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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Protesters, ICE Agents Clash Amid Raids On California Farms; Judge Blocks Trump's Order To End Birthright Citizenship; Iconic British Band Reunites After 16 Years. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 11, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:30:00]

MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Angry protesters clashed with U.S. immigrant agents carrying out enforcement raids on legal marijuana nurseries in Southern California Thursday. Dozens of migrant rights activists showed up at the sites after footage of the raids began spreading on social media. National Guard troops were with ICE officers as they arrived at the state-licensed farms. Local media said about 100 nursery workers were detained before the protests began.

The raids come as the Trump administration continues to flip-flop on whether farm workers are protected from its campaign to deport undocumented immigrants.

In the coming hours a U.S. judge will hear more arguments about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador became a focal point of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. He was brought back to the U.S. to face charges of human smuggling, but Trump officials haven't decided and haven't made clear if he will remain in the U.S. to stand trial.

A top ICE official testified in court Thursday that if Abrego Garcia is released from pretrial detention in Tennessee he could be deported again to a country other than El Salvador. But the official says that decision won't be made until Abrego Garcia is in ICE custody.

And in his first interview with CNN since being released from U.S. federal custody, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil discusses him time in an ICE detention center with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Take a listen.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I just spoke to Mahmoud Khalil in the first interview he's given to CNN since being released from detention. He was arrested in March, as you know, as part of the Trump agenda against elite universities, against freedom of speech -- also, its immigration and deportation agenda -- all couched in combating antisemitism.

Khalil told me about the conditions of his ICE detention cell in Louisiana, and they were pretty bad. He also told me about what it was like to miss a key moment in anybody's family life.

MAHMOUD KHALIL, DETAINED BY ICE FOR 104 DAYS: The moment you enter such facilities -- such ICE facilities you would -- your rights literally stay outside.

On the inside, as you would expect, the food was as close as could be to inedible. I had to switch to vegetarian because the meat was -- I threw up, like, after I ate -- I ate the meat there.

It was so cold we had to ask for more blankets, but no one would answer our requests.

AMANPOUR: You missed the birth of your first child, a boy. Everybody was very concerned about your wife who is an American citizen there without you. What was that like? And then what was it like when you were first able to hold your child for the first time?

KHALIL: Missing the birth of my child -- I think that was the most difficult moment in my life, especially because, like, this could have been avoided. We put so many requests to be able to attend that moment. And I will not -- I don't think I would be able to forgive them for taking that moment away from me.

AMANPOUR: So Khalil was never charged. He is concerned about his future, of course, but he keeps talking up for the rights of Palestinians, especially with the focus of what is happening and has been happening in Gaza.

He also insists that amongst the protesters that he was with there was a Jewish contingent, of course. Based on what he said, their Jewish values. He denied absolutely any charges of antisemitism.

You can watch the full interview online at cnn.com/amanpour.

Back to you guys.

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LEE: And you can watch Christiane's full interview with Mahmoud Khalil later today on CNN. That's at noon Eastern; 5:00 p.m. in London.

A new agreement between the U.K. and France looks to shut down the flow of migrants traveling across the English Channel. Details on what the U.K. is calling a groundbreaking deal ahead on CNN.

The Trump administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. hit a legal hurdle this week. Just ahead we'll update you on the federal judge's ruling.

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[05:39:04]

LEE: The U.K. and France are working together on what the British prime minister is calling a groundbreaking new migrant deal. Keir Starmer says the agreement will take effect in the coming weeks. And under the deal migrants who travel illegal to Britain by small boat will be sent back to France. For every migrant sent back to France another person legally seeking asylum will be allowed to enter the U.K.

The British Home Office says more than 20,000 people have arrived in the U.K. by small boat so far this year.

A Coast Guard official on the Greek island of Crete says the migrant crisis there has reached its worst point of the past several years. Right now hundreds of migrants are crowded into a temporary shelter. And Coast Guard crews are working 72-hour shifts to rescue people in boats off the coast of Libya.

The crisis has driven Greek lawmakers to vote on legislation that would pause the processing of asylum applications from people coming from North Africa.

