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Major ICE Raid in Georgia; U.S. Job Growth Stalls. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired September 05, 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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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: A new jobs report flashes a bright red warning sign for the U.S. economy. We will talk about why hiring is stalling out, who is taking the biggest hit, and why Wall Street's hopes for a rate cut just got a little bit higher.

Plus, a major ICE raid in Georgia, one of the largest operations in the 22-year history of the agency, hundreds of workers apprehended at a Hyundai plant. What this signals for the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: And the world's richest person could soon become even richer. Add another zero. It's a Tesla pay package we're learning could make Elon Musk the first ever trillionaire.

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

DEAN: Today, a new warning sign for the economy, U.S. jobs seeing one of the worst summer slumps in years, just 22,000 jobs added in August, with June's numbers now negative, revised data showing the first month of jobs losses since 2020. And the big question is now, how is Fed Chair Jerome Powell feeling?

With the president again appearing to place blame on him, did this new report solidify a case for rate cuts?

Here's how one economist with Glassdoor puts it -- quote -- "The labor market is losing lift and we're heading into turbulence without the soft landing."

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is leading us off today.

And, Vanessa, this is not the airplane analogy you would ever want for anything, much less the U.S. economy. What more are you learning from these numbers?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Businesses and Americans want smooth and steady. They do not want turbulence.

Let's take a look at what these numbers tell us, 22,000 jobs added in the month of August. The projection was for 77,000 jobs to be added last month, clearly well off that mark, the unemployment rate ticking up to 4.3 percent. That was largely expected from economists. It just shows that there are more people looking for jobs right now and not finding them.

We know that people are on unemployment a lot longer. It's much harder to find a job these days than it was even just a couple years ago. But look at the unemployment rate. It is still historically low. But look at where we came from. Over the course of the pandemic, we started all the way up here, 5 percent unemployment.

We did come down into the 3 percent range, but here's where sort of the scariest part comes from for some economists who are wondering where this unemployment rate is going to go. It has trended up in the last several months. And the question is, where does it go? We do not want it to go up here to the 5 percent range or anywhere close to that.

In terms of jobs and what we have seen over the past couple months, a big portion of this report also signaled what happened with revisions in the previous months. So, in the month of July, we saw about 6,000 more jobs added than initially reported. But in the month of June, you see down here a little, little bar on your screen, that is trending downwards, below the zero mark.

Actually, the revisions showed that for the first time in nearly five years, the U.S. economy lost jobs by 13,000. So that broke a streak of nearly five years of historic jobs growth. Where were the jobs added in the month of August and where were they lost? Jobs added in health care. Good news if you're in that industry, social assistance as well.

Federal government losing 15,000 jobs. That's the trickle-down effect from some of these DOGE cuts that are showing up in the data. And then wholesale trade and manufacturing, these are two categories that are really important, because this is where the Trump administration wants to see jobs added. They want manufacturing coming back to the United States.

They want more jobs in these sectors, but they lost 12,000 each in the month of August. Also worth noting, the unemployment rate in this jobs report looks at several sectors and also looks at different races. And out of the four race categories, in the month of August, it showed that the unemployment rate for black workers ticked up to 7.5 percent.

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Look at this increase since the month of may, starting at 6 percent and now at 7.5 percent, Jessica, reminding you that the unemployment rate at the national average is 4.3 percent. This is something notable to watch, because when you look at where black Americans are historically employed, it is in various sectors that have seen higher unemployment rates, leisure and hospitality, transportation, government. So what this indicates is that there are more black Americans out of

jobs or more entering the work force, but still having trouble finding jobs. You really don't want to see an unemployment rate rise that quickly, so really important to watch this category and these workers to really try to understand where this economy is going and whether or not that continues to rise or it's just a moment in time as we're trying to assess really where this economy is going, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Vanessa, thank you so much for that context.

I want to go now to the White House, where CNN's Kristen Holmes is standing by.

Kristen, obviously, the Trump administration going to react to this. What are they saying?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, let's start with the bottom line, which is that numbers like this can hurt the president's agenda.

Yes, he ran on immigration. Yes, he wants to have Republicans run on crime but there is an underlying belief among administration officials that President Trump won largely on the economy, and numbers like this are simply not good. And we have heard from a number of his economic advisers this morning really trying to hedge on these headlines.

We heard one adviser saying, well, the economy is going to pick up in about a year. Well, they had already said the economy was picking up. And you're also hearing from one economic adviser who said that they believe there will be revisions to the numbers and that will actually add job numbers.

