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CNN International: Biden Announces Protections For Some Undocumented Spouses & Kids; Boeing CEO Testifies Amid Questions About Safety Issues; 270 Million Americans May See Temps Above 90 Degrees; Southern Cal's Post Fire Now 24 Percent Contained; Vladimir Putin Arrives in Pyongyang For Landmark Trip. Aired 3-3:45p ET

Aired June 18, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:34]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Welcome, everyone. It is 8:00 p.m. in London, 4:00 a.m. in Pyongyang, 12:00 p.m. in Los Angeles, 3:00 p.m. here in New York.

I'm Omar Jimenez. Thank you so much for joining me today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's get right to the news. There's a lot of it.

First of all, we're going to start at the White House where in just a moment, President Joe Biden is set to unveil a sweeping set of executive actions to shield build some undocumented immigrants from deportation and ease legal pathways to work and live in the U.S.

Now, the announcement targets undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens who have been in the U.S. for over a decade, allowing them to seek permanent residency or citizenship without leaving the country. Now, it also looks to ease the visa process for young immigrants graduating college, including for so-called Dreamers. Those are children brought to the U.S. by their parents.

And that's a live look at the White House, where we're going to bring you his remarks, the president's, when they begin.

But, first, let's go to CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's also at the White House.

Kevin, can you tell us more about what the administration and President Joe Biden is expected to announce today and what the impact is going to be?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, it's a sweeping set of actions and officials say that it will affect around half a million people. It applies to undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens. You have to have lived in the United States per ten years to apply and you have to have been married by yesterday.

And this is a set group of people. You know, it's a contained universe of people who will be affected by this. And I think this can act as sort of a counterbalance for President Biden to some of those tough asylum rules that he signed into effect a couple of weeks ago, essentially shutting the southern border down to asylum seekers.

And you do to see in those two things, this balance that President Biden is trying to strike on the most fraught political issue for him, this issue of immigration. After he signed those asylum rules, you did hear from a lot of progressives, a lot of immigration advocates who are worried that he was taking steps that President Trump had taken when he was an office in these -- the steps today I think is his effort to swing the balance in the other direction, to show that he's looking for humane ways to keep families together, to address the large numbers of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

And I think you can draw parallels to the executive action that President Obama took in the June of his own reelection year in 2012, the so-called DACA program for the Dreamers, those young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

And in fact, President Biden, this event today is meant to mark the 12th anniversary of that. So there are some parallels there. And the action that President Biden is taken is, in fact, the largest relief program taken by any president since the Dreamer program. So you do see sort of in the universe of all of this, the president really trying to shore up an issue that he is so vulnerable on, and certainly that bears out in polls, you have seen former President Trump really rail against President Biden for the situation on the border, the southern border, and you have seen Republicans say that the actions today amount to amnesty.

I think from President Biden's perspective, he certainly does want to show that he's tough on the border. That has been an issue for him. But he also wants to shore up support among progressives and what the White House and what his campaign says this action will do is allow families to stay together and allow for a more humane approach to this issue, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And look, it's an issue -- we've seen him take action now on multiple points are respected, the second action to happen soon. Just two weeks ago, of course, that was when he unveiled by executive action restricting asylum at the southern border. So I guess the question is, how is he juggling the difficult politics on this issue? Which we know is important to many voters with, of course, the responsibility of being a president and being -- and presiding over an administration?

LIPTAK: Yeah, I think what you're really trying to see him do is flip the script in some way. You know, Congress has not been able to pass any sort of comprehensive immigration plan for decades, really. President Biden has advocated for some of these things to be written into law, whether it's more security on the southern border or pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are already in the United States.

There was a plan about a month or two ago that came together on a bipartisan basis.

[15:05:03] But what you saw is President Trump torpedo the bill because he thought that this would be an effective election year cudgel against President Biden. What you're seeing President Biden do is essentially trying to flip the script, regained some of the initiative, pointing to that effort by President Trump and saying, look, I'm doing what I can, but Congress hasn't been able to do anything because they're stymied by Trump and that's exactly what I think you'll hear him say today.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. Kevin Liptak, really appreciate. Thank you.

For more on this, I'm joined now by Luis Cortes Romero. He's an immigration attorney and partner at Novo Legal group and a DACA recipient himself. We're going to talk about all of that.

