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First of All with Victor Blackwell

What Happened To "Help Is On Its Way"?; Iranian Americans React To Backlash Against Trump Agreement; Lead Of Reparations Committee Reacts To Trump Admin Legal Fight. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired June 20, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:34]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: First of all, what happened to the help on its way to the Iranian people? In conversations about the agreement signed by the U.S. and Iran, there's been a lot of talk about whether it will really ensure Iran will never have a nuclear weapon or whether the Strait of Hormuz will really stay free and open. All important. But there does not seem to be much discussion about what this means for the future of the people of Iran.

Now, early on, backing up the protesters in Iran was a clear Trump goal. Here he was on January 13, before the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: To all Iranian patriots, keep protesting. Take over your institutions if possible, and save the name of the killers and the abusers that are abusing you. You're being very badly abused.

Then I've canceled all meetings with the Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stops. And all I say to them is, help is on its way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Help is on its way. He had the same message in a social media post that day. Keep protesting. Help is on its way.

It seemed help finally arrived on February 28th when the U.S. first struck Iran. The president said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When we are finished, take over your government, it will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now the message is completely different. No more talk of help overthrowing the regime. In fact, they're now smart and nice people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Now you talk about regime change. I never cared about regime

change. It's never a part. But I guess you have regime change because you know better than anybody, the first group, they're all dead.

The second group, they're dead. A part of the third group is gone. And we're dealing with people that I think are very rational people, and they were nice to deal with. They were strong people, smart people.

I think actually they're smarter than the first and second group, but they're not radicalized and they're, you know, looking to help their country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Vice President Vance is defending the agreement not by offering help to protesters, but to the Iranian government. If they prove they want to change their ways.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: It's just -- it's going to be a holistic approach where we look at their behavior. Are they funding terrorism? Are they leading to attacks of other people? Are they trying to get centrifuges to redevelop their nuclear weapons program?

There are all these questions that we're going to ask about whether they've actually changed their behavior. That takes two to tango. And what the president is just saying is that we maintain economic, diplomatic and military leverage that nobody else in the world has. So if the Iranians want to change, great, we're going to help them.

If they don't change, we still got all the cards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Joining us now are two people with different political views, but they've been aligned on support for the war. Sarah Raviani is the founder of the group Iranians for Trump. And Moj Mahdara is the co-founder of the Iranian Diaspora Collective. Welcome to you both.

Sarah, let me start with you and something you posted on social media. At the start of the war, this was March 2, you posted, "I'll never forget this message from Iran in January. A man begging President Trump to help."

President Trump said, "Help was on the way." He kept that promise to the Iranian people. Do you still believe that?

SARAH RAVIANI, FOUNDER, IRANIANS FOR TRUMP: I do. Thank you so much for having me. And I wanted to start there. But I also wanted to say that I do believe that the military strikes at the beginning were something what I would call a rescue mission.

The Iranian people begged for help and that is what they saw in February when the United States and Israel began striking the regime in Iran. And so, I do believe that Trump stayed true to his promise and delivered help to the Iranian people after they asked for it.

BLACKWELL: Do you believe life is better for the Iranian people after this signing of the Memorandum of Understanding?

RAVIANI: So with the Memorandum of Understanding, we are now entering a 60-day period of negotiations where we don't know exactly what's going to happen next. One point of concern with the MOU is the release of funds to the regime. That would be a death sentence for Iranians and very devastating to the entire region. But I don't believe that will happen if there's not behavioral change from the regime and we know it's in this regime's DNA to sow chaos throughout the entire region.

[08:05:13]

BLACKWELL: Well, on day one, they're able to sell their oil, which estimates say over 60 days could be worth 60 to 70 billion dollars. Moj, let me come to you because you told my colleagues over on CNNI that there was a moment, there was this confluence of the protesters there in Iran, that there was U.S. and Israeli interest and of course, the strikes that came and then the increased support and prominence of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah. And that could have been a moment to overthrow this regime, to start something new. Has that moment passed?

MOJ MAHDARA, ENTREPRENEUR AND CO-FOUNDER, IRANIAN DIASPORA COLLECTIVE: Absolutely. It seems very clear that the United States government has done what every other sitting president has done which has abandoned the Iranian people. It is pretty clear that the 40,000 protesters, plus the 17 plus hundred or 1700 civilians that were killed during this war, were not of concern to this administration as they are moving forward with this MOU. And I think it's a strategic disaster for the American people that the Strait of Hormuz is now being ceded to the Islamic Republic, which we know for the past 47 years have leverage over American presidents.

