Calling for obama to pardon all undocumented immigrants. Well speak with representative Raul Grijalva, one of more than 100 lawmakers calling for obama to protect more than 750,000 migrants shielded from rotation by daca. A newly obtained memo reveals trumps kick for secretary treasury may having gauged in widespread misconduct or foreclosing on thousands of homeowners. Well speak with a reporter who broke the story. If you received a home digital assistant like amazon echo or google home, you might want to listen closely. Is called amazon echo. It is on . Is always on. What does it do . What do you do . I can play music, answer questions, get the news and weather, create to do list, and much more. Amy we will look at the case of a man charged with murder after prosecutors had pained a warrant obtained a warrant for his echo, a voice i committed device that is often listening and recording. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On capitol hill, republican senators backed down tuesday from a plan to gut the office of congressional ethics following widespread outcry among the public. If the rule change had gone through, it would have been the first move enacted by the new republicancontrolled congress. But the effort quickly fell apart tuesday as lawmakers offices were inundated by calls from an angry public and president elect donald trump took to twitter, calling the Ethics Office unfair, but encouraging republicans to focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far , greater importance today, republicans are now slated to begin debating legislation to dismantle parts of president obamas Affordable Care act. With the 115th congress now sworn in, republicans outnumber democrats 52 to 48 in the senate and 241 to 194 in the house. This is House Speaker republican paul ryan of wisconsin, speaking tuesday about congresss republican majority. Speaker ryan to the majority, especially to our returning bers, i want to say this this is a onceinalifetime opportunity. This is the kind of thing that most of us only dreams about. I know because i used to dream about this a lot. The people have given us unified government. And it wasnt because they were feeling generous. It was because they want results. How could we live with ourselves if we let them down . How could we let ourselves down . Amy in mobile, alabama naacp , National PresidentCornell William brooks and five other civil rights leaders were arrested tuesday during a sitin at the office of alabama senator jeff sessions, demanding he withdraw his name for consideration for attorney general. Trumps pick of sessions for the position has drawn widespread outrage due to sessions history of making racist comments, opposing the Voting Rights act, and supporting antiimmigration legislation. Reportedly he said he thought the ku klux klan was ok until i found out they smoked pot. He is also called the Americans Civil Liberties Union and the and communistcan inspired. In 1986, sessions was denied confirmation for federal judgeship by Republicancontrolled Senate committee over his racist comments. The sit in came as more than 1000 Law School Professors sent a letter to congress urging lawmakers to reject sessions confirmation, writing nothing in senator sessions public life since 1986 has convinced us that hes a different man than a 39yearold attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a Federal District or judge. Sessions confirmation hearing is scheduled for january 10 and 11. It is followed by the confirmation of rex tillerson, for secretary of state, who will go before the senate on january 11 and 12th. Tillerson stepped down as exxon ceo on january 1, receiving a 180 million retirement package. On january 11, trump says hell also hold his first formal News Conference in nearly six months. His last press conference was in july when he called on russia to hack Hillary Clintons email servers. Trump claims in his upcoming News Conference, hell reveal things that other people dont know about the hacking of the u. S. Election. The Turkish Parliament has voted to extend the state of emergency for another three months following a new year shooting attack in an istanbul nightclub that left 39 people dead. The state of emergency was first imposed after the summers failed military coup. Since then, 100,000 Public Workers have been suspended from their jobs and 40,000 people, including dozens of journalists, have been arrested. On tuesday, hundreds protested outside the reina nightclub in istanbul, condemning the violence and calling for more democracy in turkey. The only way to get over this kind of situation is to bring more democracy, freedoms, peace, and institutionalization of secularity. Want grizzly attacks. Im here to show up will not surrender to this violence. I am very sorry. Amy in iraq, fighting continues in mosul, amid the u. S. And iraqi militaries Ongoing Campaign to retake the city from isis. The United Nations says 6878 civilians were killed and more than 12,000 were wounded, amid fighting in iraq in 2016. In israel, an idf soldier who was caught on video executing a wounded palestinian man has been convicted of manslaughter. The video shows palestinian abdel fattah alsharif, who was reportedly a suspect in a stabbing earlier in the day, lying immobilized on the ground in hebron in the israelioccupied west bank. The video then appears to shows israeli sergeant elor azaria firing a single shot into the mans head from a close