captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: president obama announced a shakeup at the top of his foreign policy team today, naming u.n. ambassador and long time ally susan rice to be national security adviser. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we take a closer look at rice's record, the nominee to replace her as u.n. ambassador and what that means for america's role abroad. >> woodruff: then, we get the latest on the battle for a key syrian city, as government forces claim they have retaken control of qusair.

>> ifill: margaret warner reports from lebanon on the spike in sectarian violence in the country's second largest city. >> in the past five weeks alone, three dozen people have been killed and at least 250 wounded. it's the worst sectarian fighting lebanon has seen in the nearly quarter century since its own civil war ended in 1990. >> woodruff: plus, we debate the potential economic benefits and costs of immigration reform. >> ifill: and the civil rights activist medgar evers was honored today at arlington national cemetery. we examine his legacy, as we near the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i want to make things more secure. >> i want to treat more dogs. >> our business needs more cases. >> where do you want to take your business? >> i need help selling art. >> from broadband, to web hosting, to mobile apps, small business solutions from a.t.&t. can help get you there.

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a new national security advisor is taking her place at the white house, after four years at the united nations. word of the realignment came today from the president. >> i am extraordinarily proud to announce my new national security advisor, our outstanding ambassador to the united nations susan rice. >> woodruff: the afternoon announcement in the white house rose garden confirmed a long anticipated shift. rice replaces tom donilon, who's stepping down after more than two and a half years as national

security advisor. >> susan is the consummate public servant, a patriot who puts her country first. she is fearless, she is tough. >> woodruff: that was as close as the president came to mentioning the fierce republican criticism aimed at rice after the attack on a u.s. diplomatic post in benghazi, libya. she initially relied on the administration's official version of events, depicting it as an act of muslim outrage. instead, it was a terror attack. rice played no role in crafting the so-called "talking points," but republican congressman doug lamborn of colorado said today she shares some blame. >> she went on the talk shows and just parroted the talking points that she was given. she showed no critical thinking, she showed no independent thought, and we need those qualities in a national security advisor. and she failed that test. >> woodruff: last december, amid

the furor, rice withdrew from consideration to be secretary of state. unlike that post, the job of national security advisor does not require senate confirmation. today, a leading senate critic of rice-- republican john mccain -- tweeted that he disagrees with the appointment but will make every effort to work with her. and, rice made clear she's ready to get to work. >> as you've outlined, we have vital opportunities to seize and ongoing challenges to confront. we have much still to accomplish on behalf of the american people and i look forward to continuing to serve on your national security team to keep our nation strong and safe. >> woodruff: in four years at the u.n., rice has advocated using economic and trade restrictions to try to rein in nuclear programs, both in north korea... >> taken together, these sanctions will bite and bite

hard. they increase north korea's isolation and raise the cost to north korea's leaders of defying the international community. >> woodruff: ...and in iran... >> it is a strong, broad-based our aim remains to persuade iran to halt its nuclear programm and negotiate constructively and in earnest with the international community. >> woodruff: the ambassador also sharply criticized chinese and russian vetoes of u.n. resolutions aimed at the syrian government. to replace rice at the u.n., the president today nominated samantha power. she is a human rights expert who wrote a pulitzer prize winning book on genocide a decade ago, and who served as a white house advisor until earlier this year. power also worked on the president's 2008 campaign, but had to resign after making

disparaging remarks about rival democrat hillary clinton during the primaries that year. for more on what today's announcements mean for president obama's foreign policy we get two views. richard haass was director of policy planning at the state department during the george w. bush administration. he's now president of the council on foreign relations and author of "foreign policy begins at home." anne-marie slaughter also directed the state department's policy planning shop, but during the obama administration. she's now professor of politics and international affairs at princeton university. and we welcome you both to the "newshour." anne-marie slaughter to you first, let's talk about susan rice. to begin, we heard the president call her fierceless and tough. how is she going to fit in with the foreign policy team? >> well, i think she's been a core member of the foreign policy team from the beginning. i mean, really, as a u.n. ambassador, she's been in the white house, in and out of the white house the whole time. she's played a key role.

