Democracy Now!

In a Fourth of July holiday special, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." He was addressing the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society. This is actor James Earl Jones reading the speech during a performance of historian Howard Zinn’s acclaimed book, "Voices of a People’s History of the United States." He was introduced by Zinn.

While reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border, Democracy Now! saw firsthand how migrant children separated from their parents are being sent around the country. We spoke with an airport worker who described children being brought in early in the morning in order to be flown out to other states, and raised concerns about how they are being treated. "The oldest I have seen is 10 or 11 years old. ... The youngest is maybe 5," he says. "They are sitting there silently. … I feel kind of heartbroken. They are very, very young kids."

As the Trump administration accuses migrants of illegally entering the United States, Democracy Now! went to the international bridge in Brownsville, Texas, and found asylum seekers waiting for days in the hot sun after being told the United States was full. We are guided by Christina Patiño Houle, director of the Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network, and Michael Seifert of the ACLU. We also speak with Juanita Valdez-Cox, longtime farmworker organizer and executive director of La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), about the separation of families at the border, and attempt to interview an official at Case Padre, the Southwest Key detention center housed in a former Walmart.

In a landslide, voters have elected Andrés Manuel López Obrador to be Mexico's next president. The former mayor of Mexico City—who is known as AMLO—will become Mexico's first leftist president in decades. On Monday, López Obrador and President Donald Trump discussed immigration and trade in a phone call. Trump called on Mexico's president-elect to collaborate on border security and NAFTA, telling reporters, "I think he's going to try and help us with the border. We have unbelievably bad border laws, immigration laws, the weakest in the world, laughed at by everybody in the world. And Mexico has very strong immigration laws, so they can help us." We speak with John Ackerman and Irma Sandoval in Mexico City. Irma Sandoval is a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Corruption at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is set to become comptroller general in President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador's government. John Ackerman is the editor of the Mexican Law Review and a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is also a columnist for Proceso magazine and La Jornada newspaper.

Pompeo to Head to North Korea for Third Time, U.N. Urges Jordan to Open Border as 270,000 Syrians Flee Fighting in Daraa, Federal Judge: U.S. Can't Arbitrarily Detain Asylum Seekers, HHS Refuses to Say How Many Separated Children Remain in Custody, 18 Arrested in Los Angeles at ICE Protest, 3-Year-Old Ethiopian Refugee Dies After Stabbing at Birthday Party in Idaho, Trump Refuses to Lower Flags for Victims of Capital Gazette Shooting, Rhode Island Files Landmark Lawsuit Against 21 Oil Companies, EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Keeps Secret Calendar to Hide Meetings with Industry Figures, "I Urge You to Resign": A Mother Confronts Pruitt at Restaurant, Trump Meets with Four Possible Supreme Court Nominees, Michael Cohen Indicates He Will Work with Prosecutors, Trump Urges NATO Allies to Increase Military Spending, New Charges Against Harvey Weinstein Could Result in Life Sentence, Thailand Races to Rescue Youth Soccer Team Trapped in Cave, Report: Melania Trump Made Over $100K in Royalties from Photos Licensed to Media

At least 2,000 migrant children remain separated from their parents, after the families were forcibly separated by immigration officials under President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy. A federal judge has ordered all these children must be reunited with their parents within 30 days—but immigration advocates say the administration does not have a clear plan for how to reunite the families. In McAllen, Texas, immigration lawyers are scrambling to help their clients find and reunite with their children. Attorney Efrén Olivares is director of the Racial and Economic Justice Program for the Texas Civil Rights Project.

In New York City Saturday, more than 10,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and to demand the reunification of all migrant children separated from their parents during the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" crackdown.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the United States on Saturday for a "Families Belong Together" rally to demand the Trump administration comply with a federal judge's ruling that all migrant children separated from their parents must be reunited. The Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy led to the forcible separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents, some of whom have already been deported. The protests came 24 hours after the Trump administration said in a court filing on Friday that it has the right to hold children in detention with their parents for the duration of their immigration proceedings, which can take months or years. Current law prevents children from being held for more than 20 days. Democracy Now! was in the streets of Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands rallied.

