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Trump's Immigration Crackdown Launched in Chicago; U.S. and Colombia Impose Tariffs on Another; Trump Considers Rejoining WHO; Senators Criticize Trump's Firing of Inspectors General; Undersea Internet Cables are Damaged; Stem Cell Treatment Gives Hope. Aired 5- 6p ET

Aired January 26, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Jessica Dean in New York and breaking right now, the Trump administration launching an immigration enforcement blitz in Chicago. Borders czar Tom Holman, acting Attorney General Emil Bove, