on "america tonight," eye to eye. we look at cops, communities, and cameras. how new mini cams worn by officers catch all the action and can keep cops in check. >> back in the day, you get them and throw them down and do all this, and they might have to rough them up a little bit. having that camera on me when i grabbed him, and i remember the camera, the camera, the camera. >> michael oku in a california community among the nation's first to get the action rolling,

and the view from the other angle, when citizens turn their cameras on the cops. >> they're going to do all they can to arrest us to prevent us from recording it. >> is it really against the law? "america tonight's" adam may on the record and the law. later this hour saving our ship. the ss united states gets a lifeline that could get a plug. good evening. in ferguson, staten island, cleveland and all the other cities where clashes between cops and their communities have ignited flash points over excessive police force, we wonder what would have made a difference? could video recordings later

answer questions about what really happened? president obama thinks so. he laid out awe a multi-million dlar plan and the lapd will do that. michael oku begins our look at cameras, cops and communities in rialto, california. >> what you're about to see happens every day across the country, an officer in tense pursuit of a stolen vehicle. two suspects inside showing few signs they intend to surrender. >> get out of the car, both of you. >> the situation could escalate. if it does, it will all be captured bit the officer's body camera. this time there's no trouble. days later the body cam makes a difference. a rialto, california officer confronts a wanderers accused of harassing pedestrians in nearby

businesses. the officer's extra eyes record the scuffle. rialto pd can say the suspect threw the first punch. >> i think it protects me more than it protects the public. >> we're on program with corporal gary cunningham along the alleys and roadways of rial lto. police were the first force in the nation to deploy the cams with uniformed officers department y. a 25-ier -- 25-year veteran he's old school. >> can you say when they initially approached with you this idea that you were -- >> reluctant? >> you were as embarrassing as now? >> i thought they were going to use the camera to punish us more than to help us.

then you start to wear it, and you say, wait a minute. you go to a domestic, and you have a girl crying. she has a big black eye saying he did this and that. so you go to court, and now she's changing her story. i didn't tell the officer that. i didn't say that. oh, let's play the tape. >> does it personally keep you in line? >> i had a trainee with me, and we went to a call. the guy did something and ran inside the house and slammed the door in my face, so i kicked the door open. back in the day, you get them and you throw them down and do all this. it might be a little -- >> you rough them up a little bit? >> rough them up a little bit. having that camera on me when i grabbed him, i remember the camera, the camera. >> before implementing the program, the rialto p.d. launched a year-long study 2012 randomly deploying it to half the uniformed patrol officers as a given time.

the results were remarkable. the department saw an 88% decline in the number of complaints filed against officers. what's more, officers' use of force dropped by 60%. >> after we got the data and we kind of sat down and went, wow, look at the numbers. there's something to this. >> tony is chief of the rialto p.d., the program is his brainchild. >> i think we stepped out on a program we thought was going to be dynamic and make a difference, and i think that we have proven that we've done that. >> are you at all concerned about the public's right for privacy? >> i am. we do the best we can to kind of train on circumstances that might take place. are we perfect at it right now? no, we're not. >> a routine traffic stop in the middle of the day is fair game? >> absolutely. >> domestic violence case, entering somebody's home fair game? >> yes. >> farrar believes the law gives

police the latitude to shoot the video but also to restrict people who see it. >> you don't want it on youtube and thrown out there. that's kind of the bottom line. if it's evidence to a case, you're not entitled to it, unless you are the other party. >> this high-tech docking station is a hub, before and after every shift. the rialto police use a simple camera ut unit with the record, stop button and the camera itself outfitted with a small lens, microphone and speaker. >> at the end of the officer's shift they bring it over and plug it in, and everything is uploaded to the internet. >> i was going to make a traffic stop, and i turn it on. you hear it beep, so now it's recording. >> even if the officers is a little late hitting the switch, the camera records what takes place 30 seconds before. corporal cunningham we'ves his way through side streets are

thieves are known to strip stolen vehicles for parts. moments later, dispatch calls for backup. a fellow officer's routine traffic stop has yielded two suspects with outstanding warrants. no matter how ordinary, every moment fraught with potential conflict. >> slow down, man. we have to use force and it would have been on tape. >> body cameras are all the rage in law enforcement. so much so the number of cities considering whether to deploy them seems to grow daily. programs are already in place at police departments from oakland to san diego, dallas/fort worth to miami. other cities making plans, new york, washington, d.c., phoenix, philadelphia, and according to experts scores more. how body cameras fare in big cities like los angeles almost 40 times the size of rialto may prove to be the ultimate test.

