04/05/18 04/05/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> the threat israel. the president has directed the department of defense and the department of homeland security work together with our governors to deploy the national guard to our southwest border. amy: a new wave of troops could soon be deployed to the u.s.-mexico border even as border crossings by undocumented immigrants are at their lowest levels since 1971. the move comes the move comes as a caravan of central american migrants and asylum-seekers has prompted a series of threats from president

trump against them in mexico. we as migrants are being affected because the decisions trummake we ve tpayor with our liv. it is not so easy, you know. amy: we will get an upda from a volunteer who has just returned from the people without borders caravan in mexico and speak with reporter todd miller, author of "storming the wall." been a new expose in the nation magazine reveals how big made us think that cell phones are safe. we will speak with mark hertsgaard. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the brazian supremcourhas rejected an attempt by former brazilian president luiz inacio da silva to stay out of jail while he appeals a controversial corruption conviction.

the court voted 6-5 against lula, who had been the frontrunner in this year's brazilian presidential election. it now appears lula may soon be arrested and jailed. he is a former union leader who served as president of brazil from 2003 to 2010. during that time, he helped lift tens of millions of brazilians out of the poverty. supporters of lula decried the ruling saying it is a continuation of the coup that ousted lula's ally dilma rousseff from power last year. >> protesting in the streets and fighting for democracy. amy: during an interview on democracy now! last month, president da silva said his prosecution is part of an attempt to criminalize the workers party. isknow what is behind that the attempt to criminalize iparty.

what is behind that is the therest in a part of leadership of brazil together with the part of the press, reinforced by the role of the judiciary in preventing lula from becoming a candidate in the 2018 election. amy: president donald trump has signed an order directing the national guard to be deployed to the u.s.-mexico border claiming the situation at the border has now reached a "point of crisis." trump's order comes as border crossings by undocumented are at their lowest levels since 1971. trump becomes at the least the third president in a row to send the national guard to the border. meanwhile, the "wall street journal" reports the trump administration is requesting that the u.s. military build walls for at least one military base along the u.s.-mexico border. we will have more on trump's border militarization plans after headlines.

president trump has backed off his plan to soon withdraw u.s. troops from syria. on wednesday, white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said the administration would not put a "arbitrary timeline" on withdrawal. earlier this week, general joseph votel, the head of u.s. central command, said -- "the hard part, i think, is in front of us." meanwhile, the associated press reports u.s. forces have been spotted setting up front-line positions outside the strategic northern town of manbij where u.s.-backed kurdish-led forces are facing off against turkish-backed syrian fighters. in oklahoma, schools remain closed for a fourth day as teachers across the state continue to strike for better pay and increased funding for education. on wednesday, teachers rallied inside the statehouse in oklahoma city. leaving! not we are not leaving!

we're not leaving! >> the bill that is being heard in the senate is not enough to fully fund education and to make have had thets we past 10 years. so this is a great start, but educators will not leave this capital until education is fully funded again. amy: more than 100 oklahoma teachers set off on a 100-mile, seven-day march from tulsa, oklahoma, to the state capitol building, where they'll join tens of thousands more teachers. meanwhile, in related news, teachers' protests continued yesterday in kentucky's capitol, frankfort. 200 protestors marched down capitol avenue, some invoking reverend martin luther king jr.'s legacy on the 50th anniversary of his assassination and urging kentuckians to a fight a move to gut their pension benefits.

facebook has revealed it now believes the personal information of up to 87 million people may have been improperly shared without their permission with the voter-profiling company cambridge analytica, which worked to sway voters to support president donald trump. during a call with reporters on wednesday, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg said -- "we didn't take a broad enough view on what our responsibility was and that was a huge mistake." zuckerberg is scheduled to testify on capitol hill next week. in other tech news, more than 3000 google employees have signed a letter urging the company to stop working on an artificial intelligence program with the pentagon to improve the targeting of drone strikes. the letter reads in part -- "we believe that google should not be in the business of war." in media news, a producer at a nebraska tv station owned by the right-wing sinclair broadcast

