How her 19monthold child died after being jailed in an Ice Detention Center in dilley, texas most of this comes as the Trump Administration is threatening to launch nationwide immigration raids on sunday. We will speak with california congressmember Nanette Barragan, who visited a migrant child jail in texas last week. Then to the u. S. Womens National Soccer team. R rights1 equal pay amy chance of equal pay during their victory celebration in new york. We will look at what the world cup win means for the equal pay movement and the future of title ix. Places dish a acosta faces calls to resign, he is also facing racism for cutting the budget to fight International Sex trafficking by 80 . We will get the latest. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Labor secretary Alexander Acosta defied calls by congressional wednesday leaders to resign over the lenient plea deal he gave to 2008 serial child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein when acosta was the u. S. Prosecutor in florida. The plea deal saw epstein serve a 13month prison term, though he was allowed to leave jail six days a week to work from his private office. He would be picked up by his private chauffeur in return in the evening. It has been described as one of the most lenient deals for a serial child sex offender in history. The case drew renewed attention this week when epstein was charged in a Manhattan Federal Court with sexually assaulting and trafficking dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005 at his homes in manhattan and palm beach, florida. Hes pleaded not guilty. Earlier this year, a federal court ruled secretary acostas team violated the crime victims right back by failing to inform epstein survivors about the nonprosecution deal of 2008. Speaking to reporters for nearly an hour wednesday, secretary acosta did not once apologize to epstns ctims andefended his handling of the case. We belilieve we proroceeded appropriately, that basesed on e evidence and not just my opinion but based on the evidence, there was value to getting a guilty plea and having them register. Lookok, no regretsts is a very d question. Amy this comes as another woman, Jennifer Araoz, told nbc she was recruited by epstein when she was just 14 years old and she said he raped her in his new york city townhouse when she was 15. She was interviewed by savannah guthrie. In your mind, did you use the word rape . Did you recogngnize it then . No, i dont the guy did. I just thought, like, it is my fault. Like thats obligated, is just what y youre supupposeo do. Amy on wednesday, Jennifer Araoz asked a new York City Court for help in identifying the woman who first recruited her to epsteins mansion. On capitol hill, house lawmakers heard heartwrenching testimony wednesday from the guatemalan mother of a toddler who died after she became sick in an ice jail near the u. S. Mexico border. Yasmin juarez says her 18monthold daughter mariee was healthy when she brought her to the u. S. In march seeking political asylum. But one week after the pair were jailed at the south Texas Family Residential Center in dilley, texas, the girl developed a cough, diarrhea, and vomiting, with a fever that spiked at 104 degrees. Juarez says her daughter received inadequate medical care in a clinic set up in the centers gymnasium. After their release, juarez rushed her daughter to the emergency room. She e spent sisix weeks in h hol before she died of complications from a deadly lung infection. All of the hard work of these dodoctors came too late. My mariee died on mothers day, that a day on my city in my country we celebrate mothers day. When i left the hospital that day, all i had with me was a piece of paper with her handprints in pink paint that the staff i created for me. It was the only thing that i had left. Just her handprints. It theses had made previous day as a mothers day gift. Amy juarez has filed a 60 million lawsuit against the United States for the wrongful death of her daughter mariee. She was one of seven children to die in u. S. Immigration custody, or shortly after a release from custody, over the past year. Before last year, no child died in u. S. Immigration custody in over a decade. Wednesdays house hearing on immigration jails came as one of the House Oversight committees most prominent members, new yorks alexandrdria ocasiocort, called for the department of Homeland Security y to be dismantled. Speaking with the new yorker radio hour, ococasiocortetez repeated h her call for thee ababolition of ice, immigratin and customs enforcrcement. Host David Remnick asked ocasiocortez if she would get rid of the department of Homeland Security as well. I think so. I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious a lot of the egregious mistakes the bush and administration did. Afeel like we are at qualified and supportive position, at least in terms of evidence and in terms of being able to make the argument that we never should have created the dhs in early 2000. Amamy this comes as unnnnamed currenent and former Homeland Security officials told reportrters that ice is preparig to arrest thousands of undocumented immigrants in sweeps scheduled to begin sunday. Officials say they will arrest any immigrants they find common colluding socalled collateral deportations. Many local officials have promised to resist the ice raids. Meanwhile, mother jones is reporting that ice has opened three new immigration jails in the deep south as part of an effort to circumvent a congressional limit on the number of people in u. S. Immigration detention. Among them is the adams county correctional center, a mississippi prison operated by corecivic, a forprofit prisison corporation. That center has been plagued by reports of inadequate medical care, staff mistreatatment, anad rotten food, and was home