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Migrant Boy Walked Out Of Border Processing Center; Dem Lawmakers Refuse To Leave New Jersey Detention Center; Trump Voters React To Border Crisis; WH Staffers Publicly Shamed Over Immigration Crisis; NY Foster Care Facility Houses Kids Separated From Parents; Mourners Remember Unarmed Black Teen Killed By Officer; Confusion Continues Over Immigration Policy; Ban Lifted. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired June 24, 2018 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: -- legality, and political finger pointing, all of that has to wait for a moment because we're seeing something far more urgent right now. Children at an enormous migrant shelter in Texas, some of these kids as young as 10-years-old, they are able to walk out of that shelter without being stopped.

It happened this weekend here in Brownsville, Texas, a boy 15-year-old boy, we are told, he is alive, and well, but now back in Mexico. For many hours his location and condition were not known, he slipped through the cracks.

We got this statement from the shelter called Casa Padre, as a licensed child care center, if a child attempts to leave any of our facilities, we cannot restrain them, we are not a detention center. We talk to them, and try to get them to stay, and if they leave the property, we call law enforcement.

A 15-year-old boy left the Casa Padre child care center in Brownsville today, we called local law enforcement, and continue to work with them. CNN's Polo Sandoval is in South Texas. Polo, tell us, what we know about this boy. And how surprising is it to learn that this shelter -- this children's center is not allowed to prevent kids from just walking out?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly prizing, Ana, and of course, you have covered much of what we know at this point, this 15- year-old child walked out of this location in Brownsville, Texas, about 50 miles east of where we are at this border patrol location in McAllen, Texas.

What we know is this 15-year-old walked out of that premises, and as you've heard from that statement from the owner and operator of this child care facility. They are not authorized by the state of Texas to hold children against their will, they cannot even put their hands on them.

The only thing that they can do, according to some of the sources we have been speaking to familiar with, at least with knowledge of the situation, is walk with these children to the property line, and as them that they remain on the premises, but once they make it past that line, the law enforcement has to get called then. I spoke to a member of the Brownsville police department, who told me that that is exactly what happened.

And about 4:30 yesterday after, they received a phone call calling officers to that southwest key location in Brownsville, Texas to report a missing 15-year-old boy, we now know that that is a 15-year- old child from Honduras, who is at that location, that is now, as you just said in Mexico.

And we do understand based on information from sources close to this investigation, and knowledgeable, and with knowledge of what happened there, that this child now is in contact with relatives, and in the process of returning back to his native Honduras.

This is happening as many questions are being asked about, what procedures are in place to try to get these children back with their parents, today, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the latest Democratic lawmaker to visit locations along the border, including this facility here in Mc Allen, Texas.

This is what she told reporters as she -- after she walked into this place, and saw for herself the conditions that these children are being kept in right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH WARREN (D), UNITED STATES SENATOR: There are children by themselves, I saw a 6-month-old baby, little girls, little boys, there are mothers, with their babies, and with small children. Family units are together if it's a very small child, but little girls who are 12- years-old are taken away from the rest of their families, and held separately, or little boys. And they're all on concrete floors in cages, there's just no other way to describe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Senator Warren, again, just the latest lawmaker to add a voice to the chorus of Democratic critics about President Trump's zero tolerance policy that at one point called for the separation of these children from their parents, so that moms and dads in the country illegally could go, and face criminal charges for illegal entry.

Obviously, the executive order last week put a stop to that separation, however, there are still hundreds and thousands of children still in that system, and now the U.S. government, mainly, the Department of Health and Human Services are tasked with caring for these children.

So now question, especially in light of yesterday's events in Brownsville when a 15-year-old child left the premises, the questions now will certainly be, what kind of protocols should be in place to make sure that those children do not wander away from the facilities.

Because the Southwest key point in that statement that was released earlier, they are not a detention facility, and they are -- they can only do what they have been certified by the various regulating agencies to do, which is simply care for these children, and not force them to remain at those facilities. Ana. CABRERA: All right. Polo Sandoval in McAllen, Texas, thank you. The Trump administration in now detailing at least part of its plan for reuniting the thousands of families separated at the border. But it won't happen quickly.

