the question of who has authorization, who doesn't have authorization. the symbolic apparatus that animates the ethos, the iedos of the current anxiety over immigration is fundamentally channeling, echoes what has been a story in our country for over 150 years. today it's not the irish, it's not the italians, it's not the eastern european jews. today it's the unauthorized. >> okay. a few more questions. yes, the middle of the middle table. >> okay, hi. my name is gaby. i'm a third-year philosophy student here. and i'm on the nyu dream team. >> excuse me, gaby, can you hold the microphone a little closer? >> yes. >> thank you. >> i know nyu just this past fall decided that they were going to begin to offer institutional aid to undocumented students. but all that is for undocumented students is opening up on the same footing being able to apply to nyu as a u.s. rather than as an international student. but even so, it doesn't mean that they're going to receive full financial aid, just that they are open to receiving it. my question is how institutions can aid in pushing legislation to provide in-state aid because even the institutional a aid being provided won't be enough to cover a $70,000 institution when 80% of these undocumented students come from families who make less than $50,000 a year. >> right. oh, go ahead. >> sorry. and we have spoken to nyu administrators, and they are pushing towards having this program being a permanent program, but even so, nyu hasn't publicly pushed for the nyu dream act because they're afraid of the backlash that they can receive from it. so it's not something that they are publicly advocating for. it is simply something that they are simply putting forward. so how nyu and other higher institutions can push for this legislation. >> okay. i can just answer a little bit for nyu. first of all, our institutional aid is very limited for everybody. and so those of you from nyu know that. but we can talk later there is a lobbying arm of nyu in albany. and there is a vice president who deals with governmental relations. so the logic of that isn't entirely clear to me because opening up the state funds, the tap funds is certainly something nyu should favor, and also always lobbies to increase the fund. i'll help you find out. robert or steve, do you want to answer that in terms of institutions? generally in terms of institutions. >> sure. so i think it speaks to some of the points we're trying to drive home with this work. and that is that the issue around undocumented status, undocumented immigrants, undocumented students, this is not just an issue for immigration policy. we have to have a lot of different stakeholders who are involved in this discussion. it's something where we need greater political will around the issue when it comes to institutional leaders. and i know united we dream is trying to work with a number of institutions to get them to sign on in support of undocumented students. and it also -- i mentioned membership organizations. we have a number of organizations like ash and ara and naspa and acpa. they should also work with their membership to both educate them, but also to garner their support around some of these issues. >> steve, can you comment on the lobbying in albany. like are the higher education associations and lobbyists in albany helping you, helping groups on this issue? >> you know, i actually don't know about the higher education associations. you know, i think that the dream act coalition, and that's a whole another story in itself about the coalition politics and the different forces who are both for the dream act and against the dream act. and presumably for it, but who are actually against it. i can talk for hours about that. what i would say, though, is it is important to have institutions weigh in. it is important for the catholic church to be able to weigh in. it's important for cuny to weigh in. it's important for the business community to weigh in and it is important for nyu to weigh. in i absolutely think so. now it's hard to -- i think it's important for them to weigh in, and then the real question is thinking through what kind of leverage do we have on the folks that need to be leveraged, whether they are the governor, whether it is the senate, whether it's the assembly. and i think really in this case, it's all of the above. but i do think it is important for a major institutions like nyu to weigh in. >> okay. all right. one more question. over this table. >> hi, thank you so much for your presentation. my name is bessie shafter evans. i'm on the staff of state senator kruger who is kind enough to send me here today because she has been working in albany to try and get these things passed. i really appreciate your report. i can't wait to share wit theress of our staff and to use it in the legislature. i was curious how much it's reflective of the situation in new york in particular, the number of respondents you may have from new york and the way that new york looks through our public and private institutions as it is reflected in your report. >> we're consulting the numbers. >> it was the -- we have the fifth largest number of responses from new york. i can tell you that right off the top. >> but i think the question is are the findings that you presented typical of new york as well as the other states. >> yes. yeah. >> i would say that the findings mimic the realities as they are unfolding. immigration into our country is everywhere now. yet five states really lead the way. and of course california, illinois, florida, new york, texas, new jersey i think comes in sixth are the states that sort of have by far the greatest concentration of both immigrants and also very large concentrations of or relatively large concentrations of the unauthorized. so if you look at the universe of folk that went through the daca process, and the universal folk that responded to our survey, we are pretty comfortable that the sample really represents the story of young people that have undergone at the student level that have undergone the process. >> and state level policies make a difference. and campus level practices make a difference, right. >> okay. i think we should adjourn, because otherwise people are going to start to float out. anyway, i would like on behalf of the audience to thank our panel. [ applause ] if you have question we didn't get to, you could rush up. we'll be here for a few minutes. and if you would like to be on the institute's permanent mailing list, please give me your card or fill out one of the papers as you leave. thank you. >> careful we don't fall off the back. >> today on c-span3, programs about immigration policy. next, los angeles mayor eric garcetti talks about how mayors can address national issues such as immigration and the minimum wage increase with local initiatives. after that, philanthropist mike bezos talks about his experiences emigrating from cuba as a boy and finding american freedom. and then a report released by ucla earlier this year about challenges facing undocumented undergraduate students in the u.s. this weekend on the c-span networks, politics, books, and american history. on c-span live from the iowa state fair, presidential candidates speak at the des moines register's candidate soapbox. beginning saturday at noon, we'll hear from republican rick santorum and democrats lincoln chafee and democrat bernie sanders. and sunday afternoon, more live coverage from the iowa state fair with republican candidates ben carson at 5:00, followed by george pataki. on c-span2 saturday night at 10:00 eastern, missouri