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U.S. and E.U. Have Reached Framework for Trade Deal; Passengers Evacuate after Landing Gear Issue Sparked Fire; Israeli Military Will Open Gaza Corridors for Aid Deliveries; Family "Terrified" For California Mother, Baby Missing For 10 Days; Governor DeSantis: 100 Deported From Everglades Facility. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired July 27, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:02]

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Thank you for being with me. I'm Isabel Rosales, sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield.

We continue to cover breaking news.

A major trade deal secured with the European Union. Just moments ago, the president emerged from a high-stake trade meeting with E.U. leaders and announced the two sides have reached the framework for a trade deal.

Now, this comes just days before Trump's massive 30 percent tariffs are set to kick into place for European imports if a deal wasn't reached.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now from Scotland.

Jeff, can you describe to us the significance of this deal?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: a very significant deal without question; likely one of the most significant trade deals we have seen negotiated thus far in the Trump administration because it averts the prospect of a transatlantic trade war that could have started on Friday. Had that 30 percent threat of tariffs across the board gone into effect, there would have been a retaliatory tariff as well from E.U. countries.

So this stops all of that. This imposes 15 percent across the board tariffs for goods coming into the U.S.

President Trump announced this deal alongside the president of the European commission just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we both wanted to make a deal. You know, you said something that is very important. It's going to bring us closer together. I think this deal will bring us very close together, actually. Sort of -- it's a partnership in a sense, but it's a very good point, and it's something that's very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So President Trump has been very critical of the European Union. In fact, some of his language has been outright offensive to many members of the union. Some of the 27 members.

He, in fact, has suggested that the union was formed to, in his words, screw the United States. He did not repeat that language today. Very conciliatory in his meeting with Ursula Von Der Leyen, who of course, is the president of the European Commission, effectively the negotiating chief, if you will, for all the member nations.

For her part, she said that this is going to sort of rebalance trade and talked about the importance of the E.U. and the U.S.' trading relationship. The largest -- the largest trading partnership they have.

And going into this meeting, there was a question about the relationship between the U.S. President and her. She has not been at the White House. She has not been invited to meetings. But clearly you could see them getting on quite well.

And again, the bottom line is a trade war will be averted. New tariffs go into effect at some 15 percent across the board, including autos and other goods, but not pharmaceuticals.

So as we learn more about this country certainly will be dissecting this, companies will be as well. But it's one of the largest trading deals so far inked in this ongoing saga of the Trump trade policy, Isabel.

ROSALES: And Jeff, what is next on the president's agenda, especially looking ahead to this meeting that he has with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and considering the fact that they already have a deal inked.

ZELENY: Look, the trade deal is inked, as you said, between the United Kingdom and the United States. Largely that has been worked out. So the bilateral meeting that is scheduled to take place tomorrow, it also includes a dinner, we're told. The British prime minister will be talking to the U.S. president about other matters.

One of the central points of a discussion, we are told, is the humanitarian crisis, the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That is going to be front and center in their conversations, as well as the Ukraine-Russia war, continued funding for Ukraine.

[14:04:52]

ZELENY: So certainly with trade, at least checked off at the moment, going on to other matters. But again, golf is also a very central part of this trip from President Trump here to windy Scotland. He will still be dedicating a new golf course, mixing some personal

Trump family business with government business as well. He'll be dedicating that on Tuesday and then returning to Washington later in the day.

ROSALES: Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for your time.

And joining me now to talk more about these developments is David Sanger. He is a CNN political and national security analyst.

Thank you so much for your time.

Can we start with your reaction to this news locking in that 15 percent tariff?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's pretty clear that the 15 percent has become sort of the new baseline. It's what he got with Japan and what he has now with the Europeans.

It's also interesting that the Europeans in talking about it, referred to this as a rebalancing of trade, a phrase that they would not have used a few weeks ago when they were still arguing that in fact there was no imbalance of trade, that the president had fundamentally made it up.

I think it puts new pressure on South Korea and some other countries that have been resisting the 15 percent.

