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ICE: Former Student Who Protested War In Gaza To Be Deported; DHS Changes Migration App From Seeking Asylum To Self-Deporting; Small Plane Crashes In Pennsylvania Parking Lot, Injuring 5 People; Memo: Veterans Affairs To Cut 80,000 Jobs In June. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 10, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:34:26]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now to an immigration arrest that is alarming free speech advocates. And President Trump just posted that it will be, quote, "The first of many to come."

It involves the looming deportation of, not an undocumented immigrant, but a legal resident who was protesting the war in Gaza.

His name is Mahmoud Khalil. He's a well-known activist who helped lead last year's demonstrations at Columbia University, from where he recently graduated.

ICE arrested Khalil over the weekend. And his attorney says the officer cited a State Department order and said they would revoke his green card.

[14:35:00]

In a social media post, Homeland Security officials accused Khalil of leading, quote, "activities aligned to Hamas."

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is following this case.

Gloria, what more is the president saying about why he was arrested?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, Brianna, from the information we have gathered, it looks like this is one of the first actions that the Trump administration is taking after the president promised to deport international students who had participated in many of the protests against the Israel-Gaza war last year.

As you know, many of those protests took place here in New York City. Columbia became sort of the epicenter of the activity, along with several other campuses across the nation.

The president just took to Trump's Social just a short while ago and said, in part, that "ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University." And as you said, he mentions that this is the first arrest of many to

come. And that is what's so concerning to advocates, not just here in New York, but across the country regarding freedom of speech and First Amendment rights.

Now we know that Khalil was arrested on Saturday evening. His wife, who happens to be eight months pregnant and is a U.S. citizen, was there when it happened.

She said that officers said that they were there to revoke his student visa. When they informed them that he is a green card holder, they said that they would be revoking that as well.

Now, his attorney has told us that it is unclear at this time where Khalil is being held in custody. He was initially taken to Elizabeth, New Jersey. When his wife tried to contact him there, she was told that he was no longer in that facility.

And as you said, the Department of Homeland Security saying that Khalil had been associated with pro-Hamas activities.

Now, according to one of our sources, who we have been talking to in this -- after this arrest, we are being told that it is possible that the administration is using a provision of the immigration law that gives it broad authority on who can be subject to deportation. That's according to a Homeland Security official.

And now it should be said, just because you are a green card holder does not mean that you cannot be arrested. You certainly can be. And you can be subject to deportation.

The question here is what is this activist being charged with? And is he going to see any sort of due process? Is he going to go before a judge in order to argue his case?

That part is still not yet clear, but we are following up on it, and we are going to bring you the latest on the case -- Brianna?

KEILAR: And just to be clear, where is he or do we know where he is?

PAZMINO: So he was initially taken to a detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But then when his wife went there to visit him, she was told that he was no longer there. His attorney has told us that it is not yet clear where he was transferred.

Some of the advocates who have been following this have said that it is possible that he was moved to another detention facility far from New York, something that they say has been happening frequently to other people that have been recently detained by ICE.

KEILAR: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for that.

We will be speaking with the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union here in the next hour about this case.

Boris? BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Meantime, the Department of Homeland Security

just repurposed an app used by migrants seeking asylum in the United States into a new app that will allow undocumented migrants to report their intent to self-deport. The app was previously used to schedule a port-of-entry appointments.

Let's get more on this from CNN's Priscilla Alvarez.

Priscilla, how does this app work?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this really puts the onus on immigrants to say that they plan to leave the United States, to self-deport. That is something that Trump officials often talk about.

Now, it's an app interface, like anything else that you might come across, and it gives you the selection of self-deporting, which then prompts you to submit your information and your photos.

Now I say all of that, and there will be some hesitancy among immigrants to provide their information to the federal government. There are others who may be willing to self-deport given the state of what is happening in the United States insofar as it relates to immigration.

But this is an app, Boris, that the administration had its eyes on from the very beginning. Republicans have been targeting it under the Biden administration.

Again, it was used to stem the flow of migration, to give migrants a way to come to the United States legally so they wouldn't cross the border illegally. Biden officials said at the time it was very successful. Republicans have criticized it for months and years.

And so even in the minutes after President Donald Trump took office, this was an app that was shut down and left many people waiting for appointments that would never happen. And this is a repurposing of that.

So it is an extraordinary shift in the way that this app was used initially to what it is used now. You see it there.

[14:40:04]

Now in a statement, the secretary of Homeland Security said the following:

"The CBP home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self- deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don't, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return."

I just want to note here return legally in the future -- it is true that if you do cross the border illegally and then leave, you have to leave for a span of years before returning.

So this is all really part of this multi-million dollar campaign to have people leave or otherwise face the threat of deportation.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for that update.

Right now, a quick look at the big board. A really rough start to the week on Wall Street. The Dow nearly 935, 940, it just keeps going down. Investors spooked by the trade war and less than reassuring comments from the president and his administration about the threat of a recession.