But I just want to start with what is your reaction to today's expected executive action, both as an immigration attorney and as a Dreamer yourself?

LUIS CORTES ROMERO, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY & PARTNER, NOVO LEGAL GROUP: Well, it's certainly a step in the right direction. This is a practical approach that will streamline the process for hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and U.S. citizen spouses in order for them to just finish this process. Like President Biden or the White House has alluded to, these are individuals who are already eligible for legal permanent residency. And this streamlines the process so they can just do a quicker without having to leave the United States and get bogged down with still the backlog of cases and the time it takes for that the process.

So it's definitely a step in the right direction. And it also protects certain Dreamers and DACA recipients who have gone to college and have high-skilled jobs for their employers to be able to petition for them, and at least get that process going.

But although it's a step in the right direction, it's still leaves a lot of people out, a lot of daca recipients, and a lot of dreamers who didnt get to photo collagen instead joined the workforce or individuals who are not married to us citizens. So while it is a step in the right direction, there's still a lot left to do.

JIMENEZ: And you touched on -- you touched on part of this, is that the undocumented spouses already do have a legal path to permanent residency and citizenship. But before, they essentially would have to request parole, which might require them to leave the country in the administration here appears to be trying to prevent some of those, some of those pitfalls.

Can you just help our viewers understand what that process currently looks like and why these actions -- I know you said it's a step in the right direction, but what exactly its going to fix heading in that right direction?

ROMERO: Yeah. So, currently, for these individuals and I think we're talking about half a million individuals are going to be impacted by this and we're talking about them in their communities, we're talking about millions of people. Those individuals will have to leave the United States and sometimes just when indeterminate period of time in order to finish their process abroad.

Now, the problem with that is, is that now you're dealing with multiple administrative agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, which are already overburdened, still trying to catch up from the COVID delays. And so, the backlog of cases is significant.

Taking that step out of it, and individuals without having to leave the United States and just being able to do here significantly cuts on the time that they have to spend abroad and also just the bureaucratic process. And so, it definitely streams lines.

The second thing that it does is that it also allows for individuals to obtain a work permit while their cases are pending. But according to the announcement from the White House, they will get work permits for up to three years while there cases are processing. And that's going to significantly help the economy. Those are no more individuals that are able to join the workforce and so, it allows for a temporary reprieve while the cases are pending.

JIMENEZ: Well, I want to also ask you about this executive action comes two weeks after President Biden signed a different set to restrict asylum there. And so, I guess my with some exceptions, I should mention, but essentially restrict it once it hits a certain threshold.

But taken together, are you happy with? Now the president is handling border security and undocumented immigration?

ROMERO: Well, certainly, the restrictions on asylum applicant is very concerning. We're already starting to see a lot of the consequences of individuals being forced to stay in Mexico and wait the asylum process. There is essentially second version of the Trump administrations executive order to try to stop the asylum processes.

And so, it is still very concerning and that is currently being litigated in the courses already lawsuits being filed. So -- but I think what President Biden is trying to do is he's trying to stop the amount of people coming in while trying to take care of the individuals who are already here and already have a pathway. And I think that that's he was trying to balance it, but he certainly is trying to tip toe between that line and I think -- I think he's having a difficult time from both sides of it.

[15:10:06]

JIMENEZ: And clearly dealing with the court of public opinion in an election year, trying to figure out how he can maintain his hold on the White House are all difficult places to be.

Luis Cortes Romero, excuse me, really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much.

ROMERO: Thank you for inviting me.

JIMENEZ: And as we are monitoring, we are going to continue to watch the White House and bring you the president's remarks live when they come. So stay with us there.

But I want to turn now to Capitol Hill where the outgoing CEO of Boeing, David Calhoun, has been facing tough questions from lawmakers. He's testifying before a Senate subcommittee on investigations about safety lapses that continue to swirl around the world's largest airplane manufacturer. The hearing has been ongoing at this point.

And following new claims by a whistleblower alleging the company likely put questionable parts in planes and hit them from regulators.

Now, our aviation expert Richard Quest joins me now.

