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CDC Expected To Announce End Of COVID Restrictions At Border; Interview With Labor Secretary Marty Walsh About March Jobs Report; Chernihiv Mayor Says Russia Shelled Local Hospital. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 01, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:34:22]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Any moment now the CDC is expected to announce the end of a pandemic era policy that blocked migrants from entering the U.S. Two years ago the Trump administration put was known as Title 42 into place citing a COVID health emergency. Now officials warned that ending this policy will result in a surge of migrants at the southern border and Democrats or the Biden administration is simply not ready to handle it.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez, she's on the border in Del Rio, Texas.

So, Priscilla, I want to know how Homeland Security is preparing. But how did we get here? Right? I mean, this was justified based on the pandemic. So I mean, does the CDC, does the administration have any other choice?

[09:35:03]

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim, this was a public health authority that was invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic when the CDC determined that based on public health it made sense to invoke this on the U.S.-Mexico border. But as the United States opens up and tries to move progress through this pandemic, the administration is under increasing pressure to do the same on the border and return to the normal operating procedures that were laid out in immigration law decades ago.

But the Department of Homeland Security has to prepare for that because they anticipate more people may want to cross, and they may seek entry into the U.S. So what that means is that they are building out capacities through temporary facilities, lining up contracts for transportation and deploying hundreds of agents to assist here on the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, in one of their planning scenarios and one of their worst-case scenarios, they're looking at 18,000 people a day at the U.S.-Mexico border.

That would be a record that would strain already overwhelmed resources. But even as DHS outlines these plans, some Democratic senators are expressing some concern. Senators Mark Warner, Joe Manchin, Mark Kelley, all of them really say they want to see a comprehensive plan before the administration moves forward on this especially as Republicans really seize on this issue in what is expected to be a very contentious midterm election. So the Department of Homeland Security actively planning for all scenarios here in what is expected to be a very busy week ahead -- Jim and Erica.

HILL: Yes. Absolutely. So just real quickly. As they want that plan and DHS is preparing, it sound like, though, the plan is not yet in place, Priscilla. Is that correct?

ALVAREZ: Well, U.S. officials are planning for these restrictions to lift by May 23rd. We're still waiting for that announcement from CDC. But by giving them some time that would essentially give DHS kind of put all of these preparations in place -- Erica.

HILL: Priscilla Alvarez, appreciate it as always, thank you.

A cancer unit destroyed by Russia's latest assault on Chernihiv, the city's mayor describes the crisis there, next.

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[09:41:16]

HILL: In the next hour, President Biden will speak about the March jobs report. The U.S. adding 431,000 new jobs last month. Now that number was a little bit lower than expected, unemployment also dipped lower than expected. That's good news, right, down to 3.6 percent, that is a new pandemic-era low. The economy is now just 1.6 million jobs short of where it was in February of 2020.

Joining me to discuss Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

Mr. Secretary, good to have you with us this morning. Obviously, this is a report I'm sure you're pretty happy with. Folks at the White House pretty happy with. When we see these numbers down to 3.6 percent unemployment, a very healthy job market, you see that, but then there is still this overwhelming feeling in the United States and recent polling shows it, multiple posts, three different ones, showing only a third of respondents approve of how the president is handling the economy. Why is there still a disconnect between the state of the economy when we see numbers like this?

MARTY WALSH, U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: I think the base of it goes back to predominantly COVID-19 and what people have gone through in the last two years. And quite honestly, you and I talked briefly, the Ukraine situation is putting a lot of fear in a lot of people as well, the uncertainty of what's happening in the world. And you know, I think the president is staying focused on reducing costs and bringing costs for consumers down.

Obviously we're working on inflation issues. The report has been a good, strong report. It was great to see. Also good to see increase in labor participation go up a bit. We still have work to do there but I think we just need to continue to tell our story. You know, a lot of people have had a lot of loss over the last two years, and I think that certainly I can't blame them for the feeling they have. But we still have to continue to tell our story and do our job and bring down these prices people feel every day. HILL: In terms of that we know with inflation on the rise with a

healthy job market, right, one of the jobs the Fed doing its part is raising rates, and so I know Americans are bracing for that. What are you hearing? I know you're traveling around the country, I know you're speaking with different businesses, different employers. How are those employers planning to keep wages up to keep pace with this inflation even specifically gas prices? It's more expensive for people to get to work.

WALSH: You know, when I talked to employers around the country, a lot of them are paying their employees more. They're not complaining about it, which is nice, you know, to see. I think that we have, you know, a kind of a perfect storm here. We have the Putin price hikes that are going on. But I think moving forward, two things I think are really important, that the bipartisan innovation act gets passed in Congress because that will help us create more manufacturing jobs in our country and bring more goods and services that will help us with supply chain long term, and granted, people are feeling the pressure today, but long term.

And the second thing is, we really need Congress to make sure they continue to support the COVID recovery response, so that governors and mayors and people in the street continue to get the support they need. So, you know, again it's about talking to people. I'm out all across the country. I was in Seattle, in Portland, last week. I'm going to be in California the week after next. I want to be in North Carolina and different places.

And I talked to lots and lots of people about what we do and the plan is. We just need to continue to communicate to the American people.

HILL: In terms of that communication, I know there's an effort to talk about these Putin price hikes, that they're directly connected to Vladimir Putin. But the reality is we were seeing inflation prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Is this really all about Putin?