group has resigned over what he described as the company's obvious bias. justin simmons says he resigned from khgi last week. sinclair has faced widespread criticism for ordering news s at -- news anchors at scores of its affiliate stations to recite nearly identical "must-read" commentaries warning of the dangers of fake news in language that echoes president trump's rhetoric. simmons told cnn that he feels sinclair is almost forcing local news anchors to lie to their viewers. >> my heart goes out to all of those anchors who were forced to basically do -- the equivalent of a proof of life hostage video. amy: the israeli human rights group b'tselem has launched its first ever campaign to urge israeli soldiers to refuse orders to shoot at unarmed palestinian protesters. the group has taken out ads in major israeli newspapers stating -- "soldier, the order to use lethal force against civilians

who do not pose mortal danger is patently illegal." the campaign was launched days after israeli forces shot dead up to 18 palestinian protesters during a peaceful demonstration in gaza near the israeli border. meanwhile, the head of arab league has called on the international criminal court in the hague to investigate israel's role in the massacre. macedonia has issued a formal apology to khaled el-masri, a german citizen who was wrongly seized by macedonian intelligence services while on vacation in 2003, then handed over to the cia. the cia stripped him naked and drugged him before flying him to a secret u.s. jail in afghanistan where he was repeatedly tortured. five months later -- long after the cia concluded el-masri was innocent -- he was flown him to -- he was flown to albania and left by the side of a rural road in the middle of the night.

the u.s. has never apologized or held anyone responsible for its role in his detention and torture. a whistleblower known as the edward snowden of banking has been arrested in madrid on an arrest warrant issued by switzerland. in 2008, herve falciani blew the whistle on a massive tax evasion scheme run by his former employer, the swiss bank hsbc. probes were launched around the world after falciani provided french authorities with files on over 100,000 prominent clients of hsbc. while hailed by a hero by many transparency advocates, falciani was convicted two years ago of economic espionage in switzerland. here in new york, police officers responding to a 911 call shot dead a mentally troubled african-american man on a street corner in brooklyn on thursday. at the time of his death, shaeed

vassell was holding a metal pipe that looked like a shower head. police mistook it for a gun. the police said four officers -- three in plainclothes and one in uniform -- fired 10 rounds at a jamaicanay, immigrant. one witness said -- "they didn't say 'freeze, hands up, drop your gun', none of that. they didn't say nothing. all they did was start shooting." vassell's father said his son is bipolar. the shooting sparked an intense standoff between angry residents who knew vassell and police. >> you guys kill us. down yetan gunned again. amy: in related news, the city of long beach, california, has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of mharloun saycon who was killed by police three years ago. saycon was a filipino immigrant who had been diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic. more than 10,000 people marched

in memphis wednesday to honor the reverend martin luther king jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. at 6:01 p.m., a moment of silence was held, then bells told 39 times. one for each year kingwood. gatherings were held across the city featuring associates of king as well as today's civil rights leaders, who said king's dream has still not been realized. this is the reverend william barber, who is leading a new poor people's campaign. cook's many people die from low wealth and no income. nothing would be more tragic than for us now. so we must be the resurrection. amy: california democratic commerce member barbara lee was off so -- congressman barbara lee was also in memphis for the anniversary of king's assassination. >> each and every one of us must

be the shining light. we met show the world that while this essence will tilt the dreamer on the sacred ground, on this day 50 years ago, he did not kill the dream. amy: seven catholic plowshare activists were detained early this morning while staging a protest inside the naval submarine base kings bay in georgia, the largest nuclear submarine base in the world. the activists entered the base wednesday night on the 50th anniversary of dr. martin luther king jr.'s assassination. they were armed with just hammers, crime tape, and baby bottles containing their own blood. the actists said they were following the prophet isaiah's command to beat swords into plowshares. they hung banners inside the based reading "nuclear weapons: illegal - immoral." they were also carrying a statement that quoted dr. martin

luther king describing the united states as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. among those arrested were the catholic priest steve kelly, martha hennessy, the granddaughter of dorothy day, and elizabeth mcalister who co-founded jonah house in baltimore with her late husband phil berrigan. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the trump administration has announced plans to deploy national guard troops along the u.s.-mexico border. homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen described the plan to reporters at the white house on wednesday. >> security which is national security. it is not a partisan issue. it is not something we can separate out. it is core to being a sovereign