to a prison riot in 2012 that left a guard dead. Ice is currently holding some 54,000 people in its jails an alltime high, and far more than a target of about 40,000 people set by congress. In philadelphia, Police Arrested six immigrant rights activists wednesday as they held a sitin protest at joe bidens 2020 campaign headquarters. The protesters are demanding that biden apologize for the roughly 3 million deportations that occurred while he served as Vice President under barack obama. Theyre also seeking a commitment by biden to end immigration detentions and deportations on his first day in office. Freshman democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of minnesota is calling on advertisers to boycott Tucker Carlson after the fox news host targeted her in a racist attack on his Program Tuesday night. During a threeminute monologue, carlson blasted omar one of the first two muslim women ever elected to the u. S. Congress as a living fire alarm and dangerous. After eveverything americicas done for omar anand for h her fafamily, she e hates thisis coy momore than ever. She is living proof the way we practice i iigration has b bome dangerous to thihis countrtry. She aiving firere alarm, aa warning to t the rest of us we betterer change our immigration system immediately or else. Amy ilhan omar tweeted in response fox news is now giving a nightly platform to white supremacist rhetoric. Its dangerous. Advertisers should not be underwriting hate speech. Tucker carlson has a history of racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic comments. He recently said immigration makes america poorer, and dirtier, and more divided and in 2006 called iraqis semiliterate, primitive monkeys. The Trump Administration is welcoming rightwing media stars to the white house today for a forum billed as a social media summit. Among those invited to attend are bill mitchell, a self described member of the trump train whos embraced the farright qanon conspiracy theory, and ali alexander, a farright activist whose recent tweet smearing senator Kamala Harris as not an american black was retweeted, then deleted, by donald trump jr. Also joining will be james okeefe, a discredited rightwing activist known for targeting planned parenthood and acorn. Okeefe was famously arrested in texas for trying to wiretap the office of the former u. S. Senator from louisiana, mary landrieu. A federal Appeals Court in virginia has dismissed a lawsuit against President Trump arguing he broke the constitutions anticorruption clauses by profiting from his Hotel Business in washington, d. C. A threejudge panel of the u. S. Court of appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that trumps continued ownership of the Trump International hotel did not violate the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the constitution. All three judges were nominated by republican president s. The Trump Organization has canceled plans to host a Charity Golf Tournament cosponsored by a miamiiarea strip club. B. Wednesdays move by the Trump National doral golf resort to scrap the planned event came a day after the Washington Post reported plans to have dancers from the shadow Cabaret Strip Club work as socalled caddy girls to vip guests paying 450. The planned event was to benefit a basketballthemed Childrens Program called miami all stars, which is not registered as a charity in florida. And when attention was drawn to it yesterday, they pulled out saying they did not want the money. The fbi on wednesday arrested six people on corruption charges related to puerto ricos recovery from hurricane maria, including two top officials in the administration of governor ricardo rossello. A 32count indictment charges the officials, including the former head of puerto ricos Health Insurance administration and the islands former education secretary, with illegally funneling federal funding to politically connected contractors. Following wednesdays arrests, Arizona Democratic congressmember raul grijalva, who chairs the House Committee that oversees puerto rico, called on governor rossello to resign. In louisiana, floodwaters from heavy rains have left much of new orleans and parts of the gulf coast underwater, as Tropical Storm barry churns offshore ahead of its predicted landfall as a category 1 hurricane on saturday. The storm spawned a waterspout over lake pontchartrain wednesday and left new orleanss famed bourbon street underwater. A Senior State DepartmentIntelligence Analyst has resigned in protest after the Trump Administration blocked parts of his written testimony to congress about the dangers of climate change. In june, analyst rod schoonover was permitted to appear before the House Intelligence Committee to testify about the National Security risks posed by Global Warming, but the white house barred him from submitting peerreviewed scientific Journal Articles and intelligence reports as evidence to back his claims. Part of his censored testimony to Congress Read absent extensive mitigating factors or events, we see few plausible future scenarios where significant possibly catastrophic harm does not arise from the compounded effects of climate change. This comes as a new nasafunded study published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Found rising Global Temperatures from human activity have pushed west antarcticas thwaites glacier to a Tipping Point that will likely see meltwater from the massive glacier raise global sea levels by about 50 centimeters, or more than a footandahalf. The process could takeke as lite as 150 years. And thousands gathered in Lower Manhattan yesterday to celebrate the u. S. Womens National Teams historic fourth world cup soccer championship at a raucous ticker tape parade. Megan rapinoe, alex morgan, rose lavelle, and their teammates rode floats