GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: mass killings in two Texas towns, a shooting in Allen, and a car plows into a crowd of migrants in Brownsville.

GEOFF BENNETT: Closing arguments are made in the sexual assault case against former President Trump.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, as Haiti descends further into chaos, many try to flee the country to avoid being killed or kidnapped.

ANGE-MERY MOISE, Port-au-Prince Resident (through translator): Every day, the gang territory is expanding.

They take some more every day.

We can't live like that.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Investigators in Texas are still looking for motives in two mass killings this weekend.

In one, a gunman north of Dallas killed eight people before police killed him.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the other, a man driving an SUV plowed into people waiting for a bus in Brownsville.

The impact killed at least eight people and critically injured several more.

FELIX SAUCEDA, Brownsville, Texas, Police Chief: Good morning, everyone.

Thank you all for showing up.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tonight, new details on the deadly collision in Brownsville, Texas, police identifying the driver and revealing his long criminal record.

FELIX SAUCEDA: George Alvarez is a Brownsville local with an extensive rap sheet.

He has been formally charged and arraigned with eight counts of manslaughter, 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

GEOFF BENNETT: It happened Sunday morning when Alvarez ran a red light and struck 18 people waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant center.

He tried to flee, but was stopped by others at the scene.

Authorities say they are waiting on a toxicology report.

The FBI is working to determine if the crash was intentional.

An eyewitness claims Alvarez yelled anti-immigrant slurs to the men at the bus stop, which police could not confirm.

Police say all of the victims were men, many from Venezuela.

FELIX SAUCEDA: We are working with the Venezuelan government right now, and we have also reached out to other embassies.

GEOFF BENNETT: The region has seen an influx of migrants crossing the border in recent weeks.

MAN (through translator): We hope they will recover because they have families far away who count on them.

We crossed mountains, marched, and past migration.

It was a long way to come here, and we fought hard.

GEOFF BENNETT: While the Brownsville community dealt with the devastation, Texas was already reeling from another tragedy that struck just hours before.

A gunman opened fire at a crowded outlet mall in Allen, Texas, Saturday evening, killing at least eight people.

A police officer already on the scene fatally shot the gunman.

Authorities have not released a motive, as the investigation continues.

GOV.

GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I believe, in the coming days, the public will be much better informed about why and how this happened, and that will inform us as Texas leaders about next steps to take to try and prevent crimes like this from taking place in the future.

GEOFF BENNETT: According to an Army spokesperson, the gunman entered the Army in 2008, but was terminated three months later without completing training.

Officials report it was for an unspecified mental health condition.

Police say they are examining racist social media posts they say belonged to the gunman.

He was also wearing an insignia on his clothing with an acronym popular with right-wing extremists.

The community mourned the loss at a vigil last night.

KEN FULK, Mayor of Allen, Texas: We are in shock and are all grieving together.

As the healing begins, we will recover.

We will not let the actions of one individual impact our resolve.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, this morning, demonstrators gathered at the Texas House of Representatives to demand action on a proposed gun control measure.

Frequent shootings across the country have put mass killings on a record pace so far this year.

(SINGING) GEOFF BENNETT: For years, Texas lawmakers have rejected tougher gun restrictions.

But, today, a Texas House panel voted to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-style semi automatic rifle from 18 to 21.

It still faces long odds to pass the full legislature.

AR-15s, like the one used in Allen, Texas, have only become more popular around the country.

And, more and more, they have been used in mass killing since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

In fact, AR-15s have been involved in 10 of the country's 17 deadliest mass shootings.

The Washington Post spent months examining the rise of the AR-15 in America and the politics and culture surrounding it.

Todd Frankel is an enterprise reporter for The Washington Post and was part of that series.

He joins me now.

Thanks for being with us.

And, Todd, as investigators examine the ideology of this Texas gunman and piece together other details, one thing we do know is that he used an AR-15-style assault rifle.

Many of the worst massacres in this country's recent history have the AR-15 in common.

Based on your reporting, why is that?

TODD FRANKEL, The Washington Post: Some of these shooters have manifestos they leave behind and where they explicitly say that they chose the AR-15 because it's especially deadly.

The gun was designed as a military weapon.

And that's its attraction.

It is incredibly powerful.

It shoots a very fast bullet.

It can carry ammo up to 30 rounds without reloading.

And so it is a very effective killing machine.

And, unfortunately, all these mass killers are looking for a tool just like that.

GEOFF BENNETT: The American public has rarely seen the carnage stemming from AR-15s.

As you point out in your reporting, oftentimes, it's because the crime scene photos are considered too gruesome to publish.

What does an AR-15 do to its victims?

TODD FRANKEL: Yes, an AR-15 shoots a very small, but very powerful, very fast bullet.

So, when it strikes the human body, there's a sort of a blast effect that happens once it goes into a body and incredible damage to the internal organs, to the bones.

Compare that to what happens with a 9-millimeter, a typical round that's fired from a handgun.

And that will more likely go through and -- through a body without causing the same sort of internal injuries.

And so we did an animation sort of comparing the two, and it sounds crazy to say it, but you would actually much rather be shot by a handgun with a 9-millimeter round than an AR-15 round.

And we hear this from trauma surgeons about the devastating injuries they see from AR-15s in particular.

It's a different sort of weapon.

It's not the same as being shot by a handgun.

GEOFF BENNETT: Can we talk about the history of the weapon?

