captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy wooshuff. on the nr tonight, president trump unveils his latest vision for spending that discards balancing the budget, adding new plans to fix roads, bridges and airports. then, opposing putin: we talk with a candidate running against russia's president in next month's elecon. plus, dispatches from the border.er a foatrol agent grapples with the complexity of life on the line between the u.s. and mexico. >> at the end of the day, i'm putting you in a cell and i'm sending you back to this place that you quite literally are risking your life to flee. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> woodruff: president trump has rolled out his $4 trillionsa budget pro with a big aost for systems that serve planes, trains aomobiles. it's for the fiscal year that begins in october. the president met today with state and local officials to discuss his ideas on aging roads and bridges and transit systemsg >> we're go make our infrastructure modernized, and we're really way behind schedule. we're way behind other countries. we always led the way for ma, many years. then number of decades ago i slowed down, and over the last eight years, and 15 years, to be honest, it's come to a halt. >> woodruff: the plan spending cuts are mostly negated by last week's deal that includes huge spending hikes for this year and next. but democrats, including senate miority leader chuck schumer, took aim at the president's priorities, and the projected

deficit of roughly $1 trillion. >> just six weeks after slashing taxes on the wealthiest and biggt corporations, afterti cr a massive deficit, who does the president ask to pay for this? middle class and ol americans. he slashes education, environmental protection, andca me and medicaid. >> woodruff: we'll take a closer look at the president's ideas on infrastructure, right after the news summary. in the day's other news, wall street followed up fs rally and regained more of last week's losses. the dow jones industrial average was up 410 points to close at 24,601. the nasdaq rose 107 points, and the s&p 500 added 36. all three indexes are still down roughly 7% from the highs they reached just last month. the u.s. senate is beginning a rare, open-ended debate on

immigration this evening. president trump's plan includes a pathway to citizenship for those brought to the u.s. ctlegally as children. it would also restegal immigration and fund a border wall. democrats say the plan is a non- starter. in russia, investigators combed thugh wreckage for clues today, after sunday's plane crash near mosco all 71 people on board were killed. the russian jetliner went down in a field shortly after taking off. officials say they've recored two black boxes that could shed light on what happened. >> (anslated ): both flight data recorders were found and sent to be decoded by the interstate aviation committee. the committee will publish the decoded transcript on its official website later on. we have already found over 700 fragments, you have seen that we have already sent away a plane carrying the first load of 453 fragments of the victims.

>> woodruff: investigators say they don't yet know the cause, tebut they have ruled out or attack. there's word that south africa's ruling party is demanding president jacob zuma resign o thin 48 hours. that's accordinge state- run south african broadcasting corporation. zuma faces a bevy corruption allegations, but he's denied all wrongdoing. an executive committee of the ruling african national congress met today to decide zuma's fate. pawer has been restored ts of puerto rico that lost it sunday night. an explosion and fire at an electric substation caused the outage. officials said the northern part of the island was affected, and crews worked through the night. the u.s. territory is still struggling to restore power everywhere, five months after hurricane "maria." the national portrait gallery unveiled two new works today: formal images of former president barack obama and first lady michelle obama.

the obamas were there for the ceremony in washington, alongside their painters, kehinde wiley and amy sherald. mrs. obama said she hopes the portraits will speak to future generations. >> i'm also thinking of all the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who in years ahead will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them. i know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because i was one of those gis. >> woodruff: wiley and sherald are the first black artists to receive a presidentialortrait commission from the national gallery.an finally, highlights from day three at the winter olympics in south korea. more gold on slopes and skis, and a bit of history. ndrai nagasu became the first american woman to triple axel in olympic figure skating. the canadians took the gold in

the team figure skating event, while the u.s. won bronze. and american jamie anderson clinched gold in slope-style snowboarding. she also won at sochi in 2014. still to come on t newshour:e what it will t fix the nation's infrastructure. the russian tv personali challenging vladimir putin for president, and much more. >> w earlier, president trump today unveiled his long-awaited infrastructure plan and spendini pres. both were overshadowed by internal struggles at the white house, and questions of how top staff handled domestic violencei allegations t two aides.oc it was a major of today's white house briefing with press secretary sarah sanders. >> the president and the entire

