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Trilateral Talks in Russia-Ukraine War; Border Patrol and ICE Officials Defend Enforcement Tactics; Massive Winter Storm. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired January 23, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

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ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Two thousand miles of snow and ice, one of the most extreme winter storms to hit the nation in years now starting to be felt, this monster system packing a historic impact that has been felt by hundreds of millions of Americans.

And ICE denial. A top official says agents did not target a 5-year-old taken into custody, but that's not what a school is saying. We're following the latest developments in this case.

And a step forward for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin and the U.S. joining the first known trilateral negotiations. So could this actually help resolve what we're told is the one issue no one can agree on?

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Bracing for impact. Right now, half of the country is about to face one of the most crippling winter storms we have seen in years. More than 230 million Americans across some 20 states are on alert for what is being labeled a potentially catastrophic storm. And it's a triple threat. You've got heavy snow, ice, and of course those bitterly cold temperatures.

Places like Louisville, Kentucky, they could see 18 inches of snow. That has not happened in more than 25 years. By this weekend, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City all set to get walloped as well.

The biggest threat, however, is likely the ice, and that threat is impacting states from Texas on into the Carolinas. This could impact travel. It could impact power potentially for days; 14 states at least at this hour are now under states of emergency.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking this, the timing, Allison, and the dangers. Where do things stand with these most recent models?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, so let's take a look at where the storm is now.

And it doesn't really look like all that much on radar because it's still kind of getting its act together and forming. But we're already starting to see some of the rain showers begin to slide into portions of Texas. And it's really going to ramp up as we head into the evening hours.

So we take a look tonight around 6:00 p.m. eastern time, you already start to see some of that pink and purple color starting to form in places like Oklahoma and Texas, indicating the snow and the changeover into some freezing rain.

By the time we push forward into Saturday morning, notice not only does it push eastward, but you also start to notice a lot more pink and purple on the map, indicating the expansion of both of those winter elements. You're talking states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, even down as far south as Louisiana looking to get some freezing rain out of this.

By the time we get to the latter portion of Saturday and into early Sunday, now the focus becomes more of the mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas down into Georgia. You will notice this area of yellow here in green, meaning the temperatures on Sunday are expected to warm back up enough that some folks may transition back to rain before going back to snow and ice again when the temperatures fall on Sunday night.

Sunday night too is when we start to see some of those impacts begin to spread into areas of the Northeast, specifically into New England during the overnight hours before the system finally exits early Monday.

Now, here's a look at those totals. Yes, there's a lot of pink on this map, indicating widespread totals of at least eight inches, but some spots could see 12, 15, even 18 inches of snow before it all finally exits this area.

But ice, this is going to be quite possibly the biggest impact in terms of what we expect over the next 72 hours. Some of these spots could pick up half-an-inch to over an inch of ice accumulations. Yes, that obviously causes problems on the roadways, but that kind of accumulation really pulls the weight down on things like trees and power lines.

So, in turn, we could end up seeing some pretty significant widespread power outages across a lot of these areas you see here. That includes Charlotte, Nashville, Little Rock, even down through Jackson, Mississippi, and even Dallas, Texas.

HILL: It is really something. It's also these temperatures that I am having a hard time, frankly, wrapping my head around.

The -- with the windchill in some areas, it could feel like minus-50, Allison?

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CHINCHAR: It is.

It's kind of hard to comprehend a temperature like that. So, basically, what's happening is, the cold arctic air is really starting to push down into the Midwest. But you also have wind gusts 20, 30, 35 miles per hour. And so that feels-like temperature to your body, at least areas that are not covered, this is what it's going to feel like, minus-43 in Duluth, negative-37 in Green Bay, even Chicago looking at a feels-like temperature Saturday morning of minus-24.

But it's all that cold air. It's going to spread southward and allow some locations that you don't normally see snow and ice to get it because of this incredibly cold air. Here's a look at Sunday morning. Now, some of these numbers do improve a little bit, especially places like Chicago, Indianapolis and Des Moines.

