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The Situation Room

ICE Mistakenly Targets U.S. Citizen?; Police Investigate Deaths of Mississippi College Students; Supreme Court Rules on Surrogacy Case. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 23, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL WILK, INJURED ROLLER COASTER RIDER: I cannot help but feel, if I had reported it, maybe, maybe something would have happened. Maybe Magic Mountain would have taken it more seriously, and they would not have been injured.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Kyung Lah, thank you for that important reporting.

And those lawyers tell us the lawsuits will likely be filed in the coming weeks. CNN also reached out to Six Flags, which says it won't comment on pending litigation. The X2 ride isn't running right now, although the company is not saying why.

The next hour of THE SITUATION ROOM starts right now.

And happening now: targeted by mistake. ICE agents are accused of roughing up a man who turned out not to be the person they were looking for. How officials are now responding.

And IVF mix-up. A couple is taking a fertility clinic to court, saying their baby has a different biological father. They are live to explain in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

And we began this hour with the new video before and after an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas. CNN has obtained this video showing the highlighted car driven by Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. It is chased by ICE officers and two dark SUVs.

It ends a few hundred yards away with the stop and eventually the shots. This is important because the pursuit helps explain a gap of several minutes between the initial ICE stop and the stop that resulted in the shooting. We want to warn you this next video from an Austin police officer's bodycam is disturbing. It shows Garces Perez handcuffed and his shirt being cut away to

reveal the gunshot wound near the base of his neck. An attorney for the man says he was released from the hospital a second time with the bullet still in his back. Today, two Democratic congressmen from Texas are meeting with Garces Perez.

Also happening today, an investigation is under way in Illinois after ICE mistakenly targeted a U.S. citizen, detained him, and then left him on the ground with multiple injuries.

I want to bring in CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild, who is in Chicago for us.

So what more can you tell us about this case, Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: We're still continuing to learn more details about what actually happened here, Pamela.

But what we know now from witnesses from the Department of Homeland Security and from the Evanston Police Department is this. This all unfolded just before 10:00 a.m. Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security says that there was a targeted operation in the area and agents saw a man who resembled the target of that operation.

According to DHS, law enforcement tried to contact that man. They identified themselves as law enforcement. He did not give them identification. He was not cooperative. And -- but DHS is not responding to questions about his injuries and leaving out a lot of detail about why they took the steps that they did, saying only that they relied on their training here and then later left the scene without further incident once the individual finally identified himself.

There's surveillance video here that CNN has obtained. There's also witness video here that captures the aftermath. Neither one of these videos really captures in detail the start, middle and end of this event, because it is just challenging to see it all unfold here.

But this is what we have right now, so we want to be transparent with the viewers about where our reporting stands at this point. So let me let you listen to the witness video here, which captures the aftermath of this incident. And in this video, you do hear the man saying that he's a U.S. citizen. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. (OFF-MIKE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) OK. I'm just going to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you up. I'm (OFF-MIKE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Intense.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What they doing to him? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're (EXPLETIVE DELETED) him up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's ICE.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Later in that video, you can hear the man saying to the ICE officers on the ground there, "Don't touch me."

DHS saying that the man basically refused aid, whatever aid that they intended to provide from those agents, and then the agents did leave. The Evanston police that responded, spoke with those agents on the ground. They reiterated what DHS has said.

And an Evanston police officer saw that there was a federal agent with blood on his hands, that agent also refusing on-the-spot medical treatment. Witnesses, though, called an ambulance because this man reported that he had injuries to his head, neck, and teeth.

So there are continuing to be a lot of questions here, Pamela. Certainly, there is a ton of witness testimony. There's witness video there. The Evanston Police Department is continuing to investigate and is doing their best to preserve all of that evidence, which includes that witness video, any potential body camera.

[11:05:12]

And so this investigation unfolds, but this is what we know right now, still a lot of questions to be answered, Pam.

BROWN: All right, Whitney Wild, thank you so much.

And happening now: growing scrutiny over an ICE-involved shooting in Austin, Texas, this week. It is the latest in a string of shootings involving federal immigration agents around the country, some of them deadly.

So we wanted to do a fact-check on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

I'm going to bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who covers immigration extensively for us.

And, Priscilla, you have been tracking key numbers on this issue. What can you tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela, as you described it, it has been an aggressive immigration crackdown, and that has also led to some forceful tactics and, as we have seen, shootings.

