[captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! situation that no one wished would have ever happened, but it has happened and we want to be open and honest to address it -- in terms of solving the damage and being proactive to prevent future damage and to do good follow-up. michigan governor rick

snyder apologizes again for his role in the poisoning of flint's water supply as calls for his resignation grow for covering up the lead contamination. an on elected emergency manager appointed by snyder switched flint's water source to the long polluted flint river to save money. then we go to stunning developments in guatemala, where police have arrested 18 x military leaders on charges of crimes against humanity. we will speak with investigative .ournalist allan nairn fear is growing in immigrant communities across the united states as the u.s. government carries out a national campaign targeting families, including many who fled violence in south america. we will speak with two immigration attorneys. >> they came to my house looking

for someone else. opened the door and they brought us down from the room and asked me for identification and they told me i was already deported. amy: all that and more coming up. ♪ welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. across the nation, resistance is of raidso the new wave targeting central american families who came to the united states seeking asylum. protests have been held in new jersey, connecticut, boston, homestead, florida, auburn, oregon, san francisco, and outside the white house. protests are planned for new york city today. of newly elected mayor philadelphia said that philadelphia will no longer in sharing data with

info -- immigration agents. bernie sanders has called on the obama administration to end the and extendiately temporary protected status to all those who fled violence in central america. publishedork times" against the raids. it is no wonder that donald trump is the plotting the policy and taking credit for it, they wrote. we will go to texas for more later in the broadcast. in france, police officers shot and killed a man allegedly trying to attack a police the first paris on anniversary of the charlie hebdo attacks. police say the man lunged at our officers with a meat cleaver

while yelling "allahu akbar." authorities cannot yet confirmed the man's identity. paris prosecutor francois molins spoke out. >> one year to the day after charlie hebdo, the terror attacks -- a terror attack took place concerning one individual. two officers were keeping watch when a man ran and hopped the barrier. the officers asked multiple times for him to stop. israeli soldiers shot and killed four palestinians who authorities accused of launching two attacks. the attacks occurred at gush etzion. israeli soldiers have killed 137 palestinians.

in mexico, new data shows life expectancy rates have fallen over the last 10 years as the rampant violence from the u.s. backed wars on drugs has outweighed the health programs. rateise in homicide increased. the ongoing conflict has claimed more than 100,000 lives. the united nations says the syrian government has agreed to allow some aid into the besieged town of madaya, where residents are starving to death under a blockade from assad forces. they have been eating grass and survive.es to alabama officials have sued the federal government over syrian refugee resettlement. last month, a judge dismissed a similar texas lawsuit.

the southern poverty law center has criticized the alabama lawsuit saying that the governor is grandstanding xenophobia. recent study finds hate crimes against muslim americans and u.s. mosques have tripled since the attacks in paris and san bernardino. hundreds of people marched in caracas, venezuela. , right-wing week opposition lawmakers took control of congress for the first time in 17 years. at the rally, caracas mayor jorge rodriguez condemned the removal of the portraits. >> we have seen hate, we have seen violence in this respect. we tell those who promote hate to stay away from our loved ones because our loved ones are sacred. amy: campbell soup will begin to disclose the presence of

genetically modified ingredients in its brands. comes as companies grapple with how to comply with a new vermont law which requires labeling genetically modified food. the law passed after fierce opposition from the food industry. health and environmental experts are accusing the obama administration from caving to the meat industry. while the guidelines recommend consuming less sugar, they do not recommend eating less meat. this comes despite recent findings that processed meat is carcinogenic to humans. advocates are condemning the government for dropping a proposed recommendation that people eat and environmentally sustainable diet. planned parenthood has endorsed hillary clinton, marking their

first endorsement in a presidential primary in their 100 year history. the announcement comes as the house approves it measure threatening to cut federal funding for planned parenthood. the majority of americans support federal funding. president obama has said his support for the next president will depend on the candidate's stance on gun control. he said, "i will not campaign for a vote even in my own already who does not support commonsense gun reform." this comes on the heels of his televised town hall in which he defended the use of executive action to institute new regulations on gun control. in a major legal victory, new york city will appoint an independent civilian monitor to oversee the new york police

department's counterterrorism programs. the settlement restores some of the nypd's outside oversight, which was eliminated after the september 11 attacks. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. flint, michigan, where a growing number of residents are demanding the arrest of governor rick snyder over the ongoing water crisis. governor snyder declared a state of emergency after learning that federal investigators said opened an investigation into the lead poisoning of the water supply. the poisoning began after an unelected emergency manager appointed by michigan governor snyder switched flint's water

