captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, february 22: voters turn out for today's democratic caucuses nevada. and, in our signature segment: the first in our series of stories from india with a look at exclusionary citizenship laws that are leaving some in limbo. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz.ed sue anr wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum.ve

we try to n the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutl of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of era financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by ctributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lin center in new york, hari sreenivasan. od >> sreenivasan: vening, and thanks for joining us. the nevada democratic caucuses are today, the third ctest in the presidential nomination process. at ses throughout the state, registered democrats linedp in person this afternoon. their choices will be combined m wie than 70,000 early voters who cast paper ballots with their top three to five candidates. senator bernie sanders, the

party's front-runner in many polls, campaigned last night in las vegas, hoping to bolstn his new hampshire. other candidates made last- minute stops today in nevada, looking for support. president trump held a rally in las vegas last night as well, but the nevada republican party canceled its caucuses this year, choosing to give all its delegates to the president. joining me now from las vegas is joe schoenmann, news director d host for nevada public radio. joe, you've got reporters around to different polling plas already, and while we have this conversation early in the are showing up today the usual suspects >> that is the big question we're going to be asking a lot. the question is 70,000 people showed up early to vote. four years ago, just over 80,000 people showedp in total. so they're wondering if most of caucus have alreane theirto voting, or if these were people who had never done it beforetu wanted to take advantage of the ease of the erly caucus votin either way, i think they're

expecting a record turnout. >> sreenivasan: okay, and let's talk a little bit about the technology question here. i mean, there was some talk about google sheets being used to hep tabulate wht are otherwise confusing numbers to put all together. what's happened in the last day or two? >> they're using that so that they can tabate the priority of the presidents. each person will have fferent priorities, 70,000 ballots. the goggle forms is supposed to automatically through the computer tabulate those per precinct. it's kind of confusing beause then they have to take those tabulations, add them tohe votes that happened today, andth usse votes to add up the total for each of the candidates. and when one of those candidates doesn't reach, 5%e next vote in the prioritized list, thedi next cte will go into the pool for another candidate. it's-- it's always been sort of a confusing system here. it's always been one that peple

have basically shunned, and some form of voter suppression confusing.'s really kind of takes a long time to get through. >> sreenivasan: all right, let's talk a little bit about the fulinary union and tht that they have not endorsed any candidate yet. over the past couple of days i'm thsure all ocandidates were trying to make that last pitch to their members. it's anta imp segment of this voting bloc. >> 60,000 members of the culinary union, a lot of them are-- they woron the strip. i happen to live in a neighborhood where a lotf culinary union workers live. i was surprised when i woke thup morninto see five to 10 bernie sanders signs in the yards of peopr. and these immigrants. a lot of them are immigrants. and so it kind of ges again what the culinary union has been talking about for the last several months is that they don't want bernie sanders because he wou take away their health insurance. but he made clear during the

debate here, if he gets medicare for all, he's not going to take their insurance. i think that resonated here. medicare, health insurance, health care is very important here because the system has not been good here fhi years. they he'll be able to improve it. >> sreenivasan: finally, let's not forget tde other sof the ticket. the president decides to show up how is he doin the state? >> there are throngs of people iting for him, hundreds, if not 1,000 at the las vegas convention cnunter. there's not as much enthusiasm for his campaign because it's one candite. he's not fighting against anybody. it going to be interesting. most of the polls and most of the pundits say thea stte is firmly bluew. we're getting immigrants. we're getting a lot of peoplli from crnia moving here, that it would be very difficult for him to win in the state. and i think that's going to bear out in the fall. >> sreenivasan: all right, joe hoenmann from nevada public

radio, thanks smuch. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: in afghanistan, the weeklong so-lled "reduction in olence" agreement between the u.s. and the taliban began at midnight last night. the truce calls for the taliban to end roadside bombings,e suiccks, and rocket strikes against afghan or u.s. forces. u.s. officials say any att tks during tce will be investigat, to determine ifli the ban was involved. if successful, ad eace accord be signed as soon as9. february 2 also today, the united nations releas a report showing that more than 100,000 civilians have been killed or injured during fighting in afghanistan over the past ten years. health organization is en routed to wuhan, china, today, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. in south korea, the country with the second-most coronavirus

