can get the ols they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, march 21: the migrant surge at the border intensifies; in our signature segment: more cities experiment with guaranteed basic income for some residents; and the psychedelic soul duo black pumas finds success in a chaotic year. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> pbs newshour weekend is made ssible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz.

the cheryl and philip milstein family. the jpb foundation. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. we try to live in 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 america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team canelp find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. the number of migrants crossing the u.s.-mexican border continues to climb, as the biden administration looks for ways to deal with the surge. an estimated 15,000 unaccompanied children are portedly in government custody, including hundreds who have been held by customs and border control beyond the legal 72 hour limit. today, secretary of homeland security alejandro mayorkas blamed the former trump administration for dismantling the system to deal with unaccompanied minors. he said it will take time to set up new shelters and develop a process for minors to be able to apply for asylum in their home countries. >> our message has been straightforward and simple, and it's true: the border is closed. we are expelling families. we are expelling single adults. and we've made a decision that we will not expel young, vulnerable children. >> sreenivasan: the secretary visited the border on friday with a bipartisan group of

senators, but the administration has refused press access to facilities holding minors. texas republican congressman mike mccaul, who previously served as chair of the committee on homeland security, blamed the biden administration for being unprepared and predicted today that the surge of migrants would get worse. >> springtime, summer, more and more come over. the message is coming back: "hey, we've got a new president, come on in, we're open for business to the traffickers, they are right here." and i predict a million people trying to get into this country by the summertime. >> sreenivasan: the biden administration has also enlisted the federal emergency management agency to help with unaccompanied migrant children. it is reportedly also working on contracting with hotels to house some migrant families with young children. states and cities are reopening as new cases ocoronavirus infections and deaths from the disease continue to decline in the united states. but late yesterday, the city of miami beach imposed an 8:00 p.m. curfew as thousands of mostly unmasked people celebrating

spring break filled the streets in its popular downtown entertainment district. police attempted to enforce the order, firing pepper balls and trying to push people off the streets last night. officials blamed larger than expected springreak crowds for the shutdown which will stay in effect indefinitely. nationwide, the "new york times" database shows covid-19 cases dropping 9% on average over the past two weeks. deaths from the disease declined 40% and vaccination rates are steadily growing. globally it is a different picture with cases on the rise. the "times" shows new cases worldwide increased 21% on average from two weeks ago. india reported close to 41,000 new cases yesterday-- a four month high as health officials worry about a resurgence of the virus there. republican julia letlow beat out 11 other candidates in yesrday's special election to fill a u.s. congressional seat in louisiana. letlow will take the 5th

district seat that her husband, luke, won last year, but who died from covid-19 relat complications before being sworn in. her election to represent northeast and central louisiana will make her the first republican woman in congress from the state. another race, in the state's 2nd congressional district, had democrats troy carter and karen carter peterson advance to a runoff. the election will take place april 24. u.s. secretary of defense, lloyd austin, made an unannounced stop in afghanistan today, his first official visit to the country. austin met with afghan president, ashraf ghani, and discussed the ongoing peace process as well as rising violence in the country, according to the afghan presidential palace. the visit comes as the u.s. decides whether it will meet a may 1 deadline set by the former trump administration and the taliban to withdraw all u.s. troops from the country. in an interview last week, president biden said it could happen b that it would be“ tough” to bring home the more than 2,500 u.s. troops still in

afghanistan by may 1. >> sreenivasan: earlier this month, president biden signed a $1.9 trillion american rescue act into law. it's the third relief package for americans since the coronavirus pandemic took hold. those checks, which began rolling out last week, will go directly to families that qualify. the added relief is also piquing interest in the concept of universal basic income. even before the pandemic, some cities, like stockton, california, were already experimenting with a guaranteed income program, and showing signs of success. now, more cities across the ountry are signing on. newshour weekend's zacha green visited one in new york to learn more. this segment is part of our ongoing series "chasing the dream: poverty and opportunity in america." ( train horn ) >> reporter: just two hours away from new york city, hudson, new

york-- a small city of about 6,000 people-- is a prime weekend getaway spot, but it's also the site of one of the country's first citywide experiments in universal basic income, or u.b.i. last october, 25 hudson residents began receiving $500 month. joan hunt is the director of hudsonup, the city's guaranteed income pilot. it receives its funding from the spark of hudson foundation and former democratic presidential candidate andrew yang's nonprofit organization, humanity forward. >> the question is always, "so, why hudson?" and i think there was interest from both parties in sort of the size and scale of the community here in hudson and the potential of a pilot like this-- and definitely the need. >> reporter: lira campbel is a retired educator who has lived in hudson since 2002. she says that need becamelear to her not long after moving here, when she was speaking with a friend. >> she said, "yeah, i gotta move. someone from the city came and bought the house.