source to the long-polluted flint river to save money. researchers at virginia tech, who have been testing flatwater, say the city could have corrected the water problem by treating the water at a cost of as little as $100 per day. it could now cost as much as $1.5 billion to fix the water infrastructure. for over a year, flint residents have complained about the quality of the water. in february, tests showed alarming levels of lead in the water. the same month, and epa official wrote an e-mail to the michigan department of environmental all of the, warning about lead contamination. no action was taken. he wrote another e-mail in april to the epa. in july, governor snyder's chief wrote an e-mail saying

that flint residents were getting blown off. governor snyder: this is a situation that no one wished would have ever happened. but it has happened and we want to be open and honest. we want to go after the issues to solve the damage that has been done and to be proactive to prevent future damage and to help people who have had higher blood lead levels. we are taking this extremely seriously. the advisory group i asked to look into it -- we have acted very promptly in implementing what they have recommended that we do. i'm looking forward to a very close partnership with the mayor and the city of flint. amy: residents are scrambling to find sources of safe water as years of lead poisoning grow.

40% of flint lives in property -- poverty. a documentary was just posted online called "undrinkable." this is an excerpt. >> less than three weeks after flynt's water was declared safe, traces of leadt had been found in the water. an official press conference confirmed these tests at a local church. the water found in some homes was three times the federal limit in water. why is the lead a problem now? it is the corrosive flint river that released the lead into the water. >> if your house has lead pipes, copper pipes with lead solder, there is the potential for the

lead to leach into the water because the water is corrosive. >> the percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels as increased the most. >> lead is not something meant for the human body. it is a neurotoxin, especially dangerous to infants and young children. >> it is an emergency. academyand the american of pediatrics routinely say that there is no safe lead level. it is an emergency. amy: "undrinkable." a local highom school. a documentary produced by local high school students.

here with us are curt guyette, , and professorf marc edwards, an expert on municipal water quality. we will find out in a moment why students and professors at virginia tech in virginia are analyzing flint's water. i want to start with curt guyette. take us through the chronology. when the governor, the city, the , why knew what they knew flint came off detroit's water supply and started getting the contaminated flint water for their residents. curt: as you said, this was an introduction made while the city of flint was under the control of state appointed emergency

manager. in a purely economically driven decision. amy: state appointed emergency manager. you have a mayor, but the governor appointed someone over him, unelected, to run the city. curt: correct. the elected officials only had as much power as that emergency manager decides to give them. their pay is determined by the emergency manager. what authority they have is determined by the emergency manager. the mayor and the city council are employees of the emergency manager at that point. amy: the emergency managers are almost overwhelmingly appointed and are mainly in african american cities. curt: correct. in the school districts and cities where emergency managers have been appointed, i think all except one are majority african

american cities and school districts. they are also a very high percentage of people living in poverty. majoritycities with a of people of color and very poor cities. one of the reasons that they were pushed into the financial duress that they were put in was because of cuts in revenue sharing imposed by this governor. they pretty much pushed them over the financial edge and took them over. these emergency managers can sell off assets, they can break collective-bargaining agreements , they can cut the health-care benefits of retirees, they can break -- abolish ordinances, create new ones -- about the only thing that the law says that they specifically cannot do is miss a bond payment. amy: so they can also change the water supply of a city?

curt: correct. that is what they did in flint in order to save about $5 million per year. amy: explain why they shifted. curt: they had been on the detroit system for 50 years getting clean, safe water from detroit. , the to that decision decision was made that they were going to join a project to build a pipeline from lake huron to genesee county. they were going to build this new pipeline. while they were building the , the decision was made to start using the very, very corrosive flint river to supply the city's water. amy: take us back to last february. take us to when people started to realize what was going on and

to the epa memo. curt: yes. people knew from the beginning. as soon as the switch was made of april 2014, people knew that the water was bad. it tasted bad, it smelled bad. there were all sorts of problems through 2014. in 2015, 1 of the residents, leeann walters, had her water tested by the city. at lead levels came back over 100 parts per billion. there is no safe level of lead whatsoever. the federal action level is 15 parts per billion. it was about seven times what the federal action level was. she had it tested a second time and it came back almost 400 parts per billion. at that point, the epa became aware of what those test results were and started sending e-mails

to the michigan department of environmental quality, asking them what was going on in terms of corrosion control. detroit had added phosphates to the water, which creates a andilm that coats the pipes keeps the lead particles adhered to the pipes, rather than leaching into the water. the flint river is many times more corrosive than detroit. they switched to a water source that was much more corrosive. when corrosion control was more needed than ever, they inexplicably stopped using it -- compounding the problem. , withoutosive water corrosion control, it just began tearing apart the pipes. as dr. edwards has pointed out, anybody with a rudimentary understanding of chemistry could have looked at the situation and predicted what would happen. and we don't know.