So let's walk through some of the numbers here. When we look at shootings, there have been 21 shootings during the president's second administration by DHS agents. What does that mean? ICE agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

When we break down the 21, you get eight people who were killed, 13 who were injured. Now, when we have asked DHS about these numbers, they say that their agents are trained in de-escalation tactics and that they are also trained on use of force.

But the reality here too is that the tactics appear to be more aggressive as they also ramp up immigration arrests nationwide. And where is that? So when we look at the map and we look at where these shootings have happened, you have many cities here. You have Biddeford, Maine. Remember, that happened earlier this year when a delivery driver was shot and killed by an ICE agent.

You also have Minneapolis. These colors, the red and the light pink, those are nonfatal shootings for the red and fatal shootings for the light pink. We also have Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles. A lot of these places are going to sound familiar to viewers because it is in these cities where these crackdowns have manifested where agents have taken people into custody, and in some of these cases, in the process of doing so, have shot them and in other cases killed them.

Houston, another, and of course, Austin this week, bringing all of this again to the forefront, Pamela.

BROWN: And tell us more, Priscilla, about the eight people killed in these DHS shootings.

ALVAREZ: Yes, so we have the eight here. Again, for viewers, a lot of these faces may look familiar.

Let's talk about Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero. He was killed in Biddeford, Maine, earlier this year. Now, the DHS account of that was that they -- there was a targeted operation, that they were pursuing him, and that, for fear of public safety, they discharged his weapon, that -- the ICE agent. Eyewitness accounts also conflicted with that.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, he was in Houston. He was shot and killed. Similar situation. There was a pursuit happening with a vehicle. DHS said he did not listen to verbal commands, whereas the passenger of the vehicle, because it was not just him -- there were other passengers in the vehicle who survived -- said that that was not the case.

Notable here, these two at the very least earlier this year, those were about vehicle stops. And there was a moment in time where the Department of Homeland Security paused at least some of those stops because it led to these shootings. And then, remember, President Trump quickly overturned that and made clear that that was going to continue, because, again, it is a critical part of their strategy.

And, of course, you also have Renee Good, Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, among others. Family members, Pamela, were on the Hill just yesterday in public testimony saying how frustrating it has been for them, not only, of course, that their family members were killed by federal agents, but also that the Department of Homeland Security, they say, falsely provided an account of what happened.

And it has been hard for them to get answers and for there to be oversight into these killings, Pamela. BROWN: And what kind of uptick have we seen in President Trump's

second term compared to his first and Biden's in between?

ALVAREZ: So, we have the numbers here in terms of who is getting arrested.

And, interestingly, this is what Republican Maria Salazar talked about in her campaign ad that made shockwaves, because she talked about how there are more people who do not have criminal convictions or a criminal record, I should say, that are being swept up in this crackdown.

And the numbers bear that out. So follow the red line here. This is other immigration violations, in other words, no other criminal record. Look at how it spikes under Trump. Now, if you look at pending criminal charges and criminal convictions, that's also increasing, but not as much as these other immigration violations.

And that is where there has been some debate among Republicans about what this crackdown means and looks like. At the beginning of the Trump administration, it was about public safety and national security threats. The administration says that is still the case. However, we are also seeing more of those with just immigration violations.

Now, I want to take a moment for you to listen to Secretary Markwayne Mullin and what he said on CNN last week before, of course, the Austin shooting.

[11:10:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Here's what we know when we detain somebody in ICE is that it's usually a fight or flight every single time, because they know they're going to jail and they know they're going to be deported.

That's why so often you see individuals trying to get away. We are going to -- we're going to restrain them. And whatever that level is, we try not to escalate it, but we have to match whatever resistance they're having.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, I do want to note that, in talking to my sources, current and former Homeland Security officials, that's been a reality they have faced for a long time.

However, with more pressure and with more fear in the community about how some of this has escalated, it has led to an increase in shootings, some of which even officials within the department wonder why they happened to begin with.

BROWN: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you. Really important reporting there.

And still ahead: Two University of Mississippi students are found dead, the potential clues found at both scenes.

And a notorious group of hackers hits the FBI. The information that could have been stolen.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM, and we will be right back.

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[11:15:46]

BROWN: Happening now: A high-profile custody battle between a California couple and a surrogate mother has made its way to the Supreme Court.

I want to bring in CNN chief Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic.