In Mexico, leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, has claimed victory after winning Sunday's presidential election by a landslide, vowing to transform Mexico by reducing corruption and violence. Preliminary election results show López Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, capturing 53 percent of the vote—more than twice that of his closest rival. His three main rival candidates have already conceded. His victory comes after the most violent electoral season in modern Mexican history. At least 136 politicians have been assassinated in Mexico since September. For more, we speak with Christy Thornton, assistant professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University. She was an election observer for the Scholar and Citizen Network for Democracy. She is currently writing a book about Mexican economic history.

In Mexico, López Obrador Will Become First Leftist President in Decades, Coast to Coast, Tens of Thousands Protest Separation of Migrant Families, Trump to Announce Supreme Court Nominee on July 9, At Deutsche Bank, Justice Anthony Kennedy's Son Loaned Trump $1 Billion, Afghanistan: Sikhs & Hindus Killed in Suicide Bombing in Jalalabad, Gaza: Thousands Gather for Funeral of Child Killed by Israeli Sniper During Protests, Syria: 150,000 Displaced by Syrian & Russian Daraa Offensive, Pentagon Admits to Killing 40 Civilians in Bombing in Raqqa, Syria, Last Year, Judge Blocks End of FEMA Housing for Puerto Ricans Displaced by Hurricane Maria, Far-Right & Anti-Fascist Protesters Clash in Portland, Oregon, Seattle Becomes First U.S. City to Ban Plastic Straws & Utensils

In Washington, D.C., 630 women were arrested Thursday during a massive nonviolent civil disobedience action on Capitol Hill protesting the Trump administration's immigration policies. Protesters, chanting "We care" and "Abolish ICE," and wearing mylar emergency blankets like those given to immigrants imprisoned in U.S. detention centers, flooded the Hart Senate Office Building for a sit-in protest demanding that immigrant children be released from U.S. custody and reunited with their families. Protesters included the actress Susan Sarandon and Linda Sarsour, co-organizer of the Women's March on Washington.

Thursday's Families Belong Together rally at the federal courthouse in Brownsville, Texas, culminated with people marching across the street to the federal courthouse, where migrants apprehended under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy have been prosecuted in mass trials.

At Thursday's protest in Brownsville a group of children took the stage to condemn the Trump administration for separating other children from their families. Ten-year-old Joana Aldape said, "These kids are human beings, not animals to be put in cages like those at the zoo."

Protesters in Brownsville are calling on the Trump administration to uphold its obligations to protect asylum seekers under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Rev. Dr. Helen Boursier cited the cases of Central Americans fleeing extreme gang violence being turned away at the U.S. border. She says vulnerable people are being denied their legal right to seek asylum and the legal right to flee when they face great risk.

Attendees at Thursday's protest in Brownsville included Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee. Amy Goodman had a chance to interview Perez about Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, as well as President Obama's record on immigration. They also talked about Tuesday's New York primary, where 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term Congressmember Joe Crowley.

More than a thousand people from across Texas came to protest outside the federal courthouse in Brownsville Thursday, demanding, "Keep Families Together." Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley are the epicenter of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that criminally prosecutes migrants who cross the border, and has led to the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents. Speakers included the actor Jay Ellis, who stars in the HBO series "Insecure."