We're keeping a close eye on the before this -- these numbers before the closing bell in about 60 minutes. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

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[14:45:38]

KEILAR: We are getting some new details about the investigation into a plane crash in Pennsylvania. The single-engine plane went down just after takeoff yesterday.

It burst into flames here in the parking lot of a retirement community. Officials say five people who were onboard the plane were taken to local hospitals. No one on the ground was hurt.

CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, is here with the latest on this for us.

Pete, what are you learning here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of interest in aviation today about this plane crash. This plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza actually, is the type of plane that I fly often.

And investigators found a lot of clues in front of them. This crash took place only about a minute after takeoff from the Lancaster Airport, went down in a retirement community. Thankfully, nobody on the ground injured.

Preliminary flight-tracking data shows this plane took off around 3:15 p.m. Eastern time yesterday, got up to only about 200 feet above the ground, pretty low. The data shows a slow descending left turn before crashing into a parking lot and bursting into flames.

Now the pilot of this plane radioed the control tower that he had a door pop open.

And I want you to listen now to the air traffic control audio from liveatc.net.

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PILOT: Lazer Tower, Bonanza 347 Mike has an open door. We need to return for a landing.

ATC: 347 Mike, roger. You want to make it to 31 or 26? PILOT: Mike, Tower, I cannot hear you with the wind so we're going to

return to 26. We're going to do downwind.

ATC: Yeah, 347 Mike, roger. Runway 26 cleared to land.

PILOT: 26 cleared to land, 347 Mike.

(END AUDIO FEED)

MUNTEAN: You can hear some of the wind noise there on the radio as the pilot tries to deal with this open door.

A Bonanza like this one has two doors, a door on the right side of the cockpit, also a larger door in the back for passengers. Not clear which door the pilot was referring to here.

A door opening in flight, often cited as a cause for crashes in small airplanes, or a factor, at least, although it's usually not very dramatic, like what you might see in the movies, really creates a lot of noise, and often first becomes apparent just after takeoff.

So the key here is to not get too startled or distracted and come back around and land.

Five people onboard this plane. The latest is three we're taken to a burn unit at the Lehigh Valley Hospital. The remaining two were just learning, Brianna, were taken to the Lancaster General Hospital and they have now been released from there.

KEILAR: Let's hope that they are doing well.

Pete, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

We are learning more about the White House's plans for the Veteran Affairs Department -- Veteran Affairs Department, I should say. As many as 80,000 employees could be laid off there.

Brian Todd has some new details about how the V.A. could carry that out. We'll have that next.

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[14:52:42]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news into CNN. We've just learned how the Department of Veteran Affairs plans to carry out imminent mass layoffs at the agency. This, after V.A. Secretary Doug Collins confirmed today that roughly 80,000 jobs will be cut as part of the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts.

KEILAR: CNN's Brian Todd is with us now on this.

OK, so how will they determine who they're going to cut? Who's going to make the decision ultimately?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, guys, we got an internal memo from the V.A. dated last Thursday, March 6th, which lays out some of the details for this.

According to this memo, the department heads and H.R. people at V.A. are conducting the sweeping review as we speak. It's going to last until about April 13th, when they have to submit an internal report, and then it's going to be published in June.

So in June is when many of the V.A. employees are going to know whether they're going to be cut, who else might be cut. So it's all going to probably come at once.

What we've also learned from this memo is that people who are in so- called non-competing jobs, trainees, people who have been rehired by the agency as retirees, are going to have to have their jobs justified in order to keep their jobs. So that is some of the detail that we're learning from this.

I think we heard the secretary of Veteran Affairs, Doug Collins, on FOX today kind of confirming the number, which is pretty staggering. He was asked whether they're going to cut 80,000, as we and others have been reporting. He said, yes, that's the target.

But he said that would be very deliberative. And that they have not decided yet who would be cut. But you're getting some detail now on kind of how they're going to go about this.

We also have been talking to congressional staffers who tell us that, based on their analysis and people they talked to at V.A., that some people with what they call competitive jobs, they're going to look at making those jobs, turning them into noncompetitive jobs so that they might be able to justify firing some of these people.

We have reached out to the V.A. for comment. We should say, have not heard back yet.

KEILAR: When you say people who have retired and have been rehired, do you mean from the federal workforce, or do you mean people who are veterans and are collecting retirement pay as veterans and have been rehired?

TODD: From the reading of this, it says -- it's a phrase called reannuitants --

KEILAR: Annuitants.

TODD: -- or annuitants, yes.

So I'm taking that to mean probably people who are employees, not necessarily all of them veterans, but there could be some veterans in there for -- for all we know.

KEILAR: I know there's a big concern among veterans who do collect retirement pay that that may include them as well.

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[14:55:03] TODD: And it's going to be -- look, it's 80,000 out of a -- out of an agency that employs a little bit more than 470,000 people. It's a sweeping cut. They're not denying that. That's the -- that's the number that they're targeting. So there you go.

KEILAR: All right, Brian Todd, thank you so much. Really interesting news there.

Today might not be the day to look at your 401K. Here is the Dow one day after President Trump refused to rule out a possible recession. Will this give the White House pause? We'll head there, live, next.

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