05/16/23 05/16/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new, york this is democracy now! >> you mentioned the biden administration trying to prevent what nationalists from being in the military. do you believe this should allow white nationalists in the military? >> they call them that. i call them americans. amy: alabama republican senator

tommy tuberville is under fire for supporting white nationalists in the u.s. military. we will speak to former alabama senator doug jones who once prosecuted ku klux klan members for blowing up the 16th street baptist church in birmingham in 1963, killing four young girls. we will look at extremism in the military and in the offices of congress. then we get an update from human rights advocates just back from the u.s.-mexico border as the trump-era title 42 policy. >> nursing thousands of people coming to the border with the hopes of crossing, confusing information has increased fears, causing people to lose hope of a life without violence and reunited with their families on the other site. amy: we will speak to amnesty international, the haitian bridge alliance, and al otro lado. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in sudan, military forces unleashed airstrikes near a hospital in the capital khartoum on monday, targeting paramilitary rivals as fighting between the warring parties enters a second month. airstrikes and shelling were reported in other cities in recent days, including in the western region of darfur and in the cities of bahri and omdurman. the u.n. estimates some 200,000 people have fled sudan to neighboring countries since the war erupted in april, with the vast majority of those displaced being women and children, many of whom are malnourished. hundreds of people who've escaped the violence in the capital are now facing food insecurity, lack of water and shelter as extreme heat hits the region. >> the people that talk like us to be here and now we're here with the children and the mothers and some of them are

sick. there is no food. we are suffering. amy: over 600 people reportedly died since the beginning of the conflict, though the death toll is expected to be much higher. the prominent sudanese singer shaden gardood was killed in crossfire between the sudanese army and the paramilitary rapid support forces in omdurman city friday despite an agreement between the two sides to protect civilians. meanwhile, there's been multiple reports of women and girls being sexually assaulted by armed groups. in somalia, the united nations has some or hundred 50,000 people in the central hiran region have been displaced by flash flooding caused by torrential rains. at least 22 people have died. this comes after a record drought in somalia left millions of somalis on the brink of famine. china's government has issued heat advisories in the capital beijing and other major cities as temperatures reached record highs for the date. in north america, an

early-season heat wave has smashed temperature records, with seattle and portland reporting record highs for several days in a row. on monday, canadian prime minister justin trudeau visited alberta province, where an intense early start to the wildfire season has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate and slashed oil production in canada's tar sands region. in the united states, treasury secretary janet yellen warned monday the u.s. remains on track to default on its debts as soon as june 1 unless congressional leaders agree to a deal raising the limit on the national debt. her warning came as house republican leaders rejected white house proposals to close tax loopholes as part of any deal to raise the debt ceiling. the proposal sought to collect more tax revenue from cryptocurrency transactions and from large real estate investors. president biden said sunday he's optimistic lawmakers will reach a deal by june 1, an idea shot down monday by republican house speaker kevin mccarthy.

>> no, i don't think we are in a good place. i know we are not. this ignoring the problem thinking it is going to go away? he could bumble his way just into a default like he did on the border. amy: the u.s. supreme court has agreed to hear a case that could see south carolina reinstate a congressional redistricting plan that was struck down by a lower court as an attempt at racist gerrymandering. in january, a three-judge panel of the federal district court in colombia, south carolina, ruled unanimously that state republicans unfairly drew maps that split black neighborhoods in charleston, leading to the exile of more than 30,000 african american citizens from their previous district. in washington, d.c., special counsel john durham has completed his investigation into the fbi's probe of russian interference in the 2016 trump campaign.

