captioning sponsored by wnet on this edition for sunday, may 7: france picks a new president. in our signature segment: cambodian refugees deported by the united states to a homeland they never knew. and, former obama deputy attorney general sally yates set to testify about michael flynn 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 thanks for joining us. emmanuel macron has won one of the most divisive and acrimonious political campaigns in french history in the run- pulist marine le pen.ht-wing projections give macron what analysts are calling an" emphatic" victory over his bitter rival, winning over sixty percent of the vote. macron, who will become france's youngest president since the office was established almost 170 years ago spoke to supporters this evening: >> ( translated ): after a long democratic confrontation, you've decided to grant me your

confidence and i want to express my profound gratitude. it's a great honor and it's a great responsibility. >> sreenivasan: marine le pen conceded defeat and called macron to congratulate him, wishing him success in dealing with the massive challenges facing france. in a tweet, president trump also congratulated macron and said he looks forward to working with him. the choice couldn't have been more stark to succeed socialist francois hollande between the 39-year old former economy minister macron who wants to bolster european integration and who supports immigration, and le pen, who wants to leave the e.u. and the euro currency and crack down on immigration. macron and his wife cast their ballots today in the town of le tourquet, while le pen voted in a town controlled by her national front party, henin- beaumont. despite the high stakes, election officials say the turnout was lower than the previous several presidential elections. both candidates had their supporters with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

calais resident, mathieu. >> ( translated ): we end up with two candidates from the oligarchy, there you are. i am happy with neither of them. neither of them have an interesting program for tomorrow's world. >> ( translated ): i voted le pen because macron, we don't know where he is coming from, and france will have serious problems if he gets at the helm. >> it wasn't easy for me to vote for mr. macron because he represents a kind of financial elite that i don't recognize myself in so it wasn't easy >> sreenivasan: joining me now from paris, outside jubilant macron headquarters, is" newshour weekend" special correspondent malcolm brabant. malcolm, how much of a victory was this for him as we heard from people at the polls here? some say it wasn't a vote for him, it was a vote against the opposition. >> well, this is -- if you look at the numbers, it looks like a really substantial victory. 65 versus 35%. but the real numbers that actually voted for macron it is not that big.

he cannot really regard this as being a complete mandate, a popular mandate because there were so many people who abstained and overall there were only about 20 million french voters who actually voted for him and that's less than a third of the country. many of the people who voted for him weren't necessarily voting for him, they were voting tactically. what they wanted to do more than anything else is marine le pen from getting into the elisses palace. >> >> sreenivasan: there is the difficulty of governing now. >> very much so. the president has the ability to appoint a prime minister and various other ministers. but like the u.s. president he needs to have the french parliament with him and french parliamentary elections are coming up in june and he has not any real party formation or party history.

he has somehow got to get about 270 people into parliament if he's to have his movement in the majority there. and i think that what we are really going osee is not so the other parties doing their utmost to try to stymie him. or the the next four years he may find it very difficult to get his policies through especially if the parliament doesn't support it. >> sreenivasan: one of the issues that was very clear cut, between their relationship and what they would like the relationship be to the eu. should the eu take some comfort that le pen did not win or should they be concerned that macron does not have that mandate yet? >> you know what, any sort of a servinger would say to the bureaucrats in brussels, there are very many people in europe who are very unhappy with the way the eu is run and those are the people that need to be listened to. otherwise the right wing nationalist movement is going to continue. what possibly happened here tonight is this movement, this

wave which lots of people were hoping was going to sweep across europe seems to have come to another dead halt here although marine le pen says she's the head of a great opposition. that's the destiny of this section is it's going to be destiny rather than government. >> thanks so much. >> you're very welcome. >> sreenivasan: trump administration officials and allies defended the health care bill passed narrowly last week by the house. speaker paul ryan called the status who have a pre-existing condition get affordable coverage and that's not happening in obamacare. you gotta remember if you can't even get a health insurance plan, what good is it? you don't have health insurance. >> sreenivasan: but ohio republican governor john kasich said the proposed eight-billion dollars for a risk pool for americans with pre-existing conditions is, "totally inadequate".

