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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Border Rush During Immigration Debate; New Momentum For Immigration Reform; Instagram Now With Video!; NFL Star Tied To Murder Probe; New Jersey Bans Trash Talking In High School Sports

Aired June 20, 2013 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

The "National Lead": two senators say they're offering up bipartisan solution to save the immigration deal. But according to some patrol agents, the mere talk of a deal may already be having a side effect at the border.

"The World Lead": Four years, that's how long American soldier Bowe Bergdahl has been in enemy hands. What or who is the U.S. willing to give up to the Taliban to finally get him back?

And "The Sports Lead", a jogger finds a man dead in an industrial park outside Boston, murdered. What does that have to do with a New England Patriots player? Well, that's what police want to know.

(MUSIC)

TAPPER: We begin with the politics lead and hold the phone -- Congress could actually be on the verge of getting something accomplished. We learned just a couple of hours ago that a bipartisan group of senators managed to work out a deal to help garner support for the immigration bill. The proposed amendment would double the number of border agents along the southern border of the U.S. to nearly 40,000. It will also add 700 miles of security fence along the Mexico border and only once that happens could 11 million immigrants living here illegally be put on a path to citizenship.

The deal is supposed to appease House Republican especially, who say border security, not citizenship, is the biggest immigration issue. We'll have to wait and see if the bill goes far enough to soothe those concerns, especially since Speaker John Boehner seems reluctant to even bring it to the House floor.

And in the meantime, with all this talk of immigration reform, more and more people are making a run to the border, hoping to get into the U.S. before it's too late.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): The biggest rhetorical hurdle in passing an immigration reform bill is the lack of literal hurdles on the border. And now, there's a fear that people are flocking to cross the U.S. border with Mexico illegally because of the improved chance of becoming a legal resident. Border patrol agents have apparently arrested some with that motivation.

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Since the last three months since we've had a discussion ongoing in Congress about immigration reform, the reports I've gotten from some of my contacts have said that the number of attempted crossings has increased. Is that accurate?

MICHAEL FISHER, U.S. BORDER PATROL CHIEF: This particular year, yes, sir, we have seen an increase of attempted entries. The reasons and motives behind that are varied, some of which is hearing sequestration, some of which is hearing immigration reform and some of it is hearing they just want to come and be joined with their families.

TAPPER: Recent Senate hearings on border security revealed that arrests of people illegally crossing the border have jumped this year.

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Apprehensions are up this year, on the border, right?

FISHER: Approximately 13 percent compared to last year, sir.

TAPPER: And they were up last year too by approximately 9 percent, the first increase since Fiscal Year 2005. The Department of Homeland Security says apprehensions are a key indicator of the flow of undocumented immigrants across the border. So as apprehensions go up, the thinking that the number of those crossing illegally including the ones not caught also is rising. But those supporting the new immigration reform efforts say these new undocumented immigrants will not benefit from any bill.

(on camera): Anecdotally I've heard there are people making their way across the border illegally who are doing so because they hope they will be able to become citizens because of this immigration reform bill. Have you heard those stories from Arizona or elsewhere?

MCCAIN: As far as the increased crossing of the border, I think part of it has to do with the economy. Part of it has to do with sequestration. Anyone who came after December 31st, 2011 will not be eligible for this legalized status and eventual path to citizenship.

TAPPER (voice-over): And they say a key part of the new immigration bill is that the government has to prove the borders are more secure before any undocumented immigrants are put on a path to citizenship as Senator Marco Rubio told CNN's Dana Bash earlier today.

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: No one who has violated our immigration laws will become a legal permanent resident unless all five of these things, the agents, the fence, the technology, the E- verify and the entry-exit tracking system, unless all five happen. No one who has violated our immigration laws could become a legal permanent resident.

TAPPER: But an independent review of the bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it will only reduce illegal border crossings by 25 percent. So now the senators from both parties who are pushing the bill are adding an amendment to double the number of border patrol agents and complete 700 miles of fence along the U.S./Mexican border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And here to talk about the latest on immigration reform. I'm joined by a key senator, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. He and Senator Joven brokered the border security deal that is expected to help gain Republican support for this "Gang of Eight" immigration bill. Senator, thanks for joining us.

SENATOR BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: Thank you, Jake. Good to be with you.

TAPPER: So let's first talk about this agreement. Twenty thousand new border patrol agents, 700 miles of fence, E-verify system, but what about those who overstay visas? The senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center told me he estimates a little over 40 percent of the 11 million in the U.S. illegally came into the U.S. legally and overstayed their visas as opposed to those who snuck across the border. What does this amendment or this bill in general do to stop that kind of illegal immigration?

