JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: changing course.
President Trump signs an order ending family separations.
Now parents and children will be detained together.
We are on the ground at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Then: a look at why so many are risking it all to make the treacherous journey across
the U.S.-Mexico border.
Plus: Mr. Trump heads to Minnesota to rally his base.
We hear from voters in the key midterm state as the president's policies get put to the
test.
And bringing clean water to the Navajo Nation -- the struggle to provide basic services
to families in the sprawling U.S. reservation.
JIM BISSONETT, Rotary International: It's kind of a shock when you think that people
in the United States don't have running water.
We're going to change the lives of this family dramatically from the water they were carrying
in pickle jars to their house actually having running water.
And that's a huge shift for them.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: A sudden shift today at the White House.
The president relented on the widely condemned practice of splitting up undocumented families.
Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: You are going to have a lot of happy people.
LISA DESJARDINS: With a pen, President Trump again changed the fate of thousands of families
with an executive order reversing his decision to enforce the law by separating children
from parents at the border.
DONALD TRUMP: The border is just as tough.
But we do want to keep the families together.
Anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it.
We don't like to see families separated.
At the same time, we don't want people coming into our country illegally.
LISA DESJARDINS: The change came a month-and-a-half into the zero tolerance policy, and after
a day of intense pressure on the White House.
From Republicans.
QUESTION: Has the White House been handling this well?
SEN.
LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), South Carolina: No.
Clearly, they didn't think this thing through.
LISA DESJARDINS: From Democrats.
REP.
RUBEN KIHUEN (D), Nevada: We are here to call on the president to rescind this zero tolerance
policy.
This is not about attacking the president.
This is about humanity.
LISA DESJARDINS: from And protesters, including some shouting at Homeland Security Secretary
Kirstjen Nielsen as she ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant last night.
President Trump announced the about-face around lunchtime.
DONALD TRUMP: We're signing an executive order in a little while.
LISA DESJARDINS: The president's executive order would detain families together, instead
of separately.
The administration insists the change doesn't mean it is backing down from its zero tolerance
policy.
Mr. Trump announced the change to a table full of Republican lawmakers, but seemed openly
conflicted on the topic.
DONALD TRUMP: If you're weak, which some people would like you to be, if you're really, really
pathetically weak, the country's going to be overrun with millions of people.
And if you're strong, then you don't have any heart.
That's a tough dilemma.
Perhaps I would rather be strong.
LISA DESJARDINS: For days, the public has seen these images, provided by the administration,
of some of the shelters for the more than 2,300 kids now separated from their parents.
That figure is for the first month alone of the president's zero tolerance policy.
It is still not clear how many are toddlers or infants and how long it will take to reunite
them with parents.
The White House moved quickly to try to ease concern and answer questions, with Secretary
Nielsen dispatched soon after the executive order was announced to speak to some 50 House
Republicans at the Capitol.
Afterward, Nielsen spoke with reporters.
KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: Good discussion, very good questions,
very excited for the vote tomorrow.
We're going to get this fixed.
LISA DESJARDINS: All this as House and Senate leaders scrambled to craft long-term fixes
to the situation, and as the House moved toward a Thursday vote on a larger immigration plan
to also address dreamers, those people who crossed into the U.S. illegally as children.
REP.
PAUL RYAN (R-WI), Speaker of the House: Tomorrow, we're going to have a vote on legislation
that makes sure that we can enforce our laws and keep families together.
LISA DESJARDINS: Meantime, President Trump also announced the congressional family picnic
at the White House -- you see photos of last year's event -- will be postponed.
It was set for tomorrow, but the president said the time doesn't feel right for a picnic.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Lisa joins me now from the Capitol, where she's been all day.
So, Lisa, let's talk about this executive order.
Explain exactly what does it do?
How does it mesh with existing law?
LISA DESJARDINS: The White House had an on-the-record call with a lawyer from the attorney general's
office.
And here's what they told us, that this will detain immigrant families together, rather
than separately, as reported.
Theoretically, Judy, it's effective immediately.
However, there is an implementation phase that they're not sure how long it will take
for this to actually happen in practice.
Now, there's a serious question of the legalities here.
There is something called the Flores agreement that goes back to the Bill Clinton days courts
have upheld.
They have ruled that children cannot be detained by this country for more than 20 years -- in
these is going to -- I'm sorry -- for more than 20 days in these immigrant cases.
So the administration is asking for a modification of that ruling to allow them to hold these
families indefinitely.
It is not clear what the administration will do if they don't get that modification.
Judy, there is concern here from the Capitol that after 20 days this executive order will
be effectively illegal.
I talked to Virginia Congressman and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
He says they expect lawsuits questioning the legality of this executive order based on
that Flores agreement.
So they say Congress needs to passes a more permanent fix, because this executive order
is on tenuous legal ground.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Lisa, as we saw, you have been talking to a number of lawmakers.
What are they all saying about this turnaround by the administration?
LISA DESJARDINS: First, nearly all of them were in the dark, Judy.
We were telling them ourselves what was in this executive order, but there is relief,
especially for Republicans.
This is something they had been pressing for.
They had felt a lot of pressure on this issue.
For Democrats, they aren't sure what the future is and exactly how they will operate now.
They generally don't want families detained together, but they're happy for this reversal,
at least for now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you mentioned the fact that Republicans are trying to get something
passed tomorrow in the House.
Tell us about that.
LISA DESJARDINS: Right.
This is a significant bill.
First of all, let's look at what it does.