nearly 10,000 officers patrol this city with a long history of friction between the department and communities of color. officials believe the cameras will help. >> this is commonly referred to as our skid row area. how are you? how are you doing? >> good, sir. >> sergeant dan gomez was one of 32 officers involved in a 90-day test program. they liked the cameras so much, they didn't give them up with the test ended. >> at the mission just across the street, i went to one of their monthly meetings. we talked about the cameras to let them know it was in nir community and to answer questions they might have. >> less than five minutes into the patrol, gomez runs up against the resentment in the streets. >> everything good? >> do it look good? >> i'm trying to find out. >> find out from some other mother [ bleep ] and get out of my face. >> do you get that here? >> unfortunately, different

circumstances for different folks. some like the police and some don't. i don't take it personal. they're not mad at me. it's the uniform. >> how is the camera going to help or hinder your efforts? >> i think it's part of investigations when allegations do come up and we're able to then build a library of things that we're doing right and correct things that we're doing wrong. i think that that helps with the transparency to the community. >> steve is president of the police commission, a civilian body that oversees the lapd. once the tests of body cams ended, he bypassed the city council to launch a $1.3 million pilot program to roll out cameras to the force permanently. >> i'm not going to ask the city council and ask for money. for that money i'll call up rich people and ask if they'll help me transform los angeles and do an 18-month instead of 18-year. >> before the cameras can be deployed, the police commission has to decide thorny issues.

how and when will cameras be used? when can they be turned off? significantly how will officers be disciplined if they misuse them? >> the ramifications for misuse have to be consistent and have to be instant. an officer comes in and says, i forgot to turn it on today or i was too busy or i had a million other things going on, that is going to be a big problem on that officer's record. >> the ramifications it will matter? >> i think it's important that it goes right onto the record. >> most community members don't like body cams. we're already under surveillance. >> she's a long-time member of watts. she's not opposed to the cameras but they won't solve the problems. it seems like i'm hearing that the trust is so loceying is not believing. >> i don't think seeing is not

believing on our part. i think it's on the police part, because again, there's numerous incidents where we have very clear footage, and there still haven't been prosecutions or even disciplinary actions taken against officers. what we need more is the state attorney general to step in and appoint a special prosecutor for the department of justice to hold law enforcement accountable in a real way and for local law enforcement to have independent community oversight bodies with investigative and subpoena powers so the investigations can happen. >> come home! >> tempers still simmer in the south l.a. neighborhood where an unarmed man was shot and killed by police. some eyewitnesses say he was shot in the back. days later we were there when residents jeered at officers who were making an arrest in an unrelated case. residents physically begin to confront the officers. there is an awful climate out there when it comes to the trust

between law enforcement and some of the more at-risk communities across the nation today. how specifically do you think the use of body cameras has affected the relationship between law enforcement and the public here? >> the body cameras aren't a silver bullet. they're not going to solve every single issue out there. there's more to it. what i think this is, it's a very good tool to start to earn back maybe some of the trust that an organization may have lost. >> the federal government is now considering whether it will fund thousands more body cameras for police across the nation. in the meantime, the technology will continue to be tested on the streets, both by police and by the skeptical citizens whom they've sworn to protect and serve. the los angeles mayor announced today that the city would outfit some 7,000 police officers with

body cameras. that's a camera for every officer who patrols the streets here. joie. >> i think it's confusing, the notion that is a camera that records 30 seconds before it it's actually turned on? >> yeah. i'm no technical expert on this, but this is what i was told. essentially in the city of rialto and i imagine in cities all across the country, when an officer gets his or her camera, they turn it on immediately. essentially it's in stand-by mode, so what's happening is the viewfinder sees the video and buffers and moves on. it sees the video and it moves on. it does this every 30 seconds, so when the officer finally actually hits the record button, now the camera is recording what the viewfinder sees and storing it. >> pretty remarkable technology here, michael. we taed -- we talked about ria

