>> right now on "matter of fact" -- is dark money the biggest threat to our democracy? >> a little bit of anonymous money goes a lot farther than you know big chunk of just unlimited money right. >> meet the woman following the shadow of dark money in political campaigns. and thousands of migrant children remain separated from their parents -- is there an app for that? >> no one else was going to build this but us and we have the skills to do it. >> can this undocumented tech ceo help the government reunite families? plus -- mexico has its own immigration issues undocumented americans. why are they choosing to live in mexico illegally?

>> and who says girls can't throw? soledad: did this teen really strikeout two of the best hitters in baseball? i'm soleda'. welcome to " matter of fact"" from new york city. the trump administration is running out of options to detain immigrant children after a judge denied a request to hold them indefinitely. the ruling comes as the government is struggling to meet deadlines to reunite thousands of children separated from their families during the president's zero-tolerance crackdown on illegal border crossings. the chances of a political solution any time soon look bleak. but elizabeth vilchis is working on a technological fix. thank you for joining us. i want to step back a little bit and talk about you personally. is your technological fix attempts connected to the fact that you were undocumented in

this country as a child. is that what sort of has resonated with you in this story as a whole? ms. vilchis: absolutely. i think it's a big part of it. one of the things i remember from my own personal journey and making that crossing is that for a brief period of time i was separated from my from my parents and -- soledad: how old were you? ms. vilchis: i was 7 years old. soledad: oh my god. ms. vilchis: and for me that was it felt. i felt incredibly defeated. and i had just left my extended family in mexico and then to come to a point where they were being i was being separated from my brother and my parents. i felt that i had no one at that that point at seven years old. i was going to be alone forever. and it was only for a couple of hours and i still remember really clearly. so that's something that's incredibly terrifying and to know that -- a lot of these children, they've been they've been separated for months. soledad: so when this story started breaking and people started covering this separation of massive numbers of some of them very very small children. did you feel as a tech ceo.

one, oh my gosh this was related to my story. but two there could be a tech solution in all of this. ms. vilchis: absolutely. it was that and the fact that no one else was going to build this but us. right. like for people that it matters, for people that have been impacted and understand just how much is it it's impacting our communities in a negative way. like nobody else was going to pick it up. soledad: so we're looking at 2000 children. and let's say roughly. and it seems as if the government has really done a terrible job in just taking the basic information and connecting it to the parents information. sort of the basics haven't even been done. do you have a sense of like where the main point of failure was? ms. vilchis: well there's definitely a lack of, a sign that they do not care. but also the government is very outdated. they don't have the type of systems to be able to capture this information.. attorneys aren't even allowed to bring any sort of recording device with them so they have to rely on pen and paper to capture this information. soledad: so you've created an app. tell me a little bit about how the app would work.

ms. vilchis: yes. so the app is tool for attorneys, to capture that information regarding the parents and the child that they're trying to find. and then on the other end it's meant to also be a tool for the attorneys working with the children. and in capturing data from both and the app is creating a match using algorithms that say hey there's a high likelihood that this parent and this child are a match. soledad: what's your biggest obstacle right now to this app being used widely. ms. vilchis: well, we have the app. it is a prototype but we're really we're looking to work with the attorneys that are going to help us validate the design and ensure that it's a tool that works for them. and can help them capture that data really quickly so that it can start to aggregate the information and actually make matches. soledad: there are not a lot of latinas in tech. period. not a lot of latina tech ceos. probably could count them on one hand pretty easily. what do you think is the obstacle there to having more latinos in tech? especially when you consider populations, if you look at

silicon valley, it's not like there are no latinos in all of silicon valley, like 'where do we find them? they're there. ms. vilchis: right. in my own journey i have definitely found that when i was the only one in the room it felt like i didn't belong there that maybe this wasn't an option for me. and so i think a lot of latinos don't get that opportunity to feel that there is a community out there. and so for us creating a company that is visible and is that is the central hub for everybody to kind of come together and continue to build in this space. it's really important. soledad: you're a dreamer. ms. vilchis: yes. soledad: congress has not been able to figure out anything. how do you -- how are you feeling? ms. vilchis: yeah --you can't really rely on government to provide a permanent solution. and i think part of building this company is a way to feel empowered again that regardless of my citizenship status like i can have an impact in my community. should the worst happen, that i am sent away. that's just an opportunity for

me to build an international brand for this company and to really scale it abroad, right? and to use every challenge that kind of comes our way as a challenge to rise up to and create something positive that's even bigger than the challenge that you overcome. soledad: liz vilchis. it's so nice to have you. great luck with this app. it would be amazing to see if we could reunite some of these 2000 children because obviously the thanks for talking to me. -- so good for year. ms. vilchis: thank you so much. >> next on "matter of fact" -- is the rising cost of living enough to make you move? to another country? >> there's no point to spending more money when i don't have to. >> this man did it. so how much money is he really saving? plus -- >> it won't be by the people, for the people. >> plus can a new documentary shed light on dark money in political campaigns? and -- what's killing america's killer whales? soledad: the black and white orcas who live in the puget

