this morning my question why are american veterans being deported? plus, how a social movement's success has all the right people talking. and, teachers in georgia are going to prison. yes, prison. but first, in the legal debate over policy never forget about the people. good morning. i'm joy reid in for melissa harris-perry

harris-perry. this was the scene in front of the u.s. fifth circuit court of appeals courthouse in new orleans yesterday as three judges heard oral arguments in a case to remove an order that halts president obama's executive actions on immigration. hundreds of protesters gathered in what has become the latest test for president obama's immigration overhaul. now as you may recall president obama back in november addressed the nation on the issue of immigration saying that up to 5 million people could be shielded from deportation and receive temporary work permits under his executive action. the order was seen as one of the most important and boldest initiatives of his second term. >> we're going to offer the following deal. if you've been in america for more than five years, if you have children who are american citizens or legal residents, if you register pass criminal pack ground check, and you're willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you will be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily

without fear of deportation. you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. that's what this deal is. >> but the deal has been delayed. thanks to a lawsuit by texas and 25 other states. many republicans call the president's move executive over reach and in february a federal judge in brownsville, texas, ordered an indefinite halt to the president's plan. saying that he had abused his power. which brings us back to this scene in new orleans as the obama administration urged a federal appeals court to let the government immediately move forward with president obama's overhaul of the nation's immigration and deportation policies. an estimated 200 demonstrators rallied outside the courthouse to remind us what this order is really all about. >> this is beyond papers. this is about human and human dignity. this is about justice. this is about civil rights. this is about labor rights. so much is involved in this. we cannot just say this the

about papers or an executive action. >> and that what lies at the core of this issue is family. >> a lot of our families are not having the opportunities to have a job, a lot of our families are being caught up in the system, the immigration system being deported, being separated from their families. the children are suffering the loss of a mother or father or brother or sister. the lawsuit is tearing our families apart. >> the obama administration faces a difficult task in the fifth circuit known as the nation's most conservative appellate court. the three-judge panel has two republican appointees and one obama appointee. the legal fight is far from over. until then millions of lives remain in limbo. joining me now are ari melber msnbc chief correspondent and cohost of" the cycle," franky a journalist and director of the reporting africa program at the nyu journalism soon. alfonzo, executive director of

the american principle properties and alisa, coexpectative director of the immigrant defense project. thank all of you for being here. i'm going to start with you, ari, as msnbc chief legal correspondent i expect you to explain to me the substance of what is happening here because what went to this judge who issued the stay was not just the substance or really was not the substance of the immigration action, correct? >> well, what goes before this judge is a series of questions. one of them is does the president have this power. another is even if he does did he do it the right way. the administrative procedures acts a rules how you do that. this goes to what is typically the party of executive authority because there is discretion about how you enforce laws particularly in this kind of arena where everyone knows and even critics of the president acknowledge that you could not physically possibly enforce this set of rules against every undocumented worker in the nation. there's already prioritization

going on. they tried to step up and make a larger claim of it. the other thing i'll say that people have to keep in mind is we can't simply adjudicate and resolve these things over whether you like the law or not. if a different president said i'm going to look at the voting rights act and not enforce any of them ever people would be up upset and want to adjudicate it. when you look at this area or the smart on crime area where eric holder has said we are going to make priorities based on values we're going to put them out before the public and before prosecutors because we can't lock up everybody, this would seem to be in line with something that the chief executive can do pursuant to enforcement authority. >> i think that is the question i want to get to because what the administration is essentially saying with this executive action is if you have 11 million people in the country without documents or in the country unlawfully it's physically impossible to grab them all and put them out of the country so that law enforcement exercises discretion all the time. they decide whether they want to arrest somebody who has ten pounds of cocaine or whether they want to arrest somebody who

has one bag of marijuana. discretion is part of the executive authority inherently. why is it any different to exercise discretion here? >> it's not. it's an even stronger argument where the federal government has control over that system. here i think the law is really on the president's side. this is really a politically motivated lawsuit by people that have been trying tooth and nail to really hold back -- i think the majority of americans want fair inclusive reforms that really uphold the american values of due process and strengthen our system. >> i want to go to you on this, alfonzo alfonzo. you have 26 states litigating this case. texas versus the united states. now in texas' case the second part of the argument is the first part is the administration didn't do it right procedurally. the sect argument is it will cost our state a great deal of money if you then have all of these people get documents, get drivers' licenses, et cetera but can we put up a map or list

of the states that are actually involved in this case with texas? a lot of these states they're not exactly states that have a stake in this in terms of having lots of migrants in their states. something like wyoming doesn't have it. >> they are overloaded. canadian border state. >> exactly. you have states. look at that map. not -- other than texas -- >> i'll disagree. i mean i agree what she actually said. i mean the states need -- a lot of states do have growing immigrant communities, undocumented i'm grants going every where all oef the country to do jobs that basically americans don't want. even states like idaho have a strong agriculture industry. they actually need immigrants because they can't find american workers to do that work. >> why take this case? why make this case? >> i would debate it a little bit. certainly are there but i don't think it is a significant cost at the level some of these

states are arguing. >> it's a question of standing obviously. and i agree. look, i don't think at this point they're going to prevail in the circuit court because this is a very conservative court. we'll know in a few weeks the decision of the new orleans court. the obama administration may have to go to supreme court. but i agree in terms of the law that the federal case law i think gives a lot of discretion to the federal government and not to the president because actually the president didn't base this on presidential authority. but on discretion that law enforcement agencies of the federal government have to determine who stays and who goes. in the last case on -- over the arizona immigration law justice kennedy in his opinion said very clearly, in three paragraphs, look, the president has ample discretion, or the law enforcement agencies of the federal government. he can decide that people who have been here for a long time, who have children who are u.s.

citizens who are working can stay here. that's basically what the president is doing. now, politically, did he proceed correctly? should he have waited to work with congress? i think he should have. >> right. there's a political question on the other side too, because by these republican states litigating the issue they create a political problem with latinos. i want to brinkg franky in this there are lots of other kinds of immigrants immigrants. african i'm grants, korean immigrants as well. >> absolutely. there are many, many families that don't look like the pictures on tv that are not the object immigrant of a certain particular ethnic group. there are many many many people from different countries in africa who are here and families will be torn apart. many families have mixed status. some children are documented. some are not. some are american citizens. this is where the president's use of discretion comes in. are you going to tear apart a family that has no other country than this simply because their

mother does not have the exact paper she wants. she's been here and been working, perhaps i saw a figure about $2 billion in taxes if all of these people are brought in from the shadows and allowed to work. >> we're going have everybody hold on a second because up next a california program has been a run away success, but could it be putting people at greater risk? ♪ ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon.