durham's 30o-plus page report concluded the fbi should never have launched its investigation, which durham said was based largely on leads provided by political opponents of donald trump and relied heavily on "raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence." the report does not recommend any major changes to fbi and justice department policies. durham was appointed special counsel in 2019 by then-attorney general bill barr after barr referred to the fbi's court-authorized activities as spying. in new york, a $10 million lawsuit filed monday against former new york city mayor and donald trump lawyer rudy giuliani alleges giuliani raped and abused a former associate over the span of two years. the suit was filed by noelle dunphy who says giuliani hired her in 2019 promising an annual salary of $1 million but instead repeatedly sexually assaulted her. she also accuses giuliani of

constantly being drunk, making racist and sexist remarks, and antisemitic comments. many were recorded. giuliani allegedly plotted to sell pardons for $2 million, the lawsuit alleges, to be split between him and former president donald trump who was giving the pardons, and asked dunphy to refer anyone who needed one. in new mexico, three people were killed and six others injured in the community of farmington monday morning when an 18-year-old armed with an ar-15-style assault rifle and two other guns went on a rampage, firing randomly as he walked through a neighborhood before he was shot dead by police. investigators say they're still searching for a motive and haven't released the names of the dead and wounded. new mexico governor michelle lujan grisham said in a statement -- "this serves as yet another reminder of how gun violence destroys lives in our state and our country every single day."

according to the gun violence archive, it was the 225th mass shooting in the united states so far this year. vice media has filed for bankruptcy less than a month after laying off over 100 workers across its global newsroom. a group of company lenders has offered a bid of $225 million as remaining operations are expected to keep running. in april, vice also canceled its award-winning weekly show "vice news tonight" and shut down its international news unit vice world news. and a warning to our audience, our last headline contains graphic footage of violence. san francisco's district attorney said monday she will not bring charges against a security guard who shot and killed 24-year-old black trans activist banko brown last month after he allegedly tried to steal snacks from a walgreens pharmacy.

the announcement came as the d.a.'s office released surveillance video of the killing. it shows the guard repeatedly punching brown, slamming him to the floor, and lying on top of him. after brown flees the store, the guard pulls a handgun and fires a single, fatal shot directly into brown's chest. district attorney brooke jenkins on monday called the killing reasonable. >> what he said was i saw a movement that led me to believe something dangerous was about to happen to me. could've been a knife, could've been whatever it was, i believed i was in imminent danger. the law does not require that you wait and see is it a gun or knife or scissors. the law allows you to have a perception and belief so long as it is reasonable. amy: brooke jenkins was appointed san francisco's interim district attorney last july by mayor london breed, replacing former progressive d.a. chesa boudin, who was

ousted by voters in a multimillion-dollar-funded special recall election led by the real estate industry. jenkins received over $100,000 as a consultant for a nonprofit that led efforts to recall boudin. banko brown's killing has ignited protests across the san francisco bay area where nearly half of all residents live in families listed as low income or very low income. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. alabama republican senator tommy tuberville is coming under fire after expressing support for white nationalists in the u.s. military. tuberville made the comments last week while talking to wbhm, an npr affiliate in alabama. >> we are losing in the military so fast, our readiness in terms of recruitment. why? because the democrats are

attacking our militaries and we need to get out the white nationalists, the people who don't believe in our agenda and the joe biden agenda. they are destroying it. close you mentioned the biden administration trying to prevent white nationalists from being in the military. do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military? >> they call them that. i call them americans. amy: "i call them americans." in an attempt to walk back his comments, senator tuberville told a reporter at nbc, "i look at a white nationalist as a trump republican." listen carefully. >> is a trump republican. that is what we are called all the time. >> do you agree with that assumption? >> i agree we should not be characterizing trump's as white nationalists. amy: senator chuck schumer blasted tuberville's remarks and described them as utterly revolting.

the controversy comes as biden said white supremacy is a poison and "the most dangerous terrorist threat in the country." meanwhile on sunday, members of the whites of premises group patriot front marched along the national mall and washington, d.c., carrying shields and battle drums. senator tommy tuberville was already facing criticism for blocking nearly 200 military promotions. the policy covers paid leave for workers who have to travel out-of-state to get an abortion. tuberville remains a major backer of donald trump. last week he decried the new york jury that unanimously found trump had sexually assaulted e. jean carroll. tuberville said the jury's decision "makes me want to vote for him twice." we are joined now by former alabama senator doug jones, a democrat who served in the

