the caption, i love you mom that's our program. thank you for watching. i'm john seigenthaler. i will see you back here tomorrow night. ali velshi is next. i'm ali velshi. free to leave prison. thousands are getting out early, but if you aren't a u.s. citizen, you're out of luck and get deported. one family's birth -- bittersweet story. president obama made history last summer when he traveled to oklahoma and became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. it provided a powerful symbol of the president's commitment to

reforming the u.s. criminal justice system. that includes his administration's move to shorten prison sentences for drug crimes. now, the result is last year more than 6,000 inmates were released from prison early, and tens of thousands more may get out. not all go home. about a third of the first 6,000 inmates whose sentences got shortened are not american citizens, and because of that, some released inmates were deported while others are now sitting in detention facilities while they await deportation hearings. the result is a messy collision of america's imperfect immigration laws with its changing criminal law, and that's turning what might have been joyous reunions for some immigrant families into a reality that is far more bittersweet. we have the story of one such family whose newly free father

cannot live in the same country as his son, who is a u.s. marine. >> a lot of my friends never knew this side of me. it was always us. >> reporter: they legally emigrated from the dominican republic in the 1980s. in this picture she's standing in between her parents. >> it made me a very reserved person. i shied away a lot from friends. >> reporter: she has decades of pictures like these, her dad is always wearing a beige shirt. that's because these family portraits were taken in the united states federal prison. in 1990 ramone was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and maintaining a place for narcotics distribution in new york city. he was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. it was a punishment that according to court records was meant to, quote, send a message

to the community of which the defendant is a member, that we don't tolerate drugs in new york and in american society. >> he wasn't there for birthdays, graduations. he wasn't there for any of it. >> reporter: he also was not there when his son, alex, enlisted in the u.s. marines and was deployed in the middle east or became sergeant. none of it. >> i don't think anyone deserves to be in jail for that long for a nonviolent crime. >> it's not normal. it's not what happens in other countries. >> reporter: president barack obama agrees with her. her father is one of the first 6,000 federal prisoners and there's guidelines that led to the disproportionate incars nation creating severe prison overcrowding, but for ramone there's a catch. he's not an american citizen. >> one of the unique things about ramone and the 6,000 people released was that a

federal judge actually looked at their case and did weigh their equities and decided they deserve a second chance. they deserve to be released early. he looked at all of the thing ramone did and weighed that. an immigration judge could not do the same thing. >> she's the executive direct o of the immigrant defense project. she said current immigration law has not kept pace. >> right now if you have a drug offense, you're the number one priority for deportation. you're likely to not get a lawyer, to not have a judge weigh the circumstances of your case including that your son is serving in the military. so for someone like ramone he has no chance of coming back. >> in the faum fall of 2015 he's transferred from prison to an immigrant detention center and then deported to the dominican republic in february of this year. we follow them to santo domingo where they wait for ramone outside of a dominican

republican processing center. for alex, jessica and their mom, this will be the first time they hug ramone as a free man in 26 years. [ crying ] >> at the family's first meal together out of prison, jessica notices similarities between her brother and father. >> he's my dad's clone, which is like -- i'm like, oh, my god.

genes are so strong. he acts just like my dad. every single thing that my dad does, he smiles the same way. he eats chicken the same. they don't touch the bone. >> it's been 26 years, and santo domingo is different than the one he left as a young man. he's 62 years old now. >> i am a little worried, because he still has his mentality of being incarcerated, of looking behind his shoulders or, you know, kind of certain things he reacts, you know, strongly about. i can kind of understand where my dad is coming from, because when alex first came out of boot camp, it was the same thing. he was with that mentality -- like he came home and me and my mother started to cry because it was like, who are you? >> it's the same question they're asking about ramone.