All right. So, yes, we've heard here he's here to take accountability, but what does that really mean, given the weight that Boeing really needs to hold in this industry?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: A moment of reckoning is how Senator Blumenthal described as it's got underway. We had what well call the Zuckerberg moment as well when Calhoun came in and started to speak, he stood up and faced the relatives of those who some of those who died in the MAX plane crashes of a few years ago and apologized. He said MCAS and Boeing were responsible for their deaths, or at least for their -- for those accidents.

So he's doing sort of a mea culpa as best he can and saying that Boeing is at fault, Boeing isn't perfect. Boeing needs to change the way it's going about its business. And that's really where we are because it's pretty hard to beat up somebody who's doing the beating up on themselves. And to a large extent, that's where Calhoun has been.

He does seem shaken. He does seem to be not on top of the facts in some cases, he didn't know how many whistleblowers. He said he hadn't met any of the whistleblowers. He said he didn't know or didn't -- hadn't seen various documents that were presented to the committee that he then had to admit what gibberish and rubbish.

So, it's sort of weird performance of somebody doing a mea culpa, but actually, it's not really advancing things any further.

SANCHEZ: And that committee hearing is ongoing at this point. Dave Calhoun, as Richard has been talking about, has been leading a lot of that testimony, but not quite answering the questions as precisely as Richard talked about the Congress people would like, in some cases.

Richard Quest, thank you so much. Appreciate it as always.

Be sure to join Richard next hour for more coverage of the Boeing hearing on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS".

But first, the extreme heat ravaging the United States is firefighters battling at least two dozen wildfire across the country right now. That's next day.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:46]

JIMENEZ: All right. We are following a lot of weather across the country, including a record breaking heatwave that will leave around 270 million people across the Midwest and Northeast experiencing temperatures at that least 90 degrees. Hundreds of temperature records may be tied or broken this week as an intense heat dome fuels the searing temperatures, the National Weather Services Weather Prediction Center has warned that this may be the longest heatwave this part of the country has seen in decades.

For more on the extreme heat, I want to bring in CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, can you just lay out what we are seeing the extent of what were seeing, and contextualize why this is so significant?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Because, Omar, it's day after day of 95 and above, for so many big cities. We're talking large metropolitan areas, not west Texas or somewhere in Montana. Millions and millions of people are in the way. And then at night, it's not even cooling down below 80 in some spots.

So this is the problem, 82 percent of the population of the U.S. will see temperatures above 90, and even some of the forecast numbers that I was talking about Weather Service were talking about yesterday, like 95, 97, they got beat. Toledo was 99 degrees yesterday and I spent five years in Detroit and it doesn't get 99 degrees up there.

I mean, you have Lake Erie right there, right? I mean, so here you go. Mansfield was 94. It's the heatwave, 150 more record high temperature is going to be broken all the way through Vermont, New Hampshire, all the way even into Maine. Temperatures in Maine could exceed 100 degrees.

And if you've ever watched the Maine property masters, they never installed air conditioners because they don't need them up there. But this week they do. Temperatures are going to be above 100 with those heat indexes there. Right now, the center -- the core of this is in the Ohio Valley. Tomorrow, a little farther to the east. And then by Thursday and Friday so much farther to the east and significant heat for so many people.

The pets need more water. Your plants need more water. My cilantro in my lettuce have already said, call me in the fall, I'm not growing in this. They're hard already dying out there.

But the birds need more water. The plants obviously now, you have to keep them watered. People as well. And obviously check on the elderly, especially, if they're -- you know, they don't want to spend the money on AC and they keep it higher in their house. Make sure all those neighbors are taking care of, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And as you mentioned, a lot of these places don't have consistent AC or they may have thought they never needed it in the past. And when you have extended days of this amount of heat can create a dangerous situation.

Chad Myers, really appreciate it.

Join me now to discuss all of this is Jeff Goodell. He is the author of "The New York Times" bestseller, "The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet".

Now, that's -- that's where I want to start right now. It might not be scorch plan. I haven't looked at the whole global forecasts, but at least for a good portion of the U.S., that's around 270 million people are going to experience temperatures at or above 90 degrees this week. And a few weeks ago "The New York Times" wrote, the hotter it gets, the more difficult it is for our bodies to cope, raising the risk of heat stroke and other illnesses. And it is getting hotter across the planet according to data by the National Weather Service.