senate from 2018 to 2021. he lost to tuberville in the 2020 election. jones is also a former u.s. attorney who successfully prosecuted two members of the ku klux klan involved in the 1963 bombing of the 16th street baptist church in birmingham, alabama, that killed four girls between the ages of 11 and 14. senator doug jones, welcome to democracy now! if you could first respond to your former opponent --tuberville bu for the senate seat that you held -- talking about, responding to the issue of the pentagon secretary lloyd austin trying to route out why supremacist in the military. >> it is outrageous what he is saying. it is deplorable. he talks about the fact democrats are attacking the

military. no, democrats are not attacking the military. we are supporting the military. it is senator tuberville who is attacking the military and all the policies, whether it is holding up nominations for promotions which affects readiness and morale or attacking the policies that the administration is trying to do to try to weed out these white nationalists, these white supremacist. you only have to look at what happened in boston recently where a young national guardsmen who leaked classified information and now we are learning he is the very kind of person the administration is trying to weed out of there. it makes no sense whatsoever what senator tuberville says and is purely a political ploy attacking the administration at every turn. amy: when asked about white nationalists, he says he calls them americans. you have along the lester civil rights history. you put two members of the ku klux klan behind bars for the

bombing of the 16th street baptist church in 1963. the bombing happened. can you talk about what white nationalism means and what he is saying? >> look, they may be american citizens but they are not patriots. these are not people that support the government in the united states, they support themselves. they support only the white nationalists that they are. they do not support a diverse society or a diverse america. and if you look at what is happening, just look at the patriot front guys who marched around the capitol just recently, they are hell-bent on trying to make this a purely white country. totally not recognizing what is going on in this country and how supportive this country is of the diversity that we see. i that is the real problem. they will resort to violence. they will resort to subversion

of the united states if possible in order to get the kind of country that in their mind inks is appropriate. that is a real problem in the united states military and in law enforcement across this country. we have to make sure we do everything necessary to get those people out of the chain of command, out of the military so we can protect all americans and protect our national security. amy: during a march 28 hearing with defense secretary wood austin, senator tuberville was quoted saying "war is hell. every recruit should know that. the last few years we have put them through different kind of hell. and what of your first asked, mr. secretary, put every member through a mandatory training to root out extremists." tuberville was clearly disparaging this. your response, senator jones? >> it is hard to respond to just

stupid statements like that. that is the only way you can describe that kind of reaction to the united states military. to think that we should not be rooting out extremism -- on either side, by the way. it does not matter if it is extremism on the right or extremism on the left, that is dangerous to the united states military, to morale, to the chain of command, to our national security. yes, war is hell. that is exactly why you have to have a disciplined military, not people that are going to go off like this guy did and provide classified information to his buddies online. you've got to have that discipline. you cannot have that discipline if you have extremes on either side. this is not an old john wayne movie where you have got that kind of war is hell.

this is a diverse military. it has people of all races and religions. i think roughly 25% are now women. the military brass, the leaders of our military, have to protect all of our servicemen and women and they have to do it in a way that recognizes the differences we have. but at the same time, be able to watch the chain of command and keep that in line. that is what is most important. the extremism that senator tuberville is complaining is being routed out needs to be rooted out. amy: i want to continue on this issue of white supremacist. we are also joined by michael edison hayden, a senior investigative reporter with southern poverty law center, where he focuses on internet -- on far-right extremism. thank you for joining us. the report you helped author lester says "roughly one in five applicants to the white supremacist group patriot front

claim to hold current or former military status, according to leaked documents reviewed by kate watch." explain. also put this in the context of senator tuberville's comments. >> senator tuberville is correct in saying these folks are americans. and america is a very serious problem with radical right extremism as evidenced by all the violence that we have seen in recent years. i mean, people with military backgrounds are heavily sought after by extremist groups like patriot front partly because they have a knowledge of how to operate in these kind of urgent situations. think about january 6. the degree to which literary training could be advantageous

to the proud boys or oath keepers. there's a technical understanding of things they understand and also the fact we don't treat our veterans particularly well in this country, which, you know, allows extremist groups to feed off potential resentment or feelings of frustration and makes those folks good recruits. amy: i want to go back to doug jones and talk about tuberville 's role right now in saying that over 200 department of defense promotions are being blocked. they are being blocked by one senator, by senator tuberville, who is demanding the pentagon change its abortion policy for service members and dependents, which the biden administration has supported since last october.