that is one of the questions that remains unanswered. did they take a serious look at what was going on with that river before they decided to make the switch? dois either they did not that, which i would think is gross negligence. or they didn't do it and ignored whatever they found. that is one of the big questions at this point that remains unaddressed. talk about the significance of the memo that was written and how the man who wrote it was admonished by his superiors. torr mr. dell tauro -- del o is the unsung hero in this saga. , heook a personal interest looked at the walters family house. that waswas claiming the source of the problem.

way, everyone did everything they could to deny that the river was what caused the problem to erupt. investigated,and heroped ms. walters and family up with the people at virginia tech and they conduct thorough test. let's go to professor marc edwards. how did you meet lee yan and her family and why is your team doing the testing of the water supply for flint? met leeanne and we

sampling of the home and we found the worst lead in water contamination that we have seen in 25 years of working in the field. e figured out that the city and state were lying about the use of corrosion control. , are you usinged corrosion control? they lied and said yes. out that there was no corrosion control. when she informed us of what was going on, we became involved because it was very clear that the agencies who were paid to protect children from the neurotoxin lead were not going to do their job. amy: professor edwards, the reason you met leanne was because that family moved away from flint.

they were so afraid of what was happening. professor edwards: that was after. she stayed, even after her children had been lead poisoned, to fight for other children in the city, helped coordinate the sampling event, and the day she left, they switched back to the detroit river. that was a month later. i met her early on because of the contamination. her child was lead poisoned. she was concerned about what was going on to other children in flint. amy: you go to flint with your team. tell us what you did. well, theedwards: problem should have been stopped , even if there was complete incompetence on the part of the state with the del toral memo. the epa covered it up. they apologized for this memo that was written.

it explains what was going on, including the fact that flint was breaking federal law. the administrator said she was sorry about the memo and mr. del toral would not be working on this anymore. amy: what is the name of that regional head? professor edwards: susan. amy: is she still in that position? professor edwards: yes, she is. i obtained those documents that showed exactly what she said. the state was blacking -- bragging to flint residents that no one was going to help them and that mr. del toral was handled. at that point, we launched with aclu michigan and many other theps, a completely outside system effort to determine the allow of flint water and flint residents to see whether

it was meeting federal standards are not. we conducted a 300-bottle survey and the residents did an amazing job. they returned more than 90% of the kits. when we started looking at the august, this was late we knew there was no way the water could be considered safe i federal standards. webpage,bpage -- our we announced that no one should be drinking flint water. of course, the state did not like that. more fromt to read the e-mail written by governor snyder's chief of staff. "i really don't think people are getting the benefit of the doubt and people are concerned about the lead level studies they are receiving from the mdeq samples. these folks are scared and worried and are basically getting blown off by us.

we are just not sympathizing with their plight. frominternal e-mail governor rick snyder's chief of staff. what happened next? well, then, as dr. edwards just said, we started working , ah them and with groups coalition in flint, and we came up with the idea that we are going to conduct our own test. in august, we did that. virginia tech said -- sent 300 sample kits. people worked to educate people about how to take water samples. we held public meetings.

people came, we distributed the kits. a three-week period, we tested about four times as many homes as the city had tested over the previous six months. it was very rigorous. records were kept. unlike the city test, which focused on areas where they knew they were not going to find lead, we were looking everywhere to honestly find out what was really going on and did everything we could to make it bulletproof. we knew they were going to attack us. we did not to give them any legitimate opening to question what we did. we were working like crazy to get the kits distributed and collected and sent back. dr. edwards and his team worked around the clock to analyze all of these samples.

as soon as the sample started coming in and they saw that the levels were what they were and very disturbing, very alarming, they started putting the information out. , the, all along the way approach taken by the mdeq was to deny there was a problem. amy: michigan department of environmental quality. let's go to nayyirah shariff. you are with flint democracy defense league. what does democracy have to do with clean water? nayyirah: snyder has been trampling our democracy for years, ever since he has been in office and specifically since flint has had an emergency manager since december 2011. our city council wanted to go back to detroit. our emergency manager said it was inconceivable because it was going to cost too much money.

