captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, july 22: ade latest on alleged ties between the trumnistration and russia. in our sigture segment, how the demand for h-2b visas is impacting the seafood supply in maryland. and allegations of abuse at the hands of immigration and customs enforcement. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mual of america-- designing customized individual

and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. ditional support has bee provided by: an 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. some of the f.b.i. reasons for the surveillance of former trump campaign advisor carter page came public over the weekend, and this morning was filled with reactions. the heavily redacted documents include applications from the f.b.i. to the foreignll inence surveillance court, or "fisa court," which oversees approval of surveillance warrants. starting in october 2016, the fisa court approved multiple warrants to surveil page, who the f.b.i. suspected was "...an agent of a foreign power" and" ...the subject of targeted recruitment by the russian government."ag

today,denied allegations that he worked for the russian envernment. >> no, i've never n agent of a foreign power by any stretch of an imagination. >> sreenivasan: this morning, president trump tweeted that the ccuments support his repeated claims that his 20paign was "illegally being spied on" and that the f.b.i. "misled the courts." republican senator lindsey grahamttacked the f.b.i.'s use of an opposition research dossier cread by former british agent christopher steele as a basis for theurveillance. >> if the dossier is the reason you issued the warrant, it was a bunch of garbage. the dossier has proven to be a bunch of garbage. >> sreenivasan: but republic senator marco rubio supported the f.b.i.'s intelligence operation. >> i don't tnk they did anything wrong. i think they went to the court, they got the judges to approve it, they laid out all the information, and there was a lot of reasons unrelated to the dossier for why they wanted to look at carter page. >> sreenivasan: adam schiff, the ranking democrat on the house inlligence committee, dismissed the president's

allegations against the f.b.i. >> we can now confirm that he did, in fact, have meetings with russian officials. so it was a solid application and renewals signed by four different judges app by three different republican presidents. >> sreenivasan: these new revelations come less than a week after mr. trump's private summit meeting president vladimir putin. to help put it all into perspective, newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield joins us now from santa barbara. >> sreenivasan: are we in the same political place nn we were before the summit happened? >> it may seem improbable but i would argue we are. we have to go back three years to the very start of donald trump's campaign when he insulted mexico and har words about john mccain, people thought this would be fatal ands evce no matter what he has said and done, whatever candidates and presidents may be disastrous doesn't change the reality orcs the huge majorityep oflicans approve and just today we learned from a new "washington post" abc poll tha most republicans by large majorities approve of what he

did at helsinki in the, and even those, it seems the part keeps going on. >> sreenivasan: what when ow members of his party turn against him or criticize him? >> again, the normal situation is that when a president's own party turns against him with harsh words that has an imtp and yet despite the criticism from republican conalgressi leaders, folks on fox news, former house speaker ginich who say this was a bad week the dust clears and trump supporters say, no, if trump says something is true, it is true. >> sreenivasan: is it time for us to start calling it may be a different party then if there is a chunk of the party that is soe loyal to the psident that it acally finds tha disagreement from the party leadership only strengthens the president's position? >> or now, i think it is true. he has totally redefined what a republan is, whether thessue is free trade, tough on russia, deficits, we a going to very a trillion-dollar deficit next year, this is absolute heresy ib

the old rcan party but for the trump followers it doesn't seem to be. >> sreenivasan: let'e talk about hers stories of significance this week that you actually follow fairly oftennd say sometimes it gets snowed over by how much trucmp ocupies the media's fear. >> i know i keep coming back to the point but it keeps happening, what wathe big story say nine days ago? the separation of children from their parents because of ice. to a more substitute one, the dismember innocent of the affordable care act, the end of the individual mandate, massive cutback on subsidies to the insurance exchanges, shrinkingh the outreogram and trump announced this week this big new haitiative we are going te association health plans to let individuals and small businessef s campaign, and you know what the independent business federati has said a? unworkable, can't do it. and what that suggests in termsr of risinmiums that have already gone up a third is going to have an enormous impact on