By far the most deadly kind of weather killing on average more than twice as many people as hurricanes or tornadoes combined. So my question is, what is heat so especially deadly as compared to what we may see in tornadoes or hurricanes?

JEFF GOODELL, AUTHOR, "THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST: LIFE AND DEATH ON A SCORCED PLANET": Well, thanks for having me on the show, Omar. Heat is, you know, very important for our bodily functions or you can think of our bodies as the sort of very sophisticated heat-balancing systems. And I think everyone knows that you go to the doctor you're not feeling good.

The first thing they ask you is, are they take your temperature and they want to know what your temperature is. So, a steady temperature is really important to all the metabolic functions of our bodies. And, you know, we can cope with small amounts of changes, but what we really can't once our temperatures go above 101 hundred and two degrees, we start getting in big trouble. Our heart starts pounding, you know, trying to push more blood to the surface of our skin where heat is dissipated through sweat.

And that works for a little while, but if the temperatures keep rising and you don't cool off, you start you start getting in big trouble. In the book, I call heat a predatory force and by that, I mean, it goes after the most vulnerable people first, someone who's in their 80s with a heart condition is far more vulnerable than a 22-year-old marathoner, young children, pregnant women, things like that.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, one of the things I think about with heat is that if you want to put them in this sort wheelhouse of some of these other natural disasters of sorts, is that there are different degrees of comfort with the heat, right? I used to live in Chicago, I think back to this heatwave there in 1995, where over a five-day period, hundreds of people died and one of the concerns from a public policy standpoint at that time is that there are typically more detailed emergency plans for blizzard, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, but not maybe so much so for heat.

And I'm curious, why do you think that dynamic exists or that mentality exists among people that, hey, you know, it's 95 degrees, I've been there before, it's maybe not so bad.

GOODELL: Yeah, that's a really great question and really kind of to the heart of why its so difficult to communicate about the risks of extreme heat.

I think one part of it is that there's no visual representation of heat. I look out my window in my office in Austin, Texas where I live and I can't tell of it's 75 degrees or 125 degrees out that window. If there's a hurricane, I can see at trees are bending, rules are flying around. So there's no visual communication connection for our brains to register.

And also, think about how we use and think about the word heat, you know? I worked at "Rolling Stone" magazine. For a long time, every summer we would do a hot issue and that was not about climate, that was about, you know, artists and movies and things like that. Heat can be -- we use that phrase when we meet someone at a party who's attractive, we call them hot.

So there's a lot of confusion in our language about it and it doesn't impact infrastructure the same way that flooding does with hurricanes do. It's really about human mortality, and we're just not that good at communicating about that. Although I will say in the last few years, things are getting better.

JIMENEZ: Definitely, definitely. In the past few years, I agree that there has been much more communication on this front, but clearly not always the case and as we've seen, can be just not just as deadly if not more than some of the other types of disasters that, of course, gets so much attention.

Jeff Goodell, I got to leave it there, thanks so much for being with us.

GOODELL: Thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

Now, staying on the topic, around 5,000 south New Mexico residents have been ordered to -- have been ordered to evacuate as two fires are burning through a tribal reservation. The South Fork and Salt Fires have collectively burned through around 17,000 acres since Monday.

And this has all happening as California works to contain multiple fires. The Sites Fire in northern California has grown to 10,000 acres overnight. Firefighters have been battling the Post Fire in southern California since Saturday, which has destroyed nearly 16,000 acres, and is at 24 percent containment.

CNN's Natasha Chen joins me now from north of Los Angeles where were you been following some of the firefighting efforts there.

Natasha, tell us about where you are and what you've seen while you're there.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Omar, this is the command center for the Post Fire and we just followed a crew out to Pyramid Lake where for the first time, L.A. County has used their sheriffs boats on a lake to actually shuttle fire crews to a fire line. They hadn't done that before and we were able to watch them take these hotshot crews by boat and they were going to the southern perimeter of the Post Fire, specifically to try and attack the ridge on that side to try and stop it from getting further out of control.

That area is really difficult because it's rugged, it's steep, and, you know, in better conditions could take a week just to put that out. And so, they're working on that hoping that their condition --

(CROSSTALK)

JIMENEZ: I'm sorry. I just got to jump in really fast. President Biden is now speaking at the White House announcing the executive action that will protect certain undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens. Let's jump in.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The first bill introduced as president, an immigration bill that included this provision, but it never got off the ground. These are more help.