through new york citys canyon of heroes as supporters chanted usa and equal pay the parade ended at city hall where new york city mayor bill de b blasio hosted a c ceremonyo celebrate the teamams second consecutive world cup win and awarded the athletes with keys to the city. Cocaptain Megan Rapinoe address the crowd with a message to the teams fans and the country. We have to listen more, and talk less. We have to know that this is everybodys responsibility. Every Single Person here. Every Single Person who is n not here. Every singlele person who does t want to be here. Every Single Person who agrees and doesnt agree. It is our responsibility to make this world a better place. I think this team doeses an incredible j job of takingng thn our shoulders and understanding the position that we have and the platform that we have within this world. Amy after the ceremony in new york city, the u. S. Women S Soccer Team flew to los angeles to attend the espy awards where they were honored with the best team award. Well have more on the u. S. Womens team and their figight r gender e equity later inin the broadcdcast. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Nermeen and im nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. The New York Times is reporting the Trump Administration is preparing to launch nationwide immigration raids beginning on sunday to target members of undocumented families. Officials told the times that immigration n and customoms enforcement agents will target at least 2000 immigrants. The raids are expected to take place in at least 10 major cities. The times reports authorities may detain immigrants who might be on the scene eveven thoughghy were n not targets of the rarai. Presesident trump first publicly threatened t to carry out the nationwide raids in june but then postponed them. This comes as trumps immigration policies are coming under international criticism. The u. N. High commissioner for rights, michelle bachelet, has condemned the didire conditions i in which jailed migrants are being held in the u. S. And the ongoing separation of children from their families. She warned that the detention of Migrant Children may constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment that is prohibited by international law. Amy meanwhile, congressional lawmakers have decried the conditions where Migrant Children are being held. The New York Times and the El Paso Times recently revealed there has been an outbreak of scabies, shingles, and chicken pox at a Border Patrol station in clint, texas, where hundreds of Migrant Children have been held without access to sufficient food, water, beds, or medical care. We go now to washington where we are joineded by democratic congresswoman Nanette Barragan of california. Last week, she took part in a congressional delegation that vivisited that Border Patrol facility in clint, texas. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us. We just got this news of the outbreak of scabies and shingles and chickenpox at that very facility that you visited. Can you describe what you saw . , well, amy, there are cells much like youve seen the advertisements of the Border Patrol am a five or six cells were they are holding children. When we went, they locked the doors so we cannot talk to these children. These are basically prison cells. They are concrete floooors. Theyey are bringing in nylonlooking bunkbeds. Maybe you get a blanket. But yoyou are locked i in a roo. If you go to a s separate area n the back after you leave the cell area, theres a place thatt looks almost like a warehouse. It is hot in there. There are more of these nylylon bunkbeds. And there is a whole stack of mats ready for children. When we w went, amy, there weree only 25 and 30 children. At the height, they had 700 children. And reports of children who could not sleep and could not find a place to even lay down. Completely unacceptable. Nermeen congressmember, were you able to speak to the children or any of the people who are being detained . No. When we got there, we clearly were told you cannot speak to the children. There is to be zero conversations. Now, when we walked into the ,rea where the prison n cells ae that is what i call them, five or six of them, there was a door with plexiglas that went pretty low. Soso you had a small boy, must have been three or four years old, run up to the p plexiglas n which the case some of us got on our knees to be able to be facetoface with this little boy. He was putting his hands up against the plexiglas to trtry o touch you, to say y hello, try o cocommunicate with you. You could see he was asking for his father. It was really heartbreaking to see what was happening. We were not allowed to go into these cells to talk to the children. Amy there was video from Congress Member and check the Congressional Hispanic CaucusJoaquin Castro who reported video on his cell phone during the visit to o Border Patrol facilitieses in el paso, texas. The san antonio democrat said he refused to relinquish his phone to Border Agents to take video of detained immigrants and asylum seekers. In one video, you can hear congressmember alexandria ocasiocortez speaking to the women in spanish. If you can describe how the. Uards also responded and respond to President Trumps tweet or he said what you described on the border in these various facilities is untrue. He said the people in the facilities that are jailed are very happy and their condition in these jails, child jails, and otherwisise, a far betteter from where they came from. Where thehe location video was taken n was right befe we got to clint. First of all, the president s tweet is an outright lie. I have been there first him plenty of times. When i was there several months ago, i saw firsthand the overflow. I saw people packed into these risen