WALSH: Well, the concern is that with the invasion to Ukraine, how it's going to impact the global supply chain around the world. I mean, we're seeing impacts of that right now. In long term or maybe in short term we're going to start seeing other supply chain issues around the globe with what's happening in Ukraine, what's happening in Russia, the sanctions that will be put on Russia.

[09:45:00]

So again we have to keep a very close eye on that as well. And, you know, when you think about our economy, our economy really is a global economy at this point, so what happens in one part of the world will impact other parts of the world. The variants over in China, we're seeing China shut down many cities because of the rise in the new variants over there. In parts of Europe, we have to keep a very close eye on that as well because that will indirectly impact our supply chain, which ultimately can potentially drive costs up.

So, you know, a lot of this, some of this is not within our control. That's why the president has been so control in reacting to bring these costs down. I mean, in this job report, we did see wage increases in some of the lowest paid areas, retail and manufacturing. It outpaced inflation. But we can't just depend on wages to outpace inflation. We need to work to continue to bring inflation down.

HILL: In terms of those lower wage jobs, right, a little bit of increase there as you point out. We saw gains in retail, we saw gains in the hospitality sector. All very important. But the reality is those are the folks who are getting hit hardest, right, who may not have built up the savings that we're seeing in other income levels. How concerned are you about that impact and is enough being done to help those lower income workers?

WALSH: Certainly the secretary of labor is very concerned about the working person in this country. And that's why the president was focused in his early days of his administration to pass the American Rescue Plan because a lot of that money that was given out, that people complained about getting an additional $300 that we were giving it to people and they should have been back at work.

These are the same folks that a lot of them have benefitted the most from that were from low wage jobs, making sure we had rental assistance in cities and towns all across America. Focus on people with low wage jobs. So there's been a lot of emphasis on that. President Biden is talking about creating about a pathway into middle class. He's talking about those folks that are in low wage jobs with the ability to move into the middle class.

And as secretary of labor, certainly my history and my background is about making sure we represent those people in low wage jobs, that they're not left behind this time. They've been traditionally left behind and people are like, just, OK, they're going to clean the table. No, they're more than that. These are folks that we need to make sure they get a chance to get to middle class.

HILL: Real quickly before I let you go, some states using some of that excess COVID funding to specifically help lower income, lower wage earners. Is that a smart use of that funding? Would you like to see more of that?

WALSH: Yes, I mean, it depends on the city and town obviously. You know, in my former role, if I was in that role, I'd be using that money probably for housing. I'd use that money for low wage workers, for people that homeless folks and creating opportunities, and also making sure we're prepared for any type of new variant. Again, every city in town has different challenges and different priorities that they need to move forward to. But it's good to see this investment.

I will say this, there are some states that have not spent the money and some cities that have not spent the money. Now is the time to spend the money. It's not there not to use, it's there to support the people in your communities.

HILL: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, thanks for joining us this morning.

WALSH: Thank you.

HILL: Just ahead, we'll take you back to Ukraine, Jim.

SCIUTTO: As Russia continues attacking civilians there, in the city of Chernihiv just to the northeast of Kyiv, a hospital and a cancer unit were hit. Look at those pictures there. What the mayor is telling CNN next.

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[09:52:45]

SCIUTTO: Right now the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, just to the northeast of the capital, is a sea of devastation. Russia has blanketed this town with heavy shelling for days, for weeks, the latest attacks hit a local hospital. That's what you're seeing there. Destroyed a cancer unit, injured at least three people. We've seen this so often, Erica, deliberate targeting of civilians.

HILL: Absolutely. I want to go back to John Berman who is in Lviv.

So, John, I know you were speaking with the mayor of Chernihiv. You've been actually in touch with the mayor throughout the week. What is the latest that you're hearing this morning?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, it's been really interesting checking in with him just about every morning. Especially because Chernihiv was one of these cities where the Russians had promised they were going to scale back their operations and every morning, I talked to him and he tells me, no, they just have it. In fact from the air, in some cases, they've actually intensified their attacks, including this morning, he told me, when a hospital was hit, a regional hospital was hit, a cancer ward destroyed, three people hurt there.

And even more than that, he just said services are all gone in his city and he actually did the interview today. He has acute pneumonia now and he was inside holding a flashlight to his face so we could see him because it was the only way to get power and just listen to how he describes the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR VLADYSLAV ATROSHENKO, CHERNIHIV, UKRAINE (through translator): At the moment, we are going through a full humanitarian catastrophe. We have no electricity, no water. I'm actually being interviewed, I'm talking to you with my torch as a mean of electricity and the Russian forces just shelled a local regional hospital. So this is the situation.

BERMAN: The Russians just attacked a hospital?

ATROSHENKO (through translator): Yes. Some shells hit the regional hospital direct. And one of the buildings of the hospital, in fact, the oncological unit was completely destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, a hospital hit by Russian shelling. The mayor told me he thinks he has five to seven days of food left in the city at this point, but he's confident, he says, that Ukrainian troops will be able to break through and rescue the people of that city and they are determined to hold out -- Jim.

[09:55:11]

SCIUTTO: We've used that term terrorize and I think it does describe accurately what these Russian attacks are designed to do, terrorize the civilian residents, terrorize whole cities. We're seeing that play out.

John Berman, thanks so much.

Still ahead, Ukraine is refusing to comment on whether its own forces carried out an attack on a major fuel depot, that's the one burning there, inside Russia. The Kremlin says it could impact negotiations, sort of humorous, considering Russia is bombing its way across the entire country of Ukraine. Our live team coverage from the region continues next.

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