the culture of the emergency manager is money trumps everything. it is more important than people's lives. we don't know what the cost of this is going to be. karen weaver said it was going to be $1.5 billion. that is just the infrastructure, not the medical costs for people to survive through their lifetime of care. amy: when you say karen weaver, you say the first woman mayor of who, as soon she was elected, declared a state of emergency, which has brought the crisis to the attention of the nation. in december, she announced a state of emergency. she was standing with governor snyder yesterday. right now, do you have any confidence that the water is safe? given that so much of the testing shows that it isn't, that many children have been ,ermanently damaged by the lead

have been permanently lead poisoned, do people have access to clean water? how are they drinking? how are they bathing? nayyirah: people are doing what they have been doing. that is purchasing bottled water if they are able to get a filter , they are using that. or they are heating up bottled water. amy: how do you get the bottled water? on nbc yesterday, a reporter was interviewing reverend bobby jackson of the mission of hope shelter. he said that he had been getting some bottled water, charitable contributions, but he was all out. the reason the reporter went to him is because the city said, "i don't know where you can get the bottled water." if you don't have money, how do

you get the water? nayyirah: the flint democracy defense league has pastor bobby jackson as emergency relief. people did not have access to water. there water was shut off because we pay one of the highest rates in the nation. there are no relief sites. it is all charitable contributions. as volunteers, we don't have the capacity or the space or -- evenes or forklifts though now we have a lot of interest of people wanting to send us water. we are all kind of volunteers. we don't have a space to store 500-600 cases of water. hopefully, with the state of emergency resources, we can have the first responders step up with that.

it has all been people doing it all on their own. there has just been announced a federal investigation into what has taken place, about the same day when governor snyder learned this -- he announced a state of emergency. for a demand for clean water and for the governor to be investigated, but some are calling for him to be arrested. what do you feel? feel like he should be arrested. he should be impeached. whatever comes where we can get some sort of justice because we have not had justice. snyder's apology happened three months after we went back to detroit. we don't know when he actually knew there was an issue with flint's water. he can take his apology and flush it down his toilet. ago, the mdeq was

presented with documents acquired by dr. edwards and denied the lead levels. there is ang that difference between blood lead levels and water lead levels. different testing, different sampling, different things. professor, can you respond to this? professor edwards: it was really sayking to hear mr. wurfel that. i hope he was taken out of context. on the other hand, it does sort of illustrate the state's illogic throughout this whole event. especially throughout this small employees, who

have really misled everyone. andstate did a quick study they found increased levels after the switch, but they did wasbelieve it because mdeq insisting that there was nothing wrong with the water. this small group of employees has tried to hit up every effort to protect these children. what needs to be done to clean the water right now. flint is reconnected to detroit's water supply now. professor edwards: yes. the harm that was done to flint's children cannot be undone. it is not until flint passes the

federal sampling that actually last twohe law, the samplings broke the law in many different ways -- that is another thing that allowed the state to say the water was safe when it wasn't -- until that happens, no one can really assess the safety of flint's water. our assessment is that until they pass a legal monitoring round, the water has to be assumed unsafe. amy: what does the state of emergency mean? well, right now, the state is taking the lead on this. in many ways, it feels somewhat abusive. the state was responsible for the injury to flint's residents. and now we have to go to our abuser for treatment. the federal that government can intervene very quickly, residence in flint --

we have no trust with the state. amy: i want to thank you all for being with us. we will continue to follow this story. nayyirah shariff of the flint's defense league joining us from destroyed -- destroy -- detroit. curt guyette and mark edwards from virginia tech. when we come back, stunning developments in guatemala. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "new world water" by mos

def. stunning developments in guatemala where police have arrested eight teen ex-military againstfor crimes humanity during the decade siphon long dirty war backed by the u.s. against the indigenous communities of guatemala. they may have ordered massacres that led to a quarter of a million deaths. leaders were backed by the united states, including manuel benedicto lucas garcía, who worked closely with u.s. military officials. the system involved decapitating and crucifying people. he is a brother of the x dictator --ex-dictator. ondefended himself wednesday. >> because i have done well for

humanity, i have saved lives. killed, is said, if i did not do so as a coward. amy: watermelon prosecutors moved to have -- guatemalan prosecutors moved to have immunity removed. jailed former president otto perez marinolina. for more, we are joined by allan nairn, an investigative activist. and talk about the significance of these developments. , this isur guatemala the beginning of a nuremberg except it isocess,