Annapolis, Maryland: 5 Dead as Gunman Storms Capital Gazette Newsroom, Trump Tweets "Thoughts and Prayers" After Maryland Massacre, Over 600 Women Arrested at D.C. Protest Against Family Separations, Federal Police Raid Occupy ICE Protest Encampment in Portland, Oregon, Brownsville, TX: More Than 1,000 Rally Against Trump Border Policies, VP Pence in Guatemala: "Exodus" of Central American Migrants Must End, Young Children Ordered to Appear Alone in Deportation Proceedings, GOP Floats Impeachment of Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Amid Muller Probe, "Dangerous" Heat Wave to Bring Record Temperatures to Parts of U.S., DNC Panel Votes to Scale Back Use of "Superdelegates", White House Says Trump Will Meet Russian President Putin on July 16

In our special broadcast from the U.S.-Mexico border, we speak to human rights lawyer Jennifer Harbury, who has lived here in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for over 40 years and has been active in the response to the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. Her husband, Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, was a Mayan comandante and guerrilla who was disappeared after he was captured by the Guatemalan army in the 1980s. After a long campaign, she found there was U.S. involvement in the cover-up of her husband's murder and torture. Now she continues to work with people fleeing violence in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

On Tuesday, Federal Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ruled all children under the age of 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, and all children 5 and older must be reunited with their parents within 30 days. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has claimed he could easily locate any of the children separated from their parents. But immigrant parents and their lawyers tell a different story. We speak to Rochelle Garza, an immigration lawyer based here in Brownsville, Texas, who is now representing immigrant families who have been separated by the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy.

Justice Anthony Kennedy's announcement came as the Supreme Court struck a major blow to organized labor Wednesday. In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court sided with Mark Janus, a child support specialist who argued that a state law in Illinois allowing unions to charge a fee for collective bargaining violated his First Amendment rights. The ruling nullifies so-called fair-share provisions and will leave public-sector unions deprived of millions of dollars in union dues. Mark Janus was supported by a host of right-wing groups including the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity and ALEC—the American Legislative Exchange Council. We speak to Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate.com.

In a move that could transform the Supreme Court for decades, Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement, giving President Trump a chance to pick a second conservative on the high court. Kennedy, who was nominated by President Reagan, was widely seen as the swing vote on the nine-justice court. On Wednesday, he sided with the conservative wing of the court to deal a major blow to public-sector unions in the case of Janus v. AFSCME. He also sided this week with the majority upholding President Trump's Muslim travel ban. But Kennedy has sided with the liberal wing of the court on a number of pivotal issues. He has been instrumental in preventing Roe v. Wade from being overturned, and he has supported same-sex marriage, affirmative action and criminal justice reform. On Wednesday, President Trump said he wants to pick a justice who will be on the court for the next 40 or 45 years. We speak to Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate.com.

Trump May Reshape Supreme Court for Decades as Justice Kennedy Retires, Democrats Demand Delay on Trump's SCOTUS Nominee Until After Midterms, Supreme Court Deals Major Blow to Public-Sector Unions, House Rejects Immigration Bill Backed by President Trump, Occupy ICE Protesters Decry Trump Immigration Policies, Ship Carrying 230 Migrants Docks in Malta After Italy Denies Berth, Kenya: 15 Dead, Dozens Injured, as Fire Tears Through Nairobi Market, Officer Who Fatally Shot Antwon Rose Charged With Criminal Homicide, DOJ Approves Disney's $71 Billion Bid for 21st Century Fox

Left-leaning presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador appears poised to win Sunday's presidential election. López Obrador, also known as AMLO because of his initials, emerged as the clear front-runner since jumping into the race. This is the third presidential run for López Obrador, who was the mayor of Mexico City from 2000 to 2005. López Obrador has vowed to wean Mexico off U.S. agricultural imports, increase aid for students and the elderly, and consider amnesty for drug war criminals. We speak to Laura Carlsen, director of the Mexico City-based Americas Program of the Center for International Policy.