administration take domestic violence very seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated thoroughly.ab e all, the president supports victims of domestic faolence and believes everyone should be treated ly and with due process. >> why haven't we heard the president say exactly what just said right there, that he takes domestic violence very seriously? >> i spoke with the president, and those are actually directly his words that he gave me earlier today. >> but why hasn't he said that? he had the opportuni he's been active on twitter. >> it's my job to speak on behalf of the president. i spoke him, and he relayed that message directly to me, and i'm relaying it directly to you. >> woodruff: our yamiche alcindor joins me now for more. yamiche, what the white house wanted to talk about today was the budget and something else and we'll get to that in manet, but this lingering story is hanging out there, reporters asking how di theesident, how did the white house handle this and why is this still going on? >> this is supposed to be infrastructure week. this is the white house's second try at infrastructure ek and

each time it's been overshadowed by this scndal. we're talking about it largelyt because trumeted about it over the weekend. he didn't name rob porter, the her aide who resigned because of dovisticolence allegations, but said people's lives were being destroyed and cess.needed due pro because nobody knew who, what (at the white house, this has been an isse the white house is continuing to deal sith. john keld as soon as he heard about the allegations, 40 minutes later ob porter was out of the job. sarah sandersaid it was actually 24 hours later rob porter resigned or was terminated and even that detail is murky. so there is the idea this president trump likees to the defense of men who are allegedlym doestically violating people. you have the idea sarah sanderss said the prident dictated a statement to her in support of

domestic violence victims. but the president who no qualtw using his itter account to say what's on his mind has not spoken pupblicly in suport of the women here. >> woodruff: and people were pointing to a series of statements over the last several years where he's spoken out in more sympathy for people accused of abuse. yamiche, let's talk about the other things going on at theit house today. the president did roll t they are budget for the coming fiscal year. just give us the highlights. >> some of the highlights is this is a budget that's $4.4 trillion, 10% more than republicans wanted to spend in 2017. the other thing that's happeni here ey're asking for $23 billion in border security that includes mney for the wall. of course, that's the wall on the bored o mexico. 28 billion, sorry. then 13 billion for opioid treatment ser avice critical step since president trump declared a publhealth crisis on this issue in october.

and $200 billion for infrastructure structure in 10 years. $716 billion for military spending. the other thing that's hpngpe here is it eliminates 62 agencies including the corporationr public broadcasting. it eliminates a lot of titlement programs which is something that republicans wanted to get rid of. they said 64 agencies. sorry about that. then they have $554 billion cut from mecaid. $215 billion cut from medicaid. $214 billion cut from the snap program which used to be known as the food stamp program. the other thing that's being cut is the e.p.a. it's going to be losing $2.8 billion. that's a lot of money. most of those programs are to eliminate change programs. that's a big deal because a lot of people are saying this is an administration hostile to climate change issues. it adds $984 billion to the

deficit in 2018 -- in 2019, which is a huge, huge change foc repus who have really been wanting to balance the budget. >> woodruff: it's been noted they don't even make a pretense of getting to balance of worrying about deficits. so the last thing, quickly, of course, is infrastructure. this has been long awaited and the white house did finally purh out their plan. >> the white hou pushed out their plan today and it's an issue that the white house should be able to get me bipartisan support on. the president, when he talked about infrastructure, it was a very popular thing. bernie sanders, when i was on the campaign trail with him, also talkedout infrastructure. but the way president trump is talking about the infrastructur plan is essentially saying states and local governments are going to be the ones bearing the brunt and paying for the most of it. the federal government would spend something like $200 billion, but that's a small fraction of what they want to spend. today senator chuck schumer came out today and said there aret goin be trump tolls all

across the country saying for president trump to get ths plan passed it's going to have to turn into tolls and all sorts of fees being passed on to different americans. republicans, on the other hand, some have been saying they praised this program asome of them, of course, have been thying they want more explanation becausy're very wary about the fact they're adding to the deficit. >> woodruff: a lot ofdi ussion still about how this is paid for in very early stages. yamiche alcindor, so much going on. than >> thank you. >> woodruff: as yamiche said, the president's broad infrastructure blueprint relies on states and local governments to find much of the money that would be needed for a trillpln- dollar-plu. it also would depend on a major infusion of investment from the private sector. we get some retion to this now from the mayor of los angeles, eric garcetti. he's also the chair of a task force on the subjector the u.s. conference of mayors. yor garcetti, thank you very much for joining us. let me just start out by asking,