I will remind you of what Vanessa just said. The last revisions actually took away job numbers. Then, of course, we saw President Trump calling the numbers rigged at that point and firing the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, saying that she was doing a bad job.

Here is one of those advisers acknowledging how this is not where they want to be. Take a listen.

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KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: All the indicators that we're seeing are that inflation is low and economic growth is solid. Income growth is solid as well, so that the only part of the data that's disappointing is that the jobs numbers have been a little bit lower over the last three or four months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, again, acknowledging there that those jobs numbers are a disappointment. He also was again the one who said that they hope that there will be revisions that show an upward tick in those job numbers.

But, again, I mean, Jessica, we really cannot stress enough that President Trump knows the importance of the economy on his legacy and on the midterm elections. And people -- while they say inflation is down, people still say they feel like they are paying too much money.

Now couple of that with jobs numbers like this, it just is a blow to the administration. Now, we will hear from President Trump later today. He's going to make an announcement. He will likely take questions on this. We will get a more direct response from him. He, of course, is lashing out at the Fed chair, Jerome Powell. That's nothing new.

But, again, they are very aware of how sensitive this is right now.

DEAN: All right, Kristen Holmes at the White House with the latest, thank you so much for that reporting -- Erica.

HILL: Joining us now, business journalist and the host of "Full Disclosure," Roben Farzad.

Roben, always good to see you.

When we look at these numbers, what do you see in terms of the tale they tell about the economy in this moment and also where it could be headed?

ROBEN FARZAD, HOST, "FULL DISCLOSURE": We have just created so many jobs consistently coming out of the worst of COVID. If you remember the feeling of weightlessness when this term coronavirus just broke, I mean, unemployment shoots to the teens. I know that was short-lived, but we have been consistently creating jobs through that, despite all the rumors of this recession that was supposed to hit us in '22, '23.

So it's absolutely natural to imagine a slowing at a certain point. I think it's where economics and physics intersect. You just can't keep creating jobs. There's always going to be inflation, especially with the inflation that we felt. People are feeling that. There's a new headline risk of tariffs, people pulling back in general.

There's A.I. There's so many other headlines going on that it's amazing that we're still creating jobs at all.

HILL: When we look at this in terms of the sectors that are certainly getting a lot of attention, the president has consistently touted these commitments of investments from various companies and also various governments, quite frankly.

Last month, the U.S. manufacturers shed some 12,000 jobs. Is there a way -- I mean, do you have in your crystal ball there, when could we actually start to see those investments pay off in terms of jobs? Is it something that, as Kristen alluded to, one adviser was saying could happen as quickly as a year from now?

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FARZAD: That's really difficult to imagine.

I mean, in an emergency situation, if you look at the New Deal and the Civilian Conservation Corps and even the shovel-ready phrase that came out of Obama's first 100 days in office, still in the teeth of the financial crisis, these are things that get deployed immediately. You're building out roads. You're getting people out there. They're working. They're bringing their lunch pails back.

When you get commitments from companies, they're kind of squishy, some things do come online, they don't come online, Trump might not be around, or MAGA, that movement might not be around in two or three years to see consummation of a project. So it's really not that.

And at the same time, he's cutting the public work force. So it's not like he's expanding the government's balance sheet in terms of employees. There's a chilling effect in D.C. We see a chilling effect today. I think there's a Hyundai plant in the South, maybe in North Carolina, where there was an ICE raid.

It's really difficult to have all these things going on and say in the same voice that I'm telling my Fed chair to cut so that we could start hiring people and we could start enjoying a lower cost of capital. There's a lot of message dissonance and cognitive dissonance.

HILL: To your point, that raid on the Hyundai plant in Georgia, some 475 people taken into custody, we know it also stopped construction at an E.V. battery plant there, which the president had touted earlier this year in terms of that investment from Hyundai.

When we look at jobs, the Fed, right -- so we see the president again pointing the finger, not surprising, at Jerome Powell and talking about interest rates. The Fed does have two jobs, right, the Fed's mandate. One of those is to foster maximum employment. In this scenario, could cutting interest rates sooner, could that have saved any of these jobs? Is there a way to know that?

FARZAD: Let's go back to '22. Could hiking interest rates earlier have saved us from the inflation that clearly lost a lot of people their livelihoods and their jobs? I mean, it's all in the mix. I mean, what if they didn't cut out an incremental stimulus check? What if, what if, what if?