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soledad: the'e state, county, or metro area in the united states where someone earning minimum wage could afford a decent two bedroom apartment. that's according to a recent study from the national low income housing coalition. california is in the middle of a housing crisis. too much demand, not enough supply. and definitely not a lot of options for low-income renters. so, as our correspondent jess gomez tells us, they're heading south of the border for housing relief. jessica: before the sun sets, some 90,000 people have crossed into san diego. david: it's really easy to go back and forth across the border. jessica: american david flood is one of those international

commuters. david: a friend of mine was joking around like we should get some tacos and i was like where and he was like get some tacos in mexico. and i've been in mexico ever since. jessica: that was more than a year ago. david had moved to san diego, hoping to escape the high cost of living in seattle. david: i was actually making good money and i was still living under the livable wage. jessica: it didn't take him long to realize he couldn't make ends meet in southern california either. after months in hostels and air bnb rentals he headed to tijuana for those tacos -- and, a place to call home. he international move is saving him more than $1000 per month in rent. miguel: tijuana has a huge potential based on its geography. jessica: real estate developer miguel marshall is tapping into that potential with a series of mixed-use developments.

miguel: the opportunity is right now and we have to we have to continue to grow and to meet demand. jessica the demand for : affordable housing. in san diego the average rent for a one bed room apartment is 18 hundred dollars per month two and three bedroom apartments can average up to three grand or more. miguel owns the complex where david rents his apartment for only about $400 per month. about half of his tenants are american. miguel: once you're here you start to see the richness of being in an emerging country. jessica: born in america, and now living in tijuana, miguel says crossing the border is just a normal part of life. miguel: it's like when people that live in brooklyn have to cross the bridge to go to manhattan, for us, it's you have to cross the border to go to san diego. jessica: in a stark contrast to america's crackdown at the border, americans can get into tijuana without stopping or showing any kind of identification.

it's hard to get an accurate count of how many americans live in tijuana because some may be there illegally. jim houliston: many of us as americans living here live under the radar. jessica: jim houliston says his paperwork is in order. he runs a program called immersion tijuana living, helping americans acclimate to mexico. jim houlisten: we get them hooked up with their tutors and different cultural immersion events so different events that we have themed around getting to know the city. jessica: the city's low cost of living is such a draw for some, that tijuana's murder rate -- last year, higher than la, chicago, detroit, and new york cmbined -- isn't enough to keep them away. david: i was like what would i do in mexico, like i hear so many bad things. and then when i came down here i was like this actually not that bad at all you know.

jessica: but when it comes to jobs, david says, there's just no comparison. david: america has awesome income. land of gold. so that's why i stay working there and then i utilize my gold over here. jessica: he may have american "gold" but david says he hit the housing jackpot, in tijuana. for "matter of fact," i'm jessica gomez. >> when we come back, did a supreme court decision on campaign finance create a crisis? >> they send out cards attacking the opponent. they support the agenda of the corporation. >> a look at new documentary on the trail of dark money in our elections. and extra extra -- read all about it -- did a 17 year old girl really strike out babe ruth and lou gherig? soledad: untraceable corporate

cash pouring into elections big and small has been called one of the biggest threats to our democracy. the supreme court made that legal with its ruling in the citizens united versus the federal election commission case. that ruling allowed big companies including foreign corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections and candidates. what's been the effect of this ruling? kimberly reed is the writer and the director of a new documentary. it's called "dark money." kimberly it's nice to have you. ms. reed: nice to be here. soledad: before we dig into your documentary, which is excellent, i want to first talk about all the things that are the background to the documentary.

so talk about citizens united. walk me through that specific case and how the supreme court decided and why that was so momentous really to how elections now run. ms. reed: it actually started with a question about a documentary film and this documentary film was called "hillary the movie" by citizens united productions. and it looked to most people like that is basically a campaign ad. it is being run to to defeat hillary clinton. and the question was whether or not that piece, that communication was electioneering communications. and as such whether it could be constrained and would have to follow the rules of camaign finance. the supreme court decided that this was electioneering communications. this did have an intent to defeat hillary clinton. but the supreme court also said that that could not be