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in 2013 governor jerry brown assigned into law a bill that will allow all eligible californians to apply for a driver's license. the law known tasz safe and responsible driver act went into effect in january. they do much more than increase road safety throughout the tate

also provides an economic and social lifeline for the millions of undocumented immigrants in california who can now drive to work drive their children to school and run everyday errands without the fear that being pulled over for a minor traffic violation could turn into a an immigration nightmare. the response has been overwhelming. the california department of motor vehicles say more than half million californians have applied for a driver's license under the new law. that's double the number of applications the dmv pro jetted to receive at this point in the year. california is the most populous of the ten states that grant such licenses. puerto rico and the district of columbia also allow the undocumented to get drivers' licenses. on wednesday lawmakers in north carolina advanced a similar plan. so coming back out to the table. one of the caveats to this license is that it is just like a california driver's license in every way but one. there's a designation on it and it looks different and on the front it says federal limits apply. and on the back it says quote,

not acceptable for official federal purposes. so that means that if let's say somebody is stopped and there's a federal agent involved they can tell that this person is undocumented. this a sense does this lifeline for people pose a greater danger to them? >> it does pose some dangers because of the ways the immigration system and the criminal justice system are enter linked, almost any interaction with police can lead to deportation. this could be a vital tool for survive ral for immigrants in california who could avoid that deportation system but we know that immigration and customs enforcement are trying to access the databases for certain individuals. there is a risk. and people have to consult with lawyers, especially if they have ever had contact with a criminal justice system because it could lead toninjustices. >> this is when the federal and state law come into contact, like the marijuana system it's legal to sell it but you can't put it in a bank. are the people coming forward and getting these licenses

taking a greater risk than is reasonable for them to take given we don't know how the federal law is going to come out? >> depends on their situation. there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty given what we were discussing around the other segment but there was uncertainty to begin with. people making day-to-day decisions to try to earn a living or drive for a job. all of those are practical considerations. i also think that at the end of the day this is what the states are doing is managing the situation under federalism for their population as best they can. they cannot obviously supersede someone's federal status but again, the reason why this is so ironic that this feels like an ideological issue so much of the time is there's nothing ideological about what do you do with people in a territory to try to have public safety and well being for everyone? that's just the most basic obligation of government. >> it's interesting because we're in a city tremendous amounts of public transportation. i grew up in the west. there are states where you need

a car to get to work or to get around. so it is this sort of strange blue state lsh red state thing. blue states the solution seems to be to find a way to have the people driving legally and taking the driver's test and make sure they're on the road and safe for other people and the red state phenomenon no we're going to sue to make sure they at the time deported home. >> a driver's license is more than just the ability to drive. a driver's license allows you to go and open a bank account. a driver's license allows you to if you are sick for instance like last week i had oral surgery and i needed vicoden and i went to my pharmacist he said where is your driver's license, i can't give it to you without that. a person who is sick does not have the ability to do that if they don't have a driver's license. municipalities have taken matters into their own hands. in new york city we have idync, san francisco has done it, allows everybody to give you a municipal, i d card to that says you are a part of this city and

this community. you can get a bank account. >> as a thought experiment if you throw all the lawyers out of the room and say, well, what happens when you do other things that break rules? what happens when someone is driving 70 in a 55? do they cease to become, you know someone who can hold a driver's license or be in the state state? no. the reason why there's rhetorical debate undocumented versus legal, many people former immigration reform make the argument it doesn't mean your existence itself is criminal. deportation is a serious remedy and you can't just have open borders. what we do with the people already here right, is just a basic -- is that kind of basic question. >> it is complicated on the politics. before we just make this a strictly a red/blue thing, let's quickly play hillary clinton's two positions she's evolved on the issue of drivers' licenses specifically. let's listen to -- okay. actually i will read them. hillary clinton back when she was running in 2007 for

president, as president i will not support drivers' licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system. hillary clinton now says hillary supports state policies to provide drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants. that is her new position. if that evolution is taking place in the democratic party, what is your response as a con -- conservative? >> when democrats change their mind, they evolve. we republicans change their mind, they flip-flop. she flip-flopped. she's not been a great leader on immigration. that's the reality. she should be totally absent. having said that, look immigration happens at the sat level. not at the federal level. that's where immigrants live. it's part of a community. states have to deal with this reality because the federal government hasn't passed immigration reform. so if we don't have -- federal law to deal with undocumented

population we're going to have a patchwork of legislation. states dealing with immigrants in different ways. >> i think you just made the case for comprehensive immigration reform. your party is going to be on your cellphone during the break. we're going to allow you toic the angry phone calls. this morning the young woman who escaped and survived boca bags. i've saved $75 in checked bag fees. no foreign transaction fees means real savings. we can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the u.s. one of the best things about priority boarding is you can just get on the plane and relax. i put everything on the explorer card. i really want my united miles. ♪ ♪ ♪

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22nd is earth day. to celebrate the global poverty project is putting on an event today at the washington monument grounds in d.c. it's called global citizens 2015 earth day. it kicks off in about 40 minutes at 11:00 eastern time. we i am and soledad o'brien are the hosts and no doubt, usher, mary j. blige and many more. you can catch the whole program live on msnbc.com/globalcitizenearthday. right there in the thick of it all is the host of msnbc thomas

roberts. let's run it down. what can we look forward to today? >> joy this is going to be epic. oh wait, we've been playing shah sam shazam. who is it rob? edie brezkel. my go-to is hey, it's hootie. i've been wrong the whole time. it's great. the crowds are just filling in. they allowed them to start flooding in around 10:00 a.m. so we saw people running in to get up to the front. and now we have this great smell of copper tone as people are slathering it on because it's going to be atity degrees here. hugh evans at the global poverty project, ceo, he said earlier all we want is sunshine. mother nature has given us this beautiful day. absolutely gorgeous here in washington, d.c. going to kick off on this dates coming up in the next hour.

we have headline act such as my morning jacket fallout boy, usher, no doubt, but the weather is gorgeous. over 250,000 people are expected to be down here today for this. and they started putting up the framework for this as soon as the cherry blossom festival ended. so at 12:00 1 on monday they started out footing it. they just finished putting up the last signs. you can see what the #is, global citizen heart day. we will continue to play shazam and bring you live reports on the music and the acts actually take the stage. we've been having fun. >> i expect you to be using your spf 29,000 so that we can have you back in good working order. >> i haven't put anything on yet. >> what? >>ly admit. i've put nothing on yet. >> go to the trailer right now and get that spf. >> i don't put anything on yet. >> thomas roberts, msnbc in washington, d.c. having a lot of fun. bye. we'll check back with you as the events gets under way.

up next, why are u.s. military veterans being deported? ...and takes the wheel right from your very hands... ...this isn't that car. the first and only car with direct adaptive steering. ♪ the 328 horsepower q50 from infiniti.

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they serve this country. took an oath of allegiance while clothed in a uniform bearing the insignia of the united states. they put their lives on the line and then the united states kicked them out. veterans of the u.s. military who were lawful permanent residents or green card holders have been permanently expelled from the united states for committing crimes. this take no prisoners stance stems from the immigration and nationality act. the law passed by congress in 1996 made it easier to deport people who were in the country legally. legal permanent residents could be deport fed they committed a class of crimes only applicable to immigrants. called aggravated felonies. many are them separated from their familyies and forced to return to a country they no longer know. no one knows exactly how many

veterans have been deported because the department of homeland security says it doesn't keep those records. and neither do other government agencies. but according to banished veterans a group formed to help deportees at least hundreds and perhaps thousands have been deported in recent years. deported veterans some of whom are decorated and wounded remain absent from the very loud and very are visible debate in washington over immigration reform. while we wait for the courts to decide whether the u.s. will take on a realistic family-friendly path toward immigration reform we must ask, should the people who risk their lives to defend this country be forced to leave it? joining me now from washington, d.c. is craig shagen immigration lawyer. and joining us vie via skype from belize is kevin martinez u.s. maerm veteran who was himself deported. thanks to both of you for join pg us. i want to start with you, kevin. can you tell us what triggered your deportation?

