captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, february 11: hundreds of undocumented immigrants arrested by federal agents in raids in six states now facing deportation; and in our signature segment, corporations looking to relocate and the competition among states to offer the best financial incentives. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided

by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. a surge in immigration raids ordered by the trump administration has led to the detention and likely deportation of hundreds of immigrants across the united states. the department of homeland security tells the newshour during the past five days there were "targeted enforcement operations" against criminals and undocumented immigrants from a dozen latin american countries. without releasing total arrest numbers, d.h.s. says the operations have occurred in california, illinois, new york, north carolina, south carolina and georgia.

immigration rights advocates say there was also increased activity by immigration and customs enforcement, or ice, in kansas, oklahoma, texas, florida, virginia and maryland. one group criticized ice for not been forthright with advocates and their attorneys about the actions. a department of homeland security spokeswoman tells the newshour: the head of the ice field office in los angeles says his agents arrested 160 foreign nationals. almost all of them had felony or misdemeanor convictions, and about 40 have already been deported. the stepped-up action stems from president trump's january 25th executive order to detain immigrants who've broken the law and expedite their removal. homeland security secretary john kelly accompanied ice agents in san diego yesterday. >> went to a house, knocked on

the door and took a particularly bad individual, a male, into custody. >> sreenivasan: for some perspective on the immigration raids, i am joined from miami "" u.s.a. today" immigration reporter alan gomez. the immigration community calls them raids. ice wants to call them planned enforcements. was this something already planned, or was this a result of trump executive orders? >> everything ice is saying right now is this was absolutely a routine operation, that they had actually started planning before president trump signed his executive order on january 25 that really was designed to ramp up deportations. i can tell you the obama administration did two or three of these a year. around this time last year, the obama administration led a raid against women and children that were coming from central america. it was very controversial at the time. but it kind of shows that this is part of their practice. they do this two or three times

a year. and according to ice this is something that has been weeks in the planning and had nothing to do and was not coming from any different orders from the trump administration. >> sreenivasan: is there a wider net cast because of what president trump is interested in? >> absolutely. when we hear that fear, when we hear that panic from the immigrant community, this is kind of what they were waiting for. under president trump he set forth enforcement priorities, in other words, people they were going to target for deportation. undocumented immigrants with criminal records, with gangitize who foaz poez a threat to national security, and those who recently crossed the border. what president trump did when he signed his executive order on january 25, was vastly expand that pool. so now it's people with any kind of criminal record, people who have been charged with crimes that would be deemed deportable, people who committed public welfare fraud, people who have made false representations to the government-- in other words, people who use a fake social security number to get a job.

and so when you start adding all that up, i mean, i've seen estimates that this-- that eight million to nine million undocumented immigrants are considered priorities by the trump administration. so, yes, it's a very, very big pool of people that they're going after. >> sreenivasan: and it's important to note that president obama, who left office with the title "deporter in chief," i mean this is a fairly well-oiled deportation machine that's already on the books. >> absolutely. early in his administration, he made the point very clear that he was going to enforce immigration. at the time, he was doing that to sort of convince republicans and congress to go along with him on an immigration reform package. but it didn't work for him in either direction. he was bashed by republicans and by saying that he didn't do enough on immigration enforcement. he was bashed by immigration advocates who said that he was doing too much. and as you mentioned, they labeled him the "deportener chief." in reality what happened was he did-- for a time he was setting nearly records of the number of

people being deported, at one point reaching 400,000. in the last few years, the numbers plummeted. now the trump administration is trying to bring that back up. >> sreenivasan: this is also where the bulk of enforcement spending goes. i read basically we spend more on deportation and ice enforcement than on the f.b.i., the a.t.f., the secret service all combined. >> they think deals with the total amount of nan we dedicate to border patrol and to ice. understand, only a small fraction of people who work for ice-- there are about 15,000 agents that work for ice-- and only about 70% of their are on the removal task force that seek people living in the country. it's a large amratus but it's one that president trump, without any help from congress, can increase dramatically. he can retask a lot of people who work for immigrations and customs enforcement, he can refocus all those folks to going into the country and seek undocumented immigrants. even though the apparatus already is large, it can also be

increased dramatically very quickly. >> sreenivasan: alan gomez from "usa today" joining us from miami, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: the federal election commission is asking president trump to immediately share any evidence of voter fraud in new hampshire so his latest allegations of voting improprieties may be investigated. the associated press and" politico" report that in a closed-door meeting with ten republican senators on thursday and without offering any evidence, mr. trump alleged busloads of voters from massachusetts cast ballots against him in new hampshire, forcing him to narrowly lose the state to hillary clinton last november. politico says his remarks were met with "an uncomfortable silence." previously, and also without any evidence, the president claimed he lost the national popular vote to clinton because three million to five million people may have voted for her illegally. retail giants sears and k-mart said today they've removed 31 items from the "trump home" collection of furniture, lighting and other products they sold online. a spokesperson says the stores

