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250 Arrested in Charlotte-Area Immigration Crackdown; President Trump Defends Saudi Crown Prince During Visit to D.C.; Crown Jewels Still Missing One Month After Louvre Robbery. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 19, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: ... next.

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ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: A source is now telling CNN President Trump's immigration crackdown is headed to New Orleans next. That will be in early December. It's not clear, though, when the operation will wrap up in North Carolina, where Homeland Security officials say more than 250 people have been arrested during four days since that sweep began in Charlotte.

Border officials say they are finding criminals. Many in the community call this, though, a phishing expedition, saying people are being wrongfully detained or questioned.

[14:35:00]

And the fear of being targeted has now forced dozens of businesses to close. Thousands of kids have not been in school. Countless workers calling out as well. Residents sharing some of their outrage at a county meeting last night.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never had the fear that I have right now. I carry, since this weekend, my American passport, because I'm not sure that they will respect even that document.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now is Charlotte's Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson. It's good to have you with us this afternoon. As I noted, DHS is now saying they've arrested more than 250 undocumented immigrants as of last night.

They have not specified how many of those people have a violent criminal record. I'm wondering if you may have received any details on that. Have they given you further information?

DANTE ANDERSON, (D) MAYOR PRO TEMPORE, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: Well, Erica, thank you for having me. And as operations spread throughout our entire state, we are still seeing activity here in the Queen City, hearing nearly additional 50 persons were detained as of yesterday here in the city of Charlotte and the surrounding areas. And that brings that number locally to nearly 200.

And we've asked those same exact questions. What have been the outcomes of these arrests and these detainees? We've received little to no information.

And the only information that we can find is when we go out on the Internet and seek. And what we've seen is there have been two persons out of the 150 persons identified as gang members. And to put that into context with the population here in Charlotte, Mecklenburg, we have over 1.2 million residents that reside in Charlotte, Mecklenburg, and two people have been identified as gang members.

HILL: Well, we will keep asking for more clarity, as I know you will as well. But it is important to put those numbers out there. So thank you for that.

I also did want to ask you about more than 30,000 students who at the beginning of the week were not in school. That's according to the school district. That's about 20 percent of the district.

A White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted in response earlier this week to some of the initial figures, which I should point out those initial figures were a little bit lower. He posted and I'm quoting him here.

"So a conservative estimate is that one seventh of a major Southern public school district is here illegally."

Is he correct in his assumption that he puts out there that every child who was absent is, in fact, in his words, quote, here illegally?

ANDERSON: Well, there's no data, empirical or otherwise, that could support that statement. And what we know that is unofficially nearly 30,000 students were absent from Charlotte, Mecklenburg schools on Monday. And to put that into context, this is the 16th largest school system in the United States of America, with a population of 141,000 students.

So nearly 30,000 students were absent. And we have no correlation to the demographics or to their immigration status. We just understand that they were not in school receiving education, advancing their social skills.

And we know that there was an impact to those homes where parents had to modify their work schedules. They had to have an economic impact out of fear that something would occur at those schools.

HILL: You know, you talked about trying to get some of the information that you have not been able to get answers to from federal officials. Do you have further guidance at this point on how much longer they plan to be in Charlotte? ANDERSON: You know, we have asked those questions and we have been met with little to no information. It truly has been an opaque process, an opaque operation. But what we continue to say is that we will abide by our state jurisdiction.

The state of North Carolina is a Dillon rule state. So we have to abide by what our General Assembly says and we will comply with the law. And we've asked our residents to do that.

They have. Simultaneously, we have supported our residents by disseminating information as quickly as possible. We're working with grassroots organizations to make sure that residents understand their rights and to indeed try to garner as much information as we can by using our residents as our eyes and ears.

But we are left with no information, with no direction. And it's unsettling. It continues to be unsettling.

[14:40:00]

HILL: Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson, we appreciate you joining us this afternoon. Thank you.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

HILL: Still ahead here, the race to replace Gavin Newsom, a billionaire activist now throwing his hat into the ring to become California's next governor.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The visit to Washington by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has brought mixed reactions. President Trump lavished the Crown Prince with praise in the Oval Office. Despite allegations that Saudi Arabia's government is tied to the September 11 terrorist attacks and, of course, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

HILL: A foreign affairs journalist, Elise Labott joining us now in the studio. She's the host of the Cosmopolitan -- of Cosmopolitics on Substack. So when we start, Elise, when we look at what happened in the Oval Office yesterday, when in fact there was a question, a very smart question, which the president then then ridiculed and also went after the reporter, we should point out, unfounded. He called Jamal Khashoggi extremely controversial, right, in batting down that question, which was initially to to MBS.

