geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the news hour tonight, with his return to the white house, president donald trump moves full steam ahead on his promised overhaul of u.s. policies. geoff: that includes an immigration crackdown. we delve into the policies that led to this moment and how the

trump administration is setting the groundwork for mass deportations. >> the more you push the agency to increase the total deportations, that pushes you towards the lowest hanging fruit of the immigration system, which are not the hardened criminals. amna: and rioters who stormed the u.s. capitol on january 6th walk free after president trump issues sweeping pardons. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs news hour" has been provided by -- >> cunard is a proud supporter of public television. on a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. a world of flavor. diverse destinations. and immersive experiences. a world of leisure and and british style. all with cunard's white star service.

♪ >> with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour, including kathy and paul anderson, and camilla and george smith. >> the john s and james l knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made

possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the news hour. in less than 24 hours, president donald trump unleashed a wave of executive actions, some that will take effect immediately, some that will be challenged in court and some whose potential impacts are more vague. geoff: and the president promises more executive actions in the near future as his cabinet takes shape, and as he moves to purge the federal government of those he is as disloyal to him. on the second day of president donald trump's second term -- >> take away the arrogance and hatred which affect our hearts. geoff: he and his family attended the national cathedral prayer service. a bit of tradition for a president who often defies them. pres. trump: this is a big one.

geoff: within hours of taking the oath of office, then a historic blitz of executive action signed on his first day. pres. trump: we are getting rid of all of the cancer, i call it cancer, the cancer caused by the biden administration. geoff: nearly 80 of them, immediate reversals of biden era policies, as well as withdrawals from things like the paris climate agreement and the world health organization. many more of them also controversial. pres. trump: this is january 6. these are the hostages. approximately 1500 for a pardon. full pardon. geoff: with the stroke of a pen undoing the largest criminal investigation and prosecution in u.s. history. blanket pardons or commutations of sentences for those charged with crimes for the january 6, 2021 attack on the u.s. capitol. among them, rioters who violently attacked police and more than a dozen members of far-right groups, including henrique terrio of the proud boys, and stewart rhodes of the

oath keepers, who are convicted of seditious conspiracy and plotting the capitol attack. at a rally before signing the order, president trump repeatedly referred to january 6 rioters as hostages, while standing on stage with families of israeli hostages. pres. trump: we are going to release our great hostages that did not do, for the most part, they didn't do stuff wrong. geoff: in a memo today, u.s. capitol police chief took objection to that. when people attack law enforcement officers, the criminals should be met with consequences, condemnation and accountability. on the issue of immigration, president trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. cities like chicago and washington, d.c. are bracing for widespread raids to deport unauthorized immigrants. >> i would not call them raids. they know exactly who they are looking for. they know where they will find them. there will be more collateral in

sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into the community and find the guy we are looking for. >> it is an executive order relating to the workforce. geoff: another sweeping executive order will make it easier to fire federal employees consider disloyal to the administration. converting career federal workers into essentially political appointees the president could fire at will. mr. trump already taking action on that front, posting on his social media platform that he will be firing more than 1000 political appointees across the government. as his new administration ousted u.s. coast guard commandant, linda fagan, the first woman in charge of a u.s. military branch. a top trump dhs official accusing her of "leadership deficiencies for prioritizing diversity initiatives over border security." president trump continues to

threaten tariffs against china, canada and mexico, saying he may even go beyond that. pres. trump: we will put a universal tariff on anyone doing business in the united states, because they are coming in and stealing our wealth, our jobs, our companies. geoff: the president continued his breakneck pace of laying out his priorities and staffing up his new administration. sitting down with republican house and senate leadership to discuss the legislative agenda of the new congress. >> do solemnly swear. geoff: he already has his first cabinet member, newly sworn in secretary of state marco rubio, who was confirmed by the senate unanimously last night. two more cabinet picks had hearings today, elise stefanik for the u.s. ambassador role, and doug collins to lead the department of veterans affairs. and others like defense secretary know many pete hegseth and mr. trump's picked to lead homeland security could see their final confirmation votes this week. amna: let's delve more into president trump's moves specifically on immigration, including executive orders to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented parents and declare cartels terrorist