nation. the president has reiterated this many times. he has specifically said a sovereign nation that cannot or worse, chooses not to, defend its borders will soon cease and fact to be a sovereign nation. the threat is real. in order to prevent such a consequence, the president has said the department of defense and homeland security work together with our governors to deploy the national guard to our southwest border to assist the border patrol. the president will be signing a proclamation to that effect today. nermeen: on wednesday night, president trump issued a memorandum ordering the defense secretary, head of homeland security, and the attorney general to submit an action plan in 30 days that outlines how the agencies will increase border security. meanwhile, the "wall street journal" reports the trump administration is requesting that the u.s. military build walls for at least one military base along the u.s.-mexico border. in remarks on tuesday, trump suggested he was open to sending the military to the u.s.-mexico

border to do what immigration authorities could not. pres. trump: we don't have laws. we have catch and he's. you catch and you will immediately release list of people come back here for quark's they virtually never come back. what we're preparing for the military to secure our border between mexico and the united states. we have a meeting on it in a little while with general mattis and everybody. i think it is something we have to do. amy: the move comes as border crossings by undocumented people are at their lowest levels since 1971. the national guard has been used in recent years for surveillance and intelligence on the border, but not direct law enforcement. in 2014, former texas governor rick perry placed 1000 troops along the border to respond to a spike in crossings by unaccompanied migrant children. texas state troopers also assist border patrol. president bush sent 6000 troops to the border in 2006, and obama

dispatched 120more troops in 2010. meanwhile, on wednesday, mexican president enrique pena nieto told reporters he was still waiting for clarification on trump's plan. >> it hasn't happened yet. and should it eventually happen given the clear vacation the mexican government has sought from u.s. authorities on the statements, mexico will outline its position. hopefully, clarification arrives soon. hopefully, we have the clear vacation that we want so we can orient our position regarding this decision to militarize the border. thank you. amy: president trump's vow to further militarize the u.s.-mexico border comes as he has railed against a caravan of more than central american 1000 migrants on a 2000-mile journey to the u.s. from the mexico-guatemalan border, and threatened to derail the north american free trade agreement if they are not stopped. we will talk more about the

caravan in our next segment. but first, we go to tucson, arizona, where we're joined by todd miller, journalist and author who has reported on border security for over a decade. his most recent book is "storming the wall: climate change, migration, and homeland security." he's also the author of "border patrol nation: dispatches from the front lines of homeland security." he just received the 2018 izzy award. welcome to democracy now! why do we start off by talking about the significance of president trump's many tweets, a tweet storm over the weekend after meeting with a number of administrators, and then the announcement yesterday by the department of homeland security that those troops could arrive as early as last night on the border. >> good morning. the president really does have

to makearkable ability things more grandiose in a way than they really are. what i mean by that is that through his tweets and his declarations of the last few days, the president makes it seem like we are sending -- u.s. military will be sent to the u.s.-mexico border to clash with the very caravan that he is been talking about is the basically, hundreds of people who are facing persecution in conditions of poverty and the home countries. what is really going to happen is the national guard will probably be sent to the border. it is not clear how many troops will be sent there yet. they will play a role, as they have in the past, which is a support role with the u.s. border patrol and border apparatus.

basically, they cannot make arrests and they cannot do patrolling and make arrests on the ground. and so what it does is it frees emblematic ofe the current militarization of u.s. border, which is the actual border patrol itself. and the border patrol -- it does patrol the border, not only the boundary line, but in 100 mile jurisdiction's with extraconstitutional powers. eating the border patrol and do things above and beyond what normal law enforcement can do. they can put a check once. they do roving patrols. they can pull over people for reasons -- but not even national security reasons. what the national guard presence will do because they are restrained by the 19th century military restrains the from doing policing in the

country, it frees up what is basically an agency that is a paramilitary agency. if you look back into the past when the bush administration, for example, put 6000 national guard troops on the border, what he was doing was basically putting a placeholder down as the border patrol is hiring, doing a massive hiring. the amount of border patrol. idea findthat is the the trump administration's putting the national guard on the border as a placeholder so he can push forward with his plans of expanded border wall system with more agents and technologies. nermeen: let's go back to homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen speaking wednesday about president trump's plan to deploy the national guard along the border. >> in the meantime, the president has directed the

national guard personnel be deployed to the southern border. the department of defense has long supported the efforts of dhs to protect our nation's borders. this includes ongoing counter narcotic missions, infrastructure construction, persistent surveillance operations training, and aerial support throughout the western hemisphere. the department of defense is a longtime partner of the department of homeland security, and i thank them for their support. finalized, are being it is our expectation the national guard will deploy personnel in support of cbp border security mission. it will take time to have the details in place, but we are beginning today and we are moving quickly. we are anxious to have the support. nermeen: todd miller, could you respond to what the home of the goodies secretary said and also elaborate on what you've said in the past, namely that there is been a steady expansion of the militarized u.s. border apparatus in the last 25 years? so what is trump proposing that

