geoff: i'm geoff bennett. on the next newshour, a look at the consequences of being evicted and experiencing housing insecurity in the u.s. that's thursday on the pbs newshour. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on the newshour, an appeals court puts a texas law

allowing police to arrest and deport migrants back on hold. that's at 7:00, right after evening edition on kpbs. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on the newshour, an appeals court puts a texas law allowing police to arrest and deport migrants back on hold. coming up at 6:00, on arizona pbs. amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, legal limbo on the southern border after an appeals court puts a texas law allowing police to arrest and deport migrants back on hold. amna: congress and the white house reach a deal to fund the government. but will it make it to president biden's desk before a shutdown? geoff: and, a look at some of the down-ballot results from yesterday's primary elections. >> major -- >> cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? somebody's pocket, thought i would let you know that with consumer cellular, we did nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. place a successful business owner sells his company and

restores his father's -- with his son. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you bring people together. life well planned. >> the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org . and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

thank you. amna: welcome to the newshour. after a series of legal back and forths, a controversial immigration law in texas is back in the hands of an appeals court. geoff: the law gives state officials the power to arrest migrants whom they believe crossed into the u.s. illegally. after a supreme court ruling yesterday allowed texas to enforce the law, a federal appeals court put it back on hold and a "three-judge panel" heard arguments today on whether it should be enforced. amna: gayge from texas public radio has been covering this and joins me now. the last few hours have been legal whiplash for this law. as we speak now, where do things stand with the law and its implementation? >> right now, it is not law and another hearing is expected in early april which will decide whether to allow some provisions of that law to continue while litigation against it is being ruled on so the statement in court today to discuss it and initially, texas argued that this law should be enforced while litigation against it is pending. but by the end of the hearing

had some questioning by the judges, the state asked if at the very least that state officers could arrest migrants to give them federal immigration -- give them over to federal immigration authorities, but the judges said that this was already something that they do with current trespassing laws because migrants have already been arrested for that under operation lone star but just to clarify, that law is not law even though it was for a few hours yesterday evening. amna: what are you hearing from those texas state officials? police department and sheriff's departments on the ground, are they ready and resourced to enforce this kind of law? >> i think with police, there is

almost a resounding confusion on how to enforce this law because officers are not trained for immigration enforcement which as to how much police -- what are ultimately policy issues. to give an example, the sheriff in san antonio has commented on how enforcing this law puts a huge liability on the department if they arrest somebody unjustly. on the legal and advocacy end, there is a fear of increased profiling in the state at large and his questions on how exactly this would even be carried out in terms of deportations. they already said they would not accept deportations from texas

and the state did not explain this process key there when it was in court today. amna: what are you hearing from many border patrol officials? these are the federal officers who are tasked with and have the authority over enforcement in these border areas and they are increasingly stretched thin amid these record numbers we are seeing at the u.s. southern border. do they wantstate officers to be able to act in this way? let's well, often, border patrol do use police or sheriff officers when they need the assistance but as far as i know, they have not commented on this specific policy and whether it will help them but i do know that the border patrol and texas national guard are currently at odds in terms of who is able to

do what and where. bp has called for more resources before which was part of a bill that has famously stalled in congress of course but police is not necessarily part of that. amna: texas governor greg abbott was speaking at a texas policy summit earlier today. he reaffirmed his commitment to sp 4 even as it pinball through the courts. >> texas has a right to defend ourselves and we will use that authority to declare an invasion and fight back against the invasion. amna: as you know, this has fueled a high-stakes state and federal standoff between governor abbott and the biden administration. what are the implications for this beyond texas and beyond immigration? >> i think this should be seen as an attempt to codify operation lone star but without any real infrastructure to see it through. and as advocates and some democratic numbers of congress have pointed out, these are ultimately policy issues and not policing issues, but what is happening here, much like with abortion rights through the last few years, is the state attempting to codify culture war issues as policy that don't address the needs of people in border communities were the state at large. in fact, it kind of outright ere is that there are efforts at addressing these issues and others via policy that are routinely blocked by a nationalist wing of the gop and we will likely see that continue without some sort of federal or congressional intervention. amna: it is not long now. what do we expect to happen next? >> while, it's going to be a waiting game for these next few weeks until it is heard on again but at least -- at the very

