captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, december 15: the house of representatives prepares for a historic vote w thk. and in our signature segment, a return to riace, ita: once a ilcome haven for migrants, now the global villa practically vacant. next on pbs newshour weend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. pthe cheryl and philstein family. rosalind p. lter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerbg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the ment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial oup, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for blic broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to yourpb station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at anincoln center in new york, hari sreeniv >> sreenivasan: good evening an thank ining us. this week the democratic- marity house of representatives are wiving ahead an anticipated party-line vote on impeaching president trump. today, hse intelligence mmittee chair representative adam schiff defended moving ahead with the vote, even though the majority republican senate would likely ve to acquit in an impeachment trial.en >> if prestrump is overwhelmingly acquitted in the senate, is that a failure? >> no, it isn't a failure. at least it's not a failure in the sense of our constitutional

duty in the house. >> sreenivasan: one house democrat who is not expected to vote in favor of impeachment is representative jeff van drew. multiple news reports yesterday said the new jersey congressman met with president trump on friday and may announce a switch to the republican party this week. van drew, a derate democrat was elected in 2018 to a formerly republican-he district which voted for trump. he was one of only two hou democrats who voted against the impeachment process in october. van drew said, on fox news," there is nothing that hasru turned uthat is impeachable." last night preside trump tweeted "that would be big, always heard jeff is very smar"" in response to news that van drew was "believed to be c strongsidering" switching parties. china announced today that it will postpone rther punitive tariffs on u.s. made automobiles and other goods. prior to friday's interim trade deal, beijing had planned to ldimpose 25% dutiethat w have gone into effect today. the trade agreement requires the u.s. to halt a planned tariff hike on $160 billion worth of

chinese goods and cut in half all existing penalties. in turn, china agrees to buy $40 billion worth of u.scrops over the next two years. california govnor gavin newson rejected a $13.5 billion settlement from pg&e late friday. the utility company had n-ached the bidollar agreement last week with thousands of victims who were impacted by devastating wildfires the decision forcecothe utility mpany backo the bargaining table to renegotiate its bankruptcy restructuring plan.de newsom is nding that the company clearly addrs how it will better provide safe and reliable power to its customers. protection, pg&e mnalize a deal before a june 30 deadline. >> sreenivasan: in italy, a new movement has emerged opposition to former deputy prime minister matteo salvini's

far-right populism. it's called the sardines movement, because of their capacity to pack themselves into piazzas. yesterday tens of thousands turned out to protest salvini's populist politics and anti-an milanguage. but in some places, his rhetoric has taken hold. early this year we brought you a story from the italian town of riace, which gained a reputation for welcoming migrants until a new, populist government brought that experiment to an now, italy has changed governments again, and newshour weekend special correspondent ch update to our story an hills along italy's southern coast is a small town with a big reputation. we first visited riace in 2016. it had become famous during the height of the immigration crisis tsin europe for welcoming and refugees, with a smile. >> poco, poco. little, little italiano. >>eporter: the mayor at th time, domenico lucano, proudly introded us to some of them, like this woman from afghanistan. the town provided refugees like

her with work in scialty shops, training in small workshops, and oer jobs around town., >> albankistan. >> reporter: it housed them in formerly abandoned apartments in an innovative program mostly paid for with government funds. mayor lucano was even named one of "fortune" magazine's 50 greatest world leaders for his integration policies. the many refugees and migrants we met like daniel yaboah who's originally from ana and had a job collecting trash and recyclables, said they were grateful to the people of riace. >> they are friendly or those things and they are used toig fors. they are used to welcome everybody.'m very happy iere now.ep >> rter: but returning three years later, we found a very different scene in r. i think this was one of the woshops where they were working in wool? it's closed. the once busy so-called "globalw

village"ch was the heart of the immigrant area is now more like a ghost town. the specialty shs and workshops that had employed and trained migrants are alosed. most of the migrants are gone too. li as you can see, it's no before. >> reporter: daniel yaboah is one of the few still left. >> it's not a good thing, no. i'm just feeng bad for the, my colleagues, my friends. been here the past 10 years, so for me, it's not a problem for me, but i'm just feeling, i'm feeling pity for the, my colleagues. >> reporter: what happened? a political sea-change. heonce fringe party called league, which has a blunt message won in local electionson this past spring. claudio falchi, the league's leader here at the time, credits the victory to a major backlash against the migrant program in once left-leaning riace. >> ( hetranslated ): against