will further militarize the border, and what impact has happened in the last 25 years? >> that is an important point. over the last 25 years has been the most massive expansion of the border enforcement apparatus that we've ever seen in u.s. history. before trumpven set foot in the white house in january 2017, he had at his disposal this gigantic apparatus. to give you an example of what the kind of expansion and bolstering that we have seen over the years, and the early 1990's, there were about 4000 u.s. border patrol agents. now there are about 21,000. it is a five full increase. customs and border patrol, which law- it is the top

enforcement, federal law enforcement agency in the country. they have about 60,000 to 65,000 agents. there are air marines, basically a domestic navy, and air force. they have special forces units. the budgets for border immigration enforcement in the early 1990's, the annual budgets were about $1.5 billion with immigration and naturalization service. in 2017, if you take the budgets of customs and border protection and immigration and customs , itrcement and combine them is $20 billion. that is a 13 full increase. that $20 billion is more than all other law enforcement agencies combined. that is the fbi, dea, the u.s. marshals -- all other federal law-enforcement agencies combined. came todgets in 2017 about $15.5 million. u.s. border enforcement agent has become a priority of u.s.

federal government. be to -- plans would what i can see, in looking at the national guard troops as a sort of placeholder, they will come in and do kind of surveillance work in the different things that was mentioned in that clip. --a placeholder, i believe and it remains to be seen -- the central to the trump presidency from his candidacy before that, this idea of a border wall. and i would go further to say a border wall system, because that is what the customs and border patrol -- rejection is saying. a border wall system in the fact that all of this massive increase that i just discussed will be added on to more. there will be more agents that -- and more laws and more technologies. there will be more checkpoints, more drone surveillance among more expansion of this apparatus

into these 100 mile jurisdictions, and i think that is the intention. amy: let's turn to a clip from the fox news weekend segment that reportedly sparked president trump's flurry of tweets about the need to take action on the u.s.-mexico border. >> in army of migrants is literally marching her writing were making their way from -- is it honduras? often central america. the big question is, what happens when they arrive? i know they want to seek protection, but they won't necessarily get that. >> they will be arrested. you cannot illegally b is really come to the united states -- you cannot illegally come to the united states. amy: we're going to talk about this delegation, what he calls caravan that is making its way through mexico in our next segment. on wednesday, trump tweeted -- "our border laws are very weak while those of mexico & canada

are very strong. congress must change these obama era, and other, laws now! the democrats stand in our way - they want people to pour into our country unchecked. crime! we will be taking strong action today." on tuesday, trump said the military would be used to guard the u.s.-mexico border. pres. trump: we have no border because we had obama make changes. president obama made changes that basically created no border. it is called catch and release the stuff you catch them, register them, they go into our country. we can't throw them out. we have very bad laws for our border. we are going to be doing some things. it was taking with general mattis. we're going to be doing things militarily until we can have a wall and proper security, we're going to be guarding our border with the military. that is a big step. we really have not done that before -- surly, not very much before.

amy: there you have president he is beenhat focused on, talking about mexico breaking up the caravan. we will talk about it in our next segment, but that is clearly what he is been talking about all weekend long. can you talk about the effect of --, also his senior advisor as his advisers drop by the wayside every single week, it seems, advisers leaving him from the white house, and who is left is stephen miller who is well-known as a fierce anti-immigrant hock. -- hawk. >> just listen to that clip in the language that is being used, like the language -- there is " an army" of migrants coming ofth and just that language there is this threat coming from far and coming to get us.

and it seems like trump and the trump administration and obviously his advisers like stephen miller, they use that promoterhetoric to then this further buildup of the apparatus. in reality, and i know you're going to be talking about the caravan and an segment, but are the right questions being asked? you talk about a caravan, and it was interesting, he said in army of migrants is coming north and then he says peacefully. it is like, is it peacefully or in army? but the fundamental questions of, like, this idea that massive socioeconomic political problems like the problems that are facing the people coming from central america, problems from historic roots of u.s. policy of central america, that those people -- the idea of their migration and their pain and suffering is going to be, you know, solved by a border wall.