millions of americans and it is almost hard find a sentence about that in the media because of the crowding st issue. enivasan: and finally, what about this number of stories that we are seeing about the demoatic party and the pressure it is facing from the left? >> look, i think this has to be put in context. the idea that suddenly this happened because a young woman socialist won a congressional primary in new york, let's remember the two years ago a socialist named bernie sanders got 13 million primary votes for tpresident, so this is n exactly a sudden lurch. the second thing to remember is you are not seeing the left challenge centrist democrats in competitive races, cojoe manchin is the most conservative democrat there is no primary c challenge. thlebration about conor lamb a centrist democrat winning the ngressional seat in pennsylvania tells you by and large the democrats are focused on trying to retake the hoe and the senate, if i could negligence one more thing, nextk e will take a look at why

uniquely in america ism has never caught on as a major political force, so we will be talking about that next week. >> sreenivasan: all right, we look forward to it, news weekeon thank you.hank you so much. >> >> sreenivasan: more than a dozen people were killed and at least 50 were wounded today when a suicide bomb exploded outsider the aiin kabul afghanistan. the attack came moments after controversial first vice president abdul rashid dostum's motorcade passed through an area where a crowd was gathered to greet him.st , a former warlord, left afghanistan last year after he was accused of kidnapping and torturing a political rival.s memb israel's l.g.b.t.q. community went on strike today to protest the exclusion of gayr me new surrogacy legislation. protestors blocked a major thoroughfare in the capital of tel aviv and hd rallies across the country. ome israeli parliament gave single women and w unable to become pregnant the right toe apply for stpport for surrogacy last week. however, prime minisnjamin netanyahu did not back an amendment that would have extended the same right to single men and gay couples.um

the administration is considering changes to medicare that would make paymts for a visit to the doctors' office the same regardless of a patient's condition. the government currently pays doctors different rates depending onhe severity of a dicare patient's illness, using a scale of one to five. the head of the centerfor medicare and medicaid services says the new one-rate plan would redu paperwork. critics say the new plan would underpay physicians when they treat more complex problems, and could discourage doctors from taking on new medicare patients. the proposal is being published this friday and if approved would apply to medicare payments starting next january. read why vermont's new sexual harassment law is unique at pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: for more than 30 years, many u.s. employers in seasonal businesses have relied on foreign workers to fill positions americans often won't apply for. the h-2b visa program allows companies to hire migrantste

orarily for low-skilled, non-agricultural jobs in everything from the hotel business to landscaping to meatpacking and seafood processing. but this year, with demandg soar a historic rate, many companies have not been able toi secure h-2s for their workers. >> reporter: what is said to cfferentiate maryland crab is the saltiness of tsapeake bay and the perfectly zed jumbo lump of meat that comes from the back fin. the extraction process i largely the same as it has been for the past 100 years, with the crab picked by hand, traditionally by women, but the faces of those doing picking, have changed. >> the american crab picker has gone by the wayside. the older ladies have died off and the younger ladies now want

a full-time job. we only offer eight months out of the year. we're seasonal. so they want something they can count on year-round with benefits, and we don offer that. >> reporter: like others in the area, harry phillips has gotten around the shortage of american workers with a migrant workforce, hired season after season, and brought legally to the u.s. on h-2b visas. >> you have to have your petition in the 1st of january so we could have our workers here the first day of april. and it's always been first-come, first-serve. so it's worked out perfectver ese last 25 years. >> reporter: the way it works is that american companies themselves for the visas. once approved, companies likevi his can foreign workers to come. but this year the room is empty where 50 workersmemost of them from mexico, usually pick crab. record demand for the visas across the country, coupled with changes to the proilam, squeezed ps out. >> i need this, my family needs this, my children, and my grandchildren coming up, they are counting on this business going intohe future.