cells. It is s completely untrue. It i is completely false witithe president is sayaying. I would bet he has not been to these locations and thesese plas to see for himself how packed it is and see the despair in peoples eyes. The face of desperation. We got mobbed by women and their children asking for help. It is so heartbreaking to be there and to hehear that and too not build a say let me hehelp yoyou. Let me do sosomething to relieve thisis pain and to put you in a better situation. The Law Enforcement officers that we were with that gave us ththe tour were very d different this tim around than they had been a couple of months ago when i went. The last time i went, they let me speak to the individuals, the parents. They let me even take a phonee in. They let me take a photo with nobody spaces. This time around, very different. They confiscated telephones. They said, youre not allowed to talk to a dull. Talk to adults. As members, sometimes were told that, we get there and you try to talk to them, i speak spanish, for example, and will try to talk to them in the corner. In this instance, demanded we be allowed to speak to the detainees and just heard theheir stories and their cries for help. Let me tell you why it is so critically important that members of congress be able to speak to the detainees. Because what you hear from officials on the guided tour, what they want you to see and what they tell you, is very different than when youu start speaking to the detainees. We have had instances where they tell you theyre getting plenty of diapers, but when you talk to the women, to the mothers, they will show you rashes from their children. They will tell you they are not getting enough diapers. They will tell you they are not getting the medical care that we are being told they are getting. And so you can see photos of them showing you toothbrush and diapers, bubut it doesnt mean t is getting to the detainees or they are being treated in a fair so thatified manner they can get a shower and they can be clean. We saw people who had not been cleaned, who had not showered several months ago. It was days on end. And it is disturbing. Everybody in this country should be outraged about how were treating women and families and children and people who are escaping violence, coming here for asylum which is legal in the United States. Nermeen on capitol hill, house lawmakers heard heartwrenching testimony wednesday from the guatemalan mother of a toddler who died after she became sick in an ice jail new the u. S. Mexico border. Yazmin juarez says her 18monthold daughter mariee was healthy when she brought her to the u. S. In march seeking political asylum. But one week after the pair were jailed at the south Texas Family Residential Center in dilley, texas, the girl developed a cough, diarrhea, and vomiting with a fever that spiked at 104 degrees. She says her daughter received inadequate medical care in a gymnasium. Up in the she rushed her daughter to the emergency room after release. She spent six weeks in hospital before she died of complications from a deadly lung infection. During her testimony juarez , exexplained how she was treatd by immigrations officials. After the interview, the ice immigration official asked me why, for what reason i had come to the United States. I responded that i had come for my childs future. But they practically did not let us talk. And he said, in these words, you know this country is for americans. Donald trump is my president. We can take your daughter away from you and lock you in jail. And i remember i just started to cry because i really did notot have any words t to respond to them. To me, that is mistreatment. I am here today because i dont want anymore Little Angels to did, thee way mariee way i am now. I dont want anymore mothers or fathers to lose children. It cant be so hard for a country like the United States to protect children. Nermeen and this is more of what yazmin juarez told lawmakers on wednesday. All the hard work of these doctors came too late. My mariee died on mothers day, on a day that in my city, in my country, we celebrate mothers day. When i left the hospital that day, all i had with me was a piece of paper with mariees handprints in pink paint that the staff had created for me. It was billy thing that i had left. Just her handprints. The nurses had made it the previous day as a mothers day gift. There are days i want to give up because for me it is very, very hard to see so many children and for none of them to be my daughter, and to think i will never see her again or hug her or enjoy being with her or tell her just how much i love her. For me, that is very hard. You have no idea how hard it is to move forward without my little girl. They tore out a piece of my heart. They tore out my soul. And now im suffering, and it is difficult for me to get up and move forward. I wanted a Better Future for her , to work hard, and to get ahead so she could keep growing the way she was. I cant do that now. I cant do that because she is gone. Nermeen so that was yazmin juarez speaking to lawmakers on wednesday about her daughter who died just after being released from detention. The last year, six children have died in custody. Grillrse, this little died just after she was released. And before last year, no child died in a decade. Congresswoman, could you comment on what has been happening in these facilities and why so many children have died . First, it is absolutely heartbreaking to hear the account of ms. Juarez yesterday and her daughter. And this is what should move our lawmakers in our country to act so they are not trereated inhumanenely. It i is an outrage. I am almost speechless for words on what is happening. When you see the pattern of how these children are being treated, when you see the floors decision were