organizations. our white house correspondent laura barron-lopez has been tracking it all and joins us now. less than a day into mr. trump's presidency, we have seen some legal pushback to some of these immigration related executive actions. what's the latest? laura: there are lawsuits filed already by the aclu as well as 18 attorneys general and democratic led states, challenging that executive order you just talked about that is attempting to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented parents who were born in the united states. many legal experts say that executive order defies the 14th amendment. so far, there is no lawsuit against donald trump's other executive that declares a national emergency at the border, which would allow him to bypass legal statutes and use military and send troops to the border. sending military to the border is likely to also be fought in

court. it could clash with an 1870's law that prohibits active military from being in force -- from enforcing civilian laws. many of the immigration advocates that we spoke to today said these lawsuits are trying to slow down these -- and to get injunctions. another thing we should point out on that birthright executive order is that many immigration lawyers, immigration advocates are concerned it could not just of undocumented migrants born in the u.s., but also children born to parents who are here legally on worker education visas. amna: are the court challenges here part of the white house strategy? is there a look ahead that potentially they end up before a conservative leaning supreme court? the issue could go their way? laura: yes. the administration and sources close to the administration i've talked to expect legal challenges. they did not think these would

go without legal challenges. they feel as though they could potentially get in front of friendly judges, including that conservative dominant supreme court. one other action that could very well end up being challenged is whether or not the president decides to invoke the alien enemies act. he said yesterday in his address that he would. so far, it appears as though he hasn't. with that action, lawyers and constitutional scholars are concerned he may very well use powers under the alien enemies act to not just target undocumented migrants, but to also target migrants here who are here lawfully, and he could use it to deport and detain them. there are a lot of unknowns. we don't know how many troops could be sent to the border, or when they could be sent to the border. the administration has not provided those specifics yet. amna: president trump mentioned there could be a wave of immigration raids in his early days. we saw his border czar, tom homan, mention the same thing.

when are those raids expected? laura: tom homan said today on cnn that there are actions being taken that i.c.e. has its handcuffs off. he said to cnn that it is not just going to be criminal migrants that are here or migrants that pose a public safety threat. he did say that if, as i.c.e. is conducting arrests, if there are undocumented migrants who have no criminal records, if they are around, then i.c.e. will arrest them as well. ma could be deported and detained. >> in chicago one of the rates could very well take place, specifically lawrence benito runs illinois coalition for immigrant and refugee rights whose trying to help prepare immigrants there.

>> people are afforded certain rights to remain silent, not let people into their homes, making sure they have a right to an attorney to receive counsel. we understand how i.c.e. operates. we have a plan in place, and we've been doing this work for a while. laura: just today, the homeland security department rescinded a biden era memo that told i.c.e. not to target migrants near what they designate as safe spaces such as churches or schools. amna: also yesterday, we saw the cbp one app which migrants have been using as a legal means to get asylum appointments at legal points of entry at the u.s. southern border shut down by the trump administration, almost immediately after they took office. what has that meant in terms of the practical impact at the border? laura: i spoke to a refugee

worker located in tijuana today, who said that there were so many migrants -- for those appointments through that cbp one app, to get legal entry that they had sold their homes, they sold some of their belongings, they had quit their jobs in order to make it to the southern border for those appointments. now, they are left with no options and they are not sure what to do. in addition to shutting down the app, the president also stopped refugee resettlement in missions. i was talking to an active duty military member of the 82nd airborne who said this impacts his family directly, his family is in afghanistan and he has been trying to get them out. we are talking about the afghans who helped america during the war. and he is very upset and troubled by the fact that this executive order, which appears to be indefinite, is impacting his family, and they are looking to the president to reverse

course. amna: that is our white house correspondent, laura barrone-lopez. thank you. laura: thank you. geoff: more on on president trump's move to pardon or commute the sentences of the more than 1500 january 6 defendants. mass clemency for his supporters like david dempsey, who was sentenced to 20 years for two counts of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon, seen here outside the capitol threatening to lynch elected officials. proud boys member dominic pezzola who was serving a 10-year sentence for being one of the first to break into the capitol, using a stolen riot shield to break a window. scott miller, who can be seen in the brown jacket near the entrance beating police with a pole. he was serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence. and jacob chansley, otherwise known as the qanon shaman, who plead guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding after trespassing on capitol grounds. for more on the implications, we are joined by former gop congressman and advisor to the

