on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: u.s. financial markets battled all day to recoup its losses, then, collapsed under the pressure. at one point, the dow jones industrials were up more than 440 points, helped by an interest rate cut in china. but the gains evaporated in the final minutes of trading, making it the sixth losing day in a row. in the end, the dow dumped another 200 points to close below 15,670. the nasdaq fell nearly 20 points, and the s&p 500 slid 25. >> ifill: there was no letup in the stock sell-off in shanghai, amid gathering gloom over china's economy. jonathan miller of independent television news reports from hong kong. >> reporter: red numbers are bad. the market down nearly 8% again today. calamitous for small individual inversussers, of which there are tens of millions. like 73-year-old mr. gao. the situation in china is much worse than anywhere else, he says. it just keeps falling. ordinary people cannot afford this. many ordinary people have had their life savings wiped out. today, the chinese government pulled another lever in an effort to end this financial carnage, cutting interest rates to boost economy and encourage investment. mr. wong is a hong kong fund manager, scathing of how chinese communist leaders handled the process. >> the problem is they get in too early. >> reporter: they lost 140 billion, already. >> yes, but if you compare to the level last year, actually, we are still much higher than last year's level. >> reporter: views like that, the great fall of china, more of an adjustment, really. companies optimistically overvalued. the market had shot up 150% in 12 months. china's credit squeeze, one of the symptoms of downturn that alerted inverts all was not well. then further rattled by new data confirming this, the selloff. with 40 mainland countries listed, hong kong inverts were very exposed. many investors, both institutional and individual, have been badly burned. until this past week, there were basically two kind of inverts in hong kong, those who believed in china as an instructible power house and engine of global growth and those who didn't. now most don't. astrologers warned the year of the goat held risks for financial affairs, but goat people, the lucky direction ignored. but right now, it's still all heading up. >> ifill: the sell-off in china has put even more pressure on oil prices, now at their lowest since the recession began. but in new york today, oil managed a small comeback, closing back above $39 a barrel. we'll explore the oil production boom and price bust, after the news summary. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the u.s. congressional budget office has scaled back its economic outlook for the united states. its projection released today calls for growth of 2.3% for this year. in january, the c.b.o. had forecast growth to run 2.8% for the year. the c.b.o. also lowered its federal budget deficit forecast to $426 billion, the smallest since 2007. >> ifill: the head of the international atomic energy agency promised today that its checks of iran's nuclear activities will be "the most robust" anywhere. the u.n. agency is supposed to verify iranian compliance with a nuclear deal. i.a.e.a. chief yukiya amano spoke in vienna today, and said iran turned over "substantive" information on its program this month. it's unclear if any of the information is new. >> woodruff: more than 180,000 people are homeless in bangladesh after floods, landslides and a cyclone inundated the country. the red cross and red crescent made an appeal today for nearly $1 million to give people temporary shelter. the region was hit hard by cyclone komen at the end of july. that on top of flooding that began back in june. >> ifill: more than 46 million people worldwide now suffer from dementia. what's more, the group alzheimer's disease international estimates that number will double every 20 years. a new report out today says more than half of dementia victims now live in developing countries, and the numbers are growing fastest in east asia and africa. >> woodruff: and, that symbol of reliability, london's big ben, is finally showing its age. officials say the famed clock tower at the british parliament has been running about six seconds fast. so, mechanics had to fine-tune it by placing pennies on the pendulum. a clocksmith for parliament says it's to be expected. after all, he says, it's like running a car for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for the last 156 years. still to come on the newshour: oil prices swing during a global market meltdown. turkey's prime minister fails to build a coalition government. what new elections mean for the fight against extremism in the region. and much more. >> ifill: only a year ago, crude oil was trading at more than $100 a barrel. but prices have plunged, down more than 60% from its peak. much of that drop has occurred in just the past few weeks. increased supply and declining demand for oil, plus the ongoing slowdown in china's economy are part of what's been fueling turmoil in the financial markets, and for some of the major oil producing countries as well. russell gold covers this as the senior energy reporter for the "wall street journal." he's the author of a book about fracking and its fallout, called "the boom." the price of crude oil is down so much since 2014. what's the basic reason? >> well, the basic reason is that the supply continues to grow. the united states which has sort of been the big store of it over the last few years has been pumping more and more oil. it's barely flattening even as prices come down. everyone thought the u.s. production would fall off a cliff and that hasn't happened. saudi arabia has been increasing production, something you wouldn't expect with these oil prices. everyone thought, well, what would save the day is growing chinese demand,tha