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Toxic Gas Threat from Erupting Volcano in Iceland; Several Civil Rights Groups Sue Over Texas Immigration Law; Rite Aid Banned from Use of Facial Recognition for Five Years. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 20, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Meanwhile, the more they act like they're trying to negotiate, the more they remind everyone that they're in charge.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Wow. Kimberly Dozier, always appreciate the analysis. Thanks so much.

DOZIER: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, new concerns about that volcano that's been erupting in Iceland since Monday. Less lava is shooting out right now, but officials are worried about a new threat to the country's capital. The details just moments away.

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[15:35:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Iceland's huge volcanic eruption remaining a dangerous threat to it's Southwestern Peninsula, even though it has gotten less huge. We should be very clear about that.

Officials say that the lava flow's intensity is easing. Scientists are still assessing the risks here. They say it's too soon, though, to let evacuated residents return home.

SANCHEZ: And that means they'll likely spend Christmas under a weeks- long evacuation order. CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is on the ground south of the volcanic activity in the town of Grindavik. He has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The authorities here are saying that the volcanic activity is subsiding a little bit, but certainly the danger by far isn't over. Of course, in the initial hours after the first eruption took place, we saw that massive wall of magma coming from that fissure and some of the lava being spewed hundreds of feet into the air. Also, those lava flows coming from that as well, moving laterally into the immediate area.

That's calmed down a little bit. The authorities first saying that they believe there was about five vents that were still active, still spewing, again, lava hundreds of feet into the air. Now they say it's about three vents that are still going.

At the same time, the authorities do say there still is a lot of activity going on, and they say there could be new vents and new fissures opening up across that fault line that is going on there, with, of course, a magma tunnel that goes all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. So, the authorities here are definitely still very much on high alert. They've cordoned off the immediate area.

And then you have that town of Grindavik, which has been so affected by all this. It was evacuated a long time ago. The residents have now been told that they can't go back until at least Christmas, which, of course, isn't really that surprising considering something that looks like the gates of hell has essentially just opened up in their backyard.

Nevertheless, as of right now, luckily, no one has been injured in this eruption, and the authorities do say that they have the situation under control.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And our thanks to Fred Pleitgen for that.

Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour.

Boats are being used to rescue trapped residents in Maine with nearly 100 roads and bridges closed due to downed trees, flooding, and storm damage. Utility crews are working overtime to restore power to more than 250,000 customers. The storm has claimed at least two lives, and two other people remain missing after their car was swept away in the flooding.

Also, authorities are investigating the cause of a deadly helicopter crash. The news helicopter went down in a wooded area of Washington Township, New Jersey, killing both the pilot and the photographer. WPVI officials say they are not yet releasing the names of the crew members because family members are still being notified.

And the final 11 military nominees blocked by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville have been unanimously approved by the Senate. This follows a months-long standoff which delayed the confirmation of more than 450 flag and general officers to bipartisan backlash, pressuring the senator ultimately to drop the majority of his objections earlier this month after the Pentagon claimed the blockade was causing serious damage to the military.

Tuberville's hold was in protest of the Pentagon's abortion travel policy. The senator's capitulation came without any compromise from the Defense Department on that policy, though he did face a lot of backlash ultimately from those within his own party, and that was ultimately the impetus that brought this all to a head.

Still ahead, civil rights groups are now suing the state of Texas, claiming the new law that makes it a crime to enter the state illegally is unconstitutional. We'll be speaking with an attorney for one of the groups that is challenging the new law.

[15:40:00]

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KEILAR: Just days after the governor of Texas signed a controversial new law that makes it a state crime to cross into Texas illegally, U.S. officials tell CNN that smugglers and pseudo-travel agencies are behind a recent record-breaking surge of migrants.

Customs and Border Protection officials say these agencies work with organized transportation networks that advertise travel to America's southern border and then connect migrants to smugglers. Over the last 24 hours, border officials have processed more than 10,000 migrants who unlawfully crossed into the U.S. These are new images showing some groups lined up along the Texas state line there in Eagle Pass. It's a crossing the Biden administration was forced to shut down to send resources elsewhere.

Aron Thorn is a senior staff attorney with the Beyond Borders program of the Texas Civil Rights Project. His group joined the ACLU's lawsuit against Texas. Aron, thanks for being with us to talk about this.

First off, tell us about concerns that you have about how this law would affect the Latino community in Texas as well as immigrants who do have legal claims.

ARON THORN, SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY, BEYOND BORDERS PROGRAM, TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT: Yes, absolutely. This law, by its very terms, allows any peace officer throughout the state of Texas from the borderlands to miles, you know, thousands of miles into the interior to arrest and detain someone who they suspect being in the country unlawfully.