explain how it is possible that one senator, senator tuberville, can block the actions of the entire senate. what is the procedure used? talk about what he is doing it for. >> first of all, i think he is doing it because he fighting culture wars. he accuses democrats and others are politicizing the military but yet he is the one politicizing the military. he is the one blocking promotions of military across the services because of the culture war issue of the abortion policy that the department of defense has to protect women in the military. what he is doing is he cannot completely block the nomination. a lot of people don't realize that military promotions at certain ranks have to be confirmed by the united states senate. what he's doing is preventing those from being considered and blocked.

maybe 100 or 200 at a time. where promotions can be moved through the senate very quickly and efficiently. that is always a nonpartisan issue. that is something that is done routinely to give deference to the military, to give deference to the administration. he has decided not to do that and require the senate to take up every nomination, every promotion one at a time, which requires the senate rules have a number of hours it will delay work in the senate, it will delay military. it has a ripple effect through the chain of command because these servicemen and women that are in line for the promotion, their entire careers are on hold. those behind them that are set to fill the positions that they are being left vacant are also on hold. this is really devastating to morale, again to the chain of command, and ultimately, national security and our readiness. it shows a fundamental

misunderstanding about the nature of the military, the nature of service to this country, and what people are looking for when they decide to go into the military as a career. it is outrageous what he is doing in the senate. amy: at the same time, michael edison hayden, we have the massacre in allen, texas, where the gunmen killed eight people and injured 10, was influenced by neo-nazi and what's a premises ideology -- white supremacist ideology. you have the march on the national mall by the patriot front this weekend. and you have jury selection in the trial of robert powers, the 50-year-old man who killed 11 worshipers at a tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. can you put this altogether at this point? that i have a final should for the senator. >> sure. senator tuberville's comments speak to the deep denial in this

country of what is happening as far as radical stream as of his concern. -- radical white extremism is concerned. we have people being murdered on a semi regular basis. you go back to that tree of life attack in october 2018 and you have el paso, for example, in the summer of 2019. he had the attack in colorado springs on the lgbtq community. and then you have what happened in allen, texas. and there are some in between. this keeps happening, just as we have this problem of radicalization in the military -- which we have been warning about going back to the mid-1980's, without enough of a response. in the 1990's, timothy mcveigh. these things keep being brought up, these issues of violence and racism. these are core problems in american life that go to the

real struggles to be american and to keep people safe. think about the fact we have 700 -- over 700 confederate symbols on military bases. we have black people serving from the military. these are core problems and denial in this country is really deep and has to change. amy: and you for bending changing its name -- for bending changing its name. i want to end with doug jones on a note of history. you have repeatedly said that perhaps the most important thing you have ever done is prosecute the klansman who killed the four little girls in birmingham, alabama, when they blew up the church. we are approaching the 60th anniversary of that tragedy in september. talk about the case and fighting white supremacist violence then, your role in convicting thomas

blanton and bobby cherry, and where you think we stand today 60 years later. >> i appreciate you asking that question because it is something that has been very important to me, to alabama, to this country. that we recognize one of the most horrific civil rights crimes in the history of this country, a civil-rights crime that i do believe changed the course of civil rights history. and we use the term "woke" these days but in fact that bombing really awakened america to the tragedies and the horrifics of jim crow and the fact you had so much racial violence in the 1950's and 1960's. and what concerns me now is we are forgetting that. we have not looked back and learned the lessons of history and the tragedies of history that i think we should have. in fact, the similarities i see

today is the rhetoric of politicians. in those days, it was bull connor, the racist police commissioner, governors like rush barnett who stoped anger and hatred and violence with her dog whistle type politics. i think what we're seeing now is something very similar. you see that across the board. particularly kind of the maga right republicans that seem to want to instill violence and hatred. support for people who violate the law and attack others. that is a real danger. he goes beyond just black-and-white. it gets into religion. they goes to the hispanic community, the muslim community. we are much more diverse society than we were in the 1960's. in 1963 when this bomb exploded, killing those four young girls. i think we have to celebrate