>> now i can tell you we can do with less resources but you can't do it overnight and you cannot give people a three or four-thousand dollar health insurance policy, you know where they're going to be? they're going to be living in the emergency rooms again. >> sreenivasan: health and human services secretary tom price insisted that cutting almost one-billion dollars from medicaid will actually give states more flexibility to provide coverage. >> so what we're fashioning is a system that would allow the states to tailor their medicaid program to those specific individuals thereby saving money, yes, but also making it so they have a higher level of care, higher quality of care than they currently do. >> sreenivasan: with the bill now before the senate, president trump today pressured republican members, tweeting: >> sreenivasan: democratic senator dianne feinstein said that she is concerned by the lack of analysis of the bill's cost and coverage by the non- partisan congressional budget office. >> i'm really very worried that

in our rush to judgement, we create a major healthcare problem for people and we lose a lot of jobs in so doing and we create a whole atmosphere of unpredictability. >> sreenivasan: on questions of russian meddling and hacking in the u.s. presidential election, congressional committees are probing ties and communications between trump campaign operatives and russia. tomorrow, former deputy and acting attorney general sally yates is scheduled to testify in public about what she knew about ousted national security adviser michael flynn, as well her conversations with the trump white house about him." associated press" reporter eric tucker is covering this story and joins me now from washington.

what is the discrepancies likely to be? >> so we are going to hear sally yates describe a conversation she had in january with the white house counsel and she's likely to say that she warned the white house that there is a major discrepancies between what they were saying publicly about michael flynn's conversations with sergei kisliac, who was the russian ambassador and what he said he said. in sally yates in particular it was enough to leave michael flynn in a compromised position. >> sreenivasan: that's a different narrative from what the trump administration is initially saying about this. >> yes, the administration said yes indeed sally yeats came to us in january to let us know that there was a discrepancies but what we expect, we expect sally yates to testify that this seasonality just a heads up but this was an alarm and owarning

that you guys keep saying based on what michael flynn was pelg telg you, he didn't discuss sanctions with mr. kisliac. >> sreenivasan: to the point where the obama administration was not actually giving information to the incoming trump administration because they didn't trust that this information wasn't going to get pack to the russians. >> that's correct. my colleague wrote a big piece on friday suggesting these alarms that were surfacing within the obama administration based on questions and information that the trump transition team that was asking particularly as it related to sergei kisliac, you are already seeing this area of mistrust to develop. >> who is about to be called up to rebut the testimony that sally yates will give tomorrow? >> to point out back in february the conversations that occurred were reince priebus and sean

spicer, they were out there characterizing the conversations. we'll see tomorrow. the actual january 25th conversation sally yates had involved don mcgann, it's not certain what he will have to say in response. >> sreenivasan: clapper in march said i haven't heardfully evidence of any conclusion. >> that's right, republicans seem to seize on that statement as some sort of vindication. however, clapper at the time did have a sort of important caveat when he said, at the time i left the administration which would have been january, and when we know from fbi director jim comey this week, this investigation is ongoing, new intelligence is being reviewed, new information is being processed and assessed so it is not clear how significant it is if in january no conclusion existed. that doesn't necessarily, not dispositive of anything necessarily. >> sreenivasan: sally yates

testimony begins tomorrow at 2:00, you can expect it to be covered, thanks eric. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: every year, the u.s. deports thousands of documented immigrants after they complete prison terms for certain felonies. the policy applies to legal permanent residents-- green card holders-- from just about any country, including those granted asylum as refugees. the policy dates back to the clinton administration. enforcement was stepped up by the bush administration following 9/11 and continued by the obama administration. it remains in effect today. in tonight's signature segment"" newshour weekend" special correspondent kira kay reports from cambodia on a tight-knit community of war refugees turned u.s. deportees, fighting to change the policy. >> reporter: when chally dang was growing up in philadelphia,

he dreamed of playing professional basketball. >> we'd just shoot hoops and dream of one day making it big in the nba. so it's part of being american. >> reporter: but america is just a memory for dang. he plays his sunday pick-up game nine-thousand miles from philadelphia, in phnom penh, the capital of cambodia, where his parents were born. >> reporter: dang is not here by choice. he grew up in the u.s. as a legal permanent resident, a child of war refugees. but in 2011, he was deported to a country he never knew. >> everything was different, it was like a culture shock. the environment is different, the people are different, the language is different. >> reporter: his crime was firing a gun in the air during a gang standoff when he was 15- years-old. he served five years, and upon release, the government ordered him deported, but didn't act on it. he got a job and had five kids. but deportation orders never expire, and eight years later, when dang went for a routine immigration check-in, he was detained and put on a plane to cambodia.

he says there's a stigma to being a deportee. >> we are in our own category, because the cambodian community look at us as foreigners who decided to come back, and those that know we were deported look at us like we are criminals that got rejected from another country so why are we back in cambodia? >> reporter: dang is one of 550 deportees from america now living in cambodia. they began arriving in 2002, when this country signed a repatriation agreement with the u.s. to accept green card holders of cambodian descent who had committed aggravated felonies, even nonviolent offenses that carried short sentences. the "cool lounge," a bar run by deportees, is home away from home for these people who went to american schools, listened to american music, ate american food. >> reporter: chandara tep is from modesto, california. >> i grew up 4th of july, you know, fireworks, bbq, spring breaks. i shed tears when 9/11 happened, because i felt like i was american too.

