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Southwest Meltdown Leaves Thousands of Passengers Stranded; Buffalo Residents Run Low on Food, Supplies After Days Stuck in Homes; Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Title 42 as Soon as Today. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired December 27, 2022 - 10:00   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 ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour here in Washington. Good morning. I'm Jessica Dean. Jim Sciutto is off today.

We begin with a travel nightmare for thousands of people stranded at airports all across the country. Already more than 2,800 flights have been canceled today, nearly 90 percent of those on Southwest Airlines. The airline now apologizing, but as you can imagine, that is little comfort for so many people who may miss out on seeing their loved ones at all this holiday season.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had to wait in a line that was four hours and we're still in line. And nobody's giving us any direction on what line to get in. It's a total you know what show here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm calling Southwest, calling the airlines. They're nowhere to be found. I actually got hung up on multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is that Southwest, they don't give any answer. They don't answer the phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no option to rebook anything online. Oh, I've also been on hold for 5 hours and 43 minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: 5 hours and 43 minutes on hold.

That logjam starting with the powerful winter storm that battered Western New York. Look at that in particular. This morning, people in Buffalo struggling to get food, water, medicine, basic necessities, after days of driving bans and closed stores. We're going to take you live to Buffalo in just a moment.

But we want to start with the thousands of Southwest Airline cancelations this morning. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is live at Chicago's Midway Airport, CNN's Nick Valencia at Atlanta's Hartsfield- Jackson International airport. Adrienne, to you first, we see all those bags behind you. It does not look good. What are passengers telling you this morning?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're defeated. I mean, the bags, that's one illustration of this travel nightmare. You can really see luggage as far as the eye can see here. And there's some organization to the chaos. If you take a walk with me, you'll notice that there are tags on some of the areas. That is the airport or the location where the bags were supposed to arrive.

We've heard from travelers this morning who have been frustrated. I've heard the word wow numerous times this morning, because when people show up or walk by, that's their first reaction. They stop, they take a picture, many saying they've never experienced this before, or seen so much luggage in one spot.

This, another thing they don't want to see, cancelation on top of cancelation. More than 2,500 flights canceled across the country. They're coming into or going out of the U.S. Here's one woman's experience.

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CATHERINE GRIMM, TRAVELER WITHOUT HER MEDICATION: Our flight was canceled. When we got off the plane, we looked around, we waited 2.5 hours. They told us, assured us that our luggage would be in Albany. My husband and I are both on medication. So, we went -- she went to Albany and they told her there is no luggage there. And that was at 6:00 last night.

So, we come here, and they tell us our luggage is here but they can't give it to us. And I said, we have medication. We need it. We can't pull it. We don't have the manpower.

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BROADDUS: And that's just one challenge. People need their medication.

Meanwhile, back here at Midway, you see the sign that says Hawaii. Another sign here says Seattle. That's where those bags were supposed to end up. A spokesperson here told me if Midway was not the final destination for passengers, they will not be able to get their luggage. And that's something else that has frustrated people, because they've been here waiting. They can see their bags, but they weren't allowed to leave with them. Jessica?

DEAN: Ooh, boy, that is frustrating and difficult and probably enraging for a lot of people.

Adrienne, of course, the airline is saying that it's the weather caused all of this. The pilots union saying it's software, an outdated software.

Nick, let's go to you. You're in Atlanta. What's happening there? Is it any smoother there? NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a little more smooth than what we're seeing in Midway. But the post-Christmas travel chaos has hit Atlanta as well. And you this line here behind me. This is a line for southwest. And most of these passengers that we've spoken to have already had their flights canceled. They're in line here hoping to get options for rebooking.

Those that we have spoken to say that they've been here for an hour- and-a-half, perhaps up to two hours. And the line may not seem bad but the stories we're hearing are just terrible. Earlier, I spoke with a couple who said that they've been traveling for the last five days. It's been that long, they said, since they saw their personal belongings, and believe it or not, they said they count themselves among the lucky ones.

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TRISHA JONES, TRAVELER STUCK AT ATLANTA'S AIRPORT: We were able, when we canceled again yesterday, to get a hotel.

