Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140707

The veterans have chosen us because of the programs that we offer. Those programs lead to careers that they want to aspire to. Brown those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. 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 rebels in ukraine tried to regroup today after major setbacks over the weekend. The prorussian fighters lost their former stronghold in slovayansk, and fell back to donetsk, vowing to keep fighting government forces. Along the way, Three Bridges leading into donetsk were blown up today. One was a railway bridge that was bombed as a cargo train passed over. Amid the fighting, russia pressed again today for a new ceasefire in ukraine. The political stalemate in iraq will go on, as the government battles islamist militants whove seized a large portion of the country. The new Parliament Today delayed its next session for five weeks, until midaugust. Leaders are at an impasse over choosing a Prime Minister, president and speaker of parliament. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has refused to step aside. The white house isnt confirming that a german intelligence worker spied for the u. S. A spokesman said today he cant comment on the matter. A 31yearold german man was arrested last week, and there have been reports he admitted to passing documents to a u. S. Contact. German chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the matter today, during a visit to china. translated we have already opened an investigation. If the reports are correct it would be a serious case. If the allegations are true, it would be for me a clear contradiction to what i consider to be a trustful cooperation between agencies and partners. Woodruff u. S. German relations have been strained since last year, after revelations of largescale snooping by the National Security agency on germany. Pope francis met with victims of sexual abuse by priests, for the first time today, and apologized. The pontiff celebrated mass at his vatican hotel, with six victims who recounted their personal stories of abuse. translated before god and his people i express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And i humbly ask forgiveness. I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church Leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by Abuse Victims themselves. Woodruff the pope also vowed to hold bishops accountable for the protection of minors, but he did not give details on how he would do that. In kenya, antigovernment protests in nairobi turned violent today. Police and demonstrators battled with tear gas and stones as a rally in a nearby park spilled over into the streets. The crowds had gathered to demand talks with the government over economic inequality and other grievances. And in nigeria, officials in the northeast report 63 girls who were kidnapped last month have escaped. They apparently got away as their captors in the Boko Haram Militant Group were battling nigerian soldiers. Meanwhile, a government spokesman reports progress in the investigation of aprils abduction of 200 other school girls. We are moving closer to finding them. At least we have identified a number of leads, we have identified in the course of this exercise and that was what even led to the arrest of the chief of intelligence of boko haram. Woodruff nigerias government and military have faced International Criticism for failing to rescue the kidnap victims. One of the last Foreign Ministers of the soviet union, eduard shevardnadze, died today. In the late 1980s, under soviet president mikhail gorbachev, he signed major arms control deals and helped Eastern Europe regain its freedom. After the soviet collapse, he became president of georgia, and survived two assassination attempts. He eventually resigned. Eduard shevardnadze was 86 years old. A federal judge in philadelphia given initial approval to landmark concussion settlement between the National Football league and former players, coming today after the league we moved a cap of 675 million on claims for medical damages. The judge questioned whether that amount would be enough to pay all claims. The assessment involves more than 3500 former players who have sued the nfl. Wall street came back from the Holiday Weekend in cautious mood. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 44 points to close at 17,024. The nasdaq fell 34 points to close at 4,451. And the sandp 500 dropped 7, to finish at 1,977. Still to come on the newshour renewed violence stokes tensions in the mideast; disputed Election Results in afghanistans president ial election; accessing whos really benefiting from the g. I. Bill; and protests showcase the debate over undocumented immigrant children coming to the u. S. Woodruff now to the middle east, where there has been a major escalation of tensions in the last few hours. It follows days of up rest sparked by the deaths of three israeli teens and a Palestinian Teenager. Three israeli suspects in the killing of the Palestinian Teen confessed to the crime today. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu found the teens father and vowed the killers would be brought to justice. Tonight hamas fired dozens of rockets into israel, claiming revenge for israeli air strikes overnight which they say killed six of its members. A short time ago, i spoke to Josef Federman who has been covering a story for the associated press. Josef, thank you for talking with us. Bring us up to date on what is going on. What is each side doing . Well, its been a pretty busy day here. Things are heating up in southern israel along the gaza border. Gaza militants have fired about 100 rockets today into israel or at israel. Israel has responded with limited air strikes earlier in the day. The rocket fire heated up, really intensified this evening. There was a barrage of nearly 50 rockets after nightfall, some of them set off alarms deep inside israel, about 50 miles away from the border, reaching almost the outskirts of tel aviv. So this is seen as a bit of an escalation. Israel hasnt responded to the latest barrage but were expecting a pretty long night. Woodruff how is this different from what normally has been taking place there . Well, most of the time the rocket fire is pretty limited to when there are attacks and there are periods when its quiet all together but usually its limited to one or two or a handful of rockets fired at short distances into open areas. Now we are seeing an intensity that we havent seen for several years where its dozens and dozens each day, the distance that theyre flying is a lot further and many are reaching populated areas. Woodruff tell us more about israels response. We know you mentioned the air strikes. Theyre calling up reservists as well, right . Yeah, what weve seen is israel is moving forces down toward the border. We have had ap people along the border today. We saw pictures of rows and rows of tanks and buses filled with soldiers, people kind of Milling Around the border area, even this evening the roads is are empty down there because most people are staying inside bomb shelters with all the rockets flying. The only traffic you see on the roads basically are military vehicles bringing tanks, Armored Vehicles and so forth, so israel seems to be bracing. The consensus, the speculation is that israel will begin by limiting activity to aerial bombardments. I dont think they will send in Ground Troops at least at this stage, but what were expecting is a much more intense, a heavier response to what you have been seeing earlier. For the most part, israel has been going after military hamas training bases and fields and launching sites. What you may see are sort of higher value targets, places where maybe there are forces, you may see more casualties and so forth, so thats the type of thing im expecting to see in the next few hours. Woodruff we also know Mahmoud Abbas has been speaking out, the palestinian president. What is he trying to do . Hes actually been pretty quiet on the situation in gaza. He always speaks out against violence. Anytime theres loss of palestinian life. And there were eight Palestinian Militants killed today. He always condemns that. His focus has been on the situation in jerusalem and the west bank. Things are heating up in israel following the death of a Palestinian Teenager last week. Israel has arrested some jewish israelis aspects, and the pallets as suspects and the palestinians are upset and thats where president abbas has been focusing his attention. Woodruff and what is the reaction in israel . We reported some of the israeli suspects who were arrested now confessed to the killing of the Palestinian Teenager. How is that being received . Yeah, the arrests and we dill still dont have the ident. A lot of the information is kept under wraps as the investigation continues. What we do know is the suspects are jewer. Authorities say three people confessed today and it set off soul searching in israel. Theres a lot of shock because to have the brutality and how grizzly this killing was where they burned somebody alive. So people are having a hard time coming to terms with this, and even the nations top leaders, the president , a Nobel Peace Prize winner, called the family, the boys parents today to express his condolences and told them how shocked and ashamed he was. You hear that a lot, shame, you hear it in newspapers, among politicians, even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached out and called the families and you dont normally si israelis reaching across the aisles to palestinians. Woodruff to sum up, you said, israel, both sides are bracing for something worse . I think so. Hamas, this morning, after it suffered casualties, like i said, eight militants were killed overnight last night and that was the h heaviest death toll weve seen so far. They immediately vowed revenge. Then we see 100 rockets flying throughout the course of the day. So i think the militant groups in gaza are expecting something, and israel almost always responds, and especially after a barrage of this intensity, its impossible for israel to sit back and not do anything. There is just so much public pressure to do something. So it really almost seems inevitable that youre going to see more fighting in the coming hours. Woodruff Josef Federman, associated press, we thank you. Thank woodruff and joining me now to help us understand the latest developments are dennis ross, a longtime u. S. Diplomat and mid east envoy serving in the george h. W. Bush, clinton and obama administrations. Hes now a counselor at the Washington Institute for near east policy. And shibley telhami, the anwar sadat professor of peace and development at the university of maryland, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the book, the world through arab eyes. We thank you both. Women come back to the newshour. What do you think has set off the latest round of violence . I think it was connected to the kidnappings of the three israeli teenagers. Israel has held hamas responsible for that and you began to see the beginnings of this process of tit for tat after that. Now you have the revenge killing, which if we heard from the report, has created a shock wave in israel, but takes place against the backdrop of increasing tension between hamas and gaza. They dont want to look like theyre backing down. Hamas vows revenge because, you know, eight of their operatives were killed last night, and they sense that theres an urgency on the part of israelis to come in on the ground and its almost as if theyre testing the israels to see how far they go but they dont want to go too far because if they really provoke the israelis to come in on the ground they knot dont know how far