house january 6th committee, denver riggleman. welcome back to the news hour. >> thank you for having me. geoff: these pardons, this is a real body blow for the u.s. justice system in the sense that this was the single largest criminal investigation in u.s. history. nearly every fbi field office, nearly every u.s. attorney's office were involved. now, all but 14 people have been pardoned, the other 14 have their sentences commuted. how does all of this land with you? mr. riggleman: it's heinous. these insurrectionists that were pardoned, i think it is ludicrous. that that is happening in the united states of america. i don't think it was just a body blow against the department of justice, it's a body blow against the american people. the republican party can't claim to run law and order ever again. for me personally, knowing what happened this day, these insurrectionists being pardoned by the president of the united states, i think it rattles our allies also and shakes the

foundation of everything we stand for. geoff: what is the real world impact of these pardons and the fact that these rioters are being released from prison? mr. riggleman: think the real world impact are these individuals are back in their communities where they can organize, run for office. presented with medals, that they actually get positions within certain government offices. i think that is the real implication. when you look at u.s. capitol police and those that were attacked that day, it is really this baseline disrespect against law enforcement. it is not back the blue, it is screw the blue. i think that is what you are seeing from the gop. for me, how they will recruit the type of people they need when they see there is nobody backing them up, especially when they were trying to protect the capitol, and our most, my goodness, our most enshrined and invaluable institutions that were attacked that day by really ignorant, violent,

insurrectionists. geoff: you are extended one of the preemptive pardons that former president biden issued to members and staffers on the house january 6 committee. how did that process play out? did you have to request it? once you got it, did you have to accept it? mr. riggleman: i had no idea. i did not even know until the morning of, and i got a text message with an actual picture of the blanket pardon to all january 6 committee members that was the extent of it. i guess i am supposed to get a hard copy. i was never asked if i wanted a pardon. if they had asked me, i would have said no. it chafes me that i have to be a preemptive pardon and be in the same boat as a bunch of violent mouth breathers, like a proud boys and oath keepers. they broke the law and went to jail and we have to worry about local retribution of doing our duty. as somebody who has served the u.s. military, took the oath as a united states congressman, it

really does make you feel like a stranger in your own country when you have to worry about a preemptive pardon on trying to protect our institutions. and i would do it all over again. there was no consultation. it just happened. i got it through a text message. geoff: does the former president's novel and sweeping harder to criticize donald trump for the pardons he issued? mr. riggleman: i think when you have preemptive pardons, people who try to uphold the law, people who were actually doing their work under the united states congress resolution. and when you have pardons of violent, superstition driven fantasists who would rather attack the capitol than have the rational ability to tell fantasy from fiction, or fantasy from fact, those who literally believe the lord of the rings is a documentary, think that is the difference here. it is really hard to even

compare the preemptive pardons from biden of congressional members to pardons of violent criminals that have no ability to discern fact from fiction. i think it should frighten the american people. geoff: the trump team's view is people should not be surprised, given donald trump broadly previewed this during the campaign, and they tend to think the reaction for the rest of the country will be different than it is in washington, where january 6 seems to loom larger in people's thinking. you can take it a step further and ask the question, if donald trump did not pay a price for allegedly inciting the capitol riot, he is protected by the presidency, why should the foot soldiers? mr. riggleman: that is may be one thing he did, was his pardon actually showed he thought he was responsible for it. and i think that is something we can look at. obviously he did not do it for any noble reason. but he was ultimately

responsible for what happened on january 6. as far as the foot soldiers, are we saying that people are of sound mind actually think that qanon is a real thing, if you think about what happened that day, that was purely based on conspiracy theories. every single person that day, whether they attacked the capitol or not, believed in something that was false. they believed in this cultlike thing that the election was stolen, whether it was through german servers or through a broken algorithm, or space satellites, for nsa, cia, or white vans, all ludicrous, ridiculous things that was pushed into the ecosystem by trump and his minions. it should scare the hell out of people, that you have somebody up there that pardoned a bunch of violent people, where he is saying, yeah, it was me. i'm the one who told them to do it. i don't care how other people react in washington, d.c., or care how people react outside of washington, d.c. what i care about is truth, fighting corruption. what we see in the republican pdot

out. i would rather be alone telling the truth than with many following a lie. geoff: former gop congressman and house january 6 committee advisor, denver riggleman, thank you for being with us. mr. riggleman: thank you. amna: now let's turn to congressional correspondent lisa desjardins who was in the capitol during the insurrection four years ago. she joins now. >> the democrats on capitol hill outrage. there navigating the world where donald trump is the president and the leader of their party. they been navigating the idea of how to express this in public. remember these are people who personally were fearful for their lives by the same attackers. they know police officers who were harmed, over 100 of them harmed. these are people who were pardon who smashed police officers with