senator claire mccaskill on her life and political career. and sunday morning at 10:30, dinesh d'souza talks about his recent book "america" and his legal situation involving campaign finance laws. on american history tv on c-span3 sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern, with many presidential candidates visiting the iowa state fair, we'll learn about the fair's history and its tradition as a stop on the road to the white house as we look back at the 2008 presidential race. and saturday evening at 6:00 on the civil war, historian and author john coresteen on the battle of mobile bay, the resulting union victory and the closing of one of the confederacy's last major ports. get our entire schedule at c-span.org. los angeles mayor eric garcetti talks about how mayors can address national issues such as immigration and a minimum wage increase with local initiatives. this took place at the national press club. >> hi, everybody. especially you, mayor. welcome to the national press club. i'm bob weiner, and i'm the host of today's event, moderator, and this is a newsmaker's committee event and we're very happy to have you all here. we're especially happy to have today los angeles mayor eric garcetti, who will discuss the nation's broken immigration system and his plans to address immigration reform through his local auspices while congress remains in gridlock. he will also -- this year he launched the step forward l.a. campaign, which raised nearly $4 million to help 100,000 angelinos work legally by the time his first term ends. mayor garcetti will also make the case for the $15 minimum wage that was recently adopted by the nation's second largest city. on june 13th it was signed. mayor garcetti's plan calls for incremental increases in the minimum wage over the next five years. mayor garcetti will also highlight los angeles' leadership in water conservation as california battles the historic west coast drought. this is mayor garcetti's first national press club event since he took office. he was elected may 21st, 2013. following 20 to 30 minutes of remarks, the mayor will take questions from the media and club members. the event will be in a news conference format. we will moderate the questions, and it will work pretty well. and autumn kelly, if you would raise your hand, our onsite coordinator will play vanna white here and will pass around the microphone. and that way everybody can be on c-span, which is covering the entire event. with a back to basics agenda, mayor garcetti has focused on job creation in solving everyday problems for los angeles residents. since he took office, los angeles has added more than 85,000 new jobs and registered almost 60,000 new businesses, reducing the city's unemployment rate by 3.2%. mayor garcetti was sworn in as the 42nd mayor of los angeles after being elected four times by his peers to serve as president of the city council from 2006 to 2012. from 2001 until taking office as mayor, he served as councilmember remembers hollywood, echo park, silver lake, and atwater village. he was one of the first major public officials to endorse barack obama for president. and in full disclosure, that's actually the democratic convention is where we met. and put the mayor on the phone with his friend chuck levin which holds the national and los angeles record with his mother for voter registration. anywhere in the country having registered 100,000 voters. congratulations, chuck, on that incredible performance. the mayor earned his bachelors and masters from columbia university as a rhodes scholar, he studied at oxford and the london school of economics. you studied at oxford and the london school of economics. he is an avid jazz and a photographer. he is very much in shape and an advocate of physical fitness. i want to thank joanne booze, croce in the corner is the national press club's service winner of the year. noel st. john the photographer for the press club who will be shooting. i mentioned autumn kelly. naomi seligman, where are you? was invaluable on the mayor's staff, communications director for mayor garcetti, and your whole team, naomi. thank you very much for making this happen. our team, chris anthony stotis, where are you? who is a super clemson student. just had a piece two days ago on the front page of the washington times for us. from clemson, sylvian stains. if you would raise your hand? i want to introduce my wife, dr. patricia burg, who suffered through all of this and actually kind of enjoys it, i think. chuck has said that mayor garcetti is the smartest mayor in los angeles history. i want to say, my wife is the smartest in the whole country. she runs the lab at george washington medical center, discovered a gene activated in 80% of women with breast cancer. 70% of men with prostate cancer, had more cameras at her news conference when dick cheney had when he was sick at george washington medical center. so congratulations. so i think that covers everyone. so now mayor garcetti on immigration, minimum wage and the drought and we are so proud to have you. thank you for coming. >> thank you so much, bob. thank you. thank you so much, been, and a very good morning, everybody. thank you for coming out here. it is a little early for me on west coast time than for you. it certainly is a great joy to be here. i appreciate you coming here for my analysis of the historic iran/u.s. agreement and a review of donald trump's golf courses. we have i think a very exciting moment. i do appreciate everybody being here in the midst of a very busy news week, because what i want to talk to you about is as important as anything in the headlines today. and i would offer to you it is important for the future of our country and certainly for the cities of america as anything that we're talking about in the presidential election and in the coming weeks. it is a very exciting time to be a mayor in america's cities. i am the mayor of the largest city and the largest state in the union, the second largest city in america. a place that is arguably the western capital of the united states. and one of the great global cities of the world today. in many ways, i embody that city in the same way that city embodies this nation. i have an italian last name. i'm half mexican, half jewish. if that doesn't get you elected, nothing will. i've been referred to as a kosher burrito. it's confusing. it is the multitude of what this country is about. we don't really care where you have come from, who you are. we don't judge you by the zip code you are born in. the rhetoric of this nation is that we are a nation that really is about opportunity for all people around the world and around this country. it's an exciting moment for america's cities, because if you rewind the clock, it hasn't always been that way. the last half century for america's cities were tough ones. in the '70s, burning. in the '80s. a crime wave and in the '90s. more unrest and the last decade, the most crippling recession. if you look at america's cities today, it's a very different america. new york, which is synonymous with mugging is a place synonymous with abundant investment. a place like detroit which saw its population cut more than in half is a place we see manufacturing and investment coming back and los angeles, which was synonymous of the dissolution of diversity is seen as a model, a lace that embodies what the world looks like today and what this country will look like tomorrow. i think we are seeing an economic resurgence in this country that is fueled by america's cities. very different than the