Sen. Klobuchar introduces Immigration Innovation Act

>> immigration debate , minnesota senator amy, member of the joint economic committee . this is a big deal economically potentially, senator, because as business people are telling you and as i'm hearing from business people , college presidents and others as i'm sure you've heard this is a major economic component where we're training young people from around the world giving them ph.d.s and then kicking them out.

>> exactly. that's why senator hatch, senator rubio, and senator kuhns and i introduced today -- we took to the floor together and talked about our bill called i squared. it's really about making sure that when students come over here and they get an advanced degree, that we don't just send them back to another country and say, okay, start the next google in india or somewhere else. america was built on immigrants. you look at the number of fortune 500 countries founded by immigrants. every person that we have that has this kind of scientific inventor, engineering type visa, produces 1.8 jobs. it's a multiplier effect. american jobs . that's why i see this as part of the comprehensive reform. i support the principles that were outlined yesterday. i would agree with susan and chris that this is a major movement in the senate. not running away from something. they're running towards something. it will also be very important.

>> there was one report in the washington post which the white house is warning us off of that the president was going to take a more liberal approach than the senate had. that may have been what prompted senator rubio to take the floor moments ago.

>> i hope what the president will say today is that he hopes that that process succeeds busht if his intentions are to trigger a budding war, to see who can come up with the easiest process, this is not a good start. but let's give him the benefit of the doubt . i hope my colleagues will do the same. i am deeply committed to the rule of law and to having an immigration system that works.

>> so are you expecting that the president will be more or less on board with the senate compromised plan, or do you think he is going off in a different direction as senator rubio is concerned about?

>> no, i believe he is going to be in line with the senate plan. he has long embraced immigration reform , talked about working with republicans, and i think you hear from senator rubio that the words i want to give him the benefit of the doubt , he has reached out to people all across the aisle here on this issue. i truly believe when we're all running in the same direction on a very difficult issue that has been stagnant for years, every so often people will have some sharp elbows and jockey for position, but the key point here is that people want to get this done. this is a new dawn for immigration reform that we haven't seen in years. when i first got to this senate, i was involved in the immigration reform efforts. president bush valiantly tried to get that done. now is our opportunity to do this, and our country depends on this. it's the families. it's the earned citizenship, and as you pointed out, about the economy, 30% of u.s. nobel prize winners were foreign born . they invented things. they make stuff. they invent things, and that's how we produce jobs in this country. there is no reason why we would have no cap for sports stars and we love our sports stars in minnesota, and many of them come from other countries, so we have no cap on that, but we have fairly severe caps on scientists, engineers, and inventors, and that's what we're trying to change.

>> senator, before i let you go, i'm heading from here to the state department where i'm going to be interviewing hillary clinton , and there is so much talk among democrats whom i have been seeing the last couple of days about hillary clinton in 2016 . only today a man in nigeria, a woman in germany at a town hall meeting , a globle town hall live asked her about her intentions. is she -- if she chooses to run, is she the prohibitive frontrunner, or is joe biden as the vice president, the presumptive heir to president obama in the democratic party ?

>> well, i don't think anybody can say that until they decide what they're going to do, but i will say that secretary of state clinton has done a tremendous job. i think there's an acknowledgment. look at the interview that the president and she did together. there's an acknowledgment really across the world of the work that she's done, and that's a decision that she will make. she's clearly a strong county candidate.

>> very diplomatic. you could be a potential secretary of state.

>> there you are. very good. thank you accide, andrea.

>> thank you very much.