Getting sharp scrutiny. Both from those who hope to succeed him and those he promised to serve. Top of the list this veterans day are the people who make the greatest sacrifice for our nation. Troubled over the past several years of increasing reports of management failures and poor treatment in the va system. President obama changed its leadership last year but he admits even as late as this veterans day, things arent up to snuff. As america tonights Christof Putzel found, shocking flaws in the system. Marv and linda lost their son jason last august. The 35yearold former marine didnt die in a combat zone overseas, he died at the time toma Medical Center in wisconsin. He was sleeping with his hand on his side on his head and i said jason whats the matter with you, he was like sh sh sh sh. I said jason i cant understand you. I went back to the nurses station and said whats wrong with him, he cant even talk. She said we gave him some medication for migraine, hell be all right. But he wasnt all right. The toma va told them jasons headache had been caused an aneurysm. But the to tox report was different. All told, the medical examiner found 13 different medications in jasons system. At the end they had him so drugged up he took a drug to get up in the morning and keep him going and he had to take many drugs to go to sleep. It was ovicious circle. It was a difficult situation for jason after his four years in the marines ended in 2000. He got married and had a daughter and joined marv in the family construction business, building homes in Stevens Point wisconsin. But an addiction to pain medication, the result of an injury in the service led him to years of service in the toma va. One witness to jawfns last day. I saw him sit up in bed, he seemed fine, he was mumbling but i didnt think anything of it. He was on a ward that people dont die. In and out ward. Kristen knew the toma va not just as a worker, but as a patient. I took his trash out, shut his door, two hours later he was dead. A nurse had gone in there just to check him and just like that. He was dead. Reporter so after he died did you have to go back into his room . Um it was like a zoo. It was really bad. They running around everywhere, the nurse staff so confused, screaming, yelling. I had to stay i stayed out of the way, watching the whole thing, though. Giving him cpr, the blood everywhere. The death of jason and a subsequent report from the center for investigative reporting set off a fire storm. In jan bok mcdonald, secretary of veterans affairs, announced a comprehensive review at toma, including overmedication and allegations of retaliation. At the heart of the allegation he, chief of staff dr. David heul houlihan. Did you have any interaction with dr. Houlihan . He called me and expressed his condolences for my son jason and i think a day or two after we got the autopsy report back too. He says im kind of puzzled on this. Did you by any chance give your son any extra meds . Im like no, im fighting for a reduction in meds and hes asking me that. It turns out months before jasons death, the va had looked into dr. Houhilan. In march 2014 the va found that dr. Houlihan and one of his nurse he had been prescribing high levels of narcotics. Kristen saw patients every day whom she thought seemed overmedicated. The patients a lot of them were just Walking Around like zombies. I couldnt understand why there were so many patients that were just being in their bed all day long. Jacob called the toma va candyland and he referred the dr. Houlihan as the candyman. Her son was also treated at toma. He liked dr. Houlihan. He liked drugs. What was your interaction with him . He was pretty short, he said he was the doctor and thats how he did things. According to data obtained for the center for investigative reporting, since 2004, the year before dr. Houlihan became director, fewer veterans were seeking care at the facility. Stephanie is the Public Affairs director at the toma va center. Five months earlier the Inspector General released a report saying the chief of staff here in toma was prescribing an abnormal amount of opiates to patients. Shouldnt that have been a red flag . We took very seriously the issues raised in the oag report and we took actions to address the oag report recommendations including redirecting the chief of staff and a contradic psychiatric nurse practitioner. We actually then put a Pain Management physician to oversee the highest the patients with the highest opiate usage at the facility. To make sure that were separating their Psychiatric Care from their pain care. Reporter would you say it worked . I think weve seen tremendous strides in how the facilitys addressing opiate usage with our veteran patients. Reporter did you voice your concerns to the toma va about how many medication s he was prescribed. Yes yes. Was there a discussion about reducing . I always fought to reduce his meds but seems like i always lost. The former chief of staff David Houlihan was kicked out. We reached out to his attorney and didnt hear back. Hopes legislation will be passed in his sons honor to address the overprescribing of opiates to veterans. It is a bill that is still stalled on alcohol. Next, beyond borders. Also on the todo list the president S Immigration policy facing a new hurdle. Later, in limbo from inside guantanamo, a voice making itself heard. And hot on america tonights website now, taking a shot, do fewer state gun laws mean fewer gun deaths . Find out at aljazeera. Com americatonight. This is Al Jazeera America live from new york. At 7 00 news roundup. Tony harris gives you a