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Protests Outside Texas Family Detention Center Housing 5-Year- Old Minneapolis Boy and His Father; Top White House Aide Says CBP Agents May Have Breached Protocol; Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady Amid Threat to Its Independence; Social Media Giants Face Trial Over Youth Addition Claims. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 28, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... and kind of like started marching back toward town. But here on the edge in the entrance into this detention facility, there are still a smaller group of hardline protesters who are there probably about 30 or 40 feet into the property here belonging to the detention facility. And authorities have been telling them for probably the better part of an hour to scoop back in just a little while ago, a group of -- well now is starting to get tense.

We'll let you watch this scene unfold here as we're kind of watching it unfold as well. But state troopers starting to push back. I saw some -- oh! There we go. Oh, that landed on top of a photographer's camera.

And I could see the photographer jump back there. They have -- I see a number of troopers have taken a few people into custody down there on the ground, but the vast majority of them have been pushed back. All of this literally unfolding here as these troopers in the in the right here, the state troopers were the ones that were brought in on a school bus just a short while ago. And then quickly sent off those smoke exploding smoke devices, getting the crowd to to break back.

Some of the people over here -- walk you this way, Brianna, and then you can kind of show you some of the people who were closest to the incendiary devices kind of going off getting treated. Now, but that has pushed back some of the crowd here. Just on the edge of this detention facility. And again, as I mentioned, all of this continuing to unfold as Joaquin Castro and his step inside the facility going on 3 1/2 hours now.

And again, we are waiting on an update as to what has been happening inside the facility and whether or not Joaquin Castro has been able to meet -- with some of that smoke now starting to get in my throat as well. Let me move out of the way just a little bit. But there was a smaller group of these protesters who were closer to the front line there were those state troopers fired off the canisters there just a little while ago.

And that is the scene here. We'll continue kind of monitoring, kind of get back a little bit closer to what's happened here, Brianna, but this is essentially the entrance.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, we are -- our signal there with Ed has kind of stalled, so we will try to monitor what is happening on the ground there in Dilley, Texas, where Congressman Joaquin Castro is visiting the five-year-old from Minneapolis and his father, who have been detained. Taken from Minneapolis there to that detention center between Laredo and San Antonio.

We'll keep our eye on the situation there. Thanks to Ed for that report.

In the meantime, a former ICE leader is joining us to discuss President Trump's immigration crackdown and the unrest in Minneapolis. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Today, President Trump once again shifting his tone on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. President Trump saying Mayor Frey would be violating federal law for not carrying out immigration operations and that the mayor was, quote, playing with fire. The president had previously said he planned to de-escalate the situation there.

KEILAR: In the meantime, top White House aide Stephen Miller is defending the work of ICE in Minnesota but is acknowledging that agents may not have been following protocol before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a senior DHS official now confirming to CNN the agents involved are on administrative leave. We're joined now by the former head of policy at ICE, Scott Shuchart. Scott, thank you so much for being with us here.

Stephen Miller told CNN that the White House had provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors. So when we're talking about that idea of not following protocol, that's really it. It's about creating this kind of buffer between protesters and observers and people, ICE agents, immigration officials doing the actual enforcement actions.

Do you see the primary problem here as immigration agents not following proper protocol? SCOTT SHUCHART, FORMER ICE HEAD OF POLICY: Look, Stephen Miller saw the same video that we'd all seen when he was out there saying that Alex Pretti was a domestic terrorist who was trying to assassinate law enforcement officers. This is obviously just backfill around them having dug themselves into a corner. I'd like to see the written instructions if there was actually a protocol, but what we've seen is that all of these officers are out doing immigration enforcement.

They are not doing force protection.

SANCHEZ: I wonder what you make of this DHS report to Congress. This comes from the CPB's initial investigation of the shooting of Alex Pretti. It did say that an officer yelled, he's got a gun, multiple times before officers surrounded him and dragged him to the ground.

It did not claim, as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned, that he was brandishing the weapon. What do you make of all that?

[15:40:00]

SHUCHART: Well, I haven't seen the report, but he obviously from these videos wasn't brandishing it, right? It was removed from his person. I just find it a little bit rich that the people who say we can't do anything about school shootings because of the Second Amendment are now out there saying, well, you better not bring your gun out in public, or the police can kill you at any moment. It's ridiculous.

KEILAR: You see a lot being made of this. I mean, there is a change in rhetoric. You have to acknowledge that.

