New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today said the U.S. has become the “laughing stock of the world” because of policies that force highly skilled immigrants to leave the country. He and other speakers at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum said encouraging high-skilled workers to immigrate to the U.S. would lead to more job creation. One idea being proposed would allow immigrants obtaining an advanced degree from a U.S. university eligible for permanent residency.

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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was in a San Francisco court as judges heard oral argument on the state’s immigration law. A Ninth Circuit Appeals Court will decide if an Arizona state law requiring its police to arrest & detain suspected illegal immigrants based on a reasonable suspicion is constitutional. A lower court ruled that Arizona pre-empted the federal government’s authority to set immigration law and stopped enforcement of this part of Arizona’s law.

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The Brookings Institution in Washington hosted this discussion on immigration policies needed to attract highly skilled workers. Participants examined what can be done to attract and retain a skilled immigrant workforce while maximizing the talents of native-born Americans. They also discussed new research findings on immigration’s role in business innovation. 

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Friday, the Supreme Court released audio from Wednesday's oral argument in Arizona v. U.S., an immigration case that pits Arizona’s state powers against the federal government.

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on James Garfield's life and career. Historians discussed Garfield's military service, his election as president and assassination shortly after his inauguration. Suzanne Miller, the site manager at Garfield's home in Mentor, Ohio, talked about several of the artifacts and documents that Garfield left behind. 

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C-SPAN’s Local Content Vehicles take American History TV on the road. Throughout the weekend of May 18-20 we feature the history of Columbia, South Carolina.

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Thousands of colonists rejected the War for American Independence and many fled to the British stronghold of New York City. San Jose State University History Professor Ruma Chopra discusses the situation in the city and the perspective of those who looked upon the British as natural allies in religion, language and blood and thought the violence of rebellion was unnecessary and unlawful.

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American History TV visited San Francisco’s Chinatown to follow historian Charlie Chin as he tells the story of the Chinese in America to a group of college students. This is part one of a three-part series on San Francisco’s Chinatown. This portion of the series was recorded in the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum.
 

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Metropolitan State University professor Douglas Rossinow teaches a class on the Iran-Contra affair, which took place in the mid-1980s during the Reagan Administration. The Iran-Contra affair stems from Reagan administration officials funding the Contras - who were fighting against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua - with money from the sale of arms to Iran. The arms were being sold to Iran in the hope of gaining the release of American hostages held in Lebanon - hence the reason the affair is sometimes called as the “arm-for-hostages” scandal. Metropolitan State University is in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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