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Murder at Burning Man?; Judge Blocks Removal of Guatemalan Children; Immigration Crackdown in Chicago?; Former CDC Leaders Issue Warning About RFK Jr.; Trump Administration Blocking Visas For Palestinians. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 01, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: As the Trump administration prepares a federal immigration operation in Chicago, Illinois' governor says he's received zero details about what's coming, which he calls an invasion.

Plus, why nine former leaders of the CDC say that RFK Jr. is now endangering every American's health.

And legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick back on the sidelines tonight making his debut as a college coach, not, though, without some controversy.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Thank you so much for sharing your Labor Day with. I'm Boris Sanchez in the nation's capital. My colleague Brianna Keilar has the day off.

We begin this hour with Chicago on alert. Officials in the country's third largest city are now bracing for the Trump administration to kick off a planned immigration crackdown in just days. Sources say a surge of federal agents from ICE and Border Patrol could be on the street by Friday, with members of the National Guard preparing to join if needed.

President Donald Trump earlier today escalating his feud with Democratic leaders in Illinois, including the governor, J.B. Pritzker, who yesterday described this plan as an invasion.

Betsy Klein is live for us at the White House right now with what the president is saying today -- Betsy.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Boris, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says that more resources are coming to Chicago as the next phase of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown is set to get under way in the coming days here with a major enforcement operation in the Windy City. We are expecting a surge of federal agents, as well as armored

vehicles, heading to Chicago over the coming days. But I want to get into the why here. In part, this is because immigration enforcement numbers are lagging. We have reported in the past that senior White House officials are frustrated by the pace of ICE arrests.

That's Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They had targeted from the White House about 3,000 arrests per day, but according to some internal data that we have seen, it's really closer to 1,000 to 2,000 arrests per day. And, separately, this is setting up a political test for Democrats.

There is a belief inside the White House that this is a winning political issue for President Trump. And if you look at his post to social media earlier today, it makes clear why. He has a very simple message, the president saying in that post -- quote -- "Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. has become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing crime down to virtually nothing in D.C."

He goes on to name Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, all Democrats, who he says -- quote -- :spend all their time trying to justify violent crime instead of working with us to completely eliminate it."

And I want to make an important distinction, Boris, that this immigration operation is separate and distinct from the crime crackdown that President Trump has previewed in Chicago over the recent days. Both, however, are examples of the federal government seeking to exert control over American cities.

And Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for his part warning that this could lead to inflamed tensions and violence -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Betsy Klein, live for us at the White House, thank you so much.

Also new today, nine former leaders of the CDC are warning that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is -- quote -- "endangering every American's health."

In a new op-ed in "The New York Times," they write: "What RFK Jr. has done to the CDC and to our nation's public health system over the past several months, culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago, is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country has ever experienced."

In the piece, they note how Kennedy has downplayed the importance of vaccines during this year's measles outbreak, fired thousands of health workers, replaced all experts on the agency's vaccine advisory committee, and cited flawed research, while making inaccurate statements.

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Let's dig into this with CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University. Dr. Reiner, thanks so much for being with us on Labor Day.

First, I just wonder if you have ever seen this level of public disagreement aimed at an HHS secretary.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No, this is unprecedented.

And I think -- as I think you mentioned, it's important to understand that the nine former CDC leaders served both Republican and Democrat presidents. This is not a partisan move to discredit the HHS secretary. It's more, I think, a sense of maybe not panic, but grave concern amongst the people who have really led our nation's health efforts.

It's important to understand that Mr. Kennedy has taken really a big move to not just place doubt in the minds of Americans as to the efficacy of vaccines, but he's taken substantive moves to hollow out the very core of our health institutions, such as CDC.

And what we saw last week with the departure of -- not just the firing of the CDC director, but also the departure of three top leaders in CDC, is, again, an erosion in the expert core of our nation's health defenses.

SANCHEZ: Officials within the administration have tried to argue that these steps that RFK Jr. is taking are designed to reestablish trust in these agencies among the American people, some of that lost in the pandemic.

Do you think RFK Jr. is accomplishing that?

REINER: Well, I think it's important to remember that a lot of the distrust that has formed in our health apparatus was fomented by Mr. Kennedy himself and his promulgation of misinformation, relentless promulgation of misinformation, most notably about vaccines, over the last several years.

So it's not just that this mistrust has magically appeared in our health apparatus. It's an outcome of an active effort on the part of Mr. Kennedy and his associates to place distrust in the minds of Americans.

SANCHEZ: So if we're headed now in a direction where we can't trust these agencies as they're being dismantled, and we have these reports that by next month there is going to be some kind of report that attempts to tie vaccines to autism, for example, and stuff that isn't actually based in science, who should Americans then rely on for health guidance?

REINER: Well, that's easy.