Here's what we do know from the Development of Homeland Security, when immigrant families first cross the border, they are detained by Customs and Border Patrol Protection. Now, parents are then taken into I.C.E. custody, and children are turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services.

[17:05:04] Five hundred and twenty-two kids so far have been reunited with parents or guardians. Still, more than 2,000 others remain with HHS. In some cases children, and adults, won't be reunited at all, as the relationship between parent or child can't be proven, or if the adult is considered a threat to the child safety, or is a criminal undocumented immigrant.

The media hasn't been allowed to film inside those centers where these children are being held, even lawmakers have had trouble getting access at time. In fact, Democrats refused to leave a center in New Jersey last weekend after being denied access there. They protested, they banged on the glass until officials relented, and left them inside, watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do not have permission.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As congressman, we are entitled to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is America, this isn't Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Joining me now, one of those outraged lawmakers you just saw in that video, New York Congressman Adriano Espaillat, a Trail Blazers, one of the very first former undocumented immigrants elected to Congress. Congressman, thank you so much for being here.

REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D), NY: Thank you so much for having me.

CABRERA: Obviously, this is an issue that is personal to you in many ways.

ESPAILLAT: Very much so, yes.

CABRERA: Do you feel like since we saw you in that video there in a weeks time things have improved?

ESPAILLAT: Well, at least the Trump administration has now begun to back pedal on this zero tolerance policy that has left so much hurt, and grief among families, and the nation. The nation, I think, is traumatized to hear that 9-month-old babies are being split from their moms, and children are being split from their parents, and weeks later, the parents don't know where their children are, they haven't spoken to them.

So this is a human rights crisis that's developed in America, and even international entities such as the United Nations, and amnesty international, the Catholic conference of bishops and human rights watch have really expressed concern about the zero tolerance policy that has brought scotch hurt.

But we're glad that 500 plus kids are back with their family member, their parents, but there are still several thousand that are not. And the New York Times reported today that many parents have been deported, and haven't been able to get back in touch with their children, or get back with them. So this is really...

CABRERA: They have been deported without their children.

ESPAILLAT: Without their children.

CABRERA: Although I will point out in the DHS fact sheet that they put out regarding these reunifications, they say in the past, many parents have elected to be removed without their children, this is according to I.C.E.

ESPAILLAT: Well we don't what to believe from I.C.E. There has been so many lies perpetrated to the American people that we just don't trust anybody anymore. And so that's why I went to visit those fathers in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and this Friday I went to visit some of those children that are in the Cayuga Center here in East Harlem in New York.

We have over 200 children there that have been separated from their families, have been flown from Texas, from Arizona, from California, thousands of miles, and now they're in New York City, they're doing a tremendous job there, I think that they're trying the best way they can to connect them with their family members, but it's just so hard to do so. So this administration has really wreaked havoc on the American public.

CABRERA: Did you have a chance to speak with some of those children in that detention center, and what was your big take away?

ESPAILLAT: When I saw the children -- these children have some level of resilience in them, but obviously they must be traumatized, they have been split from their parents, I spoke to some of the foster care parent, I really why they said that some of them have six or seven children in their home, it's not just really about taking care of them, they're really invested.

New Yorkers have stepped up, and I think they will continue to step to provide help for these children. I'm very proud of New York, and I'm proud of this country, it's because of the American people that the Trump administration has pulled back on this.

CABRERA: I wonder if you have any flash backs or memories of your time visiting with those children who were being held there, who had just crossed the border, if you remember what it was like to be that 9-year-old boy who came to America from the Dominican Republic with your parents.

ESPAILLAT: I saw a little boy that much have been about 9-years-old, and I gave him a high five, and he gave me a high five, and he smiled at me. And I just -- it just broke my heart.

CABRERA: Broke your heart, why?

ESPAILLAT: Yes, it just broke my heart. Just to see them that they are away from their parents, I just wondered what it would be like for me to be without my parents.

