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Biden Admin To Send 1,500 Troops To Southern Border; Biden, McCarthy To Meet Next Week As U.S. Nears Debt Cliff; Jury Asks What To Do If They Can't Reach Verdict In Proud Boys Case. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 02, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: How worried is the White House? The administration now sending hundreds of troops to the border as southern states brace for a surge in migrants with the pandemic-era Title 42 policy set to expire. But one border town is already inundated and has declared an emergency. We're going to take you there.

SCIUTTO: A college town on high alert, Authorities on a furious manhunt after three stabbings in a week. This near the UC Davis campus in California, the stabbings left two people dead. Police are now pleading for the public's help in identifying a suspect.

SANCHEZ: Plus, now they are trying to write their own story. Hollywood writers hitting the picket line today. We'll tell you what they're demanding and what it means for your favorite shows. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

DEAN: And we start this hour at the U.S. southern border. The Biden administration now confirming they are preparing to deploy an additional 1,500 troops as early as next week. The migrant crisis is expected to worsen as the Trump-era Title 42 policy is set to expire. The Department of Defense saying this about the operation just a short time ago.

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BRIG. GEN. PAT RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: For 90 days, these 1,500 military personnel who will be sourced from the active duty component will fill critical capability gaps such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry and warehouse support until CPB can address these needs through contracted support.

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DEAN: CNN's Rosa Flores is live at the border in El Paso, Texas. And Rosa, I know you've been following this for months and months. You've been there for other surges. Do you believe - are you seeing evidence the Biden administration is prepared for this? ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration has been preparing for this for more than a year, Jessica. And they're preparing also for the lifting of Title 42 to happen on May 11th, for a surge then but I don't know what else you could call what you see around me other than a surge. Take a look.

This is just one alley near downtown El Paso when you can see that there are hundreds of migrants on both sides of this alley. If you look here to my right, you'll see more migrants also some portable restrooms. These are some of the services that the city of El Paso is providing.

As you know, the city of El Paso has declared a state of emergency. These are some of the facilities that they're able to provide at this location. One of the things that the city of El Paso is very worried about is public safety, security, shelter - of course, that's why you see so many migrants and also transportation, because just imagine how many seats there are to travel outside of El Paso every single day.

And all of these individuals that are arriving, all these migrants that are arriving, they can only leave and they have only so many seats to depart the city. Now, the problem with many of these migrants that they're facing right now is they don't have money to exit the city of El Paso. And so they are trying to figure out how to get money.

Now back to the question about is the Biden administration prepared for this, the Biden administration has done many things to prepare in this year. A lot of the things you can see that they've increased capacity, they've increased the number of planes, flights, and also ground transportation so they can expel migrants, so they can do something called decompression. It's a fancy word for moving migrants where there's - where they're holding capacity is that capacity to areas where there is more space.

Now they're also doing things, Jessica, that you really can't see and these are policy changes ahead of the lifting of Title 42 on May 11. Here's the short of it. The Biden administration has expanded legal pathways for migrants to enter into the country.

But here is the caveat, there are also built in legal consequences for those who skirt the law, who enter the country illegally. There will be legal consequences.

Right now with Title 42, Jessica, one of the things that people - a lot of people don't realize is when migrants are expelled very swiftly back to Mexico, there is no legal consequence. That stops on May 11th. And that's one of the messages from the Biden administration is that once May 11th is here and Title 42 expires, there will be legal consequences for entering the country illegally, Jessica.

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DEAN: Yes. That's a key change right there.

All right. Rosa Flores for us in El Paso, thanks so much. Jim? SCIUTTO: Well, right now a manhunt is underway after a third stabbing near the University of California Davis campus, all this in just a week. This was the crime scene overnight there. Authorities now say a female is in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times.

Last week, two other people were stabbed to death. A 50-year-old man at a nearby Central Park on Thursday and a UC Davis student at Sycamore Park on Saturday night. Police say the suspect is male with long curly hair, around 5'6" to five 5'9" inches tall. At the time he was last seen wearing a black or blue sweatshirt carrying a brown backpack.

Police also say, though, it's too early in the investigation to tell if all of these crimes are necessarily connected. Sadly, that's not the only manhunt we're following. Several are underway across the country as we speak.