>> yes. what triggered my deportation because simple battery case that i had when my ex-wife and i got into a domestic dispute. follow that dispute i spent a year in korea basically, you know doing the work for the military military. came back from korea. continued to work as a civilian that is. continued to work. and was going about my dailydaily work. i came to belize on vacation and upon returning to the u.s. i was stopped by a customs officer who told me then that i was deported in sba sten shah. i had no idea that i was going to be deported. >> kevin, can i ask you how long ago that was? how long have you been in belize and how long have you been separated from your family here

in the u.s.? >> december will make even years. december 2nd, exactly. >> okay. i want to turn to you, craig, as kevin describes essentially the triggering event, because these are not random detort tagss. these are actually deportations that are triggered by an arrest. why should the united states not deport, even if they were a lawful immigrant, who is arrested for a crime? >> well, in my view you deport people not because for punishment, you deport people because they have failed to live up to their obligation for their status in the united states and they are still aliens. however, once they enter the military they take an oath of allegiance to the united states. as you pointed out in the intro, they are literally clothed in the emblems and insignias of the united states. they are subject to the military code of conduct, which tells

them that they are fighting in the forces that defend their country and their way of life and they are prepared to give their life in that defense. when they're overseas they are subject to the status of forces agreement which treats them as american nationals. if they get shot at or they get arrested -- excuse me captured by the enemy they are treated as americans who are then prisoners of war in a foreign country. they're not treated as mexican-americans or italian-americans or english-americans. so swins we, for all intents and purposes, treat them when they're in uniform as american nationals, i don't think that status should change went the uniform comes off. >> i should point out that a lot of people may not know and the producers of this show i learned something today in the meetings running up to this show that lawful permanent residents scripted drafted into the wars of the civil war both of our

world wars as far as korea and vietnam. i want to ask you a version of the same question kevin. you took an oath and were subject to the uniform code of military justice. you knew the rules and knew the laws. why should you not be subject to deportation if, in fact you did commit a crime of simple battery? xwl i believe i paid the ultimate prices a citizen even though i'm not a citizen of the united states. i think i went far and beyond what some have gone you know? >> i want to come back out to the table because i know you're working on a case right now trying to help a veteran of the united states military to stave off or to fight deportation. talk a little bit about that. >> sure. so i think most americans would just be horrified by the system of justice we have for immigrants that have no due process, no right to a lawyer. immigration judges have been robbed of their ability to weigh any of the humanity of the person or contributions to the society, military or service.

i've listen working for howard bailey who came on a green card at 17. served in the persian gulf wars. honorably discharged and apply for citizenship where he disclosed he had a prior marijuana offense from ten years earlier. in the meantime he built two business, owned his home and family. he was deported. the immigration judge was not allowed to weigh anything in his life not even the fact that he honorably served in our military and he is in jamaica right now and we've been trying to bring him back. the federal government has not been cooperating. >> want to give you the last word, kevin. make your case to americans who may be skeptical about this idea of people like yourself, even though you clearly served this country and as you said did honorable service to the country, what would you tell lawmakers in washington who are looking at a case like yours? what would you like to see them do? >> what i would like for lawmakers to do is to weigh -- i understand veterans do commit crimes. but to weigh the crime -- i think my punishment doesn't fit

the crime that i committed. you know? i think that i -- i'm serving a -- it's like a maximum sentence that i'm serving. you know? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> all right. i want to thank you for being here kevin martinez in belize. and also i want to thank craig shagen in washington, d.c. and in new york i want to thank alisa and the rest of my panel is sticking around. up next two journalists ventured out and brought back dramatic new pictures from the border. some cash back cards make things so complicated. they limit where you earn bonus cash back ... here's the way i see it, you are point a, and your cash back is point b. the simple way between them, the quicksilver card from capital one. quicksilver earns you unlimited 1.5% cash back... on every purchase, everywhere. i said... unlimited. everywhere. now, that's more like it.

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last summer we saw thousand of unaccompanied minors streaming krisz the u.s./mexico worder capturing the attention of the nation and touching off dramatic scenes as some communities protested their arrival. in 2014 alone u.s. customs and border patrol officers

apprehended more than 68,000 unaccompanied children and another 70,000 people traveling together as families. the obama administration called it an urgent humanitarian situation and promised to stem the tide of unaccompanied central american migrants. that response indeed made an impact on the border between the united states and mexico. with the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border dropping sharply in the fall of 2014. but largely that impact has not resolved the crisis. instead, it has shifted the issue to mexico's southern border with guatemala where one of my next guests shot a stunning photo documentary series and i'll show you the imami'm in a moment. i want to bring in a frequent guest, elan james white, well show you the imams that he has from there. consider this a tale of two mexican borders. we're going to explore what's happening at both ends. joining me now from berkeley california, is james white, ceo

of this week and also with us is thomas, field investigator for noria research joining us via skype from onhonduras. the images you've been showing us from mexican border is stunning and dramatic. tell us what's been going on there and what happened since last summer's border crisis. do we have thomas? i think we have a little bit of problem with thomas' microphone. you have been doing a border story. first of all, ebbs plain to me why were you there, what drew you to the border and what work have you been doing? >> well, we were going down to the border as a delegation from net rich nation which is having their annual conference down in phoenix, arizona, this year. and we went down there to actually start to do some of the prework around immigration and see exactly what was happening in the environment. and so when we went down there

we went to tent city we went to the border. on the migrant trail to see exactly what people who were trying to crossover are going through and find out also some of the issues that when they are actually here, what the illegal raids, what's going on and what's -- what ends up happening to them. the criminalization of brown folks when they cross over into our system. >> let's play a little clip from the work that i've you've done, the stuff that you shot. >> it's a horrible feeling. i mean it's something that i -- i think some people just have to live it themselves so they can understand what it is that we go through. >> this is an example of a jug that i left out here on february 13th. you know sometimes draw stuff or just say good luck or little messages on it. and in this spot there was about 20 gallons left here and when we came in just now everything was

either gone or all the ones that are here empty, which means to me something drank them. >> and as we show some of the other images that you took elon what are the things happening on the border? what are the stuff about joe or pie oh's name being plastered, you showed pictures of the footwear that people are using to make their way. talk a little bit about that. why is joe arpaio's name everywhere? >> a lot of people obviously know as being basically the hand of terrorism against people of color, migrant work folks down in arizona. when you enter into maricopa county where he's sheriff his fame is plastered over everything. it's less of him being a sheriff and it's more like a brand of terrorism is the way i look at it. even in the clips you just showed, the first one, that young lady she is actually a felon now. she was actually -- before that she was a dreamer and she was

actually able to basically get -- be a part of daca what obama put down for the dreamers allowing them to have a path to citizenship. and because of a work raid that happened by arpaio ended up being deemed illegal, these work raids that he was doing, she was given a felony. and so at this point she's no longer a dreamer. she can't follow that because of these questionable practices. but then her -- even her story, she ended up being part of the lawsuit that got arpaio to stop the work raids happening. in this point she's still a felon. >> al fonfonso is dieing to get in here. >> i'm supportive of immigration reform. i served as chief of citizenship in the bush administration. i'm not a fan of joe arpaio. he's doing despicable things. let's not over simplify this issue. if we think for one minute that obama's immigration plan will fix this situation, that's a