fastpaced recap of the days events. This is the first line of defense. We have an exclusive story tonight. Then at 8 00 John Seigenthaler brings you the top stories from across america. The question is, will these dams hold . And at 9 00 im ali velshi, on target tonight. Ali velshi on target. Digging deeper into the issues that matter. Im trying to get a sense for what iranians are feeling. What could prove a big stumbling block in the president S Immigration policy . For republicans to seek to replace mr. Obama, in the gop debate, path to citizenship again drew fire but in an in depth look from south of border, Lori Jane Gliha reports migrants from Central America migrants are still make their way north. San pedro sula, honduras, this is the scene a few blocks from our hotel. We just got a call there was another murder in san pedro sula. Under that yellow tarp there thats the fourth murder of today. The victim, still bleeding when we arrived, was shot twice in the head and a neighbor said thrown from a car into the ditch. The locals presume the normal gang violence. So the investigators are here on the scene. This morgueperson has just arrived, what theyre going to do is start investigating the body. And what they do is theyre going to count how many bullet holes he has, whether or not theres any evidence of him being tortured, theyre going to start to look for bullet casings and then theyll move the body out of here. Police told us they see at least 15 killings like this every week. In a city ranked as the most murderous in the world. Many people are fleeing because of the persistent violence here. But so many of them are quickly deported right back home, caught in mexicos increasing migrant crack down. We know that the bus is filled with deportees from mexico are going or the headed this way shortly so were going to try to catch the migrants when they arrive. For few relatives also waiting for buses at this government run shelter, the anticipation is great. Many of them were prepared to never see their children again. But they will get another chance. Cameras arent allowed up close but so many tiny fit skip off the buses coming from the migratory station in tapachula, mexico. Children deported back to a country they thought theyd never return to. Theyre some of the most visible examples of mexicos migrant crack down. The buses arrive here three times a week. It took that bus 12 hours to get here from mexico but just less than five minutes to unload. Whats happening now everybody is in that room, theyre being processed, it could take up to an hour and a half. Were told there were about 30 unaccompanied minors on that bus. This 24yearold woman and her eightyearold child say they almost made it to the u. S. But were caught near the border. I asked them if theyll try again. Very soon, she tells me. These young men say they live a few hours out of san pedro sula. They are trying again too, tomorrow, he says. A deportees streamed out of the shelter, we met 17yearold katia and her mother. I asked her why she sent her daughter on the journey north, alone. Her shirt is filled with goodbye messages from her friends. People she felt she might never see again. Are you going to try again . Why did you want to go to the u. S . We arranged to meet katia the next day. Thithis is the area where lives. It is much too dangerous to bring our camera equipment inside because its controlled by gangs. We decided to meet katia at another location. Katia tells us she already tried to reach the u. S. Two other times. She paid a coyote 4500 to reach the United States. What happened when you paid the coyote . Can you leave the house to have fun . Katias father is dead. Her mother said theres no future for her daughter here. She wants her to go north, even if it means making a dangerous journey with a smuggler. Its possibly the last time youre going to see your mother. Is it worth it . America tonights Lori Jane Gliha joins us here. I know you went down there, you spent a lot of time with the young women seeking a life north of the border. Theyve kept in contact. Whats going on with them now . Whats interesting, everybody we contacted when they got off the bus, said yes were going to try again. I dont know how many days it was, the girl we featured in the peace, we got a message she was trying again. Immediately . Yeah, probably within a few days if not a week. She had met another girl on this trip too, that was trying to go and reunite with her mother who had abandoned her when she was three and living in the United States. Those two they dont live near each other in honduras, but they complete and teamed up again and theyre actually in the United States they did cross the border. And they turned themselves in to the migration authorities and they are both now in shelters right now, one in chicago and the other in texas. Why would they turn themselves into shelters . As a youth you have a little bit more understanding, they will take you in. The one girl katia just turned 18 a custom days ago. There are different rules for when youre an adult versus a youth. You have to prove certain things but you play have the ability to stay here. They must consider whether or not sending you back would put you in danger. We did refer to the president s overall attempt to reform immigration. The legal hurdle doesnt affect katia and her friend. This does not affect the unaccompanied minors but several million living in the United States. The president s plan would protect parents who are undocumented but have children who are legal residents. It would have expanded or delayed their