10/09/19 10/09/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! us, thek they take from poor. they raise gas prices and diesel. farm.who work every, who we need to work and it hurts us. they forgive the rich and take from the poor. that is why we are here, to defend what is ours, nothing more. amy: protests are continuing to rock ecuador as tens of thousands of indigenous people and other demonstrators flooded

the streets of quito to decry government-imposed austerity measures. the protests have forced the president of ecuador to temporarily move the government out of quito. we will go to ecuador for the latest. then to the democratic presidential candidate julian castro. >> those who make it to the southern border of the united states should absolutely be able to make their asylum claim. if i were president right now, i would immediately ended this remain in mexico policy, the metering policy which is basically playing games with people ports of entry that want to make their asylum claim. amy: earlier this week, julian castro attempted to bring a group of disabled and lgbtq asylum-seekers across the u.s.-mexico border, but the migrants were refused entry. plus, we will look at tuesday's supreme court's hearing to decide whether lgbtq workers can legally be fired due to their sexual orientation or gender

identity. all that and more, c coming up. welclcome to d democracy now!, demomocracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump said tuesday he will not cooperate with the congressional impeachment inquiry, pushing the united states toward a constitutional crisis. the white house announced its decision and it eight-page letter addressed to house democratic leaders, blasting the inquiry as partisan and unconstitutional. the letter arrived just hours after the trump administration ordered a key witness in the impeachment probe, u.s. sondland not to , appear for schedule testimony on capitol hill. president trump tweeted, "unfortunately he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroooo court." text messages turned over to congress reveal sondland helped to mediate conversations between ukukrainian officials and trum's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, aimed at winning a promise from ukraine's president

to investigate joe biden and his son in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars of u.s. military aid that trump had placed on hold. on capitol hill, house intelligencece commimittee chair adam schiff said tuesdsday democrats would issue a subpoena ordering sondland to appear before congress and to hand over electronic m messages related to the investigation. schiff said the white house's decision to stonewall the impeachment probe is further evidence o of obstruction. >> this is onene of the few impeachment inquiries in the history of our country becausese to the corore of whether the president abused h his office to seek political help in his reelection campaign -- and did so t to the e detriment of our nationon security. c coercing aectively country that has been invaded by investigate a rival in conditition the relationship between this country and that

country on whether they were willing to play ball. amy: turkey's government says its troops are prepared for an imminent assault on kurdish fighters in northern syria, after president trump ordered u.s. troops to fall back from their positions on the turkish-syrian border. kurdish fighters said they're bracing for a "humanitarian catatastrophe," saying in a statement -- "this attack will spill the blood of thousands of innocent civilians because our border areas are overcrowded.d." this follows warnings that former kurdish allieies of the u.s. who feel betrayed by president trump will abandon thousands of prisoners captured during the u.s.-backed war against isis over the past two years. afghanistan's national intelligence agency says a top al-qaeda leader was killed last month in a joint u.s.-afghan military operation that killed at least 40 civilians at a wedding part i includingng 12 children.. afghan officialsls said the september 23 attack in the musa qala district of helmand province also left 22 taliban

supporters dead -- among them, they claimed, was asim omar, who led al-qaeda's affiliate in the indian subcontinent since its formation five years ago. i taliban spokesperson rejected it saying it was a cover-up. congressional democrats and foreign service workers are condemning the trump administration's plans to withdraw the u.s. from the open skies treaty, which allows member statetes to carryry out ununarmed rvrveillance f flights over each otother's territorieso verify arms contntrol agagreeme. in a l letter toto the white hou monday, house foreign affairs committee chair eliot engel warned any withdrawal would benefit russia -- which annexed crimea after invading ukraine in 2014. congressmember engel wrote -- "observation flights under the treaty have generated additional information regarding russian military action in ukraine and provided a check on further russian aggression there." this comes just two months after president trump formally

withdrew the u.s. from the inf treaty, the intermediate-range nuclear forces t treaty with russia, the landndmark 1987 agreement bannig all nuclear and non-nuclear missiles with short and medium ranges. british officials are asking the trump administration to reconsider granting diplomatic immunity to a u.s. suspect in the death of a 19-year-old motorcyclist. harry dunn died after he was struck by a car in late august near an air force base in central england. british police say u.s. citizen ann sacoolas had been driving on the wrong side of the road ahead of the crash. they say she fled the country after learning that dunn had died. sacoolas is the wife of a u.s. intelligence officer, and the state department has argued sacoolas has full diplomatic immunity. prime minister boris johnson on monday called on her to return to the u.k. >> i do not think it can be right to use the process of diplomatic immunity for this