Hours after the Supreme Court issued its ruling upholding the Muslim travel ban, a federal judge in San Diego ruled immigration officials must stop separating immigrant children from their parents at the border and that migrant children already separated must be reunited with their parents. The ruling says all children under the age of 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, and all children 5 and older must be reunited with their parents within 30 days. The ruling does not require the Trump administration to stop prosecuting people for crossing the border. More than 2,000 children remain separated from their parents, jailed in detention centers across the country. Immigration advocates are warning the Trump administration has no clear plan for how to reunite them with their parents, some of whom have already been deported. We speak to Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project; Linda Sarsour of MPower Change; and Diala Shamas of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

In a series of extraordinary legal decisions Tuesday, the Supreme Court has upheld President Trump's so-called Muslim travel ban, and a federal judge in San Diego has ruled immigration officials must stop separating immigrant children from their parents at the border and must reunite all parents and children within 30 days. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 to uphold Trump's travel ban, which prohibits people from entering the United States from five majority-Muslim countries—Iran, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Somalia—as well as people from North Korea and some government officials from Venezuela. In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor condemned the ban as "harrowing" and said it was "motivated by hostility and animus toward the Muslim faith." She also said the decision to uphold the ban involved "ignoring the facts, misconstruing our legal precedent and turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering the proclamation inflicts upon countless families and individuals, many of whom are United States citizens." After the ruling was announced, protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court to condemn the decision. We speak to Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project; Linda Sarsour of MPower Change; and Diala Shamas of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Tuesday was a big day for progressive Democrats. In New York, former Bernie Sanders organizer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley. In Maryland, former NAACP chair Benjamin Jealous won the Democratic gubernatorial primary. We speak to Linda Sarsour of MPower Change about what the victories mean for the Democratic Party.

In a stunning upset and the biggest surprise of the primary season this year, 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat 10-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley in New York in Tuesday's Democratic primary. Crowley is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, and he'd outraised Ocasio-Cortez by a 10-to-1 margin. Crowley was widely viewed as a possible future House speaker. Yet Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley after running a progressive grassroots campaign advocating for "Medicare for All" and the abolition of ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Ocasio-Cortez speaks to Democracy Now! about her historic campaign.

Supreme Court Upholds President Trump's Muslim Travel Ban, Federal Judge: Trump Admin Must End Family Separations & Reunite Children, SCOTUS Rules to Protect Deceptive, Anti-Choice Pregnancy Centers, Tens of Thousands of Civilians Flee Syrian Gov't Offensive in Daraa, Report: U.S.-Backed, Saudi-Led Coalition Responsible for Half of All Child Deaths in Yemen in 2017, U.S. Primaries: Wins for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in NY, Ben Jealous in MD, Mitt Romney in Utah, NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Pleads Guilty, Will Serve 5-Year Prison Term

More than 2,000 migrant children remain separated from their parents, jailed in detention centers across the country. The Washington Post reports that U.S. authorities are collecting mug shots of the detained minors, some showing the children in tears. Immigrant children jailed in a converted Walmart in Texas are being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in English each morning. At some of the facilities, the children are counted in "prison-style" head counts. In some cases, parents have already been deported, while their children remain in United States custody. For more, we speak with Dr. Dana Sinopoli, a psychologist who penned an open letter condemning the Trump administration's practice of separating children from their parents at the border.

More than 280 players in the National Football League sustained concussions in the 2017 season. That's an average of 12 per week. A recent study of the brains of 111 deceased NFL players found all but one were found to have CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head. We speak with NFL three-time Pro Bowler and longtime activist Michael Bennett about CTE, the risks athletes take while playing football and how fans need to humanize the players they love to watch on screen.

When Michael Bennett was 12 years old, James Byrd was lynched in Jasper, Texas. The African-American man was brutally murdered by white supremacists who chained him to the back of their truck by his ankles and dragged him for more than three miles along the road. By the time the men untied his body from the back of the truck, Byrd's head and right arm had been severed. Michael Bennett calls this killing his "Emmett Till moment." We speak with the NFL player and activist about his childhood and the influence of his mother.