will of the town, we were invaded by a myriad ofs, nationaliteople cong from ghana, ivory coast, senegal, that is from countries where there aren't any wars. economic migrants. citizens here felt abandoned. >> reporter: at a local cafe people told us they felt overwhelmed by the number of migrants. >> ( translated ): that's an invasion. because of the numbers, even if you ask the left, "how many migrants dwe have to host?"el they don't tyou how many. are we supposed to get all ofca afri >> reporter: riace also elected a new mayor, league-backed antonio trifoli.ca he replaced who's being investigated for mismanageme of the refugee program funds, charges lucano's supporters say are politically motivated. with lucano gone, the refugee ogram collapsed and the migrants moved away according to the new mayor. >> i think an integration project for migrants makes sense, but only with a limited number. at times we had 500 to 600 migrants here. >> reporter: now how many migrants are here?

>> ( translated ): now there are only a few families, those who were truly able to integrate. 10 to 20 families, let's say about 50 migrants. >> reporter: if there used to be 600 migrants and now there's ly 50, where did all the migrants go?sl >> ( tred ): they went to other migrant centers in italy. some went to france. a lot of them left on their own. or they had to leave because of the investigation, a the interior ministry closed thewa non-profit tharunning their project. as soon as the public money stopped ming in, these workshops closed. and national politics changed in italy too. >> reporter: he's right. riace may be an isolated village, but what's happening here is not an isolated event. the league party, is now the most powerful party in the country and it's leading a movementcross europe. the league's leader is matteo salvini. up until receny he was also he lost that positrecently, but he and his party are still

the most popular in the co mtry, polling ore than 30% andi savlhas his eye on a comeback. the league recently won in umbria, yet anothehistorically left-winregion in central italy. roberto menotti with the aspen has successfully capitalized one the issue that's kept europe in knots inecent years, migration, makina dramatic promise to voters about the flow of migrants into the country. >> the argument in previous governments, center-le governments especially was we will manage the phenomenon for you. we cannot stop the flow. now salvini is actually sending a different message. we will actuallyry to stop the flow which in the past essentially no government really even tried to make as an argument. >> reporter: menotti says the league's slogan, "italians first" is of thethat may sound familiar to americans. >> and of course, it has aan truming to it. so a feeling that you have to make sure that most of your national resources actually go

to your own citizens first. so that feeling is very widespread and certainly the league has been exploiting that politically. >> reporter: menotti notes there's another thing that salvini has in common with president trum >> he tweets a lot. he also is a great fan of selfies. er he's extremely savvy in of social media. is reporter: nathalie tocc deputy director of the international affairs institute. >> he does not necessarily want people to like him. the point is being talked abouuc this is verythe tactic that nationalist populist leads use across the west. they make the news. >> reporter: and salvini's greater ambitions beca evident at a large rally in milan earlier thisear. he addressed a cheering crowd, kissing a crucifix and introducing some of europe's biggest far-right leaders. >> no more dictates from the e.u. superstate. >> reporter: they included the dutch politician geert wilders. >> no more immigration.

basta islam! >> reporter: and france's far- right party leader, marine le pen. >> ( tranated ): we're takingio this revoln of good sense to all of europe, she told the crow >> the key message was the league is not only very successful at a national level, it is also a european force with the ability to actually use this general movement to the right across the continent as a new political tool. limits to how influential one nationalist party can be. according to tocci... >> t point about nationalist is precisely that that they are nationalists. so they tend to not agree with one another. they may le each other politically but they are completely unable to cooperateot and help each her on a policy level. >> reporter: whether the right- wing will manage to unite is unclear. but it's already having an impact on people like yaboah in >> for me, it's nood thing.

for thcity too, you casee everywhere is quiet. >> reporter: and menotti says the trd will continue for some time to come. >> the reasons why a pty like the league and a leader like salvini can become very popur very quickly are there to stay and they have to do with globalization, with the impact of economic inequalities and so on. all issues that are more or ss felt in the same way in the unit states just as in europ so there are reasons to keep watching what happens in places like italy. >> sreenivasan: back in 1975, o the numbborder patrol agen in the u.s. was just over 1,700. today, with more than ten times that number, the u.s. border patrol is one of the larst and most well-funded enforcement agencies in the united states.

a new documentary set in rural arizona sheds light on how the agency's expansion has impacted one small community along the country's southern border. newshour weekend's ivette feliciano has the story. >> reporter: in the documentary, "undeterred," filmmaker and activist eva lewis depicts life in the southern borda.-town of arivaca, arizon it's a community of fewer than 700, about 60 miles south of tucson, and 11 miles north of the mexico border. lewis moved to avaca in 2013 to volunteer with a local migrant aid group. >> people in arivaca will talk about how in the '80s and even thearly '90s, there was on border patrol agent who was responsible for the whole area around arivaca. and you would see m maybe once a year. >> reporter: that began to change some 35 yrs ago. >> our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards.