what's your overall reaction? they are talking about leveraging federal dollars to state and local dollars and the rest of it, something like one to five. >> good evening, judy, an any day that washington is talking about infrastructure is music to my eurs, but, of rse, the devil will be in the details. but we've got a yawning $5.4 trillion gap, and we want to get home to r tam ls quicker, cut traffic, we don't want to be on unsafe bridges, and we need the geeks generatofn orts and airports to help fuel -- the next ge ports and airports to fuel americans have passed $260 billion in infrastructure, this only proposals $200 billion over ten years. there is more money inhis budgetor the wall than for cities in america to hav ansit dollars and to fix their roads, to fix the potholes. so we're doing our pareand want to see federal government do its part and not just take $20 out of our wallet and give

it to themselves, give it back to us and say here's your infrastructure money. we want it to be real money for real jobs and real infrastructure repair this country so badly needs it was it's important for you and other state and local officials arounb the countr, at the same time, the federal government b has to be focused on the deficit. we just heard red ink numbers that are pretty scary. can you expect the federal government to come up wit the lion's share of this money that's neede>> o, we expect them to do what they have in the past, and think about the erie canal, the work the federal government did to build the highway system or the internet. when we don't take care of our infrastructure we pay trillions and balls belinfamily, companies that donof'ts arstal the united states becae it's too difficult to get through the red tape. so this is money that helps

bring more in and we're not expecting them to have the lion's share, but tlly act cut existing programs in some cases to pay for this. we want to work with both parties. we have democratic and republican mayors ready to show how we have been doing and how the federal government can come and lead. we ned it to be paid with real dollars, probably theng onsho of overseas profits but we will look for other altayernative to get in there. >> woodruff: we know this administration is also looking for the private setor to come up with some of these dollars. why isn't that a good idea? >> it can be and we're doing that here in los angeles.bl denver wasto help the privatele sector build a new rail line from downtown to th airport quick around cheaper, but don't expect the private sector to coe and to redo water that right now in many cities is polluted or to upgrade our electricity lines to build out our port or airports. those are things we have to doth ederal help and american

cities have a loud and clear hington.for was we'll help but we want federal tax dollars back in ourm communities, fral to most densely populated urban areas to match the dollars and we both can count the dollars if we do it the right way. >> woodruff: mayor garcetti, another quick point i wanted to ask about is what the president had to say about streamlining, in effect, the permittin process. he said washington will no longer be a road block to progss, washington is now going to be your partner. we know a number of your fellow mayors sayt's a good thing they're talking about streamlining, cuttinf back on somee federal regulations. what about that? >> absolutely. any day we cut red tape is alo music to the ears of america's may -- mayors. that's a great part of the proposal. but we need money to match that. we don't want projects to take a decade or two to move forward. we've built some of the greatest infrastructure in this country

in a war, in a matter of a monthea year or two. we need money to match.y mooves project forward and we are stepping up with a quarter of a trillion from amica's cities in the last year and a half. we need the federal government not the space out 200 billion, which is less than that, over a decade. >> woodruff: mayor garcetti, a question about immigration the united states senate is beginning a major debate tonight .bout what to do with immigration refo one of the big questions discussed in the congress is what to do about these young people who were brought into the country without documentation as children and whether they should be given a path to citizenship. there is something like 700,000 dacipients. right now people are asking, are democrats prepared if republicans give on that andt keep tth to citizenship for these daca young peoe, are democrats, in turn, prepared to give on things like the visa

lottery, on what republicans call chain migration, letting more family members in, parts of legal migration. >> we should hold republicans leaders to their words who have said they're for the dreamers, independent of other things. i'm a sn of a dreamer who fled to this country in world war ii and got his citizenship. i' seen the brilliance of young men and women. depaul ryan, the pre said they want to do something. do that independent. then immigr whether border protection, or the type of family reunification. but hol dding teamers hostage after people publicly saiand 80% of americans support giving them a pathway to legal status needs to get done right away. i believe old fashioned that people shod live up to their

word. >> woodruff: we'll watch the debate unfold this week. mayor far sety of los angeles, thank you very much. >> gre to be with y, judy. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour, the trump administration scaling back the consumer protection bureau. are republicans becoming more comfortae with spending deficits? and a former border patrol agent's new book. but first, in just over four weeks russian voters will go the polls to elect a president. there is no suspense about the outcome: it is a safe bet that vladimir putin will be re- elected to a fourth term, extending his rule into a third decade. as nick schifrin reports, putin has a high profi challenger from his own past who's trying to convert celebrity, into

votes. >> reporter: 36-year-old ksenia sobchak is one of russia's most famous women. and now she's exchanging her mission to grab wealth and fame to mission impossible: unseat russian president vlad putin. why are you qualified to be the predent of russia? >> because i have no fear in myself, i'm courageous. in russia, which isn authoritaruntry where someone who is against putin can be put to prison, can be killed, can be suppressed in dnt ways, the real thing you need ourageousness is just to show that you're not afraid. >> reporter: sobchak grew up not having to fear anything. she inhabited the privileled post-soviee. she became a reality-tv star, a millionaire entrepreneur w eh a commerciire, a socialite with 5.5 million instagram followers. she traveled widely and lived well and voted for putin.