Over the past two seasons, dozens of National Football League players have knelt during the national anthem to protest police shootings of black teenagers and men like Antwon Rose, a 17-year-old unarmed African-American teenager who was shot dead by East Pittsburgh police last week. The NFL's on-field protests began in August 2016 when quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem to protest racism and police brutality. The National Football League announced last month that it will fine teams if players refuse to stand for the national anthem before games. Under the new rules adopted by the league's 32 owners, players will be allowed to stay in the locker room during the anthem. We speak with NFL three-time Pro Bowler and longtime activist Michael Bennett, who has been part of a movement, led by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, protesting police shootings of unarmed black men. Bennett was recently traded to the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles—the same team President Trump recently disinvited to the White House. He is the author of a new book, "Things That Make White People Uncomfortable."

Mattis: U.S. Preparing to Imprison Immigrant Children on Two Texas Military Bases, Border Patrol to Stop Handing Immigrant Parents Over for Prosecution, In El Paso, Immigrant Parents Demand Return of Their Children, AP: Algeria Has Expelled 13,000 Migrants into Sahara Desert, Newly Released Scott Pruitt Emails Show More Ties to Lobbyist, Fossil Fuel Industry, NOAA Proposed Dropping "Climate" from Mission, Judge Dismisses Cities' Effort to Force Fossil Fuel Companies to Pay for Climate Change, Trump Attacks & Threatens Rep. Maxine Waters, PA: Family Holds Funeral for Antwon Rose, Unarmed Black Teen Killed by Police, Mexico: 2 More Political Candidates Assassinated in Lead-Up to Presidential Election, Brazilian Radio Journalist Jairo Sousa Assassinated in Pará, Argentina: Unions Launch 24-Hour General Strike to Protest Austerity, FDA Approves Cannabis-Based Drug for the First Time

To understand America in the age of Trump, prize-winning documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki says to look no further than the checkered history of Elvis Presley. Jarecki's new documentary "The King” opens in New York City this week. It follows the filmmaker as he drives Elvis Presley's 1963 Rolls Royce across the United States in an attempt to understand what has happened to America in the age of Trump. "The American dream … wasn't for anybody if you weren't a white man," Jarecki said. "We got here because this nation puts power and money ahead of democracy. We have been hijacked by capitalism." We speak with Jarecki about Elvis, cultural appropriation, the civil rights movement and the story of this country.

We feature voices of the thousands who marched on the nation's Capitol Saturday for the Poor People's Campaign. The mass demonstration followed six weeks of actions around the country and more than 2,500 arrests, as protesters join what they are calling a "moral revival" to demand an end to systemic racism, poverty, the war economy and ecological devastation. The march brought together activists from around the country more than 50 years after demonstrators converged on Washington, D.C., in 1968 to take up the cause that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been fighting for when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968: the original Poor People's Campaign. Demonstrators rallied to protest widespread poverty just days after U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed a new U.N. report slamming the Trump administration's policies for worsening the state of poverty in the United States.

President Trump's "zero tolerance" crackdown on immigrants and asylum seekers continues as parents of more than 2,000 separated children say they still don't know where their kids are. Trump now says migrants should be deported without judges. We'll get response from Maru Mora Villalpando, an undocumented immigrant and mother with the group Mijente and Northwest Detention Center Resistance. She has a hearing in her own immigration case on Tuesday and says the best way to stop the separation of children from their families at the border is to drop the charges against their parents.

Trump Says Immigrants Should Be Deported Without Seeing Judges, Nationwide Protests Demand Reunification of Migrant Families, Abolition of ICE, Yemen: Tens of Thousands Flee U.S.-Backed Offensive Against Port City Hodeidah, Kushner Says U.S. to Unveil Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan Soon, Turkish President Erdogan Declares Victory in Presidential Election, Saudi Arabia Lifts Ban on Women Drivers; Feminist Activists Remain Jailed, Supreme Court Rules Gov't Needs Warrant to Collect Location Data from Cell Companies, Ex-Trump Campaign Staffer Tells Black Democrat, "You're Out of Your Cotton-Picking Mind", Millions Participate in Pride Marches Nationwide

An Eritrean man took his own life after being deported from the United States earlier this month. Zeresenay Ermias Testfatsion died by suicide at the Cairo International Airport. He was 34 years old. Testfatsion sought asylum in the United States in 2017, fleeing violence in Eritrea. He spent more than a year detained in South Florida and Ohio before he was deported. Friends and family are demanding to know why he was deported to Eritrea, despite his fears that he would be tortured or even killed there. We speak with Christine Ho, founder of a volunteer visitation program that provides support for immigrants and asylum-seekers inside Broward Transitional Center, the immigrant detention center in South Florida where Testfatsion was jailed for more than a year.