total fallacy. as the guest was mentioning the majority of those people are not coming from humanitarian reasons. many are. we saw it with surge of unaccompanied minors. majority are coming here to work, come here to work return to their home country and re-enter. obama opposes a market oriented guest worker program that allows -- would allow for that circular migration because the unions. the unions don't want to see more foreign workers come in. so for all the talk yeah obama is for immigration reform it wouldn't resolve the problem in the border because you're seeing in the immigration courts people that have legitimate humanitarian concerns but the majority in the courts people who are here just because they want to work. >> and i wish we had more time to do this. thomas we didn't have your mike earlier. i want to talk to you quickly because part of the issue as alfonzo is describing is an issue to the just from mexico to the united states but it's also

from central and south america into mexico. so talk a little bit about what you found at the southern border of mexico. >> the southern mexican border and actually motion coas a country itself is the largest migrant corridor in the world. you have not only central americans, cuban, south americans as you mentioned. but the -- >> we've lost him again. i think we lost him again. we can see tomsa' images here and some of what he's showing are the young men, some as young as 14 years old coming alone across the border. i think you're making a solid point is that the migration that we're seeing, desperation to get into the yits is not a mexican problem. it is a central and south american problem coming through mexico. >> we're destroying families in mexico and central america. a lot of the kids, a third of the kids that came here during the surge were coming here to be with their parents because their parents could not go back to their countries to be with them. >> they're escaping gang

violence and tremendous violence i wish we had time to get in there because there is a larger -- >>s that a war zone down there. >> i wish we had more time. i want to thank elon james white coming to us from berkeley california, and tomas from on dur raus. up next, she managed toes cape from the clutches of boko haram and now the voices of hundreds of girls still missing. when you're living with diabetes steady is exciting. only glucerna has carbsteady clinically proven to help minimize blood sugar spikes. i'm a bull rider make it part of your daily diabetes plan. so you stay steady ahead. ♪ ♪

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it's been one year since nearly 300 nigerian girls were kidnapped from their school by the terrorist group boca haram. one years since the calls were amplified through social needia outrage and millions of tweets to the #bringbackourgirls. in that year there has been some response to that call. nigeria was joined by the united states and other allies in trying to find the missing girls. a military offensive conducted

by nigeria in collaboration with neighboring countries sought to reclaim territory from boca haram. for the first time incumbent president was voted out of office when ney jeer arians replaced former president goodluck jonathan largely seen as ineffective against the militant group with president elect buari. but in a 369 days since the girls were taken most of them still have not returned home. of the 276 girls kidnapped from a school in the nigerian town of chibok 219 are still missing. not a single girl has been rescued but about 60 managed to escape on their own and save themselves. one of those courageous young women is joining me today. joining me from washington, d.c. is a student from the the chibok school who escaped after being captured by boko haram. with her is emmanuel ogaba, human rights lawyer. joining me here in new york is reverend marsia dyson, founder

of the women's global initiative along with frankie, new york university's journalism school. thank you all. i want to start with you ask you to tell us your story. how did you manage to get away from boko haram? >> last year when the boko haram school and led us all in the truck and with us on the truck, three girls remain outside and two of them were christian. one of them was muslim. they asked the girls, one of the christian girls said that she was a muslim one said schefs ahe was a christian. one of the boko haram decided to kill her. said no should not kilmer and let the three girls run and go home. start going with us in the forest and i decided to jump out of the truck and i tell one of my friend a i'm going to jump out of the truck because i don't

know where i'm going with the boko haram so i'm going to jump out. i'd rather die. my parents will have my body to bury to go with boko haram. so i jump out of the truck. she followed me. and she injured her leg and she was able to crawl on her tummy and enter the forest and spent the night in the forest. and the next day i went in the forest and look for help and i found a shepherd in the forest who helped us and took us and help and carry my friend on his bicycle and took us to a village. we find a motorcycle that took us from there back home to our family. >> and can i ask you, this is such a difficult memory for you. but did the militants from boko haram, did they indicate what they wanted to do with you guys? where they were taking you, what they were taking you for? >> when they came they were asking us -- the first question they ask us is where are the guys. but they didn't tell us what they were going to do with us.

they int even tell us where we were going with them but they said that the place we were going is too far away. they didn't tell us what they were going to do with us. >> saa, can i ask you what your life has been like since you did escape from boko haram? >> you know today i came here. i'm free. and i'm safe. i'm continuing my study here and i thankful myself but my problem is that the colleagues are still in the hands of the terrorists. while it has been a year now that they are not here 219 are still with the terrorists and we need help. we need the government to do their best and try the way they can bring the girls back to school here and so they will be safe and free the way we are here in america. >> indeed. i want to go to emanuel and can you tell us what is it that the government now is doing to try to find these young women because it does seem unmanageable that after more than a year almost nothing has

been done. >> well, i mean in the last six weeks before the elections they made a desperate bid to rescue the girls and hopefully win election victory. that didn't happen. so it's difficult to tell what else is happening. but the international community which rallied around to try and find the girls walked away from the search long ago and that's the shame here. if we're still searching for the air my asia aircraft after one year. we should search for these girlts. they're not under water and not unrecoverable. they need to step back into the fray. >> as a member of the international community, why do you suppose this seems to have lost international resonance si after a year? >> simply black women's lives don't matter. what's heroic about he's girls is not only do they bring that awareness, along with black women like fredericka wilson and karen bass but these girls were targeted like malala because

people thought they should not be educated but what women's globe initiative and joining the world ebony network, raising funds here in the united states is making sure that they're crafted into a voice to say that we matter not only in nigeria but around the world. if you met saa the most amazing thing to her when i introduced her at howard university she was able to tell these students that when she looked back at her experience and being educated a little bit in america that she felt like the man who said give me liberty or give me death that she would rather die than to be a bride of a terrorist. and that resonated so with the audience there. >> of course. >> and here in america as well. >> indeed. we have very little time. i want to ask you this question. because this is what people want to know. will this new government now that goodluck jonathan is on his way out is there a chance the new government will do a better job? >> absolutely. he's known for being having very severe and fierce and does not tolerate indiscipline. one of the reasons why ney joo

jeerians wholeheartedly decided to go with him is because he had six years to try and find this girls. all at least squash boko haram. to find the girls but six years to squash boko haram. >> i wish we had more time. thank you. marsia, thank you for being here. we accept want to of course thank eman yell and saa for joining us from washington, d.c. coming up next the fight for 15 and the race for 16. why your paycheck has become the issue of the presidential race. more top of the hour.