but in 2011 she switched sides. she joined massive protests to criticize putin for being corrupt and authoritarian. she posted anti-government d she became a journalist on russia's only opposition tv channel. for her efforts, she was hounded by police. that's her being detained in 2012. today on the campaign trail, she argues putin had the chance to enrich the country, and instead enriched himself. >> we had so much oil money buta they were all eared. no roads. no hospitals. but moreov, no new industries. we don't have a single thing we can be proud of, only palacesfo the people who are connected p to osident. >> reporter: with all due respect, you have definitely p been part of tvileged class. so why would someone in russia think, you know, you can change that?

>> yes i h some privilege to get a good education and to be brought up in this political family but i didn't have any other privileges. no one can say that she has her money from corruption because i'm not into this. >> reporter: sobchak's criticisms of putin are not onlt do. she also attacks the core of his popularity: his muscular foreign policy. >> russia! russia! >> reporter: invading and then annexing crimea. supporting separatists who destablized eastern ukraine. sending the russian air force to syria, and publicly allying with syrian president bashar al assad. >> i don't support crimea annexation and i'm saying this out loud and i don'tupport our operation on syria. i think the crimea was a huge mistake which will live on with all our generation and will cope with it for years now. >> reporter: she's known putin for years. sobchak's father anatoly was the mayor of st. petersburg and

putin's political patron. at anatoly's funeral, putin embraced ksenia's mother. that relationship has led manyal toknesia sobchak a kremlin stooge, helping legitimize a preordaiind election. polyakova is a fellow at the brookings institution. they're hoping having a young female dynamic, a socialite in the election will get people tol come to the , especially young people, which will, at the end of the day, legitimize putin once again. >> reporter: that's what alexei navalny argues. he's the country's leading opposition figure, ween banned from running for president on what he calls trumped up criminal charges. back in 2012, navalny embraced thsobchak after they were released from jail. but today, he criticizes sobchak for ignoring his election boycott, and participating in what he calls a charade. sobchak returns the favor.

>> i see a big double standard because alexei navalny wanted to take part in those elections too, as you remember, and he made a really good campaign to take part in the elections. but tell me that, if he would be registered, wodn't he legitimate putin? r orter: for the russian establishment, sobchak is no threat. her liberal ideas aren't she's polling at 1.5%. he admits she has no chance, and accuses putin acking the deck. i s a casino where one person always wins and others lose. >> reporter: so why even take paocrt in a s that as you said yourself will end up in putin's election? >> the goal is to get the microphone. the goal is be heard by millions of people who never watched internet, who do notei know who is alavalny, and who know me only because i am very, you know, big media figure in russia.

so i want to use my popularity to convince those people that changes are needed. >> she is filling that void. shis giving voice to those people. but again, that voice is only temporary, the elections are not lial, and so in many ways, she falls potentially into trap of being used by the regime to legitimize herself. >> reporter: that skepticism followed her to washington. she spent all last week holding events and giving interviews, advocating against the same sanctions the kremlin complas about. in that sense, are you echoing the kremlin's line while you're here in washington? >> i'm echoing my own line as a candidate on presidency. >> reporter: for sobchak, that line has always been thin. she's elite, but oppositional. widely recognized, but she could bolster the opposition, or help split it. and she will lose. but by running, she wins new a seat in the real game-- the next presidential election years. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick

schifrin in washington. >> woodruff: now to onr story tied to the president's budget proposals and policy priorities that were released today. the trump administration made it clear it pla to roll back the once-tough approach of the consumer financial protection bureau. its acting director, m mulvaney, already has taken several steps to do so and as william brangham report mulvaney said today he wants to futher limit its power and budget. >> brangham: the consumer financial protection bureau was born out of the 2008 financial crisis. it was intended to be a federal watchdog of sorts, cracking down on predatory lending and shady financial dealings that hurt american consumers. blom its inception, it has been criticized by reans and