tytype o of purpose. sacoolaspe that ann will come back and engage properly with the processes of laws carried out in this country. amy: the supreme courtrt heard oral arguments tuesday in three cases that will determine whether lgbtq people can be fired from their jobs due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. among the court's conservative justices, only neil gorsuch appeared open to prohibiting such workplace discrimination. outside the court, plaintiff aimee stephens, who was fired from her job at a funeral home in 2013, joined a rally hosted by supporters. this is laverne cox, award-winning transgender actress. our hope no matter what justices decide, that americans know it shouould not be ok to discriminate someone simply for being who they are. if we do not win this case, then the people, then our legislature, needs to make it

clear that is, nation against anyone because of who they are should not be the way we live our lives here in the united states of america. amy: the supreme court is expected to hand down its decision in the three cases by early next summer. we'll have more on tuesday's action at the supreme court later in the broadcast. and you can go to democracynow.org to see our full interview with laverne cox. california's largest utility company, pg&e, says it's begun shutting off electricity to 800,000 customers as dry, windy conditions have increased the threat of wildfires in 34 of the state's northern and central counties. the unprecedented blackouts follow last year's devastating camp fire, which killed 85 people -- the deadliest blaze in california history. investigators found that poorly maintained pg&e transmission lines started that fire last november. climate scientists say hotter and drier conditions across california due to rising greenhouse gas emissions have made wildfires more widespread and more intense.

voters in montgomery, alabama, have elelected an african amerin mayor fofor the first time in te city's history. prprobate judge stevenen reed captured two-thirds of ballots in a runoff electition tuesday. montgogomery was once the capitl of the confederate became the epicenter of the civil rights movement as dr. martin luther king jr. and rosa parks led the successful montgomery bus boycott to desegregate public transportation. a new book offers chilling details about an incident that led nbc to fire "today show" host matt lauer in 2017. journalist ronan farrow writes in his new book "catch and kill" that lauer raped nbc producer brooke nevils in a hotel room in sochi, russia, in 2014, as they covered the winter olympics. nevils called the incident "excruciatingly painful" and said it left her bleeding for days. multiple other women have accused matt lauer of sex crimes. "the new york times" reports one

former nbc employee was summoned by lauer to his office in 2001, where he allegedly locked the door and sexually assaulted her until she passeded out. --ew analysis dramaticic animated graph of the research datatproduced b by "the new york times, shohows f far ls progressive over seven decades. in 1950, the tototal tax rate fr the wewealthiest 400 families stood at 70%0% after president trump p tax cuts f for the wealy took effect t on the tax rate on u.s. billionaires had fallen to just 23%. vermont senator and 2020 presidential hopeful bernie sanders said tuesday he will scale back the numumber of campaign events he participates

in, as he recovers from a heart attack he suffered last week at a rally in las vegas. sanders says he still plans to join the october 15 televised debate of the top 12 democratic candidates. over the weekend, sanders' daughter-in-law, raine riggs, died of neuroendocrine cancer -- just two days after her diagnosis. she was married to senator center son levi. she was just 46 years old. in brazil, human rights groups are warning in an open letter that the amazon's last uncolonized indigenous people face genocide amid raging fires and mounting incursions into their territories. the warning comes after the government of far-right president jair bolsonaro abruptly fired the head of the government agency tasked with protecting uncontacted tribes. brazil's indigenous missionary coununcil warns the numberer of invavasions of indigenouss teterritories has doubleled undr bolsonaro, with more than 150 such incididents since january. and ththere have been a record 87,000 f forest fires s in brarl

this yeaear according to officil figureres, many ofof them deliberarately set t to clear l. in a statement, the indigenous rights group survival international said -- "president bolsonaro wants to open up indigenous territories across brazil to loggers, miners and ranchers. he doesn't care how many indigenous people die in the process, and has openly expressed his racist contempt for them on many occasions." this comes as pope francis welcomed indigenouous leaders fm amazonia to the vatican for a gathering of bishops known as a "synod." the three-week meeting will focus on the catholic church's efforts to safeguard the amazon region. this is pope francis speaking sunday. .> may god preserve us the fire set by interest that destroyed, like the fire that recently devastated amazonia is not the fire of the gospel. amy: elsewhere in brazil, a massive oil slick has fouled more than 900 miles of beaches along the country's northeastern coast, affecting 46 cities and

