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Columbia Heights Officials: ICE Agents Have Taken Several Children; GOP's House Majority Tighter After Democrat Wins Vacant Seat in Texas; Bad Bunny Make History with Album of the Year Win. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 02, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche says the Justice Department may appeal the release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian, from federal custody. The two returned to Minnesota yesterday after staying in a family detention center in Texas for more than a week. Saturday, a federal judge ordered their release in a scathing opinion that led with this, quote, "The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompletely implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."

The judge concluded his order showing the now viral image of federal agents taking Liam, wearing his bunny hat, and officer's hand gripping the child's backpack. The photo was released by Liam's school district, Columbia Heights Public Schools, and joining us now is the school board chair, Mary Granlund, who witnessed federal agents detain the child last month. Mary, thank you so much for being with us.

Have you spoken to Liam or his family since his release? Do you know if he plans to return to school?

MARY GRANLUND, CHAIR, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOLS: You know, I think right now the family is just working on reconnecting. They've been through a heck of a trauma that was, you know, globally watched and people were rooting for them to get back together. So I think right now they're just taking some time to be together, and preschool will still be there when they're ready to come back.

SANCHEZ: Sure. I understand the school, actually Columbia Heights schools, were closed today because of a threat. What can you tell us about that?

GRANLUND: So we take all threats very seriously, no matter what. We're a school district and we, you know, again, in all of the ways, we value our students and staffs and community and families' safety. So, you know, we made the tough call first thing this morning and, you know, we worked with our local police department and other agencies as needed to make sure that our schools are safe and we'll be back open tomorrow.

SANCHEZ: Can you share whether it was related to the immigration crackdown or even Liam himself? GRANLUND: So it wasn't directly related to Liam. You know, this happens, unfortunately, to a lot of school districts, you know, multiple times a year, not for us multiple times a year, but, you know, different school districts, it seems like somebody always is trying to close down schools here and there. So we're letting the authorities investigate and, you know, hopefully I will also have more information later.

Right now, we're just letting the police department do their due diligence and we'll be back in business, like I said.

SANCHEZ: Sure. Part of the reason I ask is because Liam was one of several students detained by ICE last month in your school district. Do you have a number, how many total have been detained, and do you know what their status might be?

GRANLUND: Yes, so we have had a total of six students detained and, you know, two have been, you know, have made it back here to Minnesota and including Liam, which we're really grateful for. But, you know, we're feeling a sense of urgency now to make sure that we get our children back home.

And obviously the hope is to get all of the children who are, you know, able to get back to their homes as well, especially with the measles outbreak that is happening down in Dilley right now. So.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that is a good point.

GRANLUND: It's a trying time.

SANCHEZ: Yes, on a number of fronts. I wonder what your message is to the parents of other students in your community who are watching this unfold.

GRANLUND: That our fight has never just been for Liam. Our fight has been for all of our families and our students that are detained illegally right now. We want them back here.

They never should have been sent there, you know, hearing from the lawyers and families and working and cooperating with them too. And this advocacy does not end just because Liam is here. We are fully prepared to continue to advocate for all of our students.

And that's at the state legislature for, you know, funding and things. And that's also in this instance.

SANCHEZ: Has attendance gone down since he was detained?

GRANLUND: Attendance has always been -- has been a struggle, yes, 1000 percent. It has been a struggle this year with ICE. We were able to roll out and implement an online learning tool for families who are, you know, feeling worried and scared or impacted by the ICE, you know, the operation surge. So we've had, I think, our -- the worst day of attendance in the last month.

I think was, we had 38 percent of our students in one school out. And that's a significant amount, especially when you think of our school district only has 3,400 students in it.

SANCHEZ: Yes. I also wanted to ask what your reaction was to hearing what the judge included in the order, specifically talking about the traumatization that these young children are facing.

GRANLUND: My gosh, I am not at all ashamed to admit I sobbed when I read that. It was so meaningful and so impactful, and the points were so well articulated in there and it really felt like a lot of the same -- it felt validating for the community concerns and for my own personal concerns that I have with this, with the impact of this surge on our youngest learners and our youngest, youngest family members all the way up.

SANCHEZ: Mary Granlund, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your experience.