the financial industry for overstepping its mandate. budmuget director mikaney, who president trump has appointed to run the bureau, once called it a "sick, sad joke" here's how he described it on face the nation yesterday: t s bureau is unlike any other federal bureaucracy. it's run by one person. right now me it has almost unlimited access to funds. it has no accountability to it is perhaps the most unaccountable bureau or agency there is. we want to run that place with a good deal of humility and prudence.t we're ing aggressive, we're not pushing the envelope. we're taking a different attitude towards the job. but the priorities have not chan cd. >> branghaistopher arnold has been covering the bureau for henational public radio an joinme now. chris, welcome to the "newshour". i wonder, let's go back in time a little bit. 2008, 2009, and the creation of thisbu eau, what was it was original mandate? why was it bo? >> well, first of all, i'm happy to be here. the original mandate went back

to, you willemember a time, unless you were born very recently, that basically th largest financial institutions in this country wrecked the aneconomy. i it was just an unmitigated disaster, the worst recession in 50, 60, 70 years. so, in response to that,id congressmany things. they did dodd-frank. they also set up the consumer financial protu.ection bur this was something that was championed, it's true, by democrats. senator elizabet elizabeth warrt a senator a at the time but crucial in forming. .his democrats teamed seemed to love they loved everything mike aney said are problems with it. they said it allows it to be independent from the white house, it gets its fundinfrom thefed, not congress, so it can go where it needs to go, do whao it needs tto protect the rights of you and me and everybody else who has to deal th banks or lenders or any

kind of nadg firm. so that's -- kind of financial firm. so that's where it came from. as we heard earlier, there's a group of republicans who do not like this agency for all the reasons mike mulvaney laid out, and this has bppening for years, republicans didn't like it, democrats did, but now president trump has put mike mulvaney in charge. he's the new boss running this agency and has come out with this new stratec plan saying here's what we'll do going forward. >> brangha fair accusation that, under the obama administration, the c.f.p.b. did oversstep i authority, it's mandate? >> no, i think overall you couldn't say that's a fair i think that just depends on who is the beholder there. look, if yo are an extremely conservative person who doesn't like regulation, youht see this bureau is, well, you know, they're doing too much. there's not enough controls in

them, sure. but loo, at the end he day, the consumer financial protection bureau returned almost $12 billion to consumer by going after companies that were swindling them out ofheir money. you know, is that overreaching? i don't know if that's for me to say, but it doesn't sound like such a terrible thing. >> brangham: so when mulvaney says the agenc the bureau under his watch will now operate with humility and moderation, they will enforce the law but not overstep, what does that mean to you? how do you read that? >> i can answer that two ways. ne, in all of this, there is also a mentiof, you know, we're not only going to be serving the people who get credit cards and who get loans, but those who offerrd credit and who make loans, and this agency should have a job to sort of help banks and financial firms who are struggling with regulation get out fr under regulation that's too burdensome. so, i mean, it's a little

counterintuitive, but here's an agency that's supposed to be licing, enforcing, being a watchdog over the financialan industry mike mulvaney is now saying, well, we're going to use this agency to deregulate parts of this industry. it's a little bit of a brain bender. of course, who wouldn't want to get rid of regulations that are necessary? but i think that's part of what he's saying. i think e other thi, look, this is sort of generalizations here, but -- and you can look at what's actually been done so far since mike mulvaney has come on board, there have been thies that happened. a rule to regulate payday elnders more aggresshas been put on hold. a payday lender that was being investigated by the consumer financial protection agency, that investigation was dropped. it's aluso tre that that company, that payday lending a companigh-interest lender, gave money to mike mulvaney's

campaign whegrhe was in cons and, thirdly, the story i dugs into, there lawsuit against what folks at the bureau, attorneys at the bureau who brought this lawsuit said.hi there was s illegal online loan shark charging 950 interest rates, tricking people into these long strings ofwe payments tha on and on and on where you borrow 90bucks and end up paying back $3,700 just monthsletter. there was this lawsuit in the works, and muvaney decided to drop that lawsuit. there was a bit of exchange in my story today on npr about that. we can talk abut it if you want. those are things that clearly have happened so far that may give us an indtion about where things are going next. >> brangham: chr arnold of national public radio. thank you so much for your time. >> absolutely, glad to be her