it will sop up all the extra oil. that hasn't happened. in the last week, we've seen there are a lot of questions about whether there is going to be chinese demand in the next year. >> ifill: why hasn't there been incentive to cut back in production as a way of driving the price back up. >> there is been a lot of incentive as you look at the macro level across the entire industry. but if you're a producing country or company, there is no incentive to cut back because you're waiting to hope that somebody else cuts back first. if you are the one who cuts back, that's going to dry up your revenue. if you're a company, then you're not going to be able to pay your workers. if you're a country, you're not going to be able to fund social programs. >> ifill: where is all this oil coming from, especially in the u.s.? >> well, in the u.s., there is been an incredible boom brought about by fracking, mostly coming from texas and north dakota. we're producing more oil than we have since the early 1970s. it's been a remarkable turnaround. >> ifill: and as a result of these low prices, what's happened to consumption? are americans saying, well, prices are low, i'll just keep going as i go? or are they doing what americans do, which is buying more? >> well, that's a great question. back in 2007, there was what some an it's called peak gasoline consumption in the united states. we'd hit the maximum we were going to hit because the cars were getting more fuel efficient. that's starting to turn around. people are buying less fuel efficient cars and driving further. so, you know, you're out there, seeing the $2.50 gasoline prices in a lot of places in the country and people beginning to drive more. demand in the u.s. is going up. globally, it's flat. i so the u.s. is buying big trucks, for instance. >> we're seeing that coming back, absolutely. >> ifill: let's talk about the other countries. you mentioned saudi arabia. what about oil production in iraq, venezuela, nigeria, russia? >> well, iraq is also, like saudi arabia, ramped up its oil exports. they're part of the reason behind this. but if you look at a place like venezuela, they have triple-digit inflation. the i.m.f.c. is contracting. they're in the leading of countries in trouble economic limit russia is believed to be in a recession because of low oil prices. low oil prices, when you're a producing nation and that's your primary economic output in a place like venezuela on nigeria, this is a really bad scenario for them. >> ifill: back to china. we've watched the incredible turmoil in the chinese markets. which is the chicken and egg, or is oil driving any of this, or are the markets driving the oil prices? >> well, i think right now it seems to me like the markets are driving the oil prices. when you see the cheese economy begin to really slow down or at least the signals are very clear that it's slowing down, then, all of a sudden, you don't have the big growth and demand that, up until a couple of weeks ago, everyone was expecting the international energy agency earlier this month put out their big monthly report saying we'll see a lot of growth and demand at the end of this year. that's really a question mark now. if you're a producing company now, just a couple -- let's see, two months ago, the kansas city federal reserve bank put out a survey and asked producers, well, what do you think the oil price is going to be at the end of the year? and the answer was $63. i think they will be ecstatic if they get to $63 by the end of the year. >> ifill: finally we, talked a great deal in this program about the iran nuclear deal and there is questions about oil production involved in that as well. does that change the nervousness about that deal at all? does this have an effect? >> well, i think the impact it could have is, if the deal goes through, that's just one more weight on oil prices, because iran wants to come back and double their production, add another million barrels a day of export on to the market. so if you're sort of looking long-term and thinking, well, when do oil prices rebound, if the iran deal goes through, then that's just one more bert sign for oil prices. >> ifill: we'll be watching these. so many factors which can affect the outcome. russell gold of "the wall street journal," thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: there was more politicial uncertainty today within one of america's key allies in the fight against islamic state. turkey's president tayyip erdogan announced late yesterday that new parliamentary elections will be held later this fall. this came after his ruling a.k. party lost its majority in the june election for the first time since 2002. efforts since then to produce a coalition government failed. today, he asked his prime minister to form an interim cabinet and government until november 1. but already two opposition parties have refused to take part. this comes as turkey is now letting the u.s. use its military bases in the campaign against islamic state. critics charge that ankara's own efforts against extremism focus too much on attacking turkey's militant kurdish group, the p.k.k., and not nearly enough on i.s. to help us understand the latest developments and what they mean is our chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner. margaret, hello. >> hello. >> woodruff: so this is just two months after the last election. what do we make of it all? >> this is so somplecated, judy. let's just start with the pure politics. bottom line, erdogan succeeded. his party has islamist roots, ruled in tote mall jort in parliament since coming to power. suddenly, he was faced with having to make a coalition government and i'm told by people close to the negotiations he never really empowered his prime minister to give away anything. if he was inviting another party to join, he wouldn't even give them the head