bats and the like. today we did hear some republicans coming out a little bit more, trying to navigate this world and expressing that they are openly frustrated. >> i'm about to file bills that will increase the penalties up to and including the death penalty for the murder of a police officer and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer. it was surprising to me it was a blanket pardon. now i'm going through the details. lisa: this is a lesson to members of congress at donald trump's priorities, you have his supporters and he doesn't compromise and he doesn't care if they tell him he should do this. amna: meanwhile republican leaders had their first strategy session at the white house. what do we know about that? lisa: president trump comes in with four years of experience, look at those he met with today,

speaker mike johnson has been in office just over a year, john thune, just 18 days. as amy walter and i will talk about, 16% of the house survived after 2016. -- 68% of the house arrived after 2016. donald trump here, congress works with him more than him working with him. amna: where did things stand with the confirmation process for his nominees? lisa: pete hegseth with the department of defense, we could see that confirmation this week. what we don't know is about two of the high profile nominees, tulsi gabbard and also robert f. kennedy, jr. for health and human services. no hearings have been scheduled. we have not seen them on capitol hill for a few days so we are not sure where that stands. so far everyone in the trump administration says they are gung ho for that. but no update on timing for them. amna: lisa, thank you so much.

♪ vanessa: this evening, another trump pardons report. he has issued a full pardon for ross albert, a cryptocurrency cult hero serving life in prison. he founded silk road, a dark web side that allowed users to secretly buy and sell drugs like heroin and cocaine. in total, over $200 million in illegal sales were conducted using bitcoin. his pardon fulfills a pledge trump made on the campaign to appeal to the crypto industry. in other headlines, prisoner swap has occurred between the united states and the taliban. as one of his final acts in office, former president biden secured the release of 42-year-old ryan corbett, seen here with two of his children, as well as another american, william mckenty. in a statement corbett's family

thanked biden and the trump administration for "bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives." the men were freed in exchange for khan mohammed, a taliban member who had been jailed in the u.s. on narcotics charges, since 2008. he arrived in kabul earlier today, a free man. in israel, two top generals resigned today over the military's failure to stop the october seventh hamas attacks. one was the top commander for southern israel and gaza, the other was lieutenant general herzi halevi. halevi is senior most israeli official to quit over the attack that killed some 1200 israelis and triggered the war in gaza -- now paused in a ceasefire deal. on the ground in gaza meanwhile, nearly 900 humanitarian aid trucks rolled in today as part of that agreement.

in the southern city of khan younis, displaced palestinians lined up for food and essential supplies. >> after seven months, it is the first time i received a food basket from the u.n. but it is not enough, maybe only for a day or two. we need sheets for tents, and most importantly, we want things that will warm us in winter, like blankets and mattresses. amna: the cease fire does not extend to the occupied west bank where israel says it has launched a "significant and broad military operation targeting palestinian militants." health officials there say at least nine people were killed today, and dozens more wounded. antonio guterres called on security forces there to use "maximum restraint." in turkey, officials are investigating a hotel fire that killed at least 76 people. the grand cartel hotel is located in the country's northwestern mountains, roughly

200 miles from istanbul. it is believed the blaze started overnight in the restaurant of the popular ski resort. part of the resort sits on a cliff which complicated efforts to extinguish the flames. more than 50 people were injured as panic guests reportedly jumped out of the windows and tried to climb down bedsheets to escape the fire. >> it was the like the apocalypse. you cannot focus on one place, one person. the flames engulfed the hotel immediately, like in half an hour, they engulfed it very quickly. vanessa: the fire came at the start of a two week school holiday when hotels in the area are full. authorities have detained four people for questioning, including the hotel's owner. a rare winter storm is hammering parts of texas and the northern gulf coast. authorities have announced the first-ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the texas-louisiana border.

the famous streets of new orleans are expecting as much as six inches of snow, as is houston. meteorologists are calling the storm historic. the governors of georgia, louisiana, mississippi, alabama and florida have all declared states of emergency. further north, a large part of the country is still facing dangerously cold temperatures. subzero wind chills are expected from the dakotas and upper midwest, across the great lakes and through the northeast. and pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist and writer jules feiffer has died. his weekly strip feiffer, which was initially called sick, sick, sick, ran in the village voice for more than four decades, starting in 1956. he wrote comics, plays, children's books and screenplays in a tone often neurotic, sardonic and spot-on. his best-known screenplay was carnal knowledge, about the exploits of two men as they navigate a changing romantic world.