deportations. Right now it was stalled in courts. The Obama Administration has said yes we want to appeal this to the supreme court, but timingwise, its possible that no resolution would happen until after hes out of office. So this would then be in the hands of of the next president whoever that is. Uhhuh. We will see, america tonights Lori Jane Gliha. Thanks. Flex, thnext, the voices tht remain, a new stumbling block threatens to keep them inside guantanamo. And Sheila Macvicar on the it may prove the most difficult promise to keep. When president obama was campaigning for office, he vowed to close the prison facility at guantanamo bay. 122 men, many of them have faced no charges, remain there. One of them has made a way to make his voice heard through a detainees diary through an endlesendless sentence of capti. The torture was growing day by day. The guards on the block actively participated in the process. They cursed me for no reason. A public reading in new york city of a unique work. The guantanamo diary of mohammedu oldslahi. This book tells us what happened to a prisoner in guantanamo from his side, from his word, from hi words, his he. He maintains his dignity his humanity, he gives us all a model how to move forward when we talk about guantanamo. Reporter its the First Published account from a guantanamo prisoner still in detention. Bring me to the court and ill answer all your questions, i will tell the team. There will be no court they would answer. Are you a mafia . You kidnap people lock them up and blackmail them, i said. Slahi was arrested in november 2001 in his native mauritania. He came to the attention of the cia because of what the agency considered to be a series of suspicious connections. He had fought against the sophie yets i sophi soviets. It was alleged he crossed the path with a 9 9 1 9 11 planner. So i said, i was working for al qaeda and radio telecom. He seemed happier with the lie. But slahi maintains that although he was in afghanistan he gave up the fight long before al qaeda took up arms against the United States. Prosecutors at guantanamo never brought charges against him. What have i done . I dont know, you tell me. Look, you kidnapped me from my home in mauritania, not from a battlefield in afghanistan. So whats the next charge . It looks to me as if you want to pull any bleep on me. I put my clothes on and washed my face. My heart started to pound. I hated interrogation. I had gotten tired of being terrified all the time. Living in constant fear day in and day out for the last 13 months. The process of bringing to diary to publication has been an epic journey in its own right. It took nearly search years to get this book out. In september of 12 i received a package hard copy with a letter saying this is a cleared version you can use and every page is stamped unclassified can be released to the public. I hated the sounds of the heavy metal chains. I can hardly carry them when theyre given me. People are always getting taken from the block and every time i heard the chains i thought it would be me. The book is filled with about 2500 redactions. The black boxes placed over the text by the u. S. Government. The redactions are the last fingerprint of a 13year process of secrecy and silencen mohammedu and there are things the governments doesnt want the people to know and the world to know and that must be under those redactions. But we know youre a criminal. What have i done . Will you tell me . Otherwise, youll never see the light of day. If you dont cooperate, were going to put you in a hole, and wipe your name out of our detainee database. The resume is as dark as he be any. Playing a track very loudly, i mean very loudly. The song was, let the bodies hit the floor. I might never forget that song. At the same time, redacted turned on some colored blimpgers that hurt the eis. If you bleep fall asleep im going to hurt you, he said. I had to listen to the song over and over until the next morning. What he did is what people do when theyre being tortured. They say yes to whatever theyre asked. So the torture will stop. And this is one of the problems of torture. And thats what he did. He simply said yes, to whatever they asked him. And it wasnt true. The government knows now that it wasnt true. And they probably knew then that it wasnt true. But they just didnt seem to care. They just wanted the answers. I need you to answer me one question. Why am i here . Im not a lawyer. But common sense dictates that after three years of interrogating me and depriving me of my liberty the government at least owes an explanation as to why to do so, what is my crime . There was no justification to bring modelu to guantanamo. We shouldnt torture anyone, innocent or guilty. But this is an innocent man. We have tortured him and left him there. He needs to go home. He just needs to go home. The government should stop fighting and let him go home. That is america tonight. Please tell us what you think on twitter or facebook and well have more of america tonight tomorrow. Lead paint. Plaster that is falling. Rodent infestation. If it was your own children, youd have the money to take care of it. Who does the buck stop with . Im ali velshi, on target tonight, degrees of debt. Im looking at how the system fails too Many College Students who end up unemployment and whroamed by loans. Overwhelmed by loans. The promise of a Higher Education is the return on investment a student earns after receiving a college degree. Part of that of course is knowledge. But for most people return on investment is the are higher earnings that they receive over