It would give a status to DACA or dreamer kids, those brought here illegally as children.
It would also have funding for the border wall.
It would also decrease legal immigration, and it would detain families together.
It would be a permanent fix on that.
But, Judy, right now, that bill doesn't have the votes to pass the House.
And, of course, it would still leave open the long-term solution on this issue.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And so, Lisa, if the House doesn't come up with a solution, what happens
to these children?
Is there -- we know there has been discussion in the Senate.
What could they do?
LISA DESJARDINS: Right.
I came from one of the many, many meetings that I was at today on the Hill, a Senate
bipartisan meeting.
Susan Collins brought together Ted Cruz of Texas and Dianne Feinstein of California to
try and merge their bills together.
Let's look at those do.
They deal only with child separation.
Senator Cruz would detain families together, but try to speed up their processing.
Senator Feinstein wouldn't have family detention.
She would rather release them pending a hearing.
They're trying to put together that TBD bipartisan deal.
I think all hope for these kids long-term rests right now in the Senate trying to work
that out.
Meanwhile, we're watching closely to find out short-term what happens to those families
already separated, because it's not clear yet how soon they can be reunited.
The administration has not answered those questions.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, for all that time, they were not focused on immigration.
They certainly appear to be now.
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Lisa Desjardins, thank you.
Meanwhile, on America's southern border, the city where the family separation policy was
first launched, El Paso, Texas, is still receiving migrants fleeing violence from Central America
and Mexico.
Many of them seek legal asylum upon entry.
U.S. officials have maintained that potential asylum-seekers entering at legal border crossing
will not be prosecuted and will be processed in turn.
But, as Amna Nawaz has found, in this cross-border report from Juarez and El Paso, the process
isn't always that easy.
AMNA NAWAZ: The years that brought Angelica and Sofi (ph), her 3-old-granddaughter, to
this moment, on the Mexican side of the Paso del Norte Bridge to the United States, are
almost too painful for her to recount.
When we first met them Tuesday night, they had already been in this migrant shelter in
Juarez for a month.
Her family, Angelica says, was targeted by Mexican cartels, already killing her husband
son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren.
Getting out of Mexico, she says, is a matter of life or death.
ANGELICA, Asylum Seeker (through translator): I'm worried for her.
My granddaughter's lived through many very ugly things.
AMNA NAWAZ: Children are separated from their parents or guardians.
Are you worried about that?
ANGELICA (through translator): Yes, it makes me afraid that they will separate me from
my granddaughter.
And I pray that they won't separate me from her.
AMNA NAWAZ: Her plan is to try and legally cross the U.S. border Wednesday morning, escorted
by Ruben Garcia, who runs a migrant shelter across the border in El Paso.
Angelica will carry this sign, announcing to U.S. Border Protection that she is scared
for her life, and wants to seek asylum in America.
RUBEN GARCIA, Founder, Annunciation House: Here are the flags and there is the boundary.
AMNA NAWAZ: Garcia has been helping and housing migrants fleeing violence for 40 years.
Lately, he says, even potential asylum seekers crossing legally have been criminalized.
Wednesday, and a crowd gathers on the Mexican side of the bridge.
It is 7:18 in the morning right now.
Angelica and her granddaughter just got here.
There's a lot of press.
You can see the who advocates who are trying to get her across the border think that the
more attention is paid to her, the more likely she's going to be able to cross.
Another family, a mother with her three kids, will also attempt to cross, seeking asylum
with the group.
All the waiting, and all the attention, has Angelica more worried than ever.
I just want to know how, Angelica, who are you feeling right now?
ANGELICA (through translator): Fearful.
AMNA NAWAZ: What are you afraid of?
ANGELICA (through translator): How the U.S. government will respond when I ask for asylum.
AMNA NAWAZ: Just after 7:30 a.m., the group begins to walk.
This journey of a few hundred yards can take a matter of minutes.
But Angelica and Sofi are stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, at
the international boundary, before they can set foot on U.S. soil, and make an asylum
claim.
A standoff ensues.
RUBEN GARCIA: When people who have already suffered tremendously are sent back into an
environment where they are genuinely afraid to be found, I can't see how that would be
considered humane.
MAN: If capacity wasn't the issue, I guarantee you I would be allowing people to come forward
right now.
AMNA NAWAZ: Stopped before even reaching the border.
RUBEN GARCIA: This is the first time in 40 years that I have seen this.
I have never seen this before.
It hadn't been done before.
And the reason they do is because they do not want any of these people, any of these
refugees to put even their toe on U.S. territory.
AMNA NAWAZ: Angelica and Sofi wait, under a hot sun, to learn their fate, while a CBP
official patiently answers questions.
Where is the capacity issue?
Is it at the port of entry about 100 yards that way?
RAY PROVENCIO, U.S. Customs and Border Protection: It's a domino effect, ma'am.
There's lots of places within the United States where after we process them for their claim
that are other family residential centers.
We are following right now the existing protocol.
And that existing protocol is, I am not going to allow an unsafe and inhumane situation
in our detention areas.
AMNA NAWAZ: With each minute, the temperature rises.
So do Angelica's fears she won't be allowed to enter.
But after more than an hour, a CBP official announces the families will be allowed to
cross.
It's just after 9:00 a.m. when Angelica and Sofi walk across the border, and into the
U.S. port of entry.
CBP officials allow the media to document their journey right up until this point.
RUBEN GARCIA: I have a suspicion that, had we not been with them, that they would have
been turned back.
And that's what has to change, because the law says they have a right.