least, texas police cannot arrest migrants for seeking asylum, which they are legally allowed to do so. so as of now, nothing can move on that law but it will just be a waiting game until early april. amna: thank you very much. >> thank you so much. geoff: let's shift our focus back to capitol hill because congress is racing toward another shutdown deadline with leaders putting the finishing touches on a final funding package and lots of questions about the timeline for actually passing legislation. that is all unfolding on a busy day at the u.s. capitol where republicans again focused on their investigation of the biden family. let's bring in congressional correspondent lisa desjardins. it's good to see you, friend. here we go again. congress is now facing this friday deadline to fund 70% of government agencies. where do things stand? lisa: we have been through this so much, there is a danger of everyone becoming numb to this. where we are is there is hope that they will meet this deadline but there's also the chance that they do not. let me take you through the calendar on where we are. today is wednesday. some of us had to remind ourselves.

today is wednesday. the potential shutdown would begin saturday if the spending bills are not passed by that. it would be about 70% of the agencies involved. here is the situation. house republicans have an internal pledge where any bill, they should get three days to read the bills. counter that. clearly, there's not enough time to read a giant bill and pass it by saturday so we have a situation where house republicans are repairing to waive their own internal rule to pass this by suspending the rule and the hope is this will be voted on in the house on friday quickly, run across the other side of the capital, and then the senate would then pass it.

i don't to tell you or our viewers that the senate does not move quickly so it is a big question mark as to whether the senate can actually pass this on time. here's what some of the leaders involved said about all of this today. >> i am a rule follower. we are also up against a crunch of the weekend and some members on both sides of the aisle have to be traveling and that kind of thing so we are talking about kind of expedite it as quickly as possible but also allow all the members -- >> >> the legislation. it is basic timekeeping. amending this bill will take up time that we don't have, all but guaranteeing a shutdown so no one wins a shutdown and everyone knows what we need to do.

we are almost there. we can do this. amna: speaking at the leadership's conference. can they do it? that's a question. this bill is going to be well over 1000 pages, may be 2000 pages long. as we sit here tonight, we still do not have the text. we are all waiting so this is going to be incredibly close. >> the bill is not written but there is this handshake agreement on a spending deal. we heard mike johnson say he is a rule follower. tell us about that. amna: it is important because in this era of gridlock at the u.s. capitol, one of the main things that congress does is pass spending bills. this is how they affect our lives and one of the most consequential ways so breaking down what i have learned from my sources in both parties, this includes money for the pentagon, dhs, homeland security, hhs, labor, treasury, the white house, very big parts of our government. what they have agreed to is to raise the number of detention beds for ice to 42000 and that would be the largest number of detention beds funded in this country in our history. there will be no funding in this bill for the next calendar year until next march for unra,

the u.n. agency that came under close scrutiny. there will be 12,000 afghan special visas granted for those afghan interpreters and others who were allies of the u.s. in afghanistan. let's talk big picture. what is the point of all of this? this bill alone will be $1.2 trillion in spending. add to that together with the other portion that passed recently. total spending for this current fiscal year then will be about $1.6 trillion. what does that mean? basically, defense is going to get a small increase. all the non-defense agencies are staying about the same and that is important because democrats had big cuts there. once all this gets through, speaker johnson has told house republicans that he plans to try and tackle ukraine. we asked him about this today and he does not have a plan for how so we are going to watch the and of course also waiting in the wings, the impeachment of homeland security secretary mayorkas that the house passed and we will be dealing with that after this and after the house

and senate return from spring break. geoff: if lawmakers miss the deadline, what would a weekend shutdown actually mean? lisa: not that much and i think that is why we could see one because i think the pressure on the senate is not that great when it talks about a saturday and sunday shutdown. for one, there is a law in place where all furloughed government workers would have to be repaid in the end. we also know that some folks usually affected by these kind of shutdowns would not be affected at all. they were already funded in a previous bill. the district of columbia would not be affected. i really tried to figure out the effects. every agency will have problems and competitions because of this like tsa workers. they will have to work without getting technically paid that day but paychecks lag. one group that will be affected, the air force academy. because of how they are funded, their athletic program will continue but they may not be allowed to have fans watch. they have wrestling and basketball this weekend. it is that kind of stuff. geoff: republicans in congress are trying to advance impeachment probe of president biden. they held a hearing today. they had hoped to hear from hunter biden publicly.