while he'll be separated from his wife and adult children, jessica and his mother both have careers in new york and the marines are deploying alex overseas. >> you can never go back to the united states, and yet, your son is defending that country. is it ironic? >> translator: everyone has his destiny, and if my son wants to be in the marines, i support him. i can never be against him because he's american. i have nothing against america. >> you are one of the people that they believe was sentenced too harshly. when you hear that, how do you put your life into perspective, that you were made an example? >> i think it's a good idea for mr. president obama to push changes along. it's good. it's only president obama in 26

years in prison. another president never pushed about it. >> you're prepared to be embraced by your family, but once they go back to the united states, what do you do here by yourself? >> well, i stay right here, you know, and try to start something. i wait for my family to come back, you know, on vacation. >> do you wish you'd been deported sooner? >> yes, definitely. if that was the outcome, yes. might as well sign the papers 10, 15 years ago. i think it would have saved our country a lot of tax dollars having someone there sit there all this time and just ship them off anyways. >> this is the 20th anniversary of the illegal immigrant reform and responsibility act. it limits what judges can do in cases like ramone's. >> so off immigration will say you can sit in immigration jail for years trying to fight your case, but you really have no

legal argument. he really had no legal argument, so he signed away his rights. if the laws were different, he could go before a judge and make his case. >> for now he wants to make good memories with his family, and at his welcome home party they took so many pictures. what do you wish someone had told you as a little girl? >> that it was nothing to be ashamed of. there's nothing to hide. everyone has a story, and this is my story. >> tell me why she's saying she's not ashamed? what part of the story has changed for her? is it because her father's free and completes the story, or is it something more? >> the fact that he's free reveals she's not alone. when president obama took this action, she realized ha she's one of approximately 46,000 families in the u.s. whose family members received sentences too harsh and specifically she's one of about 15,000 whose family members,

while now free have been deported. >> she realizes she has two separate circumstances and not alone in either of them? >> exactly. >> we heard from the immigration lawyer, the lawyer from the defense fund saying he waived his right to go in front of an immigration judge. tell me about this. >> he waived his right because essentially while he was in detention facility, they said, yes, you could argue your case in front of a judge, but the way existing law now stands, the judge can do nothing for you. his hands are tied. so you'll be deported one way or the other. after 26 years in prison, he didn't want to waste any more time in a detention center. he was out for about two months, but not really because he was in the detention foo silt and passed his first christmas there and new year's and finally reunited with his family in a different country. >> if he was deported initially? what would have happened? would he have served a prison sentence elsewhere?

if this was the outcome, you should have deported him way back nthen? >> her belief is it costs u.s. taxpayers millions to keep him in this country. if he were in a different country, he could have had sort of a normal life. the u.s. government will say if, in fact, responsible for any sort of conspiracy, they were making sure he couldn't be active in a different country. jessica doesn't buy that. she says, if the u.s. felt that, then perhaps they could have arranged some agreement with the dominican prison, but that never happened. the u.s. taxpayers were out millions. >> propane, butane and methane are making grape growers in upstate new york very sour. >> we can't pick up our vines and move to another state. >> a bitter battle over water, wine and old salt mines is up next. >> we're going to fight this until we die. >> our american story is written everyday. it's not always pretty, but it's real...

and we show you like no-one else can. this is our american story. this is america tonight.

the bp oil spill in the greg maddux gulf of mexico, the explosion of rail cars in quebec and the methane gas link in california are just a few examples of how the pursuit and storage of energy can have devastating and deadly consequences they're trying to stop projects they say pose unreasonable risks and that's happening in the finger lakes region of new york state. a texas energy company wants to use underground salt caverns to store butane and propane near a lake. many local residents and businesses say no way. it's a battle that's been raging for years, and it's not over

yet. >> this is state route 414, and this is our farm building. >> tina and eric's vineyards are on the banks of seneca lake in hector, new york. >> we're strictly wine grapevine yards. at this point what we sell is to wineries. the family came here in 1852. my husband is the sixth generation now to own the family farm. >> the hasletts are part of a booming wine market around seneca lake. after decades of obscurity and the finger lakes region won recognition as a wine-making destination, and today it's home to a multi-billion dollar industry. haslett has a nagging concern about the future. >> we all make our living here on agratourism, people coming here to discover the wines. anything that threatens that, polluting our lake, and suddenly we have a massive disaster