some of south america's momost popular beaches. brazil's environmental agency says tests of f the oioil show's not of brazilian origin. the source of the crude oil remains unknown. in canada, prime minister justin trudeau says he will appeal a court ruling from september that found indigenous youth were "willfully and recklessly" harmed under canadian child welfare policies. the appeal could block some 2 billion canadian dollars' worth of reparations for at least 50,000 indigenous youth who were removed from their homes as children and impacted by the severe under-funding of federal child welfare programs for the indigenous community. the canadian human rights tribunal ruled last month the federal government had purposely discriminated against indigenous youth and ordered the government to pay $40,000 canadian dollars to each child that was removed from their homes. a study by the university of new mexico found that hundreds of navajo women presented alarming levels of uranium in their system, even decades after mining of the radioactive metal

ended on the reservation. of nearly 800 navajo women who were p part of t the federally-funded study, at least one quarter tested positive for high levels of uranium. a group of babies also showed uranium levels far higher than the national average. new mexico congressmember deb haaland and other democrats are pushing for legislation to expand compensation to people exposed to uranium. and 16-year-old swedish climate activist greta thunberg met with indigenous youth climate leaders tuesday as she visited the standing rock sioux reservation in north dakota. thunberg was welcomed by 16 year-old high school junior tokata iron eyes, who was just 12 years old when she joined protests against the dakota access pipeline in 2016. iron eyes later appeared with greta thunberg in a video produced by the lakota peoples law project, urging congress to stop the keystone xl pipeline. >> indigouous peles s ha beenn on therontlinef the clate crisis and we know howoo live in balance with e earth.

so w whe we aralking aut sotionons, whave t tinclude indigeus peopl in the conversation. so l l's protect our indenous peoples, their rights, their communities, the way of le beuse thats what ware ing to nd when wgo into this btle. amy: andhose areome of t helines. is is decracy no, decracynowrg, the r and peace rert. i'm amy odman. juan: ani'm an gonzaz. weome to a of our lieners and views from aund the countrand arou the wor. begin tay'show in uador, wre tens thousan of pple led indigens leaderare expected to again ing the country to stdstitilloday in ssive going an-governmt otests. demonsators flded the stets s ofuito tuesday to dey governnt-impos sterity asures a a steep ke in fu prices,espite a vere pole crackdn. civil unst has bn growin since prident len moreno ended a decades-old fuel subsidy program last week as part of an

-- a so-called reform plan imposed by the international monetary fund after ecuador took a $4.2 billion loan from the imf earlier this year. he also announced plans to cut public sector jobs, wages by 1%, and require public workers to pay a day's pay to the government once a month and cut their vacation in half. on tuesday -- the sixth straight day of massive demonstrations -- protesters successfully pushed through security lines at the national assembly before being pushed back by police. indigenous protesters approached the presidential palace. police responded with violence and tear gas. on tuesday night, president moreno declared an 8:00 p.m. curfew in areas near government buildings. this is protester santiago iguamba in the streets of quito. ofjust like in the period the economic reforms in 1983, we want these economic measures to be canceled.

indigenous communities are here in front of you. we have the vote. long live the indigenous movement. amy: president moreno declared a state of emergency last week, allowing police to raid homes without warrants and suspending the right to assembly. hundreds of people have been arrested. the government is also cracking down on the media -- police raided the community radio station radio pichincha universal on tuesday. meanwhile, the defense minister has called prorotesters terroris and criminals, threatening them with the threat of lethal weapons in a television interview monday. yesterday's mass protests come one day after president moreno saidid in a national address h e is tememporarily moving governmt from quito to the southern city of guayaquil. he accused his political opponents of a attempting a coup and vowewed not to restore the fuel subsidy. >> what has happened here in recent days is not the manifestation of social