[05:40:05]

A federal judge called one of Donald Trump's executive orders highly questionable. Coming up we'll explain why the legal battle over birthright citizenship will likely make it back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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LEE: Welcome back. I'm MJ Lee. Here are some of the stories we are watching today.

In the coming hours President Trump will survey the damage from the devastating floods that swept through central Texas last week. The death toll rose to 121 on Thursday and more than 160 people are still missing. The Texas governor has asked to add more counties to the president's major disaster declaration.

[05:45:15]

Israel's prime minister says his country is ready to start talking about a permanent end to the war in Gaza, but Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will only enter those negotiations if the ongoing ceasefire talks in Qatar lead to a truce. Hamas has been demanding assurances about a permanent end to the hostilities.

And U.S. President Donald Trump says he struck a deal with NATO to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance. He told NBC that NATO will pay for those weapons. And it comes after the U.S. State Department said it strongly condemns Russia's escalating attacks on Ukraine.

President Donald Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. has hit a legal wall. It's an issue he addressed early on in his second term.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country under birthright citizenship, and it wasn't meant for that reason.

I signed an order that will end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens.

We're the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know, and it's just absolutely ridiculous.

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LEE: But on Thursday a federal judge issued a new nationwide block against the order saying the move's constitutionality is "highly questionable."

CNN's Katelyn Polantz gets us up to speed.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday said he had no issue putting in place an order that blocked the Trump administration carrying out its policy on birthright citizenship. Specifically, President Donald Trump wanted to end that longstanding practice of giving citizenship to babies born on American soil even if they're born to immigrants who are not in the country legally or only temporarily.

The judge in New Hampshire -- this is the latest of many judges who have said that this executive order on birthright citizenship to end it appears to be unconstitutional and that babies born in the U.S., in this case, after February 20 of 2025 -- this year -- those babies should be getting citizenship.

The judge, Joseph Laplante -- he looked at what the Trump administration did and said it had been very fast. There was no input from Congress. There was little public debate as a precursor to issuing this executive order. And that ultimately, he's blocking the policy for now because it hurts a lot of people potentially if those babies do not get citizenship if they're born in the U.S. And because the policy to allow for birthright citizenship had been in place for such a long time.

He called the Trump administration's approach "highly questionable constitutionality." So saying that it's very likely courts will find this to be not a sound policy legally under the U.S. Constitution.

Of course, this is the type of decision that is very likely to be appealed. It is being done by a U.S. district judge -- so the trial level. And the Trump administration has some days to appeal this before the judge's order goes into place.

So far, the Supreme Court has already given direction on this once saying in what the Trump administration called a win for them -- saying just a couple of weeks ago at the end of their term that you can't have trial judges just striking down policies for anyone, anywhere.

And so the judge in New Hampshire -- when he did this on Thursday, he specified the group of people that this would apply to -- the babies born on February 20 of this year or later.

We're going to wait and see though what more appeals courts have done or will be doing in the future. There's a lot more to come in this case. And the Supreme Court -- U.S. Supreme Court still has not decided on whether there is any constitutional merit to the idea of ending birthright citizenship or if it should be a right given to babies born in the United States.

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LEE: We want to take you back to the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi there. It's the first in-person meeting between the two men.

Rubio spoke just moments ago describing that meeting as very constructive. He also acknowledged that when it comes to trade there are some issues to work through.

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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, we're going to work through those. We're not -- we don't -- we're not going to have any announcement for you right now. But it was a very constructive meeting. I think we left it feeling as there are some areas we're going to be able to work together on. And obviously, you know, as we work through those and we do that in conjunction with the Chinese side, we'll make public announcements.

The last interaction of our trade representatives was quite positive, and we can build on that in other areas of potential cooperation.

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LEE: Rubio also told reporters that there is a high probability of a meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but he did not mention a possible date.

[05:50:08]

Manchester is getting ready for the return of some of its most famous sons. Just ahead we'll check in live with the British city as Oasis prepares to play in their hometown again.