this is not going to be that much of a transition i think for the white house in terms of policy. >> woodruff: but, richard haass, she's going to be just a few steps away from the president down the hall in the west wing. we also heard the president say it runs-- she knows how to throw an elbow, that it runs in her family. what does that say? >> well, you know, that may well be true, but what we need is a national security adviser who ready can wear two hats. on the one hand in this case she will have to be the principal honest broker, the person who makes sure the president is well served by the process, he gets the advice he wants, that decisions are implementing faithfully and efficiently. and second of all, she's going to have to be a counselor. no one has ever done it better than brent scowcroft, though her predecessor, tom donilon, i thought did an extraordinarily good job. >> woodruff: an honest broker, anne-marie. is that how you see the role? >> that's not the only way to do the role.

she does have to make sure all views are heard, but some national security council advisers have have been more of the counselor side who have a more advisory role and susan will craft the role the way she is naturally fitted to it and and really what the president wants. the thing to know about susan rice above all, she's a true professional. she will do what the president needs. she already demonstrated that. she stepped down when she realized continuing to be a candidate for secretary of state was hurting the president. she stepped down. she said the, "the last i think i want to do is hurt him," and she will do the job that he wants her to do. >> woodruff: a "new york times" piece described her as someone in favor of liberal intervention. how much does it matter what her personal views are? >> well, she can make these views known to the the president,aise expect she will, but the president doesn't have to, if you will, take her advice. so far, the administration i think quite properly has

resisted many of the calls, which i think are ill advised for certain forms of intervention in syria. you have to look at the costs. you have to look at the likely benefits. you have to look at alternative uses for american power. so she, as well as samantha power, may very well make these arguments to the president. but so far at least npart because of tom donilon, the administration has shown real strategic restraint, and i would hope it will continue to. >> woodruff: anne-marie slaughter, do you see policies changing under susan rice, and specifically with regard to syria? >> well, you agree with richard that i think the president makes up-- definitely has his own views on this. i think he's getting lot of different advice. i disagree on the merits. i think he's making a real mistake. i think in the end what has been a war in syria is going to turn into a conflagration across the middle east. the one thing susan rice brings there that's very important-- she was in the clinton white house under rwanda, and she saw what happened when something that originally was a

humanitarian call to intervene in a genocide went unaddressed, and the result is we have a war across central africa where two million people have died and it is a tank strategic problem. so i think she and samantha power both understand the ways in which the humanitarian and the strategic are often actually intertwined. >> woodruff: richard haass, does that suggest that between the two of them, and particularly in the case of rice, that there will be more-- there will be more people talking to the president about becoming more involved in syria. >> quite possibly. but the big strategic idea of this administration-- indeed, i think it's historical idea-- was to place less emphasis on the middle east which is so dominated and i would argue distorted america's national security now for more than a decade, and instead to put greater attention on the asia pacific which is where the great powers of this year are colliding and where american instruments can actually

accomplish great good. so i would hope the administration will, if you will, state course there, as well as als do what i would argue, which is repair some of the dpownd'd foundations of our power here at home. there will be those arguing for intervention, but, again, i'm hoping the president, if you will, stays the course, and continues to show real restraint. >> woodruff: what changes do you, coming? >> i think, again, this is a team that agrees on the desirability of focusing on asia and susan rice has dealt with north korea and knows that portfolio. i think, though, the world has a funny way of deflect, what you want to do, even in the best advice, and, again, i think both susan rice and samantha power are people who very much understand the complexity of development issues, terrorism issues, sectarian issues, humanitarian issues, in a very complicated strategic calculus. >> woodruff: richard haass, pick up on that, and bring

samantha power into this. she is going to be-- assuming she's confirmed by the senate-- she'll be taking up the post at the u.n. >> sure. she takes the post at a time where, quite honestly, the u.n. as a whole is not terribly central to what is going on in the world. that kind of multilateralism, for the most part, isn't working in part because the major powers cannot agree. instead, what increasingly we're doing is taking end runs around the u.n., finding partners to deal with this or that issue where we can, and my hunch is that will be the future. but she has two hats, also like a national security adviser, one is to represent the united nations at the u.n. the other is to essentially be part of the president's national security team and advocate back in washington. we'll have to see what kind of-- what the president instructs her to do in terms of balancing those two roles. >> woodruff: how do you see samantha power in the position at the u.n., assuming she's confirmed? >> i actually think this