Because the family of its creator, Eugene Stoner, said years ago that he never intended the gun for civilian use and that he never owned one himself.

And when the gun first hit the market, the NRA and other gun rights groups, they were suspicious of it and didn't support it.

They didn't want it at their trade shows.

What changed?

TODD FRANKEL: Yes, the AR-15 was designed, as you said, by Eugene Stoner, and he designed it for the military.

That was the market he had in mind.

And, eventually, a lot of guns move their way from the military into the commercial or consumer market.

But you're right.

After the assault weapons ban expired here in the U.S. in 2004, gun companies were wary of the AR-15.

They saw it as a weapon for -- of war, quite frankly.

And so they didn't really want to make it.

But, eventually, they saw there was demand, and they followed that demand on the market and started to produce it.

But it was a -- it was a thing where everyone was very wary about mass-producing this sort of weapon for the public.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, now it seems the AR-15 is caught in this cycle.

The more it's used in high-profile mass shootings, the more calls there are to ban it.

And the more calls there are to ban it, the more popular it becomes and the more people try to buy it.

And the more people buy it, the harder it becomes to actually regulate it.

Do you see it that way?

TODD FRANKEL: Yes, the problem that a lot of gun proponents will point out is that there's so many of those of those -- of these guns out there now.

The AR-15 is the bestselling rifle in America, which is sort of stunning, if you think as America being a country of hunting rifles like your grandfather's wood stock hunting rifle.

We're no longer that country.

We are a country of AR-15s.

That is the most popular rifle in America.

And so trying to change policy would be very difficult, but there was a 10-year period in the U.S. from 94 to 2004 where assault weapons were banned.

And we made it through that period.

And so there's different ways to look at this problem.

But it's certainly become much more difficult to deal with the longer it's gone on.

GEOFF BENNETT: How did the AR-15 become such an important part of the cultural identity of a certain group of gun owners in this country?

TODD FRANKEL: Part of that was marketing.

And part of that was sort of the imagery we saw in sort of the post-2004 period, when we had images coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq of soldiers coming back.

It was the weapon that was banned.

And so it -- there was this idea that, if you were to own the libs, as they would say, you would you want to own an AR-15.

It was the hated gun.

It's the assault weapon.

And so to make a political point, one side saw that they can score some points by seizing onto this weapon.

And it's a gun that, as a symbol, is very powerful.

Just the outline of it sort of sends a message.

It's sort of replaced the musket as the icon of a certain movement.

And that has just made it even more difficult to talk about how to deal with this weapon, because one side sees it as important to America as the musket.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Todd Frankel, enterprise reporter for The Washington Post, thanks so much for being with us.

TODD FRANKEL: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: A federal employees union is suing President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen over the debt limit.

The National Association of Government Employees has 75,000 members.

It argues that, if the government reaches the debt limit and defaults, it will have to choose which debts to pay.

The lawsuit contends only Congress has that authority.

Russia today launched its largest wave of Iranian-made drones in months targeting Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine says it shot down all of the drones aimed at the capital of Kyiv.

But debris hit some apartments and terrified residents.

NATALIA HAVRYLIUK, Kyiv Resident (through translator): The sounds were terrible.

I had never heard such a thing.

Then, five minutes later, there were flashing lights, and I understood what happened.

I was horrified when I realized my house was nearby at the same window level just 50 yards away.

AMNA NAWAZ: The attacks came on the eve of Victory Day in Russia celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

In Eastern Congo, the death toll from a flood disaster has now passed 400.

Torrential rains lashed South Kivu province last week, heavily damaging lakeside villages with water and landslides.

Workers have spent days recovering bodies, some of them in the lake or buried beneath muddy wreckage.

U.N. officials estimate hundreds more are missing.

Two men were hanging today in Iran for blasphemy amid a surge of executions after anti-government protests.

Rights groups say Iran has put to death at least 200 people this year, making it one of the world's top executioner's.

Last year, the Islamic Republic executed 582 people.

That is up from 333 in 2021.

Back in this country, the Transportation Department says it's working on new protections for airline passengers.

U.S. airlines would have to cover meals and hotel rooms if the carrier is responsible for a canceled or delayed flight.

That would be on top of ticket refunds.

The Pulitzer Prize winners for 2022 are out, and the war in Ukraine features prominently.The New York Times won for covering the Russian killings in Bucha.

The Associated Press one two prizes for its Ukraine coverage.

In the arts, the fiction prize went to "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver and "Trust" by Hernan Diaz.

Beverly Gage won for her biography of the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover And, on Wall Street, stocks mostly drifted, as investors wait for major economic reports this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 55 points to close at 33618.

The Nasdaq rose 21 points.

The S&P 500 added not quite two points.

Still to come on the NewsHour: the El Paso mayor discusses the surge of migrants as a controversial immigration order expires; Tamara Keith and Amy Walter examine the latest political headlines; the singer-songwriter Aoife O'Donovan embarks on the latest leg of her musical journey; plus much more.

GEOFF BENNETT: The civil case E. Jean Carroll has brought against former President Donald Trump is now in the hands of the jury.

Lisa Desjardins has the details on what comes next.

LISA DESJARDINS: After two weeks in court, with testimony from Carroll and a handful of witnesses, lawyers for both sides prison entered closing arguments today, as jurors weigh whether or not to hold former President Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation.

Carroll, a former columnist, has accused the president of raping her two decades ago.