It also gives the president a way out here. He was describing much larger kinds of tariffs. He may impose more later on, who knows. They come and go.

But I think what's really notable here is that he has gotten what seems to be the baseline deal and locked in his two biggest, two of his biggest trade partners, Japan and the European Union for those.

ROSALES: And on that -- that note, how big of a political win is this for the president, both domestically and internationally?

SANGER: Well, I think it's a win domestically because he's obviously gotten something that previous presidents had not. It's less than he initially had in mind, but he would argue that's the process of negotiation.

But he's done it at some cost. And the cost is that he has gone after Americas allies as strongly as his adversaries. And I think it's going to leave a wealth of resentments that may make it much more difficult to cooperate in areas that range from Ukraine to the Middle East to dealing with China.

ROSALES: Let's talk a little bit about what we know that's limited about this deal. As part of the deal, Trump says that the E.U. has agreed to purchase a vast amount of U.S. military equipment. Now, he didn't give an exact figure here, but how significant is securing that as part of the trade deal? SANGER: Well, the first question is, is this equipment we can produce

fast enough? Our biggest problem, as we've learned during the Ukraine conflict, is that our conventional production of military equipment has basically -- not disappeared -- but diminished dramatically in the post-cold war period.

The second is the Europeans have made it clear they're going to be buying for Ukraine from the United States. The president announced some of that a few weeks ago. Unclear to me if this is counting that all a second time, but it may be.

The good news about this is that the U.S. and Europe have to get on to a common set of platforms for military equipment, because otherwise NATO is operating with all different kinds of equipment that don't communicate with each other and don't work well with each other. So anything that moves in that direction would be a big positive.

ROSALES: And finally, we heard quite a bit there from the president of what the U.S. is gaining from this deal. But what exactly is the E.U. gaining from this deal? Aside from skirting these 30 percent tariffs, which certainly is a motivating factor to put something into (INAUDIBLE).

SANGER: Right. I mean, the main thing they're getting out of this deal is they're not getting hurt more. And that's why I said that there are sort of brewing resentments that are out here.

They've learned a lot about how you go deal with Donald Trump. They learned some in the first term. They're learning a lot more now.

And I think the big question is, can they learn how to manage that relationship going forward? You know, it was President Trump who a few months ago was saying that the purpose of the European Union was, I think his phrase was, to screw the United States.

Now, he did not use that language today. He was very conciliatory today. And I wonder whether or not he has now come around because he's got his deal.

[14:09:50]

ROSALES: Yes. Well, going from 50-50 odds to securing a framework here, certainly a big day.

David Sanger, thank you for your time.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

ROSALES: Well, we're also following an alarming plane evacuation in Denver after a quote, "landing gear incident" occurred just before takeoff on Saturday.

The American Airlines flight was taxiing on its way to Miami when the company says a maintenance issue involving a tire sparked a fire.

Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ok?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No, he's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And you can see the panic of those people, some of them tripping, trying to exit there. More than 170 passengers and crew deplaned onto the runway. One person was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Now, the airline says that the combination of blown tires, plus the aircraft hitting the brakes, led to a fire.

One passenger told CNN the plane started shaking after a really loud bang, then tilted to the left side of the runway. Another witness described flames coming out underneath the Boeing 737.

The passengers will fly to Miami later today. That's according to American Airlines, and the FAA is investigating the incident.

I want to bring in CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector David Soucie for more insight on this.

David, thank you for being with us. Can you start with explaining how a landing gear incident led to this fire?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, what actually was happening is on the takeoff roll. And before the takeoff roll, the pilot rejected the takeoff, it was already in speed.

So at that point, if you have a blown-out tire, the rejected takeoff automatically applies the brakes to full maximum.

So they're trying to stop that airplane as quickly as they can. They pull the throttles back. They pull the thrust reversers out. They try to stop the aircraft as quickly as they can.

But they're already at a pretty high speed. All that energy has to go somewhere. And so it goes to the brakes. And it's not uncommon that the brakes overheat when the auto braking system comes on in this situation.

