heidi zhou-castro joins us -- options. i zhou-castro joins us, and how do people end up in shelters? >> these shelters are mostly church run so close to the border, and this this case of the shelter i just visit id it signatures on the banks of the rio grande, just southwest of the united states. the shelter was a launching point of many central american migrants many teenagers who had traveled hundreds of miles alone, on foot, on buses and trains to escape poverty and felonies their ownandviolence in their own home countries. but today that is not the case, the sense of anticipation is missing, it's more ever a purgatory. they can go no further north thanks to border security and national guard troops. serge this is the sign of success of increased border security keeping migrants out but when you see people continues showing up at the shelters tony it is the sign of desperation that continues to drive people from their homes. >> the people showing up at the shelters like the one you are now, what can you tell us about som

. >> heidi zhou castro. >> in part three of our series heidi zhou castro goes back to see what has changedcan catch that coming up at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. for undocumented immigrants in california the new year will bring a chance to become legal drivers. the state will only require them to take a standard test and promises it won't report them to federal immigration officials. we have more now from los angeles. >> living and working in southern california's cities it's difficult to get by without a car. but drivers among the estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants in california are often wary of getting a driver's license for fear of showing up on government radar and risk being deported when living in the u.s. illegally. >> when asked to show proof of immigration status that they're here legally once they don't have that they'll drive and not necessarily knowing the rules of the road, what to do at a stop light, who gets the right of way at a turn. >> now a new state law allows undocumented residents to get a license after taking the standard driving test. it includes a guarantee t

heidi zhou-castro has the report. >> as judge lien byrne dawns her robe, she is prepared for the decision she is about to make, where a child sleeps at night and his immediate safety is in her hands. >> these could be the decisions you make, what if i get it wrong? >> in the seven years of handling child protective cases judge byrne is haunted by those she got wrong. 11 month old arian came before the judge and the judge decided she should stay with an aunt. >> at that moment with the information i was provided i made the best decision i could make. >> reporter: within a year the child was dead. a man visiting the home had crushed her skull. >> it is your worst nightmare that a child under my watch would die. now, if i'd made a different decision, would the same result happen? i don't know. i don't know. >> what the judges here do know is that they have insufficient time to hear cps cases. three judges are assigned to the cases in travis county texas. in three years their annual caseload has swelled from 1600 to 6,000 due in part to a booming population. >> let me call the 8:30 docket. >>

heidi zhou castro joins us live now with part two of her on the border series. heidi heidi?rter: hi, david. these family units continue to cross the border at record numbers in the texas rio grand valley. there is an average of 108 of these families apprehended each day. and the detention centers still remain so full that the government processes these families and then release them as they wait for a deportation hearing. it's the same scene repeated twice daily since the peak of the immigration crisis. a homeland security bus pulls into the public terminal in texas, an officer steps aside, and a stream of families mostly single mothers with their children pours out. they are orderly, nervous, and most of all exhausted. some have been on the road for more than 20 days. how was your trip here? very, very tiring? six of these families are from guatemala, another six from honduras, and nine from el salvador. i asked them why make this journey now. they said one thing has not changed in their home countries, too little opportunity, too much violence. linda lived in massachusetts

these families would have to contract a human smuggler. >> heidi zhou castro reporting from dallas. you. >>> coming up tomorrow we will take you to texas and the fierce debate over whether illegal crossings have really dropped. and if so what is behind it. >>> gmail has been down for many years in china since friday. other google services have been blocked in china since june. anti-cent forship advocates say china's great firewall is to blame. >> reporter: i think it's important to point out that gmail was already blocked in china. getting in to the main page and signing in has already been a problem. so the latest develop has to do with the work around many people in china have done to access their gmail account. what china has done is effectively closed the major loophole for gmail users in china now. and we have to put this into the greater context of what has been happening on the internet. we saw this with the sony film the interview, and now we see this latest move by china. and yeah we know that china has gone after google in the last few years. the greater problem might be i

heidi zhou-castro has more. >> reporter: hey john yes. it was this morning that a conservative appeals court granted the stay giving the judges more time to consider whether panetti is legally competent to be executed. his last mental elevation was in 2007 at which point the doctors found he was competent. but he's even more are ill today. >> 56-year-old scott panetti, in a two judge opinion, the court of appeals says it is staying the execution to allow it to consider the legal questions at issue. panetti an honorably discharged navy vet. hospitalized more than a dozen times then in 1992 he shot and killed his wife's parents. >> he did so believing that this was a fight between good and evil and in killing them he was getting rid of the devil. >> but that defense never made it into evidence because panetti was allowed to defend himself, dressed like a cowboy, said sarge was responsible for the murders. >> he has one of the most severe forms of schizophrenia that i've ever seen. >> a doctor was hired to assess his competency in 2007. did