not being done by a foreign, occupying power the way the nuremberg trials were done. this is being done by the local justice system. the part of the survivors who brought complaints forward and also on the part of forensic anthropologists, lawyers, prosecutors, who are risking their lives to bring this cases. it resulted in the round up of some of the worst mass killers in the country. they were working for the guatemalan army and the u.s. government. the u.s. was backing the g-2 military intelligence service, for which many of these arrested officers were working. some were the u.s. payroll. they were armed, trained, advised by the u.s. general benedicto worked with come theeorge manus

u.s. military at tesh a. they -- manus told me that developed the strategy for the highland villages where they would decapitate and crucified. they were arrested on charges yesterday. they are facing charges tied to two specific cases. the army raided a house with machine guns. they threw a nylon bag over a man's head and he was never seen again. the reason they hit his house was because his older sister had been held captive at an army base where she was being tortured and repeatedly raped, fromhe had grown so skinny lack of food that she was able to slip out through the bars and escape. they hit the house and they took the boy in retaliation. the other case deals with the

army base that coban, where they have found 558 cadavers -- 90 of them were children. people were brought therefrom massacre sites all around the northwest. the army would go into villages, burn the houses, take women down to the rivers and violate them, and a number were taken away in helicopters -- some supplied by the u.s., some supplied by guatemalan oligarchs. from there, they were flown to the army base. they have been brave enough to stand up and report this. basis of the

cases. the world is trying to finally understand because of the isis videos. slavery, gang rape, mass slaughter of civilians. isis brags about this. the guatemalan army and the u.s. ,dvisors did not brag about it but they were using the same tactics. arrests relatese to the uprising of the last six months? allan: this was only politically possible because of the uprising. uprising that brought down created arez molina climate where prosecutors dared to try to go forward.

these are people who are at the heart of the power structure in guatemala. they are the partners of the oligarchy. they were the partners of u.s. military. if you go back and read the cables that have been declassified, you see them praising these officers -- the very ones who have now been arrested for these atrocities. these men arrested also form the part of the group that is part of the incoming government. jimmy morale us, just elected, his right-hand man was one of basele charged at the that is stacked with skeletons.

this has big implications. it could have bigger implications for the u.s.. i spoke to 3-4 of the cia station chiefs. i named their names in an article which appeared in the nation in 1985. prosecutors can look at that article and see where they are and who they are. those who are still alive can be subpoenaed. to u.s. should be subpoenaed release all state department and pentagon documents regarding payments they made to these officers, training and advice they gave to them. wouldatemalan authorities have the right to extradite surviving u.s. officials. to: i wanted to go back 1995, 20 years ago. you were interviewed by charlie

rose about peace in the nation. you describe how americans were directly involved in the killings but a guatemalan army. you are being interviewed alongside elliott abrams. abrams had served under president reagan from 1981 until 1985. allan: we are talking about more than 100,000 murders. an entire army, many the top employees of the u.s. government. we are also talking about crimes and criminals -- not just people like the guatemalan colonels, but the u.s. agents who have been working with them and the higher-level u.s. officials. i think you have to apply uniform standards. president bush once talked about putting saddam hussein on trial for crimes against humanity. i think that is a good idea. if you are serious, we have to be evenhanded.

start talkinge to about putting guatemalan and u.s. officials on trial. i think someone like mr. abrams a nuremberg for inquiry. but the democrats would have to be in the dock with them. elliott abrams is simply throwing his head back and laughing. your thoughts today? allan: abrams was the key figure in central american policy during the time of the slaughter. became a top adviser to the bush junior white house dealing with the middle east, where the u.s. has mounted similar operations. overaq, the u.s. brought one over the u.s. military men who had worked alongside the salvadoran death squads.

they targeted sunnis in iraq. they called it the salvador option. this is a policy that has been a flied uniformly. people like abrams have not been put in the dock. the elliott abrams acquittal in guatemala are being brought before a judge in guatemala. they will face their fate. ,my: finally, this week also the current president announced that he is slashing the minimum malquiladora areas. allan: maldonado, the interim president, who used to be the front man for the death squad

party, announced that he was cutting the minimum wages in these factory areas. he was giving a speech. some demonstrators showed up. he, who is known for his smooth demeanor, he just went nuts. he started screaming at the demonstrators. he called them bums, lennonists. there was a strong connection between the slashing of wages and this terror. terror helps to keep the wages down. when you make it impossible for unions to organize without death or disappearance, that pulled down wages. we all know about outsourcing production from the u.s., but there is also an outsourcing of oppression. u.s. labor organizers were killed with a fair amount of frequency, but that became unnecessary.