administration has been very focused on the u.n. onorth korea oiran, on syria-- indeed, more focused than some people think they should be. they really have insisted on ongoing multilaterally, so i think samantha power will find herself, as susan rice did, often as a leading spear carrier for our diplomacy. >> woodruff: finally, to both of you, richard haass, what do these appointments say about the president? >> i think what it says here he is in the second term, he doesn't face another election, he essentially wants to have around him the people he knows best, who he has worked with as a senator, as awe campaigner, as president. these are not outsiders, anything but. if anything, this is a narrowing or tightening of the national security team at the white house. >> woodruff: you work in the obama administration administration, how do you see, that narrowing of the team. >> only a man can say this is the narrowing of the team. this is adding two important women to keep positions in the

white house in a way i think is very important. these are more diverse voices right there, and actually although they do all know each other, i think there's a broader range of views with susan rice and samantha power, with many of the other people who are in the white house. and i think we're going to see that make a difference. >> woodruff: anne-marie slaughter, richard haass, we thank you both. >> ifill: still to come on the "newshour": the syrian government claims it recaptured a key city; margaret warner on an increase in sectarian violence in lebanon; a debate over the economics of immigration reform and, a half- century later, the legacy of civil rights activist medgar evers. but first, with the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: an american soldier pleaded guilty today to killing 16 afghan civilians last year. army staff sergeant robert bales appeared at joint base lewis-mcchord outside seattle. he told a military judge that he entered two afghan villages at

night and shot each victim, most of them women and children. asked why he did it, bales answered: "there's not a good reason in this world." if the judge accepts the plea, bales will avoid the death penalty. in turkey, anti-government activists demanded the ouster of police chiefs over a violent crackdown on protests. they met with the deputy prime minister, and also called for lifting restrictions on civil liberties and banning police use of tear gas. meanwhile, thousands of trade union members marched in istanbul and ankara. they waved banners and chanted slogans demanding that prime minister erdogan resign. family, friends and fellow lawmakers gathered in new york today for the funeral of new jersey senator frank lautenberg. hundreds of mourners, including a number of dignitaries, attended today's service at a manhattan synagogue. vice president biden and others paid tribute to lautenberg as the senate's oldest member and last veteran of world war two to serve there. >> he loved the senate because

he saw it as the place he could do more than all the financial success he had, all the philanthropy he had, all the influence he had in the community. he believed, and he was right. there was no place he could do as much to impact the people he cared about than the united states senate. >> holman: lautenberg died monday of complications from pneumonia. he was 89. tomorrow, his body will lie in repose in the senate chamber, and on friday, be buried at arlington national cemetery. apple says it will appeal a ban on imports of some models of its iphone 4 and ipad 2. the products are made in china. the u.s. international trade commission announced the ban tuesday. it found the apple devices violate a patent held by rival samsung. the ruling was the latest round in a long-running fight between the two electronics giants. an 84-year-old woman today claimed a powerball jackpot worth $590 million.

gloria c. mackenzie of zephyr- hills, florida held the only winning ticket in last month's drawing. in a statement today, she said another person let her cut in line when she bought the ticket at a supermarket. mackenzie took the lump sum payment option, and will net $270 million after taxes. on wall street, stocks tumbled after economic reports that showed sluggish job growth and falling factory orders. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 217 points to close at 14,960. the nasdaq fell more than 43 points to close at 3401. also today, the securities and exchange commission proposed rules aimed at ensuring stability in money-market mutual funds. they would allow share values to "float", meaning investors could lose principal if funds perform poorly. the change would affect mainly institutional investors. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: we turn to syria, where president bashar al-assad

claimed a major strategic victory today in recapturing the town of qusair from rebels. we have a report narrated by neil connery of "independent television news." >> reporter: this key town which both sides have fought over now firmly in the grip of president assad's forces. state television making the most of this victory against the rebels. the regime's view that whoever controls qusair controls the center of syria. the fierce battle here has seen fightetete from the lebanese sha militant group hezbollah cross into syria and fight alongside the regime's forces. their intervention proving too much for the rebels. "we have nearly 1,000 wounded people here," this man says, "but the outside world has forgotten us."

