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American Morning

The Death Train; Rape Investigation; Minding Your Business; War of Words

Aired March 29, 2006 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They're walking the dog on Columbus Circle on this beautiful morning in New York City.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's supposed to be 58 degrees today.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Make sure you curb your animals, folks. Some people get very upset here in the city when you . . .

COSTELLO: I think they get upset everywhere you don't curb your animals. But we're going to . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: They're in your face a little more here you might say.

COST: True.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

This story is interesting, isn't it, coming up.

COSTELLO: Yes. A seven-year-old girl. She writes poetry. Really good poetry. But some find it quite racist. She has poetry readings at night. And some say that her message is a message of hatred and should not be spread.

MILES O'BRIEN: Jason Carroll is going to join us and talk about that. It's a story you'll want to see. So stay with us for that. it's coming up in just a little bit.

In the meantime, let's check some headlines. Kelly Wallace is watching those for us.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Miles.

Hello, everyone.

Iraqi workers under fire in Baghdad. Gunmen disguised as police burst into a trading company a short time ago. And these are some pictures just in to us here at CNN. The gunman killed eight workers, three of them women. Emergency police are now on the scene. More information as we get it.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is extending the olive branch to the Palestinians one day after the country's elections. But he warns, "we will not wait forever." He's calling on Hamas, which now controls the Palestinian legislature, to renounce violence, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is cautious. He said this morning that he wants Israeli to negotiate and not dictate the solutions.

Closing arguments today at the Zacarias Moussaoui trial. Moussaoui and his defense team arriving in Virginia at the Virginia court just a short time ago. Moussaoui shocked the court on Monday when he admitted knowing beforehand about the September 11th attacks. He faces the death penalty and the jury could begin deliberating the case this afternoon.

South Carolina wants to send repeated child molesters to death row. The state senate has given preliminary approval for a bill. It would allow prosecutors to ask for the death penalty in some cases involve pedophiles.

And it looks like the parting shot for the Winchester rifle, the gun that won the west. Without a last-minute deal, the Connecticut factory that makes the rifle of Billy the kid, Teddy Roosevelt, John Wayne and Chuck Connors will close on Friday. We'll be watching to see what happens there, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Kelly Wallace.

While the Senate prepares to square off over immigration reform, there is a real world drama that continues to unfold on the U.S./Mexico border. Ed Lavandera joining us now from Laredo, Texas, to show us just what lengths some are willing to go to, to get into the United States.

Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

Well, while those politicians debate immigration reform and border security, thousands of migrants begin their journey northward in southern Mexico, coming up through Central America, and many of them forgetting this debate, ignoring this debate, and many of them are turning to the railroad tracks. But what happens to them along the way is often forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA, (voice over): The trail of desperation starts here in Chiapas, Mexico. These rail lines have been described as a graveyard without crosses.

SONIA NAZARIO, AUTHOR, "ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY": They call it [foreign language], the train of death.

LAVANDERA: Tens of thousands of Central American migrants hop trains heading north on this 1,200-mile journey from Tapachula to border towns like Nuevo Laredo. They'll battle bandits who rob and rape, they'll go hungry and thirsty for days. And out of exhaustion, some will fall off the trains. Thousands have died.

NAZARIO: Many of them die silently alongside the rails. They bleed to death.

LAVANDERA: Sonia Nazario says the journey is hell. She knows because she rode the train reporting for her book titled "Enrique's Journey." The story of a teenage boy who rode the train.

NAZARIO: They risk losing arms to the train, losing legs to the train, losing their life, but they're willing to take that risk.

LAVANDERA: We asked Nazario to be our guide through Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

NAZARIO: Once you get this far north, the stakes are very high.

LAVANDERA: Nazario took us to this shelter in this boarder town. It's where we meet 18-year-old Narden Garero (ph). He spent the last month walking and riding the train through Mexico. He left Honduras with $10. Bandits robbed him of that. Some days he only ate tortillas people would throw on his train. All this to reunite with his father who he hasn't seen in two years.

He says having a father is the most marvelous thing in the world. I think about him all the time. He loved me so much when we were together.

Nazario says the economic and personal desperation of their lives drives them to attempt this dangerous journey. And she warns more will keep coming.