In the courtroom today was Andrea Bernstein, a reporter with ProPublica, who also covers Trump legal matters for NPR.

Andrea, can you sum up the closing arguments we heard today?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN, ProPublica: Yes, so the plaintiff's lawyers stressed that 11 witnesses testified that Donald Trump sometime in the 1990s forcibly raped the columnist E. Jean Carroll in the lingerie dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman and that, immediately after - - she was able to struggle and get away, according to her account -- called a friend who, the friend recalled in testimony, she had called while she was feeding her kids dinner.

And then there were a number of other witnesses who corroborated parts of E. Jean Carroll's account.

So her lawyers argued, well, in order to not find Trump liable -- it's a civil case -- the jury would have to disbelieve all 11 witnesses, and also just believe Donald Trump, when, from the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, he talked about grabbing women by the genitals and, when you're a star, they let you do it.

Trump didn't testify.

And his own lawyer said the jurors shouldn't conclude anything from that.

They pointed out what they saw as the number of inconsistencies in E. Jean Carroll's story, and suggested that the incident never happened and that, in fact, E. Jean Carroll and the woman who corroborated her account in fact concocted it in order to hurt Donald Trump.

LISA DESJARDINS: As evidence, E. Jean Carroll has presented, as you say, these witnesses, women that she said she talked to the time and also women they say fall into a pattern of sexual assault from the former president.

But, of course, his attorneys, as you say, deny this, say this is all concocted, that it's political.

The president -- former president did not appear in court, but we did see some from his deposition, including he was asked, interestingly, by the attorneys for Carroll at one point to look at an archival photo of a time when he and E. Jean Carroll were at the same party.

And I want to play what happened when he, by mistake, didn't recognize his ex-wife, Marla Maples.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: I don't even know who the woman -- let's see.

I don't know who -- it's Marla.

ROBERTA KAPLAN, Attorney For E. Jean Carroll: You're saying Marla's in this photo?

DONALD TRUMP: That's Marla, yeah.

That's, that's my wife.

ROBERTA KAPLAN: Which woman are you pointing to?

DONALD TRUMP: Here.

ALINA HABBA, Attorney For Donald Trump: No, that's Carroll.

(CROSSTALK) DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I see.

ROBERTA KAPLAN: The person you just pointed to is E. Jean Carroll.

LISA DESJARDINS: Later, he defended himself against Carroll and her attorney.

DONALD TRUMP: She's accusing me -- and so are you -- of rape, and it never took place.

And I will tell you, I made that statement.

And I said, well, it's politically incorrect.

She's not my type.

And that's 100 percent true.

She's not my type.

LISA DESJARDINS: Andrea, obviously, we're in unprecedented waters here.

But I'm curious.

How do you think that deposition affected the final arguments today?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Well, it came up several times, as you could imagine.

And E. Jean Carroll's argued -- lawyers argued that, in fact, E. Jean Carroll was exactly his type, so much his type that he confused her from a photo at that time for his second wife, Marla Maples.

The fact that Trump didn't testify, counselors circled back to at the very end of the trial, and they said he never came here to tell you, the jury, that he did not do this.

And they also argued, referring again to this "Access Hollywood" tape, that Trump had boasted in that tape that he did have a type and that, when you're a star, you let them do it.

Trump's lawyers, as had Trump, called that locker room talk.

But Carroll's lawyer said, no, we call it something else.

We call it a confession.

LISA DESJARDINS: You mentioned the jury here.

It's six men and three women.

They have to consider whether there's a preponderance of evidence here to support E. Jean Carroll's case.

What does that mean?

And have you noticed anything about the jury while watching them in court?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Right.

So the jury was fairly expressionless, as you might expect, but they did seem to be attending carefully.

And both -- Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina made a very impassioned closing statement, pointing out what he saw as inconsistencies in E. Jean Carroll's story.

And at the very end of the day, the jury watched closely Carroll's lawyers on their rebuttal, where he was explaining various pieces of testimony that he said Joe Tacopina, Trump's lawyers, had taken out of context.

So they did seem to be attentively listening.

They don't have to find beyond a reasonable doubt.

This is not a criminal trial.

There will be no finding of guilt or innocence.

But if they do find that the preponderance of the evidence suggests that Trump did this and find him criminally liable, this will be the first time that a jury of Trump's peers have ruled, if you will, on what these accusers have been saying since Donald Trump's first campaign for president in 2016, that he committed these acts.

This will be the first time it's gone to a court of law, been tested, and a jury will find something.

Now, of course, they could also find that he is not liable on any of these counts.

And that could come any time tomorrow after the judge instructs them, which will be first thing in the morning, and then they will have the case and will be able to deliberate.

LISA DESJARDINS: And, Andrea, in the last few seconds we have here, the potential impact here?

We're talking dollar figures, I suppose?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Yes, we're talking dollar figures.

It could run well into the millions.

But, of course, here's the question.How do you describe the front-runner for the GOP if a jury finds him liable?

That will be something the whole country will be grappling with, depending on the verdict in this case.

LISA DESJARDINS: And we all appreciate you helping us understand it all.

Andrea Bernstein of ProPublica, thank you so much.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: The U.N. Security Council today expressed what it called deep concern over the security and humanitarian crises in Haiti.

The Caribbean nation is in freefall, without effective governance or protection from gangs that routinely terrorize innocent civilians.

That has left people reeling from the violence and others hopeless, determined to leave.

Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports from the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.