this diversity. instead we are seeing the hate and the violence spreading its wings to all our races, all ethnic groups, all religions. and that is that white nationalist philosophy that tuberville thinks that apparently is ok in the military, ok in our law enforcement, and apparently ok in this country. well, it is not and we have to work very, very hard to remember the lessons of the past and work very hard to read that out. amy: doug jones, thank you for being with us, former democratic senator for alabama, speaking to us from washington, d.c. and michael edison hayden, senior investigative reporter with southern poverty law center. next up, we turn from extremism in the military and the senate to a neo-nazi in the offices of congress. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "maybe i'm doing it wrong" by randy newman. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we look now at the newly confirmed direct connection between a white supremacist leader and the digital director for one of trump's staunchest supporters in congress. we are joined in new york by hunter walker, an investigative reporter at talking points memo, where his exclusive new story is headlined "capitol hill staffer is a prominent follower of neo-nazi nick fuentes." fuentes is a far-right leader who rose under trump. the staffer who is revealed in the piece works for far right arizona congressman paul gosar, who is linked to organizers of the deadly january 6 insurrection and was censured for posting an animated video on social media where he murdered congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez and attacked president biden. that is the congressman gosar. gosar also spoke at the openly-racist america first conference organized by nick fuentes to compete with the

conservative political action conference known as cpac. this new story reveals his ties -- gosar's ties to the white supremacist movement go even deeper. hunter walker, if you can lay out what you found about his digital director? >> amy, great to see, first up. as you pointed out, paul gosar already has been linked directly and personally. but his relationship with this neo-nazi leader has been one of alternately embracing him and distancing himself from him. as you alluded to, paul gosar has appeared at two editions of nick fuentes political action conference, once in person and once by video. but after the second one caused backlash, gosar says nick has a problem with his mouth and attempt to to disavow him somewhat. he has operated with a bit of plausible deniability as he has repeatedly been tied to

extremist activity, including having antisemitic websites appearing in his official newsletter. i think this story, one of the key things about it is it removes that veil a plausible deniability for paul gosar. what i found is the staffer in his office, evidence appears to link him to this digital persona , this network of interlinked social media accounts that has put up extremist content, including statements referring to jews as "hooked nose bankers" and minimizing slavery. and in addition to just being a social media account, this " chicken persona" was a leading figure in nick fuentes' organization and we know this because of accusations from his inner circle who released internal chat showing this chicken person participating in

the leadership conversations, telling them about what was going on in gosar's office, and also he is a moderator on nick fuentes' regular stream. this guy has been linked to being a prominent follower of nick fuentes, who is an outright neo-nazi. the evidence is extensive. these accounts posted pictures that appear to show wade searle with nick fuentes. at its inception, this account was "wade" and "landon" who you believe appears to be landon peterson, mentor in gosar's office. there multiple people linked to this extremist activity. amy: explain more, hunter walker, how you know chicken and chicken right, how you directly

link them -- this is a very serious allegation go to paul gosar's office, to his staffer wade searle. >> first off, there's no question he works for paul gosar's office. amy: right, but how wade searle is chicken or chicken right. >> one thing that is extremely -- i want to touch on first, there was that extreme video about alexandria ocasio-cortez. it was based on an anime, with her head -- that video is an example of how paul gosar social media has already borrowed from these far right extremist circles. he hired wade searle one day officially after being censured for that video. even despite getting slaps on

the wrist from his fellow republicans in congress, gosar has repeatedly on his official accounts sort of winked and nodded to the far right even as he supposedly disavowed him. what we found with wade searle is just so many links. first off, gosar joined the extremist social media site right after searle joined his office. he started reposting content. at points on the chicken right account -- they're all linked. sort of an overall presence of these internal links promoting itself. and all of these interlinked accounts, promoted extremist content, promoted gosar, talked about insider knowledge of arizona republicans and then the two most dramatic moments came as wade searle took his activism beyond social media. he appeared to join fuentes at a

stop to still rally. fuentes was also a big election denier's followers have major -- you can see i man standing behind fuentes at one of these rallies in phoenix, arizona, where he called trump's loss "fraud." photos of that man are posted on various social media pages as well as wade searle's or public named social media. he posted his own photos. various things in the content such as his hometown, credit and the bio seemed to link into this activity. and then most importantly, yet these defectors from fuentes organization who has named wade searle. this was an open secret on the far right. i came across it and then i joined with two researchers and nick martin and wayne pulled all

