pbs newshour weend 03/31/2019 captioning sponsored by wnet an >> sreenivon this edition for sunday, march 31st, border agencies feel the strain as the migrant crisis grows, deepening legal issues for the sackler family and purdue pharma, and in our signature segment: mangrove: and what it's push north is revealing. nextken "pbs newshour wee." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernarand irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. seton melvin. 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 mutual of america--

signing customized individual and group retirement products. at'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 ation from viewers like you. thank you. atom the tisch wnet studio lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. in washington, d.c. the topic continues to be the u.s.-mexico border, the president's threat to somehow close it, the increase in asylum-seekers, and e state department's statement that it will cut off aid to three central american countries. white house counselor kellyanne conway sd the president is serious about closing the ose metrics.: you're giving. what he's loing at is that 4,000 migrants were apprehended in one day recently. we're on track thimonth for close to 100,000. >> sreenivasan: democratic senator dick duresn called the ent's threat to close the

border a "unrealistic boast." t we need to do is focus on what's happening in central america, where three countries are dissembling before for our eyes and people are sperately coming to the united states. the president cutting off aid to those countries will not sve the problem. >> sreenivasan: former vice president joe biden responded today to allegations that he inappropriately touched and kissed a former nevada lawmaker at a 2014 campaign rally. lucy flores was the democratic nominee for nevada lutenant governor when joe biden campaigned for her. in an article published friday flores said biden put his hands on her shoulders from behind while they waited backstage an"" proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head." in his statement today, biden said "i ha offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort. and not once-- never-- did i believe i acted inappropriately. if it is suggested i did so, i will listen respectfully. but it was never my intention." flores red to biden's statement on cnn this morning.

>> i am glad he's clarifying his intentions. frankly, my point was never about his intentions, and they shouldn't be about his intentions. enit should be about the wn the receiving end of that behavior. >> sreenivasan: israeli and hamas officials confirmed today that two bcrossings between the gaza strip and israel have reopened. the move flows days of hostilities and just hours aftg trucks carryod and fuel entered gaza today through one of the reopened crossings in a sign that the egypt-mediated ceasefire talks may be advancing. in gaza today, there were funerals for some of the four palestinians killed by israeli military fire during psts this weekend at the border perimeter fence. some election news of note day. in slovakia, anti-corruption candidate zuzana caputova has been elected the new president. the liberal-leaning caputova became the country's first female head of state by defeating the ruling party's cadidate, maros sefcovic. in ukraine, voters went to the polls today in the first round of presidential elections.

as we told you in our story last night, television comedian volodymyr zelenskiy has become a surprise frontrunner against current president petro poroshenko. and finally in turkey, voters cast their ballots in local elecons that will decide if president recep tayyip erdogan's ruling party can retain control of tuey three major cities. >> sreenivasan: while the president continues to demand w aalls, border closing action from mexico and central american countries to manage imiomigron the u.s.-mexico utrder, there has been little mention recently ais 2017 executive order to hire 5,000 new border patl agents. joining us now from miami is "usa today" reporter alan gomez reporting on customs an border patrol hiring and staffing and issues at the border. test so two years ago, 5 thowr was the goal where are we at

now. >> 118 is all that they have added over the last couple of years. we went through a whole series of inspector general reports.al and ed just that the agency is at crisis levels righ. for six straight years, they lost agents every single year. they peaked at over 21,000 agents six years ago. they are now under 20,en000 . and they're going-- they are trying to doaferg they can to recruit and retain more agents but they're having trouble fielding tm so that just makes, that makes it more difficult to patrol that southern border. iand they're even hng problems just managing what their agents are doing to figure t how to best deploy them to try to stop what is becoming me record-breaking numbers of people trying to cross. >> let's talk a little about the challenges. oe challenges with recruiting might be becau how hard the job is. how, what are some of the challenges thathe border patrol agents are facing that are causing more of them to leave and fewer-- fewer potential people to join.

>> it is a very, very dltiffi job. you are forced to patrol these incredibly vast, deslate stretches of that southern border. i mean when we think of the border we picture places like san diego, some of these bigger border crossings but for the most part it is these vast des late stretches in between. so trying to recruit somebody to go work in these comunities all the time, your schedule is constantly shifting. st a very dangerous job. over 41 border patrol officers have died over the past 17 years. overdred have committed suicide over the past 13 years because it is such a difficult job in and of itself but also asking people to live in these areas can be very difficult. the inspector general actually focused on one city called lukesville, arizona, where there is a border patrol station ere, a community of 5people, one gas station, one grocery store, the nearest school is 39 miles away. and the ground water has traces of arsenic in it. t to convince your spouse ovebring your children to m