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So, we've seen a lot of families who are sleeping on the floor and it just breaks my heart.

JOHN JONES, TRAVELER STUCK AT ATLANTA'S AIRPORT: If my boss is watching this, yes, it's true, I didn't just blow off the day, I'm actually standing in an airport doing nothing, and I do have a ticket, and I hope to come to work at some point in my life.

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VALENCIA: So, there is some frustrated passengers here, but most of the anger we've seen has been isolated. Most of these passengers are aware that they're going to experience some delays and that they're going to experience some long waits in line.

I did speak to somebody who actually got a bus down from New York. They didn't want to risk paying $500 a night they said for hotels in New York, so they got on a bus down here 14 hours. And now they're stranded in Atlanta looking at their options. You'll hear from them later next hour. But just looking at these lines, Jessica, they are just moving inch by inch at this point, hoping for good news at this point, but not many are getting it here in Atlanta.

DEAN: Yes. It's a pretty tangled up mess at this point. Nick Valencia and Adrienne Broaddus, thanks to you both.

Stranded Southwest passengers saying they're extremely frustrated, and we heard from that one man. 5 hours 43 minutes on hold. Some have been totally unable to get through to the airlines customer service lines to rebook flights or find that lost luggage. And even Southwest employees say they have been unable to communicate with the airline. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LYN MONTGOMERY, PRESIDENT, UNION REPRESENTING SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: This is not a staffing issue. This is a systems issue. Southwest Airlines was staffed, its employees were ready to go to work. But when they chose to take flights into the middle of the storm or not preemptively cancel enough flights, their systems have not been able to keep up with the rescheduling, the cancelations, the notification to crew members about those cancelations and changes in flight.

We've had flight attendants on hold for up to 12, 17 hours in some cases, and unable to get hotel rooms. They've been sleeping in airports.

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DEAN: Let's talk more about this with Zach Griff. He is senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy. Zach, good morning, thanks so much for being with us.

Southwest employees, the unions, are saying this is a systems issue. And just to give people context for how much just a Southwest Airlines issue this is, according to FlightAware, more than 90 percent of the cancelations are on Southwest. That's 2,500 flights more or less. The next airline to have the most cancelations is Spirit with 75 cancelations. So, you see just how many are Southwest airplanes that are being affected, how many flights. Do you think this could this have been avoided?

ZACH GRIFF, SENIOR AVIATION REPORTER, THE POINTS GUY: Yes. Well, thanks for having me this morning. And what we're really seeing is a winter weather storm that came across much of the U.S., and it was unprecedented on many levels. But Southwest is the one that's having the hardest time recovering.

So, weather is airline agnostic. It happens -- all airlines experience it pretty similarly. Southwest was exposed primarily in Denver and Chicago. But it's the recovery that southwest is really botching up here. So, of course, we've heard a lot of it has to do with the staffing issues and the crew scheduling system that's broke down in the fact that people, these staffers are calling up the crews, the pilots, and waiting hours on hold to try to get their replacement flight schedules.

But it's also Southwest's unique route system. So, Southwest doesn't operate like many of the larger, bigger airlines, the big three in that they have major hubs where crews leave the hub and return to that hub possibly later in the day or at the end of their trip. Southwest planes zigzag across the country. And it's that complexity to the airlines operation that has made it really hard for the airline to recover from this winter storm.

DEAN: Yes, that's a really interesting point. And I'm thinking about these thousands of people who are either in an airport right now or thinking about getting on a flight for the New Year or traveling. What do you say to them? If they're supposed to fly on Southwest right now, what should they do? GRIFF: Yes. Well, at this point, Southwest is no longer rebooking customers for flights through Friday. So, they have what they call zeroed out the inventory. That means that they are trying to reset the operations. So, if you do need to go somewhere at the moment, your best option is to find alternative plans. So, that could mean finding a last-minute ticket on another airline, considering renting a car.

But at this point Southwest is -- you should, if you can, find a backup option, and especially now, because the travel system is stretched so thin, being that it's one of the busiest holiday periods that we've seen on record, any last-minute seat is going to be taken. So, try doing that now.

Additionally --

DEAN: Yes, go ahead.