they will go and the price to hamas could be great. Woodruff shibley telhami, how do you read what is going on and how the palestinian leadership is reading it . I happened to be in jerusalem and ramallah when the israelis were kidnapped and my feel, particularly in ramallah rights after, was that it felt like 1987 again, 1987 was the start of the first. And there were some things that were so similar. Palestinian despair over the distraction embroiled by other problems. Whats happening in iraq, egypt, syria. In the 1985s, palestinian were frustrated that attention was going to iraq in the iraqiran war and people werent paying attention to their issues. There was frustration from the leadership detached and there was a sense the people had to do something on their own. There is that sense of alienation. In fact both Mahmoud Abbas and hamas risk being irrelevant, which is why they came together, to be more relevant. So you have the combination that is combustible. On top of that, the fellow of american diplomacy and a sense of resignation, it was a disaster waiting for a spark. Woodruff i gather from both of your answers its not cleared what the leadership on each side, how far theyre prepared to take it. I think thats right. We have two different realities taking place. We have the reality in jerusalem which may or may not be, and in gaza which confronts hamas and the yirlz leadership with hard choices. That point, where is the leadership . In the case of israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you can see that on the one hand he wants to make it clear that hamas, theres a terrible price to be paid as they continue to provoke israel. On the other hand, he himself is saying this is not a time for histie, emotional decisions but a time for judicious behavior. Also the fact he reaches out to the parents to have the Palestinian Teen who was killed is a signal that says, look, we are going to act against our excesses. What happened was shameful and were a country ruled by law and were going to act and thats also both a reflection of i think a deepseated feeling but also sends a signal that the last thing we want to see is an explosion with the palestinians. Woodruff pick up on that, and talk about the forces on each side. The Political Leadership in hamas and the Prime Minister of israel dont want an escalation at this time. Its too a costly, disrupts their priorities, are not ready for it but may be dragged in that direction. Why . Look at the divisions first of all within israel. Its not just public opinion. Public opinion is one set of problems. When the Prime Minister of israel starts sounding like hes the moderate in his own government, you can tell that youve got a problem on your hand. In hamas, they have two problems, one problem is they, just like israelis, they learn from hesbollah, that when they feel under attack or lose, they have to retaliate, like israelis feel that pressure. There is that dynamic. There are groups within gaza that we cant fully control. They have been firing some of the rockets across the israeli borders and we dont know how divided they are. The deal to have a National Government and proceed with a political process was somewhat controversial within hamas, so we dont know what forces are at play when you have a political environment in public that is mobilized and angry, people are going to may to the public. How much is the public on both sides, dens dennis, pushinp this to more crisis point than it already is. I dont think either side is pushing it to crisis point. I think theres a level of despair on the palestinian side and anger on the israeli side, but i think you have, in a sense, certain constituencies that may be pushing. Shibley made reference to the pressures under Prime Minister netanyahu. We see it in terms of former minister lieberman not leaving the government but splitting from the coalition with the party. We see it in terms atout what i call the military wing of hamas. Theyre the ones who launched the rockets today. Up till now, they have not been the ones launching the rockets. But you can see segments on each side who see an emotional moment and are reacting to that. The question is, is there sufficient control of leaders to be able to do that . I think on the israeli side, there is. On the palestinian side, its much more an open question. Woodruff how would you answer that . On both sides, its an open question. In part because the Israeli Government has a lot of people on the right who want to take who are running for the next Prime Minister position in the israeli election and theyre exploiting this just like they are people on the palestinian side who want to go to a militancy. I think neither side wants from frustration but they could go there. We saw seven horrible kills that dragged people into a situational confrontation. Woodruff a lot of questions coming out of this. We thank you both for talking to us tonight, shibley telhami, dennis ross. T thank you. Woodruff in afghanistan, Election Officials today announced interim results in the recent president ial elections, but they also said no winner can be declared yet because millions of ballots were being audited for fraud. Jeffrey brown has the story. Brown the preliminary results came nearly a month after afghan voters went to the polls in the president ial run off. The National Election commission announced former finance minister ashraf ghani won 56 of the vote. Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah trailed with 43 , a reversal of the doubledigit lead hed held after the first round. translated i want to emphasize that the preliminary result announcement is not the announcement of the winner of the election. There is the possibility of changing the results after auditing the votes and reviewing the complaints and objections. Brown indeed, the commission acknowledged there had been fraud, and announced it will audit ballots from nearly 7,000 of 23,000 polling stations. Ghanis followers celebrated, but abdullah has refused to accept any results until a full investigation is completed. He spoke yesterday in kabul. translated we will not accept those results until clean votes are separated from unclean votes. Nobody doubts that there was fraud in afghanistans elections. There was a mass and organized fraud. A fraud that the independent Election Commission was involved in. Brown abdullah also accuses current President Hamid karzai, who is termlimited, of trying to rig the outcome in ghanis favor. The claims are reminiscent of widespread fraud in the 2009 election, when karzai defeated abdullah. In washington today, state Department Spokeswoman jen psaki agreed its vital to investigate the current results. Right now, our focus is on encouraging a full and thorough review of all the reasonable allegations of irregularities. We think thats essential to ensuring that the Afghan People have confidence in the integrity of the electoral process. Brown resolving the election dispute is also essential to getting a Bilateral Agreement that keeps a small American Force in afghanistan beyond 2014. About 33,000 u. S. Troops are still there. Most will leave at the end of this year, but some 9,800 would stay on to train afghans, if theres an agreement governing their presence. Karzai has refused to sign the pact, but both ghani and abdullah have said they would sign it. The final Election Results are due, july 22nd. Woodruff whats at stake between now and then . For that were joined by andrew wilder, Vice President of south and central asia programs at the United States institute of peace. He just returned from afghanistan last week. And Nazif Shahrani is an afghan american whos a professor of anthropology at indiana university. Nazif shahrani, let me start with you. How serious a situation is this . Is there potential for a drawnout major problem . Yes, unfortunately, there is. The people of afghanistan have been waiting for the results of the election for some time. Given the environment in which the two candidates, especially Abdullah Abdullah, is at this point that is threatening not to accept the results and also some of his supporters in the provinces as well as one of his Vice President s are saying that if their demands are not met, they may create a parallel government which obviously would not be to the advantage of the country and the people are seriously concerned about it. Brown andrew wilder, you were just there. What did you see in terms of the election or anything that helps us understand the voting, the potential for fraud . I was in afghanistan for the first round of the election which went remarkably well and there were problems then, too, but the results were accepted as legitimate. Clearly, there were problems and Serious Problems which now need to be investigated and this is where i think its really important for the two campaigns to you know, together with the electoral institutions to agree now on the process moving forward on how to verify the various charges of fraud have been made actually by both camps so that we can get this process moving forward because as much as flawed, electoral process is all we have to dermot come and ultimately elections end up with a winner and loser and its urgent we get that process moving forward. Brown Nazif Shahrani remind us of the stakes. What does it matter between the two candidates and what is resting on the outcome of a good outcome here . Well, what is, i think, i hope for is a peaceful transition of power for the first time in the history of afghanistan, from one elected president , again, fraudulent as it was in 2009, to another president who would have the confidence of the nation. Unfortunately, the dispute right now, particularly in accounting as perhaps the acquisition of stuffing the ballot boxes by Abdullah Abdullah against president karzai and his government is making the possibility of outcome rather problematic and very serious for the country, and also for the region and ultimately for the United States and the International Community worked so hard in the last 13 years to stabilize the country and they all hoped just as the people of afghanistan hoped that there will be a peaceful transition and it doesnt look like it might be. Brown andrew wilder, for the United States there is the agreement, the withdrawal. How does this potentially impact that . I think if it gets too drawn out, it could further delay the signing of the bilateral Security Agreement and, currently, the scheduled inauguration date, lets not forget, the august 2, so theres not a whole lot of time to resolve this before president karzai says hes stepping down and even saying if ther thereso one else, ill turn over power to my Vice President at that point. We have a security crisis already in afghanistan, we have an economic cry says brewing, and its imperative this political crisis get resolved swiftly so we can focus on the other serious issues in afghanistan. Theres another major interpretational agenda coming up in that the president is to go to china in august for an important regional conference and nato in september and the u. N. General assembly. Its very important for afghanistan to have a legitimate successor to karzai, being able to represent the country in these international forum, and regain what president karzai squandered. Brown what is president karzais role now . Is he playing a role in this election and the outcome, good or bad . Well, according to his own brother, mahmoud karzai, he has been a spoiler. He has been trying to, according to mahmoud, stay in power in that he has created this crisis and manufactured it in a way that would perhaps make it possible for him to continue to stay in power, especially if these two candidates cannot reach an agreement and