GRANLUND: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

So Democrats in Texas winning two special elections, one of them a major upset. Should this be a wake-up call for Republicans there and across the country about what's coming in November? That's next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Democrats are about to get a boost in the House as Congress works to avoid a prolonged government shutdown. Christian Menefee won a special runoff election Saturday for a vacant House seat in a heavily Democratic part of Houston. His arrival on Capitol Hill means Republicans' slim House majority will be down to just four seats with just nine months to go before the all-important midterm elections.

And Congressman-elect Christian Menefee joins us now. Thank you so much for being with us. Do you know when you'll be sworn in?

Have you talked to the Speaker's office yet?

CHRISTIAN MENEFEE, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT (D-TX): Yes, we have, and I'm hearing that it's going to be sometime this evening, roughly around 6:30 Eastern Time, and I'm excited. Look, this is a district that has gone more than 330 days without congressional representation because our governor decided to play politics with people's voice in Congress. So I'm obviously excited for myself to be here in Washington, but I'm more excited for the people in this district because they'll finally have a vote.

They'll finally have an office to do constituent services, and they'll have a voice in Congress.

KEILAR: And you're walking, obviously, into a pretty critical time in Washington. The government is partially shut down as Democrats are pushing for reforms to ICE practices. Will you vote for this two-week funding deal to get the government back open?

MENEFEE: Absolutely not. We have seen ICE be radicalized by the president, by Kristi Noem, and they're terrorizing communities and they've executed people in the streets. Houston is a town of immigrants, of people who appreciate the rich cultural diversity that we get from our immigrant population, from the good that they do for the community, for how they pour into our economy.

We are not a community that supports terrorizing folks just because of their immigration status and U.S. citizens who are out there protesting. So I look forward to being a solid no vote.

KEILAR: You said to Bloomberg that you support fully abolishing ICE. So what should take its place? What would immigration enforcement look like to you?

MENEFEE: We've had immigration enforcement in this country for a very, very long time. But the question is, do we have enforcement that matches our values as an American people? And it's clear that ICE doesn't.

An agency that would terrorize people, an agency that would bring harm to communities, an agency that would kill people is not a type of agency that I'm open to support. I think that we have to tear it down to the studs and build something up that is focused on enforcing our immigration laws in a reasonable way.

KEILAR: Rename it? Do you want to rename it?

MENEFEE: We can call it whatever I want to call it, as long as they're not killing people, as long as they're doing right by communities.

KEILAR: But what are they doing? You're talking about what they should not be doing. What should they be doing?

MENEFEE: It should be enforcing our immigration laws in a reasonable way, not targeting people just because of their immigration status if they've done nothing wrong, not going into people's schools without a warrant, not terrorizing communities. But I believe that we should have immigration enforcement in this country. But what we have is wrong.

What we have today is clearly wrong. Hasn't looked like this in any time that I've been following national politics, and that's why I'm opposed to ICE right now.

[15:45:00]

KEILAR: This idea of abolishing ICE, there are a number of Republicans who think that this is the new defund police, that it's going to backfire on Democrats, because actually a lot of Americans, they do want to see immigration enforcement. And they, Republicans, think that that message, abolish ICE, makes it look like Democrats don't want to see that, that they want open borders. Do you worry that this could be a liability for Democrats?

MENEFEE: I don't worry, and I also don't believe that those Republicans really believe that.

KEILAR: There are some Democrats, to be clear, who worry about that messaging as well.

MENEFEE: I think they're trying to treat the American people like they're stupid. Look, people in our country are smart. They understand that what they're saying right now in the streets is inhumane.

They understand that what they've seen in Minnesota is wrong and shouldn't be happening to any community. And they know that when folks are trying to abolish ICE, they're trying to abolish ICE, not stop immigration enforcement in this country long term.

KEILAR: I also want to ask you, because we're talking about this shutdown right now and this two-week funding deal, which you do not support. Your parents both served in the military. One branch of the military is not under the Defense Department.

It's under DHS, and that is the Coast Guard. It's the smallest branch. It's a very important branch, and those families are very concerned that a two-week reprieve isn't going to be enough, and eventually they're going to see their pay on the chopping block.

This happens to them all the time. It's really tough on them. Are you comfortable with their paychecks being at risk?