It's not often that you see Stephen Miller backpedaling before he's talking about Alex Pretti being an assassin, and now he's talking about maybe they didn't follow protocol before Alex Pretti's death. I wonder, though, do you see this as a substantive change?

SHUCHART: No. I mean, words are cheap. Where is the actual change in operational posture?

When are they going to put CBP back on the border where its mission is supposed to be and have that ERO field office, that ICE field office in Minneapolis do its job? If the idea in sending Tom Homan was that they were going to get back to targeted fugitive operations, when are we going to see that happen? So far as I can tell, it's just a lot of words.

SANCHEZ: I wonder what you make of the potential funding fight in Congress surrounding ICE policy. Democrats are essentially saying that Republicans have to negotiate with them over this or they're going to shut down the federal government.

SHUCHART: You know, last April, this administration fired everybody who worked in independent oversight in the Civil Rights Office inside of DHS. We've seen the top people at the Civil Rights Division office that used to do police brutality investigations at DOJ resign basically over the Good shooting and the fact that they weren't going to investigate that. Without putting back some kinds of guardrails, what's to say that this isn't going to keep happening in other cities?

So it makes a lot of sense to me for them to be picking this fight.

KEILAR: You used to work for the DHS Office of Civil Rights. What else are you looking for in these investigations of these officers?

SHUCHART: Well, I would like to know whether they're being done by the right people. So far as I can tell, this investigation is being done by HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, which would not normally have jurisdiction to do this kind of thing. I want to make sure the evidence is being preserved.

I know the court's involved in that right now. And I want to make sure that they're looking at both criminal liability and the civil, you know, the civil rights statutes that are supposed to protect people from police brutality.

KEILAR: Very interesting point. Scott Shuchart, great to have you. Thank you so much.

And a programming note for tonight. Do not miss "STATE OF EMERGENCY, CONFRONTING THE CRISIS IN MINNESOTA." It's a CNN town hall, which is tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on CNN, and it will stream live on the CNN app.

The Fed makes its first decision of the year on interest rates amid an uncertain economic outlook. We'll break down the reasons behind what they did next.

[15:45:00]

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KEILAR: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is defending the Fed's decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged despite mounting political pressure. Today, the central bank held rates steady for the first time since September. Powell making the announcement just weeks after revealing he was under federal investigation for what he told Congress about that renovation project at Fed headquarters.

He says the new probe is merely a pretext to intimidate the Fed into cutting rates to satisfy the president. CNN's Matt Egan is at the Federal Reserve. Matt, tell us what Powell said today.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna, Fed Chair Powell, he struck a pretty optimistic tone about the U.S. economy. He described consumer spending as resilient. He talked a lot about expectations for growth to pick up in speed this year.

He sounds a little bit less concerned about the job market, noting that there are some early signs that maybe the job market is stabilizing. And he also sounds a lot less concerned about the tariff impact on inflation. Now, during the press conference, I had the chance to ask Fed Chair Powell about what his advice is to whoever might replace him when his time as chair is up in May.

Take a listen to Powell's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Stay out of elected politics. Don't get pulled into elected politics. Don't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, that was one of their stronger responses during the press conference. He went on to talk about how important it is for whoever the Fed chair is to answer questions and to respond to concerns from lawmakers because that's how the Fed gets its democratic legitimacy. And he also made some comments defending the Federal Reserve and the staff of the Fed as well.

He said, look, whoever ends up replacing me, he said, you're about to meet the most qualified group of people, not only that you have ever worked with, but that you will ever meet. So some strong defense there of the Fed. Powell, he also took a question about why he decided to appear last week at the Supreme Court in the oral arguments over the president's decision to try to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

And he said, look, first of all, it's not unprecedented. He said Alan Greenspan did it back in the 1980s. And Powell said that he decided to stay and to appear in that hearing because he thought that it's just one of the most important cases in the Fed's 112 year history.

Now, all of this comes after the Fed decided, as you mentioned, to keep interest rates unchanged, really defying those demands from the White House to slash interest rates. And I think the bottom line here, Brianna, is, you know, it is bad news and a little bit disappointing for consumers who are hoping to catch a break on borrowing costs that they're not going to get much lower. But I think the good news here is that the Fed doesn't feel like it needs to come to the rescue.

And they're hopeful that the job market has stabilized. Back to you.

