03/28/17 03/28/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> i strongly urge our nanation states, cities, counties to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their c citizens ae refusing too enforce our immigration laws and to rethink these policies. amy: in the latest crackdown on sanctuary cities, attotorney general jeff sessions ordered all cities to work with federal immigration agents are risk losing billions of dollars in

grants to law enforcement agencies. we will be to city council members from austin and philadelphia on their plans to fight backck against the trump administration. we will also look at how in newt and lawyers haven, connecticut, successfully fought back a decade ago against ice over immigration raids launched after new haven adopted the first minutes ago id card in the nanation. then we speak to the acclaimed writiter rebeccaca solnit about resistance, hope, the fight against climate change, and her new book, a follow-up to our bestseller "men explain things to me." because all myt life, men would explain things to me that they do not necessarily know better than i did and sometimes i knew much better than they did because there was this assumption that because of gender, they were inherently knowledgeable and superior and in control and i

was inherently ignorant and in need of an injection of their knowledge, wisdom, insight, etc. "therebecca solnit on mother of all questions." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. top democratic lawmakers are demanding house intelligence committee chair devin nunes recuse himself from investigating ties between trump and russia amid revelations nunes met with a source on the grounds of the white house and viewed secret u.s. intelligence reports one day before nunes went to the white house to brief president trump about the reports. he claims it indicates tribes or his associates might have been integrally swept up in surveillance carried out by u.s. spy agencies as they conducted foreign.

he did not share it with fellow committee members and has not, to this day. some democrats such as california congress member jackie speier, have called on in us to step down as chair. democrats say the memeeting shos nunes is too close to trump to be impartial in the investigation about whether trump's campaign colluded with russia in order to influence the 2016 election. nunes is refusing to recuse himself from the investigation. the house intelligence committee has canceled all meetings this week, amid the ongoing turmoil. this is california democratic congressman adam schiff. >> i think would be worthwhile for the chairman to recuse himself from any investigation of all things it are the trump campaign or the trump transition -- nothing normal about what has taken place over the last week. [indiscernible] you don't share with the president, particularly if the investigation vols associates of

the presidident. amy: earlier this month, attorney general jeff sessions recused himself from any investigatioions into o ties ben trump and russia during the 2016 campaign, following revelations that he twice met with russia's ambassador to the u.s. while serving as a campaign surrogate for donald trump. details have emerged about a december meeting between president trump's close adviser and son-in-law jared kushner and the executives of the russian state development bank known as veb. president obama imposed the sanctions in 2014 over russia's military actions in ukraine. the bank disclosed the meeting on monday and said it was with kushner as the head of kushner companies. this information contradicts the statements of white house press secretary sean spicer who said kushner was acting as a truck advisor during the meeting, not as a private developer. the revelations came on the same day kushner agreed to testify to the senate committee investigating ties between the

trump campaign and russia during the 2016 election. mayors across the country are fighting back against attorney general jeff sessions' threats that sanctuary cities would lose federal funding unless the cities require local police cooperate with federal immigration agents carrying out trump's mass deportation plans. on monday, attorney general jeff sessions ordered all cities to comply or risk losing billions , of dollars in n grants to law enforcement agencies. urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws, .ncluding eigh willepartment of justice require jurisdictions seeking or applying for department of justice grants to certify compliance with 1373 as a condition of receiving those

awards. amy: new york mayor bill de blasio, boston mayor martin walsh, and others vowed monday to defy the order and remain sanctuary cities. in more immigration news, more than 600 companies have already submitted bids to build trump's expanded wall along the u.s.-mexico border. all bids are due by tomorrow. during the campaign, trump vowed mexico would pay for the border wall. but his 2018 budget instead allocates $2.6 billion for the wall's construction. anand in chicago, , an agent wih immigratation and d customs enforcement, knonown as ice, sht and injured 53-year-old felix torres, after the agents burst into the family's house monday morning. his daughter, carmen torres, says the family was sleeping when agentnts burst through the front door. she said --- "they just came in and pointed pistols in our faces and dragged us out. we didn't even have time to dress or grab milk for the

baby." felix torres was hospitalized in serious condition after the shooting. icice says he was not the man ty were seeking to arrest. we'll have more on immigration and sanctuary cities after headlines. president trump is expected to sign an executive order today to dismantle a slew of climate rules put in place by president obama. the executive order will instruct the environmental protection agency to review obama's rules limiting power plant emissions, the first step to the regulation's eventual elimination. the order is also expected to direct the interior department to lift obama's moratorium halting new coal leases on federal land. the bureau of land management will be instructed to review regulations limiting hydraulic fracturing. obama's regulations limiting methane emissions will be dismantled. the executive order is also expected to end entirely president obama's 2013 climate action plan, which outlined the