he was 95 years old. still to come on the news hour, why the trump administration has withdrawn from the world health organization. the inspiration behind one visual artist's provocative work. and we remember the victims of the deadly wildfires in southern california. >> this is the pbs news hour, from the david m. rubenstein studio at weta in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: as part of his executive orders issued yesterday, president trump also delivered on the campaign promise to withdraw the united states from the world health organization. the white house accuses the who of mishandling the covid-19 pandemic, biased towards china, and says the u.s. is forced to pay more than its fair share to support the international organization.

for more on the potential implications of this, we're joined by a law professor and director of the world health organization collaborating center at georgetown university. lawrence, welcome back. thanks for being with us. in a washington post op-ed today, you said leaving the who would be what you called a great mistake that would hurt americans. how so? what is the potential harm here? >> thank you for having me. i believe this is a truly historic decision, the united states really formed the world health organization in 1948 and has been its most influential and greatest funder for 75 years. this is going to make america decidedly less safe, less secure. it is hard for me to think of any national advantage that we get. i only see us alone and isolated

but not stronger. amna: you mentioned the u.s. has been the greatest funder of the who. if you look at this graphic, look at the top 10 sources of funding there, the u.s. there at the top there's other groups like the world bank, the gates foundation and countries like germany, the u.k. and japan. but the u.s. is responsible for 1/6 of the budget. is president trump's assertion that the u.s. is uncial during an unfair burden wrong? >> yes, i think it is wrong, but it is not totally wrong. let me explain. the who is a budget of roughly one quarter of the u.s. cdc. so for a global institution, it is chronically underfunded. it doesn't have the resilience it needs to put out fires all over the world. so the united states shouldn't pay less, but other countries should pay more.

china should, india, the gulf states, many other middle income countries. so i think that trump would do a much greater service to the united states and the world if he stayed in and negotiated a deal. yes, let's make who more resilient. let's find it better. that's make it more powerful, and let's make it more countable with financial oversight. but leaving it would gravely damage the united states' national interest and world health writ large. it's not really like the border where you can kind of seal off the mexican border, so that you can stop immigrants. germs don't know borders, and united states without who is a united states alone and isolated and more fragile in the long

run. amna: pulling out of the organization means the u.s. would lose access to the world health organizations publications and global health data, help make that real for us. what is the potential harm that you are worried about? >> i see this as the greatest self-inflicted wound that this executive order has put for us. it is a grave wound to who, but it is a more grievous wound to the united states. here is why. the world health organization leads a vast network of public health agencies, laboratories, and international scientists that constantly track novel outbreaks and shares data. without that, the cdc doesn't have an early warning. we can't respond. and so we are weaker, we are less prepared.

but here is more, and i think it's really important. our pharmaceutical industry, the nih, needs c standards to develop vaccines, therapies, and other lifesaving tools that we rely on. if we remember back to covid-19, we were at the front of the line vaccines. we may be near the back of the line because we are not going to get data about how these viruses are evolving. or what we can do to respond to them and create vaccines. amna: lawrence gosden, thank you so much for joining us tonight. professor and director of the world health organization's collaborating center at georgetown university. thank you. ♪

geoff: as we've discussed, president trump has signed several executive orders making sweeping changes to the immigration system. many supporting president trump's message that the current system is broken. but how did we get here? laura barrone-lopez takes a deep dive into the history of immigration policies and laws that have led to the complex system we have today. laura: since its founding days, the united states had mostly open borders, welcoming people across borders. to work and build lives here. in the late 1800s, record numbers of migrants from italy, greece and central and eastern europe made the journey on steamships to the united states. many, especially in america's now crowded cities, began to question the open-door policy. >> there was a huge backlash. there was substantial anti-semitism and substantial anti-catholic discrimination.

over time, this political pressure build up and build up. laura: in 1924, congress passed sweeping legislation restricting immigration. >> congress nearly closes the door, and the part of the door that is open is really just open to western europe. except for western europe, the quotas that existed for individual countries were almost laughably small. sometimes it was this country can have 100 people a year moved to this country, from places like southern europe. laura: the law which favored mostly white europeans, would dominate u.s. immigration policy until the 1960's. >> i think it is not a burden but a privilege to make this really as it was for them a new world. laura: building on a promise by president john f. kennedy, and making it part of the fight for civil-rights, president lyndon b. johnson pushed to repeal the quota system. he supported a bill that proponent said would not discriminate against people based on their country of origin.