cases, authorities announcedncn eight-foldase in the past four days, bringing the total there to 433 cases. in iran, authorities reported a fifth death from the virus 28 cases have been confirmed there so far. and in northern ital a dozen towns are on lockdown after two people died and more than 50 are confirmed to have the virus. former rebel leader riek machar became south sudan's vice president today, as part of a new coalition government. president salva kiir called the power-shing agreement the official end of the civil war between his supporters and those of machar that began in 2013. this is the third attempt by the two leaders to form a coalition government while under heavy international pressure. the civil war inouth sudan, the wod's youngest country, killed at least 400,000 people. nasa released images yesterday showing the effects of the hottest temperature on record in antarctica. and february 13 sh before-uary 4

and-after melting of the ice cap on eagle island. on februar6, just two days after the first image was taken, weather stations recorded a temperature 64.9 degrees at the northern tip of the antarctic peninsula-- about the same temperature as los angeles that day.es nasa estim that during that period, four incheonof snowpack agle island melted. >> sreenivasan: both tod's nevada caucuses and next week's primary in south carolina are bringing the most di electorate to the polls so far. meanwhile, when it comes to gender in their own state houses, there are stark divides. but, that could be changing. i recently spoke with capri cafaro, a former ohio state senator who is currently an executive in residence at american university school of public affairs. first, let's talk a little bit about nevada. how important is gender in the

oflitical contex a state where almost half thewo legislature aren? >> actually, about 52% of nevada state legislature, makerring them te first in the country to ve a female majority statee. ho so, certainly, nevada has proven to be a leader when it comes to gender equity, gder parity, and the electorate's willingness vote for female candidates. they even have two female unites statators. so, obviously, if history, if past is prologue, gender plys very critical role in nevadare >>ivasan: what is the secret to nevada's success in achieving this sort of gender parity in the legislature? >> a lot of it has to do with candide rruitment, and the fact that traditionally or historically, western states actually do have a hignuher er of women that both run and succeed in higher office there. i also think that it's possible, particularly in w nevadth a

very large, prominent, and powerful labor union presencet ere. so these kind of service industry unions oftentimes do invest a lot in recruitment, retention of women candidates, all across the countr >> sreenivasan: they're able to independent pipe line and actually encourage more women into politics? >> that's right, that's right. you get in at the local level and state level, the fact that you have such a bigence of women in a nevada legislature creates a circumstae whereby u have two united states senators that are female in a >> sreenivasan: all right, let's turn the page a little bit. osuth carolina, almthe inverse of the situation in nevada. now, i should point out, nikki haley-- >> nikki haley. >> sreenivasan: isernor of that state. so it's notike they have been completely out of it. how does that? legislature fa >> very different from what we see in nevada where south carolina has a little less than is female.ir state legislatu

they have no women representing them at the federal level, either. you did mention former governor nikki haley. so it is not without female presence, but there is absolutely an absence of female remgz thin tir federal delegation, and a very small number of womt en servinge state level, very simar to places like tennessee, alabama, west virginia, mississippi. so, again, not out of the norm in the nber of southern states. >> sreenivasan: how much of this has to do with partiesnd their ability to recruit? i mean, is there a stronger , cruitment pipe line when it comes to, saybor unions in nevada versus what the republican party is doing an how they're encouraging women to get in on the ground floor? >> right. well, there always has been a historicsparity between women nning as democrats versus women running as republicans.

there are such high volumes of men running on democratic tickets that also resulted in women increasing their numbers in congress in the midterm uselections. beof that, republicans are stepping up their game in candidate recruitment of women all acrs the country in congressional races. soutcarolinawon that is currently held by a freshman democrat, who say man, and there are two aomen,ctually republican women, running in the primary to try to unseat the south carolina. democrat in it very well may be that we'll see a south carolina represented by a wan,t potentially this year. >> sreenivasan: all right, capri cafaro, executive in residence at the american university's school of public o fairs. thanksch for joining u. >> thank you very much. >> sreenivasan: for live updatec of the nevada results, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: on monday, president trump will be in india