federal government's approach to curbing climate change. environmental groups are vowing to fight the executive order. protests are planned for this afternoon in washington, d.c. the united states led a boycott of u.n. talks on outlalawing nuclear weapons on monday. despite the boycott, more than 100 nations did take part in the widely supported talks, although none of the participating countries possess nuclear weapons. this is u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley. >> you are going to see almost 40 countries that are not in general assembly to day. and that 40 countries that are saying in this day and time, we would love to have a ban on nuclear weapons. but in this day and time, we cannot honestly say we can protect our people by allowing the bad actors to have them. and those of us that are good trying to keep peace and safety not to have them. amy: the pentagon announced

monday it would be sending at least 240 more u.s. soldiers to northern iraq within the next 36 hours. the troops a are from ththe 82nd airborneivivision at f fort bra, north caroli.. heavy fighghting contitinues int mosul, despite reports over the weekend that the u.s.-backed iraqi army had suspended its offensive amididevelationsns u.s.-led coalition airstrikes have killed hundreds of people in recent weeks. one u.s.-led coalition airstrike on march 17 may have killed up to 200 civilians, marking one of the deadliest strikes since the u.s. invaded iraq in 2003. on monday, amnesty international accused iraqi officials of telling mosul residents not to flee amid the airstrikes and ground offensive, instead dropping leaflets and broadcasting over the radio that civilians should stay in their houses. amnesty said -- "the fact that iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area, indicates that

coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties. disproportionate attacks and indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law and can constitute war crimes." the "wall street journal" is reporting the trump administration h has increased s mililitary support for saudi arabia and the u united arab emirates amid the ongoing saudi-led war in yemen. citing unnamed u.s. and arab officicials, "the journal" repos the u.s. will now offer even more logistical and intelligence support for the coalition fighting yemen's houthi rebels, who are accused of being linked to iran. "the journal" also reports the trump administration is seeking to resume e sales of precision-n-guided wponsns to sasaudi ararabia. presesident obama froze some of these weapons sales last year amid concerns about the number of civilian casusualties.

the u.s.-backed saudi-led bombing campaign has already killed thousands of people and the saudi naval blockade has pushed yemen to the brink of famine. on monday, in yemen, at least 11 people died in suicide bombing attack on a government compound in souththern yemen. the pentagon says north korea carried out another rocket engine test on friday. pentagon officials says the -- say the rocket enengine tests are part of north korea's efforts to develop an intercontinentntal ballistic missile program. north korea says the engines are part of the country's space program. friday's test came as north korea continues toto condemn the ongoing joint militatary drills between the u.s. and south korea. the annual exercises which began , on march 1 and will continue through april, include more than 300,000 south korean soldiers, and 17,000 u.s. troops, including members of seal team 6. in hong kong, police have launched a crackdown on

pro-democracy activists, only one day after beijing's preferred candidate was chosen to be the next leader of hong kong. at least nine activiststs have been informed d they are now facing charges for participation in pro-democracy street protests over two years ago. this is professor chan kin-man, one of the founders of hong kong's occupy central protests, who is now facing charges. >> i don't think it is a coincident. i think it is deliberate. that is why they wait until this morning. i think the have sent [indiscernible] going -- nowis they are targeting us. i think it will further divide our society. amy: in peru, the death toll from the country's worst flooding in more than 30 years is rising. at least 90 people have died,

in the flooding caused by torrential downpours linked to, change has also destroyed tens of thousands of houses and displaced more than 100,000 people. the floods have also destroyed thousands of roads, bridges and highways across peru, paralyzing commerce and making it harder to transport aid to affected regions. in french guiana, unions launched a general strike monday to protest unemployment, the cost of living and the lack of , public services in france's territory y in south america. the general strike was a latest in a series of protests that have rocked the territory in recent weeks. on monday, the french prime minister said he'd send a dedelegation to french guiana later in t the week. the state of michigan has reached a deal with the city of flflint, with the state agreeing to pay nearly $100 million to replace wawater lines s to thous of homes whose waterer has beenn poisisoned by lelead. flint's water crcrisis beganan n 2014 after the unelelected, state-appointed d emergencyy manageger for the city of flflit changed d the sourcece of the