children are being held longer than the 72 hours, when you hear the words of those in the administration about determinantsts and how theyre tryiying to deter, it is hard. It is hard not to think this is being done in a situation, in a manner to make it as difficult as possible, as painful as possible on how these children and how these families are being treated to try to deter people. And it is outrageous. We should not ever resort to violating human rights and practices to try to deter people from coming to this country. And that is what this administration has been focused on. It is the antiimmigration agenda. It is finding ways to to turn peoplele. And so theyre slowing down the process. That is why we have so many these right now i in prisonlike conditions. So they are turning people away at ports of entry, and that alone is killing people bebecaue then their desperation of when they are waiting in memexico whwhich is violent and people ae experiencing horrific situations there. They then come and travel between the ports of entry. Some o of them are ending up in the rio and dying. But in these facilities, when they get to this country and they are in these detention centers, theyre not getting the treatment they need and they are not being processed out quickly enough. Ist of that, i believe, because of the administration slow down and processing people. We need to get more immigration judges. We also we need to invest in alternatives to detention. And this is something the administration has cut back on. They would rather jailed peoplpe and house people, children, and families, instead of allowing them to be reunited with their families here in the states. We know that. They have said that. And the result has been overcrowding. The result has been the people are getting sick and dying. I said that months ago when i saw the situation firsthand. I walked out and said people will die if this continues. You cannot put sick people in rooms with other sick children. It is going to spread. That is common sense. Amy let me ask about the growing rift, the increasingly publblic dispute between House Speaker nancy pelosi and quarter Freshman Congress woman known as the squad. Pelosi recently told the New York Times, all of these people have their public and her twitter world, but they did not have any following. There are four people and that is how many votes they got. Yesterday, alexandria ocasiocortez told the Washington Post i kind of thought she was given the progress of flank and more of an arms distance in order to protect more moderate members, which understood them up with a persistent singling out come it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful. The explicit singling out of newly elected women of color. Can we get your response to this . Certainly, it has s intensified over the whole issue of immigration. Yes. Theres a lot of tension going on, certainly when the house supplemental came up, we were fighting to get provisions, guardrails, and d provisions in there so we could have some accountability and some oversight. When youre just handing out a blank check, it does not feel good. And when you see what is happening at the border and it is only then intensifies whihile we are fighting so hard to get these provisions in an thehese guardrails, as i like to call them, and so this h has been the result of some disagreement within the party on whether you give a blank check, you puput te guardrails in or not. I did not support without oversight provisions. It did not have the very critical things we needed as just a first step. This is an ongoing issue. Amy let me ask you about your response to Congress Member ocasiocortez for the department of Homeland Security to be dismsmantled. Here she is being interviewed by david r. I. M. Neck. He asked her if dhs should be abolished. I think so. I think we need to undo a lot of a lot of the egregious mistakes of the bush administration. Al like were at a very qualified and supportive position, at least in terms of evidence and in terms of being able to make the argument that we never should have created dhs in the early 2000s. Amy do you feel the department of Homeland Security should be abolished . Security is really big. And i think that is the problem. It oversees everything f from te secret service, all fema, rescue and recovery, Human Trafficking. It does cbp officers at the port of entries, the seaports there protecting from terrorist threats. So it is very big. Andwithin that you have ice enforcement happening. There does need to be serious looks at how do we restructure this, how do we break this up, how do we make it so it is not so big and unmanageable . We have seen that in various hearings in Homeland Security on this reallyy to see large agency the largest lawenforcement agency that does so many factors. I have serious concerns with enforcement and ice right now, and i think we need to look at how we fix these systemic problems and how we restructure it so it is not what it is now, which is a lot of abuses of peoples rights and violations of human rights at the border. Amy finally, the raids that apparently are about to take place, President Trump threatened them several weeks ago. Now it is being said the New York Times reporting sunday major immigration raids that people will be picked up who may just be in the area, in 10 major cities. Can you tell us what more you know . I mean, as a congressmember, you have oversight. Call come the hispanic caucus had a call about three or four weeks ago when the first reports were out that these were going to happen. We had a call wiwith officials from homeland sesecurity about these reports. They wouould not confirm o or dy they were going to happen, which to mee led me to believe they were going to happen. They would not confirm or denyny locations. But