and the l.a. pilot, but will this work with other cities working at it? >> there are reports in at least several cities when, in fact, there is some use of force by police officers, too often the case is that the video just doesn't exist or it's only partially retrievable. when, in fact, the camera has been turned on, most times than not that video account backs up the police officer's account of what happened. i'll give you an example. in new orleans this summer, a police officer managed somehow to shoot a suspect at a routine traffic stop after some scuffle had ensued. it turns out that there was no video of this. the police officer claims that she turned off her camera because she was approaching the end of her shift before making that traffic stop. the bottom line is that law enforcement officials and experts will tell you that every

police department needs to look at the policies they have in place specifically for the use of body cameras, and make sure that there is some real discipline, that whatever discipline is in their documentation, it has teeth so that police officers can't get away with not using their cameras correctly. joie. >> an important issue we will continue to follow up and in particular that new orleans story. thanks, michael. the view from the other side of the camera when we return. citizens recording their encounters with the police. >> everywhere we go, there's cameras, but they have a problem with us turning the cameras on them. >> is it illegal to shoot the cops on video? "america tonight's" adam may with a focus on citizen cameras in our next segment. we look to another troubled police department wednesday on the program. outrage in cleveland. >> so it was right here? >> yeah. >> when "america tonight" brings you an in-depth look at allegations of excessive force

and why one man shot in the chest by an officer was fine.

>> al jazeera america presents >> somebody's telling lies... >> it looks nothing like him... >> pan am flight 103 explodes december 21st, 1988 was the right man convicted? >> so many people, at such a high level, had the stake in al-megrahi's guilt >> the most definitive look at this shocking crime >> the major difficulty for the prosecution that there was no

evidence >> al jazeera america presents lockerbie part one: the pan am bomber >> i don't need to step over there for you to need my identification. >> stop recording. >> that's what it looks like from the other side of the camera, but before the break we looked at cameras worn on cops and whether they might have to clear up questions in cases of alleged police brutality. citizens and their smartphones increasingly turn the tables putting the actions of officers in focus. that is raising other charges of abuse and intimidation and questions about whether it should be illegal for citizen cameramen to record the cops. "america tonight's" adam may now on one state's effort to put a stop to it.

[ cheering ] >> the death of eric garner at the hands of new york city police ignited protests and calls for action, but the controversial police custody death wouldn't have got the nation's attention if it wasn't for the video recorded by a bystander for the world to see. >> i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe? >> although the rights to videotape police is uphold by courts and legislatures around the country. >> it's public record. >> police on the streets don't always agree. just listen to what a driver posted to youtube last week. >> i want to protect myself because i've done nothing wrong. >> okay. actually it's against the law for you to record police officers in the state of illinois now. >> that is not true. there's plenty of room for confusion. in march the illinois supreme court struck down the toughest eavesdropping law in america, and essentially prevented citizens from recording police

without their permission. was that law abused in your opinion? >> certainly you have people who are pulled over by the police and had encounters with them, and you had people that went to the police station and recorded what went on there who got in trouble. i mean, that's all abuse. there's no reason you shouldn't be ai will loued to record your interactions with police and police can't tell you to stop doing it when you're in an encounter with them. >> illinois lawmakers went back to the books and passed an amended bill. they say it guarantees recording rights except private conversations. some civil rights groups say that language is too vague. they fear the proposed illinois law could make recording police encounters a felony. >> this law says you can't record somebody when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. it means yes, you can record the police in public, but the question is, how does a citizen know where the line is drawn between what counts as a public

interaction with a police officer and a private interaction with a police officer? >> do you believe that the new law, the new bill before the governor right now is unconstitutional? >> i think it has a serious constitutional problem with vaseness. there's a problem when a law says you have to act reasonably and doesn't give you guidelines for your conduct. >> the bill is now in the governor's desk with all its uncertainty regarding if it protects or harms those armed with cameras. >> is this an everyday occurrence? every day people get harassed and every day people e-mail me. every day it happens. >> carlos miller is a miami-based journalist turned activist. his mission? document cases of people arrested while videotaping police. tell me what happened yesterday? >> an officer said he can't take pictures. >> miller has been arrested three times for photographing the police, and he says all three times he was acquitted. >> they're going to send the

