2016. exploring the american story, watch american history tv, saturdays on c-span2, and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anyime at c-span.org/history. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 6:30 p.m. eastern, oregon democratic senator jeff merkley shares his book where he argues that bringing back the talking filibuster will fix the problem of stalled legislation in the senate. then at 10:00 p.m. eastern on after words, wesleyan university pressor talks about his book which looks at how the concept of race emerged during the 18th century enlightenment period. he's interviedy george mason university history professor. watch book tv every sunday on

c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online any time at booktv.org. continues. host: joining us is congressman buddy carter. thank you for giving us your time sir. guest: thank you for having me. host: if we can start with the impeachment of mayorkas you call that your constitutional duty. guest: i don't know if you have been to the border i have been to the board eight times. the last time was last week and it is worse now than i have ever seen it. we have a secretary that is failing in his responsibility and he is responsible for this. not only the number of illegal

aliens coming across the border but the drugs that are coming across the border. i am a pharmacist, we are losing 200 people every day as a result of fentanyl poisoning. if we had a plane crash and we killed 200 people we would stop every plane until we figured out what is going on. but that border is wide open. i mentioned i was at the border last week. now, there are more non-mexicans crossing than ever before. the price of fentanyl has plummeted. there is so much supply that demand is not keeping the price up. that is not something we should

tolerate. mayorkas is guilty of this. host: what constitutional standard did mr. mayorkas breached? guest: he has a responsibility of protecting that border. the secretary of homeland security is different than other secretaries. it is his responsibility are clear, it is his responsibility to make sure that border is secure. it is not secure and he should be held responsible. host: tom mcclintic voted against the impeachment and he said it would dub down the

requirement for impeachment. guest: there were three people who voted against at the first time and i understand them and i respect their opinion. i was convinced after listening to my fellow colleagues this was the right thing to do. we are fortunate to have a speaker who was a constitutional lawyer. his opinion matters a lot to mean not that tom and mike does not. certainly i took that into consideration in making a decision. host: you have seen these numbers as well. the number of arrest in january of 50% from december and they attributed to seasonal decline, heightened enforcement and efforts by mexico. what do you think about the drop

down and does that show things are changing? guest: what i saw last week, that border is a mess. people are just coming across it . the numbers are what the numbers are. you look at the numbers in november and december and we had record numbers of people coming across the border. not to mention the number that got away. we have 10, 11 million illegal immigrants right now. that border is the number one issue on people's minds. when i go home that's what they want to know about the border in the economy. host: this is buddy carter and if you have questions for republicans (202) 748-8001, for democrats (202) 748-8000, for independents (202) 748-8002

and you can text us at (202) 748-8003. we have patty on the line for democrats. caller: thank you pedro and c-span. i want you on the floor quite a lot and you seem like a decent person. you do a lot of honors for your local folks in your district. this is a talking point and i understand that with the border. i have family in texas. if you were presented with a solution, why are you refusing to bring that up for debate? i look at the bill and read through it. no one likes it which means it is probably pretty good. nobody on the progressive side likes it.

if you would like to solve the problem, why are you not willing to push leadership to at least bring it to the floor for debate and vote. host: i think she is referring to the send's initial plan. guest: a fair question. i did read that and look into the senate version of what they passed. i am glad the speaker did not bring it to the floor. we have made it clear that we need to secure the border. if you look at the senate bill, tell me how many laws that after so many people violate this law it is that illegal? we have to arrest 5000 people and after that point you will get arrested? the border needs to be secured and it can be secured.

the president has the tools to secure the border. he can stop catch and release and build the wall. when i was in tucson, arizona we saw the wall. the wall of the donald trump continued in joe biden stop. i appreciate senator lankford. we should be looking for solution, right now. we have to compromise but i tell you that hr to is as close to a perfect bill when it relates to the border and we need this senate to take up hr two.

host: john in virginia. caller: are you really serious about securing the border talk to me about the aspect of work connections? are you in support of giving illegal immigrants work permits when they get here? guest: certainly, we want to look at those. this is part of the negotiation and what we should be looking at and working for. i am in favor of the h2a program and that's important to our agriculture community and that is different from people

coming over illegally. i am not against immigration as long as they do with the right way. we want them to come to this country. i give very frustrated when republicans say they don't want anyone coming into this country. we just want them to do it the correct way and specifically, if you talk to someone he was come through the process and spent that much money and it takes a long time. it's a tough process to become a naturalized citizen. if you want to talk to someone who gets upset about illegals coming in, talk to that person. host:

was not one we could accept over here in the house. as i said earlier, this administration has created this problem at the border, they can solve this problem at the border. the president has the tools at his disposal to be able to solve this problem. he can secure that border. he can continue with the construction at the wall. he can implement the stay in mexico policies the supreme

court has set. make sure that you do that. stop the catch and release program. he has a number of tools available to him to where he can stop this situation, he can stop this problem that he created in the first place. caller: i was calling to ask the rep a question. you say -- two questions. you say you've been to the border for over 10 years, eight times. does that mean that the problem's been going on for 10-plus years? and the second question is, within the 10 years, what you have done to change the conditions on the border? thank you. guest: first of all, yes. the border was -- when i first went, the first time i went, i

was on the homeland security committee, my first session in congress. i went with the homeland security my first trip. we went to san diego. we saw the fence there. then we went to arizona. we saw the rugged terrain where it is tough to put a fence up there. then we went to texas, we saw that long, winding river. that's the first time i saw the rio grande. my vision of the rio grande was always a john wayne movie. it is a narrow, winding river

knee-deep in some places that people just walk across. they are all different. you have to use technology and everything else. i've also been to the border on two occasions with the doctors caucus. we been twice to make sure the unaccompanied children are taken care of. that was one of the things i've done. also what i've done is to vote in favor of hr two. hr two will secure the border. i don't know any of our listeners if they've read it. i encourage you to. that is a good bill. it will help us secure our border. that's why what we've said we should do, number of us have said we should do is to take the funding bill that the senate has sent overcome attached hr2 to it and send it back to them. host: you are on the budget committee in congress is just about to go on a break in the deadline for a partial government shutdown is about two weeks. what is the plan to prevent that from happening? guest: the appropriators have been working tirelessly and i understand they are making progress. we finally got that top line number which is important. it was difficult to come by. we finally got it and now the appropriators know where they are. on march 1, we've got to have the four appropriations bill done otherwise those agencies will shut down. the others will be effective for the cr runs out on them on march

8. we got to get those done. i am encouraged by the appropriators were telling me that they are making good progress. everything i'm hearing is that we will probably get it done. i don't want the government shutdown. that's not the worsening that could happen. the worst that could happen is the fact that we continue this reckless spending that has resulted in $34 trillion in debt right now. the united states of america is got revenues of about $6.4 trillion. that means we are -- that's revenues but we are spending 200 and $2000, 200 and $200,000 every second. the speed of light is 186 miles per second and we are spending money faster than the speed of light. this has got to stop. even this fiscal year, the cbo has said we will have a defi