discontent in protest of government decision. no, deluding's and vandalism and violence show there is an organized political motive here to destabilize the government and breaeak the constitutional order. break democratic order. amy: ecuador's former president rafael correa said tuesday moreno must resign or call early elections. and protesters are vowing to stay in the streets. this is the indigenous leader jaime vargas speaking to reporters in quito earlier this week. >> different s social groups are going up against the neoliberal governmement of lenin moreno, mobilizing, uniting, and organizing as the only way to defend the interests of the ecuadoran people. amy: for more, we go to quito, where we're joined by david cordero heredia, a law professor at pontifical catholic university. he is one of the lawyers representing protesters who have been detained in this latest round of protests. he was previously a human rights fellow at cornell university. professor, thank you so much for

being with us. i know there is a bit of a sound delay. but if you can start off by talking about -- talk about what is happening in the streets right now and what they are responding to and what are their demands. hi, amy. good morning. do you hear me? ok. right now we are in the state of exception since last week. we are protests in the streets, especially for the indigenous movement. over 2000te indigenous peoples are now in the capital. very toughthere was repression from the armed forces of ecuador because of the state , the president is able to use the army to repress people in the streets.

so we are very worried about that. we know the international standards of human rights prohibit to use the army to repress people in the streets in this kind of manifestation. we demand to the constitution -- we demanded to t the constitutional court to take a ofe in revoking the order president moreno of the state of exception and to demand him to respect human rights of the people in the streets. and the court, sadly, disappointed the people of ecuador and he said the state of exception is constitutional. so right now we have 30 days in which the president will have full powers and the use of the full armed forces of ecuador.

saidresident himself yesterday that over 2000 people all over the country are detained. nightw for sure yesterday , 83 people were detained, indigenous people especially, in the protests in the streets. they were not taken to the official place where they should be presented to a judge. we suspect they were taken to a military base in the north part of the city. but we don't have -- right now we don't have official information about them. we are very worried about them. writ to the a courts. we are trying to know where they are. juan: professor, i want to ask

you, most people when they hear the word "austerity measures," it is kind of vague. but some of the specifics that this imf deal is requiring o of ecuador are amazing, considering where ecuador has gone in the past for years. they are talking about raising fees for all government services and for utilities, imposing a new value added tax, the consumption tax, raising the ceiling on interest rates so that banks can charge whatever interest rates they want. and there also prohibiting the central bank from lending money to the public sector. so all of this stuff, considering where ecuador has gone, during the reign of his predecessor, the poverty rate in 2000or dropped from 64% in

to only 21%. that is an astonishing drop in the number of people in poverty. and this is going to really reverse all of these gains that were made under president correa . how did this happen, especially since lenin moreno is from the same party? yes, this is rereally interesting. what is going on now is we have should be gap that filled in some way. i think the whole population knows that some kind of measure should be taken. this problem started with president correra, who was not efficient using or taking measures of --

economic measures in ecuador. moreno aves president big problem regarding the budget. so it is not a problem that started with president moreno, it started with president correra. neededesident correra extra funds to fund in the state, he started a very aggressive campaign of mining,on of oil and especially in the amazon region, in the indigenous peoples territory without consultation. the indigenous movovement had bn processing since correra and now with president moreno because these two presidents have been ineffective in finding another way to find the state -- fund the state than the extraction of oil and mining. moreno, ofrpresident

all the measures he can choose to take, he is taking the recipe of the imf. so basically, he is going to decrease taxes for the wealthy. he is going to increase gas prices by eliminating subsidies. and ththat is going impact thee mostst poor people in society, especially because the bus fares will be increasingg and t the we chain of prices will bee affected. and alslso the changeges to the labor laws. that is really, r really worrise because he wants to dismantle the workers protection we have had for several decades. and in the past, maybe 20 years ago when we e were discucussinge free trade of f the americas, te indidigenous peoplple rise anand protestedd against that

initiative and actually they were able to stop that. and now we have the same attempt to dismantle workers protection. and d there is a strong campaign against public officers right now. and some of the measures that willing to introduce attached directly to those workers. they try to decrease the paid vacations to them. they're going to take one day of .alary of the public services and also the new people that will work for the state, will work with less payment and with in their work contracts. so we got all of these measures are going to impact the working class in ecuador.