message they're not backing down. they're doing all they can to arrest us, to prevent us from recording the truth. everywhere we go, there's cameras, but they have a problem with us turning the cameras on them. >> he returned the blog photography is not a crime where he posts photographs and videos showing alleged police abuse from every corner of america. >> we want to get these cops in a frame of mind that we are everywhere. we're not going away. when they beat up on somebody, they're not going to turn around and take cameras from people. they're going to accept the fact we're recording them. >> some police officers have said you're instigating. >> i'm sure they say that. i'm not instigating. instigating what? holding up a camera and standing up for our rights? >> with problems videotaping police documented all across the country, there was an incident in miami beach so bad it forced the police department to implement new policies and those policies are now a model for police departments across the

nation. it happened may 30, 2011, during the annual urban beach week. a week of partying that is sometimes resulting in violence and tension with police. officers tried to stop a man speeding down a crowded miami beach street. the incident captured in this cell phone video. miami beach police say the suspect ignored orders to pull over before swerving past officers and slamming into a nearby barricade. once the car stopped, officers surrounded the vehicle and fired off more than 100 shots fatally wounding the man in the car and injuring four bystanders. police followed the cell phone photographer back to his truck. that's where he says police pointed a gun at him and smashed his phone. >> that kind of throws us into the spotlight. we got a lot of negative publicity, and we didn't have a policy. it was like what do we do? everybody shrugged their shoulders and looked at each

other and said, i think we're allowed to confiscate the camera. i didn't give him permission to videotape me. >> miami beef police met with the state attorney's office and the aclu to draft a new policy to deal with citizen cameras. >> it's simple. basically anybody in a public place is allowed to videotape you while you do your job. you can't snatch the camera, but there's a way to approach the officer before you -- you don't just stick the camera in his face and videotape it and pull out i'm allowed to videotape you in public card. >> that message has not caught on everywhere. from baltimore. >> i have my rights. i can film. >> then get the [ bleep ] out of here. >> no. it's freedom of speech. >> you don't. you just lost it. >> to new york. >> put your phone away. >> why? >> because i'm telling you. i have the right to. >> sir -- >> put the phone away. >> don't touch me. >> to back in florida. >> he was inside the store, and they dragged him out.

>> estrada is a freelance deejay in the miami area. on st. patrick's day he was spinning records at this smoke shop when an officer showed up to arrest a friend on misdemeanor traffic charges. >> i was right here watching him put on the handcuffs. they had thrown him on the ground, and i said hey, you know what i turned on my iphone. concerned the officer was using excessive force, he started to record. minutes later he was also in custody. other people were closer by. were they arrested? >> no, they weren't. i was the only one arrested. >> in the arrest report the officer said he felt threatened by estrada and gave him verbal commands to back away and he refused. estrada tells a different story. >> i acknowledged him. >> you can see on the cell phone video that estrada backs into the store and continues to film through the window. when more officers arrive, they

take him into custody. >> what am i doing? >> i need your information. >> whether estrada asks why he's arrested, the officer aappears at a loss for words. >> you're arrested. >> for what? >> for, for, for -- >> after spending ten days in jail, worried about his job and family, the charges against him were eventually dropped. now he's filing a federal lawsuit. it's a familiar scenario. part of a bigger pattern. >> it chills people's free speech in recording things, and in holding government officials accountable. >> it's the risk of arrest that may stop some cameras from rolling. there's a rather unusual twist in this debate surrounding the illinois eavesdropping bill. the aclu helped to draft that bill. we spoke to them, and they tell us it will not hamper people from videotaping their encounters with police. carlos miller who runs that blog

also agrees. joie, there is a sense of confusion. that's the concern that's being raised. this legislation does not clearly specify that it's okay to record police, and as we saw in that incident just last week involving that motorist, either that officer was confused or he was intentionally misleading that motorist when he said it's against the law in illinois. >> you know, in illinois, but, look, everybody uses their cell phone cameras everywhere. have other states made any effort to do this? >> not so much specifically to this degree. you do have about a dozen states that are those two-party consent states and there are other laws where it gets hairy. nothing quite to this magnitude. illinois has really been tagged the state that is toughest on this particular issue. >> "america tonight's" adam may. thanks. in a moment, an attack on school children and why even half a world away the pain of pakistani families might be an alarm for americans as well. >> this morning wherever you

live, wherever you are, those are our children. this is the world's loss. >> and before the end of the hour, a lifeline for an american beauty. faded but not frail, how america's great ship, the s.s. united states made be ready to make her final voyage.