constrained. so kind of the shorthand way that people talk about citizens united a lot of times is they say that you know "corporations are people" and "money is speech". soledad: corporations are people was kind of a weird moment in time. ms. reed: yea, like wait a second. this doesn't make any sense to the basic person on the street. soledad: so you go back home. you go to montana. did you know you were shooting a documentary? was that your plan from the get go? ms. reed: i saw that my home state of montana was the one state that was saying you know what we've been through this. we have this law. it's the corrupt practices act of 1912. been around for a century. been serving us pretty well to keep corporate money out of politics. and montana was defending that law saying that citizens united should not hold sway in montana. >> big money used dark money to basically by a state or

legislature or even chilly, ultimately, control public policy in this country. soledad: many people thought corporations would start putting their finger on the scales in politics, but actually what seemed like what became a bigger problem was the anonymity of how cash was coming. ms. reed: it was about the anonymity that that unlimited money was was going to have. put another way, a little bit of anonymous money goes a lot farther than you know big chunk of just unlimited money right. soledad: what was the most surprising thing from your documentary that you found as a filmmaker. ms. reed: i think that the way that the average everyday citizen was able to follow some pretty complicated twists and turns of a campaign finance story was you know it was really surprising and amazing that the average everyday citizen can pay attention to these pretty

intricate pretty intricate regulations. soledad: does that make you feel hopeful about what ultimately could happen with citizens united. because it does feel sometimes that some of these issues are so complicated that if you can't fit it into an eight second soundbyte nobody's going to care. nobody's going to get it. and really your film does show that people do have a very finely honed sense of justice in elections. ms. reed: and sometimes justice is coming from politicians who are being attacked by other politicians unfairly. sometimes that justice, in what we saw in montana, it just comes from the average everyday citizen who's paying attention to all of this. and even with super pacs and dark money groups spending unlimited amounts in elections, we still need to be able to see where the money is coming from. disclosure is paramount. we can enforce those laws. soledad: kimberly reed. the documentary is called "dark money." thanks so much.

ms. reed: thanks so much for having me. >> coming up next -- why are the ocean's fiercest predators disappearing? facing two of america's greatests sluggers -- a young girl proved she was in a league of her own -- but is there more to the story? soledad: did the sluggers take it easy her? or did she throw real strikes?al

watch. president trump and vladmir putin. monday: analysis of every key development overnight. plus: keeping your home safe while you )re on vacation. the free way one east bay police department is

putting people at ease. )today in the bay. ) 4:30 to 7. feature we like to call "we're paying attention even if you're too busy." there is an alarming new report on the future of the endangered killer whales of the pacific northwest. the black and white orcas who live in the puget sound off the -- have not had one single calf survive for the past three years. the center for whale research has been following the dwindling number of orca pods in the area and say they usually have between four and five calves each year. they say the orca pods are starving. because their primary source of food, the chinook salmon, are dying off.

orcas eat about 30 of these large fish a day. they're also losing their hearing, making it harder to hunt prey because they use their echo to locate food. but noise polution from shipping traffic and whale watching boats is making it harder to hunt. orcas were put on the endangered species list back in 2005. there were approximately of them 200 back in the 1800's -- but beginning in the about 50 1960's killer whales were captured and placed in theme parks -- and by the 1990's there were only about 100 left. today, there are roughly 75 remaining. in march, washington state's governor, jay inslee, signed an executive order directing state agencies to do more to protect the whales -- which he calls the "soul" of the state. >> when we return -- it's one of baseball's greatest mysteries -- did a teenage girl really strike out the great bambino?

soledad: major league baseball's biggest players are getting ready for the all-star game this week. the first offical game took place in 1933. and babe ruth hit the first home run. many of his feats are well known -- but one of his defeats remains a mystery to this day. on april 2nd 1931, the yankees played an exhibition game against the chattanooga lookouts -- a minor league team. their pitcher, a 17 year old girl named jackie mitchell. she strikes out babe ruth -- the great bambino. then strikes out lou gherig. the next day the new york times headline reads girl pitcher fans ruth and gehrig. did this teen really strikeout two of the best hitters in baseball? this was during the depression when teams were known to pull stunts to draw crowds. did the sluggers take it easy her? or did she throw real strikes? shortly after the game the baseball commissioner voided her contract saying the sport was too strenuous for women.

whether it was real or not, her story is featured in the baseball hall of fame. that's it for "matter of fact," i'm soledad o'brien. i'll see you back here next week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

robert handa: hello, and welcome to a special edition of "asian pacific america." i'm robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc bay area and cozi tv. we have always prided ourselves in treating the artistic and cultural world with as much focus as the political and social issues we cover because it is a crucial part of the community, some would say the heart and soul. so, in that spirit, we present another program dedicated to artists in our asian-american and pacific islander communities. today, original songs by artists who performed on our show this past year. we had them record other songs during their initial appearance so we could present new performances, not reruns. with that, here we go. our first is from the musical "peace on your wings,"