>> reporter: this january, u.s. companies applied for more than 80,000 h-2b visafor the second half of the fiscal year ert only 33,000available under a longstanding congressional cap. in response to this year's demand, the government changed the way it awards h-2b's, moving from a first-come-first serve system to a lottery. harry phillips' company was not selected. >> my accountant comes every so often, she said i've got se good news and bad news. the bad ne was i hadn't made any money and the good news was i wasn't going to have to pay any quarterly taxes. that tells you what we're doing. >> reporter: while it is quiet at phillips' plant, one of his competitors, nearby ndy's seafood, is surviving for now with a fraction of its usual workforce. they're working off visas issued last fall. lindy's, too, was not selected in the lottery. >> this is everything. my family grew up here. in the summertime, this is what we do. we didn't take vations, we came here and picked crabs. >> reporter: aubrey vincent has worked for the family buness

since she was 12 years old. she normally hires about 130ck seasonal crab s. the majority on h-2b visas. why is it so difficult to hire americans to do these jobs? >> i have amazing american truck drivers, i have some american pickers, i have tons ole in my office, the lady that runs lant, she's a full time american employee. the problem that i'm running inh. is, is i don't have eno so, i use the h-2b program to supplement that american workforc so, i think a lot of it had to do with our area, we just don't have the people. there's not a lot of people moving into the area, because people are looking for full time opportunities. >> reporter: vincent estimates the business is losing thousands of dollars a day. the pasteurizer and cooler she purcsed last winter sit empt and unused. thinking of the losses you're taking now, if you were to increase your wages, would you a able to shrink those losses? >> i pay more th picking house in the area, significantly more. i pay $4.50 a pound, and i pay $9.51 training wage. so, a lot of my employees are

making anywhere from like $12 to $16 an hour. we're paying more than any of the open positions in town. and still, i can't seem to get people interested. >> reporter: by the end of december, all 19 of vincent's h- 2b workers have to return to home, and there's no guaranteell she e able to hire them back next year. >> i mean, our situation is bade but there arle in the country that have it much worse than us, and they need to make sure their representatives understand that.in rmation on h-2b? >> reporter: but vincent is not sitting idle. this summer, she moved fromca phons to direct interaction on the streets of washington >> congress could fix it, the administration could fix it, there's a lot of different people that, if theyere lling to step up, and really look at the program objectively, they could fix it. >> reporter: the many different players might be part of the complication. itwhen the h-2b program hi cap, only congress could authorize more to be released.de after months oys in march, sangress did authorize more than 63,000 additional but that's not the end of the story, the visas must be approved by two additional parties, the department of

homeland security and the department of labor. that's a slow process, on top of the congressional dela ed far, only 15,000 additional visas have been isonce again through a lottery. only one maryland crab processing company was selected. >> an issue very important to my district, i have the beautiful eastern shore of maryland, is the h-2b visa issue. >> reporter: maryland's eastern shore is represented by republican congressman andy harris, who sits on the subcommittee of the department of homeland security. >> they have to bring thosepr crabs to bessed somewhere because believe me, when you eat a crab cake, you're not eating the whole crab.se >> reporter: tisas are sitting with the department of homeland security, and the department of labor, ready to go, but the processing plants are sitting empty. >> it's a fairly lengthy process. it normally takes a couple of months, we're hoping that it cae shortened to, you know, only several weeks, but there is a process. >> reporter: 15,000 is woefully inadequate when you've had so many applications. they knew full well that this was coming. >> yeah, look, this is congress' oblem. congress has set the cap, congress delayed doing their

omnibus bill, we included the fix in a late appropriations measure, and everything cascaded. it was a domino effect. >> reporter: congressman harris was one of 82 representatives to sign a letter calling on the department of homeland securitye to releasedditional visas. >> this is actually the ideal foreign worker to come in, because they actually are supporting our medicare system, system, even though they will never participate in i >> reporter: but harris says, convinng groups on both sides of the political spectrum isn't easy. rkers' rights and civil rights groups argue the system needs reform and increased oversight to protect migrants from exploitation and union groups, like the a.f.l.-c.i.o., have argued that allowing migrants to work seasonally depresses wages for american workers. at the same time, some conservative lawmakers have taken a hardline against expansion of the program. >> a lot of the arguments for this kind of program boil down to this: no american worker will do that job. that is a lie. it is a lie. there is no job that americans will not do.ep