But now today, a significant portion of it is being passed, are being by executive order.

Javier, thank you for the introduction and for sharing your family's story.

You know, I've often said, doctors -- we've been a significant consumer of health care in my family. I spent a lot of time in hospitals -- for our family. My -- anyway and I always said that doctors let you live, nurses make you want to live, not a joke.

[15:25:06]

Lot of time in ICU, lot of time with my son, lot of time. And there's any angels in heaven they're all nurses, men and women. Not a joke.

So thank you. But you did help us get through the pandemic, pal. And for all you're doing for our country.

(APPLAUSE)

My name is Joe Biden. I'm Jill Biden's husband. Thanks to all the members of Congress and homeland security secretary.

I'm not sure I'm going to introduce you. But all kidding aside, Secretary Mayorkas, as well as Secretary Becerra, and advocates and families, law enforcement, faith leaders. Everybody is here.

Two weeks ago, I did what Republican Congress refuses to. I took action to secure our border. That included restricting unlawful crossings at our southern border, making decisions on asylum more quickly and so much more. And so far, it's working.

Since the implement of my order, encounters have dropped 25 percent at the border, and we're seeing the lowest number we've seen a long time. But, folks, it took this step after bipartisan agreement, one of the most survey (ph) of Republican senators had helped work through in over a four or five-week period, the strongest bipartisan security agreement that's ever been seen.

But we're about to move forward when Republicans walked away from the deal and the most pathetic competitive reasons. Donald Trump got on the phone literally and started in the press, confirm this, and calling -- calling senators saying, don't, don't go ahead and do this, don't support this legislation that had bipartisan support.

And what he added -- when you ask why, they said it wouldn't -- it would hurt him politically and helped me instead. So much for Republicans caring about the border.

I also know -- many people in this room also add concerns about the steps I've taken. I heard and respected for many of you and many people behind me other concerns you feel, as president, I had to take these actions. Every nation must secure its borders. It's just that simple. Trump and the Republicans wouldn't do it, working with me. And I would do it on my own and I did.

At the time, it took these steps to secure the border, I also said that I would move to fix problems that made our immigration system unfair, unjust and provisions that simply made no sense at all. Specifically, steps that will be good for Dreamers, married couples, and for Americans.

That's why we're here today. Few days ago, we marked the 12th anniversary of taking care of Dreamers that President Obama and I put in place. There are a few of these immigrant -- of these immigration areas that have had most positive area -- impact and gotten more support from the American people across the board.

These young people, minors (ph), Dreamers, Hispanic, South Asians, and more who came to America as children only know America is their home have been able to live and learn out of the shadow, out of the shadows. So many of them have graduated from high school and college, and are starting families on their own, building successful careers, serving our nation in uniform and so, so much more.

We're much better and stronger nation because of Dreamers like Javier, who just introduced me.

So, today, I'm announcing new measures to clarify and speed-up work visas to help people including Dreamers who graduated from U.S. colleges and universities, landed jobs in high demand, high skilled professions than we need to have grow -- see our economy grow that's right to do.

(APPLAUSE)

I want those who have been educated at U.S. college, universities put their skills and knowledge to work for here in America. I want to keep building the strongest economy in the world with the best workforce in the world. We've already created 15 million new jobs, a record. We're seeing record economic growth, a record of small business growth.

And I doubt why the action we're taking today matters, if you wonder about that, just ask business leaders, ask labor leaders, ask the economists, ask elected officials, they know it's good for American business. They know it's good for the American economy. They know it's good for America, period. This step bills on other actions we've taken to support Dreamers, from defending Dreamers in the courts and expressing -- expanding access to health care for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act, including for Dreamers.

(APPLAUSE)

[15:30:01]

Second action I'm announcing today is about keeping families together. My dad used to have an expression. He said, Joey, family is about the beginning, middle, and the end? About keeping couples together who are married, where one spouse is U.S. citizens, the other is undocumented. They've been living in the United States for at least 10 years. These couples have been raising families, sending their kids to church and school, paying taxes, contributing to our country for every -- for 10 years or more. A matter of fact, the average time they've spent here is 23 years. People were affected today.