MENEFEE: I think what this is about is Republicans playing politics. Look, 95 percent of this deal, Democrats negotiated in good faith, but now Republicans are coming to the table saying that they want to provide more ICE funding, but none of the reforms that have been laid out very clearly by the House delegation. My parents, to be clear, were Coasties.

They were in the Coast Guard. My father served 28 years and 11 months, and I look forward to, during my time in Congress, doing everything I can to be a partner for the Coast Guard and to protect them. This, to me, is about making a clear statement that you cannot send a federal police force, masked, to kill people in our communities, and I think that needs to be a red line for folks in Congress.

KEILAR: Is there a way to protect those folks? I mean, as the son of two Coasties?

MENEFEE: I'm open to any type of negotiation that's going to address the ICE problem while also ensuring that the Coast Guard is protected.

KEILAR: Congressman-elect. Sounds like soon, very soon to be this evening, Congressman Christian Menefee. Really appreciate you stopping by.

MENEFEE: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Thank you.

And now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour -- Boris. SANCHEZ: Yes, Brianna, the Kremlin confirming the next trilateral meeting between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine will take place in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday with the goal of finally ending the war in Ukraine. A Kremlin spokesperson said there was, quote, no clarity on the prospects of Moscow and Kyiv approaching a peace deal but suggested some common ground could be found on certain issues. In a post on X, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready for substantive talks.

Also, January's jobs report will apparently be delayed. Officials with the Bureau of Labor Statistics say that report and other closely watched data will be delayed because of the partial government shutdown. The second time now in four months that a shutdown has forced the delay of the release of critical economic data. Once funding is restored, the release of those reports will be rescheduled.

And if you want to toss a coin and make a wish at the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, it's going to come at a price. Visitors will have to buy a two-euro ticket, just over $2 to toss a coin into the fountain.

Rome's city government introduced a new ticketing system for non- residents to help manage crowds at one of the popular tourist attractions, one of the most popular tourist attractions in that city.

Bad Bunny making history last night at the Grammys while delivering a pointed political message we'll discuss in just moments.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A historic night at the Grammys, especially for Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican singer won album of the year for "Debi Tirar Mas Fotos", the first Spanish-language album to achieve that top honor.

KEILAR: Bad Bunny used his time on the Grammy stage to deliver a pointed political message on the recent actions by ICE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAD BUNNY, MAKES HISTORY WITH ALBUM OF THE YEAR WIN FOR DEBI TIRAR MAS FOTOS: Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say, ICE out.

(CHEERING)

BAD BUNNY: We're not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We're joined now by Sabrina Rodriguez, politics reporter at "The Wall Street Journal", and Mike Madrid, author of "The Latino Century, How America's Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy". And Mike, I think so many people were watching Bad Bunny last night to see, what is this going to mean for the Super Bowl? What is that moment going to look like?

And I wonder, what's on your mind as you're thinking about that?

MIKE MADRID, AUTHOR, THE LATINO CENTURY: We were just talking about that before we came on. Look, this is a big cultural moment. And politics, of course, is a reflection of culture.

And I think there's this recognition that things in America are changing. And it's almost a whether-you-like-it-or-not moment. Clearly, he's going to do something that's going to have some sort of a political statement at the Super Bowl.

Otherwise, I don't think he would have set it up this way. So I think that there's this, you know, tension in the country. I think we look to artists to recognize that, give it voice.

And he's certainly filling that void right now.

SANCHEZ: A Rorschach test, Sabrina, for where people stand on not only the issue of immigration, but on changing demographics in this country. I mean, we talked about the reception that he received when he was announced as the artist that was going to be performing at the Super Bowl.

[15:55:00]

Now less than a week out, how do you think it's going to go?

SABRINA RODREGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: I mean, I think it's interesting that when we were having this conversation in September, there was that MAGA backlash that sort of fizzled. And at the same time as we saw that fizzle, we've seen public opinion shift further on immigration. We've seen that, you know, Trump's handling of immigration.

Poll after poll shows us how much it's gone down when that was one of his strongest issues on the campaign trail. So I think we see a shifting opinion around immigration enforcement. You see more and more people speaking out about immigration enforcement.