CABRERA: It did take you back then. You know, there are still a lot of questions about the reunification process as we have been discussing, we talk a little bit about the plan as we know it. Here's what your Republican colleague in the Senate, Senator James Lankford said today about this plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES LANKFORD (R), UNITED STATES SENATOR: Let me clarify this, we know where every single child is, this is an issue that's gone out there, somewhat in some of the other media that's not been responsible for this with the assumption that the administration has lost track of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:10:00] CABRERA: Congressman, is that your understanding as well, that the Trump administration does in fact know where every single child is?

ESPAILLAT: This is like an Abbott and Costello movie. You know, I think that the senator is saying that, but obviously, these parents can't -- the men that I met with, that were separated with their children, they didn't know where their children were.

CABRERA: They didn't know where their children were.

ESPAILLAT: The government has split them. They should have some level of records that show which child is where, which parent is where. But the parents didn't know.

Some of these children bring little notes attached with a safety pin in their clothing with names, and phone numbers. And so these folks that are working with them are trying hard to connect with these folks, these names, and these phone numbers.

But there's no guarantee that everybody knows where their children are, or have they spoken to them. I think that's false, the government may know, but they're not sharing that information.

CABRERA: We do know that some of these children have tracking bracelets, or some kind of barcodes as we see it in the pictures of children who are held at least some of these housing facilities, but it also makes you wonder if the administration knows who, and where their parents are. Even if they know where the children are, do they know whose children are?

ESPAILLAT: Why would the administration accept to deport a parent without first confirming whether or not that parent may want to take their child back with them? How come there are parents that have been deported, and their children here, and those parents have not been able to speak with those children, as the New York Times reported that they have not been able to reunite with those children.

CABRERA: So you are concern about that. I also want to get your thoughts on the statement from President today. He writes on Twitter, we cannot allow all of these people to invade our country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no judges or court cases, bring them back from where they came. What's your reaction?

ESPAILLAT: Anybody -- any time anybody says these people, I'm very concerned about that term. You know, it's almost singularly a very aggressive term to try to divide America. These are people that are just coming to the United States because they're -- they're asylum seekers, we have a long standing tradition in our nation to open our doors to asylum.

We are not even listening to their stories, we area arresting them, and splitting their families. Traditionally, when you seek asylum, you will be given a opportunity to go before a judge and say how come you wanted to stay in the United States, because maybe your life what in danger.

Some of the men that I've spoke to, the stories that they told me, that I cannot share here, clearly, their lives were in danger, they ran away from an imminent danger, and their children, one of them felt very much strongly that his daughter may be hurt just as bad as one of his business partners was hurt.

So clearly, these folks are running away from danger, and death, and our nation has traditionally opened the doors to people like them, and now we're not doing that. That's a sign of trouble for America. Maybe we're heading in the wrong direction.

CABRERA: Realistically, though, can the U.S. support to accept every single immigrant who wants to come to this country, or does there need to be some kind of a limit, and what is that?

ESPAILLAT: Well, there should be due process for this, that they should be -- once you step foot in the United States, you may not have all the rights, and privileges of the constitution office, every single American or green card holders, there is a due process that is extended to you to give you some rights.

You have to go before a judge. I hear that these proceedings in the courts are for 50 or 60 people at a time, (Inaudible). Massive court proceedings where everybody has heard at one time, and everybody is deported without extending to those people, the singling opportunity to hear their story, and to find out maybe they are sending them back to death. CABRERA: Adriano Espaillat, thank you so much...

ESPAILLAT: Thank you so much.

CABRERA: ... Congressman for being here with us.

ESPAILLAT: Thank you.

CABRERA: Nice to have you with us. Now the President critiquing himself and his administration says, he is doing a very good job handling the situation along the border, and says it will be a winning strategy for his party in November. Inside the mind of the Trump voter, next.

[17:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Many of President Trump's biggest supporters are backing his zero tolerance policy on immigration despite the chaos that was cost at the border, and in spite of an outcry from some Democrats and Republicans alike. Martin Savidge caught up with Trump voters in the border state of Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At Nana Dee's Diner at Mesa, Arizona you can find plenty of good food, what you won't find, especially among Trump fans is sympathy for immigrant families separated at the border.

