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Biden to Shield Undocumented Spouses and Children from Deportation; Undocumented Immigrant Arrested in Murder for Maryland Mom; California Post Fire Burns Over 15,000 Acres, Only 20 Percent Contained. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 18, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Sense of disloyalty from anyone.

[07:00:01]

You might think that he's got more to do right now than worry about a Virginia primary race, but there he was last night.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Two tiered system of justice, Anthony Fauci, Hillary Clinton's emailed COVID illegal aliens, you didn't hear once. The people of my district are talking about the things that they need. It was all just a laundry list of red meat talking points.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's you can't criticize Donald Trump in this party.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm familiar with McGuire. He's a Navy SEAL. I've done a lot of work with Navy SEALs. I appreciate what he's done for this country. It is difficult right now. If you're a candidate in the party, you do have to be very careful. And you saw that in how he responded to your questions.

RAJU: All right. Thanks guys. Thanks for a great discussion. And thank you for joining us. I'm Manu Raju in for Kasie Hunt. CNN News Central starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A sweeping change in immigration policy, new legal protections for half a million people standing by for a major announcement from the president.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Wildfires burning across the west now, thousands of residents in Southern California and New Mexico forced to flee their homes as fire crews try to stop the flames from spreading even further.

And breaking news, John Berman is on Cloud Nine, the Celtics bringing home a historic championship win cementing their place for the most championship titles in league history. They have done it.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman. Kate Baldwin is out. This is CNN News Central. BERMAN: And the Breaking News, we are popping the CNN News Central Candy Champagne. Better hope this doesn't explode. Until this morning, no NBA team had won 18 championships ever. Now, the Boston Celtics are NBA Champs for the 18th time. No team has done that ever. Now the Celtics have. Much more of our special live coverage of the 18th banner shortly.

But, first, let me put this down. We are standing by for President Biden to make a major announcement on immigration. He will unveil a sweeping new executive action that impacts hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. This provides legal protection for about half a million spouses of U.S. citizens and roughly 50,000 children. It comes just two weeks after a different executive action on immigration severely restricted the asylum process, and it comes a little more than a week before the historic presidential debate right here on CNN.

Arlette Saenz is at the White House this morning with much more on this announcement. Arlette, what are we expecting?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this really amounts to one of the most expansive immigration policies President Biden will enact during his time in office, as he's really trying to strike a very careful balance on immigration, which is one of the thorniest political issues he is facing heading into November's election.

Now, this plan would utilize a program known as Parole in Place, and it would give undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens the ability to apply for legal residency in the U.S. without fear of deportation, potentially eventually setting them on a path to citizenship.

Now, the current system requires that these individuals leave the country in order to apply for this legal residency that takes them away from their families, and also raises concerns about whether they would even be allowed back into the country if they were trying to return. So, this policy would now change that. It's expected to apply to people who have been living in the U.S. and married to a U.S. citizen since yesterday. This would allow them to work legally in the U.S. And it's estimated that this could impact, as you noted, 500,000 spouses. And 50,000 stepchildren of U.S. citizens, and it's expected that this would open up the application process by the end of the summer.

Now, this policy is coming just a few weeks after President Biden had announced that major crackdown, which essentially shut off the asylum process for migrants crossing into the country illegally. That is something that went into effect right away and really drew a lot of criticism from immigration advocates and progressives. The move that President Biden is announcing today is one way that he is trying to ease some of their concerns. This is also a plan that could have major impacts in key battleground states, like Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, as President Biden continues I'm going to talk a little bit try to appeal to Latino voters.

But border security and immigration has really risen among voters concerns heading into the November election. Many have said that they have trusted former President Donald Trump to handle that issue more than President Biden. And so what Biden and his team are trying to do with this policy is one, ease the concerns within their own base about how Biden has approached immigration, but then they are also trying to point to the fact that they are taking action, whether it's with this expansive plan, whether it's with efforts to try to stem the flow in border crossings at the U.S Mexico border at a time when Republicans had thwarted those bipartisan border talks.

[07:05:18]

So, President Biden really, at this moment, trying to strike a very careful and delicate balance when it pertains to one of the most complicated issues that face this country now for decades.