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welcome back. i'm joy reid in for melissa. right now in washington the global citizen 2015 earth day event is just getting under way at the national mall. organizers expect more than 250,000 people to attend the rally which will feature

performances by no doubt, usher, and many more. the event is being organized by global poverty project whose mission is to end extreme poverty around the globe. msnbc host thomas roberts is there in d.c. in the thick of it all. all right, thomas what's the vibe on the mall and have you gotten your spf 99,000 on? >> no but i've mid friends who have 85 plus. can you hold up your 85 plus? i've made friends in the crowd that have 85 plus that could help me out because we are working on our tan lines here and we've already got some. yes. but it's going to be an mazing day here. about 80 degrees right now. the ceo of the project said he just wanted the sun to shine. boy, have we gotten the sun to shine. if you can see me backpedal my way into this shot. it's an amazing day here. it's bringing together the two concepts of global citizen and earth day into one to make sure we're talking about earth

difficult and also about global poverty. we've got amazing acts scheduled to take the stage coming up here shortly. as you pointed out, joy, we've got my morning jacket there's fallout boy, mary j. blige, usher, no doubt, will.i.am will be here as a presenter. it's streaming on msnbc starting at 11:30. >> we got that wrong because it is ursher. >> thank you very much thomas roberts. have a great time. bye. >> i am having a great time. this is fun. >> looks like a lot of fun. a lot of people. i want to bring in msnbc ronan farrow who has i have to say the best spot in the house. back stamg with all the celebs. >> pretty good here joy. joy, i wish you were here. you would enjoy the show. we've got all the artists gearing up. you mentioned my morning jacket. they're right here. some folks from my morning jacket turning up their guitars. i'll just take you on the route the artists are taking as they file on stage. we've been seeing them coming

and going right here mary j. blige's equipment. joy, don't you wish you were here to see mary j. guitar keys. here we've got train. some times we have sentimental with a train song. as you know since this is an ate day earth day concerts themes about sustainability. the technical master minds. seth here our friend making the mechanics of the show happen. and then this is the way the artists go when they file out to this crowd which joy is going to top 250,000 people today. you can see we have the monument behind us. it's a beautiful day. here with me now to talk about the underlying serious issues here joy, kathleen the head of the earth day network. kathleen, it's a me sure. i actual lu once hitchhiked with kathleen in d.c. she has done incredible work with earth day. tell me about why is the more

than just talk. what are the kinds of results and metrics that come out of a concert like this? >> well it's a first amendment event on the mall. we have a billion people participating in earth day worldwide and we'll probably have a quarter of a million here. i think it's a great combination. it's incredible weather. there are so many issues in 2015 climate change treaty sustainable development dpoelgoals. >> what's one thing that either people in the crowd or watching at home should do? >> there are a couple of things. download our app, global citizen 2015 earth day app. go on our website and sign up for a billion acts of green. we hit 1.23 billion actions and hoping to hit 2 billion today. >> joy, usually there's a lot of skepticism about events like this and whether they have actual outputs that matter. i think in this case we've seen in previous years we dead big donations from governments and organizations like the world bank meeting today as well. we're looking at real results maybe out of today as well. we'll be watch that closely. it's a fun day anyway. >> ronan farrow, i love that.

bringing together activism and mary j. blige in one fabulous package. have a good time. thank you very much sir. all right. don't forget you can catch the action on the main stage at msnbc.com/globalcitizenearthday. from the welfare of global citizens to here in the u.s. on wednesday we saw something incredible. ten of thousands of low wage workers and activists gathered no other than 200 american cities demanding $15 an hour of living wage. enough to feed and clothe and educate their families. to give their children a better chance. organizers led by thor vis employees international union said it was the largest protest by low wage workers in american history. there's a huge demand more than double the federal minimum wage. and unlikely to be met directly. on a national level with congressional legislation. but these men and women are doing what successful movements do. they are forcing a conversation.

they are forcing the powerful in this country and the wannabe powerful to take a stand on the minimum wage and on income and inequality. it's through their efforts we've seen ten cities and 15 states incrossin increase their minimum wage requirements. we've heard the president of the united states raise the employees for contractors while also calling for a higher wage for every worker. >> everyone in this congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage i say this if you truly believe you can work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year try it. if not, vote to give millions of the hardest working people in america a raise. >> and it's through their efforts we see huge corporations like walmart and mcdonald's announcing higher pay for 1078 of their employees beyond what's required by law. it's through their efforts we see the 2016 presidential candidate, democrat and

republican, forced to tell us where they stand on income inequality. it is because of this and similar movements like the occupy wall street protests which gave us the powerful language of the 1% versus the 99%. like moral mondays, framed economic opportunity as a question of right and wrong because of these efforts that some of the 2016 candidates are basing their entire campaign on fighting inequality. candidates like former secretary of state hillary clinton who tweeted on wednesday, every american deserves a fair shot at success. fast food and child care workers shouldn't have to march in the streets a for living wages. h. clinton is presenting herself as a populous and a champion in her words of the middle class. those striving towards and those striving towards it. she's heavily relying on the language of inequality. >> there's something wrong when ceos make 300 times more than the typical worker. there's something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower

tax rates than nurses or the truckers that i saw on i-80. there's something wrong went students and their fam i wills have to go deeply into debt to be able to get the education and skills they need in order to make the best of their own lives. >> it's not just hrc. even republicans are finding it beneficial to acknowledge that there is a problem and to promise to fight it. >> i think social mobility is the great challenge of our time. the question is why is it now that fewer and fewer people have the skills necessary to achieve earned success? and that is where i think we feed to take our stand. we need to grow our economy faster so that there's more jobs available and focus on making sure that people have the skills to be able to take those jobs and move up. >> this is a movement that has already done one of the most important things any movement can do. it has made everyone take notice. especially the people who want to be our next president. up next out of the class of

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i'm run for president because i think that americans and their families need a champion. and i want to be that champion. i want to stand up and fight for people so that they cannot just get by but they can get ahead and they can stay ahead. >> that was hillary clinton in iowa this week making the case for why she is the champion of the poor and the middle class. but it's a title of a lot of her 20 -- a title that a lot of her 2016 opponents are claiming too. here to help figure out what is the true people's champion is ari and cohost of "the cycle,"

founder of the lieu republicans and president of public squared. alfonzo avenue lar, latino partnership and -- not alisa, we actually have saday who is not the person in my prompter at the moment. so i will give you honorary. senior attorney at the national employment law project. now that we've given everybody their proper titles, let's talk about hillary. i'm going to start with you because we have worked this game before in the campaign world. this rollout of hillary clinton as a real populous is a change from the new democrat positions that we had both she and her husband had before. smart politics? >> i think it is smart politics. i think it's reflective of where the democratic party is but where a lot of conversation is. if we want to do the compare and cop trast of her last rollout, she said, look, i'm in it to win it. that applyies to just about every

sane candidate and i want to hear from you. fine, but neither of those things told us much about what she wanted to go. it's very different. more substantive. more policy oriented. about the middle class. about working families. most importantly i thought on her first public campaign event there it was about the way money is crowding out and structural level even the ability to have these debates about wall street about middle class economics. she said we need to change the way we fund campaigns even if it's takes a constitutional amendment. i would remind students of politics the last time we had mainstream presidential squaent candidate running on a constitutional amendment was george w. bush on an amendment to ban marriage equality one that he never actually pursued. but it tells you a lot. you're not going to roll out five or ten constitutional amendments. it tells you a lot about the one use pick. that told us a lot about where he was and the politics he was doing. i think to the shame of his historic legacy. others can judge. with her, embrace of democratic

party but a fed up view of congress that is i think completely trans partisan when you talk about the money. money is a problem for democrats. raising money off wall street which constrains what they can do. it's a problem for republicans because they want to know what does marco rubio think, not whatlewhat adelson thinks. you're doing to stack up to a lot of pressure on the kind of president you would be. >> it's interesting because i was a skeptic of the occupy wall street out come in the sense they didn't organize anything politically. they got a lot of attention. in a sense are we now witnessing kind of the ultimate have beenry of occupy because -- i mean that because this language of 1% the language of the powerful versus the ordinary person that cascaded into the 2012 election 47% mitt romney gaffe which was just him sort of talking other members of the wealthy class. have we seen the progressive movement win the war even if they lost battles early on?