>> reporter: starting in 1994 under president clinton, a u.s. customs and border enforcement strategy called "operation evention through deterrence" more than tripled the manpower and infrastructure along the border. immigration checkpoints were positioned on all major roads in the area. lewis says that today arivaca is what she calls a "militarized" zone. ro you'll be driving on th and you might see one car or no cars of another resident, but you might see 10, 15 border patrol cars pass you. w meanselicopters which fly low chasing peopho they're looking for through the community. it means thousands of ground sensors that are buried, agents on horseback, on foot, on a.t.v.s. and it means checkpoints every ti you want to leave the community.ep >> rter: most residents don't work in arivaca, and there is no elementary or high school in town. so, every day, peoe leaving the community on the one road

going north must pass through a checkpoint. >> so, if you want to go to the hardware store, go see a movie, go to a grocery store that's bigger than the little store we have in town, everybody has to pass through border patrol checkpoints.or >> rr: the documentary includes videos and firsthandtr accounts cuted by arivaca residents, alleging unwarranted searches and verbal harassment by border agents at that checkpoint on arivaca road. arivaca resident jolene montana speaks for many in the film. citizens, why are opping. us? they wouldn't give us any answers they were very aggressive. got us out of the vehicle, threw everything out of the vehicle, esnt through all of our pu we tried to film them on the phone, and they said no you can't do that. one of them had me up against my car, he was in my face. he h my i.d. and he had my tribal i.d. and he said you," you have no righ rere." >>orter: arivaca residents leesa jacobson and carlota wray

were also featured in the documentary. >> border patrol operates with pretty much impunity. and it doesn't operate like any other law enforcement. it's not really civilian. it's not really military. it's not like a sheriff's department or a police department where, if you have a complaint, it may not get the result that you wish, but at rdast there are civilian b of oversight-- ways to handle things. and-- but that doesn exist in border patrol. >> reporter: filmmaker eva lewiu says u.soms and border protection did not respond to her request for an interview for the documentary. pbs newshour weekend also reached out to c.b.pan interview, or written statement, for this report, but the agency did not respond. the documentary highlights local activism through the volunteer group "people helping people in the border zone", or "p.h.p.," which formed in 2012.he >> we are to deliver this petition. >> reporter: residents are shown petitioning for the removal ofec

the kpoint on arivaca road. >> this checkpoint must go. s >> reportece 2014, p.h.p. volunteers have monitored from a distance how agents conduct stops. that year, the group says it submitted information related to more than 2,300 vehicle stops ta a cientist at the university of arizona for analysis. >> latinos we 26 times more like to show identification at the checkpoint than non-latinos. and they were 20 times, 20 times, not0%, 20 times more likely to be pulled into secondary inspection. >>hen i go with my sister my brother-in-law, even my own kids or grandkids, because of the color of the skin they usually ask more questions. >> reporter: most of arivaca's residents are white, b it does have small native and latino populations as well. carlota wray, who was born in xico, is a naturalized american citizen and has lived

in the arivaca since 1980. >> but it really still hurts my feelings. because, i mean, there are agents on each side of your car with, heavily armed. and i don't know what they'll do, you know? >> reporter: but wray says racial profiling isn't her biggest concern. the border patrol strategy" operation prevention throughte ence" closed off traditional ports of entry from mexico into the u.s. closer to main roads and highways, rerouting migrants to some of the most barren areas of the desert. in the last 20 years, more than 3,000 migrants have died in arizona's borderlands, according he the pima county office medical examiner. wray says those who do survive the journey, often end up lost esd in desperate circumsta in the town of arivaca. >> they come vers,ill to our doo our backyards. it's a very bad expe. and only the person that goes

i always keep my eyes open to see if i see anyone on the side of the road, because i have founmebody dying on the side of the road. so, it's like something that's always in the back of my head. >> reporter: filmmaker eva lewis ivpes the documentary will people outside of border communities insight into how they too could be affected. >> i think people should be really concerned about what it means to dehumanize one group oh people and wha can mean in terms of it bleeding into all parts society and daily life for everyone. >> sreenivasan: last month, pen america, a non-profit organization f literature and eedom of expression, released a report detailing the loss of local news coverage in communities across the united states.