MARCIA BIGGS: It is a scene of utter chaos, this passport office in Port-au-Prince overrun with patients desperate to make it to the United States.

Demands for new passports have reportedly gone from 1,500 a day to more than 5,000 since the launch of a U.S. visa program that the Biden administration is calling humanitarian parole.

You need a valid passport just to begin that application process.

Twenty-year-old Ange-Mery has been camped out there waiting her turn for three weeks.

She says she doesn't want to betray her country, but she cannot stay.

ANGE-MERY MOISE, Port-au-Prince Resident (through translator): Every day, the gang territory is expanding.

They take some more every day, we can't live like that.

MARCIA BIGGS: Can you tell me where you are sleeping?

ANGE-MERY MOISE (through translator): Right in front of me there.

MARCIA BIGGS: Is it scary to be here, sleeping here at night?

ANGE-MERY MOISE (through translator): Yes.

I'm afraid to sleep here because there is gunfire, and you don't know where it is from.

You never know when you are going to be the victim.

MARCIA BIGGS: Victim to a wave of gang violence that has Haiti gripped with terror.

Hundreds of thousands have fled, and now remaining residents are taking matters into their own hands.

Two weeks ago, an angry mob beat and then burned alive more than a dozen suspected gang members.

It's fear and frustration born of a long-running economic and humanitarian crisis that worsened in July 2021, when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated.

Interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry didn't keep his promise to hold elections, and Haitian politics have since then fallen apart.

Now criminal gangs have flourished where official authorities no longer govern.

Port-au-Prince is a city held hostage by gangs.

We were just talking to some people here on the street about the situation.

And they were terrified to speak.

They said: "If I speak today, I will be dead tomorrow."

But, for women, the weapon of retribution is often rape.

The U.N. estimates almost one-third of women and girls in Haiti have been the victims of sexual abuse or violence; 20-year-old Sousphanie has been on her own since her mother died last August.

Her only family is her son, 17 month-old Ainslie.

His father is a man she had been involved with since she was 12 years old.

But she says she never knew he was in a gang.

We have hidden her face for her own safety.

SOUSPHANIE, Victim of Gang Violence (through translator): The owner of the house where I rented a room told me that he didn't like when those type of people come to his house.

At that time, I didn't believe him 100 percent.

It's later when I went to sell downtown and I saw him with a bunch of guys with machine guns, that is when I finally totally believed it that he was in a gang.

That night, I told him not to ever come back.

MARCIA BIGGS: But he did come back with six of his friends.

SOUSPHANIE (through translator): The minute they came in the house, they started beating me up.

Some beat me with a wooden board.

Some beat me with a gun.

And some beat me with electrical wires.

They asked me, how come I wouldn't get back together with him?

Where did I get that rebellious spirit?

Then they raped me.

When they finished doing what they were doing, they threw the baby at me and pushed me outside.

MARCIA BIGGS: They through your baby at you?

Was the baby hurt?

Was the baby crying?

SOUSPHANIE (through translator): Yes, he was crying.

And his leg was injured.

MARCIA BIGGS: What's going through your mind right now?

SOUSPHANIE (through translator): Every time I tell this story, it's like if I felt it again.

It's like I relived it again.

That is what is in my head right now.

MARCIA BIGGS: I'm so sorry.

SOUSPHANIE (through translator): I was ashamed.

I didn't feel like a human being anymore.

I didn't want to go out.

Even people who didn't knew what I had endured, I couldn't look them into their eyes.

MARCIA BIGGS: For three months, she was homeless.

She says, if it were not for her son, she would have killed herself, but then, recently, a beacon of hope.

A local women's shelter unites her with other victims and a psychologist, which she says has helped with the shame.

But she still worries that Ainslie's father and his friends will come looking for her again.

Can you go to the police?

Or is there anything that you can do to make - - to feel safer?

SOUSPHANIE (through translator): I didn't go to the police because the policemen cannot protect themselves, so they cannot protect me.

GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, Founder, The Haitian Times: This is where we are right now.

The police are no match for the gangs.

MARCIA BIGGS: Garry Pierre-Pierre is the founder of The Haitian Times, an English-language publication that covers the island nation.

GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE: About 30 percent to 40 percent of the police force are either sympathizers or downright members of these gangs.

The police missions have become suicide missions because the gangs are waiting and laying and waiting for them.

MARCIA BIGGS: The U.N. has called for the deployment of an international force, but the problem runs much deeper, Pierre-Pierre says.

GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE: What happens next?

How do you integrate the gang members into civil society and get them to jobs and really dismantle the gangs?

Because, at the end of the day, it's a socioeconomic problem that we have that's creating this.

MARCIA BIGGS: In the meantime, residents living in areas of intense fighting are all but abandoned.

It's just too risky to go in and out, including for us.

But we were able to make the trip with Jose Ulysse, who manages a hospital in one of those neighborhoods.

So, we are on our way to the Fontaine Hospital, which is the last remaining, last standing hospital in Cite Soleil, one of the most violent areas in all of Port-au-Prince.

We are here with a fully armored vehicle because we have to cross several front lines to get there.

We held our breath on this last part of the journey as, just down that road, lies what's called the Death Crossroads.

But once we reached the hospital, an oasis of sorts from the fear.

Mothers bring their babies for vaccinations and hospital staff does everything from teaching vocational skills to treating gunshot wounds.

