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Immigration Crisis at the Border; Interview with Rep. Henry Cuellar; Tight Security at the Rio Grande River; Jobs Grow in States with Higher Minimum Wage; Hot Car Death: Dad's Social Media Life

Aired July 09, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, that video is so great. He's just so adorable.

Guys, have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me.

Today the president will try to immerse himself in the immigration crisis while staying hundreds of miles away from the Mexican border. He is heading to Texas later this afternoon. This year a live look from the border as we speak. The Rio Grande River, where thousands of immigrants cross illegally from Central America into Mexico, and into the U.S., but he won't, the president, be heading anywhere near there.

Instead what he'll do is meet with one of his most vocal critics, Governor Perry, as well as faith leaders to talk about how to convert schools to temporary housing facilities for immigrants.

The White House is defending the plan but even some Democrats are pushing for him to make the trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. FILEMON VELA (D), TEXAS: I think that anybody who is working on the situation, at some point in time, whether it'd be tomorrow or some point in the future, really needs to go to visit and see these children and these families.

CECILIA MUNOZ, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL: He sent the vice president to Central America to deal with the heads of state in the countries from which people are coming. Secretary Kerry was in the region, Secretary Johnson is in the region today, is in Central America today. Secretary Johnson has traveled to the border five times in the last month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now this hour, CNN will cover the border crisis like no other network, from the White House to Texas. We have congressmen from both sides of the aisle, Representative Henry Cuellar from Texas, as well as Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin.

But we begin with senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

Jim, the latest from where you are?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. The president won't be going to the Texas border today. He has a fundraiser in Denver and then a speech on the economy in Colorado before he heads to Texas for a fundraiser but he does have what should be a tense meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry in Dallas after a roundtable with local immigration reform advocates in that city.

And even though that meeting will be tense, there's another tense showdown brewing here in Washington over the president's border plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): With the ink barely dry on the president's nearly $4 billion plan to halt the flood of undocumented immigrants flowing across the U.S. border, prominent Republicans in Congress are already saying no deal.

REP. BOB GOODLATTE (R), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: They've asked the Congress for a blank check, an awful lot of money that comes to tens of thousands of dollars for each one of these children.

ACOSTA: Nearly half of the $3.7 billion White House proposal is to go to the caring for the unaccompanied minors from Central America. The rest goes to detention and removal costs, more Border Patrols and surveillance and immigration legal teams to speed up deportation proceedings. Administration officials say GOP critics want to have it both ways.

MUNOZ: They don't get to acknowledge that this is a serious humanitarian problem and then say offhand that they won't provide the support to make sure that we can deal with this problem.

ACOSTA: Part of the problem existing U.S. laws that require border crossers to be returned quickly if they come from Mexico, yet the undocumented from Central America receives special legal protections. A distinction former President Bush signed into law to fight human trafficking.

DORIS MEISSNER, MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE: It is the protection that is required under U.S. law but it has now escalated to the point of creating a migration emergency.

ACOSTA: Making the border crisis tougher to solve is the political brawl between the president and Texas Governor Rick Perry, after an exchange of insults --

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: I have to believe that when you do not respond in any way that you are either inept or you have some ulterior motive.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The truth is, it's hard to take seriously Governor Perry's concerns. ACOSTA: The two leaders will meet in Dallas, hundreds of miles from

the border, aides say, the president won't be visiting.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I hope the president will reconsider. He really needs to go there and see this for himself and not just rely on his advisers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now Governor Perry and President Obama will be meeting at this roundtable discussion that the president is holding in Dallas with local immigration reform advocates, faith leaders in that community, but so far, Brianna, that is the only face-to-face encounter that aides to the president and aides to the governor will talk about at this point.

They may have a lot of political differences here in Washington and down in Austin but they do have one thing in common, they're being very tight lipped about this encounter later on today -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. And the other thing they have in common is this problem that they are facing.

Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you so much.

ACOSTA: You bet.

KEILAR: Members of the president's own party are questioning Obama's decision not to visit the border. In fact, one Texas congressman openly wonders if the president's handling of this is similar to how his predecessor handled the response in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D), TEXAS: I'm sure that President Bush thought the same thing, that he could just look at everything from up in the sky and that he owned to that for a long time. So I hope this doesn't become the Katrina moment for President Obama saying that he doesn't need to come to the border. He should come down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was Representative Henry Cuellar. He's joining us right now. Congressman from Texas.

Good morning to you. Thank you for being with us.

CUELLAR: Good morning.

KEILAR: Really appreciate you being here.