But you still have some spots in the High Plains or the Upper Midwest that are still looking at those windchills negative-30s and even into the negative-40s. But we talked about it. It's spreading. Look at all of these areas you see in that purple or pale blue color indicating the extreme cold alerts.

This, this is why we are going to see ice and snow very far deep into the South where you wouldn't normally get to see it. It's also a concern because all of the areas up North, where they have the cold air, it's going to stay there, which means in turn all of that snow that's going to come down and all of that ice that's going to come down, some of these spots, it may not melt or go away for days simply because the temperature is not expected to get back above freezing.

HILL: Wow. And, Allison, really appreciate it. Thank you.

We will, of course, continue to keep an eye on that.

We do want to bring you up to speed on these growing tensions in Minnesota at this hour. Top immigration officials are pushing back on claims about the 5-year-old boy who was reportedly taken into custody. So footage from Tuesday's incident shows the boy being led to a vehicle by a federal agent.

In a separate photo, which has gotten a lot of attention, the boy appears with an agent standing behind him at a door there. So witnesses have claimed that officials were trying to get the preschooler's mom to come outside and that they were using him as -- quote -- "bait."

Here's DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin's response to that earlier today.

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TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN, ASSISTANT U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: This little boy was abandoned by his own father. His own father was being approached by ICE agents when he started, ran and abandoned the child.

Our law enforcement in these frigid temperatures stayed with the child, tried to bring him into custody with the mother who actually would not take the child into custody, which is so sad, so horrific.

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HILL: So we're also hearing from the top Border Patrol official Greg Bovino weighing in.

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GREGORY BOVINO, BORDER PATROL COMMANDER: Here in the U.S. Border Patrol, I will say unequivocally that we are experts in dealing with children. Let me say that again, experts in dealing with children, not because we want to be, but because we have to be.

Over those past four years, hundreds of thousands of children were trafficked across that border. Guess who they came into contact with? Sometimes, who was the very first law enforcement agency or American citizen that they saw? U.S. Border Patrol.

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HILL: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joining us now.

Priscilla, let's get down to the basics, right, the facts here. Number one, where is this little boy right now?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this little boy is at a detention facility in Texas with his father. It is a facility that has been designed to care for families.

Briefly, before -- I want to address what we heard from the top Border Patrol official, Gregory Bovino, because he does -- there is truth in that Border Patrol is the front line when there are children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and that was the case in surges under the Biden administration, where I talked to agents who had to take care of children.

But we are talking about an entirely different situation here because it is children in the interior with their families and in this case caught up in an enforcement operation. So what happened over the course of this operation?

Well, the Department of Homeland Security says the father was the target. So they were moving in to apprehend the father. There was -- the father, they say, fled and the child was left behind by his vehicle. And in the driveway, they approached the home.

They tried to -- they were also trying to talk to the people in the home and -- excuse me -- you can tell how this is all very confusing.

HILL: Yes. ALVAREZ: And what we understand to be the case too is that the mother was in the home and was also being told don't open the door in the event that she too would be taken into custody.

So this is what we heard last night from someone from the school district.

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MARY GRANLUND, SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT: There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults. And mom was there. She saw the window and dad was yelling: "Please do not open the door. Don't open the door."

QUESTION: Are you accusing ICE of using children as bait?

GRANLUND: Yes. I mean, that -- it is very clear from the pictures, from the videos, from firsthand accounts. I was there. This is what happened.

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ALVAREZ: So where there appears to be some overlap here is, there is a situation described by the Department of Homeland Security and what you heard there where the mother isn't opening the door, fearful because she's afraid she's going to be brought into custody as well.

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They also have another child there in the house. And the Department of Homeland Security, though, interpreting that and describing it as her refusing the child. So the part that our teams on the ground are still trying to understand better is the father fleeing, because ultimately the father and son were taken into custody together.