that did not happen. bring us up to speed. lisa: hunter biden said he could not attend because he was not asked about his calendar and he had a court date of his own in california over tax charges but who did attend were two republican witnesses, one of whom is in federal prison now, inform associate -- former associate. the other is a man named tony and he said that he was privy to the idea that joe biden was at least adjacent to all of the bite in business schemes and in particular, it seemed republicans were drilling down on one 2017 meeting that joe biden was said to have appeared at after he left office here in washington at the four seasons. there were chinese officials including the chairman of the top chinese energy company, obviously related to the chinese communist party. the person who testified just said it was not a business conversation, but republicans have honed in on this and here is what tony said about that. tony: 10 chinese individuals had

to go back to mainland china and say that they were in a room with joe biden is the value of what they were giving. lisa: this is the same accusation we have had, that they were selling access to joe biden, and he also noted that it has been shown that those chinese officials sent millions of dollars to hunter biden's company shortly after that, but the problem is democrats say hunter biden was doing business. maybe he was not right to be selling the idea of the biden name but that does not say joe

biden did anything wrong. here's what some democrats were pushing back. >> i just want to for the record throne powell said there might come down. that's what we are approaching this question carefully. >> a ballot measure to fund

mental health treatment has passed. proposition one. the $6.4 billion plan will finance 11,000 treatment beds and housing units for homeless people. antony blinken is back in the middle east trying to get an agreement. it began with a stop in saudi arabia. lincoln flies to egypt tomorrow. in washington, chuck schumer declined a request by benjamin netanyahu to speak to the democratic caucus. today, the parties blamed each

other. >> i still think our best policy without went to have an election. in gaza, palestinians were or 28 people were killed in a series of israeli airstrikes on tuesday. helicopters began airlifting american citizens out of haiti. nearly 1600 have inquired about being brought out.

>> the frequency and what is available. the biden administration is expanding u.s. production. the announcement near phoenix, arizona. the president took credit for appointing three supreme court justices. major league baseball's new season opened with its first game ever in south korea. the los angeles dodgers beats

the los angeles dollars. shohei ohtani made his record debut. after the game, they fired his interpreter. a national security law tightening the grip. six mississippi police officers tortured. this is the pbs newshour. from washington and walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> one of the nation's most closely watched and it races is

set. he will take some the incumbent democratic senator sharon brown -- he will take on incumbent democratic senator sherrod brown this fall in a race that will help decide control of the senate. following it, and other elections in the state, is ohio statehouse news bureau chief karen kasler. always good to see you. so these results last night with this cleveland-based

businessman, renee moreno, backed by mr. trump, beating out the other two candidates. was this the expected outcome? karen: i think so and it came down to two things in both of them involve former president trump. it came down to trump's llion dollars worth of ads 2.7 that were purchased by a political action committee that is connected to u.s. senate democrats. they had put ads out, trying to portray him as too conservative for ohio because he had been endorsed by trump is and democrats said, it seems to be that they wanted him to be the candidate who runs against sherrod brown. republicans call that meddling in the election and it turned out that potentially that that along with a trump is rally at

the airport in dayton on saturday, those two things may have been the two things that really vaulted marino over and had him win by a little over 17 percentage points. amna: this is in a state that mr. trump won by eight points in 2020. i should point out chuck schumer told me recently that he is not worried about the democratic incumbent, senator sherrod brown. should he be? karen: when you look at the results from election night, bernie moreno won in every county in ohio and he was facing two opponents. dolan was his real competition towards the end. he was more of the gop establishment candidate and divorced -- candidate. and dolan ended well behind moreno in the final results of the idea that moreno has done so well in so many counties against a more -- somebody who was perceived as a more moderate candidate, those still aligned with trump. moreno 's strongest performance was in the youngstown area, it an area that sherrod brown had more support in. it has gone more and more republican over time so that will be a critical area for both those candidates. amna: this has already been a brutal and very expensive primary for republicans so far. it's getting a lot of national attention. it's a top target for the gop.