>> we can't underestimate the affect that occupy has then. october pie activists were articulating a vision of the world that they thought was really screwed up. when they talk about income inequality they put it into the national conversation. the fight for 15 the strikes that we saw on wednesday, hillary clinton now tweeting that she stands in support of fast food and child care workers striking even though she does not say what the minimum wage should be. that's the krystalization of the frustration that occupied showed to the world and the fight for 15 i think it's been -- it has been able to garner support not just among progressives but when you see the workers out on strike wednesday, it wasn't just fast food workers, it was adjunct fro fessers making poverty wages, imaking a few thousand dollars per course. 42% of them that want change. and so i think the candidates are responding to that and not

just to, you know the progressive or right wing. >> i see a smile that tells me that is skepticism on the alfonzo side of the table. >> income inequality is a real issue for most americans. it's not just because of the occupy movement. i hate to burst the bub of liberals but the occupy movement may have had an impact on the progressive movement but not most americans. most americans during this administration have seen income inequality expand. household income go down. it's because of the progressive policies of this president. now, in terms of hillary, is she going to align with the liberal policies of obama or be more of a centrist like bill clinton? i don't know if she's being very substantive right now. is she going to continue einvolving or we don't know. >> such a skeptic. i do want to ask, and i understand that of course on the republican side it was going to be a lot of skepticism. is it that easy to throw on to the obama administration the income inequality that's been

expanding since the 1980s. is it the fault of the administration that ceos have decided to pay themselves 300 times more than their average worker? can you lay that on a president? >> i think the criticism you're putting forward doesn't match what we've heard from most the financial community and wall street which is not that he's feeding inequality, this president, but rather he's putting on too many rules as it is to many what are watered down dodd frank s.e.c. rules about executive pay and not actually mandateing any pay and even that's been criticized. i think there's a tension here between the republican attacks trying to blame the president for what is happening in the larger macro economic trends and the republicans on wall street who fund a good portion of the party have said he's already doing too much which is it? as toer what hillary clinton has to do and the republicans i think to their credit some of them are coming around to embrace the issue as well. the question is what are they going to do about it? spell it out. we're seeing indications we're

seeing hillary clinton not going to the same group of advisers. i believe garyry ginsler is being announced. yes, it's going to be a long campaign whether you like it or not which leaves it a long time to flesh these things out. we're doing to stalk more about the republicans but you do see even on wall street there's this politico piece where the wall street hedge fund said oh, hillary clinton, you know she has to say it. it's may be good politics to say it but it doesn't portend to pour salt on the rich. wall street feels they're going to win even if they hate the president. they still win? >> i think you're on to something here. that's the bigger issue. hillary had a lot of hutzpah saying this is eight years of a democratic president and the people at the top have it stacked. she's then next week a few days later say to the lobbyist class where i live i welcome your funding. i absolutely welcome your funding and charges $250,000 a

speech. she's living in an elite world. the polling is a siing americans all recognize and occupy did have an important voice in this. so did the tea party. they're both working class groups who are saying i don't believe in the american deem anymore. i can't get ahead. my kids can't get it. they know that. >> we're going to come back -- >> real quick though. $250,000 speeches you don't have to be poor to fight for poor people. you don't have to be on death row to be against the death penalty. >> #fdr. >> let's be fair to all the candidates, democrat and republican, not just whether they have been successful. >> hold on. hot debate. i want to let you guys have it after the break, however. after the break. then i have to make a comment. after the break. up next the one place where all the republican wannabes want to be ruth now. we will take you there live if we can get this panel to watch this commercial.

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today is day two of the first in the nation republican leadership summit in new hampshire. it's latest opportunity for contenders for the 2016 presidential nomination to reintroduce themselves and establish their positions on the issues. yesterday's lineup of speakers included former texas governor rick perry. new jersey governor chris christie former florida governor jeb bush and florida senator marco rubio. the second day of the summit got under way earlier this morning and expected to speak at the events today are kentucky senator rand paul louisiana governor bobby jindal ohio governor john casekasig. msnbc political correspondent kasie hunt is in new hampshire. we've been talking this morning about this issue of wealth and income inequality and how that's emerging as a central issue in the 2016 campaign. has this come up with the people who have been speaking there at the summit?

>> good afternoon. it's still good morning. we've been up here for quite some time now, melissa. this is i would say, a broad theme that underlies a lot of the speeches that are here. i think that many of these republicans don't use the words income inequality to describe it when i asked jeb bush about it he used the word social mobility. almost all of these candidates are talking about this as a major issue and there's a major stream of populism along these line that's running through all of these republican candidates. i will say one person who spends a lot of time on this isn't actually at the summit and that's rick santorum. he's the only republican in the field right now who actually supports raising the minimum wage. but i think that what stood out to me the most was marco rubio who spoke last night and he's probably generated the best response of anyone that's spoke here to so far. he talks lot about the american dream and the way he describes it is this kind of thing matters to him because it's personal. >> my father worked events just

like this for decades and into his 70s. he stood behind a bar just like the one at the back of this room. on nights when he was tired, when he didn't want to work he stood behind that bar because the purpose of my parents' life became was to give us all the chances they never had, to open all the doors for us that were not open for them that all the dreams they once had for themselves would come true for me. >> reporter: so there you have it. and that i think is the way that rubio tells stories about his own life is a striking difference from many of the rest in this field. i think he's done a good job of striking an emotional chord. you've even seen some some of his events even the people working there, the bartenders will stop and listen to hear what he has to say. joy? >> thank you very much kasie hunt in nashua new hampshire. up next while new jersey governor chris christie says it's time to cut entitlements?u show