I want to play devil's advocate here, though, because you say this is a -- this could be a Katrina moment, and I wonder, is it appropriate, do you think, to compare this to Katrina, where people died and the city was -- was demolished or much of the city was demolished? CUELLAR: Yes, I mean, there are two different crises without a doubt,

but I was referring to how a leader addresses an issue. In this case where there's a crisis that we're seeing down there, a leader is going to be defined on how he or she handles that crisis.

You can send surrogates down there to the border. You could be 500 miles, like he's going to be in Dallas today, but the thing is, I think he ought to go out there and see the situation, one, talk to the Border Patrol who have been doing a great job down there but more importantly as parents, we ought to see those young kids, young girls, about one-third are raped on the way up here, some of them don't even make it over here to the U.S. border. He ought to see exactly what that crisis is on the border.

KEILAR: Yes. And no doubt certainly this is a crisis for sure. I want to ask you a bit about this trip that the president is on, and sort of your perception of it. There was some kind of bizarre pictures that came out of his first stop on the three-day swing when he was in Denver. This was last night during his visit there. After a fundraiser, the president went out. He had some beers. He played pool.

He's talking some about the economy, focusing on the economy, and then this happened at the bar there. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go, Barack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to hit this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I mean, it was kind of a downright bizarre trip, I would say. That was someone actually I think, and albeit in Colorado, where marijuana is legal at this point, recreationally. He was offered some, it appears. Today he's turning his attention to this border crisis, obviously, meeting with faith leaders and with the governor.

But as you watch him the day before coming to Texas and he's not going to the border, what's your read on that?

CUELLAR: Well, listen, you know, he is going to meet with the governor and some folks in Dallas, but that's still 500 miles away from the border.

What about meeting with the border community leaders that are facing this situation day after day? What about the non-profits and the church leaders that we have on the border that have been working out of their generosity helping the young folks over there? So this is something that he can get on Air Force One, with all due respect. He can be down there, stop the traffic, go down there to the border, spend a little bit of time.

And I think as parents, all of us should be -- you know, one, see the Border Patrol but as parents, we ought to see those young kids who are coming in without parents and put a face to the crisis that we're seeing there.

Look, if he's afraid that if he goes down to the border, and he's going to own this situation, well let me tell you, he can't hide from this because he can do this long distance the way he's doing this, send surrogates down to the border. He's still going to own the situation, and like I said, a leader is going to be defined by how he or she handles a situation, a crisis. And this is certainly a humanitarian crisis that we're facing down at the border.

KEILAR: And I'm curious, as you have concerns about how the president's handling this situation, will you and other Democrats register your disapproval with that by voting against the president's $3.7 billion request for funds to deal with the influx of children coming across the border?

CUELLAR: Well, first of all, we as appropriators, we are going to look at that. We just can't -- just say we're going to give you all the money that we want. But at the same time, certainly I'm going to be supporting the president and addressing the funding issues that we have, the humanitarian issues for taking care of those kids, we have to do that. I don't know what amount but we got to look at that.

But let me tell you this. Are we paying vendors $500 a day to take care of these young kids, per child? You know, I mean, there's a lot of places --

KEILAR: Yes, but, Congressman.

CUELLAR: -- we ought to look at.

KEILAR: Congressman, I want to -- I want to pin you down a little bit more on this. This is his request, the Emergency Supplemental Funds, in order to deal with this crisis right now. You're not saying -- I mean, you know sort of what's in this, what his request includes, countering misinformation by smugglers, cracking down on smugglers, providing for the care and obviously you're concerned about whether -- you know, the cost of that is just really inflated. But is this something -- you're not really committing to an answer here. Is this something that you will support?

CUELLAR: Yes. Let me give you the answer. I've been straightforward on this. I as appropriator I want to review what he's going to give us. We just can't just trust the president saying we're going to give you exactly every penny you want to. But do I want to support him? Yes. Of course I want to support the president of the United States but we have a right as appropriators, as Congress, to review the proposal that he's given us, because keep in mind this didn't happen last night.

This is something that's been happening over -- over a year, and therefore, we want to review exactly what he's talking about. But again, do we support putting more money for ICE, for detention spaces, more judges down there, immigration judges, taking care of the kids? Yes, we just got to look at the amount, but do I want to support the president? The answer is yes. KEILAR: So meaning his proposal may not be the one that you would

want to move out of Congress. It may be changed. Do you feel like it's a negotiation with the White House?

CUELLAR: Of course. You know, when a president proposes, Congress has the right to review under the Constitution how much money we're going to appropriate. We're the only ones that can appropriate but we're certainly going to look at what the president has been -- has proposed to us and I certainly want to support the president. And I'm glad that he gave us a proposal.