So, Joan, walk us through this case and what the Supreme Court is saying.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure.

It's a very compelling case on a human level, for the Supreme Court on a legal level, not so much. But let me tell you what happened. A surrogate mother, McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, signed a surrogacy contract with a couple in California to carry their child.

And medical tests detected during the pregnancy that this -- that the fetus had a nearly fatal heart defect. So under the terms of the surrogacy contract, the genetic parents wanted her to abort the child. She did not want to, and she went to Texas, where she actually had the baby.

Meanwhile, the parents then go to a California court, and the California court declares that they are in -- they have custody, this is this is their child, they can make all the decisions related to care. The parents then moved -- went down to Texas to be with the child, who was then born and was hospitalized and has already had one surgery.

But what the surrogate mother did was, she wanted -- first of all, she was fighting in the California court on the custody issue, but also mainly what she wanted was a say in the care of this child. And a Texas court said no. The California court was saying no. And she then was appealing to the Supreme Court.

And the reason it went to Justice Elena Kagan is because she is responsible for dilemmas from the California region, where this started. And both sides made filings, but within -- within just a matter of hours after they all came in, Justice Kagan on her own rejected this. There was no recorded dissent, no explanation.

And I think the signal there, Pamela, was, as much as this, as I said, was a very compelling human case, it was not a case of federal law for the Supreme Court. It was a matter of state dispute. It had been resolved by a California court, and the surrogate mother was trying to get some sort of due process from the U.S. Supreme Court. And the signal, no written explanation, no recorded vote, the signal was, this is just not a matter for us to decide, as I say, a very difficult case. The boy, the little boy is still surviving, but apparently it's very difficult and will -- he will require many more surgeries if he does -- if he does live.

BROWN: Wow.

BISKUPIC: Yes.

BROWN: Joan Biskupic, thank you so much.

And later this hour, we're going to talk with a couple suing a fraternity clinic over an alleged sperm mix-up.

Up next, we have been hearing about the warnings around AI, doomsday, a risk to humanity, and so on. It's enough to give us all some AI anxiety. So how do you cope with it? We're going to ask a therapist ahead.

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[11:23:26]

BROWN: Happening now: A controversial supplement is at the center of investigations into the deaths of two students at the University of Mississippi. Their bodies were found on Monday, one on campus, the other in the city of Oxford.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is following the story.

So, tell us more about this investigation and where it stands, Isabel.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, law enforcement officers found packaged kratom at both of these separate death investigation scenes.

Now, kratom is an herbal extract that can produce opioid or stimulant- like effects, depending on the quantity that you take. But if taken -- too much of it is taken, it can also lead to poisoning, things like a heart attack, hallucinations, vomiting, and much more.

So this is why law enforcement is warning students to stay away from kratom and any other substances not prescribed. Now, having said that, it's also important to note here that the lead agency is stating that it's unclear how these students died.

It is simply too early to tell that right now, that they have no confirmed evidence connecting both of these deaths to students at Ole Miss, and they cannot say whether kratom itself or a different substance was a contributing factor to their deaths.

Listen now to how students on campus are reacting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAVEN TUNSTALL, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI STUDENT: We didn't think to come back to such sad news of losing two classmates. We have so much life ahead of us. College is supposed to be where we grow and gain new experiences. It's not supposed to be where our lives end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Yes. Now, the two students have not been identified. Oxford police have not given us any details as to their age or their gender.

[11:25:04]

And our affiliate WAPT, in speaking with the coroner's office, has been reporting that the autopsies are in the process of being scheduled. And you mentioned that one student was found on campus. A different student was found dead off campus -- Pam.

BROWN: I just want to be clear. How regulated is kratom? Can anyone just go into a gas station and buy it?

ROSALES: It can be very, very common to find. It really depends on the state and local government.

In Mississippi, the drug is not illegal to sell to anyone that is over the age of 21. But in the actual town of Oxford, they have a local ban on the selling of kratom. So it's important for parents, for anyone even considering this stuff to really take a look at the laws and find out more about it.

But, again, we don't know what led to these two students' deaths. We will be asking for more details.

BROWN: All right, Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.

ROSALES: Thanks.

BROWN: And just ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: It is any parent's worst nightmare. She was the mother, but her husband was not the father of their daughter, as they had initially planned. They learned it after the baby was born through IVF.

Where the fertility clinic went wrong.

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