So most of the smoke and the fire that you see was either from the wheels scraping on the -- on the runway or from the smoke when the tire got overheated and became -- and caught on fire.

ROSALES: Yes. So you're saying the plane did what the plane was designed to do? How would you describe the seriousness of the situation then? I mean, could this have been potentially a really dangerous event, or does it look worse than it actually is?

SOUCIE: Well, it could have been a dangerous event, but there's been so many things to make this not a dangerous event over the years. Number one is they used to use magnesium wheels and tires, wheels on

the airplanes, which are flammable. So I worked an accident in Hawaii one day many years ago where the magnesium wheels caught on fire. They have to be buried to put out. They can't even just be extinguished. So those are gone.

And then the other thing is that the brakes are applied evenly, both on both sides, to make sure the aircraft stays straight on the runway.

So both of those things being in place and engineered well have resulted in this -- the capability to get everyone off the airplane safely in this situation.

ROSALES: Well, whenever there's a situation of any sort in the skies, you see the FAA investigating and that is the case here. What will they be looking for over the next days, weeks, months to come.

SOUCIE: Well, the main thing they'll look for -- the first thing I would look for as an investigator -- is was there something on the runway?

Was there FOD -- foreign object damage? Anything that's on the runway that could have caused that tire to blow out in the first place?

The second thing I would look at is, was one of the brakes locked? Sometimes that occurs when the brakes are applied and then reapplied. They can get locked and cause a lot of heat and friction, which causes an expansion of air inside the tire, causing the blowout. So that's a couple of the things I would look at first.

It appears that procedurally, everything was done properly, but that's one of the things we look at too, is what happened during the procedures.

But there's a lot to look at here still, and it looks like the NTSB is going to delegate this accident. In other words, the investigation will be done by the FAA because it's not a high exposure accident. There were no fatalities. So they'll still have someone on there, though, because this is a Max 8 and it's under close scrutiny by the NTSB.

ROSALES: Yes. And you can understand how people would feel even more nervous, you know, after they keep hearing of incidents like this happening by the day seemingly, why they would be nervous to fly.

But as you pointed out, this was -- the plane doing what the plane was supposed to do.

David Soucie, thank you so much for your time.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

[14:14:43]

ROSALES: Well, still to come -- aid is starting to move into Gaza as Israel's military pauses some of its operations. What President Trump said a short time ago about where the crisis in Gaza could be headed.

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ROSALES: New today, aid convoys are moving into Gaza. You can see some of the aid being distributed right here in this video. Israel's military says it has a tactical pause in place for some of its Gaza operations.

[14:19:46]

ROSALES: Gaza health officials, meanwhile, say at least six more Palestinians have starved to death in the last 24 hours.

A short time ago, President Trump said after the collapse of talks last week the situation in Gaza could be at a major turning point. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Israel is going to have to make a decision. I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say. But Israel is going to have to make a decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And Trump also said the U.S. would supply more humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Let's bring in CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson in Jerusalem. Nic, what is the latest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. It's not really clear if President Trump there is pushing Prime Minister Netanyahu to make a deal or do what the president said a couple of days ago, which is go in and finish it off.

But for right now, the aid is beginning to flow a little more freely than it was. Jordanian and Emirati aircraft dropped 25 tons of food and humanitarian supplies, airdropped it into Gaza today.

A hundred trucks were on the move from Egypt, with 840 tons of flour; 60 trucks on the move from Jordan, all headed for Gaza for these new humanitarian corridors that the IDF is putting in place and those tactical pauses.

Now the IDF says that they're still fighting Gaza, that they're still fighting Hamas, that Gaza is still an active conflict zone. But these temporary tactical pauses of six to eight to ten hours in certain areas are designed to allow the U.N. and other organizations to get those aid trucks in safely and disperse the aid.