. >> kavt heidi zhou-castro reporting from dallas. >>> george h bush has returned home. he was cleared, admitted a week ago after having breathing problems. a spokesperson said the nine-year-old is grateful for doctors, and nurses for their care. >> coming up same-sex marriage is legal in 35 states. in washington d.c. - what the new year could mean for new legislation. plus outrage over the nut rage case on korean airlines led to the arrest of an embarrassed south korean executive. only on al jazeera america >>> in russia protesters took to the streets after a vladimir putin critic was arrested. he was picked up by an anti-government rally, breaking a sentence of house arrest to attend the demonstration, critics say the conviction was political pay back. his brother was convicted of 3.5 years, of fraud and embezzle >>> a north korean veteran that threw a tant trump over macadamia nuts is di guesting the consequences. she was taken into kust and harry fawcett was at the courthouse. >> it's familiar if unwelcome. another round in relation to a bag of nuts served. she shout

. >> heidi zhou castro for us in huntsville, texas. thank you. >>> japanese auto bag maker takata refused to issue a nationwide recall of its faulty driver side airbags. the company said that it's not necessary. only in areas where there is high humidity is at risk. takata executives faced difficult questions on capitol hill. lisa stark has more on this. what is takata's rationale for not doing a nationwide recall, and did members of congress buy it? the answer to that is no. >> they did not, and they wanted to know the rationale of what takata executives who told them that the current problem is with older airbags in areas of high humidity, hot temperatures, so there is no reason for a nationwide recall. but law enforcements were really skeptical. one of them said if i live in northern florida my airbags are recalled but if i live in georgia, it is not? here is california representative harry waxman. >> the confusing contrary and sometimes purely nonsensical information that comes from takata is confusing to drivers. they don't know i

. >> heidi zhou castro in huntsville, texas, thank you. >>> takata refused to issue a nationwide recall for airbags. lisa stark joins us from washington with more on this. >> reporter: well, tony, takata airbags have been blamed for four deaths in the united states, and dozens of injuries. now there have been millions recalled nationwide over the past several years, but this latest recall only involves a couple of different states. takata was asked to make it nationwide by the government, the company refocused and got an earful on capitol hill. >> we have deeply sorry about each case. >> reporter: lawmakers were angry over takata's refusal laid out in a letter. takata wrote: >> it is happening more, and how many have to died before you make it a nationwide airline. >> takata said that it's limited to a few high humidity areas such as florida. that's where cory burdick's airbag exploded, sending a metal shard into his eye. >> it sounded like a shotgun, and my right side went pitch back. >> burdick is now blind in his right eye. at first they graye agreed to a limited recall. but after tw

heidi zhou castro joins us now. what is happening to these families as they're stopped? >> four out of these families are from central america. and the detention centers down south are still so full that these families are processed and then released into the community with an order to appear before an immigration judge at a later date. twice daily in texas a homeland security bus pulls up to the public bus terminal, and a treatment of families, mostly single mothers with their families pour out. they're anxious fearful and tired. many of these women had been on the road for 20 days from central america with their children in tow. at a nearby church. run shelter these women and children are offered food, clothing a warm shower and volunteers there say that they have staff at the shelter night and day since the summer, and to them the immigration crisis is not over. >> obviously as, see, we are getting refugees in, in large numbers. over the last two weeks our numbers have doubled. we're seeing upwards of 110 sometimes more than that a day. and they're predicted to contin

heidi zhou castro join us in dallas with a series on the border.ow many migrants are making this particular journey on foot in order to avoid getting caught? >> well, tony, it's very hard to put an accurate number on that. but the best current estimate is that more than 100 people were passing through this desert terrain each day. now in texas, a corridor of human smuggling where in the last six years more than 900 bodies have been recovered. and where more people die each day. it's been four months since our last visit to brooks county. in that time 20 more bodies have appeared in the desert. they are the remains of migrants killed by exhaustion and thirst but none of the bodies are the one we seek. >> julio's father calls here regularly to see if there has been any progress. >> every friday he calls to tell me how many fridays its bin sips his son has disappeared. >> it was back in august when we joined the two full-time volunteers of the south texas human rights center to look for a 20-year-old man who had disappeared the month before. another m

heidi zhou castro joins us from huntsville action, texas, with more. >> there is always a last-minute rush in texas for people trying to prevent executions. the state performance more executi executions than any other state, but what makes this stand out is the ground swell behind him. they say the execution will violate international law, but the visit evangelical leaders from around the country said that this execution should be halted. yet his execution is less than 24 hours away. >> panetti, an honorbly discharged naval veteran was diagnosed as a schizophrenic at age 20. medication did not work. he was hospitalized more than a dozen times. then in 1992 he shot and killed his wife's parents. >> he did so believing this was a fight between good and evil, and in killing them he was getting rid of the devil. >> reporter: panetti insisted on representing himself at trial. >> scott wore a cowboy outfit with a purple necker chef. he tucked his jeans in his cowboys and waved a cowboy bible and spoke obsessively about cowboys and broncos. >> panetti tried to subpoena god, john f. kennedy,