of the ministry. who would want to join a coalition like that? meanwhile, he renews this shooting war with the p.k.k., this terrorist group the u.s. calls terrorists. it's kurdish militants who fought a civil war with turkey for years and years, that's been renewed. the analysis is that erdogan hopes that now he will be seen as this war-time president against not only islecies but -- icbut i.s.i.s. but the p.k.k. tt he might win the election and get the supermajority, the 60% which will let him rewrite the constitution and be a powerful, powerful president. >> woodruff: wasn't ate major surprise back in june in the elections that a kurdish party got enough votes to win seats in the par parliament? >> that was the big surprise. it was a kurdish party in that they attractedd who were impressed by erdogan's power. some turned out to protest order wan's bull dozing the parking lot in istanbul, they joined the kurdish party, got 13% and made it impossible for order wan's party to get 60%. erdogan was so alarmed by this he would notw3 even let his prie minister negotiate with the kurdish party in search of a ruling coalition. the two of them together could have put one together. so, again, the erdogan calculation is now they have a renewed fight with the p.k.k. which is pretty much a terrorist group, that maybe some of these liberals and mid middle class voters will peel away from the pro kurdish party. there are no polls out. but analyst who is talk to kurds think that may be the case. >> woodruff: what is at issue for the united states? >> the big issue for the united states is getting and maintaining turkey's cooperation in the coalition against i.s.i.s. turkey was reluctant to get drawn in. this summer, remarkably, it said we'll let you use our bases. these are key bases in turkey that make it so much easier and faster to launch bombing runs into both syria and iraq. in other words, so the fighter jets don't have to come all the way up from the gulf. so there is that. then the united states also want to preserve a working alliance it hasñr with some syrian kurdih militants in syria provingq&c i.s.i.s. and serving as spotters for bombing runs. i guess what i'm told is as long as turkey will allow the u.s. those two things, washington's willing to look the other way if erdogan uses the cover of joining this coalition to really go after his real enemies, the kurds. >> woodruff: sounds like you're saying this is a marriage of convenience but the interests are not always aligned. >> not at all. that's exactly the word, judy. >> woodruff: margaret warner, chief foreign affairs correspondent, thank you. >> always a pleasure. >> ifill: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: former british foreign secretary david milliband on the migrant crisis in europe. the immigration debate boils over, again, on the campaign trail. and, as the price of oil hits new lows, the future of fossil fuel. the sight of new orleans residents perched on rooftops signaling for help as flood waters rose became one of the iconic images of hurricane katrina. many of those stranded lived in new orleans' lower ninth ward. after the storm, as people waded through the wreckage, the lower ninth became more than a disaster area. it also became a symbol of societal failure, including persistent poverty, crumbling homes and streets, and racial tension. ten years later, we went back to the lower ninth ward, where the recovery that has boosted much of the city, has been slow to arrive. william brangham has our report. >> brangham: every morning, burnell cotlon sets up tables outside his lower ninth ward market to provide a gathering place for the customers he hopes will come. his small corner grocery is one of the few businesses that have opened in this heavily damaged neighborhood of new orleans. >> when we first purchased the building, believe it or not, this is what it looked like. >> brangham: so you looked at that building in that condition and thought: i'm going to buy that and build a business there? >> as crazy as that sounds, yes sir. i'm a visionary. ( laughs ) >> brangham: cotlon and his wife keesha invested their entire life's savings five years ago to start this business. even though the population of the lower ninth ward is just half of what it was before hurricane katrina. >> the major box stores said they're not coming back to the ninth ward because there aren't enough people. and the people that want to come back say they're not coming back because there are no stores. >> brangham: it's the classic chicken-and-egg problem that affects virtually every aspect of life here in the lower ninth ward. with so many residents still gone, can this neighborhood ever bounce back? >> look around you. there's no economic development. there's no way to sustain this community if you don't generate business back here. >> brangham: rev. willie calhoun showed me what once had been a major commercial thoroughfare. >> this used to be a drug store. on the corner we had a cleaners. next to the cleaners we had a church. >> brangham: right here? boom, boom, boom? he says, even as the city touts its economic revival downtown and in other neighborhoods, officials just haven't done enough to create jobs here. >> if you come back here, you're trying to figure out how can you survive if you don't have work? you can't. >> brangham: ten years after the storm, the lower ninth ward is a checker-board of development. new and rebuilt homes stand next to boarded up ones. there are over 100 of brad pitt's "make it right" houses, and some 30 community gardens. but on many blocks, the only thing that's returned in full are the weeds. many roads are filled with potholes. abandoned cars and trash still litter the landscape. there is a brand new $20 million rec center, a new fire house and a rebuilt k-12 public charter school. mayor mitch landrieu, who, earlier