>> reporter: tep was deported six years ago, following his conviction for assaulting a police officer. sophea phea and bobby orn also arrived in 2011, kalvin heng, in 2004. heng and phea weren't born in cambodia. like many deportees they were born in refugee camps in thailand, after their parents fled war and the genocidal khmer rouge regime that ruled cambodia in the 1970s and killed two- million people. the american bombing of cambodia during its war in vietnam added to the chaos. the u.s. eventually granted asylum to 150-thousand cambodian refugees between 1975 and 1994. >> you come from a jungle to a concrete jungle. you are over here in cambodia, you know, you dodging bullets. over there you're living in the project, you're dodging muggers and robbers and thieves. >> in the states, being in bad neighborhoods, sometimes we make mistakes, and sometimes we go on a wrong path, and not knowing what the bigger consequences are.

>> reporter: these children of refugees say they had no idea their brushes with the law made them vulnerable to deportation. kalvin heng says he didn't fight his assault with a deadly weapon charge and accepted a one-year sentence, not knowing that made him deportable. >> we weren't informed about taking a plea bargain, or anything like that. if we take a plea bargain we could be, you know we could face deportation, and so on and so on. we didn't know any of that until like now, when we started doing our research. >> reporter: american immigration judges have no leeway to consider how potential deportees have rehabilitated their lives. tep had been out of prison for 13 years when he was deported, leaving a wife and three kids behind. >> we changed our lives. we had families, you know. we bought a home, you know, we did all that stuff already, and then knock-knock, you know, "you've got to go, because you're not a citizen." >> reporter: by the time they land in cambodia, deportees have been stripped of all american identification. cambodian immigration officials

give them a single document with their name, birth date, and photo. their lives start over from scratch. >> i had no luggage. i had about $150 in my pocket. no possessions at all. >> everything's in cambodian and you don't even know how to write your name in cambodian. >> reporter: local officials wouldn't even recognize heng's immigration document. so he got creative. >> my uncle had to play my dad. and then i had to be put into his family book and use the identity of my cousin that passed away the year before i came. so i was under a whole new identity for 12, 13 years. >> reporter: what do you say to the comment that i'm sure you guys get a lot, "tough luck, you guys had an opportunity in the states, you blew it?" >> what i say? my answer's always like this: yes, i messed up, i confess to it, you know what i mean, but you are not seeing where we're coming from, you know, we're refugees of the war and i lost my rights, of course, because i'm not a citizen. but my kids has rights, my mom has rights, a right to be a

family member, a right to be with one another, you know what i mean. >> i do believe that you do the crime you do the time, and you know for most of us, or all of us, we've done our time. >> these are not illegal immigrants. they didn't sneak into the u.s. >> reporter: american bill herod was living in cambodia when the deportees began arriving in 2002. he says back in the u.s., officials had left refugees to fend for themselves. >> because of the failure of the refugee resettlement program, no case officer came around and knocked on the door and said, "you need to fill out these papers to get citizenship." >> reporter: herod's charity, the "returnee integration support center," or "risc," is staffed by deportees and helps newcomers through the difficult adjustment. >> they actually live here in this building if they don't have any place else to go, or we pay to put them in a guest house. et. just help them get on their and then we find out what their

interests are, what their work experience is, and try to help them find jobs. >> reporter: risc has helped 50 american deportees train for and obtain jobs teaching english and keeps tabs on them as they assimilate into cambodian society. despite many success stories, some deportees succumb to drug use, mental health problems, and crime. herod lost an eye when grabbing drano out of the hands of a despondent deportee. >> and some don't make it. we've had suicides. and it's heartbreaking when we realize that maybe if we'd made another field visit or another phone call or taken him out for pizza one more time, we might have been able to help them get across that blockage. >> reporter: deportees struggle with whether or not to reveal their criminal records. heng works as an advertising manager at a local english- language newspaper and was candid with his employer. >> i've made a mistake in the past. i've did my time for it.

i've rehabilitated. so please don't look at what i've done in the past affect what i can contribute. and they've been very good to me about it. >> reporter: but phea, who was deported for credit card fraud, needed three years to open up to others about her past. >> i was lonely. i was depressed, i kind of was lost. >> reporter: she now teaches cambodian children in a phnom penh school, but she isn't raising her own 13-year-old son, who remains in california with his father. >> i'm angry that this has fractured my relationship with my son. we don't have that communication anymore. i don't know if he's going to turn out to be angry at me or just holding grudges against me or just feeling lonely that i'm not there. >> reporter: he visited her last year for the first time. she hopes it won't be the last.