And then today I was struck by comments from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said we may never fully know the absolute narrative of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. The reality is we know a lot from U.S. intelligence.

ELISE LABOTT, HOST, COSMOPOLITICS ON SUBSTACK: Right. I mean, we know a lot what happened with U.S. intelligence and we know the assessment, right, is that, you know, the Crown Prince, if not ordered it, then knew about it. He he doesn't not know anything about it. And look, there were some reports about him. I'm not going to blame the victim. He certainly didn't deserve what he got.

There were some controversies around him. That doesn't mean he deserved what he got. And so we can't even really go there.

But I do think, you know, people are -- he is using this to say he didn't know anything about it. But the truth of the matter is, guys, this is true. It happened to the journalist.

We can't ever forget that. We can't take the eye off the ball on human rights. What President Trump should have said is, listen, I know there's this controversy.

I know there's this past. But there are also a lot of U.S. interests at stake with Saudi Arabia. And we have to move forward on that front.

I mean, the way he did it was pretty disrespectful to the victim, to his family and really didn't handle it the right way.

SANCHEZ: And just to put a point on that fact, there wasn't a lot of divergence among Republicans, among Democrats at the time when this report came out. The conclusions were pretty widely accepted. And also, you hear a change in tone.

I'm thinking of Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the time describing the consequences that Saudi Arabia should face. And then yesterday, they're in the room pretending as though they never said those things.

LABOTT: Well, I mean, Secretary Rubio knows better. I mean, clearly he has a new boss. And this is an amoral foreign policy of this administration.

They don't give a lot of care about human rights. It's a very transactional, very interest based foreign policy. They don't think about democracy and human rights in that way.

And that's why, you know, I think the president would have been much better served, and, you know, all of the members of Congress who are trying to pay fealty to the president to just say, yes, this happened. We know what the assessments are and we've made the conclusion that we need to move forward.

HILL: You talk about transactional. I mean, some of what we heard yesterday, too, really important to point out Saudi Arabia pledging some $1 trillion in investment, which is a very large number. A lot of details missing there, including timelines and a few more specifics. But also the fact that the president announced that the U.S. is agreeing to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, raising questions about not only what happens in the broader Middle East with that sale. What happens with China.

LABOTT: Right.

HILL: And also a timeline there, which is somewhat. LABOTT: Right. I think, listen, what Saudi Arabia has done with this massive investment, and I think, you know, I think -- I don't want to, again, delegitimize what happened in the past.

But I think there hasn't been a lot of talk about the actual investment and what is going on here. This is really transformational in terms of what the U.S. is trying to do in the region, what the Saudis are trying to do with the U.S. just like oil. The U.S. oil industry built the Saudi oil industry in the 1930s. They're looking to the U.S. to build the kind of A.I. industry of the future and together build the U.S. as this global power in A.I. and compete with China.

And while China is a huge partner of Saudi Arabia in terms of trade, they're saying we choose the United States to be this power, this global power going forward. And they are making a lot of care to make sure that this technology doesn't get into the hands of China.

And on the Middle East region and the F-35s, the Saudis have said, yes, we are going to make this normalization with Israel. We're just not ready to do it until Israel does A, B and C on the Palestinian front. So they're saying we're not going to pose a threat to Israel.

[14:50:00]

This qualitative military edge that everybody talks about, you don't need to worry about us having, you know, the same military edge as Israel because we don't pose a threat. And so this is part of a larger transformation of earth minerals.

You heard about these earth minerals. Basically, the Saudis said -- the U.S. said to the Saudis, could you please look at the whole periodic table and tell us what you have? The Saudis are making deals on nuclear energy, all of this stuff, the U.S. and Saudi, this partnership. I can't underestimate how important it is. But again, at the same time, this doesn't delegitimize what has happened in the past. And we have to, you know, hopefully in future administrations, there will be that attention to human rights.

HILL: Always good to see you.

LABOTT: Good to be with you.

SANCHEZ: Now, to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

A billionaire Democratic activist, Tom Steyer, says he is running for governor of California. The former hedge fund manager launched his campaign today around the theme of affordability.

This is, of course, a crowded race. He'll be up against former Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra and former Congresswoman Katie Porter. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla have both passed on running for the position.