NAZARIO: It grows every year and it's growing because of the desperation in these home countries where people just cannot feed their children and so they see it as the only way to be able to do that.

LAVANDERA: When night falls on the shelter in Nuevo Laredo, this group of migrants rest and pray. They survived the most treacherous part of their journey, but they're still far from the promised land.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Miles, and what you hear over and over when you talk to these migrants is, they're not even in the U.S. yet, but just as they're about to launch their journey into the U.S., what you hear over and over from them is that until their economic situation improves in their home countries, this flood of people will continue to flow northward.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Boy, there is one statement that is pretty much undebatable in this whole thing.

Ed, give us a sense. How long do these journeys take? These epic and sometimes tragic journeys?

LAVANDERA: Well, they can take anywhere from at least a month. We didn't hear anyone that we spoke with in this shelter the last couple of days that said that they made this journey in less than a month. But it can take anywhere from one month to three months, depending on how far along you get.

The concern is that many of them get caught along the way. Mexican authorities deport about 200,000 of them back into Central America, then they have to start over. Sonia Nazario said she met several people, one person in particular, who has tried to make the journey 28 times.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh, 28 times? Just tremendous persistence.

Ed Lavandera along the tracks there, thank you very much.

A little bit later we're going to check in with the mayor of Laredo, Texas, a town that knows an awful lot about this issue, right on the border there. She has some choice words for the Mexican president. We'll explain about that in about a half hour's time, about 20 minutes or so.

And with the president heading to Mexico for that immigration summit, leaders of Mexico and Canada along with him, we're sending our own head of state here, Lou Dobbs, crossing the border in pursuit of answers. A "Broken Borders" special report on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" live from Mexico, 6:00 p.m. Eastern. And that's all through the next three days right here on CNN.

COSTELLO: Here in this country, this morning, Duke University's lacrosse program is effectively shut down. It's all due to an ongoing rape investigation that's tearing the campus apart and the community. The team had stood together in silence. Now they will stand on the sidelines. But that's the least of their worries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BROADHEAD, PRESIDENT, DUKE UNIVERSITY: I have decided that future games should be suspended until there is clear resolution of the legal situation.

COSTELLO, (voice over): That declaration from Duke University's president follows an alleged gang rape of an exotic dancer by three members of the university's lacrosse team. The question -- which ones? So far team members have refused to answer questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want the members of the Duke lacrosse team to come clean.

COSTELLO: The woman says she and a friend were hired to dance at a private bachelor party and she was pulled into a bathroom by three men, beaten, choked, and raped. The woman is black. All but one member of the team is white. It's bringing simmering racial tensions in the city of Durham to a boil, especially in the wake of a 911 call from someone who walked by the party.

911 CALL: I saw them all come out like a big frat house, and me and my black girlfriend are waking by and they called us (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

COSTELLO: Forty-six players have been swabbed for DNA and Durham's district attorney is awaiting the lab results. He says he believes the rape did occur and that soon the students will start talking.

MIKE NIFONG, DURHAM DISTRICT ATTORNEY: My guess is that some of this stonewall of silence that we have seen may tend to crumble once charges begin to come out.

COSTELLO: Last night, Duke's president said he, too, was determined to get answers.

BROADHEAD: Physical coercion and sexual assault are unacceptable in any setting and will not be tolerated at Duke.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The captain of the Duke lacrosse team released a statement and this is what it reads in part. He says, "any allegation that a sexual assault or rape occurred is totally and transparently false. The team has cooperated with the police in their investigation. We feel it is in the best interest of the university, the community and our families that the team should not play competitively until the DNA results verify our unequivocal denial of these allegations."

In our 9:00 hour, we're going to talk with a Durham reporter who has spoken with the alleged victim and she's got many interesting details to share.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's get another check of the weather. Chad Myers in the Weather Center.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Andy's "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let's switch over to business.

Which companies employ the most illegal immigrants? Obviously a hot button issue there.

Plus, are you ready to feel sorry for the telephone companies?

MILES O'BRIEN: No.

SERWER: We'll explain that coming up next on "American Morning."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SERWER: I like (INAUDIBLE). Kind of that Bobby Kimball.

COSTELLO: Andy. Andy's here.

SERWER: He's a musical giant.

COSTELLO: Slamming Toto.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, man.