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz at the White House, we'll have much more on this announcement throughout the show. Thank you, Arlette. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Developing this morning, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma have arrested an undocumented migrant from El Salvador in the brutal killing of a Maryland mother of five. Rachel Morin was killed along a hiking trail in Belair, north of Baltimore, in August last year. For months, police have been searching for her killer.

Friday, this man, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez was arrested at a Tulsa bar. Investigators say he is a suspect not only in Moron's murder, he's also wanted for multiple other crimes here in the United States and in El Salvador as well.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is joining us now with more details. This is such a sad story. How exactly did they catch him?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Incredibly sad and unbelievable the way they caught him, DNA essentially, DNA, and it tells you all about the science and where it's going with DNA. They were able to match DNA from a home invasion in Los Angeles and his home country of El Salvador, helped him zero in on 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez.

The FBI, using genetic genealogy, basically identifying family members of the suspect, traveled to El Salvador to help identify Martinez- Hernandez. The DNA from Los Angeles scene led them to family members in El Salvador, and that led them to identify the suspect.

Now, Rachel Morin, who you mentioned, she was 37 years old and a mom to five kids. She was raped and killed last August while hiking near her Maryland home in Harford County. That's just north of Baltimore. Her mother, Patricia, attended the press conference announcing the capture of her daughter's killer. She was giving up hope that he would ever be found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICIA MORIN, RACHEL MORIN'S MOTHER: Just because I am so grateful that they have brought us to this place. Because at some of the points during this process, I didn't think that we were ever going to have an end, that it was going to be a cold case. So, I would like to applaud them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: So, rare for a family member to show up to something like that and then for them to applaud her.

Now, officials say Martinez-Hernandez crossed into the U.S. illegally in February 2023. He's a suspect of a murder in El Salvador in January 2023 and multiple crimes in the U.S. since he crossed here illegally. Authorities say he came to the U.S. to try to escape the El Salvador murder. Martinez-Hernandez was arrested at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and by their own account, officers say they found the suspect casually sitting at the bar and place him under arrest. Initially, the suspect lied about his true identity and denied any knowledge of the crimes for which he was wanted.

Martinez-Hernandez has waived his right to an extradition hearing and is expected to be moved to Maryland in the next couple of weeks to face first degree rape and murder charges.

SIDNER: It is such a disturbing story, but the DNA and this and how it, in a roundabout way, finally got to the suspect is quite incredible.

MARQUEZ: And they caught this guy who had been all over the country doing all sorts of stuff, like it's -- and tracking through El Salvador as well, just incredible work on the --

SIDNER: And a calm arrest at a bar, no incident, unbelievable. All right, thank you so much, Miguel. It's a great story. John?

BERMAN: All right, breaking news, a new whistleblower has come forward against Boeing as the company's CEO is set to testify before Congress today. How the whistleblower says the company is cutting corners by using plane parts that should have been discarded.

This morning, new evacuation orders in place as life threatening wildfires spread in different parts now of the United States.

And then a show of, quote, friendship and neighborliness that has not been seen in more than two decades, Vladimir Putin will soon arrive in North Korea as he and Kim Jong-un vow to take on the west together.

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[07:10:00]

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, two wildfires in New Mexico, we are told, are converging, forcing around 5000 residents to evacuate. One fire is burned through 5,000 acres, is 0 percent contained. The other is scorched 2,500 acres. Officials say there are now at least 17 large active wildfires in the west, with most in California. The largest fire there In Los Angeles County is now 20 percent contained. It has burned more than 15,000 acres and has forced thousands to evacuate.

CNN's Natasha Chen is near that fire. Our Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is in the weather center. First to you, Natasha, give us the latest where you are.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, there's good news for the L.A. County firefighters here in the unincorporated L.A. area. The wind gusts are supposed to die down today to give them better conditions. That is great news because this fire had already burned more than 15,000 acres over the weekend causing evacuations from Hungry Valley State Park. About 1,200 people evacuated. And we are talking about one commercial building destroyed, that yesterday the crews were optimistic that they were able to hold the perimeter, but still keeping an eye out because the high wind gusts could continue through this afternoon.