CARL BIER, TRUMP VOTER: These people that we have coming across the border illegally are breaking the rules. I have no feeling for them at all.

SAVIDGE: Despite the images of children torn from their parents are the sounds of kids crying at a detention center, folks here back the president completely.

SONYA COPPA, TRUMP VOTER: It's not about Mexico. That's where everybody is so angry about. It's not. I don't care if you are from (Inaudible). I don't care if you are from (Inaudible). You just can't come into this state and reap, you know what I'm saying? I don't know -- I don't know how to explain it.

SAVIDGE: Do you think that people are living off of the state without doing it legally?

COPPA: Absolutely, and I think it's bull (BLEEP).

SAVIDGE: You hear a lot of anger, and a lot of the President's own arguments, especially that many some of the immigrants are actually criminals posing as parents.

BIER: Now, when you have a bad guy coming across, kidnapping a kid, and try to come across, we don't buy that.

SAVIDGE: How many of these do you think (Inaudible). BIER: I don't really know, but there's a lot of people being hurt by bad guys coming into this country. A lot of people.

SAVIDGE: Actually that isn't true, but it is what these Donald Trump voters believe. Madeline Carroll doesn't like CNN, and she doesn't like the way the media, she says, is trying to make her feel guilty.

[17:20:02] MADELINE CARROLL, TRUMP VOTER: Quit trying to make us feel teary eyed for the children. Yes, I love children a great deal. But to me, it's up to the parents to do things rightly and legally.

SAVIDGE: You support the President 100 percent?

CARROLL: Correct.

SAVIDGE: Not all Trump supporters feel that way. In a trendy watering hole in Scottsdale, I meet up with four conservative friends, despite the stereotypical image of Trump supporters, they're not all angry, or all together white. They are young, highly educated professionals with immigrant histories in their families.

PASCAL KROPF, BANKER: I think in a day, it's about enforcing the law.

SAVIDGE: They all like Trump's tougher stand on border protection, but all feel it's going too far.

RENEE PADILLA, HR SPECIALIST: Definitely not for separating families.

BRIAN SHIAU, VICE PRESIDENT, PRIVATE EQUITY COMPANY: It wasn't well thought out the kind of human aspect of how this plays out both for the families, and for everyone involved.

JESSICA LYCOS, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Politics (Inaudible), there are real families involved here, and you know, the Statue of Liberty, (Inaudible). And so, I want to remain a country that that's out motto.

SAVIDGE: They all don't believe Trump likes taking kids from their parents, instead, they see what's happening as an unintended consequence of a stricter policy. In their minds, unlike some other Trump voters, zero tolerance should not mean zero compassion. Martin Savidge, CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: This week the immigration debate became so polarizing in that nation's capital, even restaurant dining has become key for several key Trump administration players.

A Virginia restaurant owner rejecting White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders for dinner this week, and asking her to leave, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, heckled, and called a factious white patron at a D.C., Mexican restaurant, and protesters chased Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen from another Mexican restaurant this week. So let's talk it over with Ryan Lizza, Chief Political Correspondent

for Esquire Magazine, Daniel Lippman, a Reporter and co-author of Politico's Playbook, and Eliana Johnson, Politico's White House Reporter.

Ryan, Washington obviously is the center of politics, the city that has always have these two parties, Trump isn't the first president to do something polarizing, how unusual is this for White House staff to be hassled in this way?

RYAN LIZZA, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, ESQUIRE: I think it's unusual. I think what we have seen in the last week with several Trump officials including Stephen Miller, and the head of the Homeland Security Department being heckled in a restaurant, and what happened to Sarah, I think it looks like a direct consequence of the child separation policy that just outraged a lot of people.

I think, you know, whether you feel like it is an appropriate means of protest or not, depends a lot on how bad you think that policy is. And how you important it is to show -- to show some resistance to it, and if you saw the interview with the woman who owns the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, the Washington Post, she was very thoughtful about this.