They have no intention of keeping their promises. And they have become the biggest menace to society within that region. And they have not -- they've prevented peace from being in the Middle East on any shape or form, whether it's in Syria or Lebanon or Palestine, Gaza. Look what's happened throughout that region in Yemen. And so, I think this is an absolute disaster for Americans and for the global economy.

And the Iranian people have paid a severe price, both economically living through bombardment. And it's now become clear that they're being handed to the wolves of this regime, which we know are not reformable. And I think this concept of reform is so dangerous, both for Iranians who believe it to be true, both inside the country and outside. But the crown prince, I think, had a real opportunity because I'd never seen in my lifetime a million Iranian Americans come in the streets, 2 million people throughout the world, tens of thousands of people coming out in the streets on the a January protest for his name.

And I think this entire time, America has been saying we need a leader. And I think it was pretty clear in that moment we had one. BLACKWELL: Yes. Sarah, let me ask you. You told a program called I for

Iran. This was before the 2024 election on why you aligned with Republicans on the issue of policy toward Iran. Let me play part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAVIANI: One side of the aisle was very, you know, ready to confront the threat that is the regime in Iran. And one side of the aisle was still clinging to the hope of the failed JCPOA, negotiations with the regime and advocating for things like, you know, no sanctions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Okay, so now that latter portion that you're talking about in that conversation was the Democratic Party. But now President Trump is negotiating or at least trying to negotiate. We'll see who shows up in Switzerland with Iranians. And point 7 of the agreement is the United States of America undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including United Nations Security Council resolution.

I mean, you advocated for sanctions against Iran. What's your reaction now to the president taking them off the table and negotiating with a group with which you said Democrats were negotiating with and they should not have been.

RAVIANI: Right. So the difference here is that JD Vance has made it very clear that this is contingent upon behavior change. We know that the regime in Iran is not going to change. So I don't have very high hopes for the negotiations that are upcoming over the next 60 days.

Now, we'll have to wait and see. But I agree with Moj in that it would be a strategic disaster to release billions of dollars or sanctions relief of any form for the regime in Iran and that they slaughter their own people and terrorize the entire region. I just don't think that we're going to get there to where we see sanctions relief.

BLACKWELL: Well, sanctions relief was part of. Upon execution of the deal. That was the promise from the United States that they would try to -- that they would -- there would be no new sanctions and they would lift sanctions.

Moj, let me come to you. This is something you said because we're going into the midterm season. You're a Democrat. Here's your criticism of your own party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHDARA: A word of advice to the Democrats. You are literally making it impossible for me to stay in your crew. Very difficult. And I'll tell you why.

You're acting like you don't understand how we got here. We got here because of Jimmy Carter. We got here because of the JCPOA, which gave this regime $100 billion, allowed for them to enrich. We got here because Biden gave them tens of billions of dollars. You act like you don't know, but you.

[08:10:17]

BLACKWELL: That was March 1st. Now on June 20th, have you any additional confidence in your party on how they would handle this differently?

MAHDARA: I think both Democrats and Republicans have completely failed the American people on Iran. I think they have failed the Iranian people on the Islamic Republic, and they have definitely failed the Middle East that absolutely wants to move forward into modernization. If you look at the Gulf, if you look at all the signals throughout the Middle East, people want to move forward to normalization.

And this regime is going to be the one partner in that region that emboldens Russia and China. And that is not good for anybody on the planet, but most definitely not for Americans. And so, when I look at both Democrats and Republicans, I think they have got to face the reality that we have a problem here.

And now that they understand they have the leverage of the Strait of Hormuz, which most Americans didn't even know what that was at the top of the year, now that the rest of the regime understands that they have this leverage, they are going to use it to embolden their regime, I think, for hundreds of years to come. And so I think we have a fundamental strategic issue here about what this region can be to the world. And I think Democrats and Republicans do need to work together to think of another solution here because we know that this regime cannot be reformed.

BLACKWELL: Sarah Raviani, Moj Mahdara, thank you both for the conversation.

The first city to issue reparations to black people in the U.S. is facing a legal challenge from the Trump administration. We'll speak with a woman who helped create the groundbreaking program about what happens to the fight for reparations nationwide now.

Plus what we know about the death of one year old Kohen Wiley, shot and killed by police in Mississippi.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:45]

BLACKWELL: Well, what timing for this headline. The week of Juneteenth the Trump administration wants to stop the first reparations program for Black people in the U.S. The program in Evanston, Illinois was set up to provide qualifying residents with cash payments and housing assistance. If the resident lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, they and their direct descendants can app to $25,000.