Americans need to rely on their physicians. And Americans need to rely on what the groups, professional groups in the United States, like the American Association of Pediatrics and American College of Gynecology, the kind of guidance that we hear from these professional groups. Ultimately, the nation's doctors and health care providers are really

the boots on the ground. And my colleagues around this country have devoted their lives to protecting the health of their patients and their communities. And these are the people that Americans should go to for information.

If you want to know if you're pregnant and you want to know whether you should be vaccinated, talk to your obstetrician. If you're wondering this flu season and COVID season whether you should vaccinate your kids, talk to your pediatrician.

These people have spent their lives taking care of America. And these are the people that most Americans trust. And these are the people that Americans should continue to trust. Do not trust, in my opinion, the leadership of HHS.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

I also want to get your thoughts, Doctor, on something the president posted on social media this morning about COVID drugs.

REINER: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Donald Trump in part saying -- quote -- "It is very important that the drug companies justify the success of their various COVID drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved millions of lives. Others disagree."

He says: "With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer and I want it now. I have been shown information from Pfizer and others that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public."

I don't exactly know what he's talking about, Doctor. What data that isn't public justifies the success of COVID vaccines and COVID drugs?

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REINER: Well, first of all, I want to assure the president, I want to congratulate the president on his glorious success in pushing forward, in record time, the research and production and dissemination of the COVID-19 vaccines.

It was the greatest success of his first administration, and it needs to be continually congratulated. The Commonwealth Fund this year estimated that about 3.2 million, 3.2 million American lives were saved by those vaccines, and manyfold more around the world.

If there was a Mount Rushmore of medical achievements over the last 50 years, the COVID-19 vaccines would be on it. Any really report to the contrary is misinformation being promoted by his own HHS secretary.

And it continues to amaze me that this incredibly rich legacy of American exceptionalism, success in saving so many lives in such a short period of time, and also this technology being capable of curing the next pathogen, the next pandemic also in even quicker times, since we know how to do this now, that this should be tarnished by his own appointee, RFK Jr.

The -- Americans need to understand that these vaccines are remarkably safe and remarkably effective at preventing people from dying of COVID-19. And any assertion to the contrary is just misinformation. And the president should be rightfully very proud of this achievement, and I don't understand why he's getting contrary information from people he appointed to his Cabinet.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, we have to leave the conversation there. Thanks so much for the time.

REINER: My pleasure.

Still to come this hour: the State Department telling diplomats to stop approving visas for Palestinian passport holders. What this means for the United Nations General Assembly just a week away.

And later: A homicide investigation is under way after a man is found dead at the Burning Man music festival. That's going to be a tricky investigation.

We will discuss in just moments. Don't go anywhere.

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SANCHEZ: Right now, 74 Guatemalan children who were loaded onto planes in the middle of the night are back in U.S. custody.

A federal judge is temporarily blocking the administration's efforts to remove them, calling yesterday's attempt to quietly send them back home -- quote -- "surprising." This video shows some of the children deplaning in Texas after that judge's order. Sources say it's part of a push to remove hundreds of Guatemalan minors who arrived into the United States alone, but many of those children and their representatives say they fear dangerous conditions at home.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is tracking this story for us.

So, Priscilla, what's the latest?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we now have confirmation from the Justice Department that those children are back in custody, as you mentioned.

The Guatemalan and president has also weighed in and said that this was in coordination with the U.S. government and that they are prepared to receive minors weekly, when and if that is to happen, noting, of course, that there is a legal dispute here in the United States.

But just to rewind as to what happened here, late Saturday and early Sunday morning is when legal service providers or attorneys representing these children were notified by the government that these children were going to be repatriated back to Guatemala. Similarly, the shelter providers who had these children in their

custody were told that they needed to prepare these kids for discharge within a matter of hours, down to two to four hours, collect all of their belongings, medications, as well as prepare snacks for their flight down to Guatemala.

So, as all of this was happening, attorneys were scrambling, telling me that their clients were woken up in the middle of the night to be repatriated. As one immigration attorney who represents multiple children said -- quote -- "The reaction when you explain what's happening is disbelief. They're very scared. They all say they're afraid to return to Guatemala for different reasons. They were literally taken out of their beds in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend."

The children we're talking about here, Boris, are children who arrived to the U.S. southern border alone, and they're in custody because they're waiting to be reunited with U.S.-based family as they go through their immigration proceedings and determine whether they have protections in the United States.

And the lawsuit that was filed about -- on this early Sunday morning got at that, essentially saying that the administration was violating U.S. law and also sort of unpacking the situations of some of these children.

One of the plaintiffs in the case is a 10-year-old, and her mother is deceased and she was fleeing abuse and neglect of family members in Guatemala. Now, I do think it's worth noting there are opportunities for children to voluntarily say they want to go back home. And that has happened in the past.

