09/20/22 09/20/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> they use ms political ponds, treated them like chattel and a cruel, premeditated political stunt. amy: the white house has denounced florida governor ron desantis and texas governor greg abbott for busing and flying asylum seekers to liberal areas

, including the island of martha's vineyard in massachusetts. we will speak to the head of lulac, the league of united latin american citizens. >> it is unchristian, un-american, and untexan to use them this way. amy: is this modeled on the reverse freedom rides of when 1962 southern segregationists bused black families to cape cod and other northern areas? and then president biden has declared the pandemic is over. >> is the pandemic over? pres. biden: the pandemic is over. we still have a problem with covid. we still have a lot of work on it. but the pandemic is over. amy: as over 400 people in the united states die every day with

-- of covid, we will speak to steven thrasher, author of "the viral underclass: the human toll when inequality and disease collide." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in the caribbean, hurricane fiona has strengthened into a major category 3 storm, taking aim at turks and caicos after a pummeled the dominican republic on monday. so far, most of the storm's destruction is in puerto rico were nearly all the island remains without power as of today. official site you could be days before a majority of the island have service restored. meanwhile an estimated two thirds of puerto rico and households have no access to clean tap water after hurricane fiona flooded water filtration and sewage treatment plants.

after the headlines, we will get an update from democracy now!'s one gonzalez. in more climate news, a new public database has found the world's fossil fuel reserves contain enough carbon to exceed limits set by the paris climate accord seven times over. the global registry of fossil fuels warns that burning the world's remaining supplies of coal, oil, and gas would add 3.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, more than all of the emissions since the start of the industrial revolution. here in new york, the 2022 united nations general assembly opened monday with an appeal for urgent action on hunger, poverty, racial and gender inequality, and the climate crisis. during the opening ceremony, 24-year-old u.s. poet amanda gorman read her new work "an ode we owe." meanwhile, u.n. secretary-general antónio

guterres appealed to nations to meet the u.n.'s blueprint for peace and prosperity, known as the sustainable development goals. >> young people and future generations are demanding action . we cannot let them down. these are definitive moments. those here today and those tuning in from around the world, give me immense hope that we can put our hands on the wheel of progress and steer a new course. amy: ukrainian officials said monday the bodies of two children were found among the remains of 440 people buried in mass graves outside the city of kharkiv, which was re-captured from russian forces during a ukrainian counter-offensive earlier this month. ukraine's internal affairs minister said dozens of victim'' bodies were mutilated and showed signs of torture. kharkiv's police chief said

investigators are carefully exhuming the bodies to identify the remains and to determine a cause of death. >> it is very hard to establish whether there are gunshot wounds in the bodies were not. this will be done during the examination of the bodies with forensic expertise. amy: in ukraine's east, russia-backed separatists say shelling by ukraine's military in donetsk city monday killed 13 people, including two children. elsewhere, officials in the russian-occupied luhansk region say overnight ukrainian attacks killed seven civilians, including three children. the reported deaths and injuries came as ukraine claimed its counteroffensive has for the first time seized russian-held territory in luhansk. russia and china have agreed to deepen military ties between the two nations. russia's security council secretary said monday chinese and russian naval vessels ha begun joint patrols in the pacific. meanwhile, the united states has

dispatched a nuclear aircraft carrier to south korea for the first time since 201 the uss ronald reagan and an accompanying carrier strike group are scheduled to hold joint war games with south korea's military off the korean peninsula. this comes as u.s. officials say north korea is preparing its first underground nuclear weapons test since 2017. "the washington post" reports the pentagon has ordered an internal review of the military's use of clandestine psychological operations online, including the creation of fake social media accounts on facebook, twitter, and instagram. over 150 fake accounts linked to the miliry have reportedly been removed by social media companies for violating their policies. some of the accounts were used to post messages about russia, china, and iran. back in the united states, new figures show the biden administration has arrested more