>>ter: congressman harris says the h-2b program is not just about the jobs that the migrant workers are doing. >> for every job that they're lling, there are at leas three or four american jobs that depend on them. there's the person who supplies ntainers that they're going to put the crab meat in. aere's the trucker who trucks the containers i the filled containers out. there's the restaurant who serves the crab, there are theth distributorse are the waitresses in the restaurants. there are many downstrm jobs. >> reporter: those doweam are already feeling the effetys. at old sal's, a popular eastern shore restaurant, owner jatonewcomb says he struggle find enough fresh crab for his menu. >> last ar i put away like 4,000 pounds for the winter, and that was all but wsed up. so nre in the fresh market, and it's been hard to get also, plus the price is up a lot.r: >> reporow much has the price changed? >> 3 to $4 a pound. >> reporter: just this year? >> yes, just this year. >> reporter: what will it mean for this community if next summer is like this sund they haven't figured it out? >> next year we feel it's going to be worse.

there's a lomore demand this year, so a lot more next year, and we just don't think they're going to be as lucky with th lottery. >> reporter: who do you think is responsible for what's happened? >> it's washington. ho reporter: just this month, the department of meland security responded to congressman harris' letter, tnforming him that it would be releasing any additional visas. where are you next year if you don't get your visas? >> so my family started this business. my daughter is two. iat i pray, is that i can keep it alive enough thdoes get fixed, and that i can pass this opportunity down to her. i love this. i love this industry, this area, that is what i hope worst case scenario, is i'm not ll thato be able to off. ngd that's the scariest part. >> reporter: lacolutions, harry phillips is making contingency plans. >> i can't dit two years in a row, no. if we don't get our workers another year, we'll shut the 'vors. either that, or even considered, there's crabs in mexico. we're checking to see what's going on, and we're going to fly

down there thiorwinter. >> rr: to see about maybe setting up shop there. >> setting up shop in mexico. the ladies are there. they're all willing to work. the crabs are there. this is all i know. i don't have much education, and i do know what i'm doing here. so what else can we we can't sit here idle. >> sreenivasan: approximately 2,500 children separated at the border from their families are supposed to be reunited by july 26th. while the country pays attention to that story, there's another detention story which has goen less coverage; that is allegations of abuse inside detention centers. data from the department of homend security's office of the inspector general show that thousands of migrants have claimed they were sexually abused while in ice cuody. emily kassie, an investigative

>> [speaking spanish] >> that is a clear gap in there perception of how or what this relationship was. how widespread i>>this problem? o sexual abuse in immigration detention has been happening for decades. these cases have come up through watchdog organizationte we wto take a deeper look and really understand the extent to which this was happening ande so w looking at two sets of data. one was from the office of the inspector general, which was mentioned and the other was from ice itself that was looking at

1,300 and 10 allegations of sexual abuse occurring between 2013 and 2017, so we were looking at those two sets of data but understanding that there were a number of issues atwith those sets of the first, of course, is that this issue is largely under reported, we are talking about a n fleeingn who are of violence and persecution, who are often as asylum seek (bleep) don't speak the language, as in the case of ed and the gua daniel sharkey, he didn't speak spanish, she didn't speak english, many of these people don't have access to lawyers because they are not entitled to one. so who are they going to report these things to is very difficult if you don't have that access to a lawyer, and then beyond that, there is this fear of deportation if you tell someone, will you be deported back? sreenivasan: so there is clearly a power imbalance here. did she feel like she has had do this in order to protect her child or have any chance at a