this month held one of his many community forums, this one in the lower ninth ward, says more than $500 million of public and private money has been spent on the neighborhood. >> what we want to do in the lower ninth, and in every neighborhood, is to build strong foundations and institutions that can lift people up and begin to create great opportunity in generation of wealth. it takes a lot of time and a lot of money. the lower ninth ward is wanting in both of those areas. >> brangham: what do you say to the residents who say if the neighborhood had been whiter and wealthier then it wouldn't look the way it does today? >> there's really no answer to that. if a neighborhood that got hit was wealthier and had insurance and had the resources to stand itself back up, it would be doing better. there's no question about that. >> brangham: there are some people who believe that the city just didn't have the political will. >> that's not accurate. every part of the city got fair treatment. every part of the city got investments that they deserved and needed. >> brangham: one thing the city is doing is providing tax breaks to developers who are willing to build in the lower ninth. but even those exposed tensions. >> this is another aspect of gentrification where developers they're marketing them for sales to people who are not from this community. white people, primarily. >> brangham: kim ford is a lower ninth ward resident and community organizer. she says these new development projects will drastically change the neighborhood which, prior to katrina, was comprised mostly of african american, working class residents. she took me to a particularly contentious site, the old holy cross school grounds. since katrina, they've been sitting abandoned and unused, but they were recently purchased by a new orleans condo developer. >> two high rise condo complexes to be built between here and the levee. towering six stories above the single one story homes in this neighborhood. >> brangham: isn't that a good thing? don't you need people moving into this neighborhood? >> we want people invested in our community. single family homes that historically have been in this community. we don't want to increase the taxes in our community so we can't afford to live here anymore. you can see here the water line. >> brangham: just around the corner, still in the holy cross section of the lower ninth ward, kiff magor and his girlfriend mary aaroe are in the midst of renovating a small brick house they bought three years ago. originally from indiana and north carolina, the two met when they were volunteers with common ground, a non-profit group that has rebuilt homes in the lower nine. the two fell in love with each other, and the neighborhood, and decided to make it their home. >> i met people in the neighborhood. i connected with them. >> there's just a ton of folks that came down and recognized this area, as people who have lived here for generations have always known, that it's a beautiful space. there are strong people here, super resilient. everybody who's here wants to be here. we love it. >> brangham: there are some people who think this area should remain a historically black neighborhood. >> i can totally understand where those people are coming from. i think it's a matter of respecting what was and not try to radically change anything. but in order for the neighborhood to get the things it needs, we need people to move in. >> we have shrimp and grilled chicken. >> brangham: keisha henry certainly agrees with that. three years ago she and some family members opened cafe dauphine, the only upscale restaurant in the lower ninth ward. they serve traditional new orleans fare. she says business has been up and down. she hopes they'll soon see a profit. >> the ultimate goal is to have people come down here and see how nice the neighborhood is. and they can enjoy it and say: i never thought of this neighborhood in this light. maybe i could move here. >> brangham: so you'd like this place to be a magnet. not only to bring people here to eat, but to live. >> yes. our neighbors next door from canada, they said, "keisha, you know, you're one of the reasons we bought the house." >> brangham: but henry, who's a single mom, and who lives just across the street from her restaurant, is quick to say what she doesn't like to hear. >> i don't mind newcomers coming in. but it is offensive to people who have lived here a long time when they say they are here to "save" the neighborhood. my family has been in this neighborhood almost 90 years and it is offensive to hear, "oh i bought because i want to save you all." >> depending on your baseline, you could describe new orleans as the fastest shrinking or the fastest growing city in america. >> brangham: tulane university geographer richard campanella says new orleans is enjoying a "renaissance" of sorts in large part because of the influx of newcomers. campanella says he knows the lower ninth ward is still struggling. and while he appreciates the deep historical ties longtime residents feel for the place, he hopes those feelings don't block new migrants from coming. >> it flies against not only most of the human story, but most of the new orleans story. newcomers have arrived here in various waves for 300 years. so to artificially draw a line in the chronology of the city and declare everyone before that line to be the true denizens or residents and everyone after that line to be an artificial intrusion is to ignore all of history. >> brangham: some residents, like reverend willie calhoun, say they know change is inevitable, but they don't think enough was done to bring the original residents of the lower ninth ward back. >> the design was never to bring this community back all the way. the political will to make sure this community thrives and prospers was not there. is not there. >> brangham: grocer