Ulysse says he has been able to stay open because the majority of the staff are from the community and because they keep no records or alert police when they treat injuries of gang violence.

JOSE ULYSSE (Director, Fontaine Hospital): We don't need to know where you come from, why you are here, no.

We don't have questions.

No questions asked.

You have a bullet in your leg, we remove it.

We give you medicine and go away.

MARCIA BIGGS: Today, there are no gunshot victims, but, rather, the daily medical procedures vital in any community.

This woman is having a C-section.

Anxious relatives wait in the hallway for their loved ones.

Where would you go if this hospital didn't exist?

MARIE-MARTHE FRANCOIS, Cite Soleil Resident (through translator): We would perish.

We would die because it's the only hospital that is left.

Cite Soleil is now an area that is abandoned.

You walk in the street, you are afraid.

You get to your home, you are afraid.

Everywhere, we are afraid.

We don't live in peace.

MARCIA BIGGS: But the hospital is a safe haven for even the tiniest patients.

Haiti has the highest infant mortality rate of any country in the Western Hemisphere.

Babies are often born at home or in the street because a trip to the hospital just is not safe, like this baby.

She was born last night, delivered at home with an infected umbilical cord, which, untreated, could lead to sepsis and then death.

Her mother, 17-year-old Rose-Bianca, got her to the hospital, even though she says she is scared even to walk in the streets.

ROSE-BIANCA BARTHELMY, Cite Soleil Resident (through translator): I am really afraid because of how things are right now, bullets flying in the air from everywhere, and you can't know exactly where it came from.

I have to take the street with lots of caution nowadays.

MARCIA BIGGS: Are you scared for the baby?

ROSE-BIANCA BARTHELMY (through translator): Yes, I am scared for her a lot.

MARCIA BIGGS: At our final stop in the hospital, we walked into a room full of little ones.

Sick and malnourished when they arrived, most were abandoned when their parents were killed or could no longer care for them.

Now thriving, we asked how long they could stay.

"They can stay forever," we are told.

"They are home."

As we were about to leave, we noticed Rose-Bianca cradling her baby girl less than 24 hours old.

She had been discharged and was negotiating for a ride home on a motorbike.

Carefully, she and her sister climb on the back and ride off with her newborn baby into an unknown future.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I am Marcia Biggs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

AMNA NAWAZ: Cities on the U.S.-Mexico border are preparing for Thursday's lifting of Title 42.

It's a pandemic era policy that allowed officials to turn away more than 2.7 million migrants over the last three years.

Ahead of that rule change, El Paso has declared a state of emergency.

Local leaders estimate nearly 2,500 people are already in the city waiting to travel to other parts of the country.

Shelters are full, leading many to sleep in makeshift encampments on the streets.

Joining me now is the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser.

Mayor, welcome to the "NewsHour."

Thanks for joining us.

You're three days away from Title 42 ending.

What are you expecting to see in El Paso, in terms of an increase in the number of people arriving?

And are you prepared to manage that?

OSCAR LEESER (D), Mayor of El Paso, Texas: Well, I keep telling everyone that we need to prepare for the unknown.

And the unknown is what number is really going to be coming over on May 12, after Title 42 has been lifted.

I did travel the Juarez, Mexico, last week, and kind of went to the shelters and looked at the shelters.

And, really, the shelters were empty.

At the second largest shelter over there, there was only 20 people in there as of last week.

So, then we went out and looked at the streets, and where they are.

And, sure enough, there's a lot of them.

There's probably 10,000 to 12,000 people waiting to come in.

And they don't want to go into shelters because they don't want to miss that opportunity to come into the United States prior to Title 42 expiring.

And then we also have -- we were told that there's a caravan of about another 3,500 coming that will arrive prior to Title 42 expiring.

Now, they're all coming with the understanding that, if they do get in, that it will be -- that they will have political asylum.

And that's -- the people that have charged them and help them and gotten them to over here, that's actually give them the information that's not really the accurate information.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, you have declared a state of emergency.

What does that allow you to do differently?

I mean, what else do you need that you don't have now in the way of support?

OSCAR LEESER: Well, a state of emergency gives us the opportunity to do temporary sheltering.

We opened up two schools that have been closed for a while as -- and so we were able to get the two schools and turn them into temporary sheltering.

And that's to help the people that have gone through the proper immigration system and help them get to their next destination, give them temporary sheltering.

We -- they will be in the shelter between 24 to 72 hours.

And that will also help us to activate our civics center, and then use hotels that -- actually to help the families and the young kids.

It's something really important that one of the things we do here is make sure that we treat people the way we want to be treated and make sure that we help our asylum seekers that have gone through the immigration proper - - process, unite with their family, unite with their friends, and be able to go to the destination of their choice.

And the reason why we're able to do that is, once they go and get an A-number, which is when they go through the immigration process, then they're free to go and go where they want to go.

And we want to make sure that we help decompress this to the system and help people move forward.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mr. Mayor, are you coordinating with other mayors in other cities?

I mean, as you mentioned, and we know most people who come through El Paso, other border cities are trying to make their way somewhere else.

Have other cities reached out, stepped up, said, we can help you and you can bus folks to us?

OSCAR LEESER: Yes, one of the things that - - we do have Office of Emergency Management, and they're working with these little NGOs across really the United States, because it's correct.

They're not coming to El Paso, Texas.

They're coming to the United States.