SERWER: I don't miss to. I really -- maybe they're still around, but I haven't listened to them in a long . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: I think they're probably doing a Holiday Inn in Scranton right now.

SERWER: Oh.

COSTELLO: Oh.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's -- Andy Serwer, kind of our -- you're like our Daddy Warbucks kind of, you know?

SERWER: I've got hair, though.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, that's right. With hair.

SERWER: And I'm not rich. Besides that . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Besides that.

COSTELLO: You're exactly like him.

SERWER: Besides that I'm just - - yes.

Let's talk about the immigration situation. Obviously, bills in Congress being debated right now and debate raging across the country as well. But which businesses would be hurt the most if there was a ban on illegal immigration? A new study out by the Pew Hispanic Center details some of that. And maybe not so surprising here, you can see -- first of all, 5 percent of U.S. workers, or 7.2 million, according to these estimates, are illegal immigrants. Twelve million overall. So, in other words, the additional 5 million would be their family members out of a total of the U.S. population of around 300 million.

Twenty-four percent of all farm workers, though, are illegal immigrants, according to these estimates. Fourteen percent of all construction workers. Seventeen percent -- these numbers aren't on the screen -- in the cleaning businesses. And 12 percent of those in food prep who work in the kitchen.

So, obviously, these businesses rely on illegal immigrants. Maybe they shouldn't, but they do right now. That is an unsalable fact. MILES O'BRIEN: The conventional wisdom is, Americans won't do many these jobs? Do you buy that?

SERWER: I don't know if I buy that. I will buy the fact, however, that they're not crowding out people from getting these jobs, but you do see help wanted jobs all over the place and the unemployment rate is historically low.

COSTELLO: Well, maybe Americans, they say, don't want those jobs because the companies aren't paying them anything. Maybe that's the real reason that more Americans won't take these jobs.

SERWER: And minimum wage hasn't been raised dramatically over the years.

COSTELLO: Yes, but you can pay an illegal immigrant below minimum wage.

SERWER: That's true. That's true. There's a lot going on here. But, you know, these people are here, they're working and it would be hard to imagine if they somehow disappeared overnight. I mean, that's not going to happen, but you can see the impact they're having, particularly in these businesses.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Tell us quickly about this phone company story.

SERWER: Well, very quickly. You know there's convergence telephone companies getting into the TV business, TV business getting into the telephone business. And now the telecom companies are saying that the cable companies aren't playing fair, they're not letting the teleco (ph) companies advertise on cable systems advertising some of their new TV services. The telephone companies, in particular, pointing to Comcast. Comcast says they're not airing the ads because they contain false and misleading information. And so it goes back and forth.

MILES O'BRIEN: And that's the only ads on Comcast's 6,000 channels that might be deemed that way, huh?

SERWER: Apparently so.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right.

COSTELLO: Yes, that's their story and they're sticking to it.

SERWER: That's it.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: It's one of the most closely watched mayoral races in the country. Who will lead New Orleans down the road to recovery? We'll take a closer look at some of the 23 candidates vying for the job. Plus . . .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUTUM ASHANTE, POET: I try my best to speak the truth instead of like lollipops and candy and stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ah, but depending on who you ask, this seven-year-old poet's either a child prodigy or a racist. Her story just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: There is a poet here in New York who's causing a whole lot of controversy. Some say she's a racist. Some say she's inflammatory. But the one sure thing you can say about her is this, she's seven-years-old. Jason Carroll joins us now with a story of Autum Ashante.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just seven-years-old. And another thing you can say about her, she's definitely a very bright seven-year-old girl. But even at her tender age, Autum has strong opinions about her work. She told me the truth hurts. Autum's critics say her version of the truth is also offensive and racist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AUTUM ASHANTE, POET: I am misunderstood by many.

CARROLL, (voice over): Most girls her age are still learning to read and write. But seven-year-old Autum Ashante is recording her spoken word poetry CD.

AUTUM ASHANTE: I am the mighty black woman.

CARROLL: She has already performed at the Apollo Theater.

AUTUM ASHANTE: I said do not pollute (ph) our God (INAUDIBLE).

CARROLL: And on black entertainment televisions, Hurricane Katrina relief telethon. Critics are calling her a child prodigy, praising her socially conscience poems. But now she's defending herself against charges she's a racist.