what do we expect ahead? karen: i expect this to be the most expensive campaign in ohio history. 56 million dollars already involved from the three candidates who ran for the republican nomination and sherrod brown himself who has much more money than all three of the candidates who were running for the republican nomination have put together so certainly, we are going to see it topic 2022 u.s. senate race in ohio which was the most expensive race in ohio history and i think there's going to be a lot of interest from the only people in ohio but also outside of ohio because the senate margin is so slim and republicans really feel that this is a seat they can knock off. democrats feel that sherrod brown speaks to not only their voters but also can reach more moderate republicans and voters who are independent so it's really going to be a battle i think. amna: there is another key house race i know you are following in northwest ohio. there is a trump act candidate who won his primary. he's now going to face congresswoman marcy kaptur in november. is this a seat that republicans

could flip? karen: she is the longest-serving woman in congress and she has been popular even after her district was redrawn to really try to make it more competitive. last time she ran against a candidate, jr, a trump aligned candidate, he ran this time but had to drop out because of rugged tory, said he made about special olympians that got him in trouble. and that whole situation as well as the other candidates of the race seem to benefit derek marin who himself was involved in a battle over leadership in the ohio house, and so, his name being out there with that may have helped him win that contest, but he does have an uphill battle. amna: a lot to follow in ohio. we are so glad you are here to help us with that. thank you very much. karen: great to talk to you. thanks. a™ geoff: the biden administration has finalized what are the toughest standards for vehicle emissions, that limit the amount of greenhouse gasses allowed from tailpipes. the new rules are designed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, but it hasn't

come without some pushback. david shepardson is covering all of this for reuters and joins us now. thanks for coming in. david: thanks. geoff: so the is rolling out new standards designed to push the u.s. auto market towards electric vehicles and hybrids. what is the epa's expectation for that transition under this new rule? david: it's pretty aggressive. these rules start in 2027 and go through 2032 and by, you know, 2030, you would have at least 50% plug in hybrids and full electric vehicles under the various scenarios but as you said, they can, you know, pick from a mix of different options.

hybrids, plug-ins, advanced gasoline vehicles, and unlike the initial proposal which had projected that there would be 60% all tv's 2030 and 67% tv's -- -- ev's by 2030, giving auto companies a break. geoff: the fact that these rules are being rolled out more slowly, companies have more choices in terms of how they can comply, toyota, which is the world's largest automaker, they were pretty forceful in their initial pushback. what was their argument? david: their argument was that plug-in hybrids can save the equivalent or more co2 because they have smaller batteries, they can be deployed across more vehicles as opposed to larger batteries for single vehicles and that argument i think have a lot of resonance with the administration and with other advocates, so the rule incentivizes plug-ins further by giving them an additional credits which they were not going to get originally said the new rule really looks far more holistically at advanced

vehicles, looking at both ev's and plug-ins instead of focusing as the earlier proposal did on ev's. geoff: that -- geoff: that concession, what does it say for the demand for pure electric vehicles? david: it's not moving as fast as people thought but there have been troubling signs. auto companies like ford have cut back production. we have seen other auto companies like gm delay some significant projects so you know, it is still rising. we are at 8%. it's going to continue to go up but there are concerns that the very high level of increase you have seen in the last few years is going to moderate and the companies are not going to be able to meet these very aggressive standards. amna: one about the infrastructure -- geoff: what about the infrastructure for electric vehicles? david: the administration sending 7.5 billions of dollars to get hundreds of charges in place and there's not many -- just a few thousand roughly.

i think the argument the administration is making as we are going to see all of those by 2030 or earlier. the battery factories will be online at a lot more vehicles will be in place and the charging infrastructure will be much more robust so in theory, the conditions are there to have a much, you know, more aggressive, robust take on ev's then we have now but certainly, critics say if you take your foot off the gas, so to speak, then auto companies might slow that change, might be less willing to make the full investment towards ev's. geoff: take a foot off the gas. there are a lot of political battle lines. donald trump railed against electric vehicles. the united auto workers union which endorsed president biden, they expressed a lot of concern about job protections and wage protections for people who build the cars and the batteries. help us understand that dynamic. david: president trump has been very bombastic.