And what is not disputed at all is that they are at a facility in Texas together.

HILL: Right. I know their attorney is speaking out as well. There are a lot of questions about what was in process, what wasn't. They did apply for asylum when they came to the border, as I understand it, in December of '24.

Based on what we know in this moment, you talked about the fact that they are together in this facility. They're now in Texas, right? What is that facility like? What does it mean for this family ultimately and any others who are there?

ALVAREZ: And, also, on immigration history, we know they entered the United States through an app that was provided by the Biden administration at the time to legally enter the United States and, once they entered in the United States, continued the process of applying for asylum or another immigration benefit, something that thousands did under President Trump's predecessor.

In terms of this facility, this is a facility that, again, has been designed for families. It existed, by the way, under the Obama administration as well, the Trump administration the first go-around. The Biden administration paused family detention. We're seeing it again.

This incident is not an isolated one. I have been covering family detention for some time. And there have been other cases of families who have been detained in the interior of the United States, meaning living their lives in the United States, going through their immigration processes, and then plucked out of that and detained at this facility.

And that has been particularly difficult for the children, according to court declarations, because they're used to a certain way of life and then it is suddenly uprooted. The children in this facility range from infants to teenagers. They are, again, with their parent or guardian because this is for family units.

And to describe it to you just a little bit more, it does have, for example, like, a classroom and a gym. So it's very different than an adult setting would be in immigration detention.

But all the same, it has prompted alarm among advocates and attorneys for these families to be placed here, when, typically, this type of facility would be for recent arrivals. So they don't have a life yet in the United States, they might be processed there and then released or deported.

But this situation has created one where a lot of families' lives have been uprooted and the children are sort of left trying to piece it together.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Priscilla, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Still ahead here: Portland, Maine, the latest focus now for a large- scale ICE operation. What witnesses say they're seeing on the ground.

Plus, a first for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia -- Kyiv, Moscow, the United States all meeting today. What we know about those negotiations.

And still ahead here: the city of Philadelphia now suing the Trump administration after a longstanding slavery exhibit is removed.

That and much more ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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HILL: Right now, the U.S. military is on the move in the Middle East.

President Trump says a major convoy of warships is heading toward Iran, noting he'd rather not use it to strike the country, this as Tehran continues its brutal crackdown on a wave of protests against the regime. The president, though, says he's actually not ruling out using this force. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're watching Iran. We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction.

And we will see what happens. It's a big force, but we have an armada. We have a massive -- we have a massive fleet heading in that direction. And maybe we won't have to use it. We will see.

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HILL: Well, since the protests began in late December, tens of thousands have been arrested. One U.S.-based rights group says more than 4,600 protesters have been killed.

When it comes to the war in Ukraine, this is a first, trilateral talks, representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the United States meeting for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, the negotiations under way in Abu Dhabi, this, of course, just one day after President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than three hours in Moscow.

On the same day, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting with President Trump at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Now, the key issue, territory. The Kremlin, of course, insists that Ukraine's forces must leave the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.

Kyiv, meantime, is doubling down. It's not going to hand over its land to Russia.

Joining me now is CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak.

So, Kevin, in terms of expectations for these talks, what are they?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Frankly, they're fairly limited.

And I think it is the format of these talks that is lending so much optimism at the moment. For so long, these two countries have essentially refused to be in the same room. The fact that they are now in the same city in these talks brokered by the United States is something that is lending some optimism here.

And you remember President Trump all the way back in August said that he thought this trilateral format would be next after he met with Vladimir Putin, but it never essentially materialized. Now, it is this issue of the Eastern Donbass region that will be at the very center of these discussions.

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Remember, we had heard from American officials that this peace deal was 90 percent done, but they had 10 percent to go, and that was what was the huge sticking point. Of course, that sticking point is the question of territory.

And we heard from Steve Witkoff, we heard from Volodymyr Zelenskyy that that would be what these two sides would get down to discussing there in Abu Dhabi. Of course, how they are able to resolve those differences remains to be seen.