She talked to her staff, and there were some people who were gay on the staff, who objected to some Trump policies, and there were other who objected to what's going on down at the border, she thought about it, she talked to her staff, and she decided that her own conscious, she could not serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who she saw as a sort of propaganda tool of some despicable policies.

And she did something that's well within her rights, and as Sarah very politely to leave. You know, what you think about that depends on what you think about those policies. I would say from Sarah Sanders' response to that, I thought was very unusual, using her White House official Twitter account, to publicly talk about this, talk about the woman, and talk about the restaurant.

I haven't really seen presidential press secretaries blast out, you know, a sort of civilian who they had a run in with in a private space, sort of blast them using their official Twitter account, I frankly found that somewhat -- you know, as someone who covers government officials, I found that curious and somewhat objectionable.

CABRERA: Eliana, Sarah Sanders has seemed to get a bit of a brunt of some of this anti-Trump sentiment. And you recall the White House Correspondents' dinner, and comment remain over her looks, now she's kicked out of this restaurant in front of her family, is this taking a personal toll on White House staff?

ELIANA JOHNSON, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: I do think it's taking a personal toll on a lot of White House staffers, but I would say nobody is forcing them to be there, they're there, you know, of their own volition, but I do think it raises a broader question.

You know, this restaurant owner is perfectly within their rights to ask Sarah to leave, and Sarah did so peaceably, it doesn't seem like it was, you know, a particularly hostile incident.

[17:25:00] But if -- while, of course she's perfectly within her rights, I think it raises the question of, is this a society we want to live in where political differences or disagreements are elevated into these bigger issues, where the people we disagree with can't go dine in restaurants without being heckled, or being asked to leave.

And that's what I think is a bit more troubling about this, because it is people who work for Trump right now, but will it be people who work in Democratic administrations next time heckled by a conservative, and to me, I think, that's what's a little bit more unnerving about this, because while of course everybody's within their rights here, to me it's just not the kind of society I really find pleasant to live in.

CABRERA: Yes. And people aren't even willing to talk to each other, or to be in the same space with each other. Daniel, I thought it was really interesting what you wrote about being a young Trump staffer, and living in D.C., right?

Young staffers have had to develop a keen sense of just when to have the talk with romantic partners. I still been able to hook up with women says a male former White House staffer, but I know that I need to be careful about broaching the Trump stuff, I just know that going in, I need to be able to get it out at the right time, and not get it out too early to the point where I was like, hey, I work for Trump, you should stop talking to me.

But late enough, and not eventually, they know that there is this information floating out there that I work for this guy, and hopefully you have now see that I'm a horrible person, and we can go further with this. It is so eye opening, Daniel, and you've talked to dozens of current, and former Trump staffers.

DANIEL LIPPMAN, REPORTER, CO-AUTHOR OF POLITICO'S PLAYBOOK: I did. And, you know, what I found is that a of people going into the Trump campaign, or the White House, they expected kind of a glamorous job, they would be able to get a lot of new friends, and have cache for the job market after their tenure in the administration, and what I found is that a lot of people, they have had a lot of trouble just operating in D.C. as private citizen.

It's hard for some of them to get dates, they get heckled when they leave the White House as a staffer, you know, friends don't talk to them sometimes from their former lives who are liberal, and so, you know, while they do have cool jobs, and they are making an impact on what they believe in policy wise, they have been ostracized in D.C., a city that is voted for Trump only four percent in 2016.

CABRERA: And, Eliana, when you consider where Daniel is reporting, why would anyone want to work in this White House?

JOHNSON: Yes. I mean, it's a good question. I think you hear a lot of reasons, and it's something that I ask, you know, some of my sources in the White House, and they say that they either -- they feel they are advancing policies that are doing good. Many times they feel they're preventing bad things from happening, and because this president is so aberrant in a lot of ways, they feel they have more of an impact than they would in other White Houses, and so when you take the personal stuff out of it, they really do feel like they can have a lot of impact in the Trump administration.