The Justice Department says the city has paid out more than $5 million so far and argues the program is illegal and said in part distributing public funds based on an individual's ancestry or race divides the citizenry and establishes the very hierarchy the Equal Protection clause was designed to dismantle. Other states like New York and California have been studying reparations, but only Evanston has ever actually distributed payments. Robin Rue Simmons is with us. She's the chair of the Evanston Reparations Committee. Thank you for your time.

Let me read a little more from the Assistant AG who heads up the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. Harmeet Dhillon said there are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens in neighborhoods. Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple, and it is illegal.

What do you say to that?

ROBIN RUE SIMMONS, EVANSTON REPARATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON: Well, first, I want to thank you for having me on to talk about this important matter this Juneteenth season, unfortunately. And I will say that there are ways to address equity, and we've done that in our city. We've done it very well. But what we found is that is insufficient, that reparations is a legislative process that addresses past harms.

And in our case in Evanston, we had very narrowly tailored redress. So, we were able to not just pass out handouts to community members based on race, but have extensive study, scholarship, research that was done to determine what exactly Evanston did, what their legislation was and their policies that created our racial gaps. And we were able to learn that through the support of Shorefront Legacy Center. And then we had very sophisticated legal expertise to develop a viable framework that was constitutional and one that we could implement and most importantly, deliver redress.

We have moved beyond apology in Evanston and there's no apology for that. And we have moved into disbursement and to enter repair.

BLACKWELL: So the DOJ alleges that your program has not identified any specific act of discrimination that violated constitutional or law. Nor does Evanston require evidence that recipients or their ancestors experienced discrimination when they lived in the city. So how do you determine eligibility?

SIMMONS: Well, eligibility is determined by the 50-year period of time that there is documented unlawful and harmful policy against community members in Evanston that happened to be black. So, this is harm-based redress.

From 1919 until 1969, there were zoning law that stripped away wealth and opportunity from a particular part of our community that happened to be the black community. That is well documented both in our history and facts.

[08:20:10]

The initial recommendations came out of our clerk's office, the city's own documents, further supported by the support of Shorefront Legacy Center, and then passed on by oral history of residents, my own friends and neighbors, my own village that are still living today and were impacted by this.

BLACKWELL: So here's what I'm getting to. If a person had, you know, their grandmother lived in Evanston in the 50s, are they eligible for the money? Do they have to prove that their grandmother was specifically impacted by any of the policies that fall within this reparations program?

SIMMONS: They are eligible.

BLACKWELL: Okay.

SIMMONS: They are eligible as a direct descendant.

BLACKWELL: Now, let me --

SIMMONS: If their grandmother was 18 --

BLACKWELL: Yes. And now let me ask you this, because the attorneys for these initial six plaintiffs say that if their white grandmother lived in the city, they would not be eligible. So, is the only eligibility that you had a black family member living in the city during this period?

SIMMONS: Well, it'll be for them to determine their harm.

BLACKWELL: But I'm talking about eligibility.

SIMMONS: Yes, for them. So eligibility. You're saying that in that case, residents that are did not apply. First of all, let's make that point.

So we had a period that this application was open. These residents did not apply. So the application is closed. It's been closed for years at this point.

BLACKWELL: Understood. But my question is, is it only based on race?

SIMMONS: No, it is based on harm. And it is only based on harm.

BLACKWELL: Okay. Robin Rue Simmons, thanks so much for being with me.

All right. This morning there are calls for justice and basic answers about why police who responded to a shoplifting report fired into a car and killed a baby. One-year-old Kohen Wiley's mom is speaking out and one of her attorneys is here with us. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:39]

BLACKWELL: This is one-year-old Kohen Wiley. His grandmother tells the Associated Press that one of his favorite toys was a little lawnmower that would blow bubbles. That one when you pushed it.

This morning, his family is grieving that they won't be able to see him play anymore or see him grow up because his life was cut short in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, Mississippi this week.

Here's what we know. Kohen was in a car with his mom and another woman. He and the woman driving the car were shot by a police officer who is now on administrative leave, the Senatobia Police Department said in a statement. "Preliminary reports indicate that officers responded to a report of shoplifting which led to officers discharging their firearms." They add, "We are committed to a full transparency. As the investigation progresses and facts are verified, we will share as much information as possible."