Human Rights Watch has a new report that exposes dangerously substandard medical care in ICE detention facilities around the country and reveals that more people died in immigration detention in fiscal year 2017 than any year since 2009. Physicians reviewed 15 deaths in immigration detention from December 2015 to April 2017, determining that substandard medical care contributed or led to eight of the 15 deaths. "What we found is ICE, the agency that's detaining now 40,000 people … and wants to expand, cannot provide adequately for the safety of the people that it holds," says Clara Long, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. She's the author of the report "Code Red: The Fatal Consequences of Dangerously Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention."

More 2,300 children have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border after their parents were charged with illegal entry under the Trump administration's ongoing "zero tolerance" policy. As concerns grow about poor coordination between Customs and Border Patrol, which takes the children, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which puts them into detention and foster care, The Intercept has a new report on one of the first reunifications. We speak with journalist Debbie Nathan about a Guatemalan woman whose 5-year-old son was taken from her last month by immigration authorities in Texas after she sought asylum, and has been reunited with him after 38 days in detention. We also speak with Clara Long, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It was a lot of work that took place outside of the government system," Nathan says. "It was a really wonderful thing, but it was very exceptional."

Military Prepares Four Bases to Hold 20,000 Immigrant Children, Ex-Head of Office of Refugees Accuses Trump Administration of "Child Abuse", Republicans Postpone Harsh Immigration Bill, Melania Trump Heads to Border Wearing "I Really Don't Care" Jacket, ICE Arrests 146 in Ohio in Largest Immigration Raid in Years, Parents with Babies Protest at ICE Field Office, Guatemalan Mother Seeks Sanctuary in NYC Church, Cynthia Nixon: ICE Has Turned into a "Terrorist Organization", Hundreds Shut Down Highway, Protesting Police Killing of Antwon Rose, Lancet Study: Police Killings of Black Americans Harms Mental Health of Black Population, NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Agrees to Plea Deal, Trump Proposes Merging Departments of Labor and Education, Nikki Haley Slams U.N. for Examining Poverty in United States, 100 Arrested in Poor People's Campaign Action at U.S. Capitol, Israel Considers Bill to Criminalize Filming Israeli Soldiers, Benjamin Netanyahu's Wife Indicted for Fraud

A new investigation has uncovered rampant sexual violence against Yemeni prisoners held in prisons run by the United Arab Emirates in Yemen. The Associated Press reports that in March, 15 officers lined up the prisoners in the southern city of Aden and ordered them to undress before searching their anal cavities, claiming they were looking for contraband cell phones. The prisoners screamed and cried and those who resisted were beaten and threatened by dogs.Hundreds of prisoners reportedly suffered similar abuse. A Pentagon spokesman quoted in the piece said the allegations were not substantiated. The UAE is a key ally of the United States and has partnered with Saudi Arabia in its military assault on Yemen. We speak with Maggie Michael, the reporter who broke these stories. She is the Associated Press based in Cairo. Her latest exposé is headlined “Detainees held without charges decry Emiratis’ sexual abuses.” Last year, she reported on prisons in a piece headlined, "In Yemen’s secret prisons, UAE tortures and US interrogates."

Shocking reports have revealed that immigrant children were subdued and incapacitated with powerful psychiatric drugs at a detention center in South Texas. Legal filings show that children held at Shiloh Treatment Center in southern Houston have been “forcibly injected with medications that make them dizzy, listless, obese and even incapacitated,” according to reports by Reveal. Meanwhile, according to another Reveal investigation, taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion over the past four years to companies operating immigration youth facilities despite facing accusations of rampant sexual and physical abuse. For more, we speak with the reporter who broke these stories: Aura Bogado. She is an immigration reporter with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Her latest stories are, "Immigrant children forcibly injected with drugs, lawsuit claims" and "Migrant children sent to shelters with histories of abuse allegations."