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[05:55:00]

LEE: So here's a fun one. An iconic British band is back. Oasis returned to the stage last week for the first time in 16 years. The Brit pop band played some of their greatest hits from the '90s as they kicked off a reunion tour in Cardiff. There was little sign of tension, we should note, between Liam and Noel Gallagher, the combustible brothers at the heart of the band. And now they are preparing to come home. Later today Oasis is scheduled to play in Manchester, the city where the band formed in 1991. And let's go live to Manchester for more on the Oasis reunion tour.

Bev Craig is the leader of Manchester City Council. Bev, it's so great to have you.

First of all, I have to ask, are you a big Oasis fan? I'm not sure if you're allowed to not be if you're on the Manchester City Council.

BEV CRAIG, LEADER, MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL: I am massively and I'm really looking forward to seeing the boys tonight in Manchester to celebrate their homecoming.

LEE: The boys, yeah. You know, you represent Burnage, which is where the Gallagher brothers grew up. I understand there is full-blown Oasis Gallagher brothers fever there right now.

My favorite thing that I read is that Liam Gallagher is voicing the tram announcements in your city. The second favorite thing is that there is a grocery store that is giving out free lasagnas to anyone named Liam or Noel. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time for me to explain that reference.

CRAIG: Yeah. Look, I think the massive takeover of the city if phenomenal. We now have 350,000 people who are coming to our city just to see Oasis. And the whole city has been taken over by fever. But we've also got 1.3 million people coming over the course of the summer to see other music, too. So I think this cements Manchester is truly a global music city.

LEE: Yeah. And how much of an economic boost will this be for Manchester? You know, they are going to be playing to, I understand, 80,000 people each night. Talk to us about how much this is going to help boost the city's hospitality sector.

CRAIG: So we know events like this generate millions of pounds and help keep people in jobs and help businesses do well. So we know there's going to be a massive boost.

But we also know it is helping our arts, our cultural, and our other smaller live music venues. We've got street parties, block parties. We've got festivals. We've got kind of music guitar trails. So everyone's really getting in on the action and I think they'll share the benefits of the boost that it will bring.

LEE: And this is a reunion 16 years in the making. Do you think they'll be just as good as they used to be?

CRAIG: I mean, Cardiff -- look, it's pretty incredible. I think we've never seen as big a buildup for anything to something like this. I think so many people thought they'd never get back together. So I think it will be really special for people and I'm hoping that the music is going to be pretty good as well.

LEE: All right, Bev. Before I let you go, I need to ask you the one song you are most looking forward to hearing Oasis play this weekend.

CRAIG: Oh, it's iconic but for me it has to be "Champagne Supernova." It's probably one of my top hits.

LEE: That's a really good one. I think mine would definitely have to be "Wonderwall."

Bev Craig in Manchester. Thank you so much for joining us. Have fun this weekend.

CRAIG: Thank you.

LEE: The Wimbledon women's final is set. American Amanda Anisimova will play Poland's Iga Swiatek for the championship on Saturday.

In Thursday's first semifinal, Anisimova won a grueling match against the world's top player Aryna Sabalenka. Anisimova's victory keeps alive American hopes for a third women's grand slam championship this year.

Meanwhile, Swiatek cruised through her semifinal match against Belinda Bencic marked Swiatek as a potential finalist despite being a five- time grand slam winner.

London rolled out the blue carpet for the cast of Marvel's new film "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." This is the cast at the film's London premiere. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach -- excuse me -- and Joseph Quinn lead the all-star cast.

Here is a glimpse.

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Clip from Marvel's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

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LEE: The film is a reboot of Marvel's first family. It's set in a 1960s-inspired retro futuristic world. "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" releases globally on July 1.

And finally this year, the world's most famous hippo is celebrating a birthday. Moo Deng, the hippo who has become a viral sensation, turned one today. She and her mother were given a huge tub of tropical fruit as a birthday treat. Moo Deng's cute antics have been featured in memes and viral videos turning her into an international celebrity. Fans flocked to this zoo in Thailand to join the celebration.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This will be part of their memories -- the kids -- because they've not seen here before and they can go to school and tell their friends that they've seen her now. It's their childhood memory.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEE: A charity auction was held as part of the birthday festivities and a cast of Moo Deng's footprints sold for more than $21,000.

Thank you so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm MJ Lee in Washington, D.C. And "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.