drinkiking water to the flintt rivever in orderer to try to sae money. the river water corroded flint's pipes, causing toxic lead to leech ininto the citity's drinkg wateter. officials s say flint's water is still ununsafe tdrdrink wiout ta filter, and many resididents remain wary of drinking the water at all. on monday, a white army veteran who traveled from baltimore to new york city to kill black men was indicted by a grand jury on the charge of murder as terrorism. police say 28-year-old james harris jackson confessed to repeatedly plunging a sword into 66-year-old timothy caughman, killing him. police say jackson was part of a white supremacist hate group in baltimore. on monday, white house press secretary sean spicer refused to answer questions about the case, and refused to call it a hate crime. in colorado, about 1000 people congregated at a mosque in fort collins on sunday to show

support after the mosque was vandalized earlier that morning. police say they've arrested the man suspected of throwing rocks through the mosque's doors, and then tossing a bible inside. and anti-apartheid activist ahmed kathrada has died at the age of 87. kathrada, better known as kathy, was a member of the african national congress. in 1963, he was arrested with other anc leaders and went on to spend 26 years in prison -- 18 of them on robben island. he later served as president mandela's parliamentary adviser. this is ahmed kathrada, speaking in visby, sweden, in 2014. historically a struggle for a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic south africa. that is what sent many people to prison. and that is for many, many of

our colleagues, lost their lives and were not alive to see the birth of democracy in our country. amy: that was ahmed kathrada, speaking in 2014. he died in johannesburg on at the age of 87. tuesday and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the trump administration has unveiled its latest attempt to target sanctuary cities that are refusing to help federal agents detain and deport undocumented immigrants. on monday, attorney general jeff sessions said the justice department would withhold billions of dollars in grants to law enforcement agencies in sanctuary cities. >> the departmentnt of justice s a duty to enforce our nation's laws, including our immigration laws. those laws require us to properlyly remove aliens when ty

are c convicted or detained of certain crimes. the vast majority of american people support this commonsense requirement. according to one recent hole, 80% of americans believe that cities that make or arrest illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to immigration authorities. unfortunately, some states and cities have adopted policies designed to frustrate this enforcement of immigration laws. this includes refusing to detain known felons under federal detainer requests or otherwise failing to comply with these laws. for example, the department of homeland secured recently issued a report showing that in a single week, there were more than 200 instances of jurisdictions refusing to honor ice detainer requests with respect to individuals charged or convicted of serious crimes.

the charges and convictions against these aliens include drug trafficking, hit and run, rape, sex offenses against a child come even murder. amy: attorney general jeff sessions went on to explain that cities applying for grants will have to certify they are not providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. >> today, i am urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws, sectionon1373. the department of justice will require the jurisdictions seeking or applying for department of justice grants to certify compliance with 1373 as a condition of receiving those awards. response, bill de blasio, martin walsh, and others vowed to defy the order and remain sanctuary cities.

meanwhile, lawmakers from a number of sanctuary cities are gathering here in new york for a conference organized by the center for popular democracy. we are joinened right now by the people who are speaking at the conference. helen gym is a longtime community activist was recently elected to the philadelphia city council. gregorio casar is an austin city council member. when he first won election in 2014, he was the youngest councilmember in the city's history.y. he is the son of mexican immigrants. also with us, from new haven is , michael wishnie, a clinical professor of law at yale law school. he is co-director of the school's worker and immigrant rights advocacy clinic. we welcome you all to democracy now! helen, philadelphia city council member, you are -- your response to, well, we heard this yesterday at the session that you were involved with where people came from around the country to talk about sanctuaries that attorney general jeff sessions had just announced he would be going

after cities that do what your city does, philadelphia. talks what i would say is, there is no surprise that 48 hours or 72 hours after the president suffers one of the most humiliating defeats in c congres ever that they go back to their tried and true distracactions, which is to scapegoat immigrants. it is a tried-and-true practice. the american people have to reject it. they have rejected it. .e got muslim been won this is not not top desk nonstop attack and it is time for the administration to score political points. what we're doing here is in europe city, bringing together a cross-section of municipalities of localities that are going to look at these, not with into rhetoric, but with a real partnership in a network that will rely on smart legal strategy, ask series questions. we will probably go into litigation over a lot of the stuff. there are many questions about whether anything is changed or they are simply going on tv and

hyping up the kinds of divisions i hope to rely on in order to push through aggressive agendas. there's no question cities are taking this seriously. not through fear or submission, but by pushing back, fighting back and making sure we're going to establish the networks and the organizing in our communities are going to feel safe and truly strong. juan: speaking about fighting back, you helped organize the protest at the philadelphia airport during the muslim been 1.0. can you talk about what happened and the success you had? >> i think people understand very clearly what is going on, that this is an administration that is extraordinary -- extraordinarily sloppy. their own papers they put out, their executive orders are a mess. similarly, we're not sure many things are changing between the obama administration and the trump administration on a legal front. but what we are doing is communities are paying attention to this. when the executive order came