than 2 million people along the u.s.-mexico border over the past 11 months. it's by far the fastest rate of arrests at the southern border in u.s. history, surpassing last year's record total of 1.7 million arrests. in texas, a san antonio-area sheriff has launched a criminal investigation into whether recruiters unlawfully tricked a group of 48 asylum-seekers into boarding flights that took them to martha's vineyard, an island off the coast of massachusetts. lawyers for the migrants say they were given brochures promising cash assistance, job placement services, and more. bexar county sheriff javier salazar said monday the asylum-seekers were instead unceremoniously left stranded. >> what, if anything, did they find? did they even understand the document put in front of them if

they signed swamp thing or was this a predatory measure, preying upon people minding their own business and are here legally, not bothering a soul, but somebody saw fit to come from another state, hunt them down, pray upon them, and take advantage of their desperate situation just for the sake of potical theater, just for the sake of making some sort of statement, and putting people's lives in danger? amy: last week, florida republican govnor ron desantis took credit for sending the asylum-seekers to martha's vineyard, saying it's part of a broader scheme by republican governors to bus or fly migrants to states controlled by democrats. we will have more on this story later in the broadcast. a panel of united nations experts said monday ethiopia's government may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the northern tigray region. the report was released as

ethiopia renewed efforts against separatist rebels, ending a five-month-old cease-fire. the commission said monday all parties to the conflict were found to have committed crimes, including extrajudicial killings and rapes. the conflict has combined with the climate crisis to exacerbate the food shortage and ethiopia, where some 20 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. in mexico, at least two people were killed as a major 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the pacific coast near the port city of manzanillo monday afternoon, triggering a tsunami alert, collapsing buildings near the epicenter, and knocking out electricity to over a million customers. it was felt as far away as mexico city and beyond. the earthquake struck on the anniversary of two previous major earthquakes which devastated central mexico in 1985 and 2017. it came just hours after authorities in eight states held

earthquake preparedness drills. mexico city mayor claudia sheinbaum said there were no reports of major damage in the capital. she said the timing of the earthquake was a coincidence. >> in scientific terms, there's nothing to say september 19 is a special day for earthquakes. in fact, they're been three earthquakes in the city on this day. amy: a u.s. engineer who had been held in afghanistan since 2020 has been freed in a prisoner swap. the taliban agreed to release mark frerichs in exchange for haji bashir noorzai, who was convicted in the united states on drug trafficking charges in 2008. noorzai, who had been sentenced to life in prison, was a key financial backer of the taliban in the 1990's. secretary of state tony blinken spoke monday. >> i want the families of americans who are being arbitrarily detained and held

hostage anywhere in the world to know that oucommitme to them , bringing their loved ones home, is resolute and we will relentlessly continue to focus on doing just that. amy: in related news, president biden met friday at the white house with the families of two u.s. citizens imprisoned in russia, basketball superstar brittney griner and paul whelan. it was biden's first meeting with the families. back in the united states, a for-profit company that operates prison telephone lines has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by incarcerated people. advocates say global tel link routinely pocketed deposits made by prisoners to pre-paid phone accounts and preyed on prisoners by charging them exorbitant rates of up to 100 times the actual cost of calls. and in baltimore, supporters of

adnan syed are celebrating his release from prison after a monday maryland judge vacated his murder conviction. the 41-year-old syed had spent 23 years behind bars after being convicted of the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend hae min lee. his case gained international attention when the award-winning podcast "serial" reexamined his conviction and raised new questions about his guilt. i baltimore county circuit court judge has ordered new dna testing in the case, tests that were not available at the time of syed's conviction. syed could still face a new trial, but state's attorney for baltimore marilyn mosby spoke on monday. >> we are not yet declaring syed is innocent, but we are declaring an interest of fairness and justice, he is entitled to a new trial. amy: she said she will look into

whether two alternative suspects may have murderedhae min lee, including one who threatened to make her disappear and kill her. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now! co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: i want to ask you first about the crisis in puerto rico where most of the island remains without power for another day after being hit by hurricane fiona. in fact, the electricity went out before fiona hit. you were born in puerto rico. to say the least, your closely tied, still have family i puerto rico. what are you hearing? >> i am hearing pretty much what the news accounts have said. i have also been in contact with