And so that's one of the things that we want to continue to work with, additional NGOs, additional cities, and to make sure that they can help us and we can help our asylum seekers.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as you know, President Biden recently made the decision to send 1,500 U.S. troops to the border in support operations.

Still, we hear from a number of Republicans, Texas Governor Greg Abbott among them, that argue the U.S. has what they call open borders, that the administration hasn't done enough to deter migration and also to enforce border security.

Do you agree with that?

OSCAR LEESER: No, the borders are closed today.

The borders will continue to be closed after Title 42 is -- expires.

But it's really important to know that we already have 2,500 military troops that are within the Southern border.

And they're sending an additional 1,500 to help, and not to administer the immigration laws, but to help with administrative, to help the Border Patrol do their job, because it's important that they know that they're not here to implement the immigration law, but to support the current Border Patrol, because there's not enough to be able to do what they need to do.

So, it will help them do a lot of the administrative work that needs to be done.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mr. Mayor, we reported earlier on the car crash in Brownsville.

I know officials there are still looking for a motive.

There are reports that the man who drove his SUV into a crowd of recently arrived migrants there had shouted anti-immigrant remarks.

We have not been able to confirm any of that.

Officials have not.

But I'm curious, because they saw the same increase in migration as you have been seeing in your city.

Are you at all concerned about something similar happening there, or about this vulnerable population that's now sleeping out in the streets of your city?

OSCAR LEESER: Well, number one, our hearts go out to people that lost their lives and their families.

And, number two, as part of that, we had already closed some of the streets and make sure that the asylum seekers were protected and our community is protected.

So we have already closed the streets.

We will continue to close streets as needed to be, because one of the things that's really important to us, that we do protect asylum seekers, but also make sure that our community stays protected.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mr. Mayor, you were born in Mexico.

I don't know if most people know that.

You moved to the U.S. as a child.

You're the first elected mayor in El Paso history who was born outside of the U.S.

So you know very well the unique nature of border communities.

I wonder, when you step back and look at how we're talking about this moment, how we're facing migration increases across the U.S. Southern border, how you view this conversation as its unfolding.

OSCAR LEESER: Well, I think that I view it the same way, I think, a lot of people view it, that we have a job to do as a border community.

And, as a border community, we have responsibilities, and to work with the federal government.

Secretary Mayorkas, President Biden, the administration has really worked really close with us to make sure that we get the resources.

They have given us funding to continue to be able to provide a service.

So, that's been very important.

So, as a border community, we have a responsibility.

And I look forward to continuing to make sure that we do the right thing, again, not only for our asylum seekers, but also the community of El Paso, which public safety has always been our number one priority.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser, joining us tonight.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for your time.

We appreciate you.

Please come back soon.

OSCAR LEESER: No, thank you.

And you have a wonderful day, ma'am.

GEOFF BENNETT: The end of Title 42 is just one of the high-stakes issues on the agenda in Washington this week.

The other is the ongoing showdown over raising the debt ceiling.

For analysis of both, return to our Politics Monday team, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

With a welcome to you both, this is expected to be a consequential week politically.

As we have reported, Title 42 is expected to expire, will expire on Thursday.

That's the Trump era policy that says you can turn migrants away even if they're seeking asylum.

The number of attempted crossings is expected to swell.

The Biden White House says that they are prepared, but they also need more resources.

They need more help from Congress.

Tam, how is the White House preparing for this and then, beyond that, setting expectations with the American people about what's to come?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: The Biden administration is pushing out a message that the border is not open.

But, as the mayor said, they are competing against human smugglers who have been delivering a message for months that it's open season as Title 42 goes away.

And so they are expecting that it will be challenging, that it will be difficult.

Obviously, that's why they're sending more National Guard to the border area to assist the Border Patrol.

And, politically, it is a real challenge, though political views are so baked in that it's not clear exactly how this will turn out, because Republicans are expecting this to be bad.

They have been saying it's going to be bad.

They are going to continue to push a narrative that this is out of control.

And Democrats, polling would indicate, immigration is not a top issue for them.

It's not a top concern for them, certainly this sort of immigration issue.

But the challenge is, chaos is not great.

Chaos is not great politically for the person in the White House.

And so whether they can make this orderly or not is a very big open question.

And, certainly, someone like Kyrsten Sinema, the senator from Arizona, is raising concern that they're not ready.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

As a matter of fact, we have that sound, if we can play it now.

And I will ask a question the other side.

SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-AZ): ... years to prepare for this and did not do so.

And our state is going to bear the brunt.

And migrants will be in crisis as soon as next week.

It will be a humanitarian crisis, because we are not prepared.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, how does the White House confront that?

Because immigration, it used to be -- there used to be a partisan split, not so much anymore, not really among Democrats in border states or, in the case of Kyrsten Sinema, an independent in a border state.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes, Tam is exactly right.

This is a very polarizing issue, not just in Congress, but among voters, in terms of the priority that immigration plays in their view in their vote.

So, Republicans saying this is an absolute top priority, Democrats not as big of a priority, unless you're in a border state.

It's not just Senator Sinema.

The governor of the state of Arizona, also a Democrat, was not quite as pointed as the senator, but basically said, we need more help.

We know there are Democratic mayors around the country saying, we need more federal help.

Obviously, that's what most of these folks are saying, is, the federal government needs to give us more money to be able to prepare for this.

But I do agree we don't know if this issue is going to transcend this very deep divide.

Is this going to turn into what Senator Sinema says is an absolute, abject humanitarian disaster?