And this really looks like something of a climbdown by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow this greater amount of aid coming in. And he's taking a lot of heat for it politically from ministers in his own government who are saying the only thing we should be sending into Gaza right now is bombs. So the prime minister does seem to have walked back from a very tough

position. That said, he is saying that it's the U.N. that's been lying about the aid situation, that it's Hamas that's responsible for the shortages of food, and that Israel is doing nothing more, nothing different than what it's been doing over the recent months. That these aid corridors, if you will, have always been available to the U.N.

That doesn't seem to correlate with what the U.N. understands. But bottom line, it does appear to mean that more aid will get in. For how long, it's not clear.

ROSALES: Nic Robertson, thank you.

Let's continue the conversation now with Aaron David Miller. He is a former State Department Middle East negotiator and is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Thank you so much for your time.

Let's start with this question. Why the sudden change of heart by Netanyahu to allow a humanitarian pause?

AARON DAVID MILLER, SENIOR FELLOW AT THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: I mean, the Israelis should have done this months ago, and they should have been thinking strategically About how to deal With the population still in Gaza that will continue. To be their neighbors in the end if in fact, there is a ceasefire or let alone an end to the war.

I think the administration is under pressure. I think that's coincident with the fact that the Knesset goes on summer recess in a matter of days. It may -- it may already be on recess.

It will not convene until October 19th, which means that no legislation can be introduced and no dissolution of the government.

So the prime minister has a lot more margin out to maneuver. I think they rushed this decision through. He did not brief his -- the two main extremist ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.

And for the first time, my understanding that not only are the Jordanians and the Emiratis using airdrops, but the Israeli air force is doing it as well. I think that's the good news. But Nic's right. The question is, will it endure?

ROSALES: Now, you posted on X that quote, "Israel has no credibility on humanitarian aid. It eases up pressure when pressure builds, it eases up and then toughens up as it eases."

Now what would you view as a real commitment to easing the suffering of Palestinian civilians?

MILLER: I mean, clearly Isabel, what you really need is a 60-day cease fire and the end of the war. You cannot reliably and predictably deliver assistance, not through foresights as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been doing since May, which is a concoction of both the United States and Israel and the president referred to $60 million. The U.S. has funded that organization with $30 million.

but that has led to disaster. You're delivering aid for a limited period of time. You have starving people, massed massing close to Israeli positions.

And you've seen in their credible reports from Israelis as well as other sources, that the Israelis have been using tank and artillery fire against unarmed Palestinians who gathered there.

[14:24:45]

MILLER: Look, in the end, what you need is a strategic conception of what to do about Gaza. It'll be two years on October 7th, since that indiscriminate, willful attack by Hamas which took the lives of 1,200 Israelis, sexual predation, mutilation, the taking of hostages, the execution of hostages -- two years.

And there is no conception of how this war is going to end and under what circumstances. And one of the key strategic issues in any counterinsurgency is trying to maintain some degree of relationship with the population.

Hamas feeds on this anger. They feed on the hatred. And as a consequence, I just think the Israelis have not looked at humanitarian assistance.

It's a political problem for the government of Israel. There's anger at what Hamas has done. The Israeli public, frankly, isn't, I think, being exposed or willfully not interested, much of the Israeli public in the humanitarian catastrophe.

So I think it requires leadership, Isabel and frankly, we don't have any on the Palestinian side, to be sure, and none on the Israeli side.

ROSALES: And we've increasingly heard reporting from medical workers describing the dire situation on the ground when it comes to starvation.

We have our own CNN reporting of a five-month-old Palestinian baby that suffered from malnutrition, dying in her mother's arms.

Despite all of this, the IDF has reiterated, quote, "There is no starvation in the Gaza Strip", calling it a false campaign promoted by Hamas.

What do you make of that and what needs to happen next?

MILLER: I mean, it's politics. It's shifting the blame and the responsibility. It's the most right-wing government in the history of the state of Israel. I think many in the IDF, certainly in intelligence, understand the relationship of trying to build, or at least to assist a Palestinian population. It's an enormous catastrophe for Israel's image.