the new owners raised the rent and i can't afford it." that was the first story of many. >> reporter: according to the real estate website zillow, the average home value in hudson went up by nearly 60% in the past ten years. during that time, the median household income for hudson residents stayed below $40,000 a year. and despite a relatively low unemployment rate, about 23% of hudson's population lives in poverty. since 1990, roughly 2,000 people have moved away. hudson's mayor, kam johnson, says that gentrification is driving the exodus from the city. >> we see a lot of transplants from new york city and from other big cities that are now coming here. and that's tough on the people that grew up here. you see a lot less of the people you went to school with because they're forced to move to the outskirts of the city. >> reporter: even in the midst of the pandemic and the resulting financial crisis, hudson home values rose by 10% since last year.

meanwhile, longtime residents are finding it difficult to stay in the city without government assistance. >> it's become really hard for families to find affordable spaces outside of subsidized housing. >> reporter: claire cousin grew up in hudson and now sits on the city's housing authority. >> most people that have children are only looking to get on wait lists for subsidized housing, because that's the only thing that is sustainable and affordable for them. i've known people that have contacted me for help as an advocate because they've been on the wait list for three years, and their only alternative is to squeeze their families into smaller apartments for higher rents. >> reporter: that's where joan hunt says the hudsonup pilot can fill in the gap. >> we see u.b.i. as a real opportunity for folks to stay in their community, to be able to maybe take on a little t an extra burden when it comes to rent. >> reporter: the concept is simple: for the next five years,

25 hudson residents will receive $500 a month, direct deposited either into an account at a local credit union or onto a prepaid debit card. the participants can then spend or save the money in any way they see fit. i can hear a lot of people being like, "you're giving people $500 a month and they don't have to do anything for it? people are gonna be spending their money on things that they don't need." what do you say to somebody who has those objections? >> there's a history of judgment when it comes to people in poverty, and this misconception that peop with limited resources don't know how to make decisions that are best for them and their families. when, in fact, they're the experts in their own experience and they do know what's best for them and their families. >> reporter: hudsonup put the word out about the program through local organizations and advocates-- including claire cousin, who also heads up the board for the grassroots hudson/catskill housing coalition. >> it seemed really far-fetched. so, i spent most of my time explaining it to other folks,

trying to get them to not be so skeptical, just to apply. >> reporter: hudsonup also won the support of mayor kamal johnson, who held a virtual to hall with andrew yang last september to explain the concept of universal basic income. >> if this trial demonstrates that people live better as a relt of something as straight- forward as getting $500 a month for five years, there is no reason that we as a country cannot make this happen for everyone. >> reporter: eventually, 488 eligible hudson residents entered the lottery for hudsonup. one of them was lira campbell. >> then i get this communication, "don't forget, tonight is the last night to put your name in for the lottery for u.b.i." and i said, "i'm not doing that." and then my mind said, "why not?" >> reporter: campbell filled out and submitted a short questionnaire. five days later, she received a call telling her that she had been chosen as one of the first 25 hudsonup participants. >> when it happened, i was totally thrown over the moon.

i think i screamed. and then i went and i said to my husband, "guess what? guess what? guess what?" because i felt like i was gonna burst. >> reporter: campbell says that even though she and her husband can afford the home they rent in hudson, the extra $500 a month made a big impact in their lives during a trying time. >> my husband had been diagnosed with cancer. so, when someone you love and care about is diagnosed, a family member, you want to do everything you can so they can be healthy and safe and get through it. and then the second thing you think about is, "how am i going to pay for this?" because, you know, automatically it's radiation, it's chemo, it might be surgery. so, all these things pop into your head. so, when i found out that i won, i was like, "god, u are so amazing, god, you are so awesome!" like, is is the perfect time. >> reporter: campbell says that receiving a guaranteed income has also improved her peace of mind and her outlook on the future. >> i can go to bed at night and