But even when that happens, they have to go before an immigration judge, who tries to unpack why and whether they're going to go back to safety, because some of these kids in my own coverage of this have been 4 years old who are asking to go home. So what does that mean?

So this has become a very complicated endeavor. It's one that the administration says is meant to reunify these kids with family in Guatemala. And White House aide Stephen Miller said this in a tweet. He said -- quote -- "The Biden judge is effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in their home country."

But, Boris, for all the reasons I mentioned, that is why this effort is just so complicated, because even if some do want to go home, some are still in proceedings in the United States trying to determine if they are better off staying here.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

ALVAREZ: But what we do know at this point is that those 74 children who were on planes are back in our custody and now proceedings will continue over the coming days in court.

[13:20:01] SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much for the update.

As the war in Gaza rages on, the State Department is taking new steps to block Palestinians from coming to the United States. In a diplomatic cable seen by CNN, Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs all embassies and consulates to refuse most visas for Palestinian passport holders.

The move comes as a growing number of countries pledge to recognize a Palestinian state.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler has new reporting on all of this.

So, Jennifer, what are you learning?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Boris, this is a really sweeping new policy that was laid out in this August 18 diplomatic cable.

It says that -- quote -- "All otherwise eligible Palestinian Authority passport holders who are seeking this nonimmigrant visa are to be refused."

And this is a really broad category, right? This could be Palestinians in the West Bank, could be in Gaza. Could even be abroad if they are holding this specific passport. They will be told no on any nonimmigrant visa. And that, in and of itself, is a very large category. This includes student visas, visas for business people, visas for people coming to get medical attention here in the United States.

And this all comes part and parcel of a number of actions that the Trump administration has taken to block Palestinians from coming here to this country. Back on August 16, they announced that they would block all visitor visas from people coming from Gaza. They said they were going to do some sort of security review of how those visas were issued, any organizations sponsoring people to come here most, mostly for medical treatment, mind you.

And then, on Friday, they announced that they would block officials from the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization, from receiving visas, and they would also revoke visas for that. This includes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was expected to come here for the U.N. General Assembly.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

HANSLER: And that is a notable piece of context, because a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Canada, are expected to officially recognize the Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in just a few weeks in New York.

Now, the State Department, for its part, said -- quote -- "Every visa decision is a national security decision, and the State Department is vetting and adjudicating visa decisions for PA passport holders accordingly." Now, it's unclear how long this policy will be an effect, Boris, but they did say, on August 18, it was effective immediately.

SANCHEZ: Yes. All right, Jennifer Hansler, thanks so much for the update there.

Still ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL: How do you investigate a crime at one of the most famously chaotic festivals on the planet? That's the challenge that police are facing right now after a homicide at Burning Man.

Stay with us. We will be right back.

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SANCHEZ: A homicide investigation is now under way after a man was found dead at the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert.

We don't yet know the victim's identity. And the local sheriff's office says the body was found lying in a pool of blood on the festival ground Saturday night. The annual gathering in the Black Rock Desert attracts tens of thousands of people and is highlighted by the burning of a large wooden effigy of a man. That is on the next-to-last night.

I'm joined now by former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

Ed, thanks so much for being with us, especially on Labor Day.

What are the main challenges in investigating a homicide like this? It's not only a remote area. There are harsh elements, and the nature of the crowd, it's very transient.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Good afternoon, Boris.

Yes, it's going to be extremely difficult to get to the bottom of this one. This is the very definition of a transient community. It's a temporary encampment that's set up around this event. And to make matters worse, the body was discovered at the end of the event, sort of -- the Burning Man was actually lit on fire and then someone waved down a deputy and said that there's a body here.

So, at the end of that ceremony, people start to leave, and they clean everything up. That's a specific duty that they have when they go there. They commit to that. So cleaning everything up could complicate things as well. But they don't know the identity of the victim. They have put a plea out to ask if anybody heard anything unusual or saw anything unusual.

But in the chaos of that final celebration, it's going to be extremely difficult for them to get a handle on this one.

SANCHEZ: I wonder how you go about trying to interview people in the area if -- some of the music, for folks that don't know, is coming from these vehicles that are moving around. And there's constant movement.

So I wonder, how can you try to ascertain witnesses?

DAVIS: Right. It's not like you can go back and find fixed video cameras and the kind of evidence that we would find by taping off a crime scene.

This is a very unique situation. So the Pershing County Sheriff's Office has a very difficult job to do. They will need to try to find -- starting with the person that reported the crime, and then trying to sort of flow out from there to anyone else who was in the area of this to try to get witnesses as to who was around.

But you have got a situation where you don't know who the victim is. You certainly don't know who the suspect is, and everyone is leaving. So the very fact that that's the case, you're going to have to travel to interview people when you finally do identify them. You know, they're -- I'm sure they're chipping away at it.