>> a crisis on the border... >> thery're vulnarable... these are refugees... >> migrent kids flooding into the u.s. >> we're gonna go and see josue who's just been deported... >> why are so many children fleeing? >> your children will be a part of my group or killed... >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... emmy award winning investigative series... fault lines no refuge: children at the border only on al jazeera america

a snapshot of stories making headlines on "america tonight." another bush makes a move to the white house? jeb bush on social media announcing he will actively explore a 2016 race. it's a big signal donors have potential rivals about the intention. for the first time a gay group can march in boston's st. patrick's parade. sponsors changed course voting to include a group that represents lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans. a massive manhunt outside philadelphia for an alleged killer ends. the body of 35-year-old bradley stone found near his home in the woods. investigators say he killed his ex-wife and five of herrell actives before taking his own life. it was an attack on

innocence. pakistan realing after a taliban attack on a school in the northern part of the country not far from afghanistan kills dozens of children and teachers, too. it underscores the stepped hype up terror tactic on focusing on soft targets, schools, cafes, other unprotected places where sheila mcvicker reports it's so easy to take vulnerable lives. >> what began as a normal school day at this elite school run by pakistan's army turned into one of of carnage. a group of gunmen disguised as soldiers scaled walls and laid siege to the school setting off explosions and firing indiscriminately at terrified students and teachers. >> translator: today we had a chemistry paper exam. as i finished my paper, i was sitting inside the lab and the firing started. militants opened fire on all the

students. >> translator: i locked the door from the inside, but three aattackers fired and entered the classroom. they opened fire on us. >> soldiers rushed to the scene and after an eight-hour battle ended the attack but not before 141 people lay dead, most of them children. scores were injured. an army spokesman says seven assailant all wearing suicide vests were killed. the city of peshawar near the border of afghanistan habben a flash point of violence. this attack the pakistani taliban's deadliest yet has left the country in shock. the students from elementary school through high school are the children of those serving in tack stan's armed forces and civilian families. ataliban group known at the ttb said it deliberately targeted the children because the army targeted its families and, quote, wanted them to feel their pain. the ttb has been under pressure

from the military in their stronghold in pakistan's law little tribal belt, a campaign that has killed scores of operatives in recent months the army says. the attack is also putting pressure on the government of pakistan itself, which is long been accused of aiding the taliban within the borders and beyond in afghanistan. international condemnation was swift from the u.s. and other world leaders. >> this morning wherever you live, wherever you are, those are our children. this is the world's loss. >> the timing is not lost in the aftermath of another soft target attack this week. the deadly siege of a cafe in downtown sydney, australia that left two hostages dead after an arranged cleric seized the cafe. >> the attacks in peshawar and sydney underscore that threats locally are also threats globally. in today's world next door is

everywhere. >> the attack at peshawar comes days after another pakistani child shot by the taliban two years ago for her activism accepted this year's nobel peace prize. >> all those children who are injured right now and who are suffering through this big trauma, and now it is time that we unite, and i call upon the international community, teachers in pakistan, all political parties and everybody that we should stand up together and fight against terrorism and you should make sure that every child gets safe and quality education. >> this is by far the biggest attack on a school, but not an isolated incident. human rights activists say it's part of a trend that's seen more than 1,000 schools targeted mostly in the northwest of pakistan in the past five years. schools are considered soft targets because they are seen to promote western values and unislamic teachings. it's a trend seen in nigeria's

northeast where the group boko haram regularly attacks schools, most famously this one where they kidnapped hundreds of girls earlier this year, most of whom are held by fighters. the taliban in pakistan are warning of more attacks. sheila mcvicker, al jazeera. >> to further the discussion on the situation in pakistan, we turn now to daniel markey who is author of "no exit from pakistan" and senior fellow on the council of foreign relations. let's talk about this notion of soft targets and why this group would perform in this way. after all, they have a beef with the military. why not make a military strike? why go after children? >> i think the speculation is they can't. the military has attacked them in their home territory, and they haven't been able to fight back very effectively. this is a weapon of the weak. go after the soft underbelly of the pakistani military and kill