burnell cotlon says people like him, people who, despite the challenges, have made this their home, it's up to them to build a new community. >> new orleans is changing and you have to move forward. i know some people want to keep the same old new orleans. but katrina changed that. you have to embrace the change. you have to move forward. you can't stay in the past. >> brangham: from the lower ninth ward of new orleans, i'm william brangham for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: tune in again tomorrow night: as a new state of the art hospital opens, we look at the new opportunities and the challenges facing health care in new orleans. you can follow our series, "katrina ten years later," online at pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: european union officials say that the number of refugees and migrants fleeing to europe reached a record high of more than 107,000 last month. the surge has reached hungary's southern border, where more than 2,000 people, most from syria, crossed into the country yesterday and today, even as the government erected a border fence to stop the flow. they are coming by boat, by foot, and even by special trains, in an effort to reach northern europe. germany alone is expecting as many as 750,000 thousand asylum seekers this year. joining me now to discuss the dilemma facing those fleeing and the countries they are escaping to is former british foreign secretary david milliband, now president and c.e.o. of the international rescue committee. thank you for joining us, mr. miliband. how did european countries get so overwhelmed so quickly? >> good evening. it's good to be with you. i think that the european crisis is a refugee crisis, fundamentally. over 90% of the people who've arrived in greece which is in the front line of this crisis have come from syria and from afghanistan. the simple fact is that, when civil wars become long-term crises in countries like syria and afghanistan, people are going to flee for their lives, which is the definition of a refugee. i'm afraid europe's attention has been on the euro crisis and also on the crisis in ukraine with russia, and this refugee crisis has crept up on them. just this month, 50,000 people have arrived in greece, and we've got teams from the national rescue committee where 2,000 people are arriving every day and, frankly, the authorities are being overwhelmed and they need help from humanitarian organizations. >> ifill: can we talk definitions for a moment? you're using the term refugee, some call them migrants and some term them asylum seekers. is that an important distinction? >> very important in. your introduction at the head of the show you use the phrase other european leaders use which is a migrant crisis. i would dispute that. the refugee defined by the international conventions established after the second world war is someone who is fleeing persecution, they have a "well-founded fear of persecution." a migrant is someone who is seeking a better life basically for economic reasons. i think it's very important to continue to uphold the distinction between the two. the asylum seeker you're referring to is for a refugee applying for asylum in a country in which they land. so the fundamental distinction is between refugees, on the one hand, who are fleeing persecution and have specific rights under international law and those who are economic migrants who are seeking a better life. >> ifill: can we talk ability how the european countries handled this? in hungary, a fence went up. it didn't end well. hundreds of thousands trying to get across, many coming from syria. now we saw today germany, on the other hand, is saying syrian asylum seekers can come into the country. how are european nations handling this not all the same way? >> let me put this into proper context. last year, there were about 20 million refugees in the world. the united states, so far from the syria conflict, has taken less than 1,000. in europe, we've got, as you said in your introduction, german officials expecting 750,000 people to arrive. and we know from thi from the ss that have been done that 300,000 people crossed the mediterranean into europe just this year, that's primarily from syria and from afghanistan. so that gives you a bit of a sense of the relative proportions here. the european union, it is an agreement of 28 nation states that constitute about 500 million people, so that gives you a sense that, although this has become a political crisis, it's not yet an economic or social crisis that outstrips the wealth or history and traditions of the european union. i think it's very significant that two leading german politicians today, the vice chancellor of germany and the foreign minister, they fundamentally condemned the european response as being, in their words "inadequate" and set out a plan for increased european diplomatic activity upstream in things like the syrian conflict which suffered from lack of diplomatic attention but also a more coordinated european action to share out the european burden across the 28 states of the european union which is more noted as well. >> ifill: should britain follow suit and do what germany has done? >> britain should certainly be a part of the distribution of the refugee burned. britain along with other european countries has an extraordinary and rich tradition of being open to people from around the world who are fleeing persecution. my own family benefited from that during the 20th century, and i think it's very important that, when one looks at the scenes in kalay, a discussion in britain and france over thousands of people camped there and going to extraordinary measures to -- >> ifill: trying to get through the tunnel, which we've reported often, yeah. >> exactly, right get through the tunnel in the context you have 300,000 people crossing the mediterranean, i want