>> and he didn't know how to call me "mom" anymore, and that hurts. >> in the u.s., deportee families and cambodian-american community leaders have lobbied american officials for changes in immigration policy with few results. last year, kalvin heng had a realization. >> i just blurted it out, you know, "let's take it to the cambodian government." >> heng recruited his deportee friends and formed a political action group, "one love cambodia." they are pushing to amend the repatriation agreement from the cambodian side. most crucially, they want the cambodian government to refuse to accept anyone who was once a refugee. to their surprise, this group of ex-convicts was granted a meeting with high level officials at cambodia's interior ministry. >> they sat there and listened to each of our stories and seeing what we struggle here. >> no one had gone up to them and officially filed for a grievance and, you know, really let them know that you know this is really, really messing up our communities and our families across the u.s.

>> reporter: only days after that meeting, the cambodian government sent a letter to the american embassy, requesting to amend the current repatriation agreement and "suspend temporarily the implementation" until a new deal is struck. the u.s. rejected cambodia's request to suspend deportations and has sometimes withheld visas and economic aid from countries that refuse to accept deportees. u.s. officials have agreed to a first discussion with cambodia, expected to take place soon. >> reporter: just ten days ago, cambodia's prime minister publicly demanded to renegotiate the agreement, calling the deportations "a sad separation" of families. >> nobody ever stepped up to them and told them this is what's happening. >> reporter: the "one love cambodia" team is assisting the cambodian government in preparation for the talks-- talks they hope will yield changes that might come too late for them, but could stop others from following in their footsteps.

>> sreenivasan: the 82 kidnapped nigerian schoolgirls freed yesterday by boko haram islamic militants arrived in nigeria's capital today to meet with president muhammadu buhari, as their families looked forward to being reunited. the government said today the girls were released in exchange for five captured boko haram leaders. the freed girls were among 276 girls kidnapped from their school in chibok more than three years ago. more than 100 of the kidnaped girls remain in boko haram captivity. attempts by migrants and refugees to reach europe are accelerating as the weather improves. more than four-thousand were rescued in the mediterranean over the weekend. a spanish aid group said today one of its ships picked up more than five-hundred migrants from syria and sub-saharan africa. the group said the migrants had departed from libya. a spanish warship picked up more than 650 migrants off libya yesterday.

also yesterday, the italian coast guard and navy and other groups rescued three-thousand migrants in the mediterranean sea in more than 20 separate operations. the international organization for migration reports that almost 44-thousand refugees and migrants have arrived in europe by sea so far this year. north korea said today it has detained yet another u.s. citizen, the fourth the country is now holding. the official news agency said kim hak song was detained yesterday on suspicion of what it called "acts against the state." he worked at the same pyongyang university of science and technology where the third u.s. citizen was detained last month. the university was founded by evangelical christians in 2010. california is leading the nation with the highest percentage of state and federal prisoners serving life sentences. find out why at pbs.org/newshour

finally, returning to our top story, 39-year old centrist emmanuel macron has been elected france's next and youngest president, winning a decisive victory over far-right populist marine le pen in today's run-off election. and in boston, former president barack obama is being honored tonight with the kennedy foundation's annual "profile in courage" award, presented by president kennedy's daughter is evening after experts homes defused three british bombs dropped on the city during world war ii. that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." thanks for watching. i'm hari sreenivasan. 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 ontributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

stephen edwards: i've spent my entire career scoring hollywood films and tv shows. the sudden loss of my mother to cancer inspired me to compose a requiem just for her. a requiem is a mass for the dead, so it's an ancient catholic burial rite, and it's a recipe, a series of prayers that basically sends a person's soul from the living world to the cosmic, eternal world. [chorus singing in latin] edwards: a requiem is intense. it's talking about death and fire and hell and damnation and trying to save the soul of the person that's departed, and i did it for my mother. we got sort of blindsided by this invitation from the musica sacra festival in vatican city, and i was the first american composer ever invited, so the invitation included a live broadcast on italian tv