GRIFF: I mean, don't check bags. As we've seen, if you can avoid it, try to go carry-on only. If something happens, you'll be able to get rebooked a lot quicker when you don't have to worry about checked bags.

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And, really, most importantly, just be kind to frontline agents.

DEAN: Absolutely. And they're likely trying their best to just get through the day and do the best they can in a very, very complicated situation. And we've seen all of those bags. That such a good point, carry-on, try not to check. Because once those get lost they, may be lost for a long time, it looks like.

How long do you think this will take to kind of unwind? What are we looking at here? I mean, this does not look like it gets fixed in 24 hours.

GRIFF: Oh, absolutely not. And that's, again, reinforcing the key message on finding a backup, because at this point, Southwest is probably out through the end of the year. We've already seen them cut about two-thirds of their flight schedule. They're doing that through Friday. What New Year's will bring is really anyone's guess right now. Mother Nature looks to be quite favorable across the country, but that's not to say that Southwest is going to take days, if not weeks to really fully recover back to normal. And so if you are on vacation at the moment and planning to fly Southwest, again, start looking into backup options.

DEAN: Yes, heed that warning. All right, Zach Griff, thanks so much for your expertise. We sure do appreciate it on this morning.

GRIFF: Thank you.

DEAN: Let's go now to Western New York, where more snow is in the forecast today and they certainly don't need it there. Emergency crews racing to check homes and cars for anyone still stranded by this once- in-a-generation blizzard. We know at least 27 people were killed in Erie County as a result of this storm. Officials do say that number is expected to rise as they start doing more welfare checks.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is live in Buffalo this morning, Meteorologist Chad Myers is in our CNN Weather Center.

Polo, let's go out to you first. A lot of the power has been restored in Erie County. That's great news. We want people to have heat and power. But what is really sounding concerning at this point is that people are running out of food, medicine, essentials, because they have been homebound for five days. And, you know, getting essentials to the grocery stores even to restock those shelves, they can't get through the roads either to restock shelves.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, that was a concern that was flagged yesterday by officials here in Erie County, that they are worried about some of these warming centers, also some of the facilities that are housing the first responders. They want to make sure that there's enough food there for folks who are still basically sheltering in place and then obviously those men and women who have been going, they were going car-to-car and now just going door-to-door in some of these neighborhoods that are still snowed in, in and around Buffalo, which is widely considered ground zero of this massive weekend winter storm. So, that is certainly one of the big concerns today.

The second is clearing out roads, continuing what they really started yesterday, when there was finally a break in the weather, and that's making sure that these roads are drivable, especially living in and out of some of the critical infrastructure, like medical facilities, for example. So, that's why they are relying heavily on help from the -- not only from the community but also from surrounding regions.

What you have are other municipalities, according to local officials here, that are sending in personnel and also equipment to be able to do those welfare checks that you mentioned a little while ago. Those are critical. Because not only do they get sort of a gauge where some of those most vulnerable folks are in the community, in their homes, some of which have been without power for days, but also, sadly, that's when they are finding out that there are also many people who sadly did not survive.

That death toll, it is difficult to track because it continues to climb up. As of last check Erie County, 27 weather-related deaths, we expect an update in the coming hour and we expect that that number will go up significantly as well. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, very sad news from there. Polo, thank you so much.

Let's go to Chad now. We know that more snow is in the forecast for Buffalo, but, Chad, you've been talking about a warm-up, and it's even going to go all the way to Western New York. Tell us about that.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We will see temperatures near 50 by the weekend. There's some good news and there's also some bad news in that. Right now, the temperature in Buffalo is 23, the wind chill is 13. And the snow is just about done. One little band here of lake effect snow will affect Buffalo over the next hours as the band moves up farther to the north, up towards the north towns.

But we're still seeing snow on the other side of Lake Ontario as well, the tug hill region, still picking up two to three inches of snow per hour in some spots. So, the area around Buffalo, you can see two to three feet of snow, that was getting packed down a little bit. So, we're not adding it up like we did yesterday. Officially, Buffalo over 50 inches of snow in the last four days. But here, you see 46 by the weekend.

