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Mexican Workers Sue U.S. Auto Industry; Post-9/11 Air Quality Cover-Up?; Trump Speaks at 9/11 Commemoration Event. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired September 08, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now: U.S. military officials say they destroyed an alleged refueling boat in the Eastern Pacific. The strike, which happened yesterday, is the fifth such strike against these types of alleged vessels, which officials say supports drug trafficking operations.

U.S. Southern Command says it removed the crew members before sinking those boats and will transfer them to Ecuador.

Convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky made a virtual appearance in a Pennsylvania courtroom today. The 82-year-old former Penn State University assistant football coach recently withdrew his request for a new trial, which was based on one victim recanting his testimony last year.

[10:35:01]

Prosecutors demanded the hearing proceed so Sandusky could go on the record about dropping the petition to focus on a federal appeal. He's currently serving a 30-year sentence for sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.

And, in California, Erik and Lyle Menendez have been granted an early parole suitability hearing by the California Board of Parole Hearings and could appear before a panel next year. The state parole board and governor must still decide whether to grant parole.

The brothers, who were convicted of first-degree murder for the 1989 killings of their parents in the living room of the family's Beverly Hills home, received three-year parole denials last year.

And, in Mexico, a close call caught on camera. You can see the small child run from her mother and towards the road. Her mother slips trying to run after her, but it's a supermarket worker who pulls the child out of the way just in time as a van breaks just a few inches away from that child. Oh, my goodness.

Well, happening now: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making a staggering announcement about the aftermath of 9/11 ahead of Friday's anniversary. He says the city is releasing more than 170,000 pages of previously

undisclosed records that allegedly show city officials at the time knew that air quality near Ground Zero was far more dangerous than they let on; 9/11 families joined Mamdani for this announcement, along with comedian Jon Stewart, who has been one of the most outspoken advocates for transparency and resources for 9/11 first responders and survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, COMEDIAN/ACTIVIST: What we all knew who live in downtown Manhattan is that there was poison in the air, and on the ground, and in the windowsills, and in your air conditioners, and covering your pets and your clothes, and it stayed there for months. Everyone knew.

And now it's very clear that the city knew as well. And rather than take the steps to ameliorate the damage that that would cause to its citizens and to the people that were down there, they instead covered it up to get back to business as usual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, let's go live now to CNN's Gloria Pazmino, who was at the mayor's announcement.

So what does Mamdani say these documents show, Gloria?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, frankly, a remarkable revelation by the city today. Not only did city officials know at the time that the air near Ground Zero was toxic in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but they took proactive steps to reassure the public that it was safe, that the air was clean, and that it was OK to be near the Ground Zero area in the days after the attack.

In fact, the documents show that it was by October, so nearly a month after the attacks, that the city had collected enough information showing that the air was toxic. Now, for so many years, there's been a push here to have these documents released.

There is a lawsuit at the heart of this that has been settled as a result of the documents released today. And we know that many more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses since the attacks. More people have died than those who were killed on that day. It is a staggering number to think about just how many people have been sickened.

And, for years, we have heard about first responders, right, the people who were down at the pile helping in the days after 9/11. We know that they got sick.

But this was also Lower Manhattan. There were hundreds of thousands of people who lived and worked there, children who went to school. And the mayor said today that those people, if they have not been able to get resources and apply for the federal programs that exist for people who have 9/11 related illnesses, they will be able to do so now. And he expects that many more people will come forward. I want you to

take a listen to the mayor talking about this document release today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: It would be one thing if government had stood alongside survivors and provided them with everything they needed at every step of the way. And yet we know that could not be further from what actually happened.

People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. And then, when they began to contend with the symptoms of the illnesses that followed, the government that had not hesitated to send them into harm's way was nowhere to be found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, among the documents, Pamela, I think it's important to highlight there is a memo known as the Harding Memo. We have known for years that this memo existed, but we could not get our hands on it.

And what the memo outlined at the time was that the findings had concerned city officials that the city was really legally exposed, that there was liability to be concerned about. And city officials discussed legislative strategies to counteract that possible liability.

[10:40:13]

So it just really shows you that city officials were concerned about the legal exposure that the city had at the time, despite knowing all of the exposure that so many New Yorkers had to the air back then -- Pamela.

BROWN: Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

And happening now: President Trump is hosting first responders and officials for a Tunnels to Towers event at the Ellipse to commemorate 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. Tunnel to Towers is a nonprofit that offers mortgage and housing assistance to Gold families and families of fallen first responders.

As part of their Steel Across America campaign, a 17,000-pound beam recovered from the World Trade Center south tower was brought to this event. And we're also expecting to hear from Tunnel to Towers chairman and founder Frank Siller, whose brother Stephen was a New York fireman killed on 9/11.

So let's go live now to CNN's senior White House reporter Betsy Klein at the Ellipse.

What more can we expect at this event, Betsy?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Pamela, President Trump will be making his way soon here to the Ellipse for this very solemn event, where he is going to be joined by first responders from New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, as well as Gold Star families here in the audience, service members, as well as families of fallen first responders.