And I think it was notable that Zelenskyy, after he met with Trump in Davos, came out and said part of what they discussed was getting Ukraine more air defense systems, things like Patriot missile batteries, all an indication that Zelenskyy himself does not appear to think that this war is ending any time soon.

HILL: All right, Kevin, really appreciate it.

Also want to bring in now Wendy Sherman, who served as deputy secretary of state under President Joe Biden.

Wendy, it's good to have you here.

When we look at these talks, as Kevin noted, limited here, but there is some optimism, what do you make of these, the first trilateral talks since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022?

WENDY SHERMAN, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, good to be with you this afternoon.

I agree with Kevin that it's good that everybody's in the same room together, but I'm not super optimistic that they will resolve this territorial dispute in a way that preserves Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and right to make its own choices.

Because of the way the president has been negotiating, Steve Witkoff, his senior envoy, has been to Moscow seven times, but has never been to Ukraine. The president meets with Zelenskyy, but signs no agreements. He keeps putting pressure on Zelenskyy to cede territory, when, in fact, this was an illegal and hostile invasion of a sovereign country by Putin.

It is good that there was a meeting last night. It is good that the secretary of the Army, Driscoll, is engaged in this, these talks, because there are issues of security and territory. Of course, we all hope for an end to this. This is perhaps one of the coldest winters on record in Ukraine.

People are literally without heat when it's barely five degrees centigrade. And that's all because Russia continues and Putin continues to damage the energy sources for Ukraine. People are now freezing to death.

HILL: Right. They are consistently a target, as we have seen, of Russian strikes.

Stepping back for a minute, everything else that is happening in this moment, I'm curious. When you see the splintering amongst NATO allies with the U.S., when you see everything that has unfolded over the last week, that in some ways feels like almost a win for Russia. How do you think it impacts the chances of some sort of an agreement to end this war?

SHERMAN: I agree with you.

What happened at Davos was quite concerning, to say the very least. As we heard Prime Minister Carney of Canada say, this is not just a transition in the world order. This is a rupture between the United States, Canada, our European allies and other allies around the world.

The -- quote, unquote -- "Board of Peace," of the 25 countries that joined, 11 of them are not allowed to get visas to come to the United States. So what does it say about who's joined this so-called board?

And there's also a lot of investigation that should go on about what Trump's families, Steve Witkoff's families, Witkoff himself, Jared Kushner are going to get out of these negotiations in terms of their own profits, in terms of their own future.

Russia has said that its frozen assets should be used either to reconstruct territory that Russia will continue to hold or should be used for their billion-dollar contribution to the Board of Peace, which then, of course, Donald Trump controls.

We're very concerned about what, in fact, the families will get out of a better relationship with Russia in terms of investments. So there's a lot of unknowns here, but the really bottom line here, Ukraine, for four years has fought with resilience, commitment, patriotism.

And Europe, United States should be behind Ukraine. The pressure should be on Putin. We haven't seen the kind of pressure that is necessary.

HILL: Wendy Sherman, appreciate your insight. Thank you.

A sheriff in Portland, Maine, is speaking out now following ICE agents -- after they arrested one of his recruits.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a corrections officer! I work in Cumberland County!

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HILL: Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has now made more than 100 arrests in the state of Maine since launching its operation there on Tuesday. DHS says some of those arrests involve the -- quote -- "worst of the worst."

We're learning, though, of at least one of the people detained who has now been identified as a corrections officer recruit from Portland, Maine. In fact, video shared with CNN shows the man say "I'm a corrections officer" as agents restrain him next to his car. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office says the recruit has a squeaky-

clean record.

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KEVIN JOYCE, CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE, SHERIFF: They pulled a guy from the car, handcuffed him, put him in the car. They all took off, leaving his car with the windows down, the lights on, unsecure and unoccupied. They left it right on the side of the street.

Folks, that's bush-league policing.

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