the syrian regime is hailing this as a vital strategic victory. qusair dominates an important cross border supply route in and out of lebanon. but qusair is also the key to controlling the central area of syria around homs. and the corridor which links damascus to president assad's alawite heartland around the northern coastal city of latakia. i managed to travel to qusair last year and saw syrian tanks and troops during a brief lull in the fighting. but even then people feared president assad's forces would take revenge on the town for supporting the rebels. >> maybe two or three week, not more. and he will come back. >> reporter: they did come back and today qusair is once again under the control of syrian forces. >> woodruff: margaret warner is in the region and just visited a lebanese city where dozens have already been killed in the sectarian violence fanned by the conflict in syria.

and as she reports tonight, the prospects for even further escalation there are high. >> warner: from the bluffs above tripoli, lebanon's second largest city looks like the thriving mediterranean port it's been since antiquity. and not far from the seaside, the commercial district hums. it's hard to believe that less than a mile from here, at the north end of town, a primitive sectarian war is raging, between two poor neighborhoods, one sunni, one of the splinter shia sect, the alawites, who've lined up on opposing sides in the syrian civil war next door in the past five weeks alone, three dozen people have been killed and at least 250 wounded in clashes that have deeply disturbed the rest of the country. it's the worst sectarian fighting lebanon has seen in the nearly quarter-century since its own civil war ended in 1990.

for a closer look ,we ventured first to the sunni neighborhood, bab al tabaneh on the flat land within eyesight and rifle-shot of allawite fighters in the shia district of jabal mohsen above. the buildings were riddled by bullets and mortars. yet children were playing and, with rumors of a battle to come the next day, lebanese army troops were taking up stations. a neighborhood resident, ahmed jamal gave us a tour of what he said once was called "gold street." >> look at all this damage. all the shops have shut down and gone away. 7 >> warner: even worse than the physical damage, he said, is the psychological toll. >> we live day by day. we don't know if were going to be alive the next day, so before we buy a house, we buy a cemetery plot or a coffin. >> warner: jamal, who said he's a humous maker, not a combatant, has bought guns to protect his family. he insisted the outbursts of

fighting are always instigated by the alawite district up the hill, whenever assad's forces in syria want to stir up trouble for lebanon's sunnis. >> ( translated ): the orders come from higher command in syria, whenever they're under pressure, they give orders and the fighting starts here. >> warner: but he admits sunni residents aren't blameless, carrying grudges against alawites from more than two decades of syrian occupation that ended eight years ago. >> ( translated ): their families were slaughtered, so when the children grew up they bought guns and wanted to seek revenge for their families. >> reporter: the next block over, in streets of grinding poverty preparations for battle were under way as normal life went on. from everyone, we heard a deep sense of grievance against alawites and, from 21-year-old ziad habshiti, a desire for revenge. >> ( translated ): i'm fighting because they killed my brother. my brother was 13 years old and

they killed him. >> what do you think you are accomplishing? >> ( translated ): we are defending our rights, our land and our people. >> warner: and do you worry that the two of you are destroying your neighborhoods? >> ( translated ): people are dying, they are more important. the prophet mohammed said whoever is aggressive against you, you should be aggressive against him. >> warner: just up the hill, a self-fulfilling prophecy, in the alawite district of jabal mohsen. as his men fortified their fighting positions on the high ground, precinct commander abu ali zumar boasted about why the casualty figures are lopsided in the alawites favor. >> we are organized people. we're not like them, who just take pills and run in the streets. >> warner: like his sunni antagonists, zumar blames the rival side for instigating the

clashes. but he nurses an even older sense of grievance, dating back to the split between sunnis and shia 14 centuries ago. >> ( translated ): it started with the killing of hussain, and it will not end till judgment day. >> warner: he was referring to the slaying in 680 of the prophet muhammad's grandson, revered shia saint imam hussein. less than five minutes away from the barricades, cafe manager aboul suleiman had invited us to sit with him on the street, packed with idle young men, and dotted with posters of their fellow alawites in syria, bashar assad and his father. >> ( translated ): there's a truce, but did you hear the gunshots? >> warner: i did, is that coming from here? >> ( translated ): it's coming from their area. >> warner: i mean we hear gunshots, but nobody's moving? >> ( translated ): it is safe. the danger is on the demarcation line.