And in this particular case, these two particular families have got some concrete basis for
their claim for asylum.
And they have suffered some very real violence.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Amna joins me now from El Paso.
So, Amna, this is a harrowing story.
How typical is it?
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, look, there's a lot that's unique about Angelica's story, right?
The vast majority of people who cross the border don't have an advocate escort.
They don't have as much media attention as she and Sofi did today.
But at the heart of her story, Judy, there are some common themes that are common across
a vast majority of people we have heard who are also crossing the border making similar
claims, largely fleeing violence in their home countries in Central America.
We know those three countries from which the vast majority of people come, El Salvador,
Honduras, and Guatemala.
So, there are definitely some common themes there.
The thing, of course, that people worry about is what happens when the cameras aren't there.
Right?
There are a number of reports of people who are making legal crossings, who are presenting
themselves, saying that they want to claim asylum, and then similar to what Angelica
went through, being turned away, being prevented from entering the port of entry and making
that claim.
So, that's right now what immigrants and human rights experts and advocates say is their
chief concern.
What happens when people aren't looking, for the vast majority of folks seeking refuge
here?
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, it was interesting to note, Amna, that she knew that there was a policy
at that point to separate -- keep families separated, to separate children from other
family members, but she was coming anyway.
This was a policy meant, among other things, to be a deterrent, but in this case it wasn't
that.
AMNA NAWAZ: That's right.
You know, Angelica, as we spoke to her in Juarez across the border, was well aware at
time the family separation policy was in place.
She was aware as she was setting out from the Mexican side of the bridge this morning
that policy was still very much in place.
She considered her options.
But, for her, Judy, she says there wasn't really an option.
And this is something we have heard for people who advocate for the vast majority of people
fleeing violence in their home countries, where, by the way, the forces that are compelling
them to flee have not changed.
And that consideration is this.
When your home -- as written in the poem by Warsan Shire, she says, I want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark.
Home is the barrel of a gun.
When your home holds for you what seems to be certain death, and the only option you
have is then facing uncertainty and potentially crossing into a foreign land to see what happens,
for the possibility of saving your life or your family's life, people we have talked
to say, that's not really a choice at all.
So it wasn't a deterrent in this case, and it remains to be seen if other deterrents
would work similarly with these populations -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, that certainly came true in her faith.
Amna, and, just quickly, in getting to know her, how was she by the end of the day?
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Judy, we should point out at this time she is still in government custody.
That's not unusual for these cases.
By the way, even people seeking asylum and making legal crossings are often in government
custody for a couple of days, two or three days.
So we will follow up on her story, of course, but right now she's being interviewed.
They're assessing her claim.
And even though she's made it across the border, look, there is a lot of uncertainty ahead
for her and for a lot of people in her similar situation.
We don't know if the paperwork she has is enough to prove guardianship of Sofi.
So, we don't know if they will be separated or not.
We don't know if she has enough behind her asylum claim to allow her to stay and for
her claim to be adjudicated through the immigration courts.
So even though one hurdle has now been crossed for them, there's still a great amount of
uncertainty ahead -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Some really important reporting for us to see.
Amna Nawaz, thank you.
And in the day's other news: The Trump administration urged a federal judge in Sacramento to block
three California laws that protect undocumented immigrants.
Among other things, the laws bar police from giving out information on people in jail,
and ban immigration officials from entering work sites without a warrant.
The immigration issue is roiling the European Union as well, and, today, Hungary intensified
its crackdown.
Lawmakers there amended the constitution to say what they call alien population cannot
be settled in Hungary.
The vote came on World Refugee Day.
The civil war in South Sudan has created Africa's worst refugee crisis in a quarter-century.
Today, the president and opposition leader met for the first time in nearly two years.
The talks took place in nearby Ethiopia, amid international efforts to negotiate an end
to the five-year conflict.
Trade tensions between the United States and allied nations drew fire today at a Senate
hearing.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was the target.
Senators from both parties warned that steel and aluminum tariffs will hurt U.S. manufacturers,
consumers and farmers.
Democrat Michael Bennet of Colorado demanded to know how tariffs on Canada will punish
the real culprit, China.
SEN.
MICHAEL BENNET (D), Colorado: I understand what we are supposed to be doing with China.
I don't understand why the president is not focused on it.
I don't understand it.
What is the national security rationale for putting a tariff on the Canadian steel industry,
with whom we have a trade surplus?
WILBUR ROSS, U.S. Commerce Secretary: The only way we are going to solve the global
steel overproduction and overcapacity is by getting all the other countries to play ball
with us.
And while they are complaining bitterly about the tariffs, the fact is, they are starting
to take the kind of action which if they had taken sooner would have prevented this crisis.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Secretary Ross argued the objective is not to fuel a trade war, but to revive
America's steel and aluminum industries.
The European Union, meanwhile, is speeding up plans for new tariffs on $3 billion worth
of American products.
The announcement today said the penalties will take effect this Friday, instead of next
month.
They will target a range of U.S. products, from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to bourbon
to peanut butter.
South Korea pressed North Korea today to follow through on dismantling its nuclear program.
In Seoul, President Moon Jae-in called for far more concrete plans from Pyongyang.
Moon's comments came as North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, was in Beijing for a second day
for talks with China's President Xi Jinping.
Kim returned home later.
In Afghanistan, Taliban fighters killed 30 government soldiers in the first attacks since
the end of a three-day cease-fire.
Officials said that the militants assaulted two checkpoints at a town in Badghis province.