The government has no plans to reunite thousands of children who have been separated from their parents at the border, despite President Trump’s executive order claiming to end family separations. We speak with Zenén Jaimes, advocacy director for the Texas Civil Rights Project. He is part of their team that goes to the federal courthouse in McAllen each day since Trump began his "zero tolerance" policy, and collects information from parents who had their children taken away from them before they were taken to court to face criminal charges for crossing the border.

President Donald Trump’s executive order ending family separations at the border opts to indefinitely detain families together instead. The Nation reports that this policy will directly benefit the two largest prison companies in the United States: GEO Group and CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America. We speak with Bob Libal, the executive director of the Austin-based civil and human rights group Grassroots Leadership. They sued the state of Texas when it tried to classify ICE's family detention centers as "child care" facilities. They won, but the detention centers continue to operate without a license. His new article in the Texas Observer is headlined, "It’s Time to Decriminalize Immigration.” It is co-authored with Judy Greene.

President Trump has signed an executive order claiming to end the separation of children from their parents at the border, but critics warn the order could lead to the indefinite detention of entire families. The government has no plans to reunite the thousands of children already separated from their families with their parents. We go to Washington, D.C. to speak with Franco Ordoñez, White House correspondent for the McClatchy Washington Bureau. His latest story is headlined, "Trump's immigration order replaces one crisis with another."

Trump Signs Executive Order to Jail Immigrant Families Together, Without Limit, House to Debate Anti-Immigrant Bills Providing $25B to Militarize Border, Migrant Children Secretly Transported to NYC Foster Care in Dead of Night, Reveal: Migrant Youths Sent to Detention Centers With Abuse Histories, Airlines Refuse to Transport Separated Migrant Children, Portland ICE Office Closes Amid 24/7 Protest Over Family Separations, Scathing New Report Gives U.S. "F" Grade over Refugee Treatment, Hungary Approves Law Criminalizing Those Who Help Migrants, U.N. Investigators: Syrian Gov't Committed War Crimes in Eastern Ghouta, EPA Releases Long-Suppressed "Nightmare" Study on Water Contamination, Nearly 100 U.S. Meteorologists to Stage On-Air Climate Change Protest, Climate Change Fuels Floods in Texas, Ivory Coast, India, Bangladesh, Former Archbishop of D.C. Removed Over Sexual Abuse Accusations, Disney Raises 21st Century Fox Takeover Bid to $71 Billion, UNC Student Faces Possible Expulsion Over Confederate Statue Protest

In 2004, investigative reporter Sy Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq that shocked the world. Shocking photos of U.S. military personnel humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib sparked global outcry, as well as national hearings, investigations and finger pointing. We speak with Sy Hersh about his investigation, nearly 15 years later.

While Sy Hersh was working at The New York Times Washington bureau, he would watch reporters call then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger nearly every day, diligently writing down his comments and then reproducing them as front-page news. This is one of many stories Hersh tells in his new memoir, "Reporter." We speak with award-winning investigative journalist Sy Hersh about his many years reporting on Kissinger. He says, "What I always said about Kissinger, publicly, and again and again, is that when people ... can't sleep and they count sheep, I think Kissinger has to count burned and maimed Cambodian and Vietnamese babies the rest of his life. But, of course, he doesn't."

Soon after President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, Seymour Hersh got a call from a source at a California hospital. He learned that Nixon had beaten his wife so severely in 1974 that she sought treatment at an emergency room. Hersh did not report the story. Years later, he received criticism for this choice. We speak with Sy Hersh in New York City. He says of his decision not to report on Nixon beating his wife, "I was obtuse to the notion that it was a crime. … I didn't get it."