CORKER: Right. So prior to a green card, Jake, which is 10 years out, the Exit Visa Program has to be fully in place. You're exactly right. I mean, that's been a big problem. The measure does have some interior security issues to go along with that, but that is the fourth trigger, if you will, in this bill. It does provide that the exit visa system has to be fully in place and I thank you for bringing that up because that's been a flaw in the past.

TAPPER: This agreement is meant to shore up Republican support. I want to play something that your colleague Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: We have to study this amendment. I don't know what's in it and what it will accomplish, but it doesn't seem to me to accomplish many of the key issues that I've talked about all along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Are you still trying to convince senators like Sessions or do you think some of just lost causes at this point?

CORKER: You know, Jake, on every issue you get a sense of those people that are trying to find their way to support a piece of legislation and those people that, you know, candidly regardless of what's in the bill likely are not going to support it. And so, you know, not to speak to specifically to the senator, you know, we've got a pretty good sense of those people who would like to see us solve this immigration problem, but want to see the border secured and that's why we put this effort together.

It sounds like I do hope Senator Sessions will read this legislation. It's going to be available in the next few hours. It's being vetted right now on both sides. But it really does. I mean, for those people whose issues, and he may be talk about others, those people whose issue has been border security, I just cannot emergency how you could see something being put in place that is stronger than what this legislation will call for.

TAPPER: How many future undocumented workers do you think will be able to get into this country under this bill with this new amendment? Do you have any sort of number?

CORKER: So I think the border will be secure. There will be always -- I mean, I think in any country, Jake, you have people who make it in through the country. There are all kinds of ways who have done it. We have a vast border and as you know, this is mostly focused on the southern border, not on the northern border.

But I think one of the key elements for us is to also improve our legal immigration component. I mean, that's one of the reasons we have so many undocumented workers today. People have come here, they want to be here to work in this great nation and we haven't really had the appropriate levels and ways for people to come in legally.

So the bill goes a long way -- not our amendment, but the base bill goes a long way toward dealing with that issue. Candidly, I'd like to see us have even more legal immigration and candidly I'd like to see a little bit more interior security. If we're able to pass this amendment and pass the bill out of the Senate, it's my hope that the House can make improvements.

That's why we have two bodies here. Hopefully that will occur. By the time if certainly comes back from conference, we'll have a bill that's even better than the one that leads the senators.

TAPPER: How many Republican senators you think will vote for this amendment and the bill in general if it's part of it?

CORKER: Yes, I think, you know, Jake, I think a good number, OK? I kind of hate to project specifically how many. I know that we've gotten a very good response. We've added co-sponsors to the amendment itself, but I think, again, this has to stand the test of time. People will be looking at it over the weekend. Many of the senators have seen summaries.

But I think we're going to garner a good deal of support and I think that will add a lot of momentum to this bill. And solve the problem that so many people in Tennessee and across this country have, which is the issue of dealing with border security. We haven't had those inputs in the past. And as you know, as you read out on the first of the program, those inputs all have to be in place before green card status can be achieved.

TAPPER: With this deal in place, are you willing to place chances that immigration reform will not only make it through the Senate but through the House?

CORKER: You know, Jake, I found in life that the best way to be successful is really to focus on the task at hand and do it in the best way that you can. Right now, we obviously need to close this amendment out, get it on the floor, and get it voted on. I do think that if we can pass this amendment with these tough, tough, tough border security measures, I think it does add a lot of momentum on the House side. I think it adds to the probability of something passing out of the House, but I would never predict what might happen in another body.

TAPPER: All right, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, thank you so much.

CORKER: Thank you, Jake.

Coming up in the "World Lead," a dangerous potential bargain, an American POW for the freedom of five Gitmo prisoners, is the Taliban willing to swap?

And the "Sports Lead," he's a high profile NFL star pursued not for his autograph right now, but for something else about a murder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Now it's time for the "World Lead." He's the only American soldier in the enemy hands. Now after four years in the Taliban's grip, there is new hope today that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl could finally be released as the U.S. prepares to engage the Taliban in new peace talks.

The State Department says those will likely begin in the coming days, even though Afghan President Hamid Karzai is throwing a wrench in the works. Karzai abruptly pulled out of the talks after the Taliban set up a new office in the country of Qatar, where they declared themselves the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

That is a rebranding that is going over about as well as new Coke, at least with Karzai. It's actually a rebranding. The Taliban used that name when they ruled Afghanistan. So Karzai thinks they're trying to present themselves as an alternative government. The U.S. expects the Taliban to again raise the idea of trading Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for Sergeant Bergdahl.