my sister. clearly, the electricity is out once again. and water, potable water to most of the island residentss out once again. unfortunately, the reality is the puerto rican people since hurricane maria have actually been able to recognize the fact the government, when it comes to these crises, and people have been able to develop their own ability to survive. increasingly, more and more puerto rican households, when they can afford it come have generators of their own to have emergency supplies. as i was speaking with my sister yesterday and today, they have also been able -- sometimes to have their own water reserves. my sister has a 600 gallon water tank, basically, for emergencies like this. unfortunately, the billions of dollars the united states spent

to reconstruct the infrastructure of puerto rico after hurricane maria, that money is not as well spent. we are once again faced with the fact who knows how long it will take for electricity and potable water to be accessible again to the people of puerto rico. here we are six years into the financial control board that was only supposed to be in power for five years, already one year over its original time allotment by congress, and we are still in situation where puerto rico, its condition is not ready to deal with the crises of this type. amy: i want to thank you, juan, and we will continue to cover what is happening in puerto rico. now the storm is hitting tricks and capos, went through the dominican republic -- hitting turks and k, went through dominican republic. and this will issue of the climate

catastrophe this week is -- climate week here in new york city. we will be talking about that to this week. coming up, we are going to look at president biden's announcement the covid pandemic is over. we will speak with steven thrasher, author of "the viral underclass: the human toll when inequality and disease collide." more than 400 americans a day are still dying of covid. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we begin today's show looking at the response to president biden saying the covid-19 pandemic is over during an interview on "60 minutes" with cbs's scott pelley. >> is the pandemic over? pres. biden: the pandemic is over. we still have a problem with covid. we're still doing a lot of work on it. but the pandemic is over. amy: some public health officials criticized biden's comments, which come as the white house is pushing people to receive newly reformulated

covid-19 booster shots. according to data collected by johns hopkins, covid killed 13,000 people across the u.s. over the past month as 2.2 million new infectio were reported. yale epidemiologist gregg gonsalves tweeted -- "sorry folks. mr. biden is dead-wrong. 500 people dying per day. 2nd leading cause of death in u.s. we're top in mortality among g7. life expectancy down. he thinks this is good politics. it may be but it's predicated on accepting the suffering of millions of americans." meanwhile, dr. monica gandhi tweeted -- "what pres biden & the world health organization means, is that covid is never over because it is non-eradicable, but that the emergency phase ends when mortality is lower than any time

since march 2020 & when we have biomedical advances." for more, we are joined by steven thrasher, author of "the viral underclass: the human toll when inequality and disease collide." he's a professor at the medill school of journalism at northwestern university and faculty member of northwestern's institute of sexual and gender minority health and wellbeing. steven thrasher, welcome back to democracy now! why don't you start off by responding to president biden's announcement saying that covid pandemic is over? >> thank you, amy. i was really disappointed and disheartened here with the president said, declaring the pandemic over. it is not over. between 400 to 500 people die every day in the united states. we're just observing 9/11 a week ago. more people were killed in the

last week from covid-19 then were on 9/11. he also says the pandemic language matters. although the united states consistently has had a worse rate of death and affection that i must every other country on the face of the earth, we are just a percentage of the deaths happening. 16,000 people died globally and at the last week from covid-19 around the world. abt 2.5 billion people have not received a single dose of vaccine. historically, thinking of hiv aids, it has been a pandemic for about 40 years and we still have to do with ndemics as they go on or time. it was narrow cited for the president to say the pandemic was over an inaccurate and insulting to the minds of people who are sick and dying. at a technical level, the things i found most -- the administration has overly relied on vaccines as the way to address the pandemic. vaccines are fantastic and have

saved millions of lives, but they have to be used in concert with other things the administration has pretty much given up on entirely. it was surprising given we now have the booster available that could really match the current circulating strain of covid-19 and there can be nothing worse to be done to persuade people -- dissuade people from getting that vaccine then to say we don't need to worry about it anymore. juan: steven thrasher come on that note, the message the president is sending to people as the new booster is being rolled out and also his noting that more more people aren't wearing masks, as if that is a good thing? >> it is not a good thing. we have lots of things we could be doing to slow down this pandemic, and we need to have a sense of humility about this virus that we don't know a huge amount. we don't know how it will play long term.

