Ifill and we look at the big money groups supporting and attacking hagels nomination. Woodruff we have two takes on the war in mali, an onthe Ground Report from the newly liberated town of gao. Ifill . And an update on the destruction of ancient manuscripts in the fabled city of timbuktu. Woodruff and we close with the story of a soldier who underwent a successful rare double arm transplant, after losing all of his limbs in the iraq war. I hated not having arms. I was all right with not having legs. Not having arms takes so much away from you out of even your personality. Woodruff thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by viking river cruises. Bnsf railway. And by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. 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 one week into his second term, president obama officially took on the issue of immigration today. He said it comes down to a simple question whether the country and the government have the resolve, finally, to deal with the longfestering national challenge. The president launched his effort in nevada where more than a quarter of the States Residents are hispanic. Im here today because the time has come for common sense, comprehends i have been immigration reform. cheers and applause the time is now. Woodruff the campaignstyle event at a Las Vegas High School came a day after a Bipartisan Group of eight u. S. Senators put forward their own plan. It calls for creating a path to legal citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people now estimated to be living in the u. S implementing that policy would be contingent on securing the southern border. Seven years ago then senator obama the joined a similar effort if the compromise thats been discussed and has the agreement of those who were in this room, if that ends up being the bill that is signed into law, its a winwin for everybody woodruff today president obama praised the new senate effort. He said the path to citizenship must be clear from the start and not just be tied to Border Security. We have to lay out a path, a process that includes passing a background check, paying taxes, paying a penalty, learning english, and then going to the back of the line behind all the folks who are trying to come here legally. Thats only fair. Right . So that means it wont be a quick process but it will be a fair process. Woodruff back in washington Florida Republican marco rubio, a member of the Bipartisan Senate group, still seemed concerned the president wanted to move too far too fast if this endeavor becomes a bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest, quickest and cheapest pathway to green card possible, this thing is not going to go well, folks woodruff Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell said hes withholding judgment for now i think predicting how one is going to vote on this package before it gets out of committee is something im not prepared to do. But i will say. What i will say is there is obviously bipartisan desire to move forward on immigration legislation. My assumption is the majority leader will be doing that. Woodruff that would be nevada democrat harry reid who said lawmakers must act soon. Im very, very hopeful. With the president in las vegas today, he has put his arms around the four senators on the democratic side and the republican side but with a caveat. He wont wait around forever to actually have legislation that we move on woodruff on the newshour last night two members of the Bipartisan Group talked up their plans prospect. Democrat dick durbin of illinois i dont want to say confident because im a senator. You know, i spend my whole life disappointed. Ive been 12 years on the dream act but ive never felt better about it and more positive woodruff and Arizona Republican jeff flake who said the Election Results got lawmakers attention, even those who doubt immigration reform. There is motivation to get it behind us for those who dont want to deal with it as well. So i think we have the planets aligned here now to move ahead woodruff the biggest hurdle could come in the republicancontrolled house where another Bipartisan Group is working on a competing plan. The first House Committee hearing takes place next tuesday. Ifill we take a closer look now at how the politics of the immigration debate are unfolding with clarissa martiinez de castro, director of Civic Engagement and immigration for the National Council of la raza. And kris kobach, the kansas secretary of state who helped write arizonas strict immigration law. Welcome to you both. Clarissa martinez de castro, as you listened to the president say weve come so far so fast as you listen to marco rubio say maybe too fast, does it feel like you have turned a corner in this fight . Definitely have turned the corner. The reality is that it may seem fast but lets not forget that this issue of immigration has been debated in Congress Numerous times. One of the reasons why we are moving forward with it is because indeed so much ground has been laid before in previous debates. I think what we have right now is the political imperative, the moral imperative, and the economic imperative aligning to create the pressure and the space that Congress Needs to take action ifill what about those imperatives . Are they coming together in a way that you would like to see them . I dont think theyre coming together in the way that so many people are hyping this supposedly momentum think theyre coming together. Theres one really big factor that everybody is missing here. And that is the biggest stumbling block to an amnesty for 11 million or more illegal aliens, and that is the price tag. The last time an amnesty of similar size was contemplated in the congress was 2007. It was calculated that it would cost the country 2. 