and what we see with president of dialoguee lack with the social movements and with the workers, and with the worker class especially. describes naomi klein in the book "the shock doctrine ," there is a package of neoliberal measures that will be better received if the society is weak. and they're trying to weaken the society using the army, by using the army against protesters. are living nowe and ecuador. amy: professor david cordero heredia, if you can talk about the state of the media. what media is allowed to operate and what media is getting shut

down? ofwere just showing video the radial reporting what was happening on the ground being stormed and shut down by police. now they're saying ththe radio director, there is in order to put him in jail on accusations of inciting discord among citizens. what are people learning? and also, do you have a death toll? reports of gas bombs being ththrown at medics and hospital tents, and the defense minister saying they will use live ammunition, the president and the defense minister calling the protesters terrorists. >> yes, indeed, amy. we are receiving reports of journalists that have been attacked by the police. we have several images on thehe

internet now. media and independent a mainstream media right now. , whatinstream media they're doing is taking the discourse of the government and the discourse of the government basically is that president correra or former president correra in president maduro from venezuela are putting these protesters together and diminishing the response of the indigenous people and the students and the workers -- the people who actually are in the streets. on one side, we have that discourse. in the media is -- and on the others, we have independent media. independent media is reporting both the police and the army to the prototesters -- the aggressn of both the police and the army

to the protesters. but the armed forces are not discriminating between these two groups. so the only reports of police brutality that we can see in the mainstream mediaia is basically the brutality against journalists and not against the people. besides that, what they mainstream media is reporting is basically the riots that actually are happening right now in some parts of the c country d are reporting the discourse of president correra and his allies and tweets from president maduro saying there suppoporting the march. but actually, what happened is the indigenous people movement has been resistant a president correra's presidency. probably president correra's presidency was the most hard repressision government that we haveve seen the last years agait indigenous peoples. human rights organizations

defend over 200 indigenous leaders were prosecuted by president correra's government. so right now president correra and his allies are trying to say there supporting -- supporting the into just movement is a lie. what is happening right t w in prorotests,t we have social movements that are tired of being t the ones to be impacd or to be asked to sacrifice in these moments -- where we need to take new economic measures. so this discourse is the one we can hear of in the mainstream media. quickly,fessor, just you mentioned venezuela and president maduro. what has been the impact of the continuing crisis in venezuela

and the flight of so many venezuelans out of the country to the situation right there in ecuador? well, we are receiving thousands of people from venezuela that are fleeing from humanitarian crisis that is happening in venezuela. ?he impact to society the economical crisis is a -- we had a lot of support for international agencies.and u.n. however, we got increasing discourse from the government, xenophobic discourse. president moreno has put forth some measusures to ban immigratn from the venezuelan people. some of them, most of them, refugees under international law.

however, they got to apply to ,umanitarian visa from columbia basically, before entering into ecuador. and all of this discourse of xenophobia, all of this discourse about the security being impacted by vevenezuelans, is deeply impacting the venezuela population living in ecuador. is aboutf the things what people feel about the venezuelan immigration in ecuador. so he is blaming venezuelans and blaming president maduro of some of the violence that has been happening in the streets, but he doesn't hahave proof of that. -- right now the protests are happening all over

the country, so probably some people from venezuela are participating in those. but he does not have proof of that. and as human rights organizations that are with the people in the streets, in the jails checking what is going on, we don't have evidence that venezuelans are participating in producingts were are the violence. so this discourse of maduro sending venezuelans to destabilize the government of moreno is a lie. amy: professor, is a national strike called for today? >> yes. workers shall be joining the national strike today. also, indigenous peoples are coming from all over the country, walking from their communities to the cities. so the national strikes are

continuing. they are demanding not just to neoliberalh these measures that moreno is trying to implement, but also to the self-destruction in ecuador. the indigenous people know we are talking about climate change all over the world. indigenous people are offering an alternative, sustainable alternative of living. they want to protect their jungles. they want to protect their territories. and that is the message that they have to the world, that they got another way to see the world, that they can join the conversation about climate change, and that will be very important idea we shall take into account. however, president -- former president correra in president moreno did not listen to them,

and they wanant to strike more l and destroy their territories and displace them. amy: i want to thank you very much for being with us, professor david cordero heredia, law professor at pontifical catholic university in quito. of the lawyers representing one protesters who have been detained in this latest round of protests. this is democracy now! go toe come back, we julian castro, the presidential candidate and also was on the migrantsying to escort into united states. we will find out what happened. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we turn now to the democratic presidential candidate and former house secretary julian castro. on monday, he escorted a dozen asylum-seekers to the u.s. port of entry at brownsville, texas,