Is it a few days where it looks chaotic, but it somehow becomes less chaotic?

Are we going to potentially see violence or other events happening?

That, to me, is the bigger question about whether we can see this politically transcending what we know have been pretty hard-and-fast traditional opinions on these.

(CROSSTALK) TAMARA KEITH: Arizona is not just a border state.

It's a swing state.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

It's a swing state, absolutely.

GEOFF BENNETT: That's true.

Well, on that point, how does the Biden campaign, Tam, keep this from being -- from becoming a competency issue?

TAMARA KEITH: It's an open question.

And one other question that I have that I don't have an answer to is, will the president of the United States step forward and deliver this message that the border is not open?

Or is he going to leave it to the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, focus on the debt ceiling, focus on anything else, and not sort of put the White House stamp on this?

And I think the fact that we haven't seen the president out there is probably an indication that they don't know exactly how this is going to turn out and they don't know whether they want the president's fingerprints on it or not.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about this new Washington Post/ABC News poll, which finds President Biden's approval rating slipping to a new low.

More Americans than not doubt his mental acuity.

His support against leading GOP challengers is far shakier than at this point four years ago.

Amy, is this poll an outlier or does the White House have reason to be concerned?

Or are both things true?

It's an outlier and they have reason to be concerned?

AMY WALTER: Or they should -- they have reason to be concerned regardless of what this poll says.

But what I think we're seeing in all of the polling, including the Marist/"PBS NewsHour" poll, is that the president's overall approval rating is in a pretty bad place.

Whether it's 41 percent, like in the Marist poll or 39 percent in this poll, this is not where you want to be as an incumbent going into reelection.

In fact, traditionally, a job approval rating is about -- going into an election is about within one to four points of the final vote that that incumbent gets, except what we're also seeing -- this poll didn't show it, but we have seen in polls both in 2022 and most more recently in 2023 people who somewhat disapprove of Biden, so included in that significant group of people say, I don't think he's doing a good job, are actually voting for Biden or voting for Democrats.

So there are people out there who aren't particularly thrilled in the job the president's doing.

This is what Republicans (sic) are counting on, is that the option of Donald Trump is so problematic for these voters who dislike the job that the president's doing that they're willing to support somebody who they don't think is doing a particularly good job.

However -- and this is where Democrats do get worried -- one, does it still work?

It worked in 2022.

Is it still going to work in 2024?

What if Trump's not the nominee?

That's a very different story.

And, number three, are voters going to still turn out?

This has been the message from Democrats now for the last four years.

You have got to turn out.

It's an existential crisis.

If not, Donald Trump's going to be back in the White House.

Abortion laws are going to get passed that are more restrictive.

That's been very mobilizing, but it's been a pretty constant drumbeat now.

GEOFF BENNETT: As President Biden always says, don't compare me to the almighty.

Compare me to the alternative.

Well, in the time that remains, let's talk about the debt ceiling, because President Biden is set to meet tomorrow with the top four congressional leaders.

It strikes me the four of them have not -- or the five of them have not met in their current capacities in person yet.

So this will be their first time meeting in person and their first time meeting in person to talk about the debt.

How is this expected to go, Tam?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, the -- according to White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, don't call this a debt ceiling negotiation.

This is not a negotiation over the debt ceiling.

OK, well, that is the crisis at hand.

But... GEOFF BENNETT: And we're three weeks away from going off the cliff.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

The soonest it might happen, the cliff might be June 1, or it might be somewhat later.

But there is no -- there is no vibe from anyone that it's currently in a crisis phase or that they can see said cliff off in the distance.

It -- there is not a sense of urgency.

And this meeting, based on the White House telling, based on congressional telling, it's going to be people talking about what their positions are, which have been well-known for months.

But the chance of a breakthrough seems pretty low.

And what -- the real challenge here is, usually, with one of these sorts of crises, there is - - you can see a face-saving option.

You're like, OK, there's a face-saving option out there.

They will come to it eventually.

They have to do the plumage and the peacocking and all that, and then they will get to the face-saving option.

It's just not clear what the face-saving option is in this case, particularly given that Kevin McCarthy has such a narrow control over the House and the Senate is so narrow and all of this.

It's just not clear how they get out of it just yet.

GEOFF BENNETT: Both sides want to find a way to declare victory.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: We're talking about the politics of this.

The economics of this are a whole different conversation.

AMY WALTER: But what's the point, right, Geoff... GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

AMY WALTER: ... which is that nobody wins in this fight.

GEOFF BENNETT: Right.

AMY WALTER: Now, politically, if we don't go off a cliff, if we don't default on the debt, yes, both sides can come out and say, see, we got what we want.

The other side says, oh, I got what I want.

That's fine.

But I don't know that voters are particularly interested in giving someone the winner tag and some of the loser tag.

Right now, it looks bad for everybody involved in all of this.

And you can see this exhaustion that this gamesmanship, the sort of Kabuki of it, but with the real threat lingering, is the kind of thing that voters say, this is why we check out from politics.

And it's the only way in many cases the minority has leverage to do a lot of the stuff that they want to do.

But, obviously, it comes with a very big price.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, to give our viewers a sense of the state of play, we have some sound from the Sunday shows that characterizes what you both are talking about.

REP. JODEY ARRINGTON (R-TX): We're not going to give any politician, including the president, a blank check to continue to bankrupt the country.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We have been waiting for months for the Republicans to articulate their position.

