Transcripts For CNN CNN Newsroom With Alisyn Camerota and Vi

CNN CNN Newsroom With Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell July 7, 2024

It is the top of hour on cnn newsroom. Im alisyn camerota. And im victor blackwell. Today two Border State Republicans are taking their immigration battle up north. But families are stuck in the middle. Greg abbott ordered more than 1 100 migrants but bused and dropped off at Kamala Harriss home at the conservatory. They have already bused thousands of migrants to other states in recent weeks and they are said to be used as political pawns. The fact that fox news and not the department of homeland security, the city or local ngos were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children on the side of a busy d. C. Street makes clear this is just a cruel premeditated political stunt. And then there is Florida Governor ron desantis and hes gloating that he chartered two flights to carry migrants to Marthas Vineyard. Including Young Children who were arriving without any warning to local officials who scrambled to set them up in a nearby church. But here is how Governor Desantis sees it. Were not a Sanctuary State and it is better to go to a sank sureary jurisdiction and well have facilitate that transport for you to go to greener pastures. Every community in america should be sharing in the burdens and it shouldnt fall on a handful of red states. Rosa flores joins us now from houston. So rosa, are Governor Desantis and Governor Abbott coordinating on this . You know, according to Governor Abbotts Press Secretary, the two governors are having conversations about the Busing Strategy. But the Press Secretary said that Governor Abbott had nothing to do with the planes to Marthas Vineyard. Here is the state. Quote, our office has had conversations with Governor Desantis and his team about supporting our Busing Strategy to provide muchneeded relief to our overwhelmed and overrun border communities. Though, we were not involved in these initial planes to Marthas Vineyard, we appreciate the support in responding to this National Crisis and helping texans. Now this statement goes on to say that they welcome the help from other governors as well who would like to take part on this strategy. Now, alisyn and victor, i would point out that ive talked to many migrants along the border who are very grateful for these governors and also as of late, the City Of El Paso which is democratic led for these poll politicians to get involved to other parts of country for free, is what the migrants call it. But this is at the cost of the taxpayers in arizona, in texas, now apparently in florida as well and as well as el paso. So, rosa, the migrants, how are they able to travel right now. I imagine they have to some points to be in front of Immigration Judges in texas if theyre in massachusetts, how do they get back to these appointments, these hearings. So it is the responsibility of the migrant to change their i. C. E. Checkin from texas or from wherever their packet said to where they end up. So let me go through the process really quickly because how this works on border is the migrants turn themself into Border Patrol agents. After that, theyre taken to processing facilities or Border Patrol stations. Now there is still title 42 in place and so immigration agents do still, and ive talked to migrants who have been swiftly returned to mexico. Now they dont return everybody. Ive talked to a lot of venezuelans and cubans and Nica Nicaraguas where they were allowed to enter the country. They are dropped at cities all along the u. S. Border. Ive talked to many of them in texas and from there that is where they take their transportation to points across the country. Now, alisyn and victor, what they have is a little packet. I looked at that packet. What it says, it has their names, their personal information, and it also states that they have 60 days to check in with i. C. E. With Immigration Officials or they could be removed from this country. And it also said that they have up to a year to then seek asylum. So between that point, when they first enter the country and any sort of asylum hearing, it could be months, it could be years. Because of the backlog in this country. Rosa flores with the reporting there from houston. Thank you. So the massachusetts island, Marthas Vineyard had no warning before migrants began arriving. Local groups and businesses are quickly stepping up efforts to help. Joining us now, someone leading one of the efforts, karen tully. From harbor homes of Marthas Vineyard. Thank you for being with us. Let me start with when the migrants first arrived, what did they know, what didnt they know about why they were there and what was happening . As far as i know, they landed at Marthas Vineyard airport. They took maybe a two mile bus ride, it was supposedly directed toward Marthas Vineyard Community Services which is our large Behavioral Health center on the island. And from there they were shuffled across the street to a cafeteria in the local high school. Translators were provided so i know that they have information firsthand about where the guests thought they were going and what the purpose of it was. But when i saw the cluster of people in the cafeteria last evening, it was a couple of hours after they had landed, you know other than the kids being outside playing, and stretching their legs finally after