Then ambushed reinforcements as they arrived.
Pro-government forces in Yemen say they have scored a new gain in the battle for the Red
Sea port of Hodeidah.
They say they captured the southern runway at the city's airport today.
Meanwhile, workers with the World Health Organization issued a new warning about the consequences
of the fighting.
JENNIE MUSTO, World Health Organization: WHO is deeply concerned at the increased fighting
in Al Hodeidah.
Al Hodeidah -- this fighting puts people, puts more than 600,000 people at risk in Al
Hodeidah.
And we are deeply concerned that the risk that this has for the port; 70 percent of
people in Yemen rely on the port for food and medicines.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Also today, the Associated Press reported hundreds of detainees in Southern
Yemen were tortured and sexually abused last March.
It happened at a secret facility run by the United Arab Emirates.
Back in this country: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to spend $80
million to help Democrats in 2018 midterm elections.
The billionaire said in a statement that the last year-and-a-half shows it's -- quote -- "a
bad idea for one party to control both the White House and the Congress."
His spending appears likely to exceed that of other big donors.
FBI agents arrested a West Virginia state Supreme Court justice today, Allen Lawry -- Loughry,
that is, on a 22-count indictment.
He's accused of mail fraud, making false statements and witness tampering.
The charges stem from allegations that he lied about allegedly using his office for
personal gain.
Pope Francis ordered the retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick,
removed from public ministry today.
The Vatican said there's a -- quote -- "credible and substantiated" claim that McCarrick abused
a teenager in New York more than 40 years ago.
In a statement, the 87-year-old cardinal said he has no recollection of the incident.
And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 42 points to close at 24657.
The Nasdaq rose 56 points, and the S&P 500 added almost five.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": what causes so many Central American migrants to seek
refuge in the United States?; talking with Trump supporters about family separation,
trade and more; inside the effort to provide running water to the Navajo Nation; and much
more.
Let's return to the separation of immigration families at the U.S. southern border and the
impact this is having on the children.
The president has changed course to say that he will keep detained families together.
But, as John Yang tells us, there are many concerns about the shelters being used now
and what's happening to more than 2,300 children who have been separated.
JOHN YANG: Judy, not many details were known about where and under what conditions the
youngest children forcibly separated from their parents at the border are being held
until the Associated Press reported the locations of three of them.
To talk about what we do know about them and the psychological impact their detention can
have, we are joined by Martha Mendoza, an Associated Press national writer who helped
break the story, and Dr. Colleen Kraft, a practicing pediatrician who is the current
president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
She has visited a shelter where some toddlers are being detained.
Martha, let me begin with you.
What do we know about these shelters, where they are, who is running them?
MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press: Sure.
We know of three in Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley area, and a fourth one that's planned
for in Houston.
And they are run by nonprofits that run other children's shelters.
Until March, they had been run by a group called International Education Service for
about 30 years.
These were shelters for the youngest children.
But, in March, the government ended that contract.
And so now two other nonprofits are running them.
JOHN YANG: And these are being run, as you say, under contract of the government?
MARTHA MENDOZA: That's right.
So, the federal government's Office of Refugee Resettlement will contract with agencies to
staff basically 24-hour day care centers and take care of these kids.
JOHN YANG: So these are centers designed for children?
MARTHA MENDOZA: Well, actually because, until about a month ago, the children who -- were
staying with their parents when they were very young, so these places had to be reconfigured
to make them appropriate for such little children.
JOHN YANG: Talk about that, for little children.
I know that there is some discretion on the part of the officers at the border about separating
children who are -- I think the term is nonverbal, who aren't speaking yet.
How young is too young to be taking these children away, from what your reporting has
learned?
MARTHA MENDOZA: Well, the federal government has what they call tender age, which is an
interesting term.
And some agencies say if you're under 12, you're tender age.
Some agencies say, if you're under 5, you're of tender age.
I have not heard a minimum age at which they will say this kid needs to stay with their
parent.
Kids who don't go into these group shelters are going to foster care.
And, today, I spoke with the largest provider of that refugee foster care, Bethany Christian.
Their youngest is 8 months old.
JOHN YANG: And what can you tell us about that foster care?
MARTHA MENDOZA: So, they have 99 beds in Michigan and Maryland.
And they assign kids to families who have some training and foster parent these refugee
kids, very young.
And what they told me is that the kids are distraught.
And that's also what we hear is happening inside these shelters.
These kids are very, very frightened.
They fall asleep crying, and then they wake up crying.
JOHN YANG: That's a good point to bring in Dr. Kraft.
You visited one of these shelters along the Texas border, the Mexican border with Texas.
Tell us what you saw.
DR.
COLLEEN KRAFT, President, American Academy of Pediatrics: So, I visited the shelter in
April of 2018.
And the first room we visited was the toddler room.
And we walked in, and the shelter is equipped with toys and books and cribs and blankets
and has a homey feel to it.
But the children were really remarkable when we walked in there.
When you normally walk into a room with toddlers, they are loud and rambunctious and playing
and moving around.
And these children were eerily quiet, except for one little child, who was crying and sobbing
and inconsolable in the middle of the room.
Next to her was one of the shelter workers who was trying to give her a toy or trying
to give her a book, and this child wasn't responding.
The staff wasn't allowed to pick them up or touch them or console them.
And, as an observer and a pediatrician, I felt totally helpless, because I know that
child needed her mother, and I knew that all of those children need their mothers.
When you have toddlers who are not interacting with other toddlers and just quiet and looking
at you, that is just as abnormal as that child who is crying and wailing.