stop tnking, "how? how am i gonna pay for this? how am i gonna get this? how i'm gonna do this?" so, it took away the how, and it took away the worries. it just allows me to do a little bit more and to save a lot more. >> reporter: is there anything in particular that you're saving for? >> i want to buy a house. ( laughs ) that's my goal. yeah, that's what i want to do. >> reporter: hudsonup director joan hunt says she's seen similar effects on other program participants >> we've had participants use some of their u.b.i. funds to repair their car, for example. some folks are saving the funds. some folks were able to give their kids a very nice christmas for the first time in a long time. i've been working in the nonprofit space since 2006, and i have never seen a program like guaranteed income that provides families with what their most basic need is, which is additional cash. >> reporter: mayor kamal johnson

is now a member of mayors for a guaranteed income, a nationwide network of city leaders-- many of whom are also pursuing guaranteed income programs. johnson believes that hudson has a big role to play in learning more about the efficacy of u.b.i. >> we're the little city with big city issues. so, whatever happens here is most likely happening in other cities, but we can kind of see the scope of how it affects, and the research of how people are spending their money, you know, how they're interacting with the community. we can see that on a closer lens than in someone who's a big city where, you know, there's so many people that, you know, you'll probably lose the person that you're trying to research through the process. >> reporter: lira campbell-- whose husband is now in remission-- hopes to see more people receiving the same benefits that she is, soon. >> everyone could use a extra $500 in their pocket unless they're millionaires. >> sreenivasan: for more on the potential success of guaranteed

basic income programs, i spoke with the former mayor of stockton, california, michael tubbs, whose two year basic income experiment there is now providing data on the impacts of the program. so, michael tubbs, there was the experiment the whole country was what happens when you give $500, no strings attached, to people. what did you find? >> we found that, number one, in fact, we found that those who received the guaranteed income were more likely to find full time employment and were less likely to be unemployed than they were before the guaranteed income, but also in comparison to the oup of folks in the control group who unfortunately did not receive the guaranteed income. we also saw that, no surprise, that the $500 allowed people to be better able to handle emergencies when they came up to deal with income volatility. we saw that depression decreased. we saw that cortisol levels decreased. we saw that stress and anxiety decreased. and according to the kessler scale, comparable to clinical trials of prozac. which doesn't mean that medicine

isn't important, but i think it does mean that economic insecurity has a huge mental health cost and so much the anxiety and stress we see is due to economic insecurity. and then we also saw that people were better able to do the three things governments designed to allow people to do: be better parents, be better partners and be better neighbor they said they could breathe, but what did they spend the money on? so, they spent their money on necessities, on their car, on childcare, on bills, on housing, on food. the largest expenditure every month before the pandemic, and during, was always food and less than 2% of money was spent on drugs and alcohol. and what's fascinating to me is that i probably answered this question more over the past t years than congress has had to answer in terms of the $2 trillion in government dollars we gave in tax cuts in 2017. and i guarantee you, my folks

spend much better. ( laughs ) i mean, you are now running an organization where other mars have signed on to this idea. now, does that mean that these cities are going to roll their own guaranteed income plans out? >> so, we have about 44 mayors who are signed on to mayors for guaranteed income, and many of those mayors have already begun doing pilots. so, i think the goal behind these pilots are to show whether you're working with employed people, unemployed people, formerly incarcerated people, middle class people, small business owners, whoever, whatever group you care about, a guaranteed income federal policy, which we understand it's behaved for a whole year with this money? an impact something as small as $500 could have, right. adamant about the need for our policy because that's not a lot of money. i was also surprised with how expensive it is to be, kind of,

having paid time off and having to survive paycheck to paycheck makes it very risky to take a risk. where taking the day off of work to go interview for another job is a $200 risk that a lot of people don't feel comfortable taking, or they are the primary very wealthy friends have complete agency over their time. they wake up every day and they they just have so much choice of every single minute of their day. i think, at a baseline, everyone deserves that dignity of being able to choose how to spend time in ways that maximize utility for themselves, for their families and for the wider community. >> sreenivasan: michael tubbs with the mayors for guaranteed income. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks so much for having me. >> i was surprised at how big of an impact something as small as $500 could have, right. >> sreenivasan: for more of our interview with michael tubbs, visit pbs.org/newshour. in a year of shutdowns and concert cancellations, the psychedelic soul duo, black pumas, has quite the success story. the austin, texas-based pair who