their children. >> you say that in your close analysis and that of other analysts of this particular region in a sense horrifying, shocking but maybe not as surprising as laymen might think. >> yeah. unfortunately, pakistan has suffered through a lot of horrifying attacks in the past. we've seen major hotels being blown up. we've seen attacks very recently on the border with india. we haven't seen significant change from the pakistanis. we haven't seen them alter fundamentally their attitudes about fighting militants across the board. >> would this kind of attack on so many children clearly targeted, is that going to change things for the pakistani government in their approach? >> unfortunately, not necessarily. this attack was perpetrated by the pakistani taliban. they've already been identified as an enemy of military, so they're already fighting them. the other groups, the hack can

any network and other parts of pakistan, they don't see them still as threats, threats to pakistan itself. until they do, pakistan is probably going to have problems. >> for the united states and its relationship with pakistan, which is always, z you might say, tenuous, how does this change the picture? >> it doesn't necessarily change the picture in fundamental ways. the united states is still likely to withdraw from afghanistan according to the timetable it set. it's still likely to want to work with pakistan in some areas and be frustrated and skeptical in others. of course, the united states wants to make it clear to pakistanis that this is not because of its relationship with the united states that the terrorists attack pakistan, whether or not it cooperates with the united states. we'd like to pursue some degree of cooperation moving forward. >> but an organization like this now looking at soft targets as it were, does that also represent a threat inside the united states? >> well, the pakistani taliban

have tried to threaten the united states very colledirectl. in may of 2010 shazad came to new york city and tried on to blow up his car in the times square. he was trained by the pakistani talib taliban. they clearly have sympathies for groups like al qaeda. they would mean to do america harm if given the opportunity. >> all right, daniel markey, thanks very much. >> thank you. in our next segment, we follow the crisis facing thousands of immigrant families on the border. "america tonight" has the children stuck in the system and a new effort to shelter them.

coming up on "consider this," the taliban massacred

more than 140 at the school. the word responds to the horror. the growing humanitarian crisis caused by isil. the only representative from the community joins us. jeb bush all but jumps into the race for the white house in 2016. a thats fating look at pilgrimages to the world's holiest sites when we see you at the top of the hour. the largest immigration detention center in the country opened up a 50-acre facility 95 miles north of mexico designed to hold more than 2,000 undocumented women and children as the u.s. copes with the tens of thousands who cross the border illegally in recent months. they find themselves stuck in limbo. "america tonight" on why for so many it's worth the risk. >> making the journey north more than 2,000 miles from her home in el salvador wasn't part of

her plans. she didn't have a choice. what would have happened to you if you stayed in el salvador. you don't think you'd be living? she says a group of men angry with her family kidnapped her. she was held at gunpoint, drugged and physically assaulted and then dumped in a remote location where she struggled to find her way home. >> if you come from some place because i want to kill you, how can you go back? they're going to kill you. >> she says the men threatened come after her again. she feels most comfortable telling the story in spanish. >> translator: they told me it was just a scare, that it was not the real thing. if we continued living where we were living, something more serious could happen to us. >> it didn't take long for the then 16-year-old to make a decision that would change the

course of her future. >> translator: let me tell you the hardest step, which is the hardest one. it's to leave your family and everything you have. maybe it's not much, but it's all you have. it's the hardest part to leave everything behind. >> so he's the one that paid for the coyote to get you here? >> yeah. >> in 2011 her uncle hired a smuggler to help the teen travel from el salvador through guatemala and mexico to the united states where her father had already been living for years. she would travel by bus, ride on a motorcycle, and eventually take a boat across the rio grande along the border with texas. >> translator: once you have crossed the river, you have to run for about 30 minutes to a place that's an abandoned house. you end up drinking water from the waterholes where the cows