resolve the problem as it stands right now. So there is a threat, still, that karzai may be manufacturing this particular crisis and may try to take advantage of that in the long run. One hopes that that would not be the case, but, if it is, it, obviously, hes willing to be responsible for dragging the country back into a serious crisis. Brown andrew, do you see karzai playing a role like that, potentially, a negative role . I think hes played a negative role in the past. I rarely disagree with the doctor, but i think president karzai lost control of the process. I think the palace is politically very fragmented. I think the electoral institutions are fragmented. The afghan National Security force in some ways are fragmented. So the idea president karzai could mastermind this entire rigging in one direction or another, i actually dont think hes powerful enough anymore to do that because many of the political elites are looking beyond karzai for patronage, not looking to him and listening to him anymore. Brown on that point, having just come from there, what was the sense of the atmosphere among people that you talked to . Are they eager to get this behind them and move on . I think the people are getting frustrated and want a result and an outcome, you know, because they realize afghans future depends on this and thats why we saw so many voters turn out to vote in the first and second round. More than people expected. Yes, and certainly some of that we can attribute to fraud. But i saw it with my eyes the long lines of people turning out to vote was higher than anticipate and i think that was because they were voting for a peaceful future, wanting, you know and i think thats why the urgency, i wanted to emfa zeiss size, of getting this process resolved so we can get a leit mat successor to karzai in the palace. Brown thank you both very much. Thank you. Woodruff next, how funds from the federal g. I. Bill are flowing to forprofit schools, even though all too frequently, veterans prospects are not appreciably better after attending them. The forprofit College Sector is under the microscope the department of education is expected to cut federal aid to schools with high default rates. The federal government and state attorneys general also are investigating marketing and lending practices of some schools. More than 10 billion were spent on the g. I. Bill for veterans education last year. Until now, for profits have netted a growing amount of money from a new generation of vets. In california, nearly two of every three g. I. Bill dollars is spent on forprofit schools. Aaron glantz has the story from our partners at the center for investigative reporting. Reporter the world war ii g. I. Bill. Its one of the most cherished programs in american history. It paid the full cost of an education at any Fouryear College or university. You mean he can get any kind of education he wants . Now youre getting the idea. Reporter the gi bill was weakened in the decades after world war ii, until Congress Passed a new law in 2008 to help veterans returning home from iraq and afghanistan. And so, for the First Time Since world war ii, veterans can receive the full cost of a college education. Paid for by taxpayers, up to 19,000 a year. But g. I. Bill money is not going where congress expected. Forprofit schools like the Ashford University and the university of phoenix are among the largest recipients. These schools are set up to make money. Kate ogorman is political director at iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. Many veterans simply are being aggressively and deceptively recruited by some bad actors in the forprofit school sector. Reporter she says thousands of veterans are being left with worthless degrees and few job prospects. Were not getting the investment that we wanted when we sent these men and women to school. Reporter in california alone, the center for investigative reporting found nearly 300 schools banned from receiving state financial aid, that still got g. I. Bill money. Even schools with no academic accreditation at all. Beauty schools, auto repair programs, and dog training academies. Together, more than 600 million. The biggest beneficiary is the forprofit university of phoenix, which fails to graduate most of its students, according to the u. S. Department of education. Nationally, it took in nearly a billion dollars from the g. I. Bill over the last five years. The university of phoenix has been especially successful at attracting veterans in san diego, a port city with a high concentration of veterans. Every year, soldiers and sailors here retire from active duty and turn to the g. I. Bill as they transition to civilian life. Among them, david pace, who served 20 years in the navy. Pace dreamed of a career in the Business World and enrolled in a Bachelors Program at the university of phoenix. I figured that with that College Degree i would get a better job and move on. Reporter he told me a recruiter from the university of phoenix said he could turn his military experience into academic credit and graduate in just 18 months, leaving him with enough g. I. Bill money to pursue a masters degree. But that aint how it worked. Reporter a year into that degree plan, pace says he was told he would need to take ten additional classes to graduate, pace feels he was tricked. I didnt know. I really didnt know that. I was going by what they told me. Reporter it took pace three years to graduate. By then he had exhausted his entire education benefit. Pace attended this university of phoenix campus in san diego. It has received more g. I. Bill money than any brick and mortar campus in america, 95 million over the last five years. Thats almost seven times what the university of california san diego got. In fact, the center for investigative reporting found, the university of phoenix san diego campus received more g. I. Bill