Last year, negotiations to trade five Gitmo prisoners for Bergdahl broke down. The State Department says no decisions have been made on a swap as Bergdahl waits to learn his fate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SGT. BOWE BERGDAHL: Get me, release me, please, I'm begging you bring me home, please. Please bring me home.

TAPPER (voice-over): That is Bowe Bergdahl, the only member of the U.S. military in enemy captivity. Bergdahl had just turned 27, but four years of his short life have been spent in captivity held by a group loosely affiliated with the Afghan Taliban. The Idaho native of captured near the Afghan/Pakistan border after just two months on the battlefield. Since his capture on a few propaganda videos proving he's alive have trickled out. Bergdahl's family is suffering as it waits for news, their son's life hanging in the balance.

ROBERT BERGDAHL, FATHER OF BOWE BERGDAHL: Thanks to you our POWs and MIAs are never forgotten and they never will be forgotten. Bowe, if you can hear me, you are not forgotten. So help me God you will come home. We will not leave you behind.

TAPPER: Bowe's father, Robert, even appealed to his son's captors in this YouTube video.

ROBERT BERGDAHL: I personally appeal to the generals, our family is counting on your professional integrity and honor to secure the safe return of our son.

TAPPER: In that video, Robert Bergdahl sports a long beard and had learned phrases in Arabic to better communicate directly. "New York Times" reporter, Elizabeth Bumiller spoke to Bergdahl's family as their patience with the government's progress on bringing him home wore thin.

ELISABETH BUMILLER, "NEW YORK TIMES" REPORTER: They had become frustrated by the U.S. government. They felt the government was foot dragging and decided to speak out themselves.

TAPPER: In e-mails to his family obtained by the late Michael Hastings and published by "Rolling Stone" magazine, Bergdahl made clear his disillusionment with the war before he disappeared. The future is too good to waste on lies, he wrote to his parents in his final e-mail home.

BUMILLER: His first letters home were very positive, but then he said the e-mails became much darker. His son seemed to feel that the military was not the Peace Corps with guns ideal that he had held up.

TAPPER: But this month his family received a different kind of letter, believed to be from their son delivered via the Red Cross.

DWIGHT MURPHY, BERGDAHL FAMILY FRIEND: That brings new-found hope. That's like sitting around a camp fire that's going out and all of a sudden you find that one more log.

TAPPER: So the family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl wait. Word of negotiations brings renewed hope that they can trade the yellow ribbons still hanging on their trees for the son that they represent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: A spokesman for the family said they are encouraged by the news of the negotiations and that they know their son has not been forgotten.

Coming up, Facebook unveils what it calls an exciting new feature that will forever change the way you use your Instagram app, but there's something about it that sounds oddly familiar.

And in sports, some David Beckham took the phrase celebrity crush a little too literally and it almost turned deadly. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Also in "Money News," anything you can do I can do better. That sums up the technology war going on right now between Facebook and Twitter. Today Facebook revealed a new upgrade to its photo sharing app, Instagram, that's that application that makes pictures look vintage and hipsterish.

Instagram will now let you record short 15-second videos on your phone that can you share instantly with your friends. Sound familiar? It's probably because it's almost exactly like the Vine app, which was recently purchased by Twitter. The main difference is that on Instagram's app, the videos are a little longer and you can use filters to make an all sorts of different colors even black and white. Confused? Well, maybe this will help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So this is my Vine account. I'm using it to introduce this segment, but of course, it's Vine so it's only 6 seconds. Whereas on Instagram video you have more time and you can also adjust the color.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Or even take out the color, as we did in that one, but there are all sorts of color hues you can use for the Instagram app. Let's find out a lot more about this from "The Street" columnist Rocco Pendola who is in Los Angeles. Rocco, welcome. Is this mainly Facebook's way of trying to take on Twitter, a clash of the tech titans?

ROCCO PENDOLA, COLUMNIST, THESTREET.COM: I hate saying negative things about Facebook because I have a little crush on Sheryl Sandberg and I respect everything she's done and I respect Zuckerberg. Here's a guy that started all this madness out of his dorm room, but, yes, it is a copycat. It's not all that different from what we were talking about a couple of weeks ago with Apple doing the Pandora copycat.

It's like you did the 6-second thing so we're going to do the 15- second thing. We're going to let you edit it a little bit more. It's unfortunate because as a platform, Facebook has one billion users and it needs to get better as a platform. It needs to continue along whatever vision Zuckerberg had when he started this thing, but that's not what he's doing.