in his administration, he did rollback some of the greenhouse gas standards that were reinstated and then increased by the biden administration but you know, one of the benefits to plug-in hybrids at the uaw and toyota and others like is they still have internal combustion engines so they require more workers to build them. that is why many americans are more comfortable because if you run out of electricity, you can still put gasoline in that vehicle so at least for the short term, there's a lot of people who like that vehicle even though the environmental benefits are somewhat in dispute given we don't know how much that vehicle is going to be charged versus on gasoline but sue and those key states --his michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, those auto states, former president trump's haranguing about ev's. the biden administration says we will create more jobs on net with all these new battery factories. it's going to be a key decider of what side he will come down on in the election. geoff: i could talk to you about

this all day. take care. amna: beijing criticized the west today for questioning hong kong's new national security law known as article 23. the once mostly autonomous city is now led by legislators entirely handpicked by beijing who swept aside years of concerns by pro-democracy advocates to pass the bill in record time. critics say the legislation is a death blow to whatever independence the city still had. here now is nick schifrin. nick: in hong kong, this is how liberty dies, unanimously, by a vote of 89-0, the council passed a law that authorities say safeguards the cities tour to. >> i'm sure hong kong will do better going forward. we will become more prosperous, more safe, more secure going forward, and this legislation is good for everybody. nick: in this once liberal gateway to mainland china come article 23 expands hong kong's authority's ability to punish dissent, crimes linked to sedition can now be punished for 10 years. espionage can carry a sentence of 20 years, and treason,

insurrection, and sabotage are punishable with life imprisonment. >> article 23 basically come in the business community point of view, it will make hong kong more similar to china in terms of operating environments. nick: he was a macro economist with hsbc hong kong and is now based in london. >> how do you define state secrets and espionage activities? it's up to the prosecutors. judicial independence in hong kong is now kind of not completely there anymore so that is why businesses are more worried about these kind of new laws. >> free hong kong. nick: for decades, hong kong prided itself on its freedom of speech and in 2019, tens of

thousands of demonstrators protested a law that required extradition to mainland china. in july, the protesters turned violent and occupied the legislative counsel. one protester told me that day, he was unrepentant. >> some may say -- the entrance. government properties. but yes, they can say it's violence. nick: beijing used the violence to pass a national security law that jailed thousands of peaceful protesters, shut down independent media and imprisoned pro-democracy activists. the u.s. said article 23 further silences beijing's critics. >> we believe these kinds of actions have the potential to accelerate the closing of hong kong's once open society.

nick: the law's backers don't seem to care about international financial anxiety. quite hong kong is such a beautiful place for doing business and traveling into hong kong. so if they don't come, if they don't do business here, they miss their chances. >> for perspective on what article 23 means for hong kong, we turn to and i, executive director of hong kong democracy council which fights for democracy and human rights in hong kong. the government of hong kong has levied a bounty of one million hong kong dollars for her arrest. thank you very much. welcome. the national security law that we described that beijing -- that hong kong passed a few years ago already stifled protesters from already stifled media freedoms, already silenced dissent so how does article 23 go further? nick: you are right that the national security law was

implemented in 2020 and it was definitely a watershed moment for hong kong but if it was a watershed moment, i would say article 23 is actually a male in the coffin on hong kong as this global international financial hub that we have seen because with article 23, there is this ambiguous theft of state secret. he don't even know what state secret is and is also intention to apply the law to hong kong or's are broad and also to foreigners who work in hong kong, who has some sort of relations of hong kong and now even communicating with foreign organizations can also be accused of breaking article 23 so really expanded the legal ground for the government to criminalize hong kongers for having connection to the outside world so that will change the future for them forever. nick: the law was necessary, they say, because it will make the city safer and because this ends the risk of violence in hong kong. what do you say to that? anna: we are all very clear about where the violence is in hong kong. it is from the hong kong police force and i definitely do not think that, you know, article 23 is actually addressing what they

want to address but that, i think it is their way to please the beijing government and also to really doubled down on the global authoritarian expansion that the chinese communist party has been conducting everywhere in the world including in taiwan , including in southeast asia and many other countries. nick: so many pro-democracy demonstrators are already in prison. could article 23 be applied retroactively and actually extend their sentences longer? nick: it is the -- anna: it is the same as the national security law even though the government clarified it would not be applied retroactively,