to meet with prime minister narendra mod and, in a few weeks, the u.s. will begin mailing out census forms. ose might not sound like related events, but, currently, both countries are struggling th the question of who is welcome in their country and whs ot, based on citizenship. in india, mr. trump is expected to discuss the issue of how religion has played a major role in a new law that many are calling anti-muslim. last december, amid widespread protests, the government there passed a constitutional amendment allowing hindus and members of other persecuted faiths from neighboring countries to get on a fast track to citizenship, but, notably, it cluded muslims. in the indian state of assam, eeslims, hindus and other immigrants are fling the sting of a statewide attempt to alimuddin sheikh ia 49-year-an old muim mho lives in the town of bijni ak india. he a meager living working as a day laborer. beikh's life is not easy,, last august, it beca much

harder when the indian government told him he was no longer a citizen. >> ( translated ): it's really a shameful matter. eryone is saying i'm a bangladeshi. >> sreenivasan: last year, the indian government created a list known as the national rester of citizens, or n.r.c., to determine how many undocumented 33 million residenthe among the statof assam. sheikh was one of 1.9 million people excluded from the list, effectively rendering them stateless. located in northeast india, assam is sandwiched between the nations of bhutan to the north and bangladesh to the south. illegal immigration from bangladesh has been aen conttious issue for decades, at times sparking ethnic the tensions peake 1983 when thousands of muslim bangladeshis were massacred by angry locals. since then, the government has maintained a heavy militarypr ence, but violence between has erupted periodically.ocals some assamese say they are theei

ones persecuted, claiming ngladeshi immigrants are cultural identity.and rights and >> sreenivasan: abhijit sarma is a local businessmawho works in assam's capital of guwahati ands reprents a non-profit called assam public works, which advocates against illegal immigration. he's also the tivator behind the new n.r.c. frustrated with immigration, sarma filed a petion with the supreme court in 2009, asking for action on identifying undocumented immigrants insa

>> sreenivasan: in 2013, he won. india's supreme cot ordered the local government of assam to create a new register of citizens in the state. it took four years, more than 50,000 government employees, and cost more than $200 million. residents of assam were required to apply with documentation proving they or their family had lived in india before 1971, thea cut-of for immigrants to be considered indian citizens. when the government released the final list of citizens, many t were surprisfind their names missing. there are plenty of errors in the government database. take for example the case of alimuddin sheikh. now, the goverent has a record of his grandfather, who was registered in 1951; the government has a rec his dad, registered in 1966; he has tax cards; he has a voter i.d.; his kids have birth certifates here. and yet, he was still rejected.h kh says his older brother did make it onto the list. >> ( translated ): i cannot say why it happened.

i submitted the same papers that my elder brother did. same papers were smitted. >> sreenivasan: submitting paperwork was expensive for sheikh, who earns about $2 a day. he says the efforts to prove his citizenship have cost his family more than $100. >> the vast majority of the pople who have been excluded from the list are poor, unlettered, illiterate, and many of them will not be able to afford lawyers. >> sreenivasan: aman wadud is a lawyer working pro-bono for hundreds who have been left off the n.r.c. financial hardships, the process does not account for discrepancies in documents like common name changes after a marriage, or even simpleypos. look, the government's side is-- is, we should know who is inside our borders, who is a citizen, and who is not. and we should protechethe rights ofxisting minorities that are here.'s who wrong with that idea? >> this country is stripping

citizenship of its oizens, declaring its own citizens as foreigners. >> sreivasan: before the n.r.c., the government of assam handled unthorized cmmigration one-by-case basis. immigration courts known as inreigner's tribunals dete citizenship status, placing undocumented immigrants detention centers. 60-year-old madhumala mondal was one of those cases. in 2009, mondal says she was building a fire to stay warm one ght in bishnupur, an assamese village, when immigration police came looking for a woman named madhumala das. mondal asked to go get her papers to prove they had the wrong woman. >> ( translated ):he policewoman didn't let me take the documents. she said, "it is okay if you don't take i you will be back by evening." >> sreenivasan: at the police station, mondal tried to explain the mix-up in names. >> ( translated ): after questioning, i said, "no, my surname is mondal, and mondal is written in my documents, as well.