Two escapees from a Mississippi jail, they are still on the run. There were originally four of them, you remember, one was caught in Texas. Another dead in a burning building after an altercation with police. And in Texas, U.S. border control is on the lookout for the man accused of murdering five people in Cleveland, Texas.

Three manhunts we're talking about here.

CNN Security Correspondent, Josh Campbell. He's been following this story. So Josh, just to help people keep track, let's talk about the manhunt for the man who believes - is believed to have fled possibly back to Mexico after shooting these people, his neighbors in effect.

How are authorities responding to that possibility, right? I mean, we already know he entered the country, I believe, four times illegally prior, shows some ability to go back and forth across that border. Do they think that's what's happened here?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're spot on, Jim? And that is the main concern here. I'm told by a law enforcement source that border control officers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are on alert. They've been briefed on this case. They have the suspect, Francisco Oropeza's photograph and they are on the lookout.

And just as you mentioned, we're learning from a law enforcement source with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that there were those four separate instances in the past where the suspect had made his way to the United States, was deported and then came back. That was in March of 2009, six months later in September. He's, again, deported from the United States. Then in January of 2012, he's once again deported.

In that same year, he's convicted of a DWI and served some amount of jail time. But just some four years later, he's again back in the U.S. and then deported again. And so it gets to what you just said, Jim, that authorities are concerned that because he's so adept at making that crossing between Mexico and the United States and the fact that he is a Mexican national who could have a support network there, that he may have tried to flee after allegedly committing this heinous act. So again, border officials certainly on high alert. I'm also told that the U.S. government is actively messaging to media in Mexico about this $80,000 reward for information leading to his apprehension. They're concerned that if there are people in Mexico who knows - know where he is, they want you to pick up the phone. You could be the collector of an $80,000 reward if you provide that information.

Finally, back here in the United States, just northeast of Houston in Cleveland, where these murders took place. Authorities there are still fanning out some 250 law enforcement officers conducting what's called the grid searches. They're basically trying to go, leave no stone unturned for any area where he might have fled to. They're also going, Jim, door to door, knocking on doors asking residents have you seen this person asking if they had doorbell camera footage that authorities can review just to see if they get some glimpse of him.

Authorities say they're receiving a lot of tips from the public, particularly after that reward was announced. But as of this point that we know of, no credible lead, so authorities are certainly concerned that this very armed and dangerous suspect is still on the loose, Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes, that's what you do when you have leads, right? You knock on doors.

Josh Campbell, thanks so much.

So Boris, that's three manhunts. You have the one for the Cleveland, Texas shooting; you have the one for the stabbings at UC Davis and, of course, the two remaining escapees from that Mississippi jail.

SANCHEZ: A lot of information to get through, some major investigations underway. So let's get some perspective now from someone who knows about manhunts.

We're joined by Andrew McCabe who's the former Deputy Director of the FBI.

Sir, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. Let's pick up where Josh Campbell just left off, the search for Francisco Oropeza, 38 years old, believed to have massacred his neighbors, including a nine-year-old child.

I understand that investigators found a cell phone that may have been tied to him. There were some clothes nearby. They got tracking dogs on it and then the trail went cold. What do you do in a situation like that?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Really tough situation, right? So you - this - you have a tension in what's happening in this search. It's taking place in an incredibly rural area. So - and officers need to be slow and deliberate in the way they search every facility, every structure, every vehicle that they come across, because this is a person we know has taken lives in the past and may still be armed.

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On the other hand, you have somebody fleeing possibly to get over the international border into Mexico and he's going absolutely as fast as he can. So there's a real - there's a tension in what's happening and officers trying to do this safely, but trying to get him before he gets too far in front of them.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a major sense of urgency seeing the brutal way that he murdered those folks. He's obviously armed and dangerous.

Let's pivot to the UC Davis stabbings. What I found interesting there was the profile of the victims. The very different. You have a 50- year-old man that was initially stabbed, then a younger college student and now a female. What does that tell you about the mentality behind these attacks about a potential suspect?