[07:15:04]

Now, up in Northern California in wine country, you have the point fire, that's about 1,200 acres. That's really not too far away from a lot of vineyards and the great restaurants at Healdsburg. In fact, one of our affiliates there spoke to a caretaker on one vineyard where the fire burned across that property, and he declined to evacuate even though there was an order.

While the conditions may be improving here in California, the residents can definitely still feel, if they're close to one of these fires, the thickness of the air. We can actually sense, you know, dust particles, it's eye irritation, it feels like heavy allergies. So, the air quality is quite an issue.

You mentioned New Mexico. The conditions there today, very severe. We can show you some video, like you said, two fires converging on the village of Ruidoso. You've got the South Fork fire and the Salt fire. And officials say they're converging like a pair of tongs. Utilities there have shut down energy, de-energized part of the village of Ruidoso. That exploded starting yesterday into 3,000 acres. That's the South Fork fire, 5,000 residents asked to evacuate, including people on vacation.

CNN spoke to someone who was traveling there from Oklahoma. She said she felt that smoke and gave her a headache early in the day, went back to her rental to pack some things and then got that evacuation order. And they are -- they had to evacuate to Roswell first and then are trying to make their way back home to Oklahoma. And if you can see the satellite image of the smoke, it's rather dramatic there.

So, we are monitoring the situation in New Mexico today to see how that evolves. Hopefully those people will stay safe and the fire crews can get some kind of containment there today, John.

BERMAN: All right. Natasha Chen for us just north of Los Angeles and the fire there, thank you so much.

Let's go to Allison Chinchar in the weather center. We're looking at some of these images from both New Mexico and California. What are they facing?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. The unfortunate part is the wind. That's really been the big component driving both the fire in California as well as the fires in New Mexico. You've got 25 total active wildfires across the country, wind being the big concern.

Now, note today that we do start to see some improvement across areas of California, especially the latter half of the day and going into Wednesday. But New Mexico, it's going to be quite a different story. You're still looking at those wind gusts 30, 40 miles per hour today and about 20 to 30 miles per hour tomorrow. That's going to be a big concern for the firefighters for this South Fork fire still at zero containment. The concern is how much improvement can they make in those containment numbers while battling the strong winds at the exact same time.

That area is part of a good chunk of the state of New Mexico that is under that elevated fire risk for today, those strong winds, but also very low humidities and above average temperatures will be a concern. Other areas also looking at above average temperatures, and that's a pretty wide swath of the country.

Now also, too, we're keeping an eye on the tropics. This is the system we're talking about, potential tropical cyclone one. This is going to be a concern for Texas and Eastern Mexico. Again, you can see the main system itself is likely going to slide in across portions of Mexico as a tropical storm. But notice you've storm warnings newly issued this morning for portions of Southern Texas, that's because we do still anticipate very strong winds with this. It is forecast to get to tropical storm strengths either later today or very early Wednesday.

But the biggest concern with this one is going to be the potential for flooding. Now, it's a twofold. It's not just the rain, but also the storm surge. But look at some of these numbers from Houston all the way south. You're talking widespread four to eight inches of rain. Some of these spots could pick up more than a foot of rain before this system finally clears.

Because of that, you have a moderate risk for excessive rainfall for Houston for today, and then Wednesday, starting to see more of that shift a little bit farther down to the south. But this is talking about that flooding potential there.

The other thing to note, too, is the storm surge that we talked about. The greatest risk, this two to four feet area right here, this does include that area up around Houston and especially around Galveston. So, this is going to be the main concern here, areas a little bit farther east, including Port Arthur and into Louisiana, and then also areas further down to the south, including Corpus Christi and Brownsville, you're looking at about one to three feet there. So, this is also going to be a concern, especially really for about the next 48 to 72 hours, guys.

BERMAN: All right, a lot to watch. Allison Chinchar, thank you very much for that.

So, incredibly desperate, that is how the State Department is describing Vladimir Putin as he makes a rare visit to North Korea in search of military support.

And this morning, world order has been restored and Boston is back on top. The Celtics claim their record 18th NBA championship title.