what they did say was exactly what is being reported. That they have targeted enforcement operations. However, theyre going to pick up anybody a along thehe way who they encounter. And this is a problem because this is why we have a a funding issusue. This i is why theres so much disorganization within that department because there is no more priorities. Instead of focusing on violent felons, they are focusing on everybody. Would you h have no focus, it makes it that t much more challenging. I am telliling constituents to e alert. T. Knknow your rights. So important right now that t we gogo out and we tell people abot resources to know their rights and not open the door and to making sure we are all vigilant. It is deeply concerning and troubling that the president and this admdministration are continuing to cause fear in our commmmitys, just makingng it amy do you agree with Los Angeles MayorEric Garcetti who in the last threat of these deportation raids, set on twitter, no angelino should never have to fear being smashed from their home are separated from their loved ones. Were doing of it and to provide immigrant families with info and ahead of the ice deportation sweeps, saying the local authorities will not cooperate with ice. Do you say the same, the local authorities in california should not cooperate with ice a around these deportatioion raids . I do agree with the mayor on this. We have to make sure that we are conveying this message to our communities, that we stand with them. Ice is a federal agency. Until the have a better system in place, and right now they have complete disorganization, were going to continue to stand firm on n this. This is wrong and we are going to give as much as information as we can to our immigrant and migrant family members and Community Members. It is pretty devastating to see the fear being cost. Amy Nanette Barragan, you are a wellknown ballplayer in washington, as in baseball, soccer, member of the house to midi on Homeland Security, but also i wanted ask about the womenS Soccer Team. Chants that went on yesterday at the tickertape parade. They said usa and they added equal pay. Your thoughts on this and what congress can do . I think it is so great to see the women go out and win. Im totally behind the effort of equal pay. Of thealluded to, one two o women of congress whplplay on the mens s baseball team. We need to be on the same level, get paid the e same, be treatatd the sameme. I i am so proud of womens soccr and what theyre doing right now to be the inspiration for young the country. I am so glad to see that. Were going to continue the fight in congress for equal pay. That is something that is imimpacting communitys of color at a disproportionate rate as well. We have a lot of work to do. We need everybody on our team, including the u. S. Womens stand with us. Theyre at the forefront of this fight. Amy the womenS Soccer Team is headed to the capital. There not been invited to the white house by President Trump, even though they are the winningest soccer Team Nancy Pelosi has invited them. When we come back, we will look at what he was womens soccer cap win means for eqequal pay ad the future of title ix. Stay with us. [music break] amy movimiento by the uruguayan musician jorge drexler. This is democracy now , im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen thousands gathered in new york city yesterday to celebrate the u. S. Womens National Soccer teams historic fourth world cup championship at a ticker tape parade. Megan rapinoe, alex morgan, rose lavelle, and their teammates rode floats through new york citys canyon of heroes. Ending the celebrations at a ceremony at city hall. Supporters chanted usa and equal pay p pay1l equal pay nermeen the continued battle for equal pay and working conditions has just begun, equal to the westminster in. Prize money for this years womens world cup is just 30 million, compared to 400 million for the 2018 mens world cup. Amy the u. S. Women world cup victory came just months after members of the 2015 womens team sued the u. S. Soccer federation over gender discrimination. This is cocaptain Megan Rapinoe who is the teams top scorer and best player, addressing the crowd d at city hall just aftete they receiveved the keys to the cityty. Responsibility to make this world a better place. I think this teamoes an incredibible jobob of taking thn our shoulders and understanding the position that we have in the platform that we have within this world. Pay andrew cuomo sign equity legislation for new york state in a gesture of support for the womenS Soccer Team, just one day earlier senator joe manchin introduced legislation to withhold federal funding for the u. S. Hosting the 2026 mens world cup until the women and equal pay. Receive the u. S. Womens teams high profile fight for pay equity is focusing the spotlight on the pay gap from women, not just soccer players. Women make . 80 for every dollar paid to men, black women make . 