people today. Fact,ot very old, and in there was a lot of struggles going on just to put food on the table to start out with in this country. But the opportunity was here, and that was the key. I can tell you through a long and arduous pathway that i am barely touching on today, i am a student at duke medical university. I will become a physician soon enough. That is what happens when people are allowed through programs like daca, to push that limit and go beyond where they thought they could not. Host you call it a long and arduous pathway. Is there a way for that pathway to be improved . Is it too arduous . Caller i think right now for the entire country, not specific to the immigrants, it is very hard for people to get ahead. In particular, millennials like myself which is part of what the daca folks are trying to say, there is not the same chance here that was therefore our parents or their parents in the country. , in large part to be fair, how donald trump has been able to infiltrate some of the masses, through a sentiment like that. To make the process easier, you have to take care of the people moving up and willing to dedicate themselves to hard work. Is whatain, to be fair is missing from the young people today. Host donald is waiting in madison, North Carolina, also been here for five years. Caller i would be one of those that would be daca because i come in as a child. Than the other guy and i agree with a lot of the things he said. We had to go through the proper channels to get in, because i came from europe, denmark is where my family is from. America is all i know because i was three when we came here. The biggest thing was it was opportunity. I remember my father trying to get work and we were in North Carolina and textiles were big. They were needing waivers and asking come weavers, and asking could he weve . They hired him and taught him how. He did not know. Them nowadays, the becauseople do not work we are trying to become more of a socialized country instead of an opportunity, like everybody i have listened to and even myself. I have never been without work. Host what should happen to the 700,000 to 800,000 Daca Recipients right now . It is a program that President Trump has said will en