fair hearing? what would she say when you spe to her about this? >> well, when we sat down together, she spoke abo faring that, fearing that she was going to be forced home with her child and she had fled severe domestic violence in honduras. so she was seeking asym with her three-year-old son and he, the guard, had trance hated on the phone to her, because that was the only way they could communicate through googletr slate, so what she said is that he had translated to her on the phone that sheouldn't tell anyone or she would be deported. so given that situation, she said that she felt likshe wasn't in a position to say no. she knew what he wanted, aned just went ahead and followed his lead. >> sreenivasan: what happened to the guard and why did he decide to sit down with you? >> we c cse the tses that we did of ed and maria because they were so rare in that they had convictions, so when it came to ed and daniel sharkey's case, i want to understand, you

know, how did this happen? an from his testimony he said, you know, everybody knew. well, howid they know? so we wanted to go to him and when i spoke to him i said, ,ook, you know, we are featuring her perspectiwe have all of these case documents. you are saying that everybody knew about this. yo want to give you a big opportunity to tel side of the story and he felt strongly that he wanted to do that.we so whetatistic down, he talked about feeling failed by a system. >>reenivasan: yes. he talked about not feeling like he had proper training. when he went to his supervisor and told that supervisor that there was some sort ofre tionship between himself and ed the supervisor just told him to keep his distance so he didn't take it very seriously and in his words he really thought he could get away with it. >> sreenivasa: emily kassie, investigative journalist these are acouple of the cases you focused on but as you point out this is a larger problem.an for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> this pbisnewshour"

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: in syria overnight, hundreds of members of theelhite hts and their families were evacuated from the south-western part of the country near the border with the golan heights.e lunteer rescue group had been trapped in the rebel held area after an offensive by the syrian military. itn reporter ronke phillips has the story. >> clambering through the 0 rubbles and dighrnggh survivors they are used to risking their lives to save others but in a dramatic turn of events, it was the whe helmets who were being rescued. >> carried out in the dead of night by the israel defense forces, these shaky imag were taken by a local journalist. >> you couldeel itas, yes, a totally secret operation, etsome stwere blocked, there were drones in the air. we could hear the sound of drones and at one point when i

was standing at the wall and watching this operation, i could even hear gunfire. >> aroun200 of the white helmets had been killed since the war broke out. they maintain they are nonpartisan but the president assad and hisey allies claim have links to jihadist. >> the volunteers had been working in an area controlled by syrian opposition forces when they became trapped by government offensive. the u.s., the a uk other european nations responded to their request for help. >> in a tweet foreign secretary jeremy hunt praised the operation saying the hewh are bravest of the brave and in a desperate situation, this is at least one ray of hope. >> the government tonight confirmed some of the rescued volunteers who were taken to the jordanian border by bus will be settled in the uk. ronke phillips, itn news.

>> >> sreenivasan: tomorrow on the newshour, the dangers of drinking alcohol during pregnancy. the first in a two-part series on fetal alcoh disorders, a condition that's more common than previously thought. th's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning s ponsored by wn captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz.

sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and phifap milstein ly. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customizividual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement comny. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers likyoyou. than so did you grow up around livesto and farming?

no, and, you know, some of the best farmers can be those people who didn't grow up with it. right. ed kenney: returning home can reveal memories from your past that you have lost but never truly forgot. food brings people together and has the power to conjure up cherished mories. jack johnson: ♪ oh, you're such a pretty thing ♪ ♪ i'll take you, and i'll make you all mine ♪ ed: i was born and raised in the hawaiian islands, one of the most diverse communities in the world. johnson: ♪ we could watch it from the clouds ♪ ♪ we can't stop it anyhow, it's not ours ♪ ed: in this show, we'll meet a guest from hawaii, learn about their favorite dish, trace it back to its origins, g and have some fun ale way. johnson: ♪ oh, you're such a prty thing ♪ ♪ i'll take you, and i'll make you all mine ♪