money than the entire 10 campus u. C. System. Last june, the schools accrediting body, the Higher Learning commission, put the university of phoenix on notice, saying the school did not support Student Learning and effective teaching. Students at the university of phoenix often have trouble repaying their loans. More than a quarter default within three years of leaving school. And, at this campus, fewer than 15 of students graduate, according to the department of education. I met with retired u. S. Army colonel garland williams. He oversees military programs for all university of phoenix campuses nationwide. Do you feel like this almost billion dollars of taxpayer money to the university of phoenix is a good investment for the taxpayers . The veterans have chosen us because of the programs that we offer. We have over one hundred programs that we offer and they have found the Higher Education goal that theyve sought. Those programs lead to careers that they want to aspire to. They have chosen us. Reporter do you have any evidence that its actually leading to careers for these veterans . The veterans have chosen us. They have chosen to use their entitlement at the university of phoenix. Reporter getting an Associates Degree at the university of phoenix costs nearly 10 times what a Community College would charge. Nevertheless, the university of phoenix says its working with the government to ensure that veterans needs are met. To prove its point, the company allowed us to observe as a team of auditors arrived from the California Department of Veterans Affairs. University of phoenix staff gathered veterans transcripts and Financial Information as they prepared for inspection. The auditors will check these documents to ensure compliance with g. I. Bill requirements. Their goal to make sure the school isnt billing the government for students who dont exist. Reporter but the inspectors dont look at anything else. Latanaya johnson is a member of the audit team. Are you looking at whether or not the instruction is good . No, thats not a part of the visit, at all. Reporter the university of phoenix has been put on notice by its accrediting agency. Do you look at that . No, thats not a part of the visit at all. Reporter or any issues they might be having with the faculty not complying with certain regulations . You look at that . No, thats a different processing completely. Reporter turns out no one reporter in washington, lawmakers have tried again and again to strengthen regulations on which schools can receive g. I. Bill money. Democrat tom harkin, the chair of the Senate Committee that oversees education, has spent years investigating the for Profit Education industry. Neither the department of Veterans Affairs nor the department of defense has any way of assessing whether they are getting a good education. I might add neither does the department of education or any of the entities that accredit these schools. They have no way of assessing whats happening to these students. Reporter kate ogorman of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america says her organization has also been trying to change things, but has run up against organized opposition. Weve seen money going into committees and campaign contributions. We see forprofit school lobbyists consistently on the hill. Almost every time the Veterans Community goes into an office and says, we need these strong reforms and regulations. We see a forprofit school lobbyist walking out. Reporter now, the legislative fight is moving to the state level. In california, a bill would have required all schools to tell regulators how many veterans graduate and how many find jobs. It was gutted in the face of opposition from forprofit colleges. In a letter to lawmakers, the university of phoenixs lobbyist called those requirements cumbersome and of little practical value. I asked garland williams to explain his companys position. What i can tell you and your viewers is that the support that we provide our veterans, our active duty, and their family members is personal. Reporter but we dont deserve to know how many of them are actually succeeding . You deserve to know that we provide the utmost care to our military. We think we do it right. We were always a learning organization to get it right, but we think we do it right because veterans choose the university of phoenix. Reporter veteran david pace wishes he had never made that choice. After spending an estimated 50,000 in taxpayers money to obtain a business degree, he is still doing the same kind of blue collar, physical labor that he did in the service. I think thats the most frustrating part about it is that i could have come right out of the navy and got this job without the time and the headache. Reporter hes a Maintenance Electrician for a defense contractor at Naval Base San diego. Pace says employers dont take his degree seriously. If you say you got a degree from the university of phoenix, you immediately get thats a paper factory, thats a certificate factory, you dont get the same respect. Reporter he hopes other veterans think more carefully than he did about where they spend their education benefit. But advocates say its not realistic to expect veterans like pace to police the g. I. Bill. They say thats the job of congress and regulators. Five years after the new g. I. Bill became law, there are still virtually no restrictions on where that money can be spent. Woodruff a couple of footnotes for the record, david pace does work for b. A. E. Systems, which is an underwriter of the newshour. This past week, one major for profit player, corinthian colleges, under scrutiny from the government and facing bankruptcy, announced it would sell or close its 97 u. S. Schools. This story was part of reveal, a new investigative Radio Program from the center for investigative reporting and p. R. X. Its airing on public radio stations