>> warner: despite his blaseé tone, suleiman was ready for combat. >> ( translated ): i'm a fighter, we are all fighters. whenever it starts, we all become fighters. we carry weapons to defend our area. and we are expecting these events to spread throughout lebanon. >> warner: yet not far from this lord-of-the-flies scene, we found humanity, at a small eatery near the port in customer ahmad moustafa mohammad. >> ( translated ): we give them all the support they need-- mattresses, blankets, food portions, and we give each family $100 to help in the rent. >> warner: he heads a local aid organization, helping some of the 3.25 million or more refugees who've fled the real war, in syria, many to tripoli and north lebanon. help is especially critical in the first three months, he said, before they get their bearings. >> ( translated ): during these

three months is when we step in and we help them. otherwise, they would be sleeping in the streets and have nothing. >> warner: despite funding from u.n. relief agencies, and individuals and foundations, mostly from the gulf, he said, his group is struggling as the wave of refugees swells. mohammad took us to a 24/7 medical clinic his charity runs for refugees who are injured or ill. >> ( translated ): they brought us through the mountains, they had to carry us on animals for transportation until we got here. >> warner: 24-year-old abdul karim al jerbil, a fighter with the free syrian army, the f.s.a., was hit by explosion in the early days of the battle for the strategic syrian town of qusayr, 40 miles away. when we saw him, he was having a skin graft for his shattered forearm, where the skin and tissue had been blown off and left to fester for weeks. >> ( translated ): the situation

here is very tragic. >> warner: his supervising surgeon, dr. ghazi, a french orthopedic specialist of syrian descent, who came here a year ago. >> ( translated ): the pain of the women, the pain of the children, the pain of the people made me come here. >> warner: but also suffering, as this city is sucked deeper into the syria conflict, are ordinary tripoli citizens, the men and women who make this city tick. normally this tailors souk in tripoli would be bustling with shoppers. but with the sectarian fighting and killings in neighborhoods right next door, no one knows when the crowds will return. 42-year-old hassan hamwie has seen his clothes making and repair business drop nearly 80% since the syria conflict began - and tripoli's rival neighborhoods revived their long-standing feud. >> ( translated ): my five-year- old son asked me what's

happening and i'm telling him there are clashes. he asks me why there are clashes and i have no answer. >> warner: he blames self- serving politicians, an ineffective army and divided lebanese government, and syrian provocateurs on both sides for using lebanon as a pawn. so does it make you angry? >> ( translated ): 100% it makes me angry, because it has the worst impact on the middle and lower classes in tripoli, and in lebanon. >> warner: just down the row of shops are the shuttered doors of a another tailor felled by a sniper in the fighting. >> ( translated ): with all the civil wars and troubles we've had, there has never been as bad an economic time as now. >> warner: next door, 75-year- old tailor adnan al katami, who started in business with his father six decades ago. tourists from the region and abroad used to flock to buy katamis hand-made traditional lebanese dress. now he doesn't sell, so he can't buy either.