a long plane ride, the adults seemed somewhat confused and tired and trying to explain to translators what little knowledge they had about the trip. Karen, what happened now . What happens to kids and adults . Where will they go to school and be housed. I think youre asking longterm questions. And Marthas Vineyard has had these guests for less than 24 hours. And we are dealing with Emergency Shelter and food and shortterm plans. So, the vineyard does have a homeless problem. And so we have a popup infrastructure that we do use in the winter for our chronically Homeless Individuals. We deal with about 100 Homeless Individuals annually. And so what we did was fall back on that infrastructure. So that the volunteers and staff who with usually at our Winter Shelter can help out. We dont have a physical facility for the shelter. We rotated between multiple churches. The clergy on the island works incredibly collaboratively together, all of the denominations and they support Homeless Services and this group of people immediately, so we use the same space that we use for the shelter and the person who coordinates a lot of Food Programs on the island for low income individuals or others in the past, he came forward and coordinated dinner and the meals today. Typically, we get a lot of support from all of the Community Agencies including the restaurants to deal with the population. And they are donating, restaurants are donating food as well. And youre still in the triage stage and you dont have the laanswers longterm. And i understand that. And what we hear from Karine Jeanpierre at the white house, is that there was no advanced notice. To send people on a plane and drop them off without advanced notice was if you had received that a advanced notice that a plane is bringing migrants from texas, would you have welcomed them and said okay, bring them on . I think were going to welcome anybody who comes on the vineyard. We have an Migrant Population here now. I think one of the a couple of things would have been improved, number one is the health of the individuals. Weve already had a couple of people present health issues. And theyre getting services. But, you know, you dont want to send individuals on a long plane ride who arent who have a health issue and not alert the other end of the spectrum that theyre arriving. So that would have been much more helpful. Yeah. Karen, thank you for explaining all of this to us. Well check back with you to see how everything is progressing and what the next steps are. We appreciate your time. John avalon is a political analyst and melissa served in the Trump White House as communications director. John, why is Governor Desantis in this. His statement said that florida is not a Sanctuary State. Well they werent in florida. He sent the plane to texas to pick them up and take them to Marthas Vineyard. Because this is a stunt. This is a stunt designed to show how allegedly tough he is on illegal immigration as he explores a president ial run. It is a stunt that treats people as political pawns and where the cruelty is the point because the trollishness, owning the libs is the driving impulse here with getting attention in the right wing ecosystem. And, you know, he gave a speech talking about faith and christianity and the obligations people have to the poor and the displaced. That this wouldnt apply there. Also all of the rhetoric weve seen from desantis and other republicans about refugees from the madurea regime. That failed left dictatorship that theyre seeking asylum from, treating them as political pawns instead. I wonder where Governor Desantis got the idea. Some said that it seems eerily similar to something that Tucker Carlson suggested a few weeks ago on his show. Here is that moment. You probably imagine, the island is diverse. The obamas live on the island. It is 95. 7 white. They are begging for more diferity. Why not send migrants there. In huge numbers. Is Governor Desantis taking marching orders from cable news. Tucker carlson is saying it from his entire White Community in maine. I would say compassionate conservatism has been replaced with owning the libs. And the republicans have a legts point. This past weekend, Kamala Harris said the border is secure. Were using human beings as political pawns and the thing that struck me the most, charlie baker, if he got a call saying we cant house these people, figure something out, hed get it done. Hes a very effective governor. But they wanted the surprise and the chaos and individuals with children to arrive in one of the most expensive islands in the country and then just try to fend for themselves with no help. It is terrible politics and what i would warn Governor Desantis who i worked for in the house, you have a cuban population and venezuelan who see this and she how youre treating people that look and sound like them and went their their struggle and it is heartless. This could backfire. There is a a press Conference Today in miami about the community. There are 240,000 refugees in florida right now. Saying those of us who are refugees from these leftist dictatorships that we told by republicans particularly Governor Desantis that we got your back, and we understand and care about this community. But theyre seeing members of their community being treated with context and political pawns and i think this could have an unintended consequence. And this is more related to