and they stressed it would prioritize skilled workers and family members of people in the u.s. but would not increase the overall number of migrants. >> those promises were absolutely central to selling the bill. the advocates of the bill understood americans did not want a huge increase in immigration. laura: johnson signed it into law at the base of the statue of liberty, and emphasized it did not represent radical change. >> this bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. it does not affect the lives of millions. >> the law did in fact transform our immigration system, and in particular, led to vastly more immigration. amna: although the legislation contained annual caps on immigration, there was one important exception. family members of naturalized u.s. citizens. >> if i came and then i wanted to bring members of my family over in subsequent years, only i would have counted toward that

quota in the first year. not my extended family members. laura: immigration soon soared and over time, family reunification became the longest type of legal migration to the country. the foreign-born population shot up from less than 5% in 1965 to just over 15% in 2023. >> this is the only area in which the american farm labor supply falls short, and is supplemented by mexican citizens. laura: johnson's administration oversaw the end of a key legal pathway for migrants to work in the u.s. the program, used since world war ii to hire millions of temporary agricultural workers from mexico, expired in 1964. those workers continued to cross the southern border, starting a decades long rise in illegal immigration. >> future generations of americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders. laura: in 1986, president ronald reagan helped pass sweeping legislation that granted a

pathway to citizenship to nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants in the u.s. this first modern attempt to crack down on the border failed to deliver, and illegal immigration continued to rise through the 1990's. >> we are a nation of immigrants but we are also a nation of laws. laura: president bill clinton endorsed proposals by an independent commission to comprehensively reform the immigration system. but these went nowhere. >> you saw pretty quickly opposition come from at least two sources. one was what i would describe as the corporate right, who were worried about the idea of a reduction of immigration reducing the workforce, potentially meaning they may have to pay higher wages and have lower profits. the other opposition was from nonprofits and advocacy groups,

particularly latino and asian groups, that basically said, we should have more immigration, not less. over time, those groups within the democratic party would really become the dominant voice on immigration, at least until the last couple years of saying, more immigration is better. laura: those tensions continued to plague efforts. >> wide comprehensive immigration reform referred to is essentially three major provisions. one would have addressed the border and enforcement. one would have addressed the status of the undocumented in the united states. and the third was changes to the legal immigration system. the concept strategically was that by putting everything together, there would be something for every stakeholder group to like. unfortunately, it meant there were things every stakeholder group could not like. laura: congress failed to pass bipartisan bills proposed under george w. bush and barack obama. under president obama, deportation soared to more than 400,000 in 2013.

almost half of those people were deported under a process called expedited removal which allows immigration officials to deport individuals without a hearing. >> those individuals were apprehended at the border trying to enter the united states. i.c.e. can remove those people quickly without having to go through the immigration courts. it artificially increases the number of i.c.e. deportations in a way that is misleading. it gave president obama this name of deporter in chief. laura: by 2016, the situation at the border had transformed. migration from mexico began to drop while increasing numbers of central americans began to surrender to border control and claim asylum. under u.s. law, anyone who claims asylum is entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge and cannot be deported. >> many of them really are fleeing dire circumstances,

whether that is due to extreme poverty or crime, corruption by their governments. many of them do have viable asylum claims. we have seen estimates around 40% of the claims that do get through the system are approved. laura: because of immigration court backlogs, this process can take years. asylees are allowed to live and work in the country until their case is heard. >> smugglers seize upon this opportunity to start coaching people to make asylum. our inability to fund our immigration courts to handle these claims created a magnet that drew more people. laura: in recent years, this backlog has ballooned from over 500,000 in 2016 to approximately 3.5 million last year. pres. trump: they are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they are rapists and some, i assume are good people. laura: an anti-immigrant agenda was central for his first run of president. he made wide-ranging changes to asylum procedures, including title 42, which denied entry to asylum-seekers under the

justification of the covid-19 pandemic. >> what we're doing now is attempting to rebuild the system that can accommodate what is happening today. >> president joe biden reversed many of those trump era policies, and oversaw the largest immigration surge in recent history. from 2021 to 2023, annual net migration both legal and illegal, averaged 2.4 million per year. >> our failure to enforce our laws of the border, to timely provide due process to people of the border in the perception that the border was out of control, i think that more than anything influenced the thinking of people where they would accept this insane rhetoric. laura: on the campaign trail, president trump stepped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric. pres. trump: they are poisoning the blood of our country. that's what they have done. >> the republican party became extremely anti-immigration. sometimes giving voice to falls