Would Biden and Kamala Harris be in office right now? You can't go back and backwards-organize that. And I also think, Erica, it's a First World problem to have to bully your handpicked Fed chair. Like, in a way, it reminds me of "Back to the Future" and Biff and Marty McFly's dad, right?

This is a great problem to have if we're in peacetime and we're creating jobs and the rhetoric is only the rhetoric. But if there's suddenly an emergency and people call out the White House and say, do you have faith in your Fed chair, and you're calling a person on a bluff and on a lie, and that's the territory we might be getting into.

HILL: Roben, always good to talk to you. Did not see the "Back to the Future" reference coming, but I'm here for it, my friend. Thank you.

FARZAD: Thank you, Erica. Thank you. HILL: Still ahead: a major immigration raid, as we were just

discussing. So this happened at a car plant in Georgia, hundreds of people reportedly taken into custody. We have more of those details for you just ahead.

And in the latest sign of growing tensions, two Venezuelan military aircraft, we're learning, flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters, a move the Defense Department is calling highly provocative.

Plus, President Trump standing by his health secretary, RFK Jr., after that Senate testimony on Thursday raised a number of questions about the future of America's public health agency.

We will take a closer look at the fallout right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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HILL: We have a new update for you on that massive immigration raid in Georgia. Officials now say 475 people were apprehended at that Hyundai plant yesterday. Most of them are Korean nationals.

Now, the raid itself is the biggest single-site operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI. That's according to officials. The raid itself involved multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies. They descended on that sprawling construction site near Savannah.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Atlanta covering all of this for us.

So, what more do we know about the raid and the targets?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, this happened at the Hyundai battery plant, a major plant that was being constructed to produce batteries for electric vehicles.

Now, this plant is located in Ellabell, Georgia, just 25 miles west of Savannah. And the Associated Press reports that the raids did stop construction of the factory. This is the same factory that was once touted by Governor Brian Kemp as being the largest economic development site in state history.

Now, you mentioned the scale of this operation. We are told by an ICE official that more than 500 federal, state and local authorities participated in this raid. And those 475 people that were detained, well, we're being told by HSI that they were either in the country illegally or were working illegally, but important to note here that no charges have been filed.

Now, I want to show you a video that shows a portion of this raid from inside of that plant. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for this entire construction site, OK? We're Homeland Security. We have a search warrant for the whole site. We need construction to cease immediately. We need all work to end on the site right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Right. And you can see there in the video these agents that are masked and armored giving out orders as workers in hard hats and vests, they are lined up listening to directions as this federal search warrant is executed at this facility.

Now, I want you to listen to this special agent in charge, what he said at a press conference that wrapped up just an hour or so ago. Watch.

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STEVEN SCHRANK, DHS SPECIAL AGENT: We are sending a clear and unequivocal message that those who exploit our work force, undermine our economy, and violate federal laws will be held accountable.

I'd like to add that this was not a immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses. This has been a multimonth criminal investigation.

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ROSALES: Now, I reached out to Hyundai Motor Company that told me via an e-mail that they are closely monitoring this situation. They also told me this: "As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained are directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company. We prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone working at the site and comply with all laws and regulations wherever we operate."

And, indeed, Erica, HSI told us that those detained individuals work for a variety of different companies there that were on site, like subcontractors. Now, on this same day, in Upstate New York, just hundreds of miles away, there was another large raid at a worksite, this time at a plant that produced nutrition bars.

Now, the owner of that plant condemned the raid, called it overkill, and we're told by CNN affiliate WSTM, it is reporting that 60 workers were detained there -- Erica.

HILL: There's also -- I know you have some new information. We have been following, of course, all of the developments on this facility, the detention facility in Florida. What more are you learning? Because there's been a new development on that today as well.

ROSALES: Right.

So, Governor Ron DeSantis, he's been teasing the opening of this so- called Deportation Depot in Northern Florida near the Jacksonville and Tallahassee area, in this rural area, built within a previously closed facility, state prison called Baker Correctional.

Well, now we're finding out this is open and they have 117 detainees there at the site, with 1,500 people -- that's the capacity -- Erica.

HILL: All right, Isabel, appreciate it. Thank you -- Jess.

DEAN: Joining us now to talk more about this, Ken Cuccinelli, former deputy homeland security secretary and President Trump, and now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America.

Ken, thanks for being here with us.

I just want to start first with a couple...

KEN CUCCINELLI, FORMER ACTING DEPUTY SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Good to be with you.

DEAN: Yes, great to have you.

So I want to start with that nutrition bar factory. That was the one that happened in New York state. The owner there said all of his workers had legal documentation to work in the U.S. He said -- quote -- "We have done everything we can to vet the people we hire."