>> woodruff: we turn back now to politics, and to our regular politics monday pair: amy walter epof "the cook politicalt," and tamara keith of npr. welcome to both of you. so i i think, by my calendar,dae are now in six following the saed of the depahite house aide, tam, rob porter after allegations of domestic abuse by both his formerwiv. the white house still apparently struggling the to explain what happened, how they handled it. are we anyho clearer onw they did handle it? >> not really. we get new timelines on a seregular basis and, today, sarah sanders delivered what was a new timeline tht encompassed some of the previous timelines, and the basic message was, within 24 hours of learning thef full extenthe accusations,

he was gone. wever, there have been, you know, the chief of staff, general kelly has tried to say that ed within 40 minutes. it's not clear what that actuly means because, wihin that 24-hour period and well after that 40 mieutes, the wh house was still on the record n, ofing rob porter and the course, you have the president of the united states who, on friday, came out and said that he hoped porter would get a greanew job, that he was a valued member of the white house team. so sort of contradicting the distancing that other white house des had been trying to do. >> woodruff: and the president, amy, tweeted saturday basically sympathy for people who were accused in his words wrongly of these kinds of things. th there are two blanks os story. one is the narrative we've seen this entire year which is the

lack of vetting for many of the affers, the chaos inside the white house, the sloppiness inside the whitmshouse, in t of the staffing and dealing re's internalthe problems. but then the other branch of this is the issue ofwomen, d we are now in the middle of what we're in the middle of, a reckoning on discriminatioand violence against women and assault against women, which ist takis in an entirely different direction. the president, of course, not simp just defending porter as a person and saying good things about him but alo going on to say, i don't know, maybe this #metoo movement has gone a little bit too far. why aren't we talking about the people who have been accused. we spent way too much time on the accuss and taking their word for it. that's very much out of step where at least we know as a society and other industries have gone whicis to say we're going to believe the accusers first and then we're going to

staw start talking about these who are accused. >> woodruff: you havhe sa sanders saying domestic abuse shouldn't be toleforated in any . >> why doesn't he tell us that or tweet it? thone time we know president trump has been asked about reporters about the #metoo movement, it happened at the same time he was also asked about roy moore in november. it's a fascinating 45 seconds where he was asked about the #metoo movement, he says it's great some of these things are coming to light, women should be heard, and within 30 seconds was also saying roy moore denies it, we should #what he say should listen to him -- roy moore being the alabama sen candidate who president trump endorsed. so there is the distinction p between peopsident trump likes and knows and has spoken to and abstract othe,

democrats, harvey weinstein, or al franken, who president tru has a very easy time criticizing and didn't talk about a rush to judgment. >> woodruff: let's talk about, amy, what the white house did want to talk about and that is a release of their 2019 fiscal budget which, as we pointed outl r, deficits are not a major feature. every budget statement, it's going to pass or not, is a statement of politicalpr rities, is it not? >> that's right. a lot of people talked aboutic repus at least when obama was in office made debt and deficit election. that was the mitt romney andme paul ryaage that this president barack obama had just been responsible fo skyrocketing deficits that are going to be burdening our children from here to kingdom come. what's interesting is, ever2 since 20you've seen a decrease in the intensity in which republicans have made thi argument about debt and deficit. president trump as a candida,

talked about i'm going to balance the budget in eight years, but he also said i'm not going to cut entitlements. he also talked about bigin spending orastructure and the military, so he tid not run cala paul ryan fis conservative. he ran as a trump republican, lwhich is i'm going to about some of these issues, but, fundamentally, you're going to be able to -- i'm going to be able to do both of those things. >> woodruff: one of the onpolitical quesemerging from this is is there some sort of political price to p among republican voters? >> that is a very good questione and answer isn't particularly clear. sort of the ranking among all voters of what is your top issue, what is the thing you care about the most, debt and deficit have just been fall like a rock in terms -- ande probably in lart because republican leaders aren't talking about it in the way they have in the past. mike mulvaney was asked today,

he's the budget director, wh happened to mick mulvaney the deficit hawk? he was, like, well, he's still here,ut he understands because the white house budget shows a deficit and doesn'tnc bathe budget. he's, like, but mick mulvaneynd undersit's up to congress to do these things and when we ask them to, they just don't. >> woodruff: we'l leave it there. lots more opportunities to talk aboudeficits in the future. tam, amy, thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: peoe going without enough nutritious food osremains an issue athis country, and one program in iowa, tries to help soo problems at once: a burgeoning deer population and hunger. from iowa public television, josh buettner explains how hunters are helping fill empty plates.s