come from very different musical backgrounds were plucked from relative obscurity when they secured a grammy nomination last year. since then, they've scored some pret high profile appearances-- even without live audiences. newshour weekend's christopher booker has the story. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: despite a year in standstill, a world without tours, concerts and crowds, the black pumas somehow managed to be seemingly everywhere. on late night television... ♪ i woke up to the morning sky ♪ >> reporter: the inauguration of president biden. ♪ baby blue, just like we rehearsed ♪ >> reporter: and most recently, the grammys. ♪ when i get up off this ground ♪ >> reporter: formed in 2017 in austin, texas, the band's breakout started with an unexpected grammy nomination for best new artist category last year. "rolling stone" reporting at the time that the band had only sold "23,000 combined physical and digital copies." while billie ellish took home the grammy, the nomination

announced the national arrival of the black pumas. but this arrival unfolded in a way that neither founders, eric burton, the leadinger, nor adrian quesada, producer and band leader, could have imagined. >> we were going to be on the road for much of 2020. it was supposed to be, like, our biggest year yet. we had a lot of festivals, lollapalooza, coachella, all the huge, you know, events, but we learned in the end of february that that wasn't going to be a possibility. >> reporter: when you think about the number of acts that basically had to blow apart their schedules against the idea that there was so much energy and excitement around the black pumas, we can never know what would have been, but it didn't seem to really impact your trajectory. >> no, its really been amazing. i mean, we are just taking it all in day by day. just when we thought we were going to have a year off, it's almost like the year got busier. >> reporter: their busy-ness driven in part due to the success of their song "colors." the song, nominated for a grammy, one of three for the

band this year, managed to provide an antidote to a godawful year. do you feel at all any disappointment in that, you know, the year at the band popped as it did, that you were kind of forced to, to stay still? >> yes, most definitely, man. i mean, feel mostly for management, because these are the guys who, kind of, have to be creative for us to keep the business afloat, keep bread on the table, keep people inspired and motivated. and, you know, luckily, we are in company with people who really just love doing this. >> to be honest, i'm more of a studio rat kind of homebody. so, when we're touring a lot, i'm the first one to be missing home, you know. but then, now that we have no tour dates and we don't play for people anymore. so, one of tho things i'll never take for granted again. you know, i definitely miss that interaction with people and seeing people's reactions in real time. >> hey, everybody, this is eric burton and aian quesada. >> reporter: like graduations or birthday celebrations, for the

band, 2020 was one of socially distanced milestones. many of their biggest moments came virtually-- perhaps none larger than the inauguration of president biden. >> congratulations to president biden and vice president harris on this historic win. we hope you enjoy the music. >> you know, to be totally honest, when we taped it, it was kind of hard to grasp the magnitude of it. but, honestly, until i saw it on tuesday night in real time in context with all of it was, was absolutely incredible. i mean, it brought me to tears to just know that we were part of american history like that. and that song that eric ote over a decade ago, is connecting with people on, on such a different level now, in this time it'just kind of capturing this time and it's a strong message still that people are kind of adapting their own meaning to. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> reporter: "colors" was written by burton when he says he was still learning to play guitar. do you think this past year has changed you as an artist? >> most definitely, man. it feels like it's, it's felt like a very strong transition from trying to figure out what my purpose was as a human being, not knowing if, you know, the artist route was going to be something that i could hold on to for the long run. and so, now that i've kind of received the amount of validation that i have, that's allowed me some space and time to stay in it. it just comes down to the, to the intent, and to your reason why you're doing what you're doing. luckily, i love doing what i'm doing, and i think that that is translating. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: regardless of what may come next, both burton and quesada say the their designs on the future are not being driven by an appetitto expand their

success, but a desire just to make more music together. >> you know, eric said something that i referenced a few times now, but one time we were on a plane and he took his headphones off and said, "man, we need to record something new because i need something new to listen to." and, you know, so, ultimately, we were making this music for ourselves to listen to. i don't even think i showed early black pumas music to anybody but mwife for months and months. >> it's just been, it's just felt like we just connect. we have some of the same like, abilities in different music. we're just, we're just friends, you know, and we're having a good time just creating with each other and providing a bit of space like sanctuary and comfort in that. >> reporter: the black pumas are back in the studio, and right now scheduled to a play a few shows this summer and tour europe in the fall. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of “pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good nit. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the jpb foundation. barbara hope zuckerberg.

the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. 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 cahelp you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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