distance, killing him. Azarias conviction today comes as a new report by the Human Rights Group defense for Children International says Israeli Soldiers killed 32 palestinian children in the west bank and East Jerusalem last year, the highest number in a decade. In puerto rico the new governor , Ricardo Rossello has promised to push immediately for u. S. Statehood in his inaugural speech monday, saying there can be no resolution to the islands economic crisis while puerto rico remains a territory of the United States. There is no way to overcome the Current Crisis that affects puerto rico, while maintaining this colonial condition. Act the time has come to and to defend the dignity and rits to equality of Puerto Ricans as citizens of the United States of america. Amy the puerto rican governor. Fox news anchor megyn kelly has announced shes leaving fox to host her own daytime news show on nbc. Kelly famously faced off with donald trump during the 2016 election when she asked trump about his history of calling women fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. After the debate, trump criticized kelly, saying you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever. Fox news had offered megyn kelly 20 million he year to stay at the network. It is believed she will be making at least that at nbc news. In a major victory in pennsylvania, imprisoned journalist and former black Panther Mumia Abu Jamal has won an injunction forcing the pennsylvania prison system to provide him lifesaving hepatitis c medicine. Lawyers with the Abolitionist Law Center say this is the first case in the country in which a federal court has ordered prison officials to provide an incarcerated patient with the new medications that came on the market in 2013. In south carolina, the sentencing phase of the trial of white supremacist and convicted murder dylann roof is opening today in charleston. Roof has been convicted of 33 counts of federal hate crimes for murdering nine black worshipers, including pastor clementa pinckney, at the historic Emanuel Ame Church in june 2015. And here in new york, Governor Andrew Cuomo has unveiled a new plan to make public colleges and universities tuitionfree for families earning 125,000 or less a year. Cuomo announced the plan alongside vermont senator Bernie Sanders on tuesday. College. 30,000 per student. Just think about that. Debt in new student york is higher than 30,000. That is not fair. That is not right. New york state state is going to do something about it. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. A newly revealed memo from president elect Donald TrumpsTransition Team sheds light on his plans to reverse immigration polices put in place by the Obama Administration and to expand the border wall. It reportedly asks the department of Homeland Security about its ability to expand the use of immigrant Detention Centers and an aerial surveillance system, and whether federal workers altered biographic information kept about immigrants. An Agency Official told reuters it interpreted the request to mean the Transition Team wanted to ensure workers were not altering the data in order to protect recipients of president obamas executive order known as deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca, which has so far has shielded 750,000 young people from deportation. Amy more than 100 members of congress sent a letter to obama in december asking him to take action to protect the names and private information of those enrolled in daca. In a minute, well be joined by one of its lead signatories. Human rights advocates have also called on obama to pardon all undocumented immigrants in the United States before trump takes office. They include noam chomsky, the worldrenowned political dissident, linguist, and author who spoke out in a message posted on youtube last month. President obama, to his credit, has given issued personal parties in deserving cases, but he should go far beyond. You should proceed to what is in fact an urgent necessity to grant the general pardon to 11 Million People who are living and working here, productive citizens in all but name, threatened with deportation by the Incoming Administration. This would be a horrible humanitarian tragedy, a moral outrage, can be averted by a general pardon for immigration infractions which the president could issue. And we should join to urge him to carry out this necessary step without delay. Amy for more we go now to , capitol hill where were joined by Congress MemberRaul Grijalva, democrat of arizona. He is also cochair of the congressional progressive caucus. Were also joined in manchester, new hampshire, by cesar zamudio, a freshman at Columbia University who is an undocumented immigrant and a recipient of daca. He is active with the sanctuary Campus Campaign and came with his familyo the United States from the country of colombia when he was five years old. We welcome you both to democracy now congressman Raul Grijalva, what are you calling on president obama to do in his last week . A simple request. Based on the chilling request from the trump Transition Team names, relative not only to the daca students and young people protected by that executive order, but going beyond that. Our request is to protect those names, to protect the confidentiality. We all ask these young people to come forward willingly and voluntarily, and guaranteed them information about themselves, more and portly, tir parents and relatives in this