the findings ned that as a result, americans are not likely to engage in political and civic life. i recely sat down with viktorya vilk, manager of special projects for free expression programs at pe america and the co- authors of the rort: viktorya, lay out the local news problem for us. >> we spent the last year, my colleagues and i at pen america, journalists, elected officials, community activists, and media scholars, and we were hearing o the same refrar and over again. local news outlets across the country are shrinking and shuttering at an alarming rate, and it is very bad news for our communits. if you look at some very powerful studies that have come out in the last o years, what they found is that if you look at just newspapers over the last 15 years, they've lost $35 billion in ad revenue and nearly 50% nearly half of staff. over 2,000 newspapers have shut down acre country, local newspapers and over 1,000 more are ghost papers, so they're just shells of their formerse es. they're producing very little and the reason newspapers matter

is because if you think of you also have tv, radio, social media, all the places people gem their inion, newspapers, are still providing the bulk of original reporting at the local level. so when you lose them, you losen that watchdog that is so important in ouredemocracy. >>ivas: so it's if there isn't anybody watching the city councimeetings and going to them. there's potential for abuse or inaud. is that you're s >> that's exactly what i'm saying. and there's a growing body of very compelling and very frighting literature that shows that as local news declines, government corruption and vernment costs increase, officials conduct themselves with less integrity and efficiency. we also know thalocal news drives civic engagement, sowe there are people going out to vote and they don't know exactly who's running for office or whathat person's atform is because they don't have local sources that they trust to turn to for that information, so the consequences can breally dire. and as we enter an election cycle at is rife with political polarization and

disinformation, we need trusted local sources now more than er. sreenivasan: so which communities are affected the most? i mean, is this hitting rural areas or smaller markets? is it communities of color that dot have other publication paying attention to them? >> it's all of that, and more, so when we started this project, we were thinking almost exclusively of news deserts,ac right where there isn't a local outlet of some kind. year working on this projecta that this is a national problem, and it effects major cities,s, rural communitmall and mid sized towns and everything in between. but you are absolutely right that it is precisely the communities that i've actually historically been underserved by itcal media, communities of color, poor comms, low income communities that are now being most severely affected by this crisis.tu so you have outlets in the black press, hispanic tlnguage outlets. native american s are all shutting down there under the same pressure, but they didn't have the finanstal support or ility that legacy outlets once h.

>> sreenivasan: for re on the decline of local journalism, watch here or sit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: so ye, what, four pages of recommendations and this summarize some of that for us. what can we do? what should gedone? >> our top line recommendation is that we actually have to radically shift how wehink about journalism sn this countrthat we are no longer thinking of it exclusively as a commercial product but so as a public good, a service that it's so vital to society that we must support it through public and private means and protect it. and so there are a number of things we propose. there isn enormous amount of innovation taking place in the industry itself. there are non-profit outlets popping up, digital outlets popping up, but they need money. and so what we suggest is radically expanding philanthropic funding. right now, foundations have led the way they're giving hundredsi of ms of dollars a year. what we need is billions of dollars a year, and that giving is not going to local outlets, and it's very concentrated on the coasts and in a handful of

states in between. it's not hitting the southwest, the midwest, the south, right ia communities and low income communities in particular. we're also recommending, actually majorly expanding the pool of public funding that's avlable to journalism either through the corporation for public broadcasting, which is our existing model, or perhaps through a national endowment for journalism. >> sreenivasan: right w, in is climate, that is pret difficult ask. >> the reason we are saying we need to think big is because the what a lot of americans don't realize is that we have actually subsidized commercial media nce 1792. they're postal subsies, b through teaks and through government ads. 36 states across this country acally support media. but we're doing so at a rate somewherbetween 25 to 30 times less per person than most of the high income democracies the rest of the world. >> sreenivasan: viktorya vilk from pen america. ks so much foroining u >> thank you so much for having

me. >> sreenivasan: tune in this week f more on the house impeachment vote, and on thursday when newshour, along with politico, hos the sixth democratic presidential debate from california. that's all for this edition ofws pbs neur weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good night. ng captioponsored 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.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara pe zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow today.lp you make the most of mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investment additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation fund by the american people. and by contributionso your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> pavlo: my name is pavlo and welcome to guadalajara,

opa! ♪ ♪