But I am concerned about these little rain drops you see right through here. Now, the snow is on the ground. If the snow is on your roof, all of a sudden that snow is going to get heavier and heavier as the water gets absorbed into the snow. And I remember living in Buffalo. People were actually trying to get snow off the roof when this kind of situation occurred, because that snow gets very, very heavy.

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Now, here is the warm air. It is coming in from the west and it will get to the northeast over the weekend. Something I noticed here in Atlanta yesterday, we were below zero, or at least below freezing for many, many, many hours. Then we were above 32 yesterday and the pipes began to break, even in my apartment. The pipes were breaking because the pipes were frozen. No one knew it, but when it melted, all of a sudden that cracked pipe started to release its water.

We are seeing an awful lot of water, a big event in California, all the way from, really, Seattle all the way down to Mexico. Major snow and rain coming here. Some spots, the computers are up to 160 inches of new snow in the next ten days. They need it, but not so fast.

DEAN: All right. Polo Sandoval, Chad Myers, thanks to you both. We appreciate it.

Still to come this morning, the Supreme Court could decide as soon as today the future of Title 42. An estimated 22,000 migrants are waiting on Mexico's side of the border to hear what that decision is. We're going to go live to El Paso, Texas.

Plus, the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to publicly release former President Donald Trump tax returns soon. Could that complicate any of his criminal investigations? We'll discuss.

And a little bit later, who was more empathetic? Women or men? A new global study says it's found the answer.

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DEAN: The Supreme Court could decide as soon as today if the Trump- era immigration policy known as Title 42 will remain in place. That policy enacted as a public health measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, allows the federal government to send migrants back to Mexico or their home country to await asylum proceedings. Right now, officials say there are 22,000 people sleeping at various border towns in Mexico waiting for a decision. The Texas National Guard announced last night it's built two miles of fencing at its border with Mexico in the El Paso area and that it plans to continue to build more.

CNN's Rosa Flores is joining us now live from El Paso. Rosa, what are you -- and we see all the people there behind you.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jessica, what I hear here are just heartbreaking stories. I just met a mother. She doesn't want to be on-camera. But she stood out to me because she's sitting on the side of the street with her two daughters. And her daughters, you can tell, have what appeared to be burns on their little faces. And so I asked her how they were doing, and she says that those were burns from the cold, from them -- riding on a train in Mexico, from Mexico City to Juarez, and that just shows the conditions that these individuals have to go through. But she says that she's here, deep in faith, hoping for a better opportunity, in a sense these are the roots of the American dream that you see around me.

Let me show you around, while I tell you a little more about what's happening here in El Paso. This is a church that turns into a shelter overnight. Capacity is at about 120, 130, so a lot of the people that you see here end up sleeping on the street because the church fills up very quickly. Now, people from El Paso drop off clothes, like you see here, and they drop off food. There's another group back here who brought hot chocolate for all of the individuals here.

Jessica, there is so much need. A lot of these migrants don't have money to leave El Paso. They don't want to stay in El Paso. They're hoping to go to other parts of the United States, but they don't have money, they don't have transportation, they don't family in other areas. And so they're really stuck here. And officials in El Paso say it's testing the infrastructure of this city because there are limited bus lines that leave El Paso. There's only limited flights that leave every day. And with the recent cold snap and all of the delays and cancelations around the country, it's only going to make that situation worse here in El Paso, an official tells me.

So, Jessica, there's just a lot of need, a lot of desperation, a lot of pain here and a lot of people who are cold and hungry. Jessica?

DEAN: Yes. The need is great, as you said. Rosa Flores in El Paso for us, thanks so much for that reporting.

And joining me now, CNN White House Reporter Priscilla Alvarez and Raul Reyes, attorney and CNN Opinion Contributor covering immigration issues. I'm so happy to have both of you with us to talk more about this.

Priscilla, let's start with you. The Supreme Court could rule as soon as today on Title 42. What does it mean if that goes away? And what are things going to look like in El Paso, places like El Paso?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, to remind viewers, this is a restriction that went into effect in March of 2020. So, if it goes away we go back to protocols we have had for decades in terms how we process migrants. They're either released as they going through immigration proceedings, detained or moved back to their native country.