flight and the fright that america's cities represented over these past decades. in some ways this was most embodied when i came here to this city as part of the class of 2013 mayors in towns from pittsburgh to seattle to new york to minneapolis to los angeles. new mayors were elected in that year. the president and vice-president very graciously invited us to the white house to have a round table in the roosevelt room for almost two hours, as we went around, democratic, republican, man, woman, black, brown, white, folks from all over, gay, straight from this country, that represented america's cities. the three big i's as i call them, inequality, lack of investment, and of course integration around immigration. but what was interesting too when the president asked me to kick off the comments, i said if this was the '60s or the '70s, mr. president, i think we all would be here coming as america's cities as they were burning to washington, asking washington the save america's cities. but given what we all see as americans right now, that washington feels broken, that there is inaction, i said that the formula has been reversed, mr. president. america's cities are here to save america. i do think that innovation, i do think that investment, i do think that policy work and the american dream in many ways is best embodied and most alive in america's cities. part of that is just part of the job description. we as mayors don't have the luxury of being able to decide which issues are partisan. i was elected two years ago, it was mentioned by an interesting coalition. i was a coalition where i did as well with republicans and democrats and independents alike. maybe i was elected because i didn't have the support of both our chamber of commerce and our organized labor, because people distrust organized anything these days, but allowed me to come in an independent way, and not just bipartisan way, but a nonpartisan way. we're elected by the way not in partisan elections in los angeles, and allowed a republican and a conservative part of my city to feel ownership of me as much as a liberal in a very progressive part of town. and in some ways it's the formula that mayors whether they're elected in a partisan environment or not must do. we're ceos. we have to fix problems. we have to address ongoing concerns that people have and present a vision that will long last after us. of infrastructure, ribbon cuttings that we'll never be at, but things we start and hopefully be able to live as private citizens and enjoy in our own towns. and it transcends geography. it transcends ethnicity. if a water main break we don't ask what ethnicity people are in the area we have to fix it. when someone calls 911, we don't ask what their income is. we have to go there and make sure that an ambulance or a fire truck or a police officer arrives. but in los angeles, like many american cities, i inherited a city and a city government that was very old. i used to say that we had cutting edge technology from the 1980s. we had systems that dated back to the good government era of the 1920s and '30s, progressive back then, but never updated since. we had the systems that were outdated. we had a bureaucratic culture that was ossified and an overall lack of enthusiasm and accountability from our city employees. people at the bottom didn't feel empowered. people at the top didn't feel like they had to be very accountable. i re-interviewed all my general managers and said, i want you to start counting, measuring, and sharing the goals and data we have in our city in the kind of hickenlooper, o'malley, bloomberg model of what the modern mayor is supposed to do. we're supposed to measure those things, set those goals and have people hold us accountable. not run away from bad news, not cherry pick for the press, hey, i reduced crime by 1%, isn't that amazing? it's better than zero, but instead own the bad news, fix it, and also share the good things that are happening together. and in los angeles, my philosophy has been a very simple one, to get back to the basics. to do those things that people depend on government to do. to pave streets, to help businesses create jobs. to make sure that city hall works for you and not against you. to show up when we're usually missing and to get out of the way when we're usually an impediment, and to quite frankly rebuild the public trust and breathe some life back into american democracy from the local level back up. and why shouldn't people expect that from government? nobody does, but why shouldn't they? our customers, our constituents are the same folks that get automatic two-day shipping from amazon, get uber in three minutes on their smartphone. they expect groceries on their doorstep. why shouldn't city government be held to the same level of accountability? when i came in, our 311 system, when people called in and had a need or wanted to volunteer, to say there is graffiti that needs painted out or a couch that needs picking up, we reduced that call time by 82% my first year because i wanted to make sure that call was picked up quickly. that first interaction led to a second interaction led to a third interaction, led to an engaged citizen. in two years, we have seen tremendous turn around in los angeles. we've seen 85,000-plus jobs, the most we've seen in pace in a decade. as was mentioned, unemployment cut by more than 3%. we've cut our city's business tax, and we've seen our bond rating go from good to great. we've tripled our film tax credit by focusing on hollywood to bring jobs back to hollywood. back to california, manufacturing in the aerospace industry, looked at new emergent industries from green jobs to tech. a lot of people don't know that los angeles is now the digital tech jobs capital of the country. we have more in l.a. county than even santa clara county in the heart of silicon valley, more than washington, more than in new york, more than in boston. we've seen a huge investment in infrastructure. we haven't waited for washington. we haven't brought an empty hat for washington to fill. we come with a hat that is half filled. we tax ourselves first. we have the largest program of any in the country with $36 billion for five new rail lines, a $10 billion redo of l.a.x. which if you've flown into, you know it needs it. we've seen a million dollars a day spent in the port of los angeles where 1 out of 50 american jobs can be traced to the ports of los angeles in long beach. 