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get ready to raise an 18th banner Boston. The Celtics are once again the winningest franchise in the history of the NBA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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SIDNER: This morning, a rare overseas trip for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the next hour, Putin, for the first time in 24 years, is expected to arrive in North Korea to meet Kim Jong-Un. Ahead of his arrival, Russian flags and banners with Putin's face line the streets of Pyongyang. The meeting today comes just nine months after the two spoke in Russia last September.

CNN's Mike Valerio joins us now from Seoul, South Korea. You look at this relationship and you've got his, you know, banners flying in Pyongyang, so there's clearly a bromance there. But there is a real, important reason why he's there, and that is why the United States very interested in what is going to happen during this meeting. Give us some sense.

[07:25:00]

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Sarah, he wants to essentially change the balance of power and the whole security dynamic here on the Korean Peninsula. And this is the why we care factor, right, because, you know, this is a critical American ally that we're talking about on the southern side of the DMZ, South Korea. There is the wellbeing of 26 million people here in the greater Seoul urban area. And I should mention, Sara, almost 30,000 American troops who are based within an hour's, two hour's drive from where I'm standing.

So, the point is here, that as these two countries, North Korea and Russia, get closer together, there is more of a feeling of wariness between authorities in Seoul and Washington, D.C., that that closeness could upset security ties and the security situation here on the peninsula. But, you know, they're not getting closer because they're inherently friends. They want something from each other.

So, what North Korea wants from Russia, it's a pretty long list. Now, at the top of it, it's better missile and satellite technology, which Russia can certainly help out with, in addition to food aid, energy aid, the, quote/unquote, prestige of standing with the leader, Kim Jong-un, standing on the same stage in Pyongyang with somebody like Vladimir Putin, who they see, again, from their point of view, as very strong on the world stage. What Russia wants? They want more ammo, bottom line, from North Korea to help prosecute their war against Ukraine and another ally to stand against the United States with.

But, you know, Sara, we're hearing from a lot of North Korea experts lately that they anticipate maybe will get more economic ties rather than military ties when this meeting is all said and done, but maybe not so much even economic ties, because China is involved in all of this and they don't want a stronger North Korea, they don't want to change the status quo. Listen to what we heard earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER WARD, RESEARCH FELLOW, SEJONG INSTITUTE: There is further scope for economic cooperation between the two sides that has not happened yet. And it is an open question why that hasn't happened. I feel I would say that Russia has to worry about its ties with Beijing as does North Korea.

And for instance, we haven't seen a large number of North Korean workers go to Russia yet, and that might be because of various concerns in Moscow and in Beijing that are stopping further deepening of economic ties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: So, bottom line, we're waiting to see, which side gets what, you know, what deliverables are reached.

And we got to talk about the context that this is all happening in, Sara. There are tensions along the DMZ. Earlier today, 8:00 A.M. local time, there were 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers who crossed over the median line. South Korea fires a warning shot and they all kind scattered back to the north. There's new photographic evidence of new construction that North Korea has done, most likely to harden its defenses along the DMZ and to prevent people from defecting to here in South Korea.

So, we're going to be watching what each side gets. We'll know by the end of the day, local time tomorrow. And, Sara, if I can hard turn, since we're done talking about that, we just wanted to say here in the Seoul Bureau, We are so glad to see you back. I know you've been back for a couple days. We've been bouncing around between here in Seoul and the DMZ, but you are amazing. You have friends worldwide. We are so glad to see you back on T.V. So, we're going to wrap here. We're going to watch the situation here on the Korean Peninsula, and we will be back with you shortly to check in and watch it all for you, Sara.

SIDNER: All back at work. Thank you so much, Michael Valerio. I appreciate it. Say hi to the crew back there, too. John?

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, difficult news for some pet owners. Nationwide Pet, the largest provider of pet insurance in the United States, says it is dropping about 100,000 policies between now and next summer to keep up with rising costs in veterinary care. Nationwide says that you will be notified in writing if this affects you.

And just a quick look at U.S. stock futures this morning, they are mixed, I am told, ahead of new retail sales sales data, which will be released tomorrow in the next hour. So, violent criminals, sex offenders and Steve Bannon, what he will be facing in prison now that his request for a more cushy federal facility has been rejected.

And then breaking news, soon, Boeing CEO heads to Capitol Hill as a new whistleblower comes forward.

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[07:30:00]