happening. it will drive the tourists away. we can't pick up our vines and move to another state. >> this site is the source of tina haslett's anxiety. a texas company called crestwood equity partners is storing methane here. the same type of gas that leaked in porter ranch, california and the site is just across seneca lake from the hasletts farm. methane is the least of the community's worries. crestwood is seeking state approval to also store 1.5 million barrels of liquid propane gas or lpg and 600,000 barrels of butane. the gases would be stored in empty, underground caverns carved out of salt deposits during salt mining operations. a lot of people don't like it. >> we are seneca lake! >> we are seneca lake was founded in 2014. since then, the group has organized 50 protests here at

the storage site's entrance prompting 537 arrests. the group's not alone. >> we're going to fight this until we die, so we're never going to stop fighting them. >> yvonne taylor and joseph campbell started gas-free seneca, another group opposing the storage plans. 400 businesses and 31 municipalities representing more than 1 million residents in the region support the cause. like the hasletts, for taylor and campbell, it's all about seneca lake. >> the ultimate goal is to stop that ill-conceived project, lpg storage on the shores of the largest of the finger lakes and the drinking water resource for 100,000 residents of the state. >> crestwood says the assessment report showing the plants pose a reasonable risk and no project like this is risk high -- risk-free. >> why take that risk?

>> crestwood also has support in the area. much of it from gas and construction companies. skyler county's legislature voted in favor of the company's plan. one of the backers, philip barnes, thinks there's very little risk to seneca lake and it's drinking water. >> you have to use the science of what it would take to actually damage this lake, and how much of a disaster you'd have to have to make this happen. >> there was a lot of science to, you know, make it a danger both from a safety issue but also because there are some connection and communication between those salt caverns and my drinking water resource. >> both supporters and opponents claim indisputable research about the project's safety. in addition crestwood says it will add up to 17 jobs and around $25 million in taxes. critics insist the project might compromise the finger lakes'

$2.9 billion tourism industry, which accounts for nearly 60,000 jobs. the dispute has turned nasty at times. al jazeera obtained this 2013 e-mail urging employees at crestwood-owned u.s. salt to boycott businesses supporting gas-free seneca. >> what the finger lakes has done is we've created a really big mean neighborhood watch, and people like crestwood, who are threatening our health, our safety, our livelihoods, we're going to shut them out. >> philip barnes says it comes down to the need for heat. >> we are cold, and the propane has to come from somewhere. it has to be stored somewhere. >> the problem with that argument is none of the propane or butane they intend to store over there is intended for local use. >> there have been devastating disasters with salt caverns. gas storage opponents fear a catastrophic action could cause

loss of life or render seneca lake's water indrinkable. 100,000 people would have to find an alternative water source, and if the project goes ahead, all 600,000 barrels of flammable butane will enter and leave by rail. those trains will travel over this 80-year-old trestle bridge in a state park that attracts more than 700,000 visitors a year. >> if there was a derailment and rail cars plummet off this bridge 180 feet into the gorge, they're going to rupture. if the gorge is full of people like on a typical summer day, there's no place to go. >> everybody has a fit about the trestle. it's no different than a trestle outside of new york city. it gets inspected once a year. >> norfolk southern rails claims safety inspections but refused al jazeera's request to share the reports. activism and safety concerns have caused delay.

a permitting process that should take around 18 months for projects like this has been drags on for years. >> it's too bad it's got to this point. you know, it's turned into a battle of attorneys and battles of experts. they're the only ones making the money. >> we don't think anyplace is the place to do it, but they have certainly chosen the wrong place. they need to pack their bags and go back to texas. >> crestwood seems determined to stay, already invested tens of millions of dollars. >> no, no sign. no water. >> tina haslett says crestwood's plan is unacceptable for the sake of future generations and for seneca lake. >> i just think it's a treasure. the wineries and grape growers, we all work together and promote each other. we're about lifting each other up. it's not competition. it's one big family. i think it's special, and i don't think anything should threaten that. >> after the break, airline travel is taking off, but

passenger complain they feel squeezed in the air coming up. >> ...and on the streets. >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police. >> a fault lines special investigation. >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor. >> this is a target you can't get rid of. >> the untold story of what's really going on in ferguson. >> they were so angry, because it could've been them. >> one hour special, only on al jazeera america.