Now the Mississippi Department of Public Safety statement shared more details. This is what they say happened after police responded to the shoplifting call.

"Upon arrival, officers encountered two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene. The subjects arrived at a local hospital where one juvenile child in the vehicle was pronounced deceased and another subject had critical injuries. No law enforcement officers received any serious physical injury."

Now, one of the videos obtained by CNN from an eyewitness that wants to say anonymous shows officers chasing a moving vehicle seconds after an officer had shot at it. Another eyewitness, Desiree Smith, shared video that she says shows officers running back to their police vehicles. This is after the car that the officers shot at continue to drive away.

Kohen's mother, Vellesiya Wiley, is now speaking and she disputes that shoplifting claim and the claim that her friend drove towards police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELLESIYA WILEY, MOTHER OF 1-YEAR-OLD KOHEN WILEY: It was me, my son and another friend of mine was at Walmart. As we was leaving out the Walmart, they tried to stop her, but I kept walking because it had nothing to do with me. By the time me and my baby got in the car, she came and then they, when we was backing up, they was running out to come. I raised my baby up because they -- they withdrawed their gun.

She had no tent. I raised my baby up trying to show them that he was in the car. So, she was backing up and she hit a car as I was opening the door. So, the dope flew back in.

By the time I sat my baby down, it was like three to four shots. One of the shots hit him in his real cage and the other shots hit her, her arm and her thigh. And we left and went to Senatobia Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: There is a lot of distrust in this community. There were protests in Senatobia this week. This was outside that Walmart where Kohen was shot. The case is now getting attention from known names outside Mississippi.

Children's educator, influencer and activist, Ms. Rachel posted. "A precious baby was killed by a police officer because his mom and her friend walked out of a Walmart carrying diapers that they paid for."

[08:30:11]

She added in the caption, "Wouldn't have mattered if they stole them either." And Bernice King, a daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. posted, no item in any store is worth the life of a child. Kohen should be alive today. We cannot simply grieve and move on. We must raise our voices, demand accountability, insist on policies and training that put the preservation of life above the protection of property, and refuse to accept a culture where it is thinkable to fire into a car with a baby inside.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety commissioner met with the community this week and promises a fair investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN TINDELL, MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSIONER: No, I understand the frustrations, maybe the community's feeling. I can't completely understand it. I live a different life. I live in a different place from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

But I can tell you we've had the impact of these types of situations in my hometown as well. And so what I would ask for from the public is give us an opportunity to do our job at the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Let us gather facts, let us gather information. Let's put the file together.

We know that all that will be revealed to the public at a certain point. There will be that transparency that y'all want, but there also needs to be a fair investigation, a fair process, and that's what we're trying to get.

(END VIDEO CIP)

BLACKWELL: A member of the legal team for Kohen's mother, Attorney Van Turner is with us now. Van, thank you so much for your time. Now, it's been a couple of days since that video was recorded with Felicia Wylie. Do you maintain this is what the officers say that the officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. And that's when one shot into the vehicle.

You maintain that the driver did not drive in the direction of those officers?

VAN TURNER, ATTORNEY: Yes, I mean, from the trajectory of the -- of the bullets, they come from the passenger side of the vehicle. So that means, at least as far as we can tell now, without seeing the video, that the driver was attempting to go away from the officers.

And if you see the tail end of the video that we do have, you see her speeding off, going left away from the officers. The doors open, but then it's closing. And the four shots that were fired into the vehicle are all on the passenger side, one through the passenger side front window, then the other three shots hit the side window of the passenger side.

So that would indicate that the driver was trying to get away from the officers and was not heading towards the officers to run them over.

BLACKWELL: We have shown what we have from eyewitnesses there. Do you have access at this moment to any additional, let's say, Walmart surveillance video or other cell phone video from people who were there on the ground to corroborate that the driver was driving away from the officers and not in their direction?

TURNER: No, we requested video from Walmart. We have requested body cam footage from the San Antonio Police Department, and we've not received any of that video yet, but hopefully we will receive that video. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has promised a transparent investigation.

One of the things that they can do now is release the footage. Obviously, they've had the footage for at least a week, almost a week. They've had a chance to analyze that footage and make their conclusions. And so now it's time to release that footage to the public, to allow the public to see what actually happened and to truly be transparent. We received a report that it may be six to nine months before that video is released, and that's just far too long. The video can be released now, and it should be released now.