to that community. it's obviously a very tough thing to do. so some of thef built-in icits that they have. >> finally the role iins cha now that ve to can deal with families and children. >> so you already have the dairy of being a border patrol agent. and now they are being asked more and more tonot sort act as law enforcement but as procsors of these ten of thousands of family units coming from central america. so where before illegal immigration is predominantly o ngle, mexican males coming over here tryingork and trying to evade border patrol wh they get across the borr. now what is happening is we are seeing these groups of 200, 30 my grants at a time crossing the border andi actively seng out a border patrol agent to request sohat agent instead of asylum. going out doing what he is trained to do as a law enforcement official is forced to make medicalt ssessm these folk, make sure they have dnough water and food until they can get them transfer them

over to another facility that can better take care of them. so that just adds another layer of stress because 24r have been four border deaths n my granteds border-- migranteds of border patrol agent in recent months. they feel that pressure and know it is on top of them and know it is difficult serving as people just taking care of these people instead of trying to arrest them. >> sreenivasan: alan gomez of u.s.a. "u.s.a. today," thank you so much. >> thank you. >> sreivasan: the effects of climate change can be hard to see, but in florida there is a clear visual marker: the mangrove. reezing cold weather in some thrts of the state become less common tropical plant has been taking root-- and furtherof nortts usual range. it's a transition that scientists are closely following a climate change story where there may actually be some positive side ef icts. this stoproduced in

partnership with climate central, a nonprofit science and news organization and is part of our ongoinseries, "peril and promise: the challge of climate change." >> sreenivasan: this is the site of an outdoor laboratory on the t nks of the intracoastal waterway in northeorida. it's part of a research project on the interaction of climate change and coastal ecosystems. and getting here is not easy >> that is not warm! >> sreenivasan: that's a little chilly. it's not so coincidentally called the wetfeet project. >> if you sink at all you wont go far... you won't go, but you can sink up to your waist sometimes. >> sreenivasan: samantha chapman is an ecology profesr at villanova university and the primary investigator on this project. i'm following her and her team into this marsh where they're studying the impact of climate change on a tropical plant that's been migrating further and further north: the mangrove. >> we're in this sort of encroachment and spread phase where they're moving northward and taking over rather rapidly.

enivasan: there are three species of mangroves that grow in florida: white, black, and red. wha have in common is an ability to grow with their roots rged in salty water and soil-- an environment that kills many other plants. mad ngroves grow aroe world, thriving in tropical conditions getanerally within a set de of the equator. but this spot in florida, near st. augustine, is north of that range. here in the guana tolomato matanzas research reserve, or g.t.m., mangroves are growing, in a region that was previously thought to be too cold for them to permanently take ro. matt hayes is post-doctoral researcher at villanova. >> historically they hen up here before. so we know from looking at historical recds from early botanists and explorers they ha spoken about seeing mangroves around here even just north of here. but then once these cold snaps came that was enough to kill them off and then they'd be pushed right back again further south of here. >> sreenivasan: as climate change makes these cold snaps less frequent, researchers are studying how permanently warmer

temperatures will affect this ecosystem. each of these chambers is a glimpse into the future. by shielding it from the elements, the temperature inside is couple of degrees centigrade warmer. by doing this, scientists can study what happens to the salt marsh and the mangrove in here at these higher temperatures versus what's outside. >> what we see-- at least in our first six months of data-- is that the mangroves seem to be growing faster in the warming chambers. >> sreenivasan: the wetfeet project is a multi-year iniative, funded by the national science foundation. researchers pull water samples it's going to overtop the marsh and as it does so it's going to

shade out the marsheitunder it and ill just take over. >> sreenivasan: but a "take over" might not necessarily be a bad thing. mangroves are the foundation of wn extremely productive coastal ecosystem in theiright. to see the benefits that these plants provide, we traveled more than 180 miles south to a research site near the coastal town of ft. pierce. here, it's a more tropic environment, and a place where mangroves traditionally thrive. >> this is solid mangrove. we have pretty much 100% cover of mangroves. >> sreenivasan: our guide is candy feller, an emeritus scientist at the smithsonian environmental research center. she's been studying mangroves for more than three decades. >> mangroves are known as a nursery of the sea, so in florida it's been shown that most of the commercial fishes spend part or all of their lives in the mangroves. so if you get rid of the mangroves and you've lost a whole lot of your catch. >> sreenivasan: in additiong o anchorina whole ecosystem, mangroves play an important role in defending in shorelines from the sea. a 2017 study found that about 5.ro5 feet of mas can reduce