61 for every dollar. Native women make 58 cents. Latinx women make 53 cents. We are joined now by julie suk, professor of sociology at the Graduate Center at cuny. She is also the dean for masters programs. The womenS Soccer Team exultant and defiant as the head of u. S. Soccer federation addressed the crowd at city hall. He was met by chances of equal pay. What does this call by the womenS Soccer Team, yes in the realm of soccer, mean for this country, for women around the country . Think their victory is a testament to some of the successes of title ix in this country since the 1970s. Title ix is very distinctive as antidiscrimination law in this country because it not only prohibits discrimination, it actually requires gender parity. Amy explain exactly what title ix is. It is a statute that was passed in 1972 around the time that you all rights amendment was being sent to the states for ratification. It is a statute that prohibits not only discrimination in Educational Programs receiving federal funding, but also prohibits the exclusion from participatioion on account of s. What that has meant in practice am a because of the way it has is notterpreted, is it enough just to say we are not discriminating on the basis of gender. Institutions, universities, have to equalize conditions so that women and men really have an equal opportunity in sports programs. This has made a huge difference to the ability of women to participate in sports and eventually to excel over generations. Nermeen does that apply only to universities, not high schools . It applies to all recipients of federal funding. Nermeen do you agree the womenS Soccer Team won because precisely y of this title ix and what it enabled for women athletes . I do because i think what title ix shows is if we are really committed on the groundnd toto actual equality between men and women and have a very robust understanding of what that means, it means we can unleash womens full potential. There are so much talent i think that is not allowed to come out when we have an equal Pay Practices or when we have various practices on the ground that include women one way or another. Legislation dof you think is necessary to ensure equal pay for women and men . Currently we do have title vii employment of the equal pay act of 1963. Those are the statutes the Womens National team is invoking in a lawsuit that was filed that you mentioned. Go fartatutes do not enough because even though they require equal pay for equal work, there are a lot of exceptions, including if you pay men and women unequally, based on any other factor other than sex, that is legal under the equal pay act. Many other countries in recent years have passed more robust equal pay laws. For example in france, they have an equal pay index to large employers will have to measure certain things like the pay gap between men and women in the company, the number of women who have gotten raises after maternity leave, those kinds of things. They get a certain score. If the risk or falls below a certain level, there three years to fix it or they can get fined up to 1 of payroll. Seeing something youre in other countries. Other countries that also have gender equality in the constitution for some amy talk about the state of pay and also of wealth, the disparity between men and women in the u. S. I think it is a complicated thing. Makeigure we have is women . 80 on the mens dollar. It is due to a large amy that is white women. That is all women. But if you break it down, of course you get lower percentages as compared to men. But i think a lot of the factors not only doing with discrimination because of gender stereotyping and exclusion of women in certain programs from education all the way up to the workplace, it has a lot to do also with the effects of gender roles on womens careers and their earning ability, including the fact many women take career breaks in ordeder to raise children. Because in this s country, we dont really have meaningful paid parental leave for men or women and this tends to have a pretty bad affect on womens earning ability over their careers. That 80 is something that is complicated. It represents not only discrimination in the context of underpaying women for the exact same job, but broader disadvantages that have to deal with the gender role that women and men play in our society. Nermeen how do you think that compares to the extent of course it is true the u. S. Has among the oecd countries, among the worst provisions for maternity and paternity leave. To what extent is that a reflection of how far we are here from gender inequality . Because a kind of says something about how the role of the mother and the father, but principally the mother given what youve said about gender roles, how much that is valued and how much space is made for it. Economists who have studied the gender pay gap have suggested that if you control for maternity him at the gender pay gap actually narrows significantly. If you control that is to say women who are not mothers make almost as much as men whether they are fathers or not. So youre absolutely right that our lack of accommodation for working mothers in this country, including our lack of a federal policy of paid parental leave right now i believe only 11 or 12 of American Workers have access to paid parental leave. And when the leave is not ok, we have a family radical lead act that authorizes unpaid leave after 12 w weeks, but when families havee unpaid leave, the time youou have a baby is realay not a gogood time not to be makg any money. What this usually means is that men continue to work and women take as short a time period off as possible if they dont have access to paid leave o or stop this also has s very bad effects on Maternal Health and infant mortality. Amy how this title ix, how is equal pay and particular, how would these be affected by the passage of the equal rights amendment . Explain what that is. The equal rights amendment is an amendment to the u. S. Constitution which would propose a must 100 years ago that says equality of rights shall l not e denied or abridged by the United States or by any it prohibits the government from discriminating on the basis of sex. What it would do is it would make thehe government responsibe and accountable for a wide range of governmental failures in the context of gender inequality. Obviously, they would not be able to actually exclude women for many Government Programs or public Educational Programs on the basis of sex, but i think it could mean something more. That is your not abridging the quality of rights, it means that when we systematically fail to provide equal opportunities on