AUTUM ASHANTE: I mean, I'm not a racist and I'm very young to be a racist, wouldn't you say?

CARROLL: But students at Peekskill Middle School and High School in New York were offended by her poem titled "White Nationalism Put You In Bondage." The offense, Autum referring to Christopher Columbus, Charles Darwin and Captain Henry Morgan as vampires.

AUTUM ASHANTE: Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan and Darwin. CARROLL: What did you mean by that?

AUTUM ASHANTE: Because they robbed, raped and murdered our people.

CARROLL: Autum's attempt at raising black awareness did not end with just a poem. It began when she told all the black students in the multi-cultural audience to stand while she read the "Black Child's Pledge," which was originally created by a member of the Black Panthers. She told all the white students that it wasn't for them. That they should sit down.

ALICIA PUCCI, PEEKSKILL H.S. STUDENT: It was a little shocking at first. A seven-year-old telling us to sit down.

CARROLL: The school's superintendent sent apologies after students and parents complained.

JUDITH JOHNSON, SUPERINTENDENT, PEEKSKILL S.D.: We're stunned by the fact that this is continuing to represent a story in newspapers and on television. It's not a story for us anymore.

CARROLL: But Autum continues to be the subject of editorials and radio talk shows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to go to Africa? I will personally purchase your airfare!

CARROLL: Many of Autum's critics believe her father is behind her words.

BATIN ASHANTE, AUTUM'S FATHER: Put your answer there.

CARROLL: Autum, who is home-schooled, says she wrote the poem after being inspired by a documentary.

If a white student stood up and said that this is for white students only . . .

BATIN ASHANTE: (INAUDIBLE) the circumstance. If it was under the same circumstance.

CARROLL: Let me finish the question. Let me finish the question.

Her father, Batin, just off camera, interrupted several times.

BATIN ASHANTE: Don't speak on that one.

And I'm an offshoot of a soccer parent. We just do poetry and theater.

CARROLL: Batin says he teaches his daughter, but does not tell her what to write.

What do you teach Autum about tolerance? BATIN ASHANTE: We -- tolerance is -- tolerance. We are here with no power in America. We are tolerance.

CARROLL: Even people without power, though, can be intolerant.

BATIN ASHANTE: We're not intolerant of who? I don't want you to take this story here and try to turn this thing into that she's being taught here at home because that's not what we about here. We are spiritual beings.

CARROLL: Despite the controversy, Autum is, at times, a typical seven-year-old.

AUTUM ASHANTE: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. Girls go to college to get more knowledge. Hey, girls.

CARROLL: Except when it comes to defending her poem on white nationalism.

AUTUM ASHANTE: I'm going to continue saying that poem mostly until I die.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Strong willed little girl. Contrary to published reports, Peekskill school officials say Autum was not banned after her performance. In fact, they say they would have her back, but only if they had a chance to screen her poetry first and, if there was some sort of a chance for Q&A following the reading of her poem.

COSTELLO: Oh, and I have a lot of questions for you.

CARROLL: Oh, I'm sure you do.

COSTELLO: Oh, I do.

All right. She mentions Charles Darwin, Christopher Columbus in her poem.

CARROLL: That is correct.

COSTELLO: Not many seven-year-olds know who Charles Darwin is or what he did.

CARROLL: That is correct.

COSTELLO: I mean, who is writing these poems? Is it her or does her father help her?

CARROLL: Well, I asked her father about that. He says he helps her with punctuation. He says that he shows her all sorts of books and documentaries. That she comes up with the ideas herself. I'm not a parent, but I think a lot of parents would argue that in terms of -- they do influence their children whether they mean to or not.

COSTELLO: Well, like when you were asking the child a question, he was in the background telling her not to answer.

CARROLL: He's definitely protective of his daughter. He says he's overprotective given that there have been threats against her since she read this poem and what not. But, you know, I find it -- this is a man who definitely challenges his daughter. He says he doesn't influence his daughter. But, once again, you know, he is a parent and I think it's hard for some parents not to influence their children.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll, an interesting, fascinating story. Thank you very much.

Jason's report, by the way, first aired last night on "Paula Zahn Now," which you can catch every week night at 8:00 right here on CNN.

In a moment, we'll have your top stories for you after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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