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some potential 2016 don tenders see a different kind of waemt gap that must be closed. here's new jersey governor chris christie in new hampshire this week unveiling his plan to cut social security medicare and medicaid. >> frankly, washington is afraid to have an honest conversation about social security medicare and medicaid with the people of our country. i am not. unless we deal with the crisis the young people of this country will get poorer the disparity between young and old, the working middle class and the retired will grow even larger. >> okay, rich there goes the senior vote for chris christie. can you win even a republican primary by explicitly running on cutting medicare and social

security despite medicaid? >> he's out of it right now for a vurtity of reasons. he's trying to find a way back in by saying i might have a belligerent personality but i will cut where no one will cut. republicans at their core know that the entitlement programs are not sustainable so they're looking for someone who will use that boldness to take it on. for him it's a way to jump-start a dead race right now for him. >> i may be pugnacious but i will cut your medicare and social security. i don't understand it. i want to go back to what we heard from marco rubio using my parents worked as a bartender, et cetera. kasie hunt said he was uniquely resonating with that. you also have scott walker attempting to relate to the common man with his rhetoric. let's listen to scott walker a little bit. >> i know after many years of practice that if i'm going to go buy a shirt i go to that rack that says it was $29.99 and now

it's $19.99 and then i get the sunday insert out with the little scratchoff and i take it off to the cash register along with my credit card. >> i'm relatable to you in the sense that i shopped like you or my parents worked working class jobs if the next thing you say is i'm also going to cut social security private advertise it as marco rubio wants to do, if your policies are not populous? >> no that's why a republicans need to focus on developing a con serve tive economic populous message. it's easy for democrats to say the way we deal with this is by raising the minimum wage and having more government entitlement programs and that's going to help. that's not going to help. but republicans need to show how their small government policies their pro growth policies actually help grow the economy and create good paying jobs. for example, when you talk about cutting corporate taxes you have to say, if you only say i'm going to cut corporate taxes,

want the benefit corpses but you have to say how that helps increase wages. >> how does it? >> -- for americans. >> yeah, how does it? >> well, it does because if you have more government overregulation, you have companies, wealthy people investing in the economy, you have -- you're doing to have job creation and you're doing to have people making more money. >> i mean -- >> it hasn't happened. it's happening right now. >> we have seen the failure of trickle down economics for decades. the fact that people still try to pretend that cutting taxes for the incredibly wealthy. just this week the house republicans passed a repeal of the estate tax, a move that would benefit, what 5,000 of the wealthiest fam iilies in america calling it what it is right now. that's not creating jobs for the vast majority of the workforce. >> it's the office creating jobs. it's not. >> we had it during the 1980s. and we did not have the kind of

job creation we have now. under this president you have had significant job creation. it's very difficult to argue the macro economics, is it not? >> i think so. the bigger picture is that the two old models of the republicans and democrats for solving the problem are old, tired, and don't work in a global economy. democrats look at a pie. and we've got to take from the rich, give to the poor. and you're me sured by your compassion, how much you give benefits to the poor. it's a failed strategy. republicans have said the trickle down style. if the rich get richer it's guaranteed to trickle down to the poor. that's not true in a global economy where jobs are outsourced and where the business customers are outsourced and where the wealthy people put their money outsource outsourced outsourced. it's a global economy. and that's whole different strategy we've never had to face. >> two points. your description of the so-called democratic approach doesn't involve power in the equation. you're saying take from the rich, give to the poor. >> yeah. >> most companies will run according to the power in the company. organized labor and regulation are both ways to deal with the power of basically management

that may, without any other pressures, want to pay itself more than the majority of people that work for the company and without competition and without those protection, those folks are going to be left behind. that's why you say what should the companies do? walmart is a good barometer of big american company raising wages. point number two. that's a debate trick now i get to speak again. the second point is elizabeth warren isn't just wushpushing hillary clinton to the left. she is clearly having an echo effect on the republican party. i think that's good. i think it is great that marco rubio and scott walker in their own ways reer toically are trying to speak to these issues. the question of course is voters will then get to assess what the solutions are. look this is a republican party that when mitt romney was dabbling with running again he said it would be all about income inequality. that suggests that republicans tr trying to keep up with the progressive critiques of this economy. >> they're not going to doubt liberal policies i'm happy with walmart wants to increase wages.

>> you said that wouldn't help. >> no let the companies do that. they're in a better position to determine if they want to increase wages. what i'm against is the federal government saying every single company needs to provide a wage of $15. >> i think there's an empirical case to be made that companies are doing it to the pressure outside of their walls coming from this larger movement. let's go to jeb bush. we have left him out. he, too, is talking about these issues in a different way. i think in a way that's more like what alfonso was describing. let's listen to jeb bush talking about the minimum wage. >> there are a lot of businesses that will have to lay people off if you raise the federal minimum wage. if states want to do it fine. but there ought -- there are better ways. expanding the earned taxable income. making sure that people have skills to be able to get a job that's way above the minimum wage is another. growing the economy faster so that people can rise up and aren't stuck in low-paying jobs. >> so that is jeb bush playing

the role of alfonso at our table here saying what alfonso said. will that message resonate outside the republican based electorate electorate? >> no, if you don't want to make the minimum wage, develop skills and move out of that minimum wage jobs. that's not the reality of the vast majority of americans. i know you're shaking your head. but it is a fact that wages in this country have stagnated or fallen for the bottom 70% of the workforce. that is tnot just minimum wage earner earners. that message is not going to resonate but for the very small minority of people who ideologically are opposed to a federal minimum wage. the $7.25 federal minimum wage has been that since 2009. i don't think anybody a part from, again, that very small minority thinks that sufficient to raise a family on. >> three things in that clip two could be seen as broadly center left. income tax credit pushed by the clinton administration to help working families. and he said get the economy

going. he's run for president. he's not running for ceo. if the president wants to get the economy going i assume that involves the government doing something. >> 5.5% unemployment. >> of his views there would be government related and center left. by the way, that's a good thing. sometimes democrats don't know how to declare victory when the republican party is fighting on democratic turf. >> i want to thank everybody. alfonso, ari, rich are sticking around. i not saying good-bye. i'm just saying bye for now. >> thanks for being here. >> now before we go to break, on a completely different note friday afternoon president obama held a joint press on frens with the prime minister of italy and fielded a question on the holdup over the vote to confirm his attorney general nominee, loretta lynch. listen. >> there's no reason for it. nobody can describe a reason for it beyond political gamesmanship

in the senate on an issue that's completely unrelated to her. this is the top law enforcement job in the country. what are we doing here? and i have to say that there are times where the dysfunction in the senate just goes too far. this is an example of it. it's gone too far. enough. enough. >> on the barack obama scale that. counts as blooind wage. up next, the ef tooer teachers headed to prison for cheating on tests. does the punishment fit the crime? ♪o prison for cheating on tests. does the punishment fit the crime? ♪ ♪

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ten educators were sentenced after being convicted of racketeering and other charges. prosecutors say they participated in a con sparspiracy to falsely complete scores on standardized tests. cheating in 44 atlanta schools with teachers in some cases giving students answers or erasing and changing answers. the educators could have faced up to 20 years in prison for the racketeering charges alone. before sentencing their supporters including former atlanta mayor and zichl rights activist andrew young argued the real problem was the intense pressure put on teachers to raise test scores. >> i think these teachers got caught in a trap. dr. king used to say when crime -- when people are placed in darkness, crimes will be committed. but the guilty are not just those who commit the crimes but those who create the darkness. >> judge jerry baxter was unswayed calling the case quote, the sickest thing that's

ever happened in atlanta. >> there were thousands of children that were harmed in this thing. this is not a victimless crime that occurred in this city. from 2001 there was whole-scale cheating going on in the atlanta public schools and these kids were passed on and passed on and had no chance to begin with. >> the judge urged the educators to accept plea deals in exchange for lenient sentences. they will be required to accept responsibility and waive the right to appeal. the two educators that accepted was rewarded. one year 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. curfew at home. another sentenced to six months weekends in jail. both will serve five years probation. the eight educators who refused the plea deal were given a minimum of one year in prison. with three regional directors getting the harshest sentence bs seven years in prison, more than double the recommendation of prosecutors. those eight educators are

