An old and dear friend asked if I had made it to CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 show last night…yes Ma’am, I did.

Transcripts of our segment here. Can someone please decipher the words of the guy ( Gerson Borrero) they put opposite me?

Apparently this man has a reputation for being somewhat pointed in NYC…in Espanol. I don’t get it. I had a lot of trouble following his thouhts…but I have no doubt of his agenda or his intent.

Transcript of segment below, but first, this from right before we went on :

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)COOPER (voice-over): From Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, all across America. Hundreds of thousands marched for immigration reform.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It’s everyone’s country. It’s not just my country or a Mexican country or any country. It’s everyone’s.

So, with that concept of Ben Franklin’s Republic in mind from just one of the MAYDAY ILLEGAL ALIEN MARCHERS yesterday, our segment.

CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY, LOS ANGELES: We have been with the immigrants since day one — this country since 1770s. We’ve always been there for every single wave of immigrants because we see in the immigrants the face of God. And as disciples of Jesus, he said open your arms, especially to the strangers. So, that’s what we do.

And, we’re here to try to find a just way for them to be recognized as individuals and to give them the opportunity to be out in the open making our country great.

COOPER: In Washington, President Bush continues to push for a temporary work visa program to give illegals a chance to work legally.

Some say it’s just amnesty, others say it doesn’t go far enough.

After failing last year, lawmakers now plan to take up immigration reform later this month.

Hundreds of thousands on the streets today say they will be watching.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Well, joining me now is D.A. King, a columnist for the “Marietta Daily Journal” in Georgia. He’s also an activist who wants to see immigration laws tightened.

And on the other side of the issue, Gerson Borrero, who is a columnist for “El Diario,” New York’s largest Spanish newspaper. He supports finding a way to let illegal immigrants stay in the U.S.

Gentlemen, appreciate both of you being on the program.

Gerson, we know the demonstrations today were far smaller fraction of what they were a year ago. What do you make of that?

GERSON BORRERO, “EL DIARIO” COLUMNIST: It doesn’t matter what the number were, whether they were greater or lesser. The fact is that there is a live community actually, with all intentions of keeping their issue alive, and that’s what important. The numbers don’t matter.

There wasn’t a Sensenbrenner bill. There wasn’t a direct threat to them. It’s an ongoing problem. And they refuse to let it go back in the closet, which is the important thing here. And that’s the message that came out today.

COOPER: D.A., when you see these rallies, these flags, what is the message you get?

D.A. KING, COLUMNIST, “MARIETTA DAILY JOURNAL”: I don’t regard them as immigration rallies, Anderson. I think they are very clearly open-border rallies.

The message is very clear from these people. We don’t want enforcement raids, the borders are to be crossed whenever we say so. And enforcement is something that is un-American.

They are promising to repeat these rallies every year. And to bring their families into the United States, whether or not it is within the American law.

I believe they are demanding open borders. And I think it’s funny that this year the numbers don’t matter, but last year they did.

COOPER: Well, you know, D.A., I talked to a lot of people in crowd who said, look, you can have border security and what they call comprehensive immigration reform. True? KING: I don’t believe so. Comprehensive immigration reform is code for amnesty again.

We have proven, Anderson, without any shadow of a doubt in 1986 that a path to legalization or a path to citizenship does not secure our borders. It does not stop illegal employment. And it certainly does not stop illegal immigration.

BORRERO: Well, finally something that makes sense, Anderson. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that we are in fact are producing these people — are provoking these people to come into our country undocumented or illegal, as is the term that is put upon the victims of this whole exploitation process.

What people that are trying to keep or close up the borders, what do they want to do? They want to put up an iron fence around the United States so we don’t negotiate or deal with any country?

If we take care in a responsible manner of our foreign economic policy, not exploiting nations, we wouldn’t have this influx of people that are dying.

They need to eat. It’s an amazing thing. People like to eat.

COOPER: Why do you say we’re responsible, though, for forcing people to come to the United States?

BORRERO: I’ll give you an example. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was supposed to put up to par Mexico, our neighbor to the south, and they’re looking at the north, both United States and Canada. We were supposed to better the condition alike. Bring up the wages, the daily wages of Mexicans there.

And just in the field, and farms of corn, they lost 1,700,000 jobs in 13 years since Bill Clinton enacted his famous NAFTA that was supposed to bring up people to parity with the United States.

They need to eat, Anderson, and they need to come over to the place where it has the money. This is what they perceive.

It’s our fault for the kind of economic injustices that we impose on the world.

KING: Anderson…

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: D.A. — D.A., is this is our fault?

KING: This is very much like some bizarre national rerun of the groundhog movie. We hear the same things over and over again. Somebody point me to wages going up in the U.S. because the president of the United States refuses to secure our borders.

There is no universal civil right to live and work in the United States. And labeling illegal aliens as immigrant is the ultimate immigrant bashing.

Immigrants, by definition, do not require legalization. They do not require amnesty. They do not require some new legislated path to citizenship. They enjoy all of those privileges because they have followed American law.

And I resent people marching in the streets, demanding American citizenship, demanding also to be labeled as an immigrant.

BORRERO: Well, it just so happens that I, as an American citizen as you are, feel that they have the right and should continue. Not on a yearly basis. They should do it every month, come out to the streets.

And I got to tell you what they got to do because this is an economic problem turned into a political problem by opportunists that like to wage this patriotic call, which is false.

The same thing that the Republicans and the Democrats and the White House is doing with an issue that is basically an economic issue. What we should do, the 10 million strong that are registered to vote, is not engage in voting in partisan elections. Vote as independents — 10 million of us. Disenroll from both the Democratic and the Republican Party, and you’ll see that the problem is resolved.

This is nonsense. This is all escapism. It’s having somebody to put the finger at.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I started with Gerson. D.A., let me give you the final thought.

KING: I agree this is not a partisan issue. It would be nice to see the criminal employers and the bankers who are allowed to flout this law have to march in the street to get away with what they are presently getting away with.

COOPER: Gentlemen, a passionate discussion, but a smart one. I appreciate it.

D.A. King, Gerson Borrero, always good to have you on the program.

We’re going to have more on the immigration debate ahead this hour.

And tomorrow night, CNN’s Lou Dobbs hosts a live primetime special, “Broken Borders.” He’ll be in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a town taking a stand against illegal immigration. That’s tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m., Eastern.