43% of our nation's goods come via sea into that port. it's critical for america's success. whether it's hollywood, which is our calling card to the world, whether it's international trade, which comes through los angeles, it isn't just a great american city, it is a gateway for this country, both in and out of this country for our products and for our economy. we've seen a record amount of streets be paved in my city. we've gotten back to those basics of core core things of f every single sidewalk. but we haven't done old analog things, we did digital things. we share with open security and journalists who hold us accountable who can go to a dashboard and look at where the building permits are in the city by geography or the response times for 911, broken down by how long it takes us to transfer the call, how long it takes for a fire truck to roll out and how long that travel time is, so we can have accountability together so we went from unranked to number one in the country. so we're seeing positive momentum coming out of america's most second city. and we're addressing the issue of in equality. if i averages the prosperity, it would say amazing. we're seeing more foreign investment there. we're seeing a record amount of real estate investment. but we have to look for pockets where i can say los angeles is the safest of the five big cities in america. but if you're in an area where there's high crime, who cares? i can say our unemployment is down by 3%, but if you don't have a job or underemployed, you don't feel that. so, we look towards those places and those neighborhoods where inequality and those households where inequality has been felt so sharnly. something that's not unique to los angeles. not even unique to america anymore. but in a new economy, try to figure out creative ways to boost investment and raise wages, which is why i'm so proud we're now the largest city to the largest city to raise the minimum towage, a path way of $ an hour lifting 600,000 earners out of poverty and with family members more thamen a million ye people. so in my city where one of fou people live in poverty, we hav a shot of putting the money back on main street and helping small businesses because that is not going to be put away and bec squirrelled away and that is spent and making sure that people can return to the american idea that if you work hard you should be rewarded. on inequality, we are aren't ng just looking at minimum wage, but we'reic looking at housing, quarter of which aree wh under . we're targeting homelessness to end veterans' homelessness and we are housing more than any an other cities that took the ci pledge in the united states combined, over 240 vets a monthv we doubled the number of summer youth jobs because we know that is a pathway for the youth of color caught in communities where there aren't the pathways to make sure they have one, twoy three years of job connect them to the highers they are making from the youth but making sure they are not stuck in a route of poverty generation after generation. we are excellent selected by thn obama --e sected by the obama administration, in the zone, si which as many as live in boston, and showering them with the resources to escape poverty and to graduate and go to college and get good jobs. the and the reflection of in uality. equality, whether it is policing and the gulf between police departments and community whichm isany in ways is a reflection on equality. in los angeles we're taking that on. first big city in america to put cameras on every officer, long before ferguson and staten fir island, we were positioned to make sure every patrol officer has a camera. sure a new relationship based polici policing division to look at ways to strengthen that and th because of the pain we went king through in the 90s with rodney king, we do have an inspector ai general and ath faith that doest make us immune but address the feelings of in equality to. so i said that in los angeles we're getting back to the basici but there is one thing of the three i's of investment, inequality and integration that is held back in this nation andn that is the immigrants. los angeles is an amazing the s community. it is the most diverse collection not just of people in america, not just people in the world butth i would offer to yos ande this is researched that l angeles is the most diverse city in history.ts spoke we have in los angeles, over 220 languages ab dialects spoken and people from more than 150 e of countries of my origin. one of my favorite statistics is los angeles has 39 countries ofa with the largest population outside of the home country that resides in l.a. so it is the largest collectiont offar meany ans, thai, and gaut. mallans, and it is the second largest city of a descent, likem mexico city, l.a. is number one. and then return to mexico for number three and what is remarkable is if you rewind the clock again and go back 25 yeara ago as los angeles was burning in the unrest ine w the wake of rodney king verdict, people andd the national media rac talked a a race war and race riots, wondering whether african-americans and latinos and keeps would ever get ould alone -- korean would get alongs and it was seen as a weakness, our diversity. and i was november traveling in seoul, korea, and he said how do we get to be like los angeles. we need more diversity like you have. a declining population in koreaf a lack of diversity was making . them uncompetitive and los sudd angeles was seen as the model is was a remarkable turnaround in d just over two decades to what people in the narrative was bout about los angeles and even about america back then. so this diversity, which i love the expression people say you can see te face of the world ona the streets of l.a.as a s as a side note, i found the m ao opposite to be true. i'm a fourth generation angel o angelino, i could be on the o lh streets of tel aviv or mumbai or feel at home because it looks like the state of los angeles. e and foren americans, even our great strength even when lo diversity doesn't look as diverse as it does today, whether it was puritians or quakers, this is where the coun hardest cross rivers and oceanse to come here. and want to reserve the bulk ofo my remaining time to speak about what we mustcont do to make sure integration continues here in be america. it is the primary driver of our success and will be in the future. t me give you one other ot examples.dy recently rye on games, anybody play league of legends, if you haven't, it is a video game, ga role playinga game that is responsible according to 3% of the global internet time spent by all human beings so maybe the reduction of 2% of the global productivity and the l.a. based company that didn't exist five years ago and we moved them inty the city of los angeles, ago a reducing taxes and helping people with white glove service and people say the old playbook for mayors is get a fortune 500t company and headquarters havee t couple ohef hundred jobs, this e as. company that didn't exist a has 1500 employees poised to omy double into about 3000 in the next few years. and we helped bring them into los angeles. and i asked brandon beck, one of the co-founders, why are you in los angeles. well for a lot of reasons. the i graduated from southern california, and top 25 universities and we have y engi engineers but they would leave l places and go to silicon valley andd elsewhere and we are xcitem retaining themen because of the excitingness in the tech sector. but two, i need a jumping off ye point to gove to the world and l.a.x. is the number one airport in the world. they are rank the number five but the above us are hubs, but e if you get on and stop off the plane and go to a city, we are i the busiest in the world. this year has been the dominantr air traffic corridorri in the c world which is the east coast to london will be displaced to china as most important hub. wh i remember when there was a wasa white flight a week to china ins 1983 and now there are 44 flights a week nonstop from wee china to los angeles each week. so we need a jumping off point and l.a. is perfect.e said but i the last thing he said ise need salesmen and women who ange speakle every language and ther is no place like los angeles.att this is easy. this was a no brainer. and so when we look at what america can be, we need to grasp our strength of the in diversification to be what we ta are. and whati i offer is not a braf new policy area or unchartered territory. this is a return to who we are as americans to a core value. this is a conservative return ta what we are about and what we need to be about. the investment in our people, the eradication of in equality and then lastly