>>hunter, that's what we want to see. that's telling us that we have a stck in the area. >> reporter: as ard of the land, mike nelson implements conservation practice on his farm in central iowa's warren county. however, one woodland creature can respond a little too wl to such ruralccommodations. wa corn and soybeans might help feed the world, but those same growing areas p shelter and nutrition for four- legged drifters which some land owners consider a >>isance. hey'll just devastate our crops and we didn't harvest some of those, we'd just get overrun and we'd have way too many deer. >> reporter: but nelson has found a way to decrease numbers in his own backyard and uproot hunger, locally, thanks to a partnership betwn outdoorsmen, meat lockers, non-profits and state government. >> we've got as many top 100

scored deer, in the country, as any other state. we've come on stng. we have one of the most in- demand, non-resident deer thlicenses, and we do limie to 6,000. but our bow deer tags are probably the most in-demand deer license in the country. >> reporter: iowa department of natural resources spokesman mick klemesrud says nearly 15 years ago the d.n.r. hatched a plan to cut back on a deer population that had become a hazard in urban areas and allow hunters to donate excess harvest to those in need. while roadkill is ineligible, what followed was the statewide h.u.s.h. program, or help usop unger. officials say the program's 00first decade saw over 63 deer equaling more than 10 million meals provided to the needy. >> iowa's deer are world-class deer. aatnd, e've done is, we've structured our seasons so we can make sure that those large- bodied animals can pass their genetics on before the gun seasons start. not a lot of other states do

that, and they don't have the same quality deer herd that we do. >> reporter: the d.n.r. rtimates iowa's current d population at roughly half a million. and while 2017's numbers await a final spring tally, 2016 saw about 2,800 deer donated, with the largest number coming from milo, iowa. miloocker co-owner darrell goering says that's just shy of 18,000 pounds. >> we are in deer country. south central iowa is a great ace to be if you're a deer hunter. and we're just blessed to be here. >> reporter: processors receive $75 from thetate for each shimal. the meat is redded and packaged in two pound chubs, and given to food banks for distribution. >> real lean. lean red meat.yo so if u're watching your cholesterol, or things like that, then deer's a real go thing to eat. >> reporter: goering says all

parties involved benefit under the agreement, and together they've streamlined how hunters contribute.te >> all a hneeds to do is legally harvest a whitetail deerproperly tag it, field dress it, bring it in. it's really two minutes and the paperwork's filled out, little index card, and he's good to go. and we take over from there. >> reporter: over two dozen lockers participate in the program and wo with eight food banks serving those who are food insecure across the state. danny akright, communications ownager with the des moines- based food bank of says proteins like meat are one of the most difficult nutritional products to come by. in calendar year 2017, his non- profit received nearly 73,000 pounds of venison through h.u.s.h. d akright points out the huge advantage of being able to take the show on the road. >> one of the misconceptions

that a lot of people have about those who ngry is that it's an inner city problem, when really, it's an everywhere problem. and really in our rural communities is one of the hardest places to reach them. they may not have access to a traditional food resource like a food pantry or a soup kitchen. so we have to design programs like the mobile food pantry to go in and meet those needs in those rural communities. >> oh, i think it's great. i'm not a des moines driver, not even veryic far, so it isto have it come to milo. >>u know it's really, really helped. reporter: akright says siedback from recipients, as well as those canv woods and fields, has been overwhelmingly positive. >> one of the thingsi love ti hear is when hunters tell us that they are ac h.u.s.h. hunters. for them, it's a sport of passion. they love to do it. they will hunt and take down a a de help feed their own family, and when they have the ability, provide that nutritioat to a family in need, that means something to tm. >> reporter: mike nelson agrees.

from tree stand or deer blind, he helps manage an iowa resource eswith high reproduction rnd few, if any, natural predators. >> one deer for us is plenty. otherwise it'd just go to waste in one of two ways. you'd either have it processed and it would sit in your freer and you'd never eat it, or you wouldn't harvest the deer to begin with, and then you'd j wt be overrunh them. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm josh buettner in des moines, iowa. >> woodruff: now, as policy debates over immigration continue, we get a different view of the border: a first-hand account of the realities of life there. jeffrey brown takes us to southern arizona, for the latest from our newshour bookshelf. >> brown: the landscape is rugged, mountainoue scorched by

n. but out there, among the dust, brush and cacti. there's also surveillance cameras, sensors, and people, even if you can't see them, in an often deadly standoff withth elements and one another. >> it's like when you look out at the ocean, and you're le, "oh my god what a vast, unfathomable place, expanse." and so when i think about that vastness, you think about trying to find someonssin that vast people who haven't been here have a really hard time conceiving of that. >> brown: francisco cantu spent four years as a border patrol agent, working in the deserts of arizona, texas and new mexico. he desiecribes the expe in a new book, "the line becomes a river." we met cantu a couple hours south of phoenix, about 30 miles from the border. he grew up not far from these lands, but felt disconnected from the realities on the ground. >> i had all of these questions