but it did happen that the government would use evidence from years ago to say that this person has been with the intent to treason for a long time so that is what we are expecting from article 23 as well. nick: it could also be used him as you mentioned, against overseas activists, even perhaps without the people who are living overseas, without their knowledge that article 23 is being used against them, whether it is about passports or about anything else. anna: definitely. lester, there was the case of the hong kong student traveling in japan and she was only accused of breaking the law once she entered hong kong and left her flight so that is what we are expecting to happen more and more with article 23 so there is a huge chilling effect happening among hong kong errors that they will censor themselves even if they are abroad and with the passport and article 23 also mentioned that those like myself will have my passport invalidated by the government. how they will do that, it is not clear because they cannot come to the u.s. and collect my passport per se but they will definitely make it known to other governments around the world that these passports of people will be invalidated and it's also very likely that

people will only find out when they try to use that hong kong passport to pass customs and pass borders. nick: we heard the deputy spokesperson in the story from before making a statement against the law but what are you asking the u.s. government, the biden administration, and also congress to actually do? what actions are you pushing for now? anna: i'm urging the biden administration to impose sanctions on high-ranking hong kong officials and prosecutors who are responsible for article 23 national security law and abusing human rights. the last time any sanctions were placed was three years ago. nick: the trump administration sanctioned hong kong leaders then? anna: exactly. we have seen more than 1008 hundred political prisoners but we are still not imposing more sanctions on that. i think that is very alarming so that is one of my asks and for congress, i really hope we can pass the hong kong economic and trade office certification act as soon as possible since that will recertify whether these offices by the hong kong government can still have their privileges and rights here in the u.s. nick: essentially hong kong diplomats who are based in the united states who you believe have been acting inappropriately in the united states?

anna: they definitely receive orders from beijing against hong kong diaspora in the u.s. so that has really posed a lot of danger for us and we have also seen how hong kong government utilized their network here in the u.s. to lobby against legislation that we were pushing forward so that is why having the ace offices here will be very dangerous in terms of transnational repression going forward. nick: and finally, you were an ominous back in 2019 when some of those protests that we were showing were spreading and you started your public advocacy in 2021 and as i have said, today, you have a one million hong kong dollars bounty on your head. the u.s. government has accused beijing of transnational repression. do you feel safe here? anna: i wish i could feel safe, but honestly, i do not feel the safest here in the united states.

a few years ago in san francisco, i was protesting against c jinping because he was -- xi jinping because he was here. on the streets of san francisco, there were people tailing me and there were also a number of protesters attacking tibetan activists. some of them were beaten with head injuries so i think there's a lot of things going on that we were not trying to look into yet but transnational repression is definitely happening and that is why whenever i walk on the streets, i would always look back to see if anyone is following me and i was always have to be very careful about my whereabouts and i think that really tells how deep transnational repression and how infiltrated it has become here. nick: thank you very much. anna: thank you. amna: in mississippi two more

were given lightly sentences today for their role of brutal attacks. including against two black men. they are part of a group of former officers who are being sentenced this week after pleading guilty to horrifying charges that include torture and sexual assault. john yang has more. john: amna, a federal judge in mississippi has just handed down the harshest sentence yet in a startling case of law enforcement misconduct, 40 years in prison for the fourth former deputy in the self-proclaimed "goon squad" in the rankin county, mississippi, sheriff's department. a total opf six former deputies pleaded guilty. federal prosecutors say that for nearly two decades, they barged into homes in the middle of the night, handcuffing and torturing occupants for information or confessions. the current charges stem from a january 2023, home invasion of the residence of michael jenkins and eddie parker. the officers repeatedly shocked them with tasers, sexually assaulted them with a sex toy , and shot jenkins in the face, nearly killing him. parker spoke to reporters after

one of the sentencing hearings. >> what's done already, man, can't be erased, man, can't be taken back. i relive this every day. john: the years of brutal conduct was documented in an investigation by mississippi today and the new york times local investigations fellowship. brian howey, an investigative reporter at mississippi today, is part of the reporting team. brian, the severity of this behavior and the fact that it went on so long is eye grabbing so it's very startling. tell us how this self-proclaimed goon squad came about. how did it get started? how big was it? how did they pick the people they targeted? brian: thanks. it's unclear how the goon squad was actually started but we do know that this pattern of behavior involved a core group of deputies stretching back nearly 20 years.