your view is to get a sense of the shoot horror confronting the 80 workers from the national rescue committee and elsewhere. we have just today helped seven people who have been swimming for seven hours because their boat sank in the mediterranean as they tried to cross into greece. five of the people who left the boat with them died on the way. the degree of trauma and horror that is occurring on your shores is something that i think generations of europeans felt and hoped they put behind them. this we have gee crisis is something that obviously europe needs to contend with but needs a wide international response given afghanistan, somalia and syria as the prime states from which people are fleeing. >> ifill: can we talk about what the european union's responsible should be when you talk about the countries standing shoulder to shoulder? is it settlement, sanctioning, or what should be the first steps and how do you get them agree to do the same thing. >> is this two things are vital. one is action upstream which is partly the diplomatic effort to make sure piece caping in somalia is done. but upstream the make states to syria get proper humanitarian help there so there's proper dignity and support for refugees in those countries, ditto refugees in africa fleeing from the conflict in tanzania and ethiopia. if you don't tend them upstream, the flow overwhelms downstream. the second thing the european union needs to do is properly share the burden and assess who are the refugees as opposed to the economic migrants and properly ensure they uphold the most basic standards of humetyened 5 dignity for those fleeing for their lives. >> ifill: did the countries the refugees are traveling to to get to their ultimate goal, do they have the resources to help provide the resettlement, help, absorb the flow? >> it's a really good point, and the short answer is no. i was recently visiting one of the transit states in central africa through which people pass from nigeria and elsewhere to get to the north african coast and travel to europe. the neighboring states for the great conflicts of the world, the neighboring states of syria the neighboring states of somalia, the neighboring states of nigeria and afghanistan, none of them are getting the kind of humanitarian intervention and help that can help insulate them from the problems. u.n. appeals to take cash, for example. u.n. appeals are getting 35% to 40% funding. there is a simple reason for that. the world has never known a situation where there are 20 million refugees, 40 million internally displaced people from civil wars that seem to have no end, and it's high time that the scale of dills order that is convulsing significant parts to have the world gets not just political and diplomatic attention but a much greater humanitarian effort because, frankly, there is a moral imperative to save people fleeing from their lives and an instrumental one as. we these problems wash up on our shores if we don't deal with them at root. >> ifill: david miliband, president and c.e.o. of international rescue committee. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: back in this country, the volatile issue of immigration continues to spark debate in the 2016 presidential campaign. the latest round centers on babies born in the u.s. to parents who are not american citizens. >> i'll use the word anchor baby. excuse me, i'll use the word anchor baby. >> woodruff: donald trump started this latest furor over a term that immigration advocates view as derogatory. he complained of children born in the u.s., who immediately gain american citizenship and become the means for entire families, here illegally, to stay. fellow republican jeb bush weighed in as well. >> there ought to be greater enforcement. that's the legitimate side of this. greater enforcement so that you don't have these anchor babies as they're described coming into the country. >> woodruff: by yesterday, an exasperated bush was trying to douse criticism for using the term. >> you give me the name and i'll use it. how about that? >> woodruff: moreover, the former florida governor insisted that, unlike trump, he wasn't talking about latinos at all. >> what i was talking about was a specific case of fraud being committed where there are organized efforts. frankly it is more related to asian people, coming into our country, having children in that organized effort. >> woodruff: bush campaign aides called the practice "birth tourism," with foreigners arriving legally just in time to have a child. the non-partisan migration policy institute estimates some 230,000 children are born in the u.s. each year with at least one parent here illegally. while the center for immigration studies, which favors stricter rules, estimates 36,000 births a year by women who come to the u.s. to have a baby, then leave to go back home. others say that number is smaller. meanwhile, the issue has now become part of the broader immigration debate. to help explain the background on this, i'm joined by doris meissner, senior fellow at the migration policy insititute, and a former top official at the immigration and naturalization service under president reagan, and its commissioner under president clinton. and, susan berfield, a reporter with "bloomberg businessweek." we welcome you both to the program. i think it helps to have everybody first understand that we appear to be talking about two different practices here. first, children born in the u.s. to parents, one of whom -- at least one of whom is here illegally. doris meissner, what are the typical circumstances there? >> the typical circumstances are people who have come to the united states without legal status, generally across the southwest border with mexico. they're coming to the u.s. because there are jobs here. most of them have been here for many years. a large share of that 11 million