in a challenge to president trump's "remain in mexico" policy. the group included a disabled salvadoran woman and her relatives, as well as nine lgbtq people from cuba, guatemala, and honduras. many of them report they've been threatened and assaulted while they've been forced to wait in the mexican border city of matamoros. the asylum seekers were refused entry into the united states. amy: on twitter, julian castro wrote -- "by law, these migrants are supposed to be exempt from the remain in mexico policy, but customs and border protection had decided to ignore their due process. outrageous." julian castro joins us now in san antonio, the city where he served as mayor from 2009 to 2014. now attempting to become the firsrst latino president of the united states. secretary castro, welcome back to democracy now! can you tell us exactly what you did this week? >> good morning, thank you for having me. so i was invited by the texas civil rights project that works

with migigrants who are seeking asylum and who have been caught up in the trump administration's remain in mexico policy -- technically called the migrant protection protocol policy -- which has them claim assembly here and then send them to mexico to wait while their asylum claim is adjudicative. i have been asked to visit matamoros on the other cited brownsville, texas, because you have about 1000 people who are there, most of whom are seeking asylum, waiting for the chordates that are caught up in this remain in mexico policy. we wanted to highlight especially the claims of members alsoe lgbtq community and one person who is disabled, she is deaf. we were highlighting them specifically because under the terms of the remain in mexico policy itself, somebody with a physical issue or mental health

trauma is supposed to be exempted. in other words, they are supposed to be allowed to remain in the united states whether claim is adjudicated instead of being sent back to mexico. the members of the lgbtq community have been subjecectedo violence, threatened, they are suffering trauma. some of them, suffering ptsd. we believe they should q qualify for that exemption because of the mental health trauma they're going through. the person who is deaf as a physical disability. she should never have been put in that program and the first place. let me just say when i went over there, as i mentioned there are over 1000 people living in tents, they told me they don't have clean water to drink, a lot of the kids are sick. i saw children as young as 12 days old, baby that was 12 days old. they are living basically in a field that is right near the river from the rio grande river,

and right next to the border station. these are people whoho are in despsperate circumstanceces livg in unsanitary conditions and squalor, not knowing what can happen to them, pleading for help. we took these 12 individuals to present to the border patrol agents, cbp, and they were eventually interviewed and then there were all sent back. they were all denied any kind of relief under the exemption in the mpp policy. juan: mexico has to participate in this remain a mexico policy. i don't know if you saw the mosed piece that jorge ra from univision had in "the new york times" this week where he said mexico may not be paying for the wall, the trump wall, but mexico has effectively become the wall and is participating in this attempt of president trump to prevent more

people from coming into the country. i'm wondering about your sense of the mexican policy under president obrador? >> i did not see that op-ed, but i think jorge puts it very well that this was something that mexico agreed to. to me, that was surprising given the history of lopez obrador and what i thought he would stand for and do once he was in office. the other thing that has been a concern is of course for the municipality, for matamoros, and for the state government there, they do have a responsibility to help make sure these individuals are safe, that they are living in sanitary conditions. i was told by one person on the other set of the border that the city is trying to do something, trying to get folks to move to a different part of the community come of the city, , where they

have trieded to establish more sanitary conditions and better living conditions. i don't know whether that is accurate or not. it may well be accurate, but there is a hesitancy among the migrants there bececause of the lack of safety in other parts of the community. they feel like they want to be there, of course, near the border patrol station when they have their hearing or there is this sense of being close to the united states. so they have been hesitant to go to the other place that may have been established by the city for them to be out. amy: what are you demanding of the president right now? >> he should end this policy. if i were elected president, i would immediately end this remain in mexico policy. we need to do a couple of things. number one, we need to end this policy and allow people to remain in the safety of the

united states. secondly, , and just as importantly, we need to create an independent immigration court system that is independent from the department o of justice whee they are not judges and support staff to hear these -- where there are enough judges and support staff to hear these in a timely manner. some people would get asylum and some will not, but people should not be waiting years to get an answer on their asylum claim. amy: let me ask you about the "new york times" report recently reporting president trump privately pushed for shooting migrants and for creating a "water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators" along the u.s.-mexican border. "the times" also details how trump has privately proposed other radical measures to curtail immigration, including closing the entire u.s.-mexican border and building an electrified border wall topped with spikes to pierce human flesh. "the times" reveals trump has