we need to try to minimize the amount of actual infection that happens and millions of infections are happening every month. people can't wear masks -- people can't wear masks and should wear masks. there's nothing more difficult getting people to do it then the president saying you don't need to do it anymore. i just like he said passively as a people just aren't wear masks, that he is not a leader who could be wearing a mask. he is walking around without a mask himself. his administration has tried to do certain things that have been stymied by the courts. your original order to have people wearing masks on public transportation was challenged and struck down by one federal judge, but they have not fought to keep those things in place, have not model that kind of behavior themselves. even under all of this, many of , myself included, are in space is trying to get people to wear masks, have mask mandates on our campuses or events we are part of. it makes it honest impossible to

do so to convince organizers we should take the step if there president of the united states himself is saying we don't need the masks. juan: how does his statement potentially affect his ability to secure billions more that his administration is trying to get from congress to combat covid? >> well, they have been in a failing state on a policy front with the budget since march or april and orinally had a spending bill that combines covid-19 money with an aid package for ukraine. they still spend the money on ukraine and i think about $60 billion on ukraine now, and largely seemed to have given up. it is important we get that money for covid-19. since march or so, we have not had money to pay for people who

don't have insurance to get covid testing as it's needed. people without insurance are the most likely to become infected with covid-19, the most likely to die from it. so we have just left those people for dead. we often hear the president and writers in "the near times" and "the new york times" say how covid-19 is going to be more like influenza. it is a false comparison. how do we deal with both of these things? if we don't with covid-19 right now, we would actually -- we are heading into a situation that is predicted by flu that has -- potentiallcould have dangerous outcomes. for many years we have had flu vaccines. we have seen the people who get them are people who are employed come have jobs with health insurance, and see a doctor regularly. if you see a doctor for an

annual checkup, are much more likely to get a flu vaccine that will protect you, your family, and coworkers. people who don't have our insurance, delicate annual checkups, get the flu more often as do people in their lives. because of that, we see these really stark lines around race and income and who is more likely to get flu and die from it. predictably, black people, latinx, poor people, more likely to get the flu and die from it. setting up the same scenario with covid-19. when he has his white house advisor saying this socially experienced, broadly experienced global health phenomenon needs to be moved into commercial products and the commercial private health insurance market, we are going to see thsame kind ooutcomes again. people who have health insurance as he doctors once your mom more likely to get there booster -- and see their doctors once a

year are more likely to get the booster. this virus is going to pool amongst black people, latinx, uninsured, poor, working class and people in the political class are going to think things are fine because they're getting there booster. even as we are not doing the work we need to do to make sure health equity happens around the pandemic. amy: professor, what should be done? >> the most important thing i think right now first is the president and congress need to get money to get treatment for those don't have insurance. we have lost a lot of ground around that. we need to as aggressively as possible try to use masks in situations where we can. i had mine on in the studio. if we did not think masks worked, we would not use them in surgical theaters and things

like that. we have to be proactive about what is happening with the pandemic. last week a kill between 400 people and 500 people come the second leading cause of death in the united states. there are billions of people around the world who have not gotten any vaccines at all. those are things we need to address. we cannot only rely on vaccines. we need to understand this is all happening in the context of other health matters, a lack of medicare for all. where we are right now in new york state, entering i think our third viral health emergency in as manyears. we have the covid-19, monkeypox, and now polio viral emergency. even though there are distinctions between the different viruses, the causes around them, then need to act in an interdependent way, way to have an ongoing vaccine infrastructure, the way we need to make sure people have access to health care at all times -- those things would address these pandemics. we can't keep lurching from one to the next.