Governor Abbott, but texas received significant federal funding because it is a border state. So to deal with this population, it is not to say it is not overrun. El paso has over a thousand migrants that are living in squalid conditions. It is a problem we have to do address. But the way to do is not scoring cheap political points. And on that point, forget about the political stunt. If you take out the cruelty of using human beings as political pawns, texas is sounding like we need help, we have 200,000 people crossing the border every month. Massachusetts, could you help us out. Theyre not going about it the right way but is it fair to ask other states to shoulder this burden because that is not the way it is happening right now. I think it is. And i think the woman you had on before, karen, is the example of the best of america. To step up and help these people. If Border States said they need to step up, i think governor baker would. You cant just drop them off on the tarmac. We have more to talk about. This morning President Biden talked about the agreement between rail leaders. This agreement is a big win for america and together we reached an agreement that will keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruptions of our economy. And im grateful, grateful for the members of administration who worked tirelessly on both sides to get this done. So this averted a nationwide rail strike that could have been disastrous for the economy. The white house brokered the Marathon Talks between the two sides and announced the tentative deal this morning. M. J. Lee is at white house. The president was instrumental in getting this deal finalized. At what point did he come in and what did you do . It is difficult to overstate how important it was for vote this president and this white house to avert this rail strike. And in the past few days we saw every part of the negotiations intensify and that included, as you noted, President Biden himself getting involved in recent days. Really picking up the phone himself and calling some of these key negotiators and if you take yesterday as an example, too, he spent the entire day at the Detroit Auto Show and then when he got back to washington and the white house in the evening, he again called into this meeting that ended up being some 20 hours at the Labor Department to try to get everyone past this impasse. Now in the end, what we had was this tentative deal that struck some compromised on some major issues including pay increases and back pay, dealing with working conditions and scheduling rules. And i think it was clear that every party involved at end of the day really very much acknowledged that the economic consequences of a potential strike would have been incredibly disastrous. Very disruptive for Supply Chain Issues and certainly the last thing that this white house wanted as its still fighting with the stubbornly high inflation and a volatile and sometimes fragile economic recovery. Now i should note, we are going to see the president speak in a little bit sat a conference that the white house is describing as fighting the effects of hate fueled violence on our democracy and public safety. This is where we should expect to hear him discuss a little bit some of the actions that different agencies are taking on this front. Well see what exactly those details are. But i dont have to tell that you this general theme of fighting for democracy, that, of course, has become an increasingly big issue for this president who of course ran on this issue as well back in 2020. M. J. Lee, thank you. John and alyssa are back with us now. John, do you get political credit for averting a crisis that nobody knew was a crisis . This is great that we didnt have a rail strike but nobody felt the rail strike. A lot of the presidency is the things that dont happen on your watch because of the actions that you take sometimes Behind The Scenes. And think it is particularly true of biden. This strike, which was looming, could have been disastrous, stagflation and such a Slap In The Face to amtrak. But what biden did Behind The Scenes and you see this consistently is hes working the phones. Hes calling the players. Hes not inserting himself in the center of the crisis. Hes not trying to make himself the story. But after the fact that you hear that he was playing on active role. So he does deserve credit for the dog that didnt bark. So the president s Approval Rating is up nine points since july. We have the numbers. 36 in july. Now at 45 . Hes still under water. The economy is the biggest challenge point. How much of is this is about what hes getting done and how much is about the reappearance of the former president and that juxtaposition. It is a little bit of both. Joe biden had the best it is close to a quarter. He got the inflation reduction act. I dont agree it is going to reduce inflation but it is a major win for his party. The former president , who is likely to be a 2024 candidate is facing a lot of scrutiny and i think that sways people. And there is a dobbs factor because energy is behind what will happen with the roe issue. The Biggest Issue in the midterms will continue to be the economy and hes got some ground to make up there. I dont know that it has any bearing for 2024 but i do think it matters. Well, but price of gas is going down. A lot of wins on capitol h

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