They didn't produce a budget.

What they did was produced a ransom note.

GEOFF BENNETT: It can only go up from here, right?

(LAUGHTER) AMY WALTER: Right.

TAMARA KEITH: Well, this is this phase of it.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

TAMARA KEITH: I think that a lot of people may think that this is just a regular old budget crisis, a fight where the government might shut down and we're going to talk about the lights being turned off.

This is different.

The stakes are much higher with a potential debt default.

The global economic stakes are much higher.

But, at the moment, the rhetoric is very much similar to what you would see ahead of a regular old budget fight.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

We got about five seconds left.

AMY WALTER: Concur.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: OK. AMY WALTER: There we go.

GEOFF BENNETT: Very good.

AMY WALTER: Did that fit?

GEOFF BENNETT: It did.

Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, great to see you all, as always.

TAMARA KEITH: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's not unusual for a singer-songwriter to perform songs written by others.

But it is unusual for an artist to perform an entire album's albums worth of someone else's material, especially if that someone else is a giant of the music world.

But that is exactly what Grammy-winning musician Aoife O'Donovan is doing on her latest tour.

Special correspondent Tom Casciato has this story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

TOM CASCIATO: A performance by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, that may seem an unlikely place to come upon a singer-songwriter.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: But 41-year-old Aoife O'Donovan's original compositions embrace many musical contexts.

Her most recent album, 2022's "Age of Apathy," was described by PopMatters as lushly layered and sophisticated, with connections to contemporary jazz and even classical music.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: Yet, for all that, it received a Grammy nod in the folk category.

When the "Age of Apathy" was nominated for best folk album for a Grammy Award, my first thought was, is that a very reductive way to think about what you do?

AOIFE O'DONOVAN, Musician: I think, actually, it is the opposite.

I feel like to call somebody a folk singer is just a -- I think it encompasses so much more than folk as a genre.

To me, it means somebody who sings for the people, a bard, a storyteller.

TOM CASCIATO: Like most folk singers, she is expert at singing not only her own songs, but other people's as well, which could bring us to her most recent project.

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: Hello.

You guys all know what is happening, right?

You know why you are here.

TOM CASCIATO: But let's not go there quite yet.

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: My first instrument was piano.

I studied piano at the All Newton Music School with Susan Holmes (ph).

She was my first piano teacher.

MAN: And who is your teacher?

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: Susan Holmes.

And I loved playing piano.

I wish that I had taken it more seriously at the time.

It's always -- hindsight is 20/20.

I was like, oh, I wish I had practiced piano more and have been a better pianist.

But it was a great instrument to start on.

TOM CASCIATO: Here she is at 13, a little hard to see, but easy to hear her, singing Joni Mitchell's "Urge For Going."

And I know that record very well.

And I noticed when you're singing it as a teenager at the age when a lot of young players are just trying to imitate, you have got your own phrasing.

You're already, like, doing your cover of Joni Mitchell's "Urge For Going."

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: I think style has always been really important to me, artistic style and trying to find a way to emulate without imitating.

And, of course, I'm sure I have imitated a ton in my life, and I still do, but trying to find those things that inspire you and then make them your own, I think, is deeply important.

TOM CASCIATO: Which does bring us to Aoife O'Donovan's latest project, a tour performing live the entirety of Bruce Springsteen's classic acoustic album "Nebraska."

The songs are famously stark, peopled with characters at war with their own souls.

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: And performing this album in its entirety is very emotionally taxing in a way that is different than doing a set of my own music.

You really do have to get into character.

TOM CASCIATO: There is the moral compromise of the cop in "Highway Patrolman" who won't arrest his own murderous brother.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: There is the sad determination of the young man in "Used Cars" humiliated by his father's position in life.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: Even the upbeat "Open All Night" hides the desperation beneath its exuberance.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: So how does she make these tales by one of music's acknowledged greatest storytellers her own?

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: One of the things I like the most about being a musician is just that you can communicate in this way, and you can kind of set aside whatever fears you may have and insecurities and say, OK, well, now I'm going to go into this other part of myself and create these new huge emotions and have these experiences, and then other people are getting to hear that and respond to it.

It's really powerful.

(MUSIC) AOIFE O'DONOVAN: I love this record so much because these songs, to me, feel very timeless.

They feel -- the characters, those people still exist.

(MUSIC) AOIFE O'DONOVAN: People are still living hard lives and coming up on hard times and finding reasons to keep on living.

And I think that that's what, I don't know, speaks to me so deeply.

TOM CASCIATO: Speaking perhaps most deeply on this night at New York's Bowery Ballroom is "My Father's House."

It is a song in which a man dreams of the comfort his father can provide.

AOIFE O'DONOVAN: Last night, I was -- there was a guy in the front row who, when I started "My Father's House," took off his glasses and just proceeded to weep the entire song, like, I mean, really weeping.

(MUSIC) AOIFE O'DONOVAN: And it was just so heavy to me.

(MUSIC) AOIFE O'DONOVAN: And that sort of makes me almost cry.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: Soon, the man awakens to a world where neither comfort nor his father can be found.

(MUSIC) TOM CASCIATO: Telling his story is the work of a folk singer, creating emotion, making someone else's songs her own.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I am Tom Casciato in New York City.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) AOIFE O'DONOVAN: Think you so much.

Thank you, guys.

GEOFF BENNETT: She has got a beautiful voice.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

Thank you for joining us.