>> ( translated ): i used to go shopping and bring things to the house when i finished the day. now i can't do it because we are not making enough money. >> warner: katami doesnt hold himself out as a soothsayer, but he sees a dark future ahead. >> ( translated ): it's going to spread in all lebanon now, because the sunnis are fighting and the shia will start trouble in another area. so it's going to be bad, and there will be conflict and war, not only in lebanon but the region. >> warner: a lebanon that looks like parts of tripoli, now that would be a nightmare scenario. >> ifill: next, we examine the economic impact of legalizing the country's undocumented population. it's part of our ongoing series: "inside immigration reform." ray suarez has that conversation. >> suarez: the immigration reform bill under consideration in the senate would provide a

pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the u.s., and there are contrasting views on what immigration reform would cost, and whether it would help or hurt the u.s. economy. the center for american progress, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that legalizing the undocumented could boost the country's gross domestic product anywhere from $832 billion to $1.4 trillion, depending on the time frame for granting citizenship by creating new jobs and raising income and tax revenue. the conservative heritage foundation, on the other hand, calculates immigrants gaining legal status would whereof $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services over their lifetimes while paying just $3.1 trillion in taxes, resulting in a net cost of $6.3 trillion. we're joined now by the authors of both studies. robert lynch is a professor of economics at washington college

and a visiting senior fellow at the center for american progress and robert rector is a senior research fellow in domestic policy at the heritage foundation. robert rector if we took the millions who will are already in the u.s. out of status and made a large number of them legal residents, what are the major costs involved? >> well, one of the things that the bill does when you grant legalization is you're granting 10 until to 11 million people who are current legal access to a wide range of government benefits, such as obamacare, over 80 means-tested welfare programs, such as medicaid and food stamps, ultimately to social security and medicare. the 11 million immigrants have an average education level of tenth grade so they pay very little and will pay very little in taxes. they are inherently net beneficiaries. therefore, when you grant them access to all of these programs it's extremely expensive to other taxpayers in want united

states. >> suarez: robert lifn, do you agree there are a lot of costs involved bringing people into a legal framework. >> there are costs but the benefits far exceed the costs. what we know is every time in the passed when we have legalized immigrants here undocument, we have seen tremendous increases in their productivity. they start producing much more, earning much more, paying much more in taxs. they pay mump more in taxes not just because they earn more income, but once they become legalized and above ground and start declaring their income we see a tremendous increase in the declared income from these individuals so overall, the benefits far exceed the costs. glaid glai rober>> suarez: robe, would you agree, once you bring people into the legitimate economy, not only do they pay more taxes their economic possibilities increase. >> absolutely. and we looked at the last amnesty done in 1986 very carefully, and we modeled into our estimate tax increases that come-- and income increases that

come from legalization, but we find those absolutely dwarfed by access to all of these different government spending programs. just to give an example, we believe in the first years of the bill, that tax payments by the illegal immigrants will go up $15 billion to $20 billion a year, but they will also get the earned income tax credit, which costs about $12 billion a year. and later on they get vast-- many, many more programs. so there will be tax revenue increases. there will be productivity increases. i agree with that completely. but those are dwarfed by a magnitude of with four to one by all the benefits and expefersz so forth that they will be able to access over their lifetimes. >> suarez: what about that point, that there will be increased revenue. >> right. >> suarez: clearly, because now they'll innocent legitimate economy but also a lot more costs per individual. >> right. well, i think as everyone who has looked at this study has concluded, it has a series of method logical errors and one he mentioned right now. he says the heritage study does

include increases in productivity, but they include a 5% increase in productivity. the last legalization, in 1986 ha 15% increase in productivity when they went from illegal to legal, and subsequent studies have shown another 10% to 12% increase in productivity when they went from legal to citizen. in fact, you see about a 25% increase in productivity. his is only 5 and he grossly understates how much extra revenue comes into the government and overstates how much in public services the undocumented immigrants will take, and it skewed number grossly inflate the numbers. >> suarez: bringing people out from undocument into the light is complicated. there are employers who have been exploiting illegal workers. they don't pay disability insurance. they don't pay many payroll taxes. they don't pay overtime in many

cases. do things like that go into your calculation? >> yes, absolute. what happens is when workers' productivity increases 25%, you see a couple of things that happen simultaneously. on the one hand, you see a tremendous increase in the production of goods and services, expanding the american economy. at the same time, the formerly undocument read earning so much more they're spending much more and that causeaise demand effect where you see business sales increases. when their sales increase they produce more and they hire more workers and you see the jobs for americans go up and the incomes for americans as well. you have to take into consideration not just what happened to undocument but native americans, both employers and american workers. >> suarez: does it become more expensive to do business if this big change in the nature of the american workforce? >> well, i don't think it it will be because the bill also imports large numbers of low-skill immigrants, in addition tho those that are currently here. so i actually think it will have an effect of pushing down the wages of the least-skilled american workers. i believe the illegal