country wouldght be undocumented, be protected. Asking the president to a poll that commitment we made to those young people and to do so. In terms of the pardon, it is an overall protection. There is no doubt the Trump Administration, part of the red meat he ran on from the first day when he announced his candidacy was a very extreme antiimmigrant rhetoric that he kept up through the whole campaign, the wall, deportation, more detention. I think that particular piece of red meat he is going to throw out every once in a while and of all of the commitments he is made, this is the one that is most disturbing because it is one that he will try to fulfill through his presidency. I really believe that we need to not pretend that that it isnt happening. More importantly, back, begin to strategize, begin to unify around how we protect the document it in this country, how we not only protect them, but pushed back in a very concerted and resisted way to what trump is going to try to do. Juan congressman come in november, trump ritter raided his pledge to deport up to 3 million undocumented people during an interview with 60 minutes. This is 60 minutes correspondent lesley stahl. Lets go through it quickly, some of the promises you made and tell us if youre going to do what you said or change it in anyway. Are you really going to build a wall . Mr. Trump yes. Theyre talking about offense the republican congress. Would you accept a fence . Areas, i for certain would. A certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. Im very good at this called construction. There could be some fencing. What about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants. Mr. Trump what were going to do is get the people that are criminal and have, records, gang members, drug dealers a lot of these people, probably 2 million or 3 million, were getting them out of our country or were going to incarcerate. Were getting them out of our country that are here illegally. Juan that was trump speaking on 60 minutes. A couple of questions. One is, the issue of you did not say he was going to seek to ,eport the socalled daca youth but if he reverses the executive order, that means they no longer would have the ability, for instance, have work permits, etc. What can be done by the democrats in congress to prevent trump from actually moving to start deporting some of the daca people . And what is your sense of the possibilities right now given the fact you dont have a majority in the congress . Certainly the house, the possibilities are not very bright. To try to provide legislative relief to the daca young people. Talking about a bipartisan bill. The only concern i have is it caps it at the students that are eligible or have become eligible up to this point. I think there should be no cap come as young people age in daca two, they should have the same rights and abilities to apply and to have that protection extended to them. Legislatively, it would make it permanent and would be a Legal Protection for the long haul. A possibility. Like anything that is going to be worked out in a bipartisan way, the political atmosphere we have in washington, we have to make sure it is not something in the longterm that is going to prove to continue to beto youngr ability to do what they need to do with their lives in this country, and more and portly, not to cap it at a certain number where it leaves potential he another one Million People out of the process. Juan on the issue of the pardon. There is a president s for this. Jimmy carter in his waning days provided a pardon for all people who have been convicted of draft violations during the vietnam war, and that was tens of ousands of people so this has happened in the past. The prospects, your hope, in terms of what president obama could do in his last weeks in office . It certainly is a hope. The attorney general lynch made a statement that early on that that was something that legally she did not feel could be done by the president through executive order, through the pardon powers that he has. Many of us and other legal scholars feel differently. We really feel this would be a testament and a statement so that, i think, to avoid what is going to be potentially one of the most devices, difficult, and turbulent domestic issues with the deportation issue becomes primary to this administration. The expansion of private prisons, which has been a nightmare for detainees throughout the last five years. You know, president obama did the most deportations of any president. I dont know how this president can say that 3 million, 4 million, and redefine what criminal the definition of what criminal activity is in order to reach those goals. Those are all major concerns. At the local level and communities are already organizing to protect their immigrant families in their communities, and to provide them both sanctuary and protection. I think that is where the fight is going to be as well, very much a local level. A makeup congressman Raul Grijalva, we want to talk about what happened in the first session. Enormous blowback around the republicans first move, forcing them to turn around. Before we do that, we want to bring in cesar zamudio, a freshman at Columbia University, an undocumented student. Could you briefly tell us your story and what youre calling for . Yes, definitely. Thank you for having me. Basically, my story is that my family and i came to the United States on tourist pieces. My parents decided w