the integration of our immigrant communities. this is always our formula for success. and it must be once again. so first and foremost, we need comprehensive immigration reform. you'll hear it a million times but itit b bears repeating agai. washington is failing us. i feel that as a mayor. my fellow mayors feel that and i believe americans feel that.s fl and even as the rhetoric has ics shifted in a positive way and i do want to give thanks and praise to those in both parties saying the right things. and it is a very ripe moment when i came here a couple of trips ago, i met with tom donahue and the u.s. chamber of commerce and richard trum caw at the afl/cio and both mentioned this is the top issues for theme how often do we get that ho coalition together.alition not very often. with re when i met with republican le leadership on the housead with speaker boehner and majority erc leader mccarthy, both talked about how important integration was. this reminds me of the shift ins marriage equality. there was a day that the rhetoric shifted and people talked about how we can achieve measure of in equality -- of equality. there might be disagreements, is it civil unions or marriage buts there is a shift that happened and that is happening and that is positive but at the same timt we haven't seen actions come along with it.this and this bipartisan rhetoric, i think, is something that now transcended at thele city levele and we as mayors are leading ns because wesi must. we have to fill this vacuum.iti it is practical for the communities justfi as much as fixing the water main break, filling a pothole, it is a problem that demands solving. there are 9 million legal 9 permanent residents in america.e annt estimated 11 million ly onl undocumented and 1.2 million dreamers, young americans thaty only know the united states of america. folks who e -- remind me of my grandfather who came here without document in a day and h across a border and fled a war r when his father was assassinated in the revolution and my great grandmother carried him across the border from texas into los angeles. and here in losan angeles, or there in los angeles, he was ppu given an opportunity -- he was s not n drafts for world war ii because he wasn't a citizen but he volunteered and fought as a sergeant in the united states army in the pacific theater and earned his citizenship and came back and learned a trade and m became ama barber and now as hi grandson i'm the mayor of los angeles.ion of the integration of his story is like the stories that we hear every single day in los angeles. folks who have graduated from ucla, gotten their master's degree in architecture and drea and workingth under the table lh than minimum wage job who went through daca in the first round, deferred action, were able to not only go to work at the architecture firm and help am america, buy their father the first car and save up for a renn home, it strengthened the economy and the social fabric and at the end this country itself. we need to figure out a fig waye get people like that on a path to citizenship. we need to figure out a way not to just give them a legal status, but to engage them, involve them, hire them and maks sureur they are part of the cor of this country. played now cities have played this role historically. think about new york i9tnh then of 19th to 20th century as ir peopleel streams off of boats fe italy, ireland and greece and they set up citizenship integration centers where they would teach people english and train them in what it means to participate in a local enrol government and help them enroll in public schools. that is run of the reasons thati i re-established something as a council member established and had fallen to the wayside, an c office of immigrant affairs in . the city of los angeles. we now know about 12 of these mayors have launched or who oversee around the united states. and i wanter to be clear sh it not an issue area, a value we're putting throughout government.'s it is not n like okay this is t area where we deal with immigrants. to be successful witichve parks need to talk to the immigrants,w for the libraries to do well, we have to make sure immigrant s integration is part of what we do. so something led by dr. linda .d lopez with mea today is pushingi forwarsd a different way of ere looking at how we servewa the d people who are residents of losi angeles. cities for citizenship initiative is something i started with the big three mayors.in emanual and de blasio, looking to integrate those folks that aredent legal permanent residenp and get them to become citizens. so the first group, the 9 million people, no matter the fight over daca or executive action, we have an obligation to help citizens in the united states. this programram reaches across state lines and the best way to strengthen theth city is to heli all of the cities and it is nowi across not three but 18 cities across the united states. and we share best practices.in in los angeles we've targeted 3000 for residency.we we were recently honored by theh white house for the national medal for libraries because we are turned our libraries into citizenship centers with a grant from city bank and others, we have in all 72 libraries in los angeles, both librarians trained on and information available to help folks come to the local ai library and geton to the pathwal to legalp status and citizensh. and that is tremendous.tatus i think there is 150 plus libraries that apply for the medal and we are one of five inu the country that won it.d and honored for thatalso and th health care and the affordable care act. libraries have been a place of information. there is no place it can't be where people find jobs, health care and citizenship as well. second, we launched step forware l.a., whichga engaged 750,000 legal -- 750,000 legal permanent residents in l.a.ci and the centerpiece is the citizenship corners in our libraries. linked already 10,000 ensh angelinos to services on the path way to legal stal us and/or citizenship. and the best part it is free. we are exporting it to atlanta and boston and we hope the model continues across the country. and finally, the third initiative is the cities united for immigration action which is more than 70 cities gotten xas e involved inrs the hard fight rin now around the executive action and the texas versus united states. what is happening with texas versus the united states to me is simply disheartening. the executive action was important and increment but it m reminded me about the marriage equality debate. something we thought would continue to give us momentum, t not the promised land but an important step forward. but even that was met byin tolerance and hostility. and that hostility is something i think that is unamerican. of not onlymy because of my own family experience but because los angeles is the epicenter ofe immigration reform. the county has 500,000esidents 0 eligible for relief.th the city has 220,000 of those. and let me be clear, it is not just -- i'm not trying to preach from a ethical issue, this is a practical issue.got citizenship increases someone'sc earnings 8% to 11%. we would increase to get folks through executive action, the earnings of this country by $124 billion, a $230 billion thp increasero in the gdp. tell me what other program can do that with the stroke of a pen. and in my city it was $3 billion leaving on the table for the economy. like miss lopez that iio mentio from ucla just a moment ago.nong and it increases the income of nonimmigrants. for those of us, we could see our wages