that are in an unauthorized status in the united states have been in the country for many years. they're younger workers. they form families in the united states and, because they are unauthorized themselves, they are not united states citizens but their children born here are u.s. citizens and they also have children in the family who are not u.s. citizens. >> woodruff: and you say they're typically from mexico. >> mexico and central mark, the largest share of tun authorized population has been mexico. that is less the pattern. more typically, the fact is central americans, but we're basically talkingt about a latin american population. >> woodruff: doris meissner, these are parents of families who hope or want to stay in the united states. is that right? >> well, they typically come here to work. many think that they earn enough money to be able to go back to their country at some point. that generally is not the case, because they are most typically in lower-wage jobs. they're in the service sector, in construction, they're in tourism. >> woodruff: the reporting "bloomberg businessweek," susan berfield, tell us about who are these women. >> the women i looked at were all from china. they were well off. they came here with tourist visas, and also with the intent to give birth. once they did give birth, they got passports for their kids and then returned to china. so they, you know, may at one point may want to send their kids back here for education, but their main purpose is to get a u.s. passport and all the freedom that affords around the world. >> woodruff: this is a practice that's been called maternity tourism. there are organized groups sponsoring this that these women pay in order to have this happen. >> there is an underground economy. it's largely based in california, when we're talking about chinese families. though in china, it's out in the open. these services advertise, they hold orientation meetings, there are blogs and lots of social media about the phenomenon, about the practice, rating the services. they provide women with apartments in the u.s. and recommend doctors where they can go to hospitals where they should give birth and, you know, where this becomes, i guess, continue verse ora -- controverr more controversial is what kind of coaching are these countries giving the women in terms of their visa application and in terms of when they arrive in the country. are they being forthright about their intent. >> woodruff: these are middle class women, who can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars to the brokers to be able to come into the u.s. and do this. >> yeah. the women i spoke to spent, on average, $50,000. they stayed in the u.s. for about four months. so, yeah, you know, they expected a certain amount of service, but they also all expected to return to china after the four months. >> woodruff: so, doris meissner, help us understand what laws are being broken. they sounds like two different sets of practice also. >> they are two different sets of practices. the case of tourism being described, this is a misuse of the immigration system, a misuse of the visa system. it is, as was pointed out, coaching people what to say. there is possibly fraud on hospitals for not totally paying the bills, possibly fraud on the companies themselves for not reporting income, it's illegal. >> woodruff: and a different kind of legality with regard to parents, families who were here illegally, undocumented, having children who decide to stay. >> and who are staying and in the labor force. they didn't come here to have a child here. they came here to work. life happens. they're here for a longer period of time, they form families. that's different from coming here to get a u.s. passport and leave. >> woodruff: susan berfield, how much enforcement, how much is there an effort to go after these companies, these firms that are offering these services that you're describing mainly on the west coast? >> homeland security began an investigation more than a year ago that led to raids on several of these companies and the apartment complexes where the women were housed in march, in the los angeles area. in that case, it's ongoing and in the court system now. i think for homeland security as doris is suggesting, it's an issue of visa fraud. they focused their efforts, though, on the companies operating in the u.s. and have been accusing them of visa fraud as well as not paying taxes and potential money laundering. the women who were caught up in those raids in particular are being held as witnesses, but they haven't been charged with anything. >> woodruff: bottom line, doris meissner, we want to say, once again, this term anchor babies which is a derogatory term thrown around, one has to be careful not only about the term but about the different practices we're talking about. >> that's absolutely right. it is a very projourtive term that suggests people are come hearing and the children born here have a way of allowing their parents to be here legally, that is not the case. a child cannot sponsor a parent or a family member for immigration until the age of majority, 21 years of age. so it's pretty unlikely to comaj madge people who come here for work purposes and also have children in the united states are actually doing so for the purpose of 21 years-wait in order to then have a petition for immigration status. >> woodruff: it's a subject front and center certainly in the political realm and we thank both of you for helping us understand this part of it today. thank you, doris meissner and susan berfield. we appreciate it. >> ifill: finally tonight, a different look at the oil industry. as we see record lows in crude prices, small oil companies are looking for big opportunities. leigh patterson of inside energy, a public media collaboration, funded by the corporation for public broadcasting, focusing