focus on their "most profitable items." the "wall street journal" reported today that sales of ivanka trump's clothing line carried by department store chain nordstrom dropped 32% last year. her father, president trump, tweeted on wednesday that the store's decision to drop ivanka's line was "unfair." the next day, during a television interview, white house counselor kellyanne conway explicitly urged americans to buy ivanka's products. that's caused a house oversight committee to ask the office of government ethics to review whether conway violated rules barring federal employees from endorsing products. the republican party's plan to defund planned parenthood got a show of support today from hundreds of anti-abortion protests across the country today. but those protests were often smaller than simultaneous demonstrations by abortion rights supporters at the same sites. dozens of anti-abortion demonstrators marched to a planned parenthood location in

the nation's capital. in st. paul, minnesota, the "star tribune" reports 5,000 abortion rights demonstrators were separated by police barriers from 500 anti-abortion activists. anti-abortion groups, saying the election of president trump has energized them, had called for protests outside 200 planned parenthood's clinics in 45 states. in detroit, some 300 activists turned up outside a planned parenthood site, most of them in support of the group. planned parenthood, which turned 100 last year, says only 3% of its services are for abortions, and most of its federal funding is from medicaid reimbursements for preventive care. the newshour asked viewers if they were affected by president trump's executive order on immigration. read the story, including some of your responses, at www.pbs.org/newshour. this month, two major companies announced they're moving their headquarters within the united states. swiss food and drink conglomerate nestle is moving its u.s. base from southern california to northern virginia, affecting 1,200 jobs; while

caterpillar, the giant construction and equipment- making company, is moving its longtime headquarters from peoria, illinois, to chicago. in tonight's signature segment, a look at how these relocations highlight the tug of war between cities and states for top companies and jobs. newshour weekend's christopher booker has our report. >> reporter: for more than 40 years, these two buildings tucked away in the leafy enclave of fairfield, connecticut, housed the headquarters of one of the largest manufacturers in the united states: general electric. but a year ago, g.e. announced it was moving to boston and taking 200 high-paying jobs with it. mike tetreau is fairfield's first selectman, the town's top elected official. >> you've got one side saying that, "nah, they were planning it all along. there's nothing we can do." on the other side, you have people saying, "no, you're to blame. it's a bad tax environment. we forced them out of connecticut." >> reporter: g.e. was one of fairfield's top taxpayers, paying $1.6 million in property taxes in fiscal year 2016. g.e. still has more than 4,000

workers in other connecticut facilities, including 600 re- assigned from headquarters, but the departure is a blow for a state already struggling with tremendous fiscal liabilities. catherine smith is commissioner of the connecticut department of economic and community development. >> the reality is the 200 jobs that are moving from connecticut to boston really aren't going to make or break the economy here in connecticut. but i would say that the symbolism, the perception that changed with the g.e. decision is certainly a challenge for the state and something that we've been wrestling with a bit. >> reporter: connecticut is wrestling with contradictory economic forces. it's home to 13 billionaires and the state has the highest per capita income in the country. but it also has the highest per capita debt; the state is $23 billion in the red, and its pension fund for teachers and state workers is one of the country's most underfunded. in 2014, george mason university economists ranked connecticut dead last of the 50 states in fiscal health.

>> a lot of not-so-good choices in front of us, but we have to make the hard choices. >> reporter: in the past two years, connecticut governor dan malloy and the state legislature have chosen to make deep cuts in education and construction projects and laid off more than 1,000 state employees. the state has also raised its personal income tax and added a surcharge that effectively raised the 7.5% corporate tax rate to 9% for the state's largest companies, one of the highest rates in the u.s. in a june 2015 email to the staff, g.e. c.e.o. jeff immelt had complained about connecticut raising its taxes "five times since 2011." immelt told employees the company had formed "an exploratory team to look into the company's options to relocate corporate h.q. to another state with a more pro- business environment." massachusetts offered g.e. $145 million in incentives to move, including purchasing these two warehouses as g.e. workspace, ganting up to $25 million in property tax relief from the