CABRERA: Ryan, could you argue there is some hypocrisy however in this anti-Trump movement, that's the same people who are outraged over a baker refusing to make a cake for a gay couple's wedding are the same people defending this restaurant owner who kicked out the White House press secretary?

LIZZA: Well, I think the argument -- you know, we're not talking about any sort of bigotry, or any protected class of people, right? So we have a constitution, and we have laws that protect people based on discrimination against gender, sexual orientation, race, right? You're not a protected class of citizen because you happen to work for Donald Trump.

Sarah Sanders is, you know, a grown woman. She's working for one of the most controversial politicians ever to be in the White House, and I think she should expect there's going to be some serious, serious push back considering the extremes in policy that this White House is pushing.

So, you know, if you're the White House press secretary, you're a pretty powerful person in this country, though a lot of restaurants, you know, even in Lexington, Virginia, so I think it's not quite the same as the argument where we're talking about a protected class of people as we do with the bakers, and the same-sex marriage.

CABRERA: Right. Got to leave it there, guys, Ryan Lizza, Daniel Lippman, and Eliana Johnson, thank you all.

LIZZA: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Coming up, CNN gets rare access to a facility in New York that is housing some of the undocumented children spent there from the border.

[17:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The fate of more than 2,000 migrant children separated from their parents under President Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy remains unclear. CNN visited a facility in New York where some of those youngsters have been taken, and as CNN's Jason Carroll reports, workers are offering medical assistance to these children while trying to help them contact their families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY KOHOMBAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CHILDREN'S VILLAGE: I am hooked by this policy because I know we are greater than this.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeremy Kohomban runs Children's Village in Westchester. It's one of several facilities in and around New York City tasked with caring for children separated from their parents at the border, and it was the only facility in the area willing to open its doors to us.

KOHOMBAN: This kind of forced separation has permanent damage, both on the...

CARROLL (on camera): Psychological damage.

KOHOMBAN: Psychological, the fear, the anxiety, the fear of the unknown, right? If this could happen to me, what else could happen to me?

CARROLL (voice-over): He's talking about the 20 children he and his staff have been caring for since they arrived a few days ago.

[17:35:02] The youngest is 9-years-old, the oldest is 17.

KOHOMBAN: Actually, the biggest concern that our children have had recently is about -- for their parents. It's not even about themselves. They're like is my mom OK? Is my dad going to be OK? Where are they? What's happening? That's the anxiety.

CARROLL: Kohomban says he isn't able to give more details about the children in his care, but he was still able to give us a sense of what happens when children arrive here.

KOHOMBAN: They come in here. We have nurses 24/7, and we have a team of doctors.

CARROLL: First stop is a medical exam. Many arrive with conditions such as lice and chicken pox. But the doctor here says it's their emotional damage that can be the toughest to treat.

DOUG WAITE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, THE CHILDREN'S VILLAGE, WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK: Believe me, I was just as indignant, and outraged by our recent policies, that hopefully are shifting, of removing kids from their parents because we know that this causes permanent trauma to the child, and can affect their brain development, especially the younger kids.

CARROLL: The children here stay in rooms that look much like this. There is also a recreation center where play is encouraged.

EDWIN DELEON, ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, THE CHILDREN'S VILLAGE, WESTCHESTER, NEW YORK: Children will cry, but if you bring fun to them -- a fun spirit -- sports, stuff that it just takes their mind off what really is going on in their lives. That's what we try to do best.

CARROLL: Most importantly, this facility has helped some of the children contact their parents.

KOHOMBAN: They are elated, they're relieved, and it's a first step to building trust.

CARROLL (on camera): OK.

KOHOMBAN: They begin to trust us.

CARROLL: Yes.

KOHOMBAN: You know, I said we'll find your mom, we know where she is. Now trust us for the next step.

CARROLL: Yes.

KOHOMBAN: This is difficult work to do when kids don't trust you.

CARROLL: Yes.

KOHOMBAN: It's impossible to do it.

CARROLL (voice-over): For Kohomban, this is also personal. He's a first-generation American from Sri Lanka. His goal now is reunite these children with their families, quickly. It could be weeks, months? Any sort of -- any sort of time line?