HILL: Also, a judge temporarily blocking a law which required the 10 Commandments to be displayed in Texas public school districts. So the order affects only the districts that are part of this lawsuit, which had been filed by a number of families who argued the law violates the First Amendment. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has previously said that he would appeal similar decisions.

Other states, including Arkansas and Louisiana, have had similar laws struck down or rebuked by the courts.

SANCHEZ: And breaking news in the CNN, a federal judge says he is moving ahead with a criminal contempt inquiry into White House officials involved in the Alien Enemies Act deportation flights. This is after an appeals court cleared the way for him to continue with the proceedings. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had ordered the administration in mid-March to turn around planes carrying migrants being deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Those planes ultimately never turned around.

He now says he intends to find out which Trump administration officials were responsible for flouting his orders and whether they might face punishment for their actions. Part of his inquiry could actually involve declarations from administration officials or bringing officials into his courtroom to provide testimony under oath.

HILL: And that is it's a heck of a development this afternoon. That's for sure. We'll be watching that one closely.

SANCHEZ: No doubt. CNN coming up next, we'll go inside the investigation into the Louvre heist. Here how investigators were able to track down the thieves and where they think those still missing crown jewels might be.

[14:55:00]

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SANCHEZ: Today marks one month since thieves robbed the Louvre of jewels worth more than $100 million.

HILL: So several suspects, of course, have been arrested in connection to that brazen daylight heist. But there's still no word on what actually happened to the precious jewels. CNN's John Miller has been following all the twists and turns here.

So give us a sense, John, where's the investigation right now?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, for the Paris Prefecture of Police and the BRB, which is their robbery squad, the brigade against banditry, I guess you translate it. Three out of the four suspects who were on the scene have been charged and a woman who was in a long term relationship with one of them has been charged with conspiracy for helping in the plot. The fourth robber still on the loose, but none of the gems have been recovered. None that left the museum that day.

So the question is, with these suspects in custody, with one on the run, let's break it down. Does the fourth robber have the jewels? Are they hidden somewhere? Do the other robbers know where they are? Will they ever be returned? Maybe not. On the other hand, the French police investigation, which has searched a number of locations and may search more, could lead to the recovery of the gems. But there's always this other possibility, right, which is the gems, the jewels, the crown jewels of France become kind of ransom, where through their attorneys, through intermediaries, those who are in custody might negotiate the idea of if we can make them reappear, if they find their way home to the Louvre, can we get these sentences, if we're convicted, shortened to something very short, which is a possibility. We've seen it happen before.

SANCHEZ: That would be significant leverage. How were investigators able to track them down -- John?

MILLER: You know, the BRB -- and I've met these guys when I was in Paris -- they're a very experienced robbery squad. They've got a great surveillance team. They've got a network of informants in the Paris underworld.

But they started with science. They said, let us not miss one thing that we can in this crime scene. Let's get DNA off of everything we pick up.

Let's fume for fingerprints, the truck, the helmet, the circular saws, anything they might have touched, any time they might have taken off gloves. And they came up with DNA that led to a 34-year-old man from Algeria who lived nearby and another one, a 39-year-old unlicensed cab driver, put them under surveillance that led them to other people, other places. And that was really what broke it.

SANCHEZ: Wow. John Miller, thank you so much for that reporting. We'll see what comes next in the case.

So last night, we saw the return of the king, NBA legend LeBron James, back on the court last night and also notching his name in the record books yet again after missing the Lakers first 14 games of the regular season because of an injury.

HILL: When the 40-year-old stepped on the -- onto the hardwoods, he began his unprecedented 23rd season. So this now marks the longest career in NBA history. After the game, a reporter asked LeBron what it felt like to play with his much younger teammates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: I can sit back and think about what you just said for our seven guys not being born when I started this journey and, yeah, that just made my back hurt. So I do got a few days before we play again, so I'll be OK.

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SANCHEZ: The joke about his back hurting, he was out because of sciatica, I believe.

HILL: Yes. SANCHEZ: So it goes to show the mileage that --

HILL: Sciatica is not fun.

SANCHEZ: It's not a good time.

Despite the long layoff, the league's all time leading scorer got into a groove. He played 30 minutes, finishing with a double double. So pretty good for --

HILL: LeBron going to LeBron. You know, I mean, can't beat it.

SANCHEZ: Erica, thanks so much for being with us. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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