-- false and racist conspiracy theories. the way that donald trump appeals to nativism, to xenophobia, you absolutely can see echoes from that to the 1924 law. it is absolutely there. laura: trump and his advisers have promised radical changes to the immigration system, from gutting legal pathways like refugee admissions, to launching the largest mass deportation program in american history. president trump's advisers claim they will prioritize deporting undocumented migrants deemed national security or public safety threats. but experts say the deportation numbers trump is talking about would go far beyond that. reaching a scale potentially never seen before in america. >> there is no way to do the mass deportations they are talking about. focus them exclusively on public safety. the more you push the agencies and say, increase the total, that pushes you toward the lowest hanging fruit of the immigration system.

which are not the hardened criminals. you don't get gang members, you get people who show up for work every day to support their family. laura: laying the foundation for unprecedented action he can take an office. for pbs news hour, i am laura baron-lopez. geoff: it's a portrait of an artist capturing parts of his own history and ours. he's been doing it since childhood and is now in the spotlight with his first national touring exhibition. senior arts correspondent jeffrey brown talks with vincent valdes, for our arts and culture series canvas. jeffrey: the paintings are often large in scale, almost cinematic in effect. the imagery, confrontational, packing a punch. 120 works, now at the contemporary arts museum, houston, by artist vincent valdez. this is art as provocation? vincent: it's art as truth. it's the truth the way that i see it.

it's the truth that, based off of my recollections and observations, my hard examinations about life in the world beyond these studio doors. jeffrey: the exhibition, titled, "just a dream," presents 25 years of work. series of paintings, or what valdez sees as chapters, that look at both personal and collective histories. it is his first major survey, a chance for the 48 year old artist to take stock. vincent: i was able to get a glimpse of the story that i've been telling, and that story, my subject, has been life in contemporary america, you know, in both its tragedy and its triumph. jeffrey: you can see that in all the works over the decades. vincent: absolutely. not only my own personal reflection on contemporary american society, but my own active participation in contemporary america. jeffrey: these days, valdez splits his time between houston and los angeles, where we met in december at his studio. filled with large-scale panels of paintings in progress.

on this day, he was at work on something smaller, a portrait of one set of grandparents. and on a series of drawings based on kurt vonnegut's classic anti-war novel, "slaughterhouse 5." his own engagement with art goes back to his childhood in san antonio, texas. first, surrounded by work done by a great-grandfather, jose maria valdez, hanging in his grandparents house. then, beginning at age 10, as part of a project working on large-scale murals around the city. >> 11-year-old vincent valdes is painting a scene of nature and animals. jeffrey: a year later, the young artist was featured in a local news story. >> there are still nuclear being dropped everywhere but we still have animals. jeffrey: with murals, you get the enormous scale, you get that kind of storytelling. clearly those impacted you. vincent: tremendously. and it struck me like a thunderbolt. it has to tell a story and it has to utilize storytelling as a means of communicating to the world around me, with the world.

and to go one step further, it has to be an opportunity for other human beings to see themselves reflected in these images. jeffrey: and so, in this exhibition, a series titled "the new americans," large portraits of community workers and others making a difference. another, called "since 1977," with just the tops of the heads of u.s. presidents since the time of his birth. and a painted 1953 ice cream truck, a project valdez did with musician ry cooder to honor the largely mexican-american neighborhood torn down to make room for the building of l.a.'s dodger stadium. there are darker stories, of the so-called "zoot suit riots of 1943" targeting mexican-americans. and a group of paintings titled "the strangest fruit," portraying young men, including friends of valdez, dangling in the air.

his intent, he says, to restore a history, documented but little-known, of the lynchings of mexicans and mexican-americans. but these men bear markers, such as clothing, of contemporary life. vincent: the message that a series like this conveys to the viewer, it engages the viewer in becoming more curious about what does the past have to do with the present? well, it is exactly this, the past is still very present in 21st century america. jeffrey: perhaps his most provocative work, at 38 feet long, a gathering of klansmen. again, we see signs that the time is now. and again, valdez has grounded the image in his own experience. vincent: i was confronted by the ku klux klan when i was 16 years old in front of the alamo in downtown san antonio, texas. you know, one of them leaning over to me while carrying an american flag, peering at me through those socket holes in the hood and saying, "you don't belong here."