JOHN YANG: And the president, of course, has signed an order this afternoon ending this
practice.
There are going to be -- the families are going to be reunited.
Does that end the problem?
Or has this -- or has damage been done?
DR.
COLLEEN KRAFT: So, when you separate parents and children, these children have increased
amounts of distress hormones, the fight-or-flight hormones in their system, and that is already
disrupting their development in terms of social-emotional bonding, speech, language, and gross motor.
And they have been traumatized.
And so reuniting them with the parents is the first right thing to do.
The question is the implementation.
When does that happen?
How does that happen?
Does this family unit stay in a place that's comforting or in a place that retraumatizes
these children?
So there's a lot of questions in terms of the implementation of the reunification.
JOHN YANG: And how far in the future are we likely to or could we see effects in these
children, the effects of their detention?
DR.
COLLEEN KRAFT: The effects of trauma and separation from parents is something that you could see
lifelong problems with.
The effect is much more highly manifested with the very young children and for children
who have been separated for long periods of time, but can be problematic for any child.
And we will have to look at the lens of, how do we feel the trauma that's already been
inflicted and not have any more trauma be inflicted on these children and families?
JOHN YANG: And are they likely to need care and treatment for this trauma in the future?
DR.
COLLEEN KRAFT: Very likely, we're going to need to see some trauma-focused treatment
for these family units and for these very young children, so that they're able to bond
again with parents, so that they're able to speak and communicate and learn and develop.
JOHN YANG: The administration officials keep saying that these children are being cared
for the best quality possible, but you seem to be saying that it doesn't matter, that
the fact that they're separated from their parents is the main issue.
DR.
COLLEEN KRAFT: The foundational relationship between a parent and child is what sets the
stage for that child's brain development, for their learning, for their child health,
for their adult health.
And you could have the nicest facility with the nicest equipment and toys and games, but
if you don't have that parent, if you don't have that caring adult that can buffer the
stress that these kids feel, then you're taking away the basic science of what we know helps
pediatrics.
JOHN YANG: Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Martha
Mendoza of the Associated Press, thanks so much.
MARTHA MENDOZA: Thank you.
DR.
COLLEEN KRAFT: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The challenges of immigration policy begin far from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The first step is a family, usually Central American, starting a long, desperate journey
north.
For years, the "NewsHour" has reported on the reasons why so many people take such enormous
risks to get to the United States.
Foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin revisits a few of their stories.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The primary reason that men, women, and children risk such a perilous passage
north is because it is safer than staying at home.
For these people, the United States represents the opportunity for a better life, and the
southern border of the U.S. is the difficult-to-reach destination.
Many are from the area known as the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,
where civil wars in the 1980s left a legacy of weak governance and economies and brutal
violence.
And, as I discovered last year, many of their journeys begin with a little optimism and
a lot of faith.
On this border, the sound of the water is the sound of hope.
The Suchiate River separates Guatemala from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
Every day, thousands of Central Americans cross north, dreaming of more peaceful and
prosperous lives.
There's no security and no authorities.
The rafts are inner tubes with plywood planks.
Entire families travel together.
Women bring their children.
Each crossing costs 50 cents, but many can't afford that, so, on this day, the water is
low enough to walk across for free barefoot.
Leading the way in the backpacks are 21-year-old Dilber Avila and his 15-year-old brother,
Eduardo Hernandez.
They're from Honduras.
DILBER AVILA, Honduran Migrant (through translator): We're very poor there.
The house we live in is made of mud.
It could collapse on us at any point.
So, we went on our way to look for a better life.
NICK SCHIFRIN: They're unsure how far north they will go.
They have heard the route is dangerous, but they're hopeful and willing to sacrifice.
DILBER AVILA (through translator): This path is tricky.
You never know how it will go.
With the help of our lord watching over us as we travel, we pray, and he sends angels
to help us on our journey.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In total, 450,000 people cross this border every year.
Some will just go for the day to shop or sell.
But for many others, this is the first moment of a long, dangerous journey north.
Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are the world's deadliest countries outside war zones.
Many of those who flee the violence do make it to the U.S.
And, as producer P.J. Tobia discovered in 2014, many are unaccompanied children.
P.J. TOBIA: Last year, 11-year-old Nodwin survived a journey that has killed many adults.
He traveled from Honduras to the U.S. border over land almost entirely by himself.
He almost drowned crossing the Rio Grande River near Texas in an inflatable raft.
NODWIN, Child Migrant (through translator): The boat suffered a puncture, and I went under
the water, but I managed to grab onto a piece of wood, and that's how I saved myself.
P.J. TOBIA: He says he made this dangerous journey because his hometown in Honduras has
been overrun by criminal gangs.
NODWIN (through translator): Big people force the children to sell bad things, and if they
don't do it, they rape them or they kill them.
P.J. TOBIA: Nodwin once witnessed a boy his own age gang-raped in a neighborhood park
after the child refused to join a local drug gang.
NODWIN (through interpreter): They were stripping a kid naked, and I went to tell the kid's
mom.
Later, I went home, but I didn't want to leave my house, because they could have done the
same thing to me.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Of course, many of the people who try to reach the U.S. are economic migrants,
hoping to make money to help their families back home.
Many cross illegally, start lives in the U.S., but then are caught, and sent back across
the border.
Then they have to decide whether to try and sneak back in.
Jorge Rivera Uribe is only 19.
His American dream was to provide money for his two sisters, his wife, his daughter, and
his mother, who has diabetes.