But living in the United States, all this time, the fear and uncertainty, we can fix that. And that's what I'm going to do today. Fix that.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Here's the point, it doesn't require any fundamental change in our immigration law. There's already a system in place for people we're talking about today. But the process is cumbersome, risky and it separates families. Under the current process, undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens must go back to their home country. For example, in Mexico, for example, fill out paperwork, obtained long-term legal status.

They have to leave their families in America with no assurance that they'll be back in the United States. So they stay in America. But in the shadows, living in constant fear of deportation, without the ability to legally work.

All this, even though under the law today, they're eligible for long- term legal status. Today, I'm announcing a common sense fix to streamline the process for obtaining legal status for immigrants, married, excuse me, to American citizens who live -- live here and lived here for a long time.

For those wives or husbands and their children who've lived in America for a decade or more but are undocumented, this action will allow them to file a paperwork for legal status in the United States, allow them to work while they remain with their families in the United States. Let's be clear: this action still requires undocumented spouses to file all required legal paperwork to remain the United States, requires them to pass criminal background checks and it doesn't apply to anyone trying to come here today.

It only applies to -- this action is a better way. It doesn't tear families apart while requiring every undocumented spouse to fulfill their obligations under the law.

Look, the action I'm announcing today will go into effect later this summer. And by the way, just as was true for the protection of Dreamers, the steps I'm taking today are overwhelmingly supported by the American people, no matter what the other team says. In fact, polls show over 70 percent of Americans support this effort to keep families together.

(APPLAUSE)

It's important.

And the reason is simple, it embraces the American principle that we should be keep families together. In 2013, President Obama and I took a similar action allowed on undocumented spouses and children of America servicemen to stay together while they apply for legal status in America.

Servicemen, protecting our nation should not have to worry about keeping their families together, for God's sake. This policy has been in place for over a decade and it's working well and so will the new one.

Look, let me close with this: I refuse to believe that to secure our border, we have to walk away from being an American. The best generations have been renewed, revitalize, and refreshed by the talent, the skill, the hard work, the courage, and determination of immigrants coming to our country.

Look, the Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It stands -- still stands for who we are, but also refuse to believe that for us to continue to be America that embraces immigration, we have to give up securing our border are false choices. We can both secure the border and provide legal pathways of citizenship.

We have to acknowledge that the patience and goodwill of the American people was being tested by their fears at the border. They don't understand a lot of it. These are the fears my predecessor is trying to play on when he says immigrants, immigrants -- and his words -- are poisoning the blood of the country, when he calls immigrants, in his words, animals. When he was president, he separated families and children at the border and now, he's proposing to rip spouses and children from their families and homes and communities and place them in detention camps.

He's actually saying these things. It's hard to believe it's being said, but he's actually saying these things out loud. And it's outrageous.

[15:35:01]

Folks, I'm not interested in playing politics with the border or immigration. I'm interested in fixing it. I said it before --

(APPLAUSE)

I said it before and I'll say it again today, I will work with anyone to solve these problems. That's my responsibility as president. That's our responsibility as Americans because the simple truth is, there's not a single damn thing we can't do if we put our minds together.

We've got to remember who in the hell we are. We're the United States of America and nothing is beyond our capacity.

(APPLAUSE)

We're a nation of immigration,

That's who we are.

God bless you all and may God protect our forces. Thank you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

JIMENEZ: So, we're just listening to President Biden there making an announcement for an executive action, announcement protections, I should say, for some unknown documented spouses and kids, including so that spouses have a pathway to citizenship without having to leave the country.

I want to bring back in Kevin Liptak at the White House for us because, Kevin, obviously he made this policy announcement but he also took the time to attack the rhetoric of the former president. Obviously, we're in a campaign year as well, and clearly something that was calculated and thrown in there towards the end.

What were your impressions coming out of this?

LIPTAK: Yeah. And it's interesting because on the issue of immigration, President Biden has so often been on the back foot really, you know, contending with searches of migrants at the southern border, not really having a solution at hand. And so it is always interesting extinct to see a president come out and speak about an issue and on an issue on which he is doing so poorly in the polls.

But it is what you see President Biden doing today. And you heard in the remarks at the very close there, you heard that balance that he's trying to strike, saying that he thinks that it's a false choice to have to choose between whether you want to secure the border or whether you want to uphold American ideals when it comes to immigration.