Some of the things that he's proposing are the things that some of us have been asking for months and months and months. He finally got to proposing and again we are going to look at that. But do I want to support the president, yes, I do.

KEILAR: Hey, Congressman, thank you so much for your time this morning. Really appreciate it.

CUELLAR: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: Congress Cuellar from Texas there.

Thousands of undocumented immigrants will pass through the Rio Grande on their way to the United States. This is the epicenter of this immigration crisis and it's being visited by everyone except as you heard the president.

Alina Machado is live at the Rio Grande River in Mission, Texas.

Alina, tell us what's going on where you are and also about this problem that is just escalating.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we are really in the middle of this immigration crisis, right on the Rio Grande. On one side you have the Mexican border. On the other side of the river where we are you have the U.S.

Tens of thousands of children are expected to be crossing the border into the U.S. this year, most of them from Central America, from Honduras, from Guatemala, from El Salvador, and once they get here, they end up under the care of faith-based organizations while they figure out their legal status, their legal situation here, and many of these organizations are really starting to get taxed and there is concern right now about how long they're going to be able to sustain this level of help. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAUL SALINAS, LAREDO, TEXAS: What's going to happen when the faith organizations run out of money, when the donations are no longer come, when you no longer have volunteers, the burden will be on cities. We're not going to raise taxes. I mean, if we use some tax money and we're tight for money now, are we going to get reimbursed? And that's the challenge that we face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: And that challenge is likely to stay here for a while. Meanwhile here at the border, the Border Patrol has a very strong presence. There's a boat ramp right over there where you're looking at. We've been seeing boats coming up and down the river all morning. We've also seen helicopters, obviously they are looking to see if anyone is crossing the border -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Alina Machado for us on the border, thank you so much.

Now ahead in the next half hour we'll be speaking with Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. He's a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which will dig deeper into the border crisis today during a special hearing. We have that ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Checking top stories now.

Deadly storms in the East overnight. More than 100 children at a summer camp near Baltimore were caught outside when trees started falling on top of them. One boy died, and eight other kids were injured.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON BISSET, CAMP DIRECTOR: Something like this can never happen in our history, and it was a freak storm that came up. Obviously, it's pretty traumatic for the campers because a lot of them were there obviously when it happened. But we've gotten them all together, all accounted for, taken them to the lower part of our campus which did not sustain any damage and they're all safe and doing well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: In New York, four people were killed near Syracuse, when storms there destroyed four homes and damaged many others and left nearly 130,000 people without power this morning.

The FBI is trying to figure out how vials of smallpox virus were left just sitting in a storage room. Workers found the vials cleaning out a lab at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

They appear to be from the 1950s. Two weeks ago more than 80 workers at the CDC in Atlanta were exposed to anthrax after samples there were mishandled.

The severe drought in the Southwest has water levels in Nevada's Lake Mead dropping to the lowest depth since the Hoover Dam was completed in the 1930s. Lake Mead is the water source for about 40 million people. But despite the low levels, officials say the lake will meet water obligations at least through next year.

Does raising the minimum wage lead to more jobs? This is a controversial question and one recent study says that, yes, it does. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the 13 states that boosted their minimum wage in January have had stronger job growth than the 37 that did not.

Let's bring in Christine Romans, our chief business correspondent and the host of "CNN MONEY."

Break this down for us, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the chart shows it nicely when you look at the 13 states by the beginning of this year had raised their minimum wage. Those states in green had jobs growth that went along with it, New Jersey, the only one that also raised the minimum wage but actually had jobs lost. You look at this analysis, this particular analysis here from the CEPR, which is a left-leaning think tank, but going with Labor Department data and some analysis from Goldman Sachs, and it finds that in these states that are raising their minimum wage, you are seeing job growth coming with it.

Now, this has been hotly contested and debated among economists for decades now. I mean, it's -- Warren Buffett himself has said is it a good idea to raise the minimum wage, does it create jobs? I don't know. I've been struggling with that for some 50 years.

But we do know Brianna, that more and more states and municipalities are doing it. They're going ahead and they're raising the minimum wage. Some could argue that jobs growth has been slowly accelerating over the past 22 months, so it could be a recovering economy, not necessarily raising the minimum wage that is the reason here.

But no question, no question that this debate is still very, very brisk, both in Washington but also in states and cities.

KEILAR: Yes, and speaking of one Los Angeles, we're seeing this play out there, a proposal for a minimum wage -- I mean, more than $15 for some folks, right?