JORGE RIVERA URIBE, Recently Deported (through translator): I don't have money to take care
of them.
So, I wanted to see if I could earn more money to give them all a better life, so they don't
have to suffer.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In the U.S., he was building homes, making in one day what it takes a week
to make in Mexico.
But the border is now much more dangerous.
Last month, he tried to sneak into the U.S. without paying the $500 charged by local drug
cartels.
They almost beat him to death.
JORGE RIVERA URIBE (through translator): They told me, if they find me crossing again, they
will blow my head off.
They don't know I'm alive.
If they did, they would have come for me.
That's why I want to leave here.
I won't let them kill me.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For the immigrants who are here legally, many integrate and start families.
Earlier this year, thousands of Salvadoran immigrants and their families were notified
they will lose what's known as temporary protected status, and will have to leave the United
States.
And as correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro discovered, that would mean leaving the homes of their
births.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Twelve-year-old Dayna worries about leaving the only home she's
ever known, as she and 4-year-old brother Andres would have to accompany their parents.
DAYNA VELASCO, Student: We don't know how it's going to be over there and how are the
conditions it is Salvador.
It's like it's kind of dangerous to be there.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Indeed, Enrique Velasco, who has made a good living working construction
jobs in California, says he worries about returning to an increasingly violent country.
ENRIQUE VELASCO, Temporary Protected Status Resident: My fear is that, a lot of cases,
you take all your savings, all your money, and sometimes people can steal everything
from you.
It's not safe.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: To discover what might await the Velascos, we made the 3,300-mile
journey from San Francisco to El Salvador's capital, San Salvador.
Heavily armed police and soldiers seem everywhere, in response to an epidemic of gang violence
in the past two decades, which has emptied entire neighborhoods whose families have fled
in terror.
OSCAR CHACON, Lobbying on Behalf of Migrants: Last year, El Salvador became again the most
violent country as measured by homicide rates in Latin America.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And to talk more about why so many try to get here, and the impact of
the administration's policies, I'm joined by Jason Marczak, the director of the Atlantic
Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.
Thank you very much for being here.
JASON MARCZAK, Director, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, Atlantic Council: Thanks for
having me.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The problems that we see in the Northern Triangle, that we heard from
all of those people who we just heard from, are they getting any better?
JASON MARCZAK: There are a lot attempts to improve the problems in the Northern Triangle,
but this is a long-term problem.
This is a problem that's been brewing for quite some time.
It's the result of the civil wars in the Northern Triangle and the lack of full reconciliation,
the arms, the guns that pervade as part of that, the gangs, the El Salvadoran gangs that
were trained in Los Angeles and then shipped back home.
And so the situation in the three countries is pretty dire.
There's high levels of violence, high levels of violence in rural areas, in small -- in
communities, domestic violence as well.
People are oftentimes fearful of even walking out their front door, not only because of
what might happen to them, what might happen to their children, forcible gang recruitment.
And so many people are leaving simply because there's no other option.
There is no other option.
It doesn't matter how forceful the policies are at the border.
People are going to go north, because the alternative is to stay home and to risk their
own lives.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And so they go north, but a lot of them are stopping in Mexico now.
More are stopping in Mexico than before.
Why?
JASON MARCZAK: Well, partly because Mexico stepped up its own efforts.
And take us back a couple years to 2014, to the unaccompanied minor crisis, when you had
60,000 to 80,000 unaccompanied minors in 2014 entering the United States.
And at that time, Mexico decided that it was in its interest as well to be helpful in this
regard, and Mexico began a southern border program, as well as Mexico began to do more
processing in-country of migrants and refugees.
So, Mexico has increasingly seen the problems in the Northern Triangle as its problems as
well, and has been trying to work collaboratively, much more so than in the past, to try to solve
some of those issues.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And what the Trump administration has done on the border to try and solve those
issues, as you just put it, is this policy of up until today separating parents from
children.
They say they hoped that it was a deterrence from people to come to the border.
Is there any evidence that it actually deterred people from coming to the border?
JASON MARCZAK: Immigration is about push-and-pull factors.
People are -- the push factors will continue, people will continue to leave, while the communities
remain very violent, and also while there is a lack of economic opportunity.
The U.S. has committed since 2014 upward of about $2 billion.
Most of that money has not actually flowed into the region itself.
But this needs to be a long-term plan with a long-term solution.
You look at what we did in Colombia, 15 years, $10 billion, that's the type of effort, even
more so, that's going to be necessary in the Northern Triangle to really improve those
economic conditions, but even more so improve the security conditions.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, does that mean, at the end of the day, no matter what the policy
is on the border, what will have more impact on the flow of people from Central America
is actually what's happening in those Central American countries?
JASON MARCZAK: Look, people don't want to leave.
People don't want to leave their families unless they're forced to.
And most of these migrants that are coming north are coming north because they have no
other option.
And if we can give an option for people to stay home, people will take it.
The fear of the unknown, of what would happen at the border is oftentimes -- that's outweighed
by the fear of the known.
And the fear of the known is the violence in the countries themselves.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Is there anything the U.S. can do at the border to try and prevent people
from trying to come across?
JASON MARCZAK: What -- the real solution -- again, the real solution is back in-country.
In -- at the border itself, what's necessary is to have a policy that keeps families together,
a policy that doesn't result in more hardship for these people.
As you saw in the segments beforehand, people have endured an incredibly treacherous journey
to come north.