What you see him doing in this event today is really trying to encapsulate that, to show that he's willing to try and find these solutions and all of these different issues, and saying that President Trump isn't a solution-oriented president, and that he is essentially trying to abandon the American ideals that were engraved in the Statue of Liberty is what President Biden was essentially please saying there.

And so you do see him really trying to strike this balance on an issue on which he has really been struggling on for the entirety of his presidency.

JIMENEZ: Maybe encapsulated no more better, and when you said can both secure the border and provide legal pathways to citizens, clearly conscious of the discussion and some of the criticism in some cases around his border policy.

Kevin Liptak, really appreciate it. Thank you.

Now, there's other news going on in the world. I want to turn to North Korea, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has just landed for what's really a historic two-day trip. North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un greeted Putin at the airport. As you can see there as the two allies seek to strengthen that alliance, both sides plan to sign a new strategic partnership agreement, and this will be their second meeting in nine months.

Pyongyang is rolling out the red carpet for Putin. Portraits of the president and Russian flags have lined the streets.

So, a lot to talk about here. To break down this historic trip, I want to bring in former deputy director of national intelligence, Beth Sanner, and Jean Lee, adjunct fellow at East-West Center and former Pyongyang bureau achieve for "The Associated Press".

Jean, let me start with you because this is Putin's second visit to the country. Last time he was there, was quite some time ago back -- back in 2000 for one, in his first year as president, Kim Jong-un was just a teenager at the time.

You spent a significant amount of time in North Korea, how was a moment like this actually received by the people there. How did they view Russia?

JEAN LEE, ADJUNCT FELLOW, EAST-WEST CENTER: I think it's important to mention that this is his second trip, but the first one was when Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, was in power.

So what we will see in North Korea is just showing off this continuity, the friendship between Russia and North Korea, that started during the Soviet era with the grandfather continued through the father and now continues with grandson. So, it'll be played up in the propaganda. When we see paintings, stamps, special magazines, it will be blown up in North Korea for years to come. So, it's a huge part is cementing Kim Jong-un's legacy. And this is important for him at a time when the people have gone through so much struggle and hardship over the last -- last few years, for sure, but decades.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. And, you know, one of -- one of the things that strikes me here, Beth, is, look, this is at a time right now, obviously, where Russia is middle of its war in Ukraine, it comes at a time where they've sent naval vessels and nuclear capable submarines to outside the coast of the United States.

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Can you talk us through the significance of this trip from Putin's perspective? And should we be reading into the timing of all of this? Why is Putin visiting North Korea now?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think, you know, first for viewers, it's really important to understand that this is symbolic as Jane was mentioning. And it is really symbolic of the link between the threats that the U.S. interests face in Europe and the threat that us interests face in Asia.

And so, understanding that is key, right? And so, we have symbolism, but the real question is how far will this relationship go? And what, you know, many watchers are worried about is that Putin will not only gain in terms of ammunition and missiles, but that he will give to North Korea.

And what we are watching right now is how much in this strategic relationship the partnership that they sign will there be there? And we can't forget that North Korea is a serious nuclear power, probably with 50 nuclear weapons and those ICBMs they have are able to range the United States.

But they don't necessarily have all the technology to guarantee their nuclear power against us. So this could be very key if Russia starts giving a lot more in terms of proliferation technology.

JIMENEZ: And just as we wrap up here, Jean, is Russia doing North Korea's bidding on the world stage here, particularly in the adversarial arena with someone like the United States, for example?

LEE: Absolutely. You know, one major move that Russia has made in recent months was to veto the renewal of the sanctions of the panel of experts at the United Nations, the sanctions experts who really track and investigate and monitor sanctions violations.

Now Russia has vetoed that. So it's very difficult to track, monitor, and report on the sanctions violations that are meant to prohibit and stop North Korea from getting the funds and the parts and the technology that it needs to advance its weapons program. So that is one way that Russia has agreed to protect North Korea. And it certainly calls into question --

JIMENEZ: It does.

LEE: -- the legitimacy of the Security Council --

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JIMENEZ: Yeah, I was going to say, Jean Lee, Beth Sanner, I got to leave it there.

But we're going to take a short break. "LIVING GOLF" is next. And if you're with us on Max, more news after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)