i am not das. i didn't have that surname. my voter document says i am mondal. all my documents have mondal. for this, you are taking mto jail they said, "no, your surname is das."an >> sreenivmondal says she was taken to the kokrajhar detention centerasn western m, where the government held her for three years in a crampe room wit to 70 women who all shared a single toilet. mondal says at times authorities lethheld food. she was finally ed after local activists ought publicity to her case, but she says she still suffers from the effects of her incarceration. >> ( translated ): now i cannot work. i have no strength. >> sreenivasan: the indian government is now building new detention centers to hold the influx of thosdeclared non-citizens in the new n.r.c. alimuddin sheikh fears suffering a fate similar to mondal's. >> ( translated ): i feel angry. now only one thing: if i

couldn't make it to n.r.c., then i will have no choice other than to die. >> sreenivasan: okay, that seems >> (atranslated ): as i have to go and live in the detention camp, have to live in jail?ea inof staying there, it is better to die. >>f a person is declared as foreigner, it is worse than a death pelty. you might be deprived of the you'd be deprived of a right to job. you would be denied the basic rights, like the right to health, ght to education. it's a frightening thing to get detained for no fault of yours. and if you ask all these people, they know thisne country, which is india. they are born here. their parents are born here. their andparents are born here. they don't know any other country apart from india.wh >> sreenivasan is your solution to somebody who says, "listen, i'm as indian as the next guy.y my whole life,ds' lives have all been spent in assam. why are you telling me i'm not indian?" >> sreenivasan: according to a

recent supreme court r those in detention camps who have completed more than three years may be releaseon bail. aman wadud says even the few who can makeail face an uncertain future. >> there is no way that another country will take him. you cannot deport that person. that will lead to statelessness. >> sreenivasan: yeah. >> sreenivasan: the u.n. high commissioner for refugees has expressed concern over the possibility of people becoming stateless in assam. however, india is not a signatory to the u.n. conventions related to reducing statelessness. as such, there's little that the u.n. can do to intervene. though close to two million people werdeclared non- citizens in the n.r.c., sarma says he's disappointed there were not more people left off oue list. originally, you t seven to eight million bangladeshis were in the state of assam and

were voting here, but your million people.und only two >> yeah. >> sreenivasn: so, then, what happened to the seven million? >> sreenivas: you think all of these people have fake documents? : >> sreenivasrma wants the government to re-verify part of the n.r.c., alledeng that bangi immigrants have made it onto the list using forged documents. immigration attorney aman wadude sayslaim of forgeries is false. he says the larger issue is the process unfairly discriminates againsthose without the means to defend themselves. >> most of the people are poor, and can people really afford to go to the higher courts? >> sreenivasan: muslims like alimuddin sheikh may be the only ones left off the n.r.c. list who have to wait for their day in court. hindus, sikhs, buddhists, parsis, jains, and christians may be able to take advantage of the new citizenship amendment act foa fast track to

citizenship. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: streets packed with cars and trucks in the world's cities make crosswalks, also called "zebra crossings," a sometimes dangerous ple. in bolivia, an unusual and very popular solution is to literally bring zebras-- oy, people in zebra costumes-- onto those streets. >> reporter: susan limachi is suiting up for her third year as a zebra. bolivians known as "zebra urban educators," working in four cities. >> ( translated ): we're always active in our jobs. we are urban educators. we aren't clowns, even though people say to ushat we've come bring happiness and make them laugh. >> reporter: despite their antics in the busy streets, the zebras have a seris job. >> (a translated ): it's challenge to talk to citizens and get them to reflect.

's a ltle difficult, but it gives you a sense of satisfaction when you get a driver to see and stop at e pedestrian crossing, owhen a peon stops at the red light. >> reporter: the zebs learn their job in workshops, and there is often a waiting list to apply for the paid positions >> ( translated ): we want to send aessage out with this image as a zebra, because not many people would have otherwise paid attention. this image gives us tools out on the streets. >> reporter: using humor, and even spontaneous on-the-street demonstrations of danger-- the zebras are now in their 19th year of educating bolivian drivers and pedestrians. >> ( translated ): for us inbras, one of the best th is when a child sees us, comes running to us for a hug and says "how are you?" or when an elderly person comes d gives you a hug, they say, "thank you for everything the zebras do, you're the best thing in this city." g kes us great joy. it motivates me top going, and to show the best of our city.

>> sreenivasan: we will have thslatest results from toda nevada caucuses online at www.pbs.org/newshour, and we'll have analysis and candidate reactions tomorrow on the broadcast. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a 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. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum.

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