And I think it's going to be curious to see what he does. Because even if it's not an explicit political act, just Bad Bunny's existence, just the fact that it's exclusively Spanish lyrics, someone who is Puerto Rican, proudly talks about his heritage, I think that is sending a message that the NFL clearly wants to send also about looking from a global lens and this being the future of this country.

KEILAR: And you talk about what people want out of immigration. Your new piece is titled, "The Trump Supporters Who Say He Went Too Far on Immigration". What did people tell you?

RODREGUEZ: It was a really interesting conversation with people from across the country. And for a lot of folks, you know, they thought that, yes, he talked about mass deportations. But they looked at that as from the lens of, oh, it's going to be focused on criminals. There was some expectation that it would be handled in kind of a more orderly way. But the scenes and images that people are seeing, I mean, part of this is so much fueled by social media, all the videos that people are consuming about what's happening across the country. And for a lot of them, these chaotic scenes happening out of Minneapolis, Chicago, other cities, was a step too far for people where they said, wait, I didn't sign up for a five-year-old to get deported.

SANCHEZ: To that point, Mike, a recent Fox poll finds Trump's approval rating on immigration at 45 percent. That's one point higher than his overall approval rating. As Sabrina noted a moment ago, the president got elected in large part because of this issue of immigration and shutting down the border.

But it appears that for a majority of Americans now, they've gone too far.

MADRID: Yes.

SANCHEZ: And it could potentially hurt Trump with groups that he made inroads with, in the last election.

MADRID: Yes, if there's any sign of just how much damage it's doing, it was the Texas special election Saturday night, a 50-point swing. I mean, people have been watching the Latino vote for decades now. I've never seen a 50-point swing away from either party.

This is historic, and there's no question that a huge part of this is a direct result of Trump's policies on immigration. The voters are now beginning to separate the idea that this is about immigration. It's really about overreaching government, militarizing our streets is having an impact broadly.

And as we've, you know, listened to the "Donro Doctrine" that's been part of this Western hemisphere, there's clearly a Latino corollary that's pushing back and saying, we as a community are not going to put up with this. We may have given you that chance. You've blown it.

We're going to come back to the other side of the aisle and resist what's going on in our streets.

KEILAR: We just had Congressman-elect Christian Menefee. And I wonder, how are you reading what happened there and also the state race? Some data points, importantly, going into the midterms.

RODREGUEZ: I mean, I think going into the midterms, we're seeing that backlash. And as Mike just said, with a swing that dramatic and in a state like Texas, this is a state that Republicans were touting those inroads, such dramatic inroads in South Texas and across the state. Other places like Florida as well and some of the bigger battleground states that we've seen across the country.

You know, Republicans said after the election, Trump talked about a major realignment. And going into the midterms, we're seeing that realignment might be eroding. And what does that look like? What does the Republican base look like? What do the voters who turn out for them in November look like if they've lost some of those gains with Latinos?

SANCHEZ: Politics, of course, is local. And Mike just mentioned something that made me think of some of our friends in South Florida and the "Donro Doctrine", very popular there. So it's interesting to think about how that might change for Cuban-American voters, Venezuelan-American voters, people that want to see these regimes in South America that they fled be taken apart.

RODREGUEZ: I mean, I think that we talk about this all the time, about Latinos are not a monolith. But I think we're going to see that very much in this election. What are the tension points for different people?

And in our South Florida, you know, you have folks who might be very happy about the actions that they're seeing Trump take on Venezuela but also might have a family member who lost temporary protected status or a Cuban family that is, you know, hopeful that he's going to do something about the regime in Cuba but are also navigating in their family situations around immigration and deportation. So I think those are tensions. It shows, like, the complexities of people.

But I think we're going to see that play out in the midterms.

MADRID: Yes, to that point, I've been watching this vote, as many of us have, for decades. I've never seen Cuban-Americans in South Florida, Puerto Ricans in New York City, Mexican-Americans in Texas, all moving in the same direction, away from the Republican Party, away from Donald Trump's policies. So as much as we're not a monolith, and that's absolutely true, at least for this moment, a voting block has been created.

[16:00:00]

The Trump administration has created a voting block that is absolutely pushing against it in historic numbers that none of us who have been watching this have ever seen.

KEILAR: You're seeing trends, for sure. Sabrina and Mike, thank you so much for the conversation. And THE ARENA with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END