they chose their targets based on these peoples alleged crimes and they mainly went after folks that they suspected of dealing or possessing methamphetamine or other drugs. and then after they found them, they would burst into their homes or pull them over while they were driving and begin these brutal interrogations that often involved anywhere from repeated tastings to waterboarding to burning, you name it. john: this has been going on for some time, two decades. how many other cases are there out there do you think? brian: we don't know how many but we interviewed over 50 people who claimed they experienced or witnessed torture at the hand of rankin county

deputies. of those, we were able to cooperate 17 -- corroborate 17 incidents dating back 18 years. john: the sheriff is resisting calls to resign. how high up did knowledge about this go? how -- senior supervisors were aware of this. brian: the sheriff has resisted calls to resign and has claimed numerous times he had no knowledge of his deputy's actions but what we found where that some of the highest ranking deputies at the sheriff's department were involved in actively partaking in these torture incidents. we spoke to multiple people who claimed they were tortured by deputies who said that they filed complaints with the department which should have gone to the sheriff and in some cases, even reached out directly to him to notify him of his deputy's actions. john: what does this say about the culture of the department? brian: it says that there is potentially a deeply ingrained culture of violent misconduct at the rankin county sheriff's department. this culture has been referenced several times in the sentencing hearings this week by some of

the deputies themselves who acknowledge that they were indoctrinated into this culture and became part of it as it went on at the sheriff department. john: it sits right next to jackson which has one of the highest percentages of black population of any good-sized city in america. to what extent is there a racial dimension to this? brian: the majority of the alleged victims who were tortured by goon squad members were actually white and that is because we are looking at a majority white county. however, when people of color came forward and said they were tortured, there was often a racial aspect to the torture. they were called racial slurs. they were told to go back to jackson which is a common

phrase. referring to jackson and how many people at the department in lincoln county see the city as a source of crime and corruption. john: do you think this is going on in other counties in mississippi? brian: it's hard to say. we do know that across mississippi, sheriff's departments have very little to no oversight. our team have uncovered other accusations of sexual assault by sheriff's and different departments, and so, it's clear here that we have an issue of accountability with sheriff's generally in mississippi. john: you said this has been going on for two decades. complaints went to the sheriff department to no avail. how did this escaped the notice of statewide officials, of federal officials? brian: that is a great question. i would love to know that myself. we do know that a state investigation into the incident involving michael jenkins and andy park is sort of what initiated all of this in the

first place but as far as we know, so far, state and federal officials only recently became aware of the conduct at the rankin county sheriff's department. john: this sentencing has all been in federal court. are any local county officials, the county prosecutor looking into this? brian: yes, all of the deputies who faced sentencing this week will also face another round of state sentencing in the coming weeks. john: thank you very much. brian: i appreciate it. geoff: a new novel takes on art and personal history, using fiction to explore the lives of both the author and an important art world figure. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and canvas series, canvas. -- arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: it was a celebration of a local writer, xochitl gonzalez grew up in a working-class neighborhood of brooklyn and was now surrounded by fans and

friends at the "the center for fiction", a non-profit literary organization, as she released her new novel, one that comes with some big questions at its heart. xochitl: there's that adage like history is told by the victors - , that includes sometimes art history. and i think that now we have to start questioning like what are, what are the ways in which we decide that something has value? jeffrey: "anita de monte laughs last" is a tale of two women - parallel lives, a generation apart: anita, a cuban-born rising star in the new york art world. raquel, a latina student finding her way at an ivy league college. the latter, gonzaelz told me at her brooklyn apartment, very much based on her own experience. xochitl: you know what's funny?

