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California Attorney General Issues Consumer Alert as DNA Firm 23andMe Files for Bankruptcy; ICE Detaining Cubans at Routine Immigration Appointments; Trump May Slow-Walk Next Week's Planned Tariffs. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 24, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Popular DNA testing firm 23andMe says it is looking to sell, quote, substantially all of its assets after filing for bankruptcy. The company released a statement today saying in part, we are committed to continuing to safeguard customer data and being transparent about the management of user data going forward and data privacy will be an important consideration in any potential transaction.

The statement is coming days after California's Attorney General issued an urgent alert informing customers about their right to delete their genetic data.

With us now is California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Thank you so much for being with us. I should note you have emphasized the right of Californians to direct the company to delete their genetic data to destroy their test samples. What is your concern if customers do not remove their data?

ROB BONTA, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I've been very clear about the consumer protections that are in place here in California and that it is the right of Californians if they wish to have their information deleted from 23andMe's data sources and it's up to them. And so, I've made them aware of what's happening with the bankruptcy and also the reduction in force and with that potentially reduction in guardrails and protections in place for their data. And the decision is theirs.

As a consumer protection champion here in California, making folks aware of their rights and having knowledge of that is important. This is people's sensitive private information about their ancestry, about some of their connections in their ancestral tree.

Of course, it has information like date of birth and that is valuable to individuals. It's something that they want to know, but they may not want shared. And so in California, we believe that your private data is yours and for yours to control.

KEILAR: And the DNA, of course, is probably the most valuable. And I wonder how can customers, you know, if they say to 23andMe, I want you to delete my sample. If you still have it, I want you to delete the data about me. Can customers be assured? Like, are they guaranteed that their genetic information will be fully eliminated from hard drive servers, that it would not perhaps be privy to some kind of sale of assets?

I don't know. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that once they give that direction to delete.

BONTA: Yes, they should feel comfortable in that and that's their right and that's their job should they decide that that's the course they want to go to make the request and exercise their right to delete. After that, and this is standard, you know, the right to delete is a right honored in California by all the corporations that have private data of Californians. It's something they know how to do, something that they do regularly.

It's not something that we've had a lot of challenges with, with companies saying that they are going to delete private data, but then they don't. So this is something that's done. It's doable and it definitely can be done by 23andMe.

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But, you know, there's no guarantees in anything. So should there be a scenario where California consumers have exercised their right to delete, but for some reason it hasn't been deleted, whether it be intentional or unintentional, that's where we come in as the California Attorney General's Office to get under the hood to make sure that the legal obligations of 23andMe to delete pursuant to the request of consumers is actually fulfilled.

But the consumers should exercise their right, if they wish, to delete. And that's the first step.

KEILAR: There's a different genealogy website, it wasn't 23andMe but, you know, famously used to solve the Golden State Killer case back in 2018. Could this potential sale have any impact on law enforcement having access to a wide array of DNA from these kinds of sites? Do you think there will be an impact?

BONTA: We have a very robust set of DNA databases to solve crimes, to solve cold cases. We've used them regularly. We work with our partners at the federal level, also here at the state level.

Certainly the case you mentioned involving the Golden State Killer was one where this data was important. 23andMe is a separate database where individuals opt in. It's a business, it's a business proposition that's provided.

KEILAR: You know there is. You know Law enforcement uses some of these private databases, right?

BONTA: Well, it's important for people's privacy to be followed consistent with what the company is saying it will use it for. There's health insurance companies that are interested in this data. There's life insurance companies that are interested in this data. Law enforcement will always use the data consistent with the way we've always done to solve cases and solve crimes. But that's different than what we're talking about here, whether it can be sold as an asset for different business reasons. And individuals have a right for that not to occur if that's what they wish, for their data not to be sent to a successor company by exercising their right to delete if that's what they want.

KEILAR: Well, this bankruptcy is raising so many important and interesting questions. And Attorney General Bonta, we appreciate you joining us to discuss them. Thanks.

BONTA: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Still to come, an alarming new report. More than a dozen Cubans in South Florida showing up for routine immigration appointments to be only to be detained by ICE.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Today, immigration attorneys and advocates in Florida are pointing out what appears to be a significant shift in immigration policy. According to a report in the Miami Herald, at least 18 Cuban migrants were detained during their scheduled immigration appointment. Now, historically, Cuban migrants fleeing the communist regime have received special immigration considerations, but the Trump administration, which enjoys broad support among the Cuban American community, seems to be shifting policies.

An immigration attorney cited in the Herald's report, Mark Prada, joins us now live. Mark, thanks so much for being with us. So these 18 that were reportedly detained, these were I-220A holders. Give us some background. What is an I-220A? Why do you believe these specific migrants were detained?

MARK PRADA, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: So an I-220A is a document that's given to you when you're released from custody. There's actually many different types of documents that can be given to you when you're released from custody. Traditionally, Cubans were paroled out of custody, which is a requirement to obtain permanent residence under the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act, which has been around since the 1960s.

So beginning in about 2017-18 or so, the government changed course and would not give parole documents to Cubans. Actually, they've been very sporadic. You'd see family members, some have it, some don't.

So the ones with the I-220s have been having this problem where they can't obtain the permanent residence that the law guarantees them to apply for, right? So why were these persons arrested? I can't tell you specifically, but the thing is people need to know that just because you're in a court proceeding or you have an asylum application pending or some other application pending, it does not mean that you're protected from detention. So this is really just a policy shift in priorities.

SANCHEZ: To that point, these 18 reportedly were following the rules. I mean, they were going to an immigration appointment. There's no indication based on the Herald's reporting that any of them were suspected of a violent crime, of being gang members, of having tattoos the way that we've seen some other folks be detained for allegedly having social media posts and tattoos that relate to gang activity.