immigrants, up until now, have reduced the average wageave low-skilled american worker by did $2600 a year. let me just say, how i do estimate how much they will cost? it's a fairly simple method. i take each illegal immigrant, and then i compare him to a legal immigrant who has the same education level and the same expaij so forth, and i say once you grant the illegal immigrant amnesty status and access to all these programs-- which they do eventually get under the bill-- the receipt of benefits of amnesty recipient will be very similar those of a current legal immigrant of the same socioeconomic status. and once you do that, what you see is the expenditures on these individuals are simply going to skyrocket. currently, they cost the taxpayers overall about $50 billion a year, benefits minus taxes. i think once you legalize them, that jumps up to around $160 billion a year, base on the benefits that are currently received by similar legal immigrants. >> suarez: robert lynch, it

sounds like you have a familiaritily different view of not only the-- today of those workers but their futures and the futures of their children. >> right. this is one of the big problems with his analysis, it's completely static in nature. what we from following millions of examples of people who have gone from being undocumented to legal citizens is that once they acquire that guarantee of permanent residency here in the united states, they start to invest much more heavily in their english language ability and education and training. we see dramatic improvements in their productivity and rising levels of education and skill levels which results in much higher income. his analysis considers that all static, that never happens. we see people moving into jobs where they're more product i. we see, once they become legal ides, the formerly undocumented can get access to permits and licenses and credits and they start businesses. and we know newly legalized immigrants create new business and hire more workers at higher rates than native-born americans. anything that unleashes this

potential creates a better government system, fewer-- lower deficits than we have right now. >> suarez: i'm sure we'll hear both these arguments on the floor of the house and senate in the coming weeks. gentlemen, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> ifill: we examine the different claims about the economic impact of immigration reform, online, where you can add your voice to the debate. find that, and the other conversations in the series, on our immigration page. >> woodruff: we'll be back shortly with a look back at the life and legacy of medgar evers. but first: this is pledge week on p.b.s.. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support.the pbs newshour. i'm paul anthony along with patty kim. this brief break has a very specific purpose-- to ask you to take action and support outstanding journalism and this public television station. you can do it all with one call to make a donation that reflects what the pbs newshour means to you.

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the somber sounds of memorial echoed this morning across arlington national cemetery, where medgar evers is buried. evers, a veteran of world war two, died at the hands of an assassin in 1963. former president clinton spoke of evers as a warrior who fought for his country on more than one front. >> the meaning of medgar evers' life was that he came home and even though he had a gorgeous wife and beautiful kids and an unbelievable life to look forward to, he said it can't be that i was a soldier in the american army and i stood up for freedom and i can't vote. my neighbors can't vote. >> ifill: evers ultimately became the n.a.a.c.p.'s first field secretary in the south, as racial tensions boiled over.

he was gunned down outside his home in jackson, mississippi. his family heard the shots as they waited for him inside. it took more than 30 years for white supremacist byron de la beckwith to finally be convicted of the murder. he died in prison in 2001. at president obama's second inaugural in january, ever's widow, myrlie evers-williams, urged americans to continue the push for equality. at arlington today, she said her husband's legacy lives on. >> and i can hear medgar's voice saying i thank all of you for believing in me, but it's really not necessary-- just get out there and prove that you believe in me and that you believe in my country, which is our country. >> ifill: just last month, evers-williams delivered the commencement speech at the university of mississippi, which once refused to admit her husband because of his race. for more on the legacy of medgar