And very emotional on the entrance to this event. They had images of more than 400 first responders who lost their lives that day, September 11, as the nation prepares to commemorate that 25th anniversary, and, behind me, this very powerful reminder of that. This is that 21-foot-long, nearly 17,000-pound steel beam that was recovered from the South Tower.

This piece of metal has been traveling across the country starting in may in Lower Manhattan. It has made stops at key sites, including at Emma Booker Elementary School. That is the school where President Bush was reading with second graders when he got the news that the second tower had been struck, along with a stop at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Mount Rushmore, now landing here at the White House.

President Trump is expected to speak. We're hearing right now from Frank Siller of Tunnel to Towers, who lost his brother, a firefighter, on September 11. We also heard from a White House official named Brad Blakeman, who lost his nephew and was serving under President Bush on that day.

President Trump himself (AUDIO GAP) but he is not expected to travel to Ground Zero on Friday, that 25th anniversary. Instead, he will be at the Pentagon. And that is because President Trump, according to our sources, wanted to deliver remarks on that day. And politicians have been prohibited from doing so since 2012.

But as time goes on, there's so many Americans who are too young to remember 9/11 or weren't born on that day. This today is a powerful reminder, this beam behind me, an educational effort to remember that service and sacrifice and never forget, Pamela.

BROWN: So important. Never forget. Betsy Klein, thank you.

And coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: A number of young engineers say they were recruited from Mexico with the promise of good-paying jobs in the U.S., but, when they got here, it was a much different story. That story coming up.

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BROWN: Happening now: Hundreds of Mexican workers sued auto industry giants for what they say was a bait-and-switch. Skilled engineers were allegedly lured to the United States to work professional jobs, but, when they arrived, they were forced into 12-hour assembly line ships with low pay.

In a SITUATION ROOM special report, CNN's Rafael Romo spoke with one young man whose dream job turned into a nightmare.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISIDRO ARELLANO, ENGINEER: You are like 24, 25 years old, and you see an ad that says, hey, you can go to work in the United States. Obviously, it's going to sound like -- I don't know, like a dream job, like an amazing offer.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Isidro Arellano says he was in his last year of engineering school when he saw an ad at his college in Mexico.

He says the ad was for engineering jobs at car factories in the United States, the ideal candidate, young engineers or technicians from Mexico willing to work north of the border.

(on camera): Can you tell me what happened after you applied?

ARELLANO: They called me and they told me that they have a job opportunity to work in a plant that makes parts from the automotive industry.

ROMO (voice-over): Full of dreams, Arellano says he traveled to the United States in 2021 for what he describes as a quality engineering job whose duties included taking precise measurements for auto parts.

(on camera): Did you at any point feel like this was a little too good to be true?

ARELLANO: Yes, it crossed my mind like a couple of times.

ROMO (voice-over): A class action lawsuit filed in 2022 in federal court in Atlanta alleges that Arellano and about 600 other Mexican workers were induced to move to the United States with false promises of a skilled job, but relegated to performing assembly line work, subjected to six 12-hour work days per week with mandatory overtime, while American-born workers were not, and paid half of what American- born workers earned for the same job in the same location.

JULIA SOLORZANO, LEGAL AND POLICY DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS: We're receiving calls from workers talking about issues that they were having in the auto supply industry in Georgia and Alabama.

[10:50:08]

ROMO: Julia Solorzano is the legal and policy director of an organization that advocates for migrant workers.

SOLORZANO: These workers allege that they were recruited for professional jobs doing engineering and technical work in auto supply plants in Georgia. And so these are workers who had degrees and professional qualifications to do that kind of work.

In fact, the terms of their visa required them to do that professional work.

ROMO (on camera): According to the class action lawsuit, the workers came to the United States with what is known as a T.N. visa, which, according to the U.S. State Department, allows eligible Canadian and Mexican professionals to work in high-skilled jobs in the country under the free trade agreement between all three countries known as the USMCA.

DANIEL WERNER, CIVIL AND LABOR RIGHTS ATTORNEY: What it turned into, as is claimed in the case, was a bait-and-switch. The workers ended up, these engineers ended up in the United States working at these plants and were doing manual labor. They were not working as engineers.

ROMO (voice-over): Just before trial last month, the defendants, including Hyundai Mobis and Kia Georgia, as well as Georgia-based staffing agency SPJ Connect and Georgia recruiting firm Allswell, reached an $11.5 million dollar settlement.

In a statement to CNN, Kia says they resolved the matter, saying: "The court made no finding of liability of wrongdoing by Kia, and no fines or judgments were entered against the company. Kia denies the allegations and denies it played any role in recruiting the claimants."

CNN reached out to Hyundai Mobis and Allswell, but got no response. SPJ Connect appears as dissolved in state of Georgia documents.

WERNER: The allegation is that they use the T.N. visa program to provide a supply of labor at their plants. And the way they used the T.N. visa program, according to the lawsuit, was to circumvent the immigration laws.

ROMO (on camera): What is the message that this case sends to foreign workers in general, workers who may be in the same situation these Mexican engineers and technicians were?