He copied Twitter on hash tags. He copied Four Square on places. He's copying Twitter on Vine and he did the thing with the Facebook home app and had an HTC phone that was branded with Facebook. They both flopped. He's following the crowd and doing very expected things in lots of ways and I think in the long term that's a negative thing for the company.

TAPPER: Rocco, do you think since the Instagram videos are longer, 15 seconds as opposed to the 6 seconds for the Vine ones that that will be more appealing to advertisers? PENDOLA: Quite possibly. Now, for consumers, I still haven't been able to do my first Instagram video. It's still processing. It might be the iPhone's fault, the point is 15 seconds versus 6, it makes Vine a lot faster. I was able to put one up on Vine on my Twitter instantly. While the Facebook Instagram takes a bit longer. For advertisers it's great, but looking at the bigger picture of Facebook advertising, they are going after low hanging fruits.

There is this rush to mobile advertising by all these brands. Where are you going to go? You're going to go to the place with the most size and the most scale, the billion users I referenced. But is Facebook building a long-term proposition, something that will be multi-generational like television has for advertisers?

I don't feel like they are. If they were, we wouldn't have seen them roll out 15 million different advertising products and then have to stream it down here in the last couple of weeks. If they really knew what they were doing for advertising, if they really knew the impact it could have for clients, they would have had just two or three products, they would have been spot on and they would have went with that. But they're just throwing a bunch of stuff against the wall and saying let's figure out what's going to work.

TAPPER: All right, Rocco Pendola, Twitter, we should now reveal this week that changes are going to come to their video sharing application Vine, which I'm sure is not a coincidence. Rocco, thanks for joining us.

PENDOLA: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: He's one of the biggest names in the NFL and he's at the center of a murder mystery. How the investigation is intensifying minute by minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Now it's time for the Sports Lead. There is a murder mystery unfolding in Massachusetts and an NFL star is caught smack dab in the middle of the mess. Police have been searching the home of New England Patriots tight end, Aaron Hernandez. They are looking for clues that could help them sort out what happened to 27-year-old Oden Lloyd.

Lloyd was found dead less than a mile from the NFL player's home in a Boston suburb. He had been shot execution style. The victim's uncle says Lloyd and Hernandez knew each other. But the Patriot's player is not commenting on that or on anything despite the media swarm he has kept mum.

His attorney issued a statement saying there would be no comment until the investigation comes to an end. Meanwhile, we've learned Hernandez is also facing a civil suit involving a shooting at a Miami club. The plaintiff in the suit claims Hernandez shot him after getting into an argument.

Several people were almost crushed to death in China today just so they could snap a quick picture of David Beckham. The retired English soccer star turned up at a Chinese university in Shanghai and triggered a stampede that injured at least five people and even some police officers ended up at the bottom of the pile of screaming people. Beckham was named the Chinese soccer ambassador a few months ago.

They are the two most exciting words in sports, "game seven," one game to decide the NBA championship tonight. Legacy is on the line for both franchises and all anyone is talking about is a sweaty head band. When Lebron lost his head band in game six, it was like Clark Kent taking off his glasses. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and Miami's dramatic overtime win.

Rachel Nichols got the big scoop in a sit down with the king. Will he wear it or won't he?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dwyane Wade said I'm going to talk him into not wearing it in game seven. Can you give us the exclusive here?

LEBRON JAMES, MIAMI HEAT: I don't know. I don't know. It's a very tough decision. I got to decide if I'm going to wear it or not wear it, but I think I will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Tipoff is tonight at 8:30 Eastern and the Heat have home court.

Trash talking in sports used to be considered an art, Mohammad Ali, Reggie Miller. Well, in one state, the days of trash talking are over. Ironically it's in the state where Chris Christie is governor. New Jersey is banishing trash talking in high school sports starting this fall.

Players and their teams could be punished by the state's civil rights division for making harassing comments about an opponent's race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religion. Some critics are saying the state has no business in suppressing free speech, on the court or not.

Hash tag, you're it, we asked you for your favorite James Gandolfini moments in TV, movies or otherwise. At Gabin Wang tweeted, "when he appeared on Sesame Street to talk about his fears revealed the man's true character." At Team ODC sent in, "When Christopher tells Tony about Adriana, perfect mix of rage and compassion."

And @realmreynolds tweeted, "The A.J. suicide rescue, zero hesitation, suited in all, culmination of a lot of things there. We will miss you, James Gandolfini." That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over to Jim Acosta who is filling in for Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Jim?