evers, we turn to jerry mitchell, a reporter for the jackson, mississippi "clarion ledger," who won two george polk awards and a macarthur genius grant for his investigative civil rights coverage. thank you and welcome. thank you for coming in. >> good to be here. >> ifill: 50 years later, it took 30 years to find his killer, what kind of legacy does there exist now for medgar evers? i think his legacy in a sense is growing. there's a realization you know-- martin luther king said one day the south of recognize its true heroes, and i think that's taking place before our eyes. we see the service today, the recognition of medgar evers. you in president clinton speak there. and many others speak there. and i think that says something about the stature of medgar evers. when he died, the moment he died, he wasn't known nationally, yet he became known through his death. his assassin in killing medgar evers thought he was going to

kill the movement. "i'm gog stop the movement." he kind of brought more attention it. >> ifill: it feels like that assassination was a turning point in many wise in the movement. >> it really was if you think about it because in the wake of that-- and of course kennedy's assassination-- you had the passage of the civil rights act of '64. >> ifill: myrlie evers, who you i i know you spent a lot of time with, said she had seen the actual rifle used to kill her husband. >> it's on display now as an exhibit at the mississippi archive of history and it has picturees of medgar and his life and she talked with that rifle as the epitome of evil. but yet, when it fired, it lit a fire that didn't go out. >> ifill: are the wounds still open? >> i think so. i think-- you know, there's a certain amount of wounds they go

through. i saw that this morning with the family. they mingled, hugs and tears and love as they gathered themselves early this morning in arlington by the graveside. >> ifill: how about the south you? can chronicled -- in fact uncovered a lot of cold cases that otherwise would have gone, including byron de la beckwith, that otherwise would have gone undiscovered. do you find there's more acceptance now or is there still a lot of anger? >> i think it's split. i think there's a certain amount of anger still out there. but i think more and more over time, i think people have come more to terms with, yeah, we need to rectify this. this needs to happen. this needs to-- you know, these convictions need to happen. they should have happened years ago and should have been done. this is kind of a matter of cleaning up the past of whatue know, sometimes there are things you can do with the past. and you can take things-- take steps to help improve that. >> ifill: you've certainly done things to change or illuminate the past.

did it change the direction of your life? >> it changed my life completely. someone was asked why she chose to get involved in the civil rights movement. she said i didn't choose it. it chose me. i feel kind of like that about my job. one case led to the next and the led. there have been-- and i am not crediting myself with this-- 24 convictions in the cold cases. >> ifill: wow. you discovered or published for the first time an old udorra wealthy, the great southern writer short story she wrote about the afascination. >> the original version had medgar evers' name in it and real landmarks and things like that. all got removed when byron de la beckwith got arrested. so new yorkers said to her, you have to take all that stuff out. so she took it all out. we knot permission from the estate to print the-- her original short story as she

sphwend. >> ifill: awfully angry. >> and that's what she talked about. she felt like-- it was the only thing she ever wrote in anger, and she said, "i know what this killer was thinking." she literally wrote it from the mindset of killer. it's haunting. it's haunting. it's a haunting work. >> ifill: this whole episode in our history is haunting with the anger and relief in honor of today at least on the 50th anniversary. jerry mitchell of the jackson clarion ledger, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: president obama announced a shakeup in his foreign policy team, naming u.n. ambassador and long-time ally susan rice to be national security adviser. a u.s. army staff sergeant pleaded guilty to killing 16 afghan civilians last year. most were women and children. and the syrian army claimed a major victory, recapturing a strategic town near the border with lebanon.

the white house condemned the syrian assault and syria's use of hezbollah fighters from lebanon. online, two views on how to fix the economy and prevent another collapse. kwame holman fills us in. >> holman: on last night's "newshour" former federal budget director and businessman david stockman criticized government bailouts. on "making sense," paul solman asks for prescriptions to heal the economy from stockman as well as economist and columnist paul krugman, who will be featured in an upcoming "newshour" conversation. and for science wednesday, we go inside a high school classroom where the emphasis is on trying to solve real-world problems, like finding alternative fuel sources. all that and more is on our website newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at paul krugman's take on the government's role in the economy. i'm judy woodruff. >> and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online and here

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they invented the sound and style of broadway with some of the greatest shows of all time. i'm trying to think if there was anybody not jewish. from its beginnings, broadway musical theater has always been fertile ground for a wide variety of jewish-american artists. why were so many of them jewish? the answers are in the songs, the shows,