of the information we had found and it just really appears to definitively show wade searle was behind these accounts. he had been previously named by his own colleagues of the far right. amy: what has been gosar's response to your investigation? >> not much. yesterday, the only thing i noticed from gosar is he shut off comments on his tweets. he blocked replies. i think that is a really important thing here. i noted before he was censured for this extreme video about congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. since then, he has been brought back onto committees after being stripped from them, including the powerful oversight committee. dot only do we reach out gosar to give an an opportunity to comment and reject this in any way or say he did not know this was happening, but we reached out to speaker mccarthy and he

has offered no response whatsoever. democrats have offered very limited response from what we have seen. one of the reactions i'm noticing is just because of paul gosar's extensive history, winking and nodding at the far right, speaking at fuentes' events, people said they are not surprised. i would note, we were talking earlier about the alarming rise in white supremacy in this country and white supremacist organizations. getting in and wrote on a capitol hill staffer is a major, major turning point in that movement. it is a major bit of growth for them. if we start to reach a point where we say we are not surprised by this, where we say we expect this in congress, then we are allowing it. i personally find it shocking and we should remain shocked by. amy: hunter walker, thank you for being with us, investigative reporter at talking points memo. we will link to your exclusive new report "capitol hill staffer is a prominent follower of

neo-nazi nick fuentes." by the way, another news from capitol hill, a man armed with a metal baseball bat attacked two staffers, democratic congressman jerry conley's district office in virginia monday. the man arrived at the office reporter lisette, where is connolly? it is unclear what motivated the attack. a young woman who was an intern at the office on her first day of work, he beat her with the baseball bat as well as a senior staffer. he slammed them and they had. they were hospitalized. next up, and update from you in rights advocates just back from the u.s.-mexico border as the trump era title 42 policy ends. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "desaparecido" by manu chao. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. for the rest of the hour, we host a roundtable discussion on the human rights crisis unfolding on the u.s.-mexico border and the impact of president biden ending the trump-era pandemic policy known as title 42 last thursday after it had been used to expel nearly 3 million migrants without due process. a lawsuit filed monday argues border patrol has now forced many migrants into makeshift, open-air camps that violate custody standards. we are joined by three guests. all of them are just back from the border, two joined a delegation monitoring the situation. in santa ana, california, guerline jozef is co-founder and executive director of haitian bridge alliance, an immigrant-advocacy organization that provides humanitarian assistance to haitians and other black immigrants from the caribbean and africa. in mexico city, erika guevara-rosas is a human rights lawyer and americas director for

amnesty international, also part of this delegation. and in tijuana, mexico, erika pinheiro, is an immigration attorney and the executive director of al otro lado, a binational nonprofit helping immigrants on both sides of the u.s.-mexico border. we welcome you all back to democracy now! erika pinheiro, talk about what has been happening this past week with the end of title 42. what are you most concerned about? >> we did not see a search of migrants. we did have many migrants waiting patiently, some for years come to seek asylum at ports of entry who were left with a lot of fear and confusion about the end of this policy because they had heard the biden administration's new policies would further restrict their access to asylum. when title 42 ended, many of them tried to present themselves at the port of entry, which is consistent with the law, consistent with what customs and

border protection told us would be possible. but instead, they were turned back and made their way into these makeshift camps that thousands of people ended up in yesterday. in these makeshift camps, border patrol was not letting people leave but they were also not providing food, not providing water, were not providing medical care. we saw babies as young as three months, elderly people as old as 80, people with medical emergencies -- just a lot of people suffering without food for up to seven days. over the past 24 hours, border patrol has finally started to clear these camps out. it is important to understand the larger context of what is happening right now. after title 42 ended, there were half as many people entering the united states but border patrol made a choice to hold them in these open-air in camas without access to food, water, medical care to try to create the