BLACKWELL: Let me play another piece of video here. The officers were investigating an alleged shoplifting of diapers. This is what your client, Vellesiya Wiley. Kohen's mother, said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELLESIYA WILEY, MOTHER OF 1-YEAR-OLD KOHEN WILEY: They didn't charge me. They ain't charged me with nothing. They just let me go. They didn't say nothing. They just kept telling the crowd that they were shoplifting. They were shoplifting. But I -- I don't know if they found anything because it's nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So she was not charged as of this morning. Is that still the case? And was the other woman in the -- the vehicle charged with anything?

TURNER: No one has been charged yet from -- from our information, I know Ms. Wiley has not been charged, and I do not believe the driver of the vehicle has been charged either at this point.

[08:35:04]

BLACKWELL: Listen, at the center of this is the death of a one-year- old. I don't want to go through just kind of the legal elements of this without asking, how is Vellesiya Wiley? TURNER: You know, it's tough. They're now making preparations to bury baby Kohen. No mother, no mother should be in a situation where they're having to bury a one-year-old child over a dispute regarding diapers. This was not an armed robbery. This was not an incident where they knew weapons were brandished by these two young ladies.

And yet they're drawing down firearms and they're shooting into a vehicle. And as Ms. Wiley indicated, she was showing her baby and please pleading for her baby's life. She was saying to those officers, I have a child in this car.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

TURNER: Please don't shoot. They did the exact opposite. They shot in the car, the windows were not tinted. They saw that baby in that vehicle, yet they dispatched their firearms.

That is just unconscionable. It's unconstitutional. And now Ms. Wiley is having to bury baby Kohen and it's just something that should not have occurred.

BLACKWELL: Attorney Van Turner, thank you so much. We of course will continue to follow this story and hopefully everyone gets to see that video sooner than nine months. Thank you so much for your time.

Coming up, why the Justice Department is joining a fight against the NAACP over AI data centers and siding with Elon Musk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:28]

BLACKWELL: We've been following efforts in small communities in Tennessee and Mississippi that they're making to try to protect themselves from pollution and the increasing power cost that follows the construction of AI data centers.

Well, the NAACP has been taking the lead in the fight for these communities and the civil rights group is suing Elon Musk's XAI. This week, in an unprecedented move, President Trump's Justice Department stepped in and ask that the case be dismissed. That's despite the fact that the suit alleges violation of the federal Clean Air Act, which the government should enforce.

Well, advocates are pleading with the state and local officials to enforce environmental rules and building regulations, but people in these neighborhoods feel like they are being ignored. One woman in Southaven, Mississippi, who lives near a data center owned by Elon Musk's XAI explained to a CNN affiliate what she's dealing with and what her concerns are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA BURGS, SOUTHAVEN, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT: It's like being having engine, airplane engines just turn off, set right there in the woods and then just turned on and just blow it. Hearing about different communities when different companies did certain things, how that affected them, like having children, you can get cancer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So the fight over those turbines was going on for months before the NAACP filed its suit. Back in February, Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center announced intent to file suit on behalf of the NAACP. They say the company violated the Clean Air Act by operating the turbines in Mississippi before getting air permits.

Two weeks later, the U.S. and Israel started the war with Iran. Now that point may seem out of place, but stay with me. We'll get back to that in a moment.

On April 14, Earthjustice and SELC filed a suit. This week, the Justice Department stepped in, calling for that suit to be dismissed. It claims the federal government is entitled to intervene in citizen lawsuits. It also cites national security concerns and saying the AI program enabled us, enabled US forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions, 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during operation Epic Fury, or Epic Fury, is what the Defense Department calls the strikes in Iran.

An Earthjustice official says intervention has nothing to do with national security and called it a desperate attempt to protect wealthy tech companies from obeying the laws meant to protect people from pollution.

Coming up, the push to close that controversial ICE facility in New Jersey just got a really notable backer. The family of the woman Delaney Hall, was named for. One of her relatives will join us live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:31]

BLACKWELL: The push to close New Jersey's controversial ice facility at Delaney Hall just got some new notable supporters, members of the Delaney family. The facility's namesake is Geraldine Delaney. She's a remembered -- she's remembered as an advocate for rehabilitation and members of her family have now shared a letter with the New York Times that says we believe it is time to confront whether Delaney Hall as it exists today, can ever fulfill its original rehabilitative purpose.

If it cannot, it should be closed and its name retired from this use rather than continue as a symbol of something our aunt spent her life fighting against.

Marianne Delaney, one of Geraldine's nieces, is with us now. Marianne, thank you for being with me. You've also said that Delaney Hall has nothing to do with the facility's original mission. I think most people know of Delaney Hall only as a facility for this ICE contract. What was the original purpose?