Look, and when you talk about malnutrition, you're not just, or let alone starvation, you're not talking just about feeding people. You're talking about administering care, access to hospitalization, to potable water, to sanitation.

It magnifies the problem. It's not just food insecurity. It becomes a systemic health crisis.

My concern and worry about all of this is that we've reached an impasse in negotiations. I still think a deal is possible, probably by mid-August.

But even so, we will not be any closer it seems to me to what we need, which is an end to the war. And I think that is strategically is critically important to freeing the hostages, to relieving the trauma of their families and obviously ministering to the needs of a deeply- traumatized Palestinian population of Gaza.

ROSALES: Yes, as you say all of this as we're keeping our eyes for any potential deal, we see the images of largely children looking skeletal -- just a reminder of the consequences of this as each day goes on.

Aaron David Miller, thank you for your time.

MILLER: Thanks. Thanks, Isabel.

(CROSSTALKING)

ROSALES: Up next -- investigators are searching for clues in the disappearance of a mother and her eight-month-old child who has -- both of them have been missing for more than a week. We will have the latest on that.

[14:28:21]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:32]

ROSALES: Authorities in California are looking for any information after a woman and her eight-month-old baby went missing more than a week ago.

The Fresno County sheriff's office says 36-year-old Whisper Owen. This is her picture you're seeing on your screen. She was last seen with her daughter, Sandra McCarty, on July 15th. Their vehicle, a silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer, was spotted by a traffic camera in Atwater that is just north of Fresno, just hours after visiting relatives.

CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones is following the developments.

Julia, what more is the family saying?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isabel, we just spoke to her brother and they're saying they're emotionally drained and increasingly frustrated. Her brother said that he's been driving. The back roads and searching the areas where his sister was last seen, because he feels that no one else is doing it. He says his sister had high blood pressure that doctors hadn't been able to control since giving birth to that beautiful baby, and he says he's worried that she might have suffered a medical emergency behind the wheel.

She left Fresno on the afternoon of July 15th after visiting family and taking the baby to a doctor's appointment. Authorities told the family what they know is that she stopped briefly in that water, about 60 miles north of Fresno, possibly to change the baby's diaper, then got back on the road. But what's curious here is that she went in the opposite direction. This is what else her brother had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD OWEN, BROTHER OF MISSING MOTHER: I can't help but to feel like something horrible has happened, because the last time I talked to my sister, she was talking about how good life was. How her and her kids, father and her kids all went on a vacation to Wyoming and they were just having such a good time and making memories that last a lifetime, making memories with her other children and the baby. And she was just happy. There was no reason for her to want to disappear or to leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS JONES: The family says Owen did not have a reliable phone with her, Isabel, and they didn't realize she was missing until July 19th, when they did, they eventually reported her missing, but at this point, there are no leads from investigators that have been shared publicly.

The Fresno County sheriff's office says that they were last seen in Atwater around 8:15 p.m. on July 15th, where that traffic camera picked up their car. The family is now urging anyone near that area to check their home and business security footage from that night. They say any small clue could make a big difference here, Isabel.

ROSALES: Hopefully, they find her and her beautiful little baby. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you.

Well, still to come, we have new details this week about the controversial detention facility in the Florida Everglades, including claims the conditions are, quote, type of torture.

[14:35:07]

That's next.

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ROSALES: Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida says deportation flights have started leaving the controversial migrant detention facility in the Everglades. ICE officials say about 100 individuals previously detained at the so-called Alligator Alcatraz have been removed from the country.

[14:40:02]

It is unclear where those individuals were sent.

And now, Florida says it is ready to step up deportations in the coming days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: It was never intended to be something where people are just held, and we just kind of twiddle our thumbs. The whole purpose is to make this be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS JONES: Now the facility is in the middle of the Florida Everglades, just about 50 miles west of the president's Miami Resort, and it is surrounded by dangerous wildlife.