expected to appeal and while the case may be over for you, the debate over the consequences of high stakes texting rages on. as my next guest wrote for the huffington post it will make other than pressure for our schools to improve and sending the educators in atlanta to prison for cheating will not address the largest problem this country faces in educating its children. still -- still with me in new york, joining us now from miami is the author of that article, pedro, professor of sociology in nyu and executive director of the metropolitan director of urban education. the judge this scanned is the sickest thing to happen in atlanta, georgia. >> well, i think we should all be outraged by what's happened here and it's not just the cheating which of course is wrong. but this sentence rendered by the judge is just outrageous. we have seen bankers go off, we've seen hedge fund managers and police officers as well as teacher, teefers who have had

sex with children have been treated less harshly than the educators in this case. there's no question that they should be held accountal. they should be denied the right to ever work in education again. but this kind of punishment i think really mises the larger point of what's goning on not only atlanta but in the country the way we've been using testing and the way we've been applying tre pre sure to get higher scores. you begin to create incentives to cheat and that's what's happening not just in atlanta but many districts throughout the country. >> what kind of pressure was there on these teachers and these schools and in your mind was this some sort of really nefarious criminal conspiracy or were the teachers acting out in desperation? >> the sad thing, this clear evidence that schools in atlanta did improve under the leadership of beverly hall. atlanta was the laughing stock of the nation where they were fights among school board

members and many schools in total disarray. beverly hall not only brought order to the system but we saw many schools including park middle school which was cited as the epicenter of the cheating significantly improve and you can see that from the climate and culture in the building. however, that was not reflected in the test skeercores. they were under pressure not only from beverly hall but the governor and state legislature to show dramatic improvement. under that pressure some educators chose to cheat and apparently went on quite extensively throughout the system. and so i think the sad thing is that they were not content with slow but steady progress in the school system and instead wanted to see the dramatic rises not possible without the cheating that occurred. >> i want to come out at panel because the specific charge of racketeering used here i guess viscerally feels inappropriate and excess i. was it in your view? >> well, racketeering is based on a 1970 federal law in georgia

has a version of it and racketeering influence corrupt organizations act deals with the kind of crimes that involve a group of people. if one person says to another, in a mafia case i guess so want you to kill someone and you do the act, rico has us to do the serious crime. i didn't do it. i wasn't at the emergency and i was abroad. no, you were a part of this corrupt organization. it can be applied in that sense no any organization including one publicly funded or government in the case of schools. so it is not legally out of balance to apply it this way. having said that in terms of the discretion used here it is one of the most serious charges you can use under federal or state law. it is carries very serious penalties. five to 20 years in georgia. you have the kochcombination of that use of that law in some of the other examples just mentioned. obviously wasn't used in the case of i, say, inappropriate conduct between a teacher or

student or other violent crimes that get less time. then you have a second aspect which is in this scenario you had many individual defendants choose not to take the plea which is their right. they are then getting a stiffer sentence because of that. that's why this story i will say is a story about poverty, a story about education, but it's also a story about law and a system we have where for people who don't cooperate sometimes they will get punished far more separate from the crime itself. just their choice to exercise their right not to take a plea or not to take a sentencing deal. >> i want to quickly play because it's a story object teachers and parents and kids. let's play one of the parents involved and how they're reacting to the sentences. >> these children are still here, still trying to adjust. they are the ones that have to make up for the lack of education that they received. so, you know we have a lot of work to do in our city. we have a lot of trust to restore in our school system. we have a lot of children to apologize to and to love on and let them know that we will never allow this to happen in the

atlanta public schools ever again. >> rich, you know this does feel like a piece with this overhaul push against teachers that i have to say is happening from conservative republican governments who blame teachers for everything in the world, take away their pensions take away their benefits take away the union organizing and now they are criminalized in this way. >> there's a big problem in the country, we talked about income incomeinequality that plays it itself out. i've been a fan of measurement and taken part in the legislation to measure but when the measurements came out, political leaders said no i'm not taking the blame for this and they are looking for someone. that's why they're opposed to common core and no child left behind. they're blaming the teachers facing -- and the secret you have to test measure and bring resources to help those when you see the deficiency. that's how it's supposed to work. not raise your score magically which happened all over the country. >> do you expect to see any

appeals successful or do you anticipate they could be? >> i think there will be an appeal. hopefully there will be a call throughout the country for this to be revisited and for justice to prevail. i think this is excessive. the opt out movement growing around the country and we saw it this week with thousands of parents chose to not take the test is going to challenge this kind of abuse in testing that we've seen going on throughout america. >> absolutely. >> no child left behind. >> pedro from miami, florida, thank you very much. thank you to ari and rich. up next our foot soldiers of the week putting their best foot forward for a worthy cause. ♪ ♪ you're only young once. unless you have a subaru. (announcer) the subaru xv crosstrek. symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 34

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the united states more than 293,000 people are sexually assaulted every year. that amounts to one sexual assault every 107 seconds. 68% of assaults are not reported to police and just 2% of

perpetrators will serve jail time. in 2012 there were 2,406 instances of rape in south carolina alone. statistics like those are a vital part of efforts to spread awareness, support survivors and prevent assault. our foot soldiers this week went the extra mile. on wednesday night, south carolina's sexual trauma services of the midlands hosted its sixth annual awareness march called walk a mile in their shoes. more than 2500 men and women gathered at richland mall in columbia south carolina wearing high heels to embark on a one-mile walk meant to start a dialog about sexual assault. that's 2,000 more attendees than the first wuk in 2009. among those in attendance the states attorney general. even cleveland browns quarterback conner shaw who played college football at the university of south carolina. collectively shaw and the other marchers who signed up for the walk either individually or in

teams raised more than $80,000 through sponsors and direct donations. the money will go towards supporting sexual assault survivors in the state. now if you were a fan of this show you will know that we are a big fan of heels, worn by both women and men. heels are not just her shoes. in sexual assault is not just her issue. an event organizers tell us that is an essential part of the message that walk is meant to convey that violence against women is a problem the entire community must face. likewise violence against members of the lbgt community is an issue everyone must ban together to solve. so for raising money and awareness for survivors of sexual assault and for unifying an entire community behind a single cause, the sexual trauma services of midlands and all the participants who put on those pumps are literally our foot soldiers of the week. and that is our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching. i will see you tomorrow morning

at 10:00 a.m. eastern. now time for a preview with alex witt. what's going on? >> good to see you and share the studio again. i look forward to doing it again tomorrow. meantime new reaction from the towing company where an espn reporter's rant was videotaped. does the worker she told off want her fired? 40%, how much food produced in this country which goes to waste. i'll talk to the producers of a documentary called "just eat it" airing on msnbc about this issue. plus when a compliment becomes harassment. the signs popping up aimed at ending cat calls. don't go anywhere. i'll be right back.

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♪ ♪ when you're living with diabetes steady is exciting. only glucerna has carbsteady clinically proven to help minimize blood sugar spikes. i'm a bull rider make it part of your daily diabetes plan. so you stay steady ahead. weekend in new hampshire. almost every potential republican presidential candidate is in that state today. we'll tell you who's making the biggest splash. the fight over loretta lynch. new and stronger calls for some of the gop to stop stalling her confirmation. what's the latest holdup?