as production has moved overseas , so has the killing. that exists with downward pressure on wages. u.s. ome to the then americans complain. if you go and burn down your neighbor's house, don't complain when they come onto your lawn as they run from the flames. to: which brings us directly our next segment. we will be talking about the immigrants imprisoned and the raids taking place in the new year, sending immigrants back over the border. allan nairn, thank you for being with us. journalist whoe has reported on guatemala for decades. this is democracy now! ♪ [music break]

-- "deportees" by sammy walker.

federal agencies have detained inple in relation to raids georgia, north carolina, and texas. a woman named ana was detained in the raids and is being held in texas with her 10-year-old son. they arrived in the united states in june 2014 after fleeing honduras. she described the new year's weekend immigration raid. >> yes, it was a raid. i think i was the first one detained. they grabbed me. they came to my house looking for someone else. my aunt opened the door and they asked me for identification and they told me i was already deported. >> and who came and how many people? that raid, 33 families

were detained. they left yesterday. i don't know. it was a miracle from god. only three of us remain who were captured. only three families were not deported. amy: immigrants rights groups say that many have legitimate claims for asylum, but were not afforded due process. in order to halt deportation for 12 people came hours before they were headed to el salvador. for more, we go directly to dilly, texas. the managing attorney for the project joins us to help with the status of deportation. we are also joined in austin, , formerlyarbara hines with the university of texas school of law immigration clinic. we welcome you both to dem -- democracy now!

describe what happened at how you prevented some of the people whose homes were rated -- rated from being deported. >> good morning. basically, we were meeting with clients as they trickle in. many of our clients are being told that they have no legal resource and no access to their attorneys. what can i tell you? so far, we have submitted nine stays. the ones that we have received decisions so far have been granted so far. i think that is an indication that something is wrong. amy: can you explain why this is happening right now?

we ran a quote from the "new york times" editorial page saying that a new day has dawned upon a appalling campaign of home raids. say, it is no wonder that donald trump is applauding the policy and taking credit for it. barbara, can you talk about why this is happening right now and what you are doing about this? unfortunately, this is happening because of the misapplied immigration policy of our country. it is the failure to recognize what the root causes of migration are. the incredible violence in these countries. what disturbs me the most is we talk about the syrian crisis and why people are fleeing, but we treat the mothers and children who are coming -- they are referred to as lawbreakers or whatever, when they are true refugees. we need to focus on what is

happening in the countries of origin which is causing mothers and children to flee at the numbers we are seeing today. amy: what is temporary protective status? barbara: what i think one of the solutions to this would be our asylum laws are very rigid and they have not been modernized for the realities of central america with the tremendous gang and gender-based violence. the way we have addressed situations in the past is temporary protective status. it allows the executive branch and the department of homeland security to decrease certain countries and to say it is too dangerous for those people to return to their countries. we have done this since 1990 and we have included countries in africa, syria, we recently declared nepal because of the earthquake. tohink we seriously need

begin to think about temporary protective status, in addition to asylum. many women do have bona fide refugee claims. that could be a solution to the situation. amy: katie shepherd, bernie sanders is calling for immediate temporary protective status and and and to these raids -- and an end to these raids. you prevented some deportations. how did you do this? katie: we filed 11th hour approval andys of appeals. at the very last minute, the stays were granted. yesterday morning, three families were pulled off of planes for deportation. that was a big victory. all of these clients have bona fide asylum claims. amy: you know, the u.s. is a signatory to the u.s. convention against torture. many of these people are fleeing horrific violence in their own

countries. is it against the law for the u.s. to deport them? barbara: i think the problem with this is that many of the women are either unrepresented or they have substandard immigration lawyers. it is very difficult in an adversarial system that we have, which many countries do not have, to prevent asylum and convention against torture claims. yes, we are a signator to the convention in of torture and the convention on the status and protection of refugees and i think that our government is not complying with those international norms. amy: we will continue to follow this issue. barbara hines and katie shepherd, managing attorney for cada pro bono project. thanks for joining us. that does it for our show. democracy now! is hiring a director of financial and

director of fundraising. for moreocracynow.org information. special thanks to julie crosby. i made

>> this week on "quadriga," crunch year 2016. can the eu survived? the new year has finally begun and the eu is facing new crises. more and more states are read imposing border controls. poland's new nationalist government is curtailing democratic freedoms. nationalists and eurosceptic