impression there was a surge when that is not what we were saying at all. my biggest concern is that will continue to happen on the border, that will be a political show rather than using what they have to process the asylum-seekers. amy: during a press conference on thursday, journalist april ryan questioned secretary of homeland security alejandro mayorkas about border patrol agents on horseback chasing, grabbing, and whipping haitian asylum seekers. she was referring to the 2021 series of photos and video footage from del rio, texas, that sparked a national outcry. >> the southern border is not just mexicans. it is asian, africans as we have seen with the haitians -- >> let me correct you. actually, the investigation

concluded that the whipping did not occur. >> i'm sorry, i cite differently. they were whipped with something from the horse. amy: guerline jozef, your group is representing mirard joseph. he's a haitian who was whipped by a u.s. border patrol agent while attempting to bring food to his family. can you talk about what happened to him? also about an image of a u.s. border patrol commemorative coin that seems to be glorifying the violence against asylum-seekers that we're showing on air now for our tv viewers. >> thank you so much, amy. the reality is, what secretary alejandro mayorkas just mentioned is absolutely heartbreaking to hear because he knows that the investigation that was conducted by the administration took 30 minutes of the entire weeklong ordeal of

abuse that we all saw in september 2021. as you can see them celebrating using that coin to depict the image of mi josephr in the most humiliating way, and we cana see the man on horsebackrd holding him, holding the person with his hand and we can see the whip on his back. to say that is unbelievable. but we all know we have heard -- only 30 minutes for the people were abused in the most inhumane way and really rot us back to a time of slavery as we are looking into extremism into the united states, that is a pure reflection of that and it did happen. and we continue to push to hold

accountability to the administration. we have filed lawsuit on behalf of mirard joseph and 11 others who are under the bridge. we want people to understand over 21,000 people have been deported to haiti, including mirard joseph and his family, his little girl who turned two years old under the bridge. in the united states, we are not providing the bare necessities for them. that is the reality that we continue to live and that is the content -- that is the reality we continue to see at the u.s.-mexico border were people are patiently waiting and trying to get an appointment which has been proven to be extremely difficult, especially for people with darker skin colors. amy: and houtman particular black asylum-seekers, black refugees are being treated are being protected.

april made the point that black americans who went into mexico and were killed by gangs, that they were mistaken, it is believed, according to the gangs themselves, for haitian refugees. can you talk about this issue, bringing that right through to today and what we have seen even in the past week and what you think needs to be done? >> amy, once again, this is heartbreaking. when that happened early in march, i spent the entire weekend reaching out to both sides in mexico and the u.s. to try to identify those people we saw. because at first i was frightened because we could not identify them. we clearly saw, if it wasn't for the video in the picture that went viral, those people would have been lost without a trace. whether they are u.s. citizens with u.s. passport or haitian refugees, the moment black people arrived, they do not matter.

the reality is, whether you're from haiti or the united states, it is and say for them. you can be killed, disappeared, kidnapped at any time. but if the only reason why we were able to really discuss that is because they found out they had american passports. i will tell you that i personally spent the entire weekend pushing both in mexico and in the u.s. to identify this people and try to locate them. it wasn't until that monday we finally had heard they were u.s. citizens and they were mistaken for being haitian migrant asylum-seekers because they are vulnerable. when they are taken, there is no report, there's nobody to speak on their behalf. we continue to see the entire system -- with antiblack racism on both side of the border.

amy: you going to funerals for haitians have died in mexico? >> we have had funerals almost every month of people who have died in mexico. we unfortunately just lost a little baby girl who was born in reynosa and we tried to get an emergency evacuation to get her to the hospital in mcallen. we literally bury those we can find and those who just disappear without a trace we cannot even tell you how many people have disappeared without a trace. whether they are haitian, indigenous women, black and brown, they disappear without a trace every single day at the u.s.-mexico border. we specifically continue to bury people every single month. amy: i went to bring erika guevara-rosas into this conversation. we are speaking to you in mexico city, the americas director for

amnesty international. can you talk about how mexico is cooperating with united states? president by just had an hour long conversation with amlo come the president of mexico. and what you think needs to be done? the effect of this cooperation between the two countries on the issue of migrants? >> title eight are the latest example of how the u.s. is self sourcing law enforcement immigration and refugee policy not only to mexico but to other countries. under title eight, the biden administration is also trying to outsource policies such as guatemala, -- to try to prevent people from crossing the border. mexico, fortunately, has become complicit of the human rights violations that people are facing, particularly those who