CNN spoke to eight people detained at the facility and created a 3D model to get a better sense of what life is like in there.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUAN PALMA MARTINEZ, DETAINEE: This is sad, sad, hopeless. It's a type of torture.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the stories of migrants held at Alligator Alcatraz, a new detention facility deep in the Florida Everglades. Using a plan of the site shown during President Trump's visit and photos from media tours and social media, CNN created a 3D model to take you inside the site, where hundreds of immigrant detainees are being held.

Here are the giant tents where people report being crammed into cells made of chain link fence packed with bunk beds.

CNN spoke with eight detainees to hear firsthand accounts of what conditions are like on the inside. Some asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

GONZALO ALMANZA VALDES, DETAINEE: Because of the way that we have been treated, it has been a very terrible experience.

ALVAREZ: Gonzalo Almanza Valdes was detained by ICE when he showed up for a meeting with his probation officer.

VALDES: It's 32 people per cell or per cage, really, because this is a cage. It's a metal cage strapped in with zip ties.

ALVAREZ: Three open toilets are shared by dozens of men who say there's no running water or sewage system.

Roger Moreno, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, told CNN the rain makes it worse.

ROGER MORENO, DETAINEE: The toilets, when it rains, they overflow and the cells were in fill up with sewage.

VALDES: Every time it does rain and storm, the toilets clog up.

ALVAREZ: Detainees told CNN. The lights are kept on 24 hours a day.

VALDES: We can't sleep. I have to personally put a rag on top of my head to at least try to take a nap, because the lights are so bright. There's 24 LED lights in the roof, and it's like shining bright.

ALVAREZ: Juan Palma Martinez has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, and was also picked up by ICE at a routine meeting with his probation officer.

MARTINEZ: I no longer know when it's daytime or when it's nighttime. I don't sleep. It's affecting me mentally and physically.

ALVAREZ: The tents aren't sealed. You can see cracks in this image, and at the height of the hot Florida summer, that means the insects are relentless.

MORENO: Yesterday, the air conditioning went out. We had the whole morning without air conditioning. Lots of mosquitoes came in because they get in from all sides.

ALVAREZ: Multiple detainees say they don't get enough food, though, they're served three meals a day and that water is limited.

VALDES: They scan our bracelets. We go into the food hall. The food is very terrible here. Very, very, very small portions. People are hard time living here because they're starving. Probably like a quarter cup of rice.

MARTINEZ: We've eaten as late as 10:00 at night. The food at night is cold, too. There's never a hot meal.

ALVAREZ: Showers are located in a separate tent and opportunities to shower there are scarce, according to the detainees we spoke with.

VALDES: All the showers are connected to the same water source. There's barely any water pressure, so we have to like, literally put ourselves on the wall right next to the water drainage so we can at least get hit with water.

MARTINEZ: They follow you when you're walking to the shower with your hands on your head, as if you were a prisoner. The water is very hot, very hot. They don't give you enough time. Mosquitoes are biting you in the shower. There are more mosquitoes than water.

ALVAREZ: The only line to the outside world are phones set up in the cells.

VALDES: Nobody here has been able to see a loved one. Nobody has been able to see a lawyer here. Nobody has. It sucks. It sucks.

There's no, like, physical contact with the outside world other than these phone calls. It's not really more about me. It's about not being able to see my son.

He's six. He's about to turn seven in November. And I don't even know if I'm going to be able to see him for his birthday.

ALVAREZ: Republican and Democratic lawmakers recently toured the facility. According to one of them, they were not permitted to speak to the detainees.

Then, State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican, said the facility is in good order.

[14:45:03]

BLAISE INGOGLIA, FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: It's actually a very well-run facility. The idea that the detainees are in there and they're in squalor conditions is just not accurate.

ALVAREZ: But most distressing for detainees, they say, was that in multiple cases, they haven't appeared in any state or federal detention system since they were arrested. That means families have been unable to track them.

VALDES: We're in the middle of the Everglades with constant reminder that we're locked up in a cage, and anything can happen. A hurricane can hit us and we can all die, and nobody would know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALVAREZ (on camera): In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said the following, quote, "As stated many times before, these claims are false. The facility is in good working order and detainees have access to drinking water, showers and clean facilities for hygiene."