nationally all this week. Woodruff a flood of undocumented immigrant children into the u. S. , often risking their lives to escape violence in Central America, has sparked protests and debate around the country on how to handle their arrival. Woodruff it was a scene that launched the Southern California town of murietta into the national spotlight. Last tuesday, dozens of protesters turned back three Homeland Security buses headed for the towns Border Patrol station. Inside the vehicles were 140 undocumented immigrants, mostly women and young children. Theyd been flown in from texas, where detention facilities have reached full capacity. Theyre coming here for free food, free housing, free medical. Woodruff the protests drew new attention to a growing problem along the nations southern border. More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have been detained since october, illegally trying to cross into the United States from mexico. Most hail from three nations guatemala, honduras and el salvador. Places rife with poverty, violence and smugglers offering to deliver the children for a price. Once in the u. S. , theyve been taken to Border Patrol facilities in texas, arizona and elsewhere, but their growing numbers have led to overflow sites, such as murietta. Murrieta expects the federal government to enforce our laws including the deportation of Illegal Immigrants caught crossing our borders. Not disperse them into our local communities. Woodruff there were more protests friday, on both sides of the immigration debate. President obama has called the surge of unaccompanied minors a humanitarian crisis and says most will not remain in the u. S. The journey is unbelievably dangerous for these kids. The children who are fortunate enough to survive it will be taken care of while they go through the legal process, but in most cases that process will lead to them being sent back home. Woodruff but it remains unclear just when the children being detained will be deported. Sunday, on n. B. C. , the secretary of Homeland Security jeh johnson referred to the complex process that applies to how they are dealt with there is a deportation proceeding that is commenced against illegal migrants, including children. We are looking at ways to create additional options for dealing with the children in particular, consistent with our laws and our values. Im trying to get an answer to will most of them end up staying, in your judgment . I think we need to find more efficient, effective ways to turn this tide around generally, and weve already begun to do that. Reporter today, outside the white house, immigration advocates criticized the president for not doing enough to help undocumented families. The president is now preparing to ask congress for more than 2 billion to hire more Immigration Judges and open additional detention facilities. Woodruff for more on whats causing todays circumstances, and possible remedies, we turn to marshall fitz, director of immigration policy with the center for american progress, a leftleaning think tank in washington. And jennifer vaughan, the director for policy studies at the rightleaning center for immigration studies. We welcome you both to the program. Marshal fitz, let me start with you. I want to ask you both this question. Whats your understanding of why we are seeing this big influx of children especially from Central America . Well, its clear the major Drivers Behind this recent influx are the condition in their countries. We know this because of the fact they are dispersing throughout the region. Its a regional crisis. Theres a 712 increase in applications in panama, nick ra wax costa rica, and people are leaving because of endemic violence, the weak institutional government and lack of protections for the Civil Society there and its happening now because that violence is escalating. Honduras is the murder capital of the world. Woodruff in fact we have a graphic to show our audience, they have the highest number of deaths per 100,000 people. Following is el salvador the fourth is el salvador and the firth is guatemala. Yes. Woodruff and these are the countries sending so many of the children. Jessica vaughn, what is your sense of your understanding of what is sending most of these children . Well, there earl is poverty and violence in the three countries that are sending most of the people across the border in south texas, now, but many of them who are coming are not actually coming from the violent areas of the countries. Theyre coming from all over rural areas, areas distant from the violence. What we know from Border Patrol intelligence, immigration, from the migrant reporters and their own government officials is the main reason theyre coming is because they know that they will be allowed to stay, for the most mart, and thats whats driving this at this time. They have been told by friends and family who have already come here illegally what they can say and that if they come with kids or if they send their kids, that the chances are almost certain that theyll be allowed to stay here. Woodruff and marshal fitz, there has been reporting to this effect that the word has spread among many of the communities. The most thorough study we have on whats driving the kids to flee their own countries and leave their own families is from the unhcr and they interviewed more than 400 kids, u. N. International agency. They spent a few hours with the kids and only a small handful mentioned immigration status in the country. They all talked about the violence they were fleeing. Im sure there are misperceptions that are being put out by smuggling operations and we are cracking down on those operations, but the real reason people are leaving the countries is because of the violence and the conditions theyre experiencing in their home country. Woodruff Jessica Vaughn, you were saying many is coming from areas