as democrats, like president biden and governor hogan old downplay the need for masks, "the new york times" and "the washington post" downplay the importance of this pandemic, we are losing ground on covid-19 and a sense of social responsibility to one another and a need for ongoing ability to have health care for everyone that is making each one of these viral pandemics much worse than it needs to be an creating needless deaths and suffering. amy: it is not just president biden who is saying it is over. the world health organization gave its most upbeat assessment on covid 19 since declaring the disease an international emergency at the beginning of 2020. who director-general tedros adhanom ghebreyesus said wednesday the number of newly reported infections has dropped dramatically. >> the never of weekly reported deaths from covid-19 was the

lowest since march 2020. we have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. we are not there yet, but the end is in sight. a mako if you can talk about that, steven thrasher? he is talking about a global level. also talk about how the u.s. has the highest covert death toll followed by india and brazil. how do you explain this? >> i think, obviously, it is a good thing that death rates are coming down. i think it is very premature to say we see the end in sight with his pandemic. as i was saying earlier, we're 40 years into hiv/aids pandemic. that virus still takes about one million lives a year. we want to be proactive in making sure everyone gets vaccinated on the earth and

countries are doing everything they can to make sure these levels are the lowest they need to be. the u.s. is in this weird position right had that we have seen both with covid-19 and monkeypox. historically, when we look at other viruses, typically countries in the global south where viruses are finding their way the most easily. and it past couple of pandemics, including with poliowe are seeing european countries that are having much worse outbreaks with these different viruses. i think it has a lot to do with the way we don't deal with social responsibility with one another, the ways we can travel easily, and have a concept of individual freedom in a way that dismisses the need to act in caring ways towards one another. the united states is about 4% of the world's population. we had about 25% of the worlds

covid deaths. a huge share of our covid cases, 35% of the worlds pox cases. i think this has to deal with our "american way of life" in the way political parties will engage these engines that create the viral underclass. you can trace so much of covid-19 transmission to prison incarceration are particularly local jails. people coming in and leaving jails. pathogens are moving in and back to their communities. the reason why the u.s. has such a higher rate of this respiratory virus has a lot to do with that process. that process continues across parties. there's a huge rate of incarceration under obama, trump, now under president biden . when you look at the border, i think it was just reported this morning there were two yulia people have been -- there were 2 million people detained for border enforcement.

incarcerating people who are legally seeking asylum and try to get out of danger situations and putting them into conditions in which viruses move very freely and will then move thr ough their community's even another president's remarks are rightly being debated, i think he is also being informed and he and the public about being misled by high-profile embers of the press. as we see members of the press who have gone out after president trump critically, understandably and justifiably, a lot of the times not given the same level of criticism president biden when so many things around incarceration and medicare for all and not delivering on the funding package that we needed for covid-19, that is his responsibility. those are his policies and the things that are driving the pandemic right now. a lot of the mainstream media

has really not done their job in being critical about those things and saying, hey, this is create in the second leading cause of death in the united states at it is an acceptable. juan: i wanted to ask you, in terms of the impact of the pandemic on children. many people say it is especially important given the long isolation that millions of children in the united states have had during the past two years, the impact on their future development -- what is the alternative in terms of -- on the one hand, protecting the population and on the other hand, allowing children to develop as normally as possible? >> there's a lot of bad information about how this pandemic has affected children. of course, people of all ages have been affected terribly by this pandemic. children's learning development

is not impeded by wearing masks. that really points out something i think that is ableist about lots of ways we think about viruses and children is that it has in ableist framework. leona wen is claiming it inhibits children's learning. not true for some the roots of the anti-becks movement in the united states has to do with this misnomer at is incorrect that vaccines will cause autism. the thinking is if children -- parents would rather have a chart and potentially get something that could kill them like measles rather than face the possibility of having a disabled child. the framework is really off. i think a lot of the worry about children, it comes from this very ableist way and unnecessary places of worry and in fact, children do need to socialize and need to be with other

children, and if they wear masks, they were able to do so safely. if their classrooms had good ventilation. if governments had not been spending it on pole but instead on the situations, they would be more able to do so. we cannot just isolate and look at things like test scores and say school closures is what made test scores come down. test scores are not a great metric for learning anyway. we also have to look at what the past 2.5 years has done. children and parents have lived in great and i'm at prokaryote, facing eviction come have not known for months and months whether they're going to get kicked out of their homes. they have been facing enormous food insecurity and hundreds of thousands of children in the united states and millions around the world have become orphans. they have lost the primary caregiver. research has long shown nothing is more devastating to children economically, emotionally, often