[15:50:00]

KEILAR: Matt Egan, thank you so much. So did social media giants knowingly get kids addicted to their apps? There's a landmark lawsuit underway that is looking to answer that question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A landmark trial is now underway, centering on accusations that social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children. A 19-year-old sued Snap, TikTok, Meta, and YouTube, alleging that companies created addictive features that harmed her mental health and led to self-harm and suicidal thoughts. TikTok and Snap have both recently settled this case.

[15:55:00]

The trial will mark the first time that social media giants have to testify before a jury about claims that their platforms have harmed young people. Joining us now is Frances Haugen. She's a former Facebook product manager and whistleblower, who provided internal documents detailing how executives allegedly knew their products were harming young users.

Thank you so much for being with us, Frances. Tech leaders have made the argument that the link between social media and harm to mental health among teenagers is inconclusive, but that contradicts your personal experience.

FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: We've seen both in the documents that I brought out of the company and additional ones subpoenaed by the plaintiffs that Meta knew from its experimentation that they had safer ways of building these products and yet chose not to do them because they hurt business metrics.

SANCHEZ: Your former boss, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, is expected to testify. What do you think we're going to hear from him?

HAUGEN: He's been extensively media trained and, you know, coached on legal matters over the last 20 years. We're not going to hear a lot of content, I'm guessing, out of him. He knows to divert, create fear and confusion, and you know, every time I've seen him on the stand, it's amazing how much time he can take up for the amount of content that's delivered.

SANCHEZ: You spoke a moment ago about the profitability of these companies, and I wonder how big a threat this kind of lawsuit is, and how big a threat some of these bans on young people using social media in Australia, for example, I know Emmanuel Macron of France has talked about essentially putting one in France. How big is that, a threat to these tech companies' profits?

HAUGEN: Most people aren't aware that companies like Facebook make tens of billions of dollars a year in profits every year. These companies have valuations that go north of a trillion dollars, depending on the day of the valuation, for a reason. It's because advertising is very lucrative.

When places like Australia talk about their under-16 ban as the first domino to fall, they mean that governments know, governments around the world are beginning to speak seriously about extending those bans, be it under-15 in France, under-16 in the UK or the EU. If you lose the younger generation, you don't get another -- your company begins to flame out over time.

They know if they lose young people, they lose the future. So there's a huge amount of money on the line.

SANCHEZ: Partly because of what you brought to light some five years ago, Meta launched teen accounts, and other platforms have also rolled out some parental controls. How meaningful are those steps in your eyes?

HAUGEN: One of the most interesting pieces of research that came out last year was by another Facebook whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, who went and audited the -- you know, Facebook loves to brag that they have something on the order of 30 different safety features. He went feature by feature and checked to see do these things behave the way that the companies describe that they're supposed to, and found that time and time again, features that Facebook has been bragging about sometimes for five years are either no longer work the way they originally did or perhaps never worked at all.

So one of the things that we need is laws that give us the right to data so that we can verify ourselves whether or not these companies are performing the way they claim to. Otherwise, safety features are just marketing messages. They're not things that keep our kids safe.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Important context, especially for parents. Frances Haugen, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you.

HAUGEN: Happy to help.

SANCHEZ: Brianna, a pressing question to tee up our next story. What were you doing when you were two years old?

KEILAR: I do not remember, but I was definitely not hitting trick shots in snooker. But look at this talented toddler. This is Jude Owens from Manchester, England.

He has set the Guinness World Record for snooker trick shots at just two years old. 2-years-261 days- old. Almost three, but not quite. Amazing.

SANCHEZ: Very interesting. Also great choice of attire there and stylish with the shades. Snooker, very similar to pool.

Little Jude, actually a double world record holder, we should note. The youngest person ever to double pot or to hit two balls in two different pockets with one cue ball strike. He's also pulled off a pool bank shot using the rails to sink another ball.

Jude's dad says his talent was obvious the moment Jude hit his first ball at age two and a half. I love that he actually has to get up on the table itself to hit some of these shots. Adorable.

A lot of talent. Do I feel a little bit like an underachiever compared to him? Maybe.

KEILAR: He said it was obvious by the way he held it.

[16:00:00]

Is it called a pool cue? A snooker cue? Whatever.

He said it was obvious by the way he held it the first time. Imagine you've got this two-year-old and he's only been playing for, honestly, like days since he was two and a half or something. He just could tell he was like a snooker shark.

SANCHEZ: Yes, great way to foster talent. Maybe make a buck off your kid. Thanks so much for joining us.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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