MCCABE: Very different victims, as you mentioned, all in outdoor areas, out - two in parks, which may have been chosen to avoid potential video surveillance. All those things combined suggest to me, Boris that this is someone who engaged in acts of passion. These don't sound like pre-planned homicides on known victims, but rather somebody who's taking advantage of an opportunity when he sees there's no one around. Here's a potential victim. He thinks he can get away with it without being seen, without being witnessed and he strikes out lethally, very, very volatile, dangerous situation for that town.

SANCHEZ: And obviously officials had installed a stay in place order. It led many to think that perhaps they had a location for the suspect zeroed in, but then it was lifted. What do you make of that?

MCCABE: That's typically what you see when there is a shelter in place. That's typically done when we know where an offender is and we expect that person may engage in additional violence. It's not realistic to maintain a shelter in place over an entire city for several days. So clearly, it was lifted and it does suggest that they do not know where this person is yet.

We don't have the offender or the suspect identified, but it can be very helpful to the investigation in that people out and about who understand what's happening, who've maybe heard the description of this - of the potential description of this offender as they see things, they should be calling law enforcement with anything they see - they feel as suspicious or possibly consistent with that description.

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially because as more time passes, there is a good chance that the trail gets colder and --

MCCABE: That's right.

SANCHEZ: -- especially when you consider those two escaped inmates that we didn't even get to talk about in Mississippi. They've been on the run for nearly a week.

Andy McCabe, always appreciate your perspective. Thank you so much.

MCCABE: Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Jim?

SCIUTTO: President Biden and the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they are going to meet next week to at least talk about the debt ceiling as Democrats and Republicans remain at a standoff talks-off, talks talking on new urgency as the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. could now default as early as June 1st, time is running out.

Plus, new details in the seditious conspiracy trial against five members of the Proud Boys, ahead we'll tell you what the jury asked a judge and what that could mean.

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SANCHEZ: President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are set to meet face to face next week, something they haven't done in months and the stakes couldn't be higher. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. could run out of cash on June 1st, she says, if those two leaders don't raise the debt limit and the U.S. defaults, it would be catastrophic, causing severe hardship to American families and this would go beyond financial concerns.

Yellen says it would also raise questions about "our ability to defend our national security interests." The thing is we don't fully know what a U.S. default would entail. It's never happened before.

So let's get some perspective now about these potential consequences with CNN's Matt Egan.

Matt, catastrophic, is that an accurate assessment of what would happen to the U.S. economy?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Boris, I think it is. I mean, the easiest way to spark a financial crisis would be to default on U.S. debt. Economists have compared it to financial Armageddon. So what does that actually look like?

Well, it's hard to say for sure, but it's very easy to see why there would be mayhem on markets in Wall Street, because for the longest time, U.S. debt had been treated as the safest stuff on the planet. So we could see stocks plunge, interest rates spike. By how much? I don't think anyone actually knows.

The U.S. credit rating would likely get downgraded severely. And Moody's Analytics says that even just a brief breach of the debt limit would cause a mild recession and nearly a million jobs would get wiped out. Plus, there's the fact that if the government doesn't have any money, they can't pay the benefits that so many people rely on.

You think about Social Security, Medicare, paychecks for military, for federal employees, all of this, I think explains why Sen. Elizabeth Warren, she told me today that Congress can't play political games with the debt ceiling. It's just too dangerous. Listen to what she have to say.

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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): We cannot be seen around the world to be a government that maybe will pay our debts and then again maybe we won't. No. People around the world count on the United States word as its bond. So we need the Republicans to just raise the debt ceiling. And look, if they want to negotiate over spending, bring it on.

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EGAN: Now, Republicans, of course, they want to talk about spending right now. Clearly, the two sides are very far apart. And listen, the clock is ticking just four weeks to get a deal done.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And the important thing about what Warren pointed out is that this is essentially about paying money that's already been spent. It's as if you don't pay the light bill in your household, the lights will be turned off.

EGAN: Exactly.

SANCHEZ: So the other question, Matt, what can average Americans do to try to prepare themselves for a potential default?

EGAN: Well, I think the hard truth is, there's really not much you can do. I mean, how do you escape a financial meltdown? How do you avoid a recession?

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RSM Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas puts it to me this way, he said a default would directly impact every single household that uses cash to make transactions, that owns a home, a car or has any revolving credit. He said, "There's nothing you can do."