increase. but the courts stepped in and stopped that. on behalf of the executive action, we brought mayors together to file an amicus cure a brief.ong and a majority of americans, 62%, support a pathway to agree citizenship. we can agree to disagree on how but let's make sure we keep the core value and we need to do that. opposition to reform is in e l decline.is in 2024 when we look back we'll, look at republican primaries and embarrassing immigration was sok hotly contested and just like ws look back at 2004. and in 2008 we listened to the rhetoric and it seems like when people say i'm evolving on the issue or right now it is just civil unions and the pace with which that happened.history. and if we look at historic 196, moments in d the history, [ inaudible ], delano, huse california, that same year with farm workers. massachusetts, 2004 when marriage equality moved fore, i would add to that list los angeles it2015. it is the place and it is the tt date where it is ground zero for this issue. and it is a movement that looksa to differing ideas to spawn new. solutions and returns to very old american values and it is ae movement that calls on our politicsprog to be a means of ce not a tool to halt progress. it is a movement that manifests the power of our cities to immir integrate our immigration and use cities as engines just not t of economic prosperity but of nc american integration. and at the same time figure outs how toam erase and eradicate tu income r equality and get ameri back to the basics. as i mentioned, in many ways my story is the american story.tryl we're a country full of people who make mistakes, who take risks, who cross rivers, who cross oceans, who might hit th bumps on the road but who are the bravest, most innovative and hardest working people on the et face of the earth.erfect c we're an imperfect country but as often is said we are the es least bad which makes us the best and we embrace those things and admit our imperfection on the road to becoming a more mon perfect union. this is where we dig into our we hearts and heads and do a gut t check and realize that we are ae country that does believe that t there should be some measure of equality and we should invest iu our infrastructure, both human and physical. and at the end of the day, the american story isam the story oa the integrationti of a diverse population and american's cities are leading the way. thank you so much. [ applause ] the >> i'm happy to talk about the n job. but i'm going to enjoy this water in the meantime. >> there you go. well let me just leave this off because it is a challenge, this, immigration issue, when you have donald trump and others using n the kind of rhetoric they do. and you said that it is embarrassing. what do you do about that?becaus because what do you do about the nativist chord that he struck that in the latest polls put his at the top of the republican field. and whene you talk about boehne and mccarthy and they tell you l they agree with you on integration and it is importante except they are blocking the bill that has passed and languishing in the house. so how do you get past, if you have any greathi idea on this, t do you get past the gridlock we are at in the congress now?on >> well a couple of things. one is, when somebody polls at n 15% -- and this could be said mt about democrats too, which is a party, minority of americans, democrats are as well. but then do the statistics and you are talking about 6% or 7% of americans saying absolutely.s and that is part of american history as we have native chords throughout. knowut t nothings and many part and individualshat have said that. but that doesn't mean it represents america.an it is certainly more than 50% of the talk on the news these dayst but not necessarily 50% of the . perspectives of americans. so i return to the polling and i return to the everyday polling done consistently that shows a constant evolution. and i would also say that not as a word of warning but a statement of fact, in 1994 it at was interesting during the natoi gubernatorial race between kathleen brown and pete wilson, he began the campaign and they g lookedn at the top ten concernsa of californians and death penalty and immigration were nine and ten. by the end of it they were nd t. number one and two.as nin what he found even though it was ninth and tenth in importance, n people at thatce point were aligned against what was seen ae legal immigration and pumped up to number one. and he won that race. sin but there is not a single state that produced nixon or reagan in any of our state wide offic constitutional offices. i don't think that was a t of ln punishment, it is was just out of line of who we are. and again just like marriage equality, when it was gay people who folks didn't know, that was one thing.t wa when it is your brother, your sister, your co-worker or your g neighbor, that is another thing and the same thing is happening with immigration. it isn't a caricature of folks , who break the law and come in here and do terrible things buts the young woman here at 5 years old and suddenly graduates witha honors from a great university whose potential we're holding back not just for her, which is the right thing to do, but alsoo for the nation. how do we break the gridlock ine washington? i think we start modeling the me things at the local level and b build that movement up. as governors sued the president on the executive action, and mayors did, and some of us have populations larger than the states suing against the 't of governor. so it is important to remind s,d americans aren't of a singular mind on this and if you look at the polling, the majority of them want to see that.that. and even in the republican party, people like john kasich is saying we have to figure out a way to deal with the problem. i want to be clear, i respect you if you have a different perspective on immigration but offer something constructive to deal with folks that are here n because they are not going away and don't leave money on the table for the economy and leave human potential untapped.elves so congress wants to and i hope their timing is sooner than later. they often talk about that. but we can add the support and t the pressurehe from the cities d that is the main part of my we message today. >> o and the other part is you apparently and are willing to take the mantle, are leading a national effort to get cities tr do their own thing with your bre libraries s program, with your o education program, with your met jobs, wi enhancement, with youra citizenship program, you are leading a national movement to have the cities and run the congress if they remain gridlocked, is that true. >> absolutely.ys sa i say don't see they, power you have before you try to exercise it. it. and i respect the constitution and it is aan amazing document and the power for federal ng for immigration is with the k inte government but i don't think we'reus left out. this is something we can continue to work on. have and we all have something to gain from that and we've seen that in los angeles. the more integrated people are, the more we gain. it is a very straight, linear, formula. >> now you mentioned the drought. >> yes. >> so what are you t going to d when california goes dry in two years? >> well, you know, people ask me all of the time whether i'm stressed out about the drought and i'm truly not.i'm i'm very focused on it but not l stressed. we have plenty ofar. water. and know that shocks people to hear. in los angeles, my favorite st statistic isat we've added a 45 million people to