city of boston, and possibly improving local road and parking infrastructure. >> it was a pretty good deal for g.e., but it was also a pretty good deal for the state and for the city. >> reporter: massachusetts governor charlie baker helped negotiate the deal. >> when we heard they were looking for possibly relocating their headquarters, i think we simply felt that with the ecosystem we had here and with the colleges and universities we had here, it would be a mistake for us not to at least give it a try and see what happened. >> reporter: how closely does massachusetts monitor the fiscal playing fields of other states and particularly states that are home to fortune 500 companies? >> well, we're in a competition- - and we know that-- with lots of other folks. i mean, we've had governors come up to massachusetts to make a pitch to companies here about why they should be in their states. >> reporter: baker, a republican, cooperated with boston's democratic mayor, marty walsh, on the pitch to g.e. the two men had cemented their relationship during the record breaking winter of 2015, when storms dumped over nine feet of snow in boston.

>> the g.e. people actually said to us at one point that one of the things that really impressed them about the bid from boston was the fact that there really wasn't an inch of daylight between the city and the state on anything. >> reporter: the company also says moving its headquarters is part of a strategic transformation into a "digital industrial company," producing the analytical technology required in large industrial products like its own aircraft engines, train locomotives and gas turbines. g.e. vice president ann klee, who oversaw the negotiations behind the massachusetts move, says the boston region offers a steady stream of the talent the company needs to make the transformation it says it requires. >> and that just wasn't connecticut, a place that's what we call "in the flow of ideas." and that's in a city where you have a great, you know, energy, access to talent, an ability to attract and retain talent. people want to move into cities. that's what we're seeing with millennials. and so, we looked at the move

from that perspective. how would we get into an ecosystem of innovation? which is what we found in boston. >> reporter: the new g.e. headquarters, including this 12- story office tower, will take up about 100,000 square feet less than the space of the old connecticut buildings. >> we think about the talent we're bringing in. lots of coders, software developers, technologists. so, when we think about our new headquarters, this is not your grandmother's headquarters. >> i think that jeff immelt realizes that there is a different mindset. >> reporter: "boston globe" business reporter jon chesto has written about the deal. >> he talks about it a lot, about, "i don't want to sit in an office where i can look out the window and see deer running by." he says, "i want to walk out the office and get," yeah, i think he used the expression, was "punched in the face by some m.i.t. geek who can do my job better than me." and there's a lot of smart people within a three-mile radius of where... where their headquarters is now. >> reporter: g.e. has now joined a roster of large companies leveraging better deals for themselves from states.

food processing giant conagra, the maker of chef boyardee and slim jim, moved its headquarters from omaha, nebraska, to chicago with a collection of undisclosed tax incentives from illinois. newell brands, which makes sharpie pens and rubbermaid products, moved from atlanta, georgia, to hoboken, new jersey, with a $27 million tax incentive package. hotel chain marriott stayed put in maryland after it was promised a $62 million in incentives. >> competition between the states overall is extremely high. companies that have their presence here in the state get calls from north carolina, south carolina, texas, so we have governors that come into the state to try to recruit companies away. so, it's incredible intensive. my own personal view-- and i think our governor, as well-- is that it's not necessarily beneficial for us to be using state tax dollars, which is what we do for their financial

incentive programs that are offered, like g.e. got out of boston. ther, we focus on reallyiescial growing the companies that are here. >> reporter: has there been any local pushback or blowback? i mean, i read a few op-eds here and there that said, "oh, you know, g.e. is a multibillion- dollar company. they don't need this type of money put before them." >> there are certainly people who have said that they don't think g.e. should, you know, get any incentives, and i understand where they're coming from. but if you talk to most people who pay attention to this sort of thing and study these kinds of things, having a company like g.e. here in boston and in massachusetts is going to pay back ten times over in a whole variety of ways. >> reporter: do you think connecticut could have done more to prevent g.e. from leaving? >> it's my view, based on a lot of interaction with g.e. and with the community in which they operate and with some of the employees, that g.e. was on a road to make a change. i think that decision actually was made long before we got into conversation with them.

by the time we got a chance to talk to them, i think the die had already been cast. >> reporter: last fall, connecticut offered another major employer, sikorsky aircraft, a $220 million incentive program to keep it from relocating. in return, smith says sikorsky promised to spend $700 million a year on connecticut-based companies that supply their production. but the state's fiscal woes continue. the office of fiscal analysis is projecting a $1.4 billion budget shortfall next fiscal year. last month, the state asked fairfield after cutting about $4 million from its 2016 budget to cut an additional half million. >> we have a significant drop in revenue from the state that we have to make up by either tax increases or expense cuts. so, i know fairfield was successful and vibrant and very much alive before g.e. came here, and we're going to have to continue to grow and learn to get over that and realize there's life beyond g.e.