the ground that the government is somehow responsible. And i think it would make sense then to have a kind of robust understanding of nondiscrimination that you see in the context of title ix, which has produced results. Amy what would it take to pass equal rights amendment, the e. R. A. , right nowow . What it would take right now is one more state legislature to ratify the equal rights amendment. What happened when the equal Rights Movement was sent to the states for ratification is we got 35 states before the deadline in 1982. We need 38. Ratified,7, nevada has illinois has ratified. So if we have one more state, we will have 38 states. Amy i would thank you for being with us. We will continue to follow that movement. Julie suk, professor of sociology at the Graduate Center at cuny. She has written about the era and about gender equality in the constitutions across the world. When we come back, labor secretary out to cost a laborand over secretary Alexander Acosta, being criticized for cutting the budget to fight International Sex trafficking by 80 . Tay with us for [music break] amy the drum by the hiphop duo the seige. This is democracy now , im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen labor secretary Alexander Acosta is rejecting calls to resign and is defending his role in a 2008 plea deal given to the wealthy serial child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. At the time acosta was a u. S. , prosecutor in florida. The miami herald has described the plea deal as one of the most lenient deals for a childld sex offender in history. Amy acosta has cocome under fie funding fors to cut trafficking. Helds questioned when he an almost our News Conference to justify the extremely lenient deal he made with epstein back in 2008 when he was the u. S. Attorney in florida. But this is what he said when questioned about the budget around sex trafficking. The laboror secretary comingf tried repeatedly to cut a program that deals with Human Trafficking in the Labor Department by of the eta percent , going before congress advocating for that. Why should people trust you to focus on Human Trafficking a protect if you have done that . Foreigne referring to countries, for a foreign country labor related work as part of the budget every year those grants have been removed, as have other grants for foreign countries. Let me just add as part of the budget every year, those grants are put back in by congress. This is what happens in washington. Eiffel a suspect those grants will remain in this year. Amy to talk more about alex acostas record, were joined now by taina bien aime, executive director of coalition against trafficking in women. Were not as much talking about the case of Jeffrey Epstein, which we talked about the last few days. At this issue of his cutting of the budget. Can you explain what this means . The department of labor has a bureau that is International Labor affairs bureau. Their primary responsibility is childbat forced labor, trafficking, labor and sex trafficking, inHuman Trafficking in general. For secretary acosta is saying, it goes primarily this money goes primarily to International Programs is correct, but it also goes to domestic programs. Say he has a budget of 68 million dollars. What he is proposing is for the bureau ilab to be reduced by 80 to 18 million, congress will fight him on that. The Appropriations Committee will fight him on that. But what it means is we are faced with in a administration that once to reduce its efforts to this very complex, human rights violation called Human Trafficking. G. It is not just jeopardizing what were doing to combat child sex trafficking, but also child labor trafficking. So many the state Department Also works on Human Trafficking and also provides services and programs to combat it. , departmenty on dol of labor, specifically for child labor trafficking. For instance, cocoa production. There are three major u. S. Companies hershey, mars, and nestle that cannot even they committed to ensuring to consumers that no child labor trafficking is involved in the production of cocoa. What will happen to those commitments, right . We dont even know whether they are fulfilling their commitments to ensure ththat. Whenever you buy a bag of m ms or skittles that that does not involve child trafficking. It is very interesting you have a acosta, who makes this extremely lenient deal with the child sex rapist, with Jeffrey Epstein, where he goes to jail for Something Like 11 months but every day he can go out, his chauffeur pick some up to go to work and this was in florida. He works for President Trump who is been accused of sexually assaulting at least 17 women. But why are why is this in the department of labor . That is well, sex trafficking is dealt with in many agencies across the u. S. Government. , the bureau that specififically looks at Human Trafficking, which includes, as we know Human Traffickingng has many forms of exexploitation. You have trafficking for labor, trafficking for sex, situations of slavery and servitude. That is their mandate to ensure the u. S. Develops programs that are well funded to combat it. Amy if it was cut by 80 , would devastate the monitoring of stopping Human Trafficking . It would get the program. Amy we will do part 2 and post it on democracynow. Org. T, executive director of coalition against trafficking in women. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] announcer on this episode of earth focus, Ocean Acidification caused by Global Warming is dramatically affecting marine life. In california, partnerships are forming between cocommercial fisheries, scientists, and Community Members to helelp the endangered abalone adapt and survive. [slide projector clicking] different announcer earth focus is made possible in part by a grant from anne ray