even physically than becoming an orphan and losing one of their primary caregivers. yes, we want children to be together as safely as possible, that is why we need to wear masks, get vaccinations as often as possible. but there are ways children need to be protected from the death of a loved one in the death of themselves. over the span of -- a big killer of children. we can't just talk about lockdowns or think about the harm that comes from lockdown but also admit this is a virus like a pigeon chili have lifelong effts for children and we need to study that and decrease transmission as much as possible. we also need to make sure they, their teachers, janitors, their parents, and grandparents are safe because you need to be able to raise them. and all of the people in the children's lives need to have enough food and housing security to be able to raise them in a way that is going to allow them to flourish. we can't just focus on the

potential of school closures. we must look at every thing it takes to keep children safe around this virus. amy: finally, steven thrasher, your scientific american piece about monkeypox, if you can elaborate? >> certainly. like many my colleagues who work hiv/aids, we transition to covid in the many of us pivoted to monkeypox thisummer. one of the things i found surprising if it was it seemed clearly those of us who study these things, there was a mutation in this virus in the last few years and a lot of the transmission, the majority of the transmission was happening sexual, primarily men who have sex with men. this is a deviation from how monkeypox have been studied and understood to exist. to me, there was nothing embarrassing about it. unlike covid-19, we needed to

have really, r really clear conversations with our audiences, colleagues, students, people in their lives to understand this is how this virus is moving. it was important to do so because we did not want people who were not really in the pathway of this virus and how it digitally moved to be getting the vaccine when we knew the people who are most in the pathway it. i think it was important to talk about this because we wanted to reduce stigma in ways that did not need to happen. for example, this virus primarily living sexually, people don't need to worry about being on a suby with someone who is gay. they don't need to worry about being in a cssroom with them. it is not moving respiratory early in this way, certainly not the way you did with covid-19. people do need to wear masks for covid-19 when they're in the settings but not for monkeypox. i thought it was important to name this trying to deal with

the lessons we learned with covid-19 about being as honest with the public as quickly as possible with the best information we have. i thought we needed to name that. i am incredibly proud of the work lgbtq organizations have done, there groups of queer men have done, that sex clubs and saunas and gay community centers and public health people have really done a tremendous effort over the summer getting to members of the lgbtq community, getting people vaccinated, trying to help people understand the circumstances. it has started to become a success story. amy: do you agree with the efforts to rename it? california public health officials m renaming monkeypoxpox. they say it has led to racist stigmatization. the who is also looking to rename occupy ox. >> i agree with the sentiment.

i think the window kind of close -- the who talked about this 3, 4, 5 months ago and i think i should have done so at the time because it is very difficult to do so now. i understand the reasoning behind it. i support it. if colleagues of mine or publications or organizations ask you to stop using the phrase, i will do so. i tried it at the beginning of the summer and it was not picked up by others. i understand the reasoning behind it. it is an important distinction to make and always use the language we can that is least enticing and welcomes people into the process of getting help and knowing they're not going to face any kind of punishment or stigmatization to get help. amco steven thrasher, we don't want you to miss your plane, author of "the viral underclass: the human toll when inequality and disease collide." professor at the medill school of journalism at northwestern university and faculty member of northwestern's institute of sexual and gender minority health and wellbeing. thank you so much for joining

us. next up, the white house has denounced the florida governor and texas governor's busing and flying asylum seekers to places like martha's vineyard. the asylum-seekers say they were lied to. they did not know where they were going. is this modeled on the reverse freedom rides of 1962 that southern segregationist sponsored black families to cape cod? stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "luz" by la santa cecilia. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. human rights advocates are

denouncing ongoing efforts by republicans to send dozens of buses full of asylum-seekers to sanctuary cities across the united states. in texas, a san antonio-area sheriff has launched a criminal investigation into whether recruiters tricked a group of 48 asylum-seekers into boarding flights that took them to martha's vineyard, an island off the coast of massachusetts. "the boston globe" reports the migrants, who were mostly from venezuela, were approached by a tall blond woman promising free transportation to boston. lawyers for the migrants say she also gave them a brochure with false information. massachusetts based lawyers for civil rights shared the brochure online, showing "numerous false promises to our clients, including of work opportunities, schooling for their children, and immigration assistance, in order to induce them to travel." bexar county sheriff javier salazar said monday the asylum-seekers were instead unceremoniously left stranded. >> our understanding is that a venezuelan migrant was paid what