where the violence is not an issue. Is that what i understood you to say . Thats according to information that was released by the Border Patrol, and also the Border Patrol interviews all of these migrants at the time that they surrender to the Border Patrol, and what theyre telling the Border Patrol, 95 of them have said that theyre coming because they heard that they would be allowed to stay. In fact, thats not a false rumor or a misperception. It is, in fact, whats been happening. Only 3 of the Central Americans who have come into contact with the Border Patrol in recent months have actually been sent back. So the vast majority of them are allowed to stay and are allowed to resettle in the country. Woodruff marshal fitz, we know it is a different process because of the law for dealing with children or any immigrant coming from Central America, is that correct, because of a law passed several years ago. Under president george bush. Its a law that was designed to ensure that unaccompanied kids or kids who are arriving here without a family member, without a parent, that they are eligible to go through the full screening process to ensure that they are or are not eligible for protection. What jessica says about this allowed to stay is only a function of the fact that our immigration courts are so backlogged. Thats something i think she and i can probably agree on is there is very much a need to infuse resources into the system to ensure that cases can get adjudicated more expeditiously. That is something that is a longstanding problem. Congress has starved the immigration courts of resource force decades, now. Woodruff Jessica Vaughn, how much of a part of the problem is that . And the fact as we mentioned a minute ago that this law was passed under president bush saying unaccompanied minors coming in there Central America had to go through a hearing process before they could be deported . Well, the law were talking about here was passed at the initiative of certain democratic members of congress who wanted to create a process for children who were being trafficked into the United States. Clearly, thats not the case with most to have the individuals who are a most of the individuals who are a part of the surge. About twothirds people who surrendered to the Border Patrol are actually entire families, so are not unaccompanied kids, and the vast majority of kids who turned themselves over to the Border Patrol are coming here to join family members who are already here. So, once they rejoin their family members, they are no longer unaccompanied, and i think that it makes sense that they should not necessarily benefit from a procedure that was set up to handle the most difficult cases of kids who were actually trafficked. Its not trafficking when parents pay a smuggler to bring their children to the United States, and then get to rejoin with their child with no questions asked either about the smuggling or their own legal status here. Here, things the president can address without changing the law. Woodruff marshal fitz, what about that . Jessica is making assertions that arent grounded in the facts. All of the reporting done so far by independent agencies, not by Border Patrol, show somewhere upwards of 58 or 60 of the kids are entitled to some fort of protection form of protection and were seeing that, that many of the kids are granted either asylum or special immigrant juvenile protection. So the facts are these kids are eligible for status because they are either fleeing traumatic situations in their home countries or theyre being trafficked along the way which is, again, another very serious problem. The unaccompanied minors, we shouldnt be treating these kids like theyre fedex packages and trying to send them back immediately. We have to treat them humanely and i think thats what most of us in the Advocacy Community are looking for. Woodruff the white house was saying most unaccompanied children arriving are unlikely to qualify them for humanitarian relief that would prevent from sending them back home, that came from the administration today. Thank you Jessica Vaughn and marshal fitz. Thanks for having me. You. Woodruff again, the major developments of the day. Militants in gaza fired dozens of rockets as far as 50 miles into israel this evening. Meanwhile, an israeli official said three suspects confessed to the murder of a Palestinian Teenager. Afghan Elections Officials announced former finance minister ashraf ghani has a big lead in initial results from a president ial runoff. His rival, Abdullah Abdullah, claimed extensive fraud. And a federal judge gave initial approval to a concussion settlement between the National Football league and thousands of former players. On the newshour online, 200 years ago, a new genre of fiction took the world by storm, thanks in large part to sir walter scott. Read about the scottish authors work waverley, published on this day in 1814, which set the example for the historical novel from that point forward. Thats on our art beat page. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. And thats the newshour for tonight. On tuesday, defense secretary hagel goes to capitol hill to face questions over iraq and afghanistan. Im judy woodruff, well see you online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by theres a saying around here and by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. 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 Macneil Lehrer productions 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, newmans own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, kovler foundation, charles schwab, and union bank. Years, we believe a commercial bank owes its clients strength, stability, security. So we believe in keeping lending standards high. Capital ratios high. Credit ratings high. Companies expected it then, Companies Expect it now. , it right