the population and consumed not one more drop of water than we did tively collectively 45 years ago. how did we do that. we changed our faucets and appliances and got smart in , tt landscaping. ido b there is still so much wasted, that if we are smarter we can do better. what are we doing in hav los angeles? i set a goal of reducing our water usage in the city by 20%. and we are hitting thatci goal soon.ar early a year early. because what we do was we is p incentivize 50% of the water usn for landscaping.y and when we said we would pay them a dollar a square foot to -- it is not rocks and cactuses, but drought tolerant w plantsn, and if you use your lau keep it, but 90% of grass never gets walked on anywhere and tha is something that is immediatele able to reduce our water output. we import 85% of the water intoo los angeles.s i've said the boldest goal of any mayor since whoever was mayor during the mullholland ino yearswn if you watch china town the work to bring every drop of water north of los angeles but we've set a goal by 2015 to havr 50% of the water produced pu locally by putting back water into the wells an recycling water and reusing water and conserving water. and the last stat i'll give youa is 60% of the water we use every day or the equivalent of which goes into a drain, your sink, toilet or shower, we treat and then wash it out to the ocean. so imagine if we were piping that back in.aces we can look to places like israel and australia and we are implementing thoseof policies i massive public awareness campaigns. steve carell and others are engaged in the character called, the drop and save the drop, bute he is not angry but t's disappointing that you are taking a shower that is too tur long. so i know there are larger state issues, the agricultural sector, to have drip irrigation and choose the right crops but we'll have plenty of water in los i' angeles and i'm confident we cat meet this challenge. >> okay. and i guess my last question n e then and we'll turn it over ande everybody can have at it is, th city of los angeles and you jusg signed it, raised in phases the minimum wage to $15 an hour. he that will help end inequality, but whatwh is your counter and make the case that it isn't going to cost jobs?>> >> yeah.. absolutely. well it is interesting, weit's s passed that. and the county of los angeles, which is -- encompasses 10 million people and in areas where there is no city incorporated, they essentially are the city. so the unincorporated cities of l.a. count are a million people, so the second biggest city in l.a., they are debating that d right now as ebwell.well i believe they'll pass a minimum wage similar to ours. but they did a study and asked l the los angeles economic development corporation to poll a thousand businesses about the minimum wage and the impact. awa because i know that it will have a positive impact.ies, we've seen the studies and the actual work in the past. but of the 1,000 businesses, zero of them said they would pack up and leave if the minimum wage was raised. and asked what they would do. some would have to raise prices or have a few less employees but 10% to 12% were having negative impact, not even negative, that they do those things. it blew me right -- -- ly two-thirds of businesses said iy was likely they would save mone by reducing cost turnover.hat t in fast food, the employ turn over on average is 150% a year a which is liker. having a permant help wanted sign. that is expensive to train exp people and have sick days when they can't live off of wages.wa. there was a great piece in the "wall street journal" a couple of weeks ago that said more andd more companies are seeing it iss good for the bottom line to pay more. it is not that they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts they are recognizing the olred henry ford thing if you create customers it is a good thing. and sos it was a good thing for politics to say trust us, it oky will be okay, and businesses did not expect to reduce staff. and zero percent said it was si likely to reduce staff. and to reduce hours, zero percent said unlikely. and to replace them with machines,he 72% felt they wore about happier andth better at js and they expected staff to take on additional duties and prices and we'll feel that but it willa be a much better virtuous cycle. when $1 billion is put in the pocket of low income angelinos,a the same thing about americans,b they have -- they are choosing between the phone biletl o r bus the shoes for kids for school, e you'll see the money hit main way and that g will help businesses.st >> arokay, questions. identify yourself and then ask the question. sir. and then the mic, make sure that the switchan part of the mic fa. out. that is how you get the best volume. >> all right. okay. hi. welcome to washington. > thank you. hing >> i'm eric with the wall street. on the minimum wage and you mentioned that you don't have i close ties with unions or the chambers an those types of aces. places. with theotel hotel workers' min wage law from last year that included a carve-out for ective collective bargaining agreements, the citywide law do does not. can you explain to us if those carveouts are important and as you are serving as a model for other cities to follow, should those cities look at having such carveouts in their loss. thank you. >> first of all, i will clarify. i have close ties but i didn't o get the endorsement but i'm proud to have labor and businesk support and republican businessmen like rick caruso who is one of the biggest shopping n mall owners who would be hardest hit in thege rhetoric and peopls like eli brod were supportive and even pushing to go faster.e so in terms of carveout, i don'f support that for ours. wage i understand the logic of it. but i think a minimum wage should be a minimum wage and nobody earns underneath that. i understand that at the hotel level, they signed that, even en though that was a part of it.t. but i think in general, for the average person, this isn't about just labor organized, most people are not part of a union, it would be a positive thing if more were and minimum wage workers almost never are. and what can we do to raise thae up for everybody and that is thc pathway we are talking in los angeles and i respect folks who. put that in there. a i think -- i think it's been overblown and it will hit a low single-digit percentage of workers an i'm interested in hitting the most people in the w most aggressive way we can. >> thanks. hi. [ inaudible ] i'm the >> i'm congressional correspondent with the hispanic outlook and lived 50 years of my wonderful life in santa barbara raw and i was a inturn at the l.a.x. airport in the '70s when it was the newest airport and my how times have changed. >> we'll get it back. >> i hope so.een i've been covering immigration and written two books about it. >> yep. >> and i have two questions. >> sure. >> when is -- it is popular to t say that congress is gridlocked over immigration reform, but the big issue is between comprehensive and piecemeal. as you pointed out, there are p many, manyo issues that republicans agree with, including many want to legalizet dreamers, so you talk about comprehensive immigration reform, why does it have to be comprehensive and why can't it be piecemeal. and the other thing to remark about is sanctuary cities.rday the issue was brought up yesterday in a hearing with much exasperation, why do we have immigration laws if the cities say no, we don't agree with that and is that opening up a pandore boxes, are we going to have yo sanctuary cities