air travel has taken off in the united states. about 2 million travelers board flights every day. airfares are more affordable than they were when there were more than a dozen u.s. carriers,

but travelers pay more for extras like food, blankets or excess luggage. airlines insist that the add-on costs and fewer amenities keep ticket prices down, but passengers disagree. complaints about u.s. airlines doubled between 2013 and 2015, but even before that musician dave carroll was complaining about his flight the way he knows best, through music. ♪ united united ♪ you broke my taylor guitar >> united breaks guitars was the first of three music videos carroll uploaded in 2009 after the airline broke his guitar. the song went viral. it became a pr embarrassment for the airline. ♪ united breaks guitars >> since then according to the american customer satisfaction index report, united fared dismally among u.s. airlines for

customer satisfaction. ♪ yeah united breaks guitars >> it's not just united. even though the airlines are increasingly coming under fire for bad service, profits soared 61% between the third quarter of 2014 and the same period in 2015. charlie is chairman of travelers united, a passenger rights group in washington. >> there are only four airlines which basically are controlling the air space in north america. that doesn't give us lots of choice. >> in 2008, as u.s. airlines started to merge into the four major players we have today, united, delta, american and southwest, they were also getting hit by sky-high oil prices. so they started charging fees for so-called extras. food, wifi, seat upgrades and more. the move has paid off for carriers and their customers. adjusting for inflation, airfares are cheaper than they used to be, but the extra fees

are a bonus for airlines. then in 2014 airlinies scored bigger as oil prices plummeted. by mid-2015 they reported the biggest quarterly profits since 2006, and yet, the savings haven't been passed along to customers. many passengers think their getting fleeced, and some lawmakers agree. they forbid airlines from imposing ridiculous fees act of 2016 or fair fees act for short was recently introduced in the u.s. senate. if passed into law, it will forbid air carriers from imposes fees that are, quote, not reasonable and proportional, end quote to their costs. still, passengers aren't just feeling squeezed financially, but also physically. chasing profits, airlines are filling flights and jamming more seats onto planes. one way to do that is to get rid of a rest room or two or pack

smaller seats closer together. seats on economy class used to be 18 to 20 inches wide. now they're around 17 inches on most u.s. fleets. the space between seats has also shrunk. seat pitch the distance from a part of one seat to the same part of the seat in front or behind it has shrunk from 33 to 30 inches, which means less legroom. some ultra low cost airlines like spirit over a measly 28-inch spich. being forced into a small space can be a serious problem. sociology professor carl studies how our physical environment affects, us, especially a need for personal space. >> planes aren't really designed for the need of physical space and freedom and whavr you. they're designed like a

rationalist warehouse. a means of transporting people efficiently into as little space as possible to the next destination for obvious economic reasons. >> scares in the skies on the rise. >> they sat on the runway for at least three hours. >> critics claim shrinking space and fewer comfort led to more passenger conflict. >> all these things together add up to a recipe for poor behavior on the part of passengers. it's sort of amazing we don't see worse behavior tombly given the conditions and the treatment. >> the discomforts aside, some wonder how safe it can be if passengers get packed that tightly on flightflights. we frame is in terms of customer service and comfort. however, it really didn't resonate. we looked at it from a health and safety point of view. >> to comply with faa regulations, carriers have to demonstrate they can evacuate a full plane in 90 seconds or less. it's hard enough to do that durs

rehearsed, controlled tests, but many believe that standard will never be met in real lifeflight emergencies, especially with less space to move. he's fighting for safety and transparency. he says the cost of all the extras should be clear before you buy a ticket. he thinks more space on board will mean safer flights. >> i'd love to see a rule saying there should be a minimum of 31 or 32 inches of pitch. that gives you an idea how much legroom you have. even that is not really a very specific number, but it gives us something a little bit better. >> that's our show for today. i'm ali velshi. thank you for joining us. the news continues here on al jazeera america.