So, those things existed for years beforehand. The issue now is there has been mass migration in the western hemisphere. It's unprecedented how much movement there's been. So, going back to where we were is even more difficult when we're dealing with so many more people at the U.S.-Mexico border.

When you see those images in El Paso, the reason that there are some who have already come through and been released is because Title 42 applies to a lot of nationalities, particularly Central Americans, now Venezuelans, but not everybody.

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And so that is why we see some people who are being released. And the concern from the administration's standpoint is that those images, those scenes will get so much worse when Title 42 goes away.

Of course, we're still waiting for the court to rule. It can go two ways. They could either rule and this could be gone within days. It could go for -- the litigation could go for months.

DEAN: That would keep it in a holding pattern, right?

ALVAREZ: Exactly.

DEAN: Okay. And then what happens then in terms of the Biden administration and the government? What plans do they have, because this is coming at some point?

ALVAREZ: Exactly. And they have been saying that for a long timing. The White House has repeatedly said that they are focused on this moment and focused on the preparation. So, what does that look like? It means sending out temporary facilities, scaling up air and ground transportation, cracking down on human smuggling organizations and also working with NGOs, which is one of the primary concerns right now, especially in El Paso.

So, the Department of Homeland Security is putting all of this in place. They have been talking about this for some time knowing that eventually we would go back to the way things were. The White House is doing the same but also it's a tough political moment, whatever happens.

DEAN: It surely is. There are so many layers to all of this.

And let's talk to Raul here for a second. Raul, what's going to happen top these thousands of migrants at the border, we just saw, for example, in El Paso, if Title 42 stays in place for now?

RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: If Title 42 stays in place for now, which my sense is that it will, that it will remain in place, we will just see more of this type of human suffering, this status quo that has just been -- especially this holiday season, so disturbing to watch.

When we talk -- we've all seen it in the news media, what it's experienced, they've read about the record cold sweeping the nation this last week, these migrants are experiencing those same conditions, except they're most on the Mexican side of the border in tents with blankets. Some of them are in El Paso on the streets, because our immigration system does not have the capacity to, or resources to deal with it.

And to be honest, to be very blunt, when we see migrants overwhelming the points of entry at the border, the migrants are not the problem. They are symptomatic of the problems with our extremely outdated immigration system, which has not been updated since the '90s. We need a 21st century immigration system.

And despite the Biden administration, as Rosa mentioned, is taking various measures, I'm not convinced that that will be enough right now, for example, under Title 42. A migrant can be turned back in a matter of minutes. Say, five to ten minutes, they can be back on the Mexican side of the border. Meanwhile, if they pursued a lawful asylum claim and went through all the proper channels, that, on average, takes 4.5 years.

Now, surely, as a country, we can come up with a humane and effective solution where asylum claims are processed and not taking either a matter of minutes or 4.5 years. And that is the job of Congress. So far, Congress -- members of Congress on both sides have not shown the political will to tackle immigration, Republicans because it's very animating issue for the base, Democrats because they are hesitant about being seen as in favor of amnesty or open borders. And what happens continually, it happened in the Trump administration and it's happening now, is these immigrations cases go to the Supreme Court, which then will make a ruling.

And Congress never set up -- our system was never designed to have the Supreme Court making decisions on immigration policy. That is the job of Congress. So, in my view, each time we see these politicians making their photo-op trips to the border or very loudly complaining about the Biden administration, and that includes some Democrats as well, for the border states, the question should be, why aren't they in their role as elected public officials tackling this immense problem, which we have with our immigration systems, to ease the migrants' suffering and to bring our asylum system into the 21st century so it can be effective and safe and humane.

DEAN: It is a massive issue that has vexed Congress for decades and does not seem to be going anywhere in this new Congress, despite the overwhelming need, as you say, for comprehensive immigration reform.

Raul Reyes and Priscilla Alvarez, thanks to both of you this morning.

REYES: Thank you.

DEAN: Coming up, the House Ways and Means Committee is preparing to release former President Donald Trump's tax history. We're going to go live to Capitol Hill for more on that. That's next.

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