repeatedly raised the idea of shooting migrants during staff meetings. the paper reports -- "after publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. but later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. that's not allowed either, they told him." "the times" articlcle is baseden a new book, "border wars: inside trump's assault on immigration" by "the times" reporters michael d. shear and julie hirschfeld davis. julian castro, if you could respond? >> i mean, that is the e product of a deranged mind right there. what else can we say about that except that is an individual with edge arranged mind. obviously, a lot of hate toward these migrants. this is the caliber of personn that is sitting in the oval office right now. it is just one more example of

why he should not be president of the united states. somebody who is not only hateteful, but so divorced f frm reality that h he would, on multiple occasions, bring up the idea of shooting people. it makes no sense. i hope that more and more americans are paying attention to the depravity of this president and the cruelty that he has inflicted on people that are simply seeking a better life . and that i is consistent with people from different places all over the world that have come seeking a better life who have come from desperate circumstances throughout the generations. this is nothing new in our country's history or the history of the world. this presidentat is going to be held to account for what he has done in terms of violating his oath of office and abusing his power, that he will be impeached, that he will be removed from office. if he is not impeached and removed, he will be defeated on

november 3, 2020, and this nightmare, with respect to how he is treating migrants, will be over. juan: secretary castro, the president often talks about how he is opposed to people coming into the country illegally, but the reality is his policies in -- i of legal migration think the census bureau reporting wewe had the number -- the lowest number of legal immigrants admitted to the country. the reduction in refugee admissions, the clampdown on asylum requests. could you talk about his policy toward legal immigration? >> sometimes it makes some folks feel good whehen they can sayay, well, i'm not really against or the president is not really , he is immigration against undocumented immigrants or so-called illegal immigrants.

but as you point out, clearly, this is an assault on all immigrants -- undocumented and documented. this public charge rule they have proposed that would legalially chill immigrants from participating in american life, the cutbacks to the number of refugees that we will accept come also the asylum policy that has been tightened, this remain a mexico policy that would deal with potential side leaves. in all of these ways, the president has sought to curtail legal immigration. so at the bottom of this is truly a vision of america who looks like donald trump. that is what he wants. that is what he is trying to create. people should not fool themselves. what i believe is our diversity in this country makes us strong, that we can harness the potential of immigrants. and that for generation,

immigrants documented and undocumented, have madade this country stronger come have powered our economy, have helped ensure we continue to move forwarard as a natation. and that is going to continue to be the case in the future. i believe we should increase the number of people we are taking in as refugees and asylum ease, and that we should put undocumented immigrants who are here in the e united states on a pathway to citizenship as long as they have not create -- committed a serious crime here in the united states. that is what i would do as president. amy: one, the latest news, turkey's government saying its troops are prepared for an imminent assault on kurdish fighters in northern syria. this after president trump surprised announcement that he is ordrdering u.s. t troops to l back from theiposisitions on the turkish-syrian border. the kurdish fighters saying they're bracing for a humanitarian catastrophe. can you respond to president trump's latest move?

and also, talk about his refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. >> this is a stunning betrayal of allies in syria. these kurds have fought alongside the united states, pushing back isis. they have been vital to our success there. i agree with a lot of people that we need to withdraw from syria, but there's a difference in doing that in a thoughtful way that is respectful of our allies and a way that betrays them. and since a signal around the world that the united states is not going to stand up for you. and that is likikely what this president is doing. he has been condemned the left and the right for doing this because of the manner in which he is doing it. baffling the way this president has handled foreign policy. very haphazard, e erratic, self-interested as well.