drink water. then immigration catches you, and then you think, all the effort that you have made so far, it's not worthwhile. at the time i didn't know i would have the opportunity to stay here. >> over half of these kids come because of violence, crime, gang threats, just an untenable situation for childhood and adolescence in their countries. >> elizabeth kennedy is a ph.d. candidate and scholar. for years she's stud whying the steady increase in child migrant traffic to the united states. >> you're more likely to die in these nations than in afghanistan, in iraq, in drc. that's significant. >> when a child from central america arrives here illegally and alone, authorities don't send them back immediately. why not send them back? why keep them here? why not send them back first thing? >> the united states has adopted many policies that are written in the united nations convention for the rights of the child. primary in that is a principle called the best interest

principle. that means that nations will act in the best interests of the child. these are children. these are not adults, and if there's any chance at all we could return them to harm, we don't want to do that. would we return children from syria right now? no, we wouldn't. would we return children from afghanistan? we wouldn't. >> under a 2008 law government officials immediately start deportation proceedings against children detained at the border, and they evaluate whether the child would qualify to stay h e here. are they a trafficking victim? is their life at risk if they return to their home country or could they qualify for asylum? what was the most difficult part after you got here? >> i don't know. like to know that you have to learn the english language. >> for her the path to permanent residency is now just one step away. after two years of navigating the courts, a judge granted her special immigrant juvenile status. >> there's a lot of complexity

to the legal piece of it. part of it is just takes time. >> an attorney at d.c. based law firm kirkland and ellis, jean cone and her legal team argue she was abandoned by her mother. >> her mother was not able to provide a safe and secure environment. there was pandemic violence in the community, and this was tantamount to abandonment by her mother. >> what is the burden of proof, i guess, in a situation for determining whether a child is actually experienced what they say they've experienced? >> it's a great question. it is true these kids often come with nothing but the clothing that they're wearing. so you have to build a case. >> now 19 years old and living in virginia, she's hoping to sharpen her english skills and one day become a nurse. what would you say to the people who want to send individuals

like you back to their home country? >> i don't think it's a good idea sending them back home, because if they are here, if they tried to come to the united states, it's one special reason. it's because if you're good in your country, why would you want to come here to be safe? i have a good, good life. big opportunities. >> some like her will probably get that opportunity, some won't. but for many the chance is worth the risk. another crossing in our final segment this hour. even now she has only a ghost of

a chance. bigger, faster and grander than that other queen of the seas. her titanic challenge is finding her way to a final port of call.

finally this hour what might be a reprieve for an american beauty. long before we heard of rose and jack and their titanic tale of romance on the high seas, another love story captured the imagination. the heroine was nobel and her final chapter has yet to be written. even now her beauty fapd faded. her engine stilled, you can see why there's nefr been ocean liner quite as grand as the s.s. united states.

docked at philadelphia's pier 82 on the delaware river, she's hard to miss. >> one of the lifeboats. >> dan mcsweeney wasn't looking for her the first time she passed by, but she stopped him in her tracks. >> i was driving through difficult devil and i looked to the left, and as i did i saw the stacks of the ship. >> you knew what it was? >> the stacks are iconic. >> so much about the s.s. united states is exceptional. her shear size, 990 feet, about five blocks long. nearly the hite of the empire state building. >> the united states is out to recapture the blue ribbon of the atlantic. >> her speed. to this day she holds the passenger liner record for crossing the atlantic. and a revolutionary concept when launched in 1952, a hull constructed almost entirely out of a space age material.

>> made entirely of aluminum. >> the superstructure is aluminum with no rust. it's sold. there's no problem with it. >> it would be seaworthy? >> absolutely. no doubt about that. >> mcsweeney isn't the first man to fall for this ship. that was william francis gibbs who launched the idea in 1916, and then he spent almost 40 years working to build the ship. susan gibbs is his granddaughter. >> i'm particularly fond of this picture because it shows my grandfather gazing at the moment of the ship's launch. >> the moment when william gibbs' ship superseded the story of the other luxury ocean liner. >> there's the inevitable comparison of the titanic from the same time? >> our ship is the most famous that didn't sink. >> in her memories her