Are there gaps in these verification systems? How does it go from we have vetted everyone to dozens of people are in custody?

CUCCINELLI: So, there's two sides to that exchange.

The company can do everything right. And let's take them at their word and presume they did. And they get I-9 forms and so forth that you -- H.R. people watching us will be familiar with. And they can do everything they're required to do. They can check all the boxes. But if the people on the other side are using false documents and are essentially signing off on deceitful statements of fact, there's nothing the employer is in a position to do to vet that.

HSI can vet that. And that's probably why they're there. So just because HSI shows up doesn't necessarily mean the employer has done something wrong. Now, you can reach such numbers at a facility -- and we may see this down in the Georgia situation, like we saw when I was in office in the Mississippi chicken plants, you may recall from the summer of 2019 with over 650 people arrested -- where the companies were involved in the actions of exploiting the illegals and allowing them to displace American workers illegally.

So there are both types of situations, but in the nutrition bar case you asked about, it is entirely possible that an employer could be completely innocent in a situation and still be employing illegal workers, illegal aliens as workers, or people who are here legally, but who don't have work authorization, which makes them illegal workers, but not illegal aliens, and not know it.

So it's worth not jumping to conclusions in a facility like that. And I think that the -- I understand the response of the business owner, again, taking their comments at face value. DEAN: Yes.

And, OK, so to that point, Hyundai, again, just for everyone following along at home, that's the one in Georgia, says they are cooperating with law enforcement and are -- quote -- "committed to abiding by all labor and immigration regulations."

And knowing that, do you -- I am curious, since we're talking about employers' role in all of this, when and if -- if and when they are held accountable and why that might be.

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CUCCINELLI: Right.

DEAN: And, to your point, it sounds like there are some cases where clearly they did everything right and yet this still happened.

CUCCINELLI: Right.

So we have talked about they have done everything right and it still happened. So let's set that one aside and look at the ones where employers are to some degree involved, where they don't check the documents that every company is required to have on file to hire someone, where they go to day labor sites knowing full well that the folks there may not be authorized to work, and they don't do any paperwork on them.

There's all sorts of variations on how this can happen. And there are just companies that systematically know that this is a compliant work force, that they can pay them less, they won't get complaints because these folks, if they complain to law enforcement, of course, the employer will be in trouble, but they will be asked questions as well. So people are deterred from doing that.

And I would say, this is such a politically sensitive area. One of the areas that I have found has what I will call mutual political support, sort of across the spectrum, is, where you have employers actively or willingly engaging and exploiting illegal aliens, I find that people across the spectrum are quite comfortable arresting and prosecuting those folks. And I mean, the business managers, the people who are executing that plan.

And when you see that start happening, you will finally have a deterrent in place because that hasn't happened at a large scale until this administration, including, by the way, in the first Trump administration. I described to you the one only example I can name from the first Trump administration from the summer of 2019.

This is becoming much more common in this administration. And so employers who have never had to worry about this before now know their own butt is on the line if they're going to break these laws.

DEAN: And just to be clear, that is not the indication in any of these cases at the moment with the information we have. Just to be very clear, no one's accusing anyone of doing anything wrong at this moment in time.

I am curious, Ken, why these sites? Why do they choose these particular places?

CUCCINELLI: So that would take more information about their overall enforcement plan that I don't have and that we won't have on the outside.

There is -- as one of the agents commented, there's a lot of work that goes into an operation of this scale and of this depth, including investigation by multiple agencies. Obviously, it takes a lot of investigative manpower. And that's all going on in parallel with a whole bunch of other investigations across the country.

And, really, why we're seeing this now is because they met what the prosecutors and the HSI believed would be the appropriate threshold to say, we can move forward with this at this scale accurately because we have confidence in the information we have gathered and investigated and we have confidence that the outcome of this is going to be the prosecutions we're pursuing are going to be successful.

And once they cross that threshold, then there's the simple logistical question of bringing enough officers and agents together in that location to execute on it. And that can be a function of what else are all of those folks doing at any given time and then scheduling it all.

So there's a lot of operations, logistics that go into executing on a complicated operation like we're seeing unfold today in Georgia.

DEAN: All right, Ken Cuccinelli, thank you very much for your time. We really do appreciate it.

CUCCINELLI: Good to be with you.

DEAN: Thank you.

Still ahead: The Department of Defense could soon get a rebrand -- why the president wants to restore a name for the department that's from 75 years ago.

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