And the United States, which has always been a country of welcome -- being welcome and
open arms, should recognize those -- recognize that -- how treacherous those journeys were
and try to provide the counseling and consultation that is going to be so critical, as people
not only endured those journeys, but also left an incredibly difficult, violent situation
in the countries themselves.
NICK SCHIFRIN: OK.
Jason Marczak, thank you very much.
JASON MARCZAK: Thank you very much.
JUDY WOODRUFF: At the end of this eventful day of news, President Trump has flown to
the Midwest the rally some of his base of supporters.
Our White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, is also there.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Leaving the immigration firestorm in Washington behind...
CROWD: We want Trump!
We want Trump!
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: ... the president landed in Minnesota to meet a far friendlier crowd.
It's his first visit to a state he didn't win during the 2016 election.
He narrowly lost then, and hopes his visit today will bolster Republicans here in November.
There's a lot at stake: Voters will cast ballots for two Senate races, a number of key House
races and the governor's seat.
RANDY THOM, Trump Supporter: We can't be complacent as Republicans.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Trump supporters, like 58-year-old Randy Thom, waited in line for hours.
Randy traveled from his home in Southern Minnesota to attend his 33rd Trump rally.
He supported the president's policy of separating immigrant children from their families.
RANDY THOM: Well, they are breaking the law.
They came across the border illegally.
If you come across, that's breaking the law.
What's messed up is, they're showing their kids it's OK to break our laws right off the
bat.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: From trade to North Korea to the economy, Randy says he is reaping the
benefits every day of President Trump being in office.
RANDY THOM: My business personally has picked up quite a bit.
And I attribute it to the economy growing so much.
President Trump to me is the greatest leader, greatest president that we have had in my
lifetime.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Others who came to the rally Wednesday struck a similar tone.
STEPHANIE PECHAVER, Trump Supporter; He's doing a great job.
I was so excited to come today and potentially be up close and maybe even shake his hand.
WOMAN: I'm proud that he hasn't backed down.
I'm proud that he has stood behind what he said he was going to do.
RICH UPDEGROVE, Protester: Good work.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Not everyone in Duluth is as welcoming.
Rich Updegrove plans to attend a protest of the president's visit.
The high school teacher and Democrat sees President Trump's policies as dangerous, pointing
to the administration's family separation policy as particularly disturbing.
RICH UPDEGROVE: It's inhumane treatment.
That's not our country.
It's hard to imagine that that is really happening here to possibly 2,000 children.
It's appalling.
And it just flies in the face of, I think, who we want to be as Americans.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Following the 2016 election, Rich is nervous about the future of his state.
He hopes voters will see this election as a chance to impeach the president.
Why is it important to be here?
RICH UPDEGROVE: We need to make sure that people see that this is not the new normal.
And if you don't show up and you don't raise your voice, especially in a considerate way,
you're never going to change anything.
And I think we need to show, in a community like Duluth, that we have different values
and that we will stand behind those values.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Rich is not alone in this lakefront city.
WOMAN: I'm here because I feel like the president is a very dangerous man.
I think that he is uniting people in hate, and there's a lot of misunderstanding.
And I would like to do my part to just have a voice while I can.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Despite growing criticism, White House officials say President Trump
plans to be on the road frequently this summer.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Yamiche joins us now from Duluth.
So, Yamiche, before I ask you about some of the people you talked with there today, just
quickly, The New York Times is reporting tonight -- they're quoting a Department of Health
and Human Services official as saying that there will be no efforts made immediately
to reunite these 2,300 children who have been separated from their families back with their
parents.
What do you know about that?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, that's a critical distinction.
The New York Times and several outlets are saying that the 2,300 kids that are in cages
and in detention centers are not going to be grandfathered into this change.
The president is blaming Mexico for having even signed this executive order.
So, he's already in Duluth backtracking what he signed today.
But what we know is that these kids who the president said he was moved by were not -- are
not going to be able to see their parents any time soon.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Yamiche, you have been in Minnesota for two days now.
You have been talking with folks there.
What are they saying about this reversal policy change on the part of the president?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: People are really torn here.
They tell me that they want the president to be compassionate, but they also feel like
he was -- he is really caving to unfair pressure.
The president really has a base here that backs him 100 percent in almost everything
that he does.
One man told me, though, that he is really upset that families aren't going to be separated
anymore, because he says that they need to be separated because they want -- he wants
them to have a message to not come here, and that American culture is really on the line.
However, another Trump supporter who is a mother and a grandmother told me that she
really appreciated that the president could admit when he was wrong and she thought that
he was doing that today when he signed this executive order.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, Yamiche, what have you learned about why the president changed
his mind on this, after saying there was nothing he could do, it was up to Congress?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, for more than three years, President Trump has really been politically
Teflon.
He's been able to navigate scandal after scandal.
But, today, he and Republicans learned that their limit was kids in cages and images of
children separated from their families.
The president was really trying to get behind the spectacle that the White House could not
avoid.
The president's wife, first lady Melania Trump, and his daughter Ivanka Trump both also spoke
to the president and appealed to him to try to do something different here.
The thing is, as you said at the beginning of this conversation, we're not sure whether
or not this executive order is actually going to help the kids that the president was moved
by.
So it remains to be seen whether or not the president's executive order is going to be
actually able to help these kids that Melania and his daughter were talking to him about.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Yamiche Alcindor, covering the president tonight in Duluth, Minnesota,
thanks, Yamiche.
Lack of access to running water is an issue in many developing countries, but it turns
out it's also a problem in the United States.