KOHOMBAN: It depends on -- you know, it's hard to -- hard to answer that question, but it's -- I believe the word I could use to best describe is expediency is what it's all about.

CARROLL: OK.

KOHOMBAN: We don't want to keep kids away from families one minute longer than they already have been.

CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Westchester, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Coming up, anger and grief swelling around the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager in Pittsburg, a love report next.

[17:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Today, family and friends are saying goodbye to Antwon Rose Jr., the 17-year-old shot and killed by a police officer in Pennsylvania last week. His family and protesters say he should still be alive. A visitation and memorial service are taking place right now in Homestead, Pennsylvania.

Demonstrators have marched in protest for four straight days over the police killing of this unarmed black teenager. They are demanding the recusal of that district attorney, and that Pennsylvania's attorney general take over the case.

Marchers also want the officer fired and arrested. Let's go live to Ryan Nobles in Homestead, Pennsylvania this afternoon. Ryan, what is on the hearts and minds of these mourners as they pay their respects to Antwon Rose?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, having been on the ground here for a couple of days, I can tell you that while so much of the focus has been on the investigation, today is really about the life of this young man, Antwon Rose Jr.

We have seen a lot of tears here today, a lot of hugs, a lot of people just trying to lift each other up as they deal with this tragedy. In the next two days here in Pittsburg are really going to be focused on grieving the loss of this young man's life.

Protesters have decided they are not going to take to the streets of Pittsburgh tonight to protest the way they see this investigation heading the wrong way, they want the family to have the opportunity to use these two days to remember their son.

That being said, they are ready to kick those protests back up as early as Tuesday, if they feel that they are not getting the progress in this case that they are looking for, and specifically that is the recusal of the district attorney Stephen Zappala.

They do not believe that he can investigate this case properly, and they want Josh Shapiro, the attorney general to take over. Now, Ana, it's important to point while these protests have been very peaceful, there is a lot of tension, and a lot of anger.

And essentially, they are going to continue unless they get what they want. And right now there are no signs from either the district attorney's office or from the attorney general that this case is going to go anywhere other than the district attorney's office. So that stalemate continues. And as a result, we expect the tension here in Pittsburg to continue as well. Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Ryan Nobles, stay on top of it. Thank you. And we'll be right back.

[17:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: As we have been seeing the confusion and outrage continue over the Trump administration, and what it is doing to try to reunite now some 2,000 children who are still separated from their parents who cross the border. And now they are more questions about what Trump's executive order means for immigrants going forward.

That brings us to your weekend presidential brief. The segment we bring you every Sunday night, highlighting some of the most pressing national security information, the President will need when he wakes up tomorrow.

And joining us now, CNN National Security Analyst, and former National Security Council adviser Sam Vinograd, she spent two years in the Obama administration helping to prep for the president's daily brief.

So, Sam, we are seeing a lot of presidential tweets, there's this ongoing debate about U.S. immigration policy, and how to curb illegal immigration. How does what we are hearing s line up with reality?

SAM VINOGRAD, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, CNN: Well, it doesn't, Ana. President Trump's own State Department issued a strategy over a year ago on Central America. Central America is the origin region for about 50 percent of the illegals trying to cross our southern border.

It talks about the need to address underlying conditions like poverty and violence in origin countries to actually deter illegal immigration. And the President tweeted that these migrants fleeing these countries when they go up to Mexico that is like a walk through Central Park, this couldn't be further from the truth.

UNICEF estimates that thousands of children every month make this journey, and are at risk of kidnapping, or trafficking, or even death. And the countries that many of these migrants are coming from are really dangerous, and really poor.

[17:50:04] El Salvador is the most dangerous country on earth that's not at war. And Guatemala, one in two children under the age of five is malnourished. And in Mexico about 46 percent of the population is suffering from poverty. So border walls and child abuse are not going to solve these problems.

CABRERA: I have to wonder what the world is thinking outside our own borders, what these other countries may be thinking watching this play out. We have the king and queen of Jordan visiting the White House tomorrow. Do you think this immigration issue will come up?