[15:45:00]

Take them in front of a Texas judge who also has no knowledge of immigration law, who can order them to drive that person to a port of entry and demand that they leave the country. It's an unprecedented attempt to grab what is a clearly federal power.

KEILAR: So, your worry is that it basically does an end run around the federal process and any kind of protections that there are federally.

There was a somewhat similar bill in Arizona, went all the way to the Supreme Court. If this one does, too, considering the court is obviously more conservative now that it previously let a key and controversial part of Arizona's law stand, do you worry the Supreme Court OKs the Texas bill?

THORN: Well, this law, SB4, is unprecedented in the breadth, much more broad, even than the law in Arizona. Allowing state officials to deport people is something that not even Arizona tried to do.

What Texas is trying to do is, you know, much, much broader than Arizona. And if Arizona's -- many of the policies that Arizona was proposing in that law were also struck down by the Supreme Court. And I think it's likely that you'll see Texas's attempt to grab even more clearly federal authority than what Arizona was trying to do over 10 years ago. I think you'll see the same result with Texas being told clearly. Immigration enforcement is the federal government's job and the federal government's job only.

KEILAR: The law is slated to take effect on March 5th. That's really not that far away. Can you realistically get a ruling before then to put it on hold?

THORN: Absolutely. We are going to, you know, do everything in our power to try to enjoin this law from going into effect by that point. We have to try everything that we can. Allowing this law to go into effect will put a target on the back of immigrant communities throughout the state of Texas.

KEILAR: So, playing a little bit of devil's advocate here, and also because when you do read the dissenting opinion in the Arizona case, there was clearly a lot of, I guess, sympathy on the part of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for this idea that states should be able to protect who is coming in and out and staying within their borders.

The border crisis is worsening. We see this record number of crossings on Monday. Congress seems incapable and unwilling to address it. Why shouldn't it come down to states to address what it seems the federal government is not capable or willing to in some points here?

THORN: You know, addressing immigration crises like what we're seeing at our southern border, which is at its heart a humanitarian crisis, addressing that humanitarian crisis with only criminal enforcement, with a seemingly unlimited amount of money and resources and ideas that are based on criminalizing and being cruel to people, clearly does not work.

And so, the federal government and the state government have now together spent 30 years and billions of dollars attempting to address this problem with criminalization, with deterrence measures that clearly have not worked. And so, enforcing it in this unlawful way also will not solve the problem at the southern border.

Aron, thank you so much for your time today. Obviously, we'll be watching this here over the next few months before it goes into effect.

THORN: Thank you.

KEILAR: And when we come back, drugstore chain Rite Aid has agreed to a five-year ban from using facial recognition technology. This comes after federal officials found the chain falsely accused customers of crimes and unfairly targeted people of color. More on that next.

[15:50:00]

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KEILAR: The FTC is cracking down on the use of artificial intelligence at one of America's biggest drugstore chains. SANCHEZ: Yes, Rite Aid has agreed to stop using facial recognition technology for the next five years after they were accused of wrongly identifying customers as criminals and unfairly targeting people of color.

CNN's Matt Egan joins us now with the details. Matt, walk us through what happened here.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris and Brianna, this feels like something out of a sci-fi film. Regulators say that Rite Aid used this AI-powered facial recognition technology to find customers deemed likely to shoplift or commit other crimes. Some of these customers were denied entry, others were detained or searched.

But here's the problem. The technology is far from perfect. And so, what actually happened was, according to the FTC, they identified customers wrongly as criminals. And in some cases, they even accused them of being criminals in front of their friends and family.

Let me read you what the FTC said here.

Quote: Rite Aid's reckless use of facial surveillance systems left its customers facing humiliation and other harms, and its order violation put customers' sensitive information at risk.

The FTC found that this technology used by Rite Aid unfairly targeted people of color. It was mostly used in neighborhoods with large Black, Latino, and Asian communities. Now, we should note that Rite Aid has agreed to a five-year ban from using facial technology here.

[15:55:00]

We should also remember they actually filed for bankruptcy in October. So, this settlement with the FTC is subject to approval from a bankruptcy court judge.

Now, for its part, Rite Aid put out a statement saying that they're pleased to move this matter behind them, but they're pushing back on some of these allegations.

Rite Aid said that quote: We fundamentally disagree with the facial recognition allegations in the agency's complaint. The allegations relate to a pilot program the company deployed in a limited number of stores.

Rite Aid also notes that they stopped using this technology three years ago, before the FTC launched this investigation. Still, though, Boris and Brianna, I think that these allegations from the FTC are only going to raise more concerns about the privacy and security implications around facial recognition technology. And they're going to also continue to raise doubts as this technology is rolled out elsewhere, including at malls and at stadiums and other stores.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly does. Matt, thank you. Very interesting report that we know you'll keep following.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts after this short break.