WERNER: Even in this environment, we have this group of workers who stepped forward and decided that they were wronged and did something about it and achieved justice.

ROMO (voice-over): Isidro Arellano returned to the United States and is legally working as an engineer. Other workers in the class action lawsuit who left jobs and family have not been as fortunate.

Rafael Romo, CNN,Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And our thanks to Rafael Romo.

Now let's head over to the Ellipse in Washington, where President Trump is speaking ahead of 9/11.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... statues and fountains, all -- they're back in shape. Some of them haven't worked in 45 years. But the nation's capital, it marks 25 years since a day that was

etched forever into the memories of Americans. On 9/11, nearly 3,000 precious souls were stolen from us, killed by evil terrorists at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on Flight 93.

All of these years later, we gather on another Tuesday morning in September to reaffirm the sacred vow we made a quarter-of-a-century ago. We will never forget. We say it and we mean it. We will never forget those we lost, and we will never forget the immortal heroes of September 11, 2001.

And I will tell you, we're right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon. They were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: And they have been punished greatly, as you know. We have we have really taken it to them. I want to compliment our military. The job they do is unbelievable. The blockade has been so powerful, so effective.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Nobody thought it could go so well. I want to just thank our military.

I want to also thank the man who I just said hello, introduced me, is a special guy, he really is, who's done so much to help the families of 9/11 first responders and great veterans, and that's Frank Siller. He really is. He's a fantastic man, and he's a great friend.

(CHEERING)

[10:55:00]

TRUMP: Now we all know the story of his wonderful brother, Stephen, and we know it well, how brave he was going into the Center, probably knowing that it was coming down. He didn't care. It was an amazing act of bravery.

I also want to recognize Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who lost his brother and 658 employees. He was the head of Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the most successful firms on Wall Street. They were the top three floors of the World Trade Center. It's an amazing story.

Howard was always there at 6:00 in the morning, always, without fail, because, in that business, you get there nice and early, the financial business. He was one of the biggest anywhere in the world at finance. Cantor Fitzgerald was one of the hottest firms, and for years he'd be there at 6:00 in the morning.

But he had a child, and his wife would always be screaming at him, you never have taken our child to school. You have got to take -- someday, you have got to take -- and this went on for years. After four years, he said, all right, I will take him to school. I'm going to bring him to school myself. He wasn't so happy about it.

He brought that beautiful boy, who's now a grown person, brought up to school, and he arrived at the school at 8:30, and he was on the West Side Highway at 8:45, and he watched that whole thing. This was the first time in years that he wasn't there early in the morning.

So you could say he owes a lot to his son, and he owes a lot to his wife. But he brought his son to school, and, because of that, he got to see it from the West Side Highway. He saw the planes go into the towers, and he said, oh, my God, my people, my people.

And he's done an amazing job. He's rebuilt Cantor Fitzgerald, and he's given much of the profit to some of the families or the families of the people who perished. They all died, 658 employees. Started the firm all over again.

So Howard's here someplace, I think, Howard. It's -- where are you, Howard? You deserve to stand up, Howard.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He's got some faults, but overall he's excellent.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: He's a great guy. No, he went through a lot, didn't he? Had to build -- who could do that? And now the firm is bigger, stronger, better than it was even at the beginning. The job he did. He's secretary of commerce. He's been fantastic.

Thanks as well to Attorney General Todd Blanche, who's doing a phenomenal job, wherever you may be. Hi, Todd. And Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, 92 percent approval. You have a 92 percent approval rating, Doug. Stand up, you two guys.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I want to make sure that Todd gets a 95 percent approval, maybe 100. How about 100 percent?

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, who's really taken over and done a job that's been great. Thank you very much, Markwayne. One of our real superstars, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. He gets it approved and he gets it approved fast.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: They like you, Lee. Done great, an MVP. The OMB director, Russ Vought, who is watching the costs, and he's watching them better than anybody knows. He knows -- he knows more about that than anybody, along with Representatives Mike Lawler, they call Mr. SALT, Mike Lawler.

Stand up, Mike. Dan Meuser. And we have other congressmen and senators. I just want to

thank you all for being here. Too many to mention, but thank you. These two guys have been very special.

In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into really what came before. When you look at what took place that day, nobody will ever even think of such a thing being able to happen again. And we're going to do everything in our power to make sure it doesn't. That was a day like no other.

September 11 was one of those moments in time where you always -- everybody knows exactly where they were. I know exactly where I was. I was watching and looking, and it was a beautiful, beautiful morning, and I looked out, and then all of a sudden I saw an alert on television.

I looked out my window and I saw things that I never want to see again. We're never going to see them again. But in just over 100 minutes, 175,000 tons of steel and concrete were reduced to ruin, and 3,000 lives were extinguished, immediately extinguished.

The world we knew and the nation that we loved have -- had changed. I said it to myself. And I looked and I said, wow, the world has changed forever. So many things have changed because of that day. Yet this battered piece of steel here today on the Ellipse is a reminder that America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume, no evil can conquer, and no terror can destroy.

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