>> sreenivasan: somalia, one of the seven countries listed in president trump's executive order restricting immigration, swore in a new president this week. mohamed abdullahi mohamed is a dual somali and american citizen who went to college and worked in the u.s. nicknamed "farmajo," the new president takes over as more than 250,000 somalis are living in a refugee camp in neighboring kenya, a camp the kenyan government wants to close but has been prevented from doing so by a court decision. for more, n.p.r. reporter eyder peralta joins me now via skype from kenya's capital, nairobi. first let's talk about this vote. this isn't exactly the one-person, one-vote we think of when we think of an election. what happened here? so, it was supposed to be a one-person, one vote type of election that we're used to, but the government could not get its act together, and they also had massive security concerns. so what they decided on was a process where parliament was electing the president. so parliament had two rounds of

votes, and by the second round, mohammed farmajo won that round. they were supposed to be to a third round. but the incumbent stepped away from the race. so mohamfarmajo became the new president. >> sreenivasan: the clan elders elect the delegates, the delegates elect the m.p.s, the m.p.s elect the president. there are charges of corruptions on whether some of the votes were bought. >> i have been speaking to lots of people who are anticorruption activists, and they've looked into this, and what they said was votes were going for tens of thousands dollars, and the former president of somalia was seen as having spent a ton of money on this seat. and so, mohammed farmajo, as did all 24 candidates, and the inspector general from the country has looked at this, was-- they bought votes.

but he was seen as the least-corrupt candidate. >> sreenivasan: let's also talk a little bit about the refugee camp that's in kenya, that has an enormous somali population. you were just there. this is one of the world's largest, if not the largest refugee camp. >> yeah, it's huge, and it was supposed to be closed by the kenyan government in may and a court here said that it should not be closed. somalis there had two reasons to celebrate-- and in fact they went out to the streets to celebrate-- one that the camp was not closing, two that mohamed farmajo had been elected. and mohamed farmajo was the favorite and people have hope that he might bring change to sonawl nawl ja. >> sreenivasan: what about the executive orders and repercussions back and forth when somalis were perhaps on their way to the unitedstates and stopped and started again. what has that done to the country? >> when i was down there, people felt really abandoned.

they felt abandoned by the united states. they felt abandoned by the kenyans. and about 200 of the refugees there had been flown to nairobi, awaiting flights to the united states. and they were canceled. and i think the important thing to remember is that these are refugees who have been there since the 90s and have been waiting for resettlement to the united states anywhere from six to nine years. and so this was really heartbreaking for them. but then this decision from the 9th circuit came down, and i was just at the transit center here in nairobi a couple of days ago, and they've started flying back to the united states again. and the 200 who were sent back to the camps to await flights have now been brought back to nairobi, and they've started flying out today, back to the united states. >> sreenivasan: all right, eyder peralta, of npr joining us vie skype from nairobi.

thanks so much. >> thank you. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: in new zealand, volunteers are scrambling to save hundreds of pilot whales. more than 650 have beached themselves in the last two days along a three-mile stretch of coastline. i.t.n. reporter jacqui long has more. >> reporter: rescuers wade waist deep as they attempt to refloat hundreds of stranded pilot whales that continue to crash land on this remote beach in new zealand. they managed to refloat around 100 whales at high tide this morning before a new pod of over 200 became beached, keeping volunteers on watch around the clock. as some try to dig the animals out of trouble, others keep them hydrated with wet cloths and buckets of water to help regulate their core temperature. refloating the animals is an arduous task. lifting can prove very difficult

and dangerous to their well being, so waiting for a high tide is the best chance of getting them back into the sea. >> very quickly, this tide has come racing in. >> reporter: it is still not clear why the whales continue to arrive at farewell spit. some say they may be fleeing a herd of sharks after teeth marks were found on one carcass. new arrivals may unfortunately be responding to earlier distress signals. more than 300 of the original 400 which arrived have died in what is one of new zealand's most devastating mass stranding of whales. with no answers as to why it's happening, managing the situation seems to be the only option. officials must also decide how to clear the hundreds of whale carcasses strewn across the shore.

>> sreenivasan: finally, following years of protests, yale university announced today it is dropping the name of john calhoun from one of its 12 residential colleges. calhoun, a yale alum, senator from south carolina and u.s. vice president, was an ardent slavery supporter who advocated state nullification of national laws, a philosophy which led to southern secession and the civil war. yale will rename calhoun college after another alum: pioneering computer scientist grace murray hopper, who posthumously won the presidential medal of freedom last year. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made

possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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