grandfather was a reserved dry figure and died when she was only 5. in combing through old letters, susan gibbs found her grandfather was a man determined to build a ship faster, stronger, and safer than any other, even banning the use of any wood on the ship to prevent fire. >> the catastrophe of the titanic as well as other vessels motivated by grandfather. he liked to say with respect to to the s.s. united states, you can't set her on fire. you can't sink her, and you can't catch her. he was maniacal about safety aboard the vessel. >> and he was passionate about his dream. >> he would tell reporters he loved this ship more than his wife, more than life itself. there's a picture on the wall of my home here in which he's standing on the shore parkway of brooklyn just gazing at his ship returning from one of her trans-atlantic runs. he would do this routinely. it was kind of a love story. >> it took more than love to

bring gibbs' dream to life. the two world wars delayed the project for years, but also became catalysts for building the ship. gibbs made the nation's military part of his sales pitch to leaders in washington. >> it was appealing to their sent of patriotism? >> he was appealing to that and the best interests. >> it was the height of the cold war and america needed a true ship disguised as an ocean liner. that's why the pentagon funded two-thirds of the cost of the vessel. >> she was designed to be converted. >> she will transport a complete army division of 14,000 men, 10,000 miles without stopping for fuel, water or food. >> the ship was never needed for military duty. instead, the s.s. united states lived out her career carrying the american dream. >> it's as though some great

new york boat broke away from manhattan. >> we're coming up on one of the great places of the ship, the first class ballroom. >> black tie. >> exactly. >> over a million passengers, celebrities, political leaders, stars of their day boarded what become known as america's flagship. >> there was a big element of glamour in the vessel because so large and took the speed record on the maiden voyage. she was a great symbol of the country internationally. >> for many less celebrated travelers she became the gateway to the new world. >> after ellis island was shut down, this became a floating immigrant processing center. so a lot of people including my own father came to america in connection with the s.s. united states. >> mcsweeney's father fell spor the ship too. he left scotland and in 1952 came aboard as a steward serves

the first class passengers until her final crossing in 1969. >> he did 8 hundred hn trans-atlantic crossings and never had a mishap and was always on time. this is the anti-atlantic. >> what an atlantic iceberg didn't accomplish, a jet airplane did. by the late 1960s the air travels so popular the luxury liner was obsolete. her ballroom fell silent. her first class cabins were stripped bare. today the ship is an aging curiosity viewed mostly from a distance. i understand people come around just to look at her? >> that's true. there's always people that stop at the gate and just gaze just like i did all those years ago, and it's because she is amazing. >> but even keeping her parked here is shockingly expensive. 60,0$60,000 a month with no rep. her care takers figure it would take a billion dollars to put

her back on the seas. at some point soon they admit the only option might be to sell her for salvage. >> there is a chance that the ship could be scrapped. >> scrapped? >> scrapped. >> ripped apart? >> recycled and turned into razor blades basically. >> that would break your heart. >> it would break my heart. it's the last of its kind. it's the last great ocean liner and bears the name united states. it would be tragic, really. it would be tragic. we can't get her back if that happens. >> the trick now is to find a developer, one with a vision to see the ship as 500,000 square feet of floating waterfront property most likely in new york, her home port. what would it be like to have her in the shadow of the statue of liberty? >> i think it would be amaze. new york city is a great place for the ship to return to. it sailed from new york for 17 years, and just like the statue

of liberty, it's also a great symbol of the opportunity our country offers. >> and it is, susan gibbs says, a last voyage even the ship herself longs to take. >> she still has this incredible strength. you see the ship sitting there. she's held fast by these bright blue lines, and you just get the sense she's ready to go somewhere. she's not done and is ready for crowds again. >> a heritage on the high seas. >> the s.s. united states secured funding for another three months. we'll let you know when she sets sail for that final port of call if that happens. that's "america tonight." if you'd like to comment on any stories, logon to our website, aljazeera.com/americatonight. join the conversation with us on twitter or on facebook. good night. we have more of "america tonight" tomorrow. >> hundreds of days in detention.

>> al jazeera rejects all the charges and demands immediate release. >> thousands calling for their freedom. >> it's a clear violation of their human rights. >> we have strongly urged the government to release those journalists. >> journalism is not a crime. >> the world angrily reacts to the pakistani-taliban's massacre of more than 130 schoolchildren. jed bush says he's actively exploring a run for the white house, and a religion persecuted by i.s.i.l., we hear from a woman whose plea for help gained worldwide attention. hello, i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this", those stories and more