down on the first muslim ban, it came in the middle of the night. it was left to the customs and border patrol agents to figure this out and airports all across the country. we put out a call on social media there were a number of families being detained at the philadelphia airport. people came now by the hundreds. they came in through the hundreds. because the people came, you senator kaine, our governor can, politicians followed, and the policies changed. that is how people a are needing to look back at how they will push back. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. helen gym is a philadelphia council member. we will also speak to gregorio .asar and michael wishnie this is democracy now! we will be back in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: "would you harbor me?" by sweet honey in the rock. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: i want to talk to councilman casar about what happened recently in austin, especially with your share. last week in texas, u.s. magistrate judge andrew austin said in open court that federal agents had alerted him that ice would be targeting the area of austin, texas. the raids would be retribution for travis county sheriff sally hernandez's new policy that limited cooperation between local and federal authorities. this is a courtroom recording of ice agents being questioned by judge austin. >> there is been questions about whether austin is being targeted . your immediate supervisor, i guess.

came and briefed me and the magistrate judge that at the end of january, we could expect a big operation, agents coming from out of town, there was going to be a specific operation and it was at least related to us in that meeting that you was the result of the sheriff's new policy. juan: so that was the discussion in court, in open court. gregorio casar, what has been going on with sally hernandez, the sheriff there, and what is been the attempt of the state as

well to stop the efforts of lawmakers and elected officials in austin to maintain assange were city? >> w what we are facing is repression and retaliation against a decade-long campaign to become a welcoming city for our immigrant communities. so for years, our previous sheriff was deporting more people, helping to deport was more people than any sheriff in the country. and because of campaigns of the city to stop collaborating and cooperating with the county campaigns to push that sheriff out, we finally electeda new share. on the same-day of trump's inauguration, she announced a policy to significantly reduce our compliance with voluntary ice detainers. it was very shortly thereafter that our governor said he was going to put the hammer down against boston. $1 million that

were there to protect children and veterans and our community. but we stood strong. soon after we heard there was going to be a targeted ice operation against our community. in one weekend, over 50 people were arrested. ice denied there was even an operation going on. once we call them out on that, they denied it was in operation sweeping up large numbers of people. they said they were targeting folks. it became clear because my own constituents were being picked up, over half the people picked up had no criminal history at all. when we called that clinicacal retaliation, politically motivated law enforcement actions that had nothing to do with public safety and every thing to do wiwith's trump agen, ice denied that vigorously. now in open court a judge has confirmed what we know, we have a rogue federal agency t that is not o only during families apar, but threatening our very democracy by taking public safety actions and arresting people for political purposes. amy: y your the second highest d

document population in the country in texas, only next to california? >> that's right. what makes us dififferent thing calilifornia, we are governed ba statewide regime that is aligned with tribes politics of mass deportation. a bill has been filed. they couould not send enough ice agent into our communini's toto make us submit. they filed a bill that has passed through the senate and is now being deliberated by our state house to criminalize city elected leaders and county elected leaders who endorsed policies that do not turn our police officers into deportation officers or who won't comply with voluntary ice detainers. they're looking at taking away tens or hundreds of millions of dollars from our cities and from criminalizing those elected officials who refused to submit. we are going to continue to summit, no matter what jeff sessions or greg abbott has to say. juan: sally hernandez is share for you as a council member

could be arrested under the new laws they're proposing to pass? terrifying onis its face, the fact of the matter is, i believe it is not only unethical and an american, but unlawful. that is why we came together in new york these past couple of days to start planning our little strategies and litigation strategies so we cannot b be blackmaileled and s signaled ous individudual cities. they would have to be coming after huge swath of american public that live in our progressive strongholds in our cities. juan: i would like to bring lawael wishnie y in fromale school. you told in important story at the conference yesterday about a battle that occurred 10 years ago under the obama administration in terms of ice and attempts to punish the city for becoming more welcoming to immigrants. i am wondering if you could talk about that. >> it was the bush administration, should say.