6 trillion over ten years because you make all of these predominantly lowskilled illegal aliens eligible for food stamps, w. I. C. C. , medicare, medicaid, social security, all Welfare Programs. Because their contributions into the system are so much lower than a higherskilled, higherwage employee they will be net drags on our fiscal problem so well be 2. 6 trillion farther in the hole. We have to remember the number one thing in front of congress right now is fixing our fiscal mess. This is just going to make our debt problem so much worse so i think once the numbers start coming out on the proposal and once its actually laid out in terms of bill language youre going to see a lot of members of both parties stepping back and saying, oh, i didnt realize it would cause that problem. So i would. Ifill you made your point. Clarissa martinez de castro, could you respond this is a very interesting thing. The 2006 immigration bill had a congressional budget score of a net gain of 12 billion. And the 2007 bill had a Congressional Budget Office score of 24 billion. And so i think most economic studies out there have confirmed that there is expected to see a net gain to our economy from a Legalization Program, but the most important thing. The c. B. O. Score. Ifill just allow her to finish. Ill be right back with you but the most important thing to also take into account is that over the past four years, 1. 6 million immigras have been deported. Just last year at a cost of 18 billion. I think what we need really is an immigration system for the 21st century. I know mr. Kobach wants to keep promoting antiimmigrant laws. And in many ways is opposed to ilLegal Immigration but we need a system that works i think that last characterization was completely inaccurate. I and many other americans who favor the rule of law are very much in favor of Legal Immigration. We are a country based on the rule of law but ilLegal Immigration does no good for our economy. In terms of those costs the c. B. O. Numbers dont take into account those. The medicaid medicare and all the other Welfare Program costs in the out years. It is a huge huge drag on our fiscal situation if we basically give access to all of these programs to this large number of people. We have to remember what happened last time we had an amnesty in 1986. Immediately we saw 398,000 cases of fraud. Those are the ones the i. N. S. Caught where people came into the country and claimed they were eligible when they really werent or in the case of one of the ring leaders of the 199 attacks on the World Trade Center he claimed he was eligible. He was already in the country. He was in new york city driving a cab. He claimed he was an agricultural worker. Theres going to be all kinds of fraud ifill i want to ask you about the Border Security part. Both sides seem to agree both the white house and the senate group and the people who are working on this in the house that nothing can happen unless theres some sort of agreement on Border Security on enforcement triggers. Do we see anything emerging that would speak to that or that we could really measure it . I think the president has a pretty strong track record on that arena ifill pretty strong track record . The facts are the facts. He has in fact committed more resources to the border, more boots on the ground. He has the numbers to prove it. Hes deported more people than any any previous administration. The reality is that a lot of those things have been exhausted. The next step is to have legislation to fix some of other pieces, like a verification process that work not just for employers about you also for workers, right . We want to make sure that people who are eligible to work dont get prevented from having a job because of errors in the program. Where we are right now is that we have tinkered around the edges of this problem so long weve exhausted that. Now we need to take the bull by the horns and really fix, you know, fix the rule of law. A Legalization Program is a critical part of that. But also preserve the rule of law by having a working Legal Immigration system. Ifill chris kobach, what about that . Is there a working Legal Immigration system in place and do any of the plans you hear being discussed ensure that in well, i mean our Legal Immigration system is working. Its the most generous one on the planet. We regularly bring in more than a million green cards holders every year. We process hundreds of thousands of nonimmigrant visas which are temporary visas every year. This claim that the system is broke and somehow we have to start all over from scratch is wrong. As far as her claim that the Obama Administration has a record to run on enforcing the law. Theyve brought work site enforcement to a halt. The deportation numbers it was revealed last year that actually they have been cooking the books and counting turnarounds at the border as deportations since 2010. Those were never counted before. Once you take those out we see deportation numbers are way down right now. As far as the proposal that the senators came up there theres not much there on the enforcement side of the equation. Its a very lopsided proposal. That is is probably going to give republicans pause especially in the house the reality is that i think like the majority of the American Public im not interested in a food fight. Im interested in putting a solution on the table. I think that the fact that we have an undocumented population of this size speaks to the fact that the system is not working. Ifill chris kobach the final word briefly it speaks to the fact that we havent tried a strategy of strictly enforcing our laws and encouraging people to comply with the law which means go home. Ifill thank you both very much. Thank you. Woodruff theres more on the immigration debate online. Newshour Political EditorChristina Bellantoni talked to two activists from past reform efforts. And still to come tonight, the challenges ahead for a new defense secretary; war ravages mali, and destroys part of its Cultural Heritage; plus, a rare double arm transplant. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan a federal judge in new orleans gave the goahead today to a settlement with b. P. In the 2010 gulf oil disaster. The company agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and to pay a record 4 billion in criminal penalties. The gulf disaster began with an Oil Rig Explosion that killed 11 people. Before the well was finally sealed, it spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the sea. Senator john kerry of massachusetts was confirmed today to be secretary of state. The vote was 943, as the five term democrat won the overwhelming approval of his colleagues. Kerry is 69, and a former democratic president ial nominee. Senators from both sides praised him in a rare show of bipartisan support. John has already built strong relationships with leaders across the world. Which will allow him to step seamlessly into the role of secretary of state. I dont know of anybody who has led the life that has been more oriented towards ultimately being secretary of state than john kerry. Sreenivasan kerry has been an unofficial envoy for the Obama Administration in recent years. He will succeed hillary clinton, who is stepping down after serving as secretary of state since 2009. In egypt, the army chief warned the countrys political crisis could lead to the collapse of the state. General Abdelfattah Elsisi issued the warning as protests and violence extended into a sixth day. In port said, thousands of people marched in funerals for some of the 60 People Killed since last week. And in cairo, groups of protesters fought again with riot police. The protests are aimed at president Mohamed Morsi and his islamistdominated government. Evidence of a new massacre surfaced in syria today. At least 65 bodies were found in aleppo. The victims had been bound and shot in the head, but it was unclear who was responsible. Meanwhile, the plight of thousands of refugees continued to worsen. Some have even sought shelter in ancient ruins at serjilla, in northwestern syria. John irvine of independent Television News reports. Three weeks old. Reporter and what a world shes been born into. For her home is a hole in the ground. It was dug by the romans who used it to stable life stock. These are the ruins of a byzantine city thats been reoccupied by hundreds of people, desperate syrians forced by a modern war machine to retreat into an ancient life where they must wait for goliath to be toppled. This sub terrainian stable is now home to 60 members of an extended family. The mate remark told me their proper home was obliterated by a syrian army bomb. In what was the pa trishian part of the ancient city, a child sleeps in a tomb. The crypt of a rich roman now houses syrias poor and persecuted. They even use the water that still flows into the roman baths here. The only function this site should have is to show case syrias rich history. Instead and perversely it show cases the desperate state of syria today. Met forically and in this instance literally many lives are in ruins. These people swapped danger for misery months ago, and they have no idea when they will be able to leave here. Tonight hundreds of frightened syrians, many of them children, will be trying to sleep in 2,000 years ago. Dug for animals sreenivasan for the second time in as many weeks, the smog over eastern china was off the charts today. In beijing, thick graybrown haze cloaked streets, reducing visibility so much that it forced airlines to cancel flights. Those who ventured outside had to don face masks to protect themselves. The Chinese Government responded by ordering more than 100 factories to suspend production. It also told workers to cut car travel by a third. In u. S. Economic news, home prices moved higher in november, at the strongest pace in six years. The standard and poors case schiller index said new york was the only major city to report a decline. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 72 points to close at 13,954. The nasdaq fell a fraction of a point to close at 3153. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to gwen. Ifill we take a twopart look at president obamas choice to be the next secretary of defense. Confirmation hearings for former nebraska senator chuck hagel are set for thursday. Among other things, he is likely to face questions about the pentagons looming budget crisis. Automatic spending cuts set to take effect march 1 mean the Defense Department will have to find 52 billion in savings this year and half a trillion dollars over the next decade. Newshour correspondent kwame holman reports. Holman outgoing defense secretary leon panetta recently sounded the alarm at the prospect of looming budget cuts. The most immediate threat to our ability to achieve our mission is fiscal uncertainty. Holman that damage could be felt soon. Thousands of the pentagons civilian employees will face furloughs and reduced paychecks as early as a