VINOGRAD: I think that it will, and I think that it's going to be a role reversal. For generations we have urged countries like Jordan to do more, to help refugees, to help vulnerable people. We've given billions of dollars to Jordan to support their absorption of refugees from Syria and Iraq, 635,000 Syrians are currently in Jordan.

That means that Jordan is taking in people in need, and we're turning them away. So when the king and queen are at the White House, they may tell the President that they're taking people in, they're not separating children from their families, and I think they'll urge the President to do the same.

CABRERA: We also have Russia hosting the World Cup right now. Meantime, our National Security Adviser to the President John Bolton is also visiting Russia. How do you see that going?

VINOGRAD: I think it's smart that Bolton's going. He's probably doing substantive advance work for the bilateral meeting that Trump will have with President Putin. But Putin's having a ball. He is meeting with all of our friends and family, from Merkel and Macron, to Modi and Abe.

He just met with the President of South Korea. A South Korean President has not made an official visit to Russia since 1999. So Putin's really knocking it out of the park in terms of spending time with our friends, and strategizing with them on issues like trade, and Iran, and ways to really counter actions that we're taking.

And he views that all as a win against us because he sees the world in such zero sum terms. Now, Putin is under some pressure. His domestic favorability ratings are declining. But unlike President Trump, he's not fixated and obsessed with these numbers. He doesn't run a democracy. So the President should expect Putin to go into their bilateral feeling really good.

CABRERA: All right, Sam Vinograd, as always, thank you.

VINOGRAD: Thanks.

CABRERA: It is a historic moment that has been decades in the making.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Foreign Language)

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CABRERA: As of midnight it is now legal for women in Saudi Arabia to drive. That's right, drive. And some wasted no time getting behind the wheel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: This news just in to CNN. Stormy Daniels will be interviewed by federal prosecutors in New York tomorrow. This as part of their investigation into President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen, according to a source. You'll remember this centers around that $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels. Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, declined to comment when the Washington Post first reported this news.

Overseas, women in Saudi Arabia can do something now they could never do before without fear of prosecution, or even jail. They can drive legally. At midnight, the kingdom lifted its controversial decades- old ban on female drivers.

It's part of reforms pushed by Saudi Arabia's crown prince, and it comes after years of campaigning by activists who have sometimes been arrested and imprisoned for their efforts. Jomana Karadsheh caught up with some of these first Saudi women to get behind the wheel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here we are today with one of the first women to get on the road this morning in Jeddah. This is Rosanna Benoui (ph). So how does it feel?

ROSANNA BENOUI (PH), NEW SAUDI DRIVER: Exciting. I'm overjoyed. It's -- I didn't even have breakfast. I just went out of the house.

KARADSHEH: So did you ever think this would happen?

BENOUI (PH): Yes, I did. And I remember I was in the car when I got the news. My best friend called me on the mobile, and she's like oh, my god, you won't believe this, it's all over the news. I was like yelling in the car.

KARADSHEH: How is this going to change your life?

BENOUI (PH): I don't know. It's already changing my life. I'm thinking of gas now. Like on all levels. You know, with the family, with myself, having the accessibility, and option is really what it's about.

KARADSHEH: You told me that you have children, and this gives you the ability to take your children. I can see a car seat already in the back.

BENOUI (PH): And I think that's one of the -- the nice things about driving, is that you can go with your kids, and like have memories, and like go on road trips. It's also a bonding thing for the family.

But also I think driving is good for practical things, but sometimes not just practical things. It's nice sometimes just to have the freedom to go and ride, you know, just take a drive. So I think it's both of those things.

KARADSHEH: What's next for women in Saudi Arabia?

BENOUI (PH): Oh, my god. Like everything. It's happening. It's now. I think everything is now, now, now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And that was Jomana Karadsheh reporting. A Saudi government official says more than 120,000 Saudi women have already applied for their driver's licenses. You're in the CNN Newsroom. Thank you for staying with me. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. And on the U.S. border with Mexico this weekend, little boys and girls, many of them without their parents are behind locked doors on concrete floors.