Of course, the risk, though, is that a near default even causes people to get nervous, right? And families and businesses, they pull back on spending, right? Maybe you don't take that trip to Disney World that you planned on taking.

SANCHEZ: Right.

EGAN: Maybe you don't buy that other car that you planned on purchasing. And all of that, of course, has an economic impact. I think the fear is that even just a near default could actually cause the recession that everyone's worried about.

SANCHEZ: Or potentially as it has in the past, downgrade, the U.S.'s standing as a borrower.

EGAM: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Matthew Egan, thank you so much for that.

EGAN: Thanks, Boris. SANCHEZ: Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right. New developments in the seditious conspiracy trial of five members of the right-wing group, the Proud Boys. Today, the jurors sent a note to the judge hinting they could be headed towards a deadlock.

Katelyn Polantz, she's live in Washington. She's been covering the trial.

Katelyn, I wonder what we heard specifically from the jurors. Is that a clear signal they can't come to agreement and then what would that mean with the whole trial?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Jim, it's at least a hint of something from the jury that maybe they could be in a moment where they're deadlocked on, maybe a charge, maybe one of them or two of them. There are 10 charges they're considering here, obviously. Seditious conspiracy is the most serious.

But there are other obstruction charges, conspiracy charges, charges about assaulting police officers, all that the Proud Boys, the five leaders of the Proud Boys are accused of doing on January 6th or around that day.

Today in court, the jury was very diligent. They asked a question this morning. They asked actually a couple of questions. But the main one that consumed much of the court's time today was what to do if the jury can't reach a verdict.

Their notes specifically ask: "We did not receive instructions on what to do if the jury does not reach unanimity on a charge. How should we proceed in this scenario?"

So they're asking that question about what to do. And it took the court hours to figure out exactly what to say. This is a court that has been treading very carefully. This trial has gone on for several months, four months or so. It's really sucked up a lot of resources. The jury has been very diligent in asking questions. They've asked other questions about the law, about riot shields. They've wanted to see evidence and now they're suggesting that maybe they can't come to some sort of unanimity.

But the judge in this case, he talked to the lawyers for some time about what to do, got a little bit frustrated, and then ultimately arrived at a decision telling them, keep at it, try to get to a verdict and we are still going to be waiting.

This is day five of deliberations right now, Jim?

SCIUTTO: And this is a big deal, right, Katelyn, because it takes it away from just individual instances of wrongdoing, significant ones: attacking a police officer, breaking property, illegally entering the Capitol building to seditious conspiracy to create, in effect, a conspiracy and organized effort to disrupt the political process. POLANTZ: Yes. And this is one of the biggest - I mean, this really is the biggest trial that we have seen. It is by far the longest, and the Oath Keepers, that other right wing group, several of those members of that group, leaders of that group have gone through the court system and been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

But the Proud Boys, this is a different case, and that the leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, he's on trial here. He wasn't even on the grounds on January 6th. And so what happens here is a big test for the Justice Department, their January 6th investigation and a big question for this jury that they're going to have to keep working through.

SCIUTTO: Katelyn Polantz, we know you'll keep on top of it. Jessica?

DEAN: Coming up, your favorite shows might start airing reruns. We're going to take you to the picket lines of the writers' strike.

And the autopsy for the murder of founder of the - of Cash App has just been released. We've got details on that after this break.

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SANCHEZ: An update now on some of the top stories we've been following, a shelter in place order has been lifted at the University of California Davis following a third stabbing attack near campus. The latest incident happened last night. A woman is now in critical condition. This all started less than a week ago after two other stabbings, both of those fatal, a student was killed on Saturday night and a 50-year-old transient man was attacked last Thursday. Police say it's still too early to definitively link the three attacks. They've not named any suspects, but they have released a description and they've received hundreds of tips.

Meantime, another manhunt is intensifying in the U.S. and Mexico for the suspect in a mass shooting in Texas that killed five people, including this nine-year-old boy and his mother, Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman. Hundreds of law enforcement officers are now trying to track down their killer.

Police say that Francisco Oropeza committed a bloody rampage at his neighbor's home near Houston late Friday night. Authorities are now offering an $80,000 reward for information that might lead to this man's arrest.

And the search continues for two of the four inmates involved in a Mississippi jailbreak.

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One of them was caught in Texas, another was found dead in a burning building.