and more examples of how unfit for office donald trump is. he never should have been in the oval office in the first place. we have seen so many examples, the way he has betrayed the kurds is just one more example of that. with regard to the impeachment inquiry, we have a constitutional crisis on our hands now because what the adadministration just said in te letter they sent to speaker pepelo yesterday is, you can't review us. you have no power over the president or the administration to review our actions. where you go from there except to say they are denying the authority ofof c congress s unde constitutition. he is now obstructing justice again. this itself should qualify as an impeachable offense. i expect it will be part of the charge on impeachment. congress needs to move forward swiftly to hold this administration accountable for

president trump's violation of his oath of office, his abuse of power. we have never seen anything like this. even richard nixon was not this brazen. and i believe i in short order what you arere going to get is a lot of damming evidence, a lot more -- we've already seen some -- and the polling that is coming out showing the support even among republicans and independents for impeachment and removal that is skyrocketing and supported of that is going to continue. people can see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears evidence that shows he does not bebelong in office. amy: your response to bernie sanders, his heart attack last week? your rival and the democratic presidential primaries? well.wishbernie he has done fantastic work over the years. he looked good when i saw him,

at least the shots that i saw. i think he is going to come back strong. i look forward to seeing him on the campaign trail. amy: julian castro, thank you for being with us 2020 , democratic presidential candidate seserved as secretaryf housing and d urban dedevelopmet from 2014-2017. when we come back, we look at the supreme court oral arguments deciding whether lgbtq workers can be fireded due to ththeir gr identity or sexual orientation. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: the supreme court heard oral arguments tuesday in what's -- three cases that will determine whether lgbtq people can be fired from their jobs due to sexual orientation or gender identity. among the court's conservative justices, only neil gorsuch appeared open to prohibiting such workplace discrimination. one of the cases centers on a transgender woman from michigan named aimee stephens who was fired from her job at a funeral home in 2013. she spoke outside the court on tuesday. >> i would like to say thank you for all of the support that i am getting. i appreciate each and every one of you. i am glad to have been able to .ring this before the courts what happepened to me was wrong. and hopefully, we can fix that

and correct it from this point on. amy: for more, we're joined by james esseks, director of the aclu lgbt & hiv project. he attended tuesday's oral arguments before the supreme court. thank you for being with us. we just have a few minutes. what surprised you most? lay out the key questions and where you think the court is going. comee key question here is is it sex discrimination to fire someone because they're transgender or lesbian, gay, or bisexual? our position is, of course it is. can't explain who a transgender person is without talking about the person sex. you cannot explain who again, lesbian, or bisexual person is without talking about butut the sex of the individual and the sex of the person the person is attracted to. so what else could it be other than sex discrimination? lower courts have increasingly recognized that indeed anti-lgbtq discrimination is a form of sex discrimination and

have allowed lgbt cases to be from employment to housing to education and access to health care. and all of that is at risk here because the trumump administratn was in the u.s. supreme court yesterday asserting that it should be legal under federal law to fire people just because there transgender or just because there lesbian, gay, or bisexual. that is astounding by itself and a complete turnabout from the position the obama administration took. , equal, whoseeoc job is to enforce the federal law that bars sex discrimination, they brought a lawsuit against the funeral home on behalf of aimee stephens. and now what we hahave is the ec represented by the justice department in the united states supreme coururt arguing the othr side of the casing we should never have b brought thehe case

because there was no violation of law there. so in terms of what happens in court. the question in any case like this is, ok, do we have five votes? ththe four momore liberal justis had a bunch of questions, but my take away is i think they would vote for the plaintiffs, for the employees in both of these is sue's -- issues. -- excuse me,ugh just as gorsuch asked many questions of both sides and seem to be wrestling with this issue in a way that his colleagues on the right -- juan: and he is known as a textural list? they say,at means is look, i don't really care what congress was thinking about when they passed the law. i was not so worried about what they thought they were doing. i'm going to look at the words they used and figure out what do they mean and real life and apply them as such.

the arguments from the trumpet administration were largely non-textualist arguments. to appealthat seemed to justice gorsuch is it doesn't matttter what congress was thinking about. the question is, the statute says no sex discrimination. sex is supposed to be irrelevant to people's ability to perform work, and that is what happening. amy: what about kavanaugh? >> justice kavanaugh asked one question that was not particularly illuminating. we are not -- i can't tell from that where he is going to come out. justice gorsuch seems to be wrestling with this, had questions for both sides, anandi think hehe thinks -- my sense is he thinks, yes, sex was one of the reasons that aimee stephens was fired and that the two gay men were fired. i think he is also wrestling with a separate question, which is, dress codes, restrooms, how

does that all work out? they're worried about the consequences of ruling for the lgbt lantos. amy: we will continue to follow this. james esseks is director of the aclu lgbt &