we would call a bird dog feet to recruit a proximally 50 migrants from the area around a migrant resource center here in san antonio. as we understand it, 48 migrants were lured -- i will use the word "lure" under false pretenses into staying at a hotel for a couple of days. they were taken by airplane, a certain point they were shuttled by aairplane where they were flown to florida and that eventually flown to martha's vineyard. again, under false pretenses. they were promised work. they were promised a solution to several problems. they were taken to martha's vineyard from what we can gather for nothing -- for little more than a video op and then unceremoniously stranded in martha's vineyard. amy: last week, florida republican governor ron desantis took credit for sending the

asylum-seekers to martha's vineyard, saying it's part of a broader scheme by republican governors to bus or fly migrants to states controlled by democrats and voweto push forward on a new $12 million state-funded program to relocate soalled unauthorized aliens to so-called sanctuary cities. >> i got 12 man dollars for us to use and so we are going to use it. you're going to see more and more but i am going to make sure we exhaust all of those funds because i think it is important. i think people want to see we are standing up and trying to protect the state against biden 's really reckless policies. amy: this comes as reporter judd legum tweeted that one of the planes used in desantis' martha's vineyard stunt is currently scheduled to travel tomorrow from san antonio to florida to a small airport near biden's house in delaware. just last thursday, about 100

asylum seekers from colombia, guyana, nicaragua, venezuela were dropped off in front of the vice president's house and a washington, d.c. the buses were sent from texas by governor greg abbott. this is an asylum-seekers from venezuela. >> it was a very long trip. we did not expect to be left adrift here without knowing where to head to. our objective is to reach new york. amy: as the white house announces desantis an avid for busing and flying asylum seekers to liberal states, we turn now to look at a largely forgotten piece of u.s. history. this has happened before. it was the reverse freedom rides of 1962 when segregationists tied to the white supremacist citizens' councils bussed african-americans to northern areas, including cape cod

massachusetts where president john f. kennedy had a summer home. black families were promised good jobs and free housing only to find out they had been tricked. the boston public media outlet gbh has closely documented the legacy of the reverse freedom rides. in 2019, the station produced a short documentary titled "the long journey north." this is betty williams, who arrived in hyannis, massachusetts, with her family after being tricked into leaving their home in arkansas. close my mother was told she was going have a better everything. she was going have a job and she was going to be able to support her family and her children were going to be able to get an education, go to school. that alone was not the tth. i gus when y get to be an ult, you just kind of lock out things, things you just don't want -- i don't know what it is, but i don't remember a lot about the bus. all i know is i was on the bus

and i remember them giving me a ticket or something like that, whatever. i don't know how much money they gave me. i don't remember none of that stuff. this is me and my mom. that is me and my wonderful mother, who was going on to be with the lord. we did not really have anything. we just had our clothing. we did not have furnitamy: bettn the short gbh documentary "the long journey north" about the reverse freedom rides of 1962. 60 years ago. the documentary y also featured archival clips of two architects of the reverse freedom rides, the segregationists amis guthridge and george singelmann. >> what do you suppose will be the ultimate accomplishment of this program? >> it has already been obtained and that is to focus attention on the hypocrisy of the northern liberals in the

naacp, urban league, people like that especially. >> we intend to continue it until those people are the majority. those politicians, we are through with thisullishness about civil rights and things you're losing for political purposes. amy: we go now to cape cod where the asylum-seekers who were flown to martha's vineyard are now being held on an army base. we are joined by mwalim peters, professor of english and black studies at the university of massachusetts, dartmouth. he is also commissioner for the barnstable county human rights advisory commission. we welcome you to democracy now! it is so important to have you here today. as you see what happened with these asylum-seekers flown to martha's vineyard, talk about what happened 60 years ago. >> in 1962, the white citizens

council, wch was an organization and at the south thatiewed themselves as or moderate than the ku klux klan, but basically also a white supremacist organization. an efforts to humiliate as they saw northern democrats, northern liberals, particularly the kennedy family,his was a stunt pulled where they p poverished people -- from arkansas, mississippi, the carolinas, geoia -- put impoverished people on buses and sent them directly to main stet in hyannis. toldhem that the kennedys would be the to welcome you. basically, identical to what is happening now on martha's vineyard wre they were promised all sorts of things. in fact, some were given money and st to hyannis.