you had to walk front to back to see a single image -- jeffrey: valdez wants us to feel the painting's size and presence. he took us to see two newer works now on display at the museum of contemporary art, los angeles, part of a large exhibition featuring many artists, titled "ordinary people: photorealism and the work of art since 1968." his contribution, a kind of diptych, michael jordan mid-flight on one side. on the other, former national security council official colonel oliver north, testifying about his role in the iran-contra scandal involving secret weapons transactions. two strangely parallel images from the same time, 1987 to 1988, that present both larger american history and valdes's own. >> these historic moments unfolding on my mom's television screen as a child. i remember trying to consider

what it meant to be not only an american, but as a young chicano, a mexican-american in southside of san antonio, what my role, where i fit in within this context of american history. how does a scene like this unfolds here, affect me in my daily life, in my community. it was a very dizzying effect for me. jeffrey: which you are recreating for us. vincent: sure, exactly. jeffrey: also deeply personal, he says, a desire to share with others the act of making art, and the commitment it requires. >> in some ways, i've created this life force inside the studio that entirely commands and dictates my life. but in this way, i try to share this kind of absolute love and devotion that i have for painting and drawing. in an age where there are short

attention spans, or maybe it becomes a rarer occurrence to understand what patience and discipline really is. jeffrey: the exhibition "just a dream" by vincent valdez is at the contemporary arts museum, houston through march 23rd, when it travels to "mass moca," in north adams, massachusetts. for the pbs news hour, i am jeffrey brown. ♪ amna: it's now been two weeks since the wildfires began ravaging parts of southern california. at least 27 people have lost their lives. as we learn more about the victims, we remember some some of those who were lost and the legacies they leave behind. we begin tonight with these nine stories. 55-year-old randall was an avid

surfer and life of the party, according to his mother, carol, who begged him to evacuate the last thing he told her was "pray for the palisades and pray for malibu. i love you." anthony mitchell, 67, was a retired amputee. his son, justin, was in his early 20's and had cerebral palsy. mitchell was waiting for an ambulance to evacuate them. mitchell's daughter told reporters "he was not going to leave his son behind no matter what." victor shaw, 66, lived in altadena and died with a garden hose in his hand. he was shy in nature but had a deep affection for his sister, who attempted to get her brother to safety before barely escaping herself. >> i went down the street and there was a police car and i flagged him, and i said, my brother is in the house. i need help. he told me to get out. he said, go. amna: arlene kelly, a retired pharmacist, lived in the

family's altadena home for decades and insisted on staying. her granddaughter, breanna, told reporters "my grandmother was really active. i thought she would be 99 just walking around." kelly was 83 years old. arthur simoneau, 69, died trying to save his home. he was a hang gliding enthusiast and known as a free spirit. his friend, steve said "arthur was a good friend to me and a great pilot. it's because of arthur i visited many places i may not have gone otherwise." 95-year-old dalyce curry was born in little rock, arkansas in the 1920's, but was always destined for hollywood. her granddaughter, also named dalyce, attempted to get to her grandmother's home as the fires life burned, but was unable to. >> i will live with that regret for the rest of my life. i should have did something else.

amna: rodney nickerson was a grandfather of four and known as a leader at his baptist church. his daughter told reporters "the last thing he said to me as we encouraged him to leave was, don't worry, i will be here tomorrow." nickerson was 82. 32-year-old rory sykes overcame so much in life. he was born blind and with cerebral palsy. but after numerous surgeries, he regained partial eyesight and learn to walk with help. his mother, shelley, wrote, "despite the pain, he is still enthused about traveling the world with me." geoff: our thoughts are with those families and all of those who suffered losses in the fires. that is the news hour. i am geoff bennett. amna: on behalf of the news hour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> in 1995, 2 friends set out to make wireless coverage accessible to all.

with no long-term contracts, nationwide coverage, and 100% u.s.-based customer support. consumer cellular, freedom calls. >> carnegie corporation of new york, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy and peace. more information at carnegie.org. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is the "pbs news hour" from the david m rubenstein studio at weta in washington and

from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which

pati, voice-over: my friend carlos is taking me to a haunted pink mansion. carlos: the neighbors, they could hear this woman screaming. pati, voice-over: want to come? no. pati, voice-over: then we're off to sorbeteria colón to enjoy some french sweets. am i in paris? no. pati: it tastes so richly coconutty. pati, voice-over: this is mérida, the capital of yucatán, a city exploding with flavors and a fusion of cultures that creates some of the most exciting eats in mexico.

pati: very generous tacos. look at that.