are seeking asylum. the united nations has calculated around 600,000 migrants are stuck at the border. many of these people, from countries such as haiti, venezuela, countries in central america, cuba, that we know very well are people that are escaping massive human rights violations and seeking asylum. the mexico situation we saw a few days ago with these delegations, visited camps in matamoros and reynosa, and we were able to witness the inhumane conditions that people are experiencing in those camps. it is thanks to local organizations, to individuals providing assistance to those people that they're able to receive some food, some medical attention when in reality, both governments are not fulfilling their international obligations to

provide assistance and protection to those people that are seeking asylum or are trying to seek asylum. under the new rules, the situation is going to be even more complex because people are going to continue to be stuck in these very dangerous areas in mexico, the border areas, that we know are totally controlled by organized crime. not only the dangers of trying to cross the border, but they have also been exposed to serious human rights abuses such as kidnapping, killing, and many other things. we have heard from families in those camps horrible experience while they are trying to transit the country. when they cross the border come the south border mexico and they're trying to get to the north side of the country. unfortunately, all of these situations, all of these abuses come all violations of human rights are in total impunity because mexican authorities are

not investigating, are not creating paths for people to transit in safety ways. in mexico just announced they're going to prevent people from traveling to the southern border, to the north of the country. they're not going to provide any transit visa so they are forcing people to find other ways, other paths. unfortunately, expose them to the violence committed by organized crime. amy: you've said organized crime is one of the biggest beneficiaries of these policies. can you also talk about the federal prosecutors in april and mexico filing charges against then nation's top immigration official over that fire in the border city of see it at war is right across from el paso that killed some 40 migrants? >> amy, 40 migrants were killed under the custody of the mexican

estate. there were detained, arbitrarily detained because of their migration status. we saw the images of authorities , the indolence of authorities and a place on fire. they did not do anything to protect them. they did not do anything to rescue them. unfortunately, 40 died and many others continue to be injured, some of them continue to be in the hospital. the investigation that has been carried out as been linked to the detention of some authorities, low ranking authorities that were present at the detention centers. the national institute of migration director has also brought into the investigation but he continues to be -- and his position he continues to manage the immigration policy of mexico. continues unfortunately to create conditions for migrants to be at risk. the militarization continues.

we don't see, unfortunately, that this investigation is going to lead to real justice for those who were killed in this horrible, horrible situation in ciudad juarez. amy: we talked about the other side of the border, our side, the u.s. side, erika pinheiro, your group and other groups have filed a civil complaint about grave violations of rights in the u.s. committed by u.s. customs and border protection agents, namely border patrol agents, who for months have used an open-air corridor between the primary and secondary walls west of the port of entry in california as a holding area for migrants without complying with custody standards. can you explain what is happening there and what we should understand about the border right now? >> we have had this camp of

several hundred people right across the border from san diego for the past week now. it was finally cleared yesterday after a lot of noise made by civil rights organizations like bayonne and others are working along the border. like i mentioned earlier, border patrol is holding people in this area without providing even the minimum of food, water, medical care, even for people who are medically vulnerable. we have also seen several other camps further east and remote desert areas that over 1000 people were being held in similar situations. right now that camps have been cleared because of the advocacy of many organizations along the border. but we have already seen new arrivals into this area. it is really important to understand that customs and border protection is the largest law-enforcement agency in the u.s., larger than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. they supposedly were preparing

for a surge at the end of title 42 and they're not processing people of ports of entry, so the decision to lead people in inhumane conditions is a choice. it is a political stunt trying to make it look like the border is not orderly, that there is a crisis, a surge. when in fact, the only crisis is a way brighter patrol -- border patrol dehumanizes people who are only trying into the united states. amy: we will continue this in spanish and post it on our spanish website. you can go to democracynow.org. erika pinheiro, immigration attorney, and the executive director of al otro lado. guerline jozef is co-founder and executive director of haitian bridge alliance. erika guevara-rosas is a human rights lawyer and americas director for amnesty international. that does it for our show. 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!]