on america's energy issues, has the story. >> reporter: during the fracking induced drilling frenzy of the last few years, u.s. oil production has skyrocketed. and a lot of natural gas comes up as a byproduct of drilling for oil. that gas could be used to produce energy >> so we're trying to capture >> it would get burned in those four combustors right over there. we would get to breathe it. >> reporter: instead, hans mueller wants to use that gas. his company, ecovapor recovery systems, works with oil producers to separate out the natural gas and sell it. >> wherever there is a flare that is burning gas it just seems like an opportunity for us to come in and increase the efficiency of the entire operation, essentially using >> reporter: mueller says the value of the captured gas, once sold, can be three times greater than the cost of an ecovapor unit. that's a strong sales pitch. with oil prices so low, oil companies are looking to cut costs quickly with little investment up front. and so some energy startups are pitching their products as ways to save money during the downturn. >>liquiglide is a truly revolutionary product. >> reporter: at a recent energy conference, energy startups were hawking their wares. they pitched everything from a product that makes anything less sticky, including crude oil, to wearable tech, and thermoelectric power generation. >>which translates to lower fuel costs. >> reporter: at the i.h.s. ceraweek conference, alphabet energy c.e.o. matt scullin sees opportunities in the downturn. >> oil and gas companies are now investing in efficiency and we fit squarely into that bucket. >> what's good for shale is good for the u.s. economy. >> reporter: john hess, c.e.o. of the oil giant hess corporation, agreed there is a greater role for small, innovator companies to play. >> i think the low price of oil is creating a great opportunity for young people to build careers as entrepreneurs and innovators. >> reporter: representatives from big oil companies are also looking to crowd-source ideas for new environmental and economic projects. bill maloney, an executive vice president at statoil, says that means asking for pitches online from think tanks, startups and regular people. >> we hope that the better folks of our planet can come up with solutions that we can utilize in our operations. >> reporter: one solution already in place is downhole technology, a set of instruments which can help producers collect detailed data on their wells. welldog is a wyoming company that makes these sort of underground sensors. c.e.o. john pope says since the downturn, its sales have tripled. largely because welldog can help oil companies get more out of the ground. >> in boom times, optimizing can lead to increased profits. in challenging times, optimizing can make the difference between profits and no profits. >> reporter: adoption of these technologies has helped oil companies bring spending down. way down. i.h.s., a consulting company, predicts well costs will decrease more than 30% by the end of this year. but according to i.h.s. analyst chris robart, oil companies have managed much of that by squeezing savings out of their service companies, demanding they lower their prices on things like trucking, drilling, and equipment. >> but that's kind of a one time event, one time occurrence. they can only really get that much pricing out of the market and out of their wells in 2015 this year. after that they will have to get back focused on things like operational efficiency. >> reporter: and many of those operational efficiencies on the table today could make oil and gas better neighbors. innovations that would cut emissions, save on fuel, and reduce the use of resources, would also minimize the impact on nearby communities. for example, g.e. and statoil's project to reduce the amount sand used in hydraulic fracturing would also reduce the number of trucks bringing sand to drill sites. and that means less traffic in communities near oil and gas development. but industry analyst carl larry is deeply skeptical that big oil will get smarter because he says it doesn't have to. >> fossil fuels, it is a simple project. we drill, we refine it, that's all we need to do to make money on that. coming up with new fangled ways, it's expensive. and right now there's not a lot of margin for error to take a chance and put in a new technology. >> reporter: making substantial changes in the way that we drill, larry says, requires vision. >> we need a steve jobs in oil and gas. we need somebody who is going to go out there and take a chance. big companies aren't. they're just gonna keep their budgets going. but the ones who take the chances are the small businesses, people who have the guts to try and make something new. >> reporter: and as the price of oil hits new lows, the big ideas for oil's future may be coming from the little guys. for the pbs newshour, i'm leigh paterson in wyoming. >> woodruff: on the newshour online, he was one of the twentieth century's most eminent economists, and in 1936 john maynard keynes wrote of the influence of mass psychology and the volatility of markets. it's an essay that our economics team thought was too relevant, even 80 years later, to pass up. you can read it, on our home page, pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, a conversation with the former mayor of new orleans, marc morial, on disparities in rebuilding 10 years after katrina. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation -- giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation -- pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and mufg. >> they say the oldest trees bear the sweetest fruit. at mufg, we have believed in nurturing banking relationships for centuries, because strong financial partnerships are best cultived

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