wa0%ve height by about by comparison, it takes 57 feet of. salt marsh to do the sa in the 1980s, florida adopted its fi mangroves, but globally they are threatened by agriculture and aquaculture, including shrimp farming, a as coastal development. >> the achilles heel of mangroves is that they're occupying thatscart of the lae that people really covet. >> sreenivasan: researchers estimate that as much as a third of the world's mangrove habitat has been lost since 1980. but about 80 miles up the florida coast, feller took us to an area that h seen a mangrove explosion in the last 15 years. merritt island national wildlife refuge-- near nasa's kennedy space center-- is home to hundreds of bird species from glossy ibises to great blue herons. it's also part of what's known as the ecotonepart salt marsh, part mangrove environment. i remember the day when i was looking out there and it was

just about as much salt marshes as it was mangroves but it looks like it's pretty much all mangroves now doesn't it? >> sreenivasan: the transformation here has been so fast that an informational sign is now completely ouof-date. >> i think this is extraordinary. this is what we'reng at he. it says the marsh to the east is a grassland community. thatno longer a grassland community. it's a mangrove forest. >> sreenivasan: the changes look just as dramatic from above. researchers measure the expansion of mangroves using tellite images, and in this ingion alone mangrove cover eased by nearly 70% from 2003 to 2010. >> they are really flexible like snorkels, too. reenivasan: back at the wetfeet project, about two tours uphe coast, researchers bring us to anothesite where mangroves are encroaching on salt marsh. >> here's the little root that sticks o. >>reenivasan: this is a mangrove propagule, the plant's seedling. hen it essentially lifts up its head and then it pops out its first two real leaves. >> sreenivasan: it's nt the growth of mangroves popping

up in this salt marsh that researchers are studying. they are also measuring a hidden benefit of mangroves that's trapped in the ground beneath them. the mud that i'm standing in, this really dark stuff, that is thousands of years worth of carbon that's been captured and locked now as these mangroves work their way up the coast researchers are trying to figure out how that affects the rate at which that ca>>on is stored. these wetlands are like little strips, and so by area they're not the biggest carbon stores, but they can take up cabon really quickly and lock it away. >> sreenivasan: as mangroves grow they absorb carbon dioxide and other climate change-causing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. these elements are converted by the mangroves to organic matter and trapped in the soil below. this stored carbon is known as blue carbon, and by growing quickly and decomposing slowly, mangroves store more of it, on a per area basis, than any other type of forest on earth. >> is think this systeme in we're seeing some hope.

the vegetation, the plants are adapting to climate change. they are moving intace where they couldn't be before because it's waer and that may, and that's what we are trying to figure out, end up lping us with issues li carbon storage and sea level rise. >> sreenivasan: but the transition from grassy salt marsh to bushy mangrove is not seen as beneficial by everyone. >> it's not that either one is hatter than the other, it's just how is it going toe >> sreenivasan: nikki dix is the research director at g.t.m., and scientist working on the wetfeet project. do the people that live around here understanthe difference between an invasive species and what a mangrove is, what a mangrove does? yes, some do some don't. so we try to educate people the best we can. when people are not used to seeing mangroves out their backyd they're used to this nice flat marsh view. and then you start getting trs blocking your view. they immediately think, "oh, it's an invasive. we've got to cut it down." >> you can't touch it. people don't like that. they don't like being told no, especially people that can

afford to live on the water. >> sreenivasan: to "touch" a mangrove in florida, you usually need the help of someone like danny lippi. he's an arborist near where the wetfeet project is underway and he's licensed by the state to trorim mangs. he recently trimmed these mangroves from around 12 feet down to eight feet, after a months-long regulatory process. the penalty for removing or iromprly pruning a mangrove is up to $5,000 per plant. >> every once in a while you'll get a pretty good client that nds the benefits. but i'd say most of my clients don't care aut any of that. ey just want to have a view. this plants in their way and the state says that they can't reenmove it hey want to. >> sreenivasan: our final stop with candy feller was nearly 40 es north of the wetfeet project on amelia island, near the border with georgia. she's brought us to the northernmost known mangrove on the eastern seaboard >> that tree got there, about 15 years ago. we think that it probably arrivored durinfter the 2004 hurricanes.

>> sreenivasan: researchers believe the plants' northe march is spurred by extreme weather events like hurricanes physically spreading mangrove propagules. that push from a hurricane, combined with no significant freezes, means this plant has been able to take root. >> the predictions are that we're going to have less intense and fewer freezes. we're going to have more and more intense hurricanes, mich means thgroves who can be pushed further and further up the coast. so these become like a sentinel of, a biological sentinel of the effects of climate change. >> sreenivasan: back at the g.t.m. reserve, there are more than 72,000 acres of protected land, including almost 40 miles of coast. as climate change continues,ch reses believe this ecosystem will see more and more mangroves. it's an encroachment that could atrmanently change this landscape in ways researchers are racing to understand.