MARIANNE DELANEY, NIECE OF NEW JERSEY FACILITY NAMESAKE GERALDINE DELANEY: The original mission of Delaney Hall was a 250 bed rehabilitation facility for low level offenders for those serving less than one year and suffering from addiction or alcoholism issues.

BLACKWELL: And so what has it been like knowing your aunt's mission and having your name on that building, watching the protests, hearing the accusation of mistreatment and poor food and lack of health care. What has that felt like from your perspective?

[08:50:07]

DELANEY: Well, we're disgusted. And we know that our aunt would have been horrified to have her name associated with the misery and the inhumane conditions that are taking place at Delaney Hall, abuse and harm rather than rehabilitation.

BLACKWELL: Yes, talk to me. Because I went to look at Alina Lodge, which was something that she founded for rehabilitation. And the way she approached people is just contradictory to the allegations made about Delaney Hall in New Jersey. Talk to me about what she fought for, what she fought against in this context.

DELANEY: Right. Well, Geraldine loved the alcoholic and the alcoholic suffering because she had been through this herself. She was 50 years sober when she died in 1998. And Alina Lodge is known worldwide as a place for those who are, quote, reluctant to recover.

She developed a treatment system that really worked and saved thousands and thousands of lives. And we keep hearing, even today, how many lives Geraldine saved. She was about saving lives. She was about hope, and she was about restoring dignity to people, not harm and punishment and inhumane conditions, which is the total antithesis of what she stood for and what she worked for all her life.

BLACKWELL: Now, Delaney Hall is now owned and operated by the GEO Group. It's not a federally owned or staffed operation. Have you had any communications directly with the GEO Group? And is there anything you can do to more than write this letter?

DELANEY: Well, we hope to have communication with the GEO Group and anyone who's involved in keeping Delaney Hall open. We are very in tune with the demands of those being held there. They are suffering inhumane conditions, abuse, cruelty, a lack of food, a lack of clean water, a lack of sanitation, and most of all, a lack of due process. A lack of due process review for immigration cases before a judge, which is unconstitutional and unAmerican.

People are being forced to sign deportation papers.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

DELANEY: And the vulnerable. There are many vulnerable people being held there that should be released.

BLACKWELL: Marianne Delaney, I thank you for sharing your story with us and that letter with the New York Times. We'll continue, obviously, to follow all that's happening at Delaney Hall.

Art Is Life is up next. Just in time for Father's Day weekend. Here's songs from a new album that's all about raising and celebrating black boyhood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:57:17]

BLACKWELL: It's Father's Day weekend. So one time for the dads out there, for the uncs and any other father figures helping raise the next generation. Inspired by that, there's a new album out this weekend that celebrates Black boys and boyhood. It's called "Black Boy Glow." And I spoke with the artist Pierce Freelon about it. For Art is Life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERCE FREELON, MUSICIAN: my name is Pierce Freelon. I am in Durham, North Carolina and I am a children's musician. The inspiration for "Black Boy Glow" comes first and foremost from being a dad. I'm a father to a wonderful teenage, now black boy. And I wanted to make sure that the values that are -- a part of our household and that I grew up are something that can be shared with boys across the country and across the world.

You know, I think a big part of masculinity is being a protector. But how about protecting your own heart? How about protecting, you know, your feelings by moving through them with grace and giving yourself some love when you need it?

We're in the era of the manosphere and the male loneliness epidemic, and you can't wait until they're 16 and 17 to start having conversations around how to regulate your emotions or that it's OK to feel and it's okay to cry. And here's how you set a goal and accomplish it. We need to start having those conversations at 6 and 7 and 8 years old. And that's what this album is all about.

I would say one of my favorite songs on this album is "Whatup Unc." That's a song celebrating the black role model. Not your dad, but that other kind of father figure, that masculine presence in your life. There's a song on the album called "HBCU," which is about celebrating historically black colleges and universities.

The kids are back in the back seat bopping, and you're in the front seat kind of like, OK, yes, this is a bop right here. Like, I really want that intergenerational dialogue to be popping in those car rides when you're listening to this album. One of my favorite songs on the album is called "Neil deGrasse Tyson."

It's about celebrating, you know, black intellectuals, celebrating the fact that we have a wonderful tradition of black excellence. I think music is a very important tool to be able to pass wisdom, knowledge, information, legacy, heritage from one generation to the next. So now when you walk into a room, it's not just --