for heterosexual marriages. >> i'm not opposed to piecemeal if somebody said we'll legalize dreamers tomorrow, i would embrace that. but i push for comprehensive because it is like addressing me homelessness. i'm trying to end homelessness i among veterans and that is whats i'mu focused on and we want to . address everybody on the street and i think the immigration reform doesn't leave anybody behind. we need high school workers and dreamers and anybody here is not leaving so we need to solve the problem one way or another. second, sanctuary cities, it has morphed, and cities have been thrown in that aren't cities, cities who like san francisco, a during the war,in when the unit states was not letting folks fleeing the violence, we are a i sanctuary cities if you are escaping guatemala, and that is foris them.accura but it iste now for criminals. it is a perverting of what a sanctuary city is.he and in los angeles, we do cooperate and coordinate with i.c.e. all of the time and any locality should.loca when we find a violent criminale and we check the immigration status, if deportation can be p part of it, that happens all of the time and it should happen.o but what we do demand is there e is a judicial order somebody not at that level and i.c.e. wants us to have a detainer.rs f we will do detainers from i.c.e but we want to make sure there is a judge saying there is something there.to and to me that is about lishin establishing trust andg making sure of the 550,000 people thate i said, people who are just lika most americans who are citizensr are law abiding, participate inc the public safety of our city. a don't think that local law loca enforcement official on a p is g traffic stop is going so say, e and by the way can i see your , immigration papers.th and if we were doing that, i g would have to stop solving murders, rapes, the violent crime and the amount of work it would take for the los angeles lawyer -- los angeles police y officers, i couldn't do my coreh job of keeping the city safe. >> in the back. >> >> bill t earl from the nationad association of beverage impor r importers. this year we experienced a debilitated west coast port slowdown. many companies lost pani the entire holiday season because they daye couldn'tas ship into west coast. ports. what do you d recommend to eastl coast mayors who are going to experi en t a year from >> as now, same contract negotiations. >>vo as you lvknow, i got very involved i th port dispute.di i asked the federalment , the white house to bring in b federal mediation and they did i and in theatn we closed the deal secretary of labor anda commerce were in san franciscos sand i was pleased we were able to solve that short of strike.t. but it was debilitating.s i got ceos and i was here iggest talking to the big importers a exporters in every association telling them the positive news o of what we are trying to do to modernize, not just the physical infrastructure but the nego negotiations. butt i i think the east coast different than the west coast partially because the folks whon work in the unions here are morf affiliated with thefi actual companies. there is a differentth model. so it is traditionally a little bit more harmonious but that doesn't mean there couldn't be t strikes and unrest. what got us through the log jam is this isn't just an industry issue, this is an american jobs issue. when we look out of the 50 jobsc dependent out of the ports of long beach, whether it was a small territory who couldn't get gifts in or a huge territory t like home depot or gap, it was debilitating on the american ev economy. so i would say elevate this up to more than hey, you are dealing with the steamsters and the sanitation department, who r might be striking, this is a real american issue. second i would do what we are ft doinghi for the next round whice is get in there early and really establish early on that we're ak not going to back this up to tho 11th hour and get an agreement m early on to make sure that both sides agree there can't be work slowdowns. work didn't shop,it but it just slowed down. at one point we have 24 ships -s we had bananas spoiling and re whole seasons missed in the retail sector and the next roune for the west coast will start early and we'll bring in the bi guys and gals, the ceos of the multi-nationals and not just th reps to make sure with the hey unions that they understand we're breathing down their neckd and we're friends with both sides but the end -- i won't sah which side when i said america right now, is looking at this and sees you as incompetence ani iat said who is saying that ands the west coast economy is and falling apart and it is tes an effecting the united states and that is finally how we broke the log jam. >> we want to give priority to media who have questions.haveif so if you are with media, raisea your hand.is in the back with the hand up.up. sro, mr. mayor. >> i'm sorry, sean higgins withs the washington examiner.if if l.a. county doesn't come up a with a minimum wage close to or matching the cities, is that tht going to be disruptive for the e metro area economy because there could be a two tiered wage sy system in the area. >> i think it will be but not i the way people imagine. people say if you have a higherc minimum wage itt creates a wag island. i would say the opposite is whae happens. yoetu create poverty pockets. if you have a lower minimum orkc wage, the best workers come into the city of l.a. and the most motivated and the best trained come into the city of l.a. and our businesses continue to benefit from that. som and we looked at good empirical data on this, even on industries that depend on labor, like restaurants, county next to w county where they raised the minimum wage and people thought those restaurants must be going out of business and that didn'te happen.comm whether it was a poor community, like we saw poorer cities in the bay area or a rich city like san francisco, we saw the opposite effect.n't so i tell other cities don't dog this because i'm a asking a favt from you to make sure it doesn't hurt us, but do it for yourselves because workers can cross city c borders and they ce live in another city and come a into the city of l.a. and who wouldn't want to work at a mcdonald's for $15 an hour when other places are stuck at $10. and when the employer of a mcdonald's in los angeles can s, pick the very best, they will get the very best. >> media or club members.s. great. >> hi. my name is joerld with the german press agency. >> hi, jordan. 5, d >> so with the minimum wage at $15, do you encourage all cities or states in the u.s. to raise to $15 or do you think l.a. is in a unique position with is population and cost of living. >> i don't. i i guess i would, but different e years. 15 is a fine number to organizew towards. butou it would be great to rais the basement nationally but tiol we're not seeing that happen iny congress any time soon. i hope it will and it has very strong bipartisan support againa in polling, a majority of republicans and an overwhelming majority of democrats support ot raising the minimum wage.bu but different economies aret e. different. the cost of livingth is differe in different places and you need to cater toward what i s right fon yo -- for your own city. >> we'll take t one or two more and then we'll be done.. >> kippen fracking with the s. associated press. >> how are you? >> since you required a judicial order before -- for the detainer requests, what has the impact been and have you seen a decline in requests since then? since >> no. we've seen it be pretty