The sprawling Navajo Nation reservation is the size of West Virginia and it spreads across
13 counties in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro traveled to Thoreau, New Mexico, and has this report
on new efforts to get on the grid to get the water.
It's part of his ongoing series Agents for Change and this week's Leading Edge segment.
Darlene Arviso's truck route takes her to some of the most remote and isolated people
in America.
She is their link to the world outside, her payload literally a lifeline.
DARLENE ARVISO, Truck Driver: The kids would be yelling, running to the water truck when
I'm coming up to their house.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: She's known as the Water Lady in a region where 40 percent of residents
have no access to running water.
Many live in such extreme poverty, they can't even afford large containers.
Often Darlene Arviso delivers more than just water.
Working with her church and other charities, she helped this family at the onset of last
winter.
DARLENE ARVISO: I brought them food.
I saw the trailer, the small one.
We gave out some blankets to cover the window.
That time, it was snowing.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So, it gets pretty cold up here?
DARLENE ARVISO: Yes, it gets very cold.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: A few miles away, Arviso has a new customer.
Tina Bicenti returned to her family's ancestral land from a trailer park she had rented in
the town of Thoreau, New Mexico.
Despite the harsh conditions, she wanted to raise her five children, including 6-month-old
twin girls, on the Navajo Reservation.
TINA BICENTI, Mother: I wanted to have my children have more open space for them to
run around outside.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What they gave up are two of life's most basic amenities, electricity
and running water.
Water they use in their new home is carried in from Bicenti's mother's home a mile down
the road at the other end of their homestead.
Even using the toilet involves a trip to grandma's house.
TINA BICENTI: I am planning to look into getting a port-a-potty or a port-a-outhouse.
As for the shower and the bath, I can't really do anything unless I have a main water line,
until I have a septic service and all of that.
But, like I said, I can't get that.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Due to a long waiting list, getting connected to the main water
line could take up to 15 years, and it will cost more than $12,000.
Although Bicenti works full-time, piped-in water is a luxury she cannot afford.
GEORGE MCGRAW, Founder, DigDeep: For a long time, we told those people, just wait.
Infrastructure will catch up with you.
Well, infrastructure is not coming.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: George McGraw founded a group called DigDeep that used to work on
water projects in Africa, but is now directing its efforts to help some of two million people
in this country, like the Bicenti family, who lack access to clean water and sanitation.
GEORGE MCGRAW: When the backhoe is active, everyone needs to have a hardhat on.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That includes 18,000 homes in the Navajo Nation.
Wells are not an option for most homeowners.
They're deep, expensive, and there's no guarantee of clean water.
GEORGE MCGRAW: A lack of clean water in the United States does exactly the same thing
to families it does around the world.
It impacts their health, their ability to hold down a job, to get an education, their
ability to spend time with their kids, to play, to have a happy life.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: DigDeep's solution is in off-grid systems that don't require a utility
hookup.
Tina Bicenti's is one of nearly 300 homes being fitted with large water storage systems
and solar-powered pumps to bring drinking water directly into the home.
TINA BICENTI: It's going to be good, because we don't have to haul water.
We will have it here.
It will allow us to give the girls a bath in the sink, because they're still small,
and it will allow the drinking water.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: As more of these 1,200-gallon cisterns are installed, there's a need for
a more convenient water source.
So, DigDeep is looking for spots to drill more unity wells like this one.
It's a costly and time-consuming process.
The first task when water comes out of this hole is to make sure that it's free of contaminants.
Uranium from old mines is a common one.
If it checks out as clean, this well will bring huge savings for hundreds of families
who come from miles around here.
On average, residents of the Navajo Reservation pay 13 cents for a gallon of water.
That is 72 times what a typical rate payer pays in suburban Arizona or New Mexico.
GEORGE MCGRAW: We spend a lot of our time out here working on water project, but a lot
more time in our office in Los Angeles, for instance, trying to convince everybody in
America they should pay attention to this problem, care about it, and want to do something
about it.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Last year, DigDeep did manage to convince some nearby Rotary Clubs,
which pledged some $75,000, which will fund about 18 installations like this one Tina
Bicenti's home.
Rotary International has long been involved in clean water projects around the world,
but Jim Bissonett of Scottsdale, Arizona, said they never imagine doing this work in
their own backyard.
JIM BISSONETT, Rotary International: It's kind of a shock when you think that people
in the United States don't have running water.
We're going to change the lives of this family dramatically from the water they were carrying
in pickle jars to their house actually having running water.
And that's a huge shift for them.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They will have a few more small luxuries with the new rooftop, solar
panel.
It will drive the water pump and also some basic LED lighting.
TINA BICENTI: Lights.
Well, we have power.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Projects like these also help train and provide work that can keep
local talent local.
Twenty-three-year-old Annie Begay's skills could fetch a job anywhere in America, but
she's thrilled to be able to stay in the place she calls home.
ANNIE BEGAY, DigDeep: You get to know the family before we put in the systems.
You get to know a little bit of their background.
And it's where I grew up, so it's a good feeling knowing that you're helping where you grew
up.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Finally, at the end of a long day, the Water Lady arrived for her
big delivery, and Annie Begay tightened the last screws.
It was time to gather around the sink for an impromptu celebration, as Tina Bicenti
turned on the faucet, a mundane and giant leap for this family into the modern world
that many of her neighbors are still waiting to join.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in the Navajo Nation.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Not taking water for granted.
And Fred's wonderful reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the
University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, and we'll see you soon.
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