that stemmed from my time in college, just big, big questions that a lot of us are still talking about with respect to immigration and border policy. i thought that doing this kind of a job, this kind of work, being out on the border day in, day out would give me answers to those questions.it black mountain right here. that windmill over there, that'l darby >> brown: first he had to learn the lay of the land, drawing his own maps and sketches. and then understanding what he tis looking for. >> it's an inter way to look at the landscape. you' being taught to look at the landscape as people who are crsing would. >> brown: as we walked the rocky arrain, sidestepped saguaros and followedandy wash. we found tangible evidence of a crossing attempt. >> here's a carpet shoe. >> brown: the carpet se. >> that was just been carried down this wash and tangled up in this bush. so, it's a piece of carpet

that's been cut out, shoe size, and then youust strap this over your shoes so that you don't leave like a discernible footprint in the sand, becau for the agents it's really easy to spot the grid of your sneakers or anything like that. >> brown: rather than a policy book, cantu has written what he calls "dispatches"-- giving us the feel of a place few see-- the violence, sadness, and occasional humor of his encountes with those trying to cross. drug smugglers, for sure. but more often, desperate people in a fight for survival in the sert, like a middle-age mother who'd been left behind by herp grd was out of water. >> she had like these silver dollar-sized blisters on her feet. i was cleaning her blisters and bandaging her feet. she thanked me. i remember her thanking me. she's like, "what you're doing is very humanitarian." i just thought like at the end

of the day, i'm putting you in a cell and i'm sending you back to this place that you quite ouliterally are risking ylife to flee. >> brown: he writes of how it became a difficu, often painful balancing act between a sense of shared humanity and the strictures of law enrcement. >> there are days when i feei am becoming good at what i do. and then i wonder, what does it mean to be good at this? i wonder sometimes how i might explain certain things. the sense in what we do when they run from us, scattering into the brush, leaving behind their water jugs and their backpacks full of food and clothes. >> brown: later, we made our way nawards the border, traversing organ pipe natiol monument, with mountain ranges in the distance. you drove these roads so much, right? and now you come back and drive. what do you see now? >> when i look out on this landscape it still looks very

beautiful to me. but at the same time, i'm also ke hyper-aware, you know, any c time i'mlose to the border, of thct that, you know, i'm being watched by border patrol or by scouts up on hilltops. and i'm also hyper-aware of thet fact t, you know, there's people out here right now. b >> brown: at tder in this area tall, rusty and patched by sheets of wire mesh, rivetedve back in placeholes cut by migrants.hi iswhere you're describing the fence being kind of literally lifting up? >> yeah, so underneath is dirt. these are just panels that sort of slide between these two steel barriers and if you can kind of uncover it a little bit, you just put a tire jack underneath there and you can, and you can pry it up. and people will drive cars underneath these things. they'll lift it up and drive their car under. brown: cantu came to believe that no wall will ever keep

people out. >> in my opinion, it's not that we need to do more of this or have a big concrete wall instead of a big, iron mesh wall. i to mhink whatever big, long barrier you put here, people are gonna find a way around that. they're gonna find a way u over, under, around. >> brown: cantu left the border trol in 2012, and now teaches at the university of arizona. he says he wants to continue showing. for now, cantu says he wants to show the reaties of the border and raise concerns, even without offering policy prescriptions of his own. >> i still have a lot of these same questions that i came intoe border patrol with. i really see the border as like a microcosm for all of these huge issues that we're grappling with as a nation and as a global society. so i have no urge to look away. >> brown: after a few miles the high fence here becomes nothing more tn large metal barriers. and we came to this monument,

once the onlkind of marker separating the two countries. for cantu, it's anher symbol of what this border has become. >> i became interested ijust looking at how the line was sort of drawn across this landscape that is, i don't know, i think beautiful, has its own culture, and is just sort of being slowly riven by this line and becominge more surve more patrolled, more militarized. >> brown: what's seen, and unseen. an agent who's attention we'd drawn, warned we were also being watched from the other side, by smugglers in mexico, waiting for a chanceo move more human cargo across the border. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown, in southern arizona. >> woodruff: on the newshour

online, as we mentioneier, former president barack obama and michelle obama were on hando at the nl portrait gallery today for the unveiling of their portraits. you can watch the ce and hear their full remarks at our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> babbeha a language ateaches real-life conversations in a new language. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financ literacy in the 21st century.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcabying. anontributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wg access.wgbh.org

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