the idea was to humiliate, even as a clump you mentioned what it out, the target was to target the kennedys, naacp, the urban league. what we found was the stunt did not work. we have to look at 1962 hyannis was not exactly a multicultural melting pot. you had considerable segregation on cape cod. something a lot of people don't like to acknowledge. it was prevalent in the north, especially north of new york city. this was known by the white citizens council. the idea was hypocrisy. what happened instead was getting wind of this, the kennedy family and a branch of the naacp actually were prepared and actually were able to

provide some kind of welcome, some kind of support, some kind of assistancfor the busloads of people that were transported up to hyannis. so the stunt really did not work . instead of demonstrating hypocrisy, it was, no, we stand behind what we say. juan: i'm wondering, senator ed markey of massachusetts understates delegation called on the treasury department to investigate desantis for using federal covid 19 relief funds to fly the asylum-seekers to martha's vineyard? your reaction to that? your knowledge is that true that the governor was using covid money? >> to my knowledge, that is my understanding, this was really funding being used in this is how he designated the best use

for funding. when you consider how much of the population of the state of florida lives at or below poverty level, that is irresponsible. especially since we are still dealing with the panmic despite president biden's announcement, we're still dealing with the pandemic, especily in poor community's. no, this requires investigation. there are number of things about what has taken place that require a level of investigation . inccd with the sheriff's investigation, we are loong at issues that were basically human trafficking. we're looking at issues of how many of these asylum-seekers are undocumented? so improper transportation a basically undocumented asylum-seekers. beside being remarkably

responsible, besides from being a human rights violation, or sending people and straining them in areas you're not even concerned about. you're sending people in -- we are looking at human rights violations for your looking at potential human trafficking. basically criminal actions, let alone just moral and ethical. juan: there are some critics of this who say governors abbott and desantis are in effect trying -- in situation where increasingly as a result of the supreme court decision on ortion, there was gathering steam among democrats for -- for the election in november that now these republican governors are trying to utilize immigration as a way to raise this issue just before the election took her a favor among more conservative voters from

the republican party. i'm wondering your thoughts about that? also, governor desantis, most of these folks are venezuelan and there has been a sharp increase in venezuelans at the border -- apprehended at the border in the last few months. the -- florida happens to be the state of the largest been as well population in the country. venezuelans are the fastest growing latino group in recent years under the country. i'm wondering your thoughts about those two issues? >> loaded deck. i'm sorry. with the issue of immigration, that is something that continually comes up. what we have to look at his american history. we have to look at the fact the way we look at american history, you also have to acknowledge the fact a foundational principle of the united states is white supremacy.

therefore, the presence of brown d black people other than as chatl, or constantly a problem d constantly in issue. when you look at human trafficking, we look at the deportation of native people most of exported to the bahamas, exported to europe, exported to northfrica. considered human trafficking, the transatlantic slave trade. this is a big piece of american history. sooving black and brown people around the country against -- moving them around the world as a human rights violation, very much when you think about it, an american tradition. and we look at people like desantis and abbott and the notion of the maga movement,

make america great again. the undercurrent is to go back to these foundation principles before black and brown people were human beings, when we were lower forms, basically, of this country. and this is the treatment that you see still taking place to this day. amy: mwalim peters, do you think this will backfire against his republican governors? "the washington post", bordering on the moronic, a gallup poll 60 years ago showed widespread disapproval of the council's tactics even on white southerners. we have 10 seconds. >> this is going to backfire. it is going to backfire considerably because you do have to remember you have considerable red populace and there impacted right along -- you have a number of republicans who own homes on martha's

vineyard. amy: we want to thank you so much for being with us. professor mwalim peters of english and black studies at the university of massachusetts, dartmouth. also commissioner for the barnstable county human rights advisory commission. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]