in the city of new haven in 2006, community organizations working with students at the law school developed a set of proposals for r policies to make new haven more welcoming and to improve police civilian relationships, especially in high immigrant neighborhoods. one of the recommendations from the community was that the city of adopt general-purpose municipal identification card available to any resident who wanted one. in the spring o of 2007, the mar proposed in the city council, which we call the board of elders, overwhelmingly apapprovd the nanation's first general-purpose miscible id program. 48 hours after the vote in city council, in june 2007, ice conducted the largest rate we believe in the history of our state. they camame in the predawn hours and mast a force of all federal agents they c could find from different agencies all over the state. they swept in to fairhaven,

which is a heavily latino neighborhood in the eastern part of the city, going door-to-door, apartment to apartment, kicking down doors, pushing g their wayn without warrants, without consent will stop they arrested 32 people in all. parents getting up in the morning prepararing to go to wo, to take their children to school. later, ice claimed they were looking for particular dangerous fugitive terminal aliens. but it turned out of the 32 people they arrested, almost all of them had never before encountered immigration. they were just bystanders who happen to be living in an apartment where ice thought sosomeone used to be or the apartment upstairs or the house next door. this is a terrifying moment, most of all, for the families, but for the community as a whole. the community rallied. ice scattered the 32 people in jails around new england, massachusetts, maine, trying to hide them. we were able to find 31 of the 32 people. the students in the clinic

offered representation to 30 of them. remarkably, all 30 of those people came home. we were able to get bonds set by the court. the community raised the money to post bond. in the first mass rate of its happen,is is ever people came home. they came back to their families, came back to their community's. fightad an opportunity to their cases and tell the story of what hahad happened. in thehe end, most of t the peoe decided to fight their cases. if you decided not to. -- a few decided not to. of those who fought their cases, every single one of them won with one exception, a case that is still pending now in federal court in new york. but everybody else persuaded the immigration judges to dismiss their cases based on ice's illegal and retaliatory raid against the city of new haven. at that was not all. the community groups went to court in six state and federal

freedom of information act lawsuits and obtained email traffic in the planning

not letting them interfere that much. amy: talking about making it a sanctuary state. >> is a beautiful thing. feminist,te activist, immigrants rights champion and leader and hope to see him continue to rise. amy: you have also written about the war within the republican party. talking about everything that has happened in the last few days was a failure of trumpcare. are inink both parties crisis. fascinating, fracturing. people who these don't know if it is safer to go with trump or against him.

at some point, i think will be free fall and the rats will be scoring off the sinking ship. of peopleve a lot like lindsey graham and john mccain who have been outspoken about the collusion with russia. it is just a really strange moment. what do they stand for? i feel like republican party has always been kind of sneaky and disguised and doc was sold -- now it is can of naked and hanging out for the public to see. trump has taken all of the things that said they were four and taken them to an extreme. there's a lot of room for outsiders, democratic party -- you know, media people, etc., to drive wedges through them. and the democrats are doing some great things like making them vote weekly on whether trump should reveal his taxes and cut a putting them on the record for which could affect a lot of congresspeople in the midterms.

juan: i want to ask about the latest of your book. what is the mother of all questions? >> that is the title of an essay i wrote about the kinds of questions would be get asked all the time, why don't you have kids? thatuestions like that assume that women are just sort of reading units, that all women are the same, that happiness and only come from the mississippi and family life and reproduction. and that women's private lives our public business. it is part of a larger business of telling people what a good life consists of some of that you're supposed to have lots of sex, demand, be married, and have lots of toys and money. we all know lots of people have those things and are not happy and lots of people don't have those things are hang out with a lot of celibate buddhist priests who are pretty happy people who don't have any of those things. so it is really a revolt against the formulas and the questions

that are not real questions interested in understanding or deeply, but are really trying to shame people and push them back into the herd, force them to conform. part twoe going to do of this conversation after this broadcast and post it online at democracynow.org. i want to ask you about women and sometimes men being silenced , what that silence means, and the difference between silence and quiet. that is just some of the questions we will ask rebecca solnit. rebecca solnit, writer, historian, and activist. she is the author of 20 books, including, most recently, "the mother of all questions." she is also a columnist at "harper's" magazine. and her most recent piece for the guardian is titled, "protest and persist: why giving up hope is not an option." this is democracy now! either way, with a full-time news production fellowship. visit our website for more information. you have to apply immediately. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning.

e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

just enough toot do the math. welcome to link tv for truly independent media. over the years, we brought you a letter program dealing with, change. it is a subject we care deeply about. ast year, we presented documentary called do the math. it featured the environmentalist bill mckibben. he figured out some deadly statistics. all those gigatons of carbon come ocean temperatures rising, time running out. but you know bill quickly realized that talking about a problem is only the first step. so he came up with an action plan. he launched a bus tour across america to fire up people and organize them.