i really thought that we were going to be very different. and then as i was walking her through a day, i realized that some of the things that maybe i felt in college were inevitable . that kind of change and not really being able to expect it and then not being able to maybe explain it to your family, like your, your baseline, it results in a little bit of isolation. jeffrey: it's you bumping up against issues of class and race. xochitl: class and race, and i think, just sort of conditioning, to some extent. jeffrey: gonzalez, daughter of a puer rican mother and mexican-american father, was raised by her maternal grandparents. she attended public schools and then, through scholarships and loans, brown university, where she struggled at times with feelings of dislocation, whether she was prepared enough and belonged there, and whether others thought so. all captured later in her fictional character, raquel. xochitl: i felt that i hadn't seen what i knew to be a pretty, a broad experience of like having this triumph, like you get into this amazing college and then it is personally just so difficult like, and i've said this to a college administrator maybe ten years ago, i was like, "you know, we were invited to the table, but nobody's set us

out forks and knives." jeffrey: and that's how it felt? xochitl: that's how it felt. and so you're sort of oscillating between being really frustrated and like looking around and being like, "i need to eat and how do i do this without embarrassing myself?" [laughter] like, you know, i need to figure this out and how do i, how do i do this without embarrassing myself? and i, i just felt there was like a swath of people, you know, latinas always first but like a swath of people, of people of color, pple from lower class experiences that i know had walked this path, that raquel had walked. jeffrey: in fact, it would take gonzalez herself almost twenty years after graduating before she took up writing. she built a wedding planning business for, her term, "rich hipsters", experience that found its way into her breakout debut novel, "olga dies dreaming". xochitl: i had to make a living first. there were a lot of loans . [laughter] i walked out of there with a lot of loans. and i think it felt to me a little daunting. and then my grandmother, who was sort of the inspiration for

raquel's mom to some extent, when she passed away, i like, -- and i just felt like, i think now i can kind of do whatever i want. and it just happened right before i turned 40, which is always a good time to decide you can do whatever you want. and i was like, "i'm just going to start writing. i'm just going to start writing now." jeffrey: you took the leap at around 40. xochitl: yeah. i'd say because i came from such a working class background and i've, you know, had a nice run through a bunch of different experiences, i think i'm able to come at things with a slightly different angle. walking through life from the outside of the periment gives -- perimeter gives you a lot of different perspectives on the inside of the circle. there's a lot less sense of connectivity i think as things change and that's probably the thing i am most obsessed with. jeffrey: she's also now bringing that perspective to cultural change in her city and others, writing essays on gentrification, race and class for the atlantic. last year, she was a pulitzer prize finalist for her commentary. the new novel's dedication gives a clue to its other main character. anita is based on the real-life ana mendieta, a performance artist, sculptor and painter best known for incorporating her own body into her work, often set in nature. tragically, she is also known

for her death in 1985 at age 36, when she fell or was pushed out of an apartment window. her husband, carl andre, older and a major figure in the art world when the two met, was charged with her murder, but acquitted. his place in art history is assured. but what of hers? gonzalez wondered why she herself had barely heard of mendieta, even studying art history in college, and only learned of her by accident, outside the classroom. xochitl: the discovery was my first time realizing that i have to seek out legacy. and what can i do to, you know, learn my own history and talk about it and give it some space. and i think it made me just realize that, like, you can't just take everything at face value.

my youthful presumption was, oh, well, there must, it mustn't be good enough to not be in this classroom. and suddenly i was like, or maybe that's not quite the case, and i have to just work and try to nudge in the narrative and add people in. jeffrey: in a recent new york times article, the family of ana mendieta raised concerns about fictionalizations of her life and death, including this one. her estate refused to let us show photos it owns of the artist or her work. for her part, gonzalez says this of her decision to give mendieta a fictional voice. xochitl: i don't think that artists should ask for permission to make their art. to me, i felt that i was respectful to the story. i was very clear in a way that i think, about how i felt about what happened to her, you know, to her legacy in the aftermath. and i felt it was also about the influence that she's had on other generations, including myself and my generation. and so, to me, that was the highest form of respect that i could probably pay. jeffrey: novelist, essayist, she's also eager to work in tv

and films, including a possible adaptation of her first novel. gonzalez says there is one clear thread in all her work. xochitl: what i always try to center in all of my pieces like , in olga and in this book, is this is a latino experience, but it's an american experience. and these are, you know, american women. and i want to see those experiences reflected. jeffrey: alright, the book is "anita de monte laughs last." xochitl gonzalez, thank you very much. xochitl: thank you very much. geoff: we invite you to join us again here tomorrow night as we will have a look at the health consequences of being evicted, and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz, on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪

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