ROMANS: This would be the highest minimum wage in the country, no question, $15.37, and this would be for about 10,000 hotel industry workers. L.A. lawmakers want to get this done and signed by Labor Day, and here's the idea, this proposal 1537 far above the federal minimum wage, far above what the president has proposed, more than what you're seeing in Seattle, more than the current minimum wage obviously in California. You know, IKEA recently said in the United States, it was going to be raising its minimum wage to $11.

So, without any congressional action you are seeing it happen on the states and local governments.

Interesting, interesting in the hotel worker arena, because there's a specific reason, L.A. lawmakers says you've got $18 billion a year in tourist dollars that are funneling in through there and that hotels should be sharing -- the tourism industry should be sharing that wealth with the lowest paid workers among their ranks.

KEILAR: Really interesting. We'll see how that plays out. Christine Romans, thank you.

And still to come, a Georgia dad charged with murder in his son's hot car death had a very active social media life.

CNN's Nick Valencia is covering the latest on the story -- Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL REPORTER: Good morning, Brianna.

We are learning more about the social media imprint of Justin Ross Harris and what police are calling his alternative lifestyle. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS-PERRY: Despite recent nationwide attention on a Georgia toddler's hot car death, some parents may still be oblivious to such dangers. Police in Nassau County, Florida, arrested a mother who left an 18-month-old boy in a hot car for four hours. Twenty-five-year-old Michelle King had taken her three kids with her when she dropped her husband at work yesterday and when she got home, she brought two of her kids inside, but she left the third in the car.

King is now facing child neglect charges. The 18-month-old boy had a temperature of 103. He was treated for heat exhaustion and will be OK.

And in Georgia, there is a new development surrounding the father charged in his son's hot car death.

CNN's Nick Valencia is following it all.

This is another bizarre twist, Nick.

VALENCIA: It is. Justin Ross Harris had a very active social media presence. It's what investigators are called an alternative lifestyle that he had. It's a lifestyle that we're now learning more about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): Bizarre new details continuing to unfold in the investigation into the death of 22-month-old Cooper Harris. Police say his father, Justin Ross Harris, used a messaging site to sext woman on a day his son died in a hot SUV outside his office building.

And on the flirting Web site and smartphone app Scout under the name R.J. are three profile photo, all appear to be Harris. The profile creator writing: "Just looking to talk. Message me. I'm harmless." And then, eight months ago, "Yes, I'm married."

DETECTIVE PHIL STODDARD, COBB COUNTY POLICE: Evidence has shown us right now that he's got a whole second life that he's living with alternate personalities and alternate personas.

VALENCIA: While his son sat strapped in a car seat in the sweltering Atlanta heat for seven hours, investigators say Harris sent lewd text messages and explicit photos to multiple women, one of whom was underage.

STODDARD: He was having up to six different conversations with different women.

VALENCIA: Police, meanwhile, are combing through Harris' electronic footprints, like the Internet searches on his work computer that included visited a web page devoted to exploring a child-free lifestyle, as well as a search for how to survive in prison.

REPORTER: How is Ross doing?

VALENCIA: Despite allegations of infidelity, his wife Leanna Harris was seen leaving the Cobb County jail Tuesday, where her husband is in custody. While inside for over 30 minutes, it's unclear whether she was able to meet with him face for face during the visit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: We have reached out to the district attorney's office to try to get more details about that visit. They were unwilling to comment and on that sexting allegations by investigators, Harris' defense corner Maddux Kilgore on last week's probable cause and bond hearing, repeatedly said that this is not relevant, the defense for Justin Ross Harris maintaining that this was just a tragic mistake -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, and on obviously that's really at the heart of this case, but it's really bringing up this issue, Nick, of kids being left in hot cars. We know this happens every summer but it's just astounding. For the third time in less than a week, there was a child who was left in a hot car in Connecticut, and in the latest incident, a 15-month-old boy died.

Are these incidents becoming more common or are we just paying more attention to them because of the Georgia case?

VALENCIA: Well, we are saturated, of course, with media because of Twitter and social media. But, you know, this is a sad reality, Brianna. It's something that has already happened more than a dozen times this year, and twice in El Paso, recently, and another case as you mentioned in Florida, another one in Connecticut.

The agencies that follow hot car deaths for children say that this happens on average about 30 times a year.

KEILAR: Oh my gosh, 30 times too much. Nick Valencia, thank you.

VALENCIA: You bet.

KEILAR: Still to come, tens of thousands of children seeking a way out of the violence and poverty in their home countries, and now living in limbo at detention centers along the border.

Ed Lavandera is in Dallas -- Ed. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

Well, if anyone thinks there's a quick, easy solution to all of this, they'll be mistaken. We'll let you know how the process works in deportation, when CNN continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)