Now, Florida officials anticipate that the population of detainees at Alligator Alcatraz will grow over time to include thousands more. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is in talks with other states who are looking to the makeshift facility in Florida as an example of how they may approach migrant detention.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

ROSALES: And our thanks to Priscilla Alvarez for that report.

And in just a few minutes here, we will continue the conversation about conditions at the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSALES: As Florida officials vow to increase immigration arrests and send more people to the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" facility in the Everglades, we continue our coverage of the concerns that advocates are raising about the conditions there at the detention center.

Joining us now to discuss is Thomas Kennedy. He is the spokesperson for the Florida immigrant coalition, or FLIC. Thomas, thank you for spending your time with us, for seeing you.

And I want to start with, we heard the governor, Ron Desantis, saying, hey, this is our moment. This is what we all campaigned on, when he spoke about and announced, really, the first deportation flights out of the facility. When we hear more details coming out about the conditions in there, and we saw from our own Priscilla Alvarez reporting about detainees and what's been akin to dog cages, the lights being on all day and night where they can't sleep, the lack of food, the lack of running water. When it rains, they say the toilets overflow into these cells.

What stands out to you as we continue to learn more about this detention facility?

THOMAS KENNEDY, SPOKESPERSON, FLORIDA IMMIGRANT COALITION: Yeah, I mean, things are so bad that family members and detainees have told us that they have to scoop fecal matter. Out of the toilets because there's lack of water and the toilets lose pressure.

I mean, the governor says that he doesn't want to be twiddling his thumbs while people are there in detention. We know that people have been in detention there for 16, 17, 18, 22 days now without even the ability to speak not to their lawyers, but even an immigration officer from the government side, right?

ROSALES: Why is that significant, Thomas?

KENNEDY: The governor says that -- well, because they're not supposed to be holding people past 14 days in this facility. I mean, they don't even have a 27g contract or any sort of contract with the federal government that would give them authority to legally hold immigrants at this site.

And I also want to -- I want to emphasize this. The governor says that no one without a final order of removal has been held there, except the DAC recipient that they held there and now transfer to another facility, except the 15-year-old that they held there for three days, and they had to release, except the Mexican tourists that they detained there, causing a international diplomatic incident.

So the governor just goes out and says things, and they're just lies and they're disproven by the facts that we all know, and we can fact- check.

ROSALES: Yeah. And we heard the ACLU also take issue with the DeSantis administration, saying during that press conference we saw this past week that everyone there, every detainee had a final deportation order. The ACLU saying that's flat out false. They also have a current lawsuit against the state, mostly because of access, the lack of access for attorneys to their clients.

Can you talk about that? But also this, the Governor DeSantis, urging the DOJ to allow an immigration judge to be stationed at the Everglades center in order to fast track deportations? This is something he's talked about, but the DOJ has not yet approved that request. What impact would that have if they do get that request?

KENNEDY: I mean, I spoke with family members all morning today who were distraught because they couldn't reach their loved ones inside the facility because the -- apparently, the phones were down. We're still trying to fully understand what's happening. But again, as the ACLU notes and, you know, lawyers can't access the site physically and often via phone to talk to the clients and mount a successful legal defense. Right?

So, the place really operates like a like a black box. I mean, family members today were telling me they can't find their loved ones in the ICE detainee locator, right, the tool that's used for family members to track their loved ones through immigration detention facilities.

[14:55:08]

In this facility, they don't appear at all.

ROSALES: Right. A lot to keep track of here, especially as we heard Governor DeSantis and his what he calls border czar, announce also that they're stepping up the ICE partnerships. Florida leads the nation in the number of these ICE partnerships, meaning even more arrests are coming of what they call undocumented citizens.

Thomas Kennedy, thank you for your time.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

ROSALES: Well, back to our breaking news, President Trump has brokered a trade deal with the European Union. A live report on the agreement that was just reached.

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