But these folks were nevertheless detained. Is that accurate?

PRADA: Yes. From what I understand, that's exactly the case. So normally, let's say they come at the border and they're seeking asylum. If they're allowed to be in Liberty, they're given instructions to report usually annually or every few months, depending what the ICE officer wants. And they have a court case pending and they're doing whatever they need to do to regularize their status. So these people just showed up to their regular reporting and were arrested, not knowing why, not even expecting it to happen.

SANCHEZ: So on Friday, the Trump administration also announced it would revoke the humanitarian parole protections of not only Cubans, but Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

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There have been several prominent South Florida Republican lawmakers, all of them Cuban-American, who have called for this policy to be tweaked for the administration to sort of make an exception for some of these folks.

What would need to change? Do you foresee that happening?

PRADA: I don't see that happening at all. These people were a target from the moment that parole programs started. They were Republican Congress members, state's attorney generals and the like, who even brought litigation against the program they filed in Texas.

So they have been fighting this from the beginning. So this really shouldn't be a surprise. And the fact that they're now surprised about it and changing gears, I think they're more concerned about maintaining their seats in their office than anything else.

SANCHEZ: I do want to point out, I personally reached out to the offices of all three for reaction to the parole being revoked. They have not given a response on the record. I do wonder before we go, what do you think is going to happen to those 18 that were detained going to this appointment? Do you think they're going to be deported?

PRADA: If they're still pending court hearings, they should be able to request bond from an immigration judge. But again, I don't have the facts for each specific person. So they should have the right at least to request that and continue making their case.

SANCHEZ: Mark Prada, thank you so much for bringing us this story.

PRADA: Thank you for having me. Take care. SANCHEZ: Coming up on April 2nd, a day President Trump is calling Liberation Day, when his huge reciprocal tariffs on many countries are set to kick in. Many in the market feel that that's uncertain. They don't necessarily believe it's going to happen. And that's why, in part, stocks are rallying today. We'll break it down in just a few minutes.

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KEILAR: April 2nd is being called Liberation Day by the Trump administration. That is when the president's slate of reciprocal tariffs are supposed to kick in. But it appears once again the president may be backing off his own deadline.

SANCHEZ: Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal report Trump administration officials are trying to tamp down expectations that every single one of Trump's pledged tariff actions are going to go into effect next Wednesday. And that news sparked a rally today on Wall Street.

Let's get more from CNN's Matt Egan. Matt, it seems like folks are doubtful that we're going to see Liberation Day.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris and Brianna, I think Wall Street is relieved that Liberation Day might not be as bad as feared. Those reports over the weekend suggest that Trump could take a more targeted approach with those April 2nd tariffs. And that has certainly brightened the mood on Wall Street.

We see the Dow up more than 600 points, around 1.5 percent. The Nasdaq is up more than 2 percent. And we've seen this in the past, right? Every time a tariff is dialed back, we see the market respond positively.

And I think that's because investors are concerned that the president's trade war could slow economic growth or raise prices or do both. But I do think it's really important to stress that these tariffs have not been canceled, right? They just might not be as severe as expected.

This would be like if you were told to brace for a category 5 hurricane and then meteorologists say, actually, it's going to be a category 2 or category 3. It's still a hurricane. And at any moment, it could intensify.

And look, the president has already imposed a lot of tariffs on a lot of U.S. goods. More than $1 trillion of U.S. imports have been tariffed by the administration. That's almost triple what was tariffed during the entire first term.

This includes the 20 percent tariff on imports from China, limited 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum. And yes, more tariffs loom. There's these reciprocal tariffs that are scheduled for April 2nd. There's sector tariffs, including on autos, copper, pharmaceuticals and other areas. And then even as investors today were celebrating this tariff news, the president hit them with a new tariff threat almost out of nowhere, saying that Venezuela faces another tariff. The president said that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on any country that imports oil from Venezuela.

And keep in mind, the biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil is China. And China already faces tariffs. So look, I don't think that this tariff rollercoaster that we're all on is over. There's going to be some more ups and downs. And until there's clarity, I think the markets are going to continue to be bumpy as well -- Boris and Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Ups, downs, twists, turns, arrives altogether. Matt Egan, thank you so much.

EGAN: Thanks, Guys.

SANCHEZ: So imagine you're on your way from LA to China, flying over the Pacific Ocean, and your plane is suddenly forced to turn around, not because of a mechanical or safety issue or something falling off the plane, as this video implies, but because the pilot forgot something crucial. We'll tell you what it is in just moments.

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SANCHEZ: Whenever you travel, you got to go through a pre-flight checklist. You got your toiletries, your undies, your passports. We end today with a memory lap that sidelined a plane full of passengers.

The pilot on their 13-plus-hour flight across the Pacific forgot his passport. And what's more, he realized it while in the air. That meant the 257 passengers and 13 crew on board the United Airlines flight had to turn around.

KEILAR: Can you imagine that? This happened over the weekend. Flight 198, a 787 airliner, began in Los Angeles, supposed to go to Shanghai.

Instead, two hours into the flight, could have been worse, could have been better, the plane had to divert to San Francisco, pick up a new crew. The flight ultimately reached its destination only about six hours late. United said it gave customers meal vouchers and, quote, compensation.

SANCHEZ: They're not getting those six hours back.

KEILAR: No, they're losing those forever.

SANCHEZ: What if the pilot just stayed in, like, a glass case and just waited there. Maybe the next person --

KEILAR: They didn't turn the plane around.

SANCHEZ: -- the next flight -- yes, he or she goes on the way back. I don't know.

KEILAR: They might have gone through these possibilities, but it seemed in the end that it was not a good idea to give that a try.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Hey, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. It was an afternoon packed full of news. Got to add Brianna to the group chat if you're out there.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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