>> sreenivasan: purdue pharma is the maker the highly addictive opioid oxycontin. the family that owns the company; the sacklers, have be embroiled in lawsuits and multi- million dollar settlements to keep the compaop's role in the id crisis out of the public eye. the family is wellnown for their philanthropy, but many of the prestigious institutions that received money from the sacklers are distancing themselves and have decided to stop accepting tir gifts. i recently spoke with barry meier, who has covered the opioid epidemic, the sackler family and the ongoing legal cases for "the new york times." he is also the author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epemic," a new edition was published in 2018. >> the of the remarkablgs about this story is that for a large part of it, you know,r really oe last two decades when i first got involveed, the

sacklers were able to create this illusion that they were hands-off, they were basically hee benefactors of this country, the company,were the philanthropists that took money that they made and give it to museums and to medical schools. but now we're seeing that they were sort of up through their eyeballs in the operations of the company. in fact, their emails which where you have like sub order flatna ares, vice presidents kind of screaming that richard sackler, one of thi members is like micromanaging the operation. >> sreenivasan: is it possible then for some sort of grand settle am to be reached? i mean if we're talking about a thousa something lawsuits that could be billions and billions of dollars, i'm assuming that this company in the mean would say sorry, we're going to have to declare bankruptcy just to shield themselves. >> i think st a very good possibility. i covered the tob iacustry litigation when i was with "the new york times" and there you had a manageable number of

plaintiffs am you you had the 48 states and a few cities and so they were able to craft a global settlement. here you havstates, you have countee, you have native american tribes, various localities. and i don't see how they're going toe negotie type of global settlement of these cases th is going to lead to peace for the company. it is going to have to be negotiated piece meal, they will have to settle with some of the major defendants and take their chances with others or simply go into bankruptcy and use that as a shield to hold off the hit gaition. >> sreenivasan: most major cities around the country, possiblyround different parts of the world, the sackler name is something that they see as they walk into an art museum or gallery, right? what has happened to that name in that world?>> hey are seeing it in a very different way now. they're seeing it as a company, as a family that ere the

beneficiaries, bot of legitimate drug sesnd illegal drug sales. and one of the con undrums tat faces the sacklers right now, and part of the reason why certain museums are ning to reswrek their donations is the question of what does this company, what did this family do with the money that they received from drug sales that clearly were not legitimate. i mean they made millns if not billions from legitimate drug sales. and no one really questioned that. the question is what did they do with the money or w did they handle the money, that came from sales from street sales about oxycontin. did they just say well, we don't have any control over that. we'll take t a monway. or do they ever have qualms about that. >> sreenivasan: our interview

with barry mie err continues here and online at pbs.org/newshour. >> what can happen here? i mean you've talked to kind of the end-ser, the end victims, the families that are surviving. it seems a pretty long stretch from the kind of high-minded art wod, right. so the person that might be in appalachia somewhere who suffered at the hands of this drug, what is their relief wht can they get? >> you know, i think the best one can hope for is that there are moneys set aside through this litigation for drug treatment. i think the other benefit that will accrue if attorney geneals cud plaintiffs' lawyers force these nts to become public in that we as a society will knowly what happened during this epidemic. i mean we're dealing with the greatest public health crisis of

the 21s-- 21s century. we don't know how the sackler's come ported themselves during it. they claim, you know, we ha clean hands. we're now seeing documents suggesting otherwise. the last thing, the worst thing thes could happen is for cases to be settled and for these documents to be once again sealed from public view. the people that lost loved ones to this epidemic, we as a society really do need to know what the sacklers knew, how they behad, the decisions that they made. not just within purdue but howes other executives behaved. the people that ran jon jon, the ugople that ran the big distributers, you know, they were dumping tens ofillions of pain pills into places like west virginia. what kind of decisions did they make inside their corporate offices. d flushtigation coul those answers out. >> sreenivasan: barry meier

thanks so much. >> it's been my pleasure. >> coming up tomorrow on the newshour we'll have more reporting from honduras, as special correspondent marcia biggs continues her series fleeing home thasm saul for this edition of pbs newshour weekend edition.rr i'm sreenivasan, thanks for watching. vey good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz.

sue and edgar wachenheim iii. ton melvin. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundatio. rosalindlter. inarbara hope zuckerberg. corporate fuis provided by mutual of america-- designing customized indidual and group retirement produhys. that'se'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. be more. pbs. ed in part by...

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