in my view -- i forgot to mention his huge point. there is a border wall. is saying,is clip there is nothing. he is always sing the result was is nothing there. and there clearly is a u.s. border wall. there is a must 700 miles of it. it has walls and barriers and strategically placed. he said weak laws. the kind of strategy the border has been under the last 20 years has been prevention through deterrence. you put down these walls and reinforced with border patrol agent and technology, and people circumvent these areas and going that aresert, places deadly. the remains of more than 7000 people have been found in the u.s. borderlands since these into place.were put these laws are deadly. what is the right question to be asking? this is the right question that furthers the border militarization that we're seeing seen up to this point and not really look at these bigger issues, socioeconomic and

political, economic issues are huge considering the economic models and central america political issues are huge. yet what we're talking about is this idea putting up this border wall, border wall, military on the border. amy: very quickly, on the issue of obama, who he constantly attacks, was in it president obama does even called by his pro-immigrant allies, immigrant group leaders, he was called the deporter-in-chief. it was in 2014, wasn't it, that president obama called out the national guard to respond to the influx of child migrants in 2014? >> yes. president obama has been very involved in the buildup of the u.s. border, deportation apparatus. yeah, obama sent -- amy: in 2010.

.> in 2010 again, the national guard troops under obama, they served as a placeholder as the apparatus was ratcheting up further. so they were bolstering it with more technologies, more agents. obama played a huge part in that, as well as the increased -- the tensions of people facing deportations, the approximately 400,000 people per year who were expelled from the country during the obama administration. so the kind of accusations in that sense from the trump administration to the obama administration is ignoring those facts, what obama was doing and kind of how obama took the post-9/11 immigration enforcement apparatus from the bush administration and bolstered it even more.

nermeen: todd miller, we're very little time, but i want to get your take on having spoken to representatives of companies selling border control and police equipment, what did you find out about the sales that have been going on? >> i have been doing research on the companies that have been summoned to border patrol for quite a long time now. early 2010was the when i first really started delving into this. many of the representatives -- i would go to border security expos and conventions and places were private companies would gather and try to sell their products to the customs and border protection. companies, big and small, from raytheon and boeing to smaller companies. and a lot of people had the same sort of take.

and that take was the wars are starting to wind down the military operations are starting to wind down in places like iraq and afghanistan. that is what they're saying at the time. we are now looking for new markets. in one of the big markets that is emerging is the border security market. been following that. it is been a big part of my reporting, looking at this market -- if you look at forecasts and projections, when recent projection said it is in a boom period. period.ented boom we have the homeland security market, global homeland security market going from $300 billion to approximately $600 billion, doubling over 10 years. so this kind of border, homeland security apparatus via the perspective of the private intor is a booming industry

growth. there is a lot of investment. it is often coming from companies that have contracts or had contracts with the military. one vendor i talked to told me, we are now bringing the battlefield to the border and showing how the private sectors doesvement is also in looking at the dynamics of militarization of the border, how the private sector is also implicated. amy: we want to thank you, todd miller, for being with us, reporting on border security for over a decade. his most recent book is "storming the wall: climate change, migration, and homeland security." also the author of "border patrol nation: dispatches from the front lines of homeland security." when we come back, we will talk about that caravan that president trump has been lamenting throughout the weekend, who is talking about it is the cause of sending down troops to the border. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we turn now to a caravan of more than 1000 central american migrants who are on a 2000 all journey to the u.s. from the mexico-guatemalan border. some say it has prompted president trump's crackdown on border security. despite efforts by mexican immigration authorities to disband a caravan, hundreds are u.s.-mexicofor the border. this comes after an early morning tweet from trump -- "the big caravan of people from because of the trump administration's actions, border crossings are at a still .cceptable 46 year low from's tweet followed a flurry of threats that began on easter sunday to tear up the north american free trade agreement nafta unless mexico agrees to

join his crackdown on immigration. by tuesday afternoon, trump had taken credit for the reduced number of migrants in the caravan. pres. trump: a lot of things are changing, but i have just heard that the caravan coming up from mexicos is broken up in did that. and they did it because, frankly, i said you really have to do it. we're going to have a relationship on nafta. we're going to have to include security in nafta. , anexico, very strong laws th is e wait i sot los li it s been broken up. amy: on tuesday evening, mexican foreign minister luis videgara tweeted -- "members of 'the way of the cross' caravan dispersed gradually on their own accord. mexican immigration policy is exercised in a sovereign manner and in accordance with law, and not from external pressures or threats." on monday, mexico's national institute of immigration told buzzfeed news it will allow some migrants, including pregnant women and people with disabilities, to remain, while

others will be allowed to apply for humanitarian visas. this is georgina garibo, coordinator of the group people without borders. >> migrants should not be andoned because of som tweets and political heat. it is characteristic of donald trump to govern via tweets. they have created a number of problems. i think this is one of those cases, creating a xenophobic, racist wave against the people of central america mexico. the group has organized a caravan since 2010 to attention to the right to seek asylum and refuge. this year its members are disproportionately from honduras, which remains in political upheaval after u.s.-backed right-wing president juan orlando hernandez was inaugurated for a second term despite allegations of widespre voting fraud in the november election. a common chant by many caravan members is "fuera joh," meaning "out with joh." joh are the initials of juan

orlando hernandez. well, for more, we're joined by arturo vizcarra, a volunteer with people without borders. he just returned from the caravan. welcome to democracy now! explain what this caravan is, the fact that it has gone every single year, and trump's singler focus on this caravan. >> good morning. similarvan from a caravans have existed for a long time. some even in the 1980's. the current iteration has been going on for the last five years. ofst, it is symbolic gesture the migrants terrible journey through mexico fraught with danger and some estimates at 10,000 migrants, refugees being killed or disappeared every single year in mexico. so originally, i think it was

more seen as something both symbolic as well as gathering people together for safety in numbers, given they were already going to be making the journey and -- on their own it is much more dangerous. i think that has changed recently, you know, i think it is not necessarily caravan to the u.s. a lot of people just one to apply for asylum in mexico and have applied for asylum. they want to reach other parts of mexico to join other family or friends. but the problem is mexico's asylum immigration laws are completely inadequate. and because of u.s. pressure and u.s. southern border plan, which referring to mexico's southern border, there is this enormous

pressure from mexico to also treat these refugees as either kill immigrants. -- illegal immigrants. i think the caravan members, when i was there, their clear this is also just kind of a caravan that is also there to fight for their rights as refugees and asylum-seekers, in both mexico and the u.s. legal advice for people so they are aware of their rights in both mexico and u.s., so they can make a decision whether they would like to try to stay in mexico and apply for asylum there or hand and apply for asylum in the united states. nermeen: if i could ask you to elaborate on that, the changes in mexico's immigration and asylum policies. what specifically the u.s. has

been asking mexico to do and the enormous transformation that occurred. since 2015, mexico has been deporting more people from central america than the u.s. has. >> that is correct. plan,t of a longtime which some people call plan mexico, which is part of the war on drugs, so-called war on drugs, one of the pillars is to basicallyico crackdown on immigration so there's this kind of -- a kind of mixing in of drug trafficking and migrants, which is ridiculous. we are talking about refugees here. given,. specifically has through the state department and hard to come through the numbers, but through the state department has given over $100 million to mexico, basically, to detained and deported central

american and other refugees and migrants. and we don't really know exactly how much money and equipment has been given through the department of defense, but this is -- just as your previous guest todd miller was talking about, this is very much a military cipro -- approach to humanitarian and social problems. the mexican marines are the ones that kind of coordinate a lot of the immigration. this is all kind of coordinated also by the u.s., which has customs and border patrol and ice throughout the territory in mexico. the mexico, officials big openly about how -- speak openly about how they see the u.s. border is being mexico and mexico's southern border, so they're pushing the u.s. border south. so it is pretty ridiculous of trump to say mexico has not done anything. mexico has in flagrantly

violating the rights of central american asylum-seekers at the behest of the u.s., the same time mexico has a longtime problem with discrimination and bias and violence towards central americans. againdoingir once trump's dirty work in the u.s.' 30 work and violating the rights for the of central american asylum-seekers. amy: i want to turn to the caravan coordinator speaking tuesday after donald trump announced he would send troops if the caravan is not stopped. >> if trump was to protect his border with the military, then he should do it. the refugee caravan will not go up against the military and nobody is thinking of going to the border and crossing like in an action movie. no, sir. if a person in the caravan asks for humanitarian assistance at they can., then secondly, if trump wants to use us as a cage for his border wall, if he wants the military in place, then do it.

if he wants his wall, then he should build it. amy: a group of more than 500 central american migrants broke away from the caravan and orizaba, some hundred miles southeast of mexico city, late tuesday. two migrants, henry estuardo from el salvador and sebastian cervantes from honduras, described what happened. to grab were waiting as. they could not grant us. later they climbed aboard the train cars and started throwing all of our things and food on the ground. cooks the officials wanted to take us off the train, but we resisted. sadly, they did manage to make us get off the train. we had to walk really far to get to this town where we are getting help with food, clothes, water, even shoes.

, it willro vizcarra have a minute, but if you could tell us where the caravan is now and what you expect will happen and whether you think a broader discussion is happening about the reasons why -- and this was an issue todd miller raised -- the reasons why these migrants are coming forward and appealing for asylum on the border? it is a little unclear what is happening. the mexican government has tried to to spend the caravan. form now there is a legal being held in pueblo, mexico, so hopefully those migrants that kind of separated will also be able to reach that this weekend expertse u.s. a mexican will help them better understand their rights and be able to make decisions for themselves and their families as to what they want to do. there is this perfectly legal -- it is legal to apply for asylum

at the border. most importantly, the last thing we would like to discuss is just that the u.s. is responsible. we are seeing the real time effects of u.s. foreign-policy of not just the 2009 coup in honduras that has unleashed a wave of repression and economic violence and political prisoners , for nine years now, but now these people that are on this caravan self-described as refugees of the dictatorship of juan orlando hernandez, is only in power because he fixed the elections. of the u.s. in the middle this crisis, instead of standing for democracy in the hemisphere, quickly recognizes government and also certified its human they cancords so that continue receiving military aid and other aid. it is up to us to also demand an end to the

support of the hundred dictatorship. if you do not want more refugees coming to the border were coming to mexico, then you should doubt with your policies, create -- that create the refugee prices. , thank you vizcarra for joining us, just back from the people without borders caravan in mexico. when we come back, is your cell phone dangerous to your health? we will be joined by investigative reporter mark hertsgaard. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "caravana migrante 2018" by jimmy golden, a member of the 2017 refugee caravan. he wrote and recorded this song about migrants' fight for justice through caravans. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh.

nermeen: 95 out of every 100 american adults owns a cell phone today. and worldwide, three out of four adults now have cell phone access. the wireless industry is one of the fastest-growing on earth, raking in annual sales of $440 billion in 2016. but are cell phones safe? well, a new investigation by the nation suggests that's a question that cell phone giants prefer you don't ask. the article by journalists mark hertsgaard and mark dowie is titled, "how big wireless made us think that cell phones are safe." the article notes that cell phones were first marketed to u.s. consumers in the 1980's without any government safety testing. then a decade later, one of the industry's own hand-picked researchers, george carlo, reportedly told top company officials -- including leaders of apple, at&t, and motorola -- that some industry-commissioned studies raised serious questions

studies raised serious questions about cell phone safety. on october 7, 1999, carlo sent letters to industry ceo's urging them to give consumers "the information they need to make an informed judgment about how much of this unknown risk they wish to assume." instead, the cellular telecommunications and internet association reportedly tried to discredit carlo's findings and had him physically removed from its premises during its annual conference in february 2000. amy: the nation investigation notes that carlo's story "evokes eerie parallels with two of the most notorious cases of corporate deception on record: the campaigns by the tobacco and fossil-fuel industries to obscure the dangers of smoking and climate change, respectively." for more, we go to san francisco to speak with one of the authors of the new investigation, mark hertsgaard, the nation's environment correspondent and investigative editor. author of seven books, including "hot: living through the next fifty years on earth." mark, welcome back to democracy now! talk about what you have found,

what we do know about cell phone safety, and how dangerous are cell phones. our theseemphasize, is not saying that simple -- cell phones are safe or not say. our fees is an investigative expose showing you how the cellular industry has worked 25 years behind the scenes to convince you that cell phones are safe. when in fact, if you look at the independently funded science, the picture is a lot more mixed than that. there is that smoking gun memo, letter i should say, from george carlo in 1999 telling the ceos of all of these big companies, raisingis stuff is serious questions, especially andt kids and cancer genetic damage. i think that is the real parallel with both big oil and big tobacco. and each case, these big companies were told privately either own scientists that there

are serious questions about your product, whether be cigarettes or fossil fuels or cell phones. and in each case am a those executives decided not to share that with the public but rather to keep that information to themselves while telling the public and telling the press and telling policymakers there is no problem. there is a lot of evidence suggesting that we need to be a lot more careful about these cell phones. the world health organization has listed them as a possible carcinogen. and just last week here in the united states, the national institutes of health had a major study peer-reviewed about cell phone radiation. and the peer-reviewed scientists who are independent of government said there was "clear evidence" that cell phones can cause cancer. and that is something that you have not read in the american media. and i have to say, that is another part of the story, amy, how the u.s. news organizations and journalists have been

hoodwinked yet again by the corporate propaganda campaign where we listen more to what the industry says and do what independent scientists are saying. amy: mark, could you talk a little bit about the way in which world is industries have tried to influence the scientific research on the effects, possible effects, of cell phone use? >> sure. the term they use is wargaming. it comes from an internal memo in 1994 from motorola, major cell phone manufacturer which at that point, was already facing lawsuits from customers claiming their brain tumors had come from motorola-supplied equipment. wargaming means a number of different things. it means funding science that is friendly to industry. it means discrediting science or attempting to discredit scientists that are critical of

industry. and trying to put freely scientists on key boards like the world health organization. our peace documents how would the world health organization was preparing in the year 2011 to render a judgment on how likely cell phones are to cause cancer, the industry made sure to get a number of its scientists on to the advisory board that consulted with the who on the decision. and that is contrary to the conflict of interest rules the who has, but the industry managed to circumvent those. it put money into that process. at the end of the day in 2011, the who world health organization, called cell phone radiation a possible carcinogen, but a number of the scientists who were on the committee who we interviewed said they wanted to .all it a probable one scientist is a wanted to call it a known carcinogen. later this year the who will

revisit this question of cell phone radiation, and they told us a will look very carefully at this recent study from last week by the national toxicology program or the u.s. government that found their evidence that cell phones can cause cancer. amy: you wrote the industry has also meant to the campaign to discredit a swedish professor of oncology's dish oncology. his studies found long-term cell phone users had some of the struggles evidence the group was considering. what you feel has been suppressed or discredited. >> leonard hartel, the swedish scientist you mentioned, he was the one scientist on that who committee who wanted to call cell phone radiation a known cancer risk, not probable, not possible, but known. that would be category one. and he did that on the basis of his studies of gliomas. they are a nasty brain tumor,

brain cancer, partly because it is very difficult to treat them. it is not like a specific sort of nodule you can take out. brain in through the long strands. he was especially concerned about what this means for children. i should note, amy, the united states is quite different than other advanced countries on this. in britain, france, in israel, the governments have issued very strict limitations on cell phone use by children. public schools in france, there are no i've had, there is no wireless, probably for the reason of addiction but also because of these concerns about health. in the case of leonard hartel and sweden, once he started publishing us findings in 2002, the industry immediately mobilized to have two of their freely industry scientists immediately put out a paper condemning him.

we found out those two scientists at the very time they were posing as independent scientists and sang the doctor heard oh findings were methodologically incoherent, they were consulting to motorola as expert witnesses in a brain tumor case. are you going to believe? amy: we have to leave it there but we will do part two and post it as a web exclusive online at democracynow.org. there's just too much to talk about from the internet of things, talking about how the campaign here mirrors what happened with big tobacco. new specialard' is investigation that we will link to is titled "how big wireless made us think that cell phones are safe." democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

i'm just putting the final touches on my beautiful table because company is coming to dinner. i have a fantastic menu lined up for you today, so let's go to the kitchen and prepare it now. ♪ jazzy ♪ you're gonna be healthy ♪ ♪ with the jazzy vegetarian ♪ ♪ jazzy, so snazzy ♪ we're gonna cook something healthy and light ♪ [scatting] captioning made possible by friends of nci ♪ jazzy, so snazzy laura: so join me in the kitchen right now. ♪ we're gonna cook something healthy and light ♪ ♪ that's right ♪ today, i'm preparing one of my favorite specialty menus, perfect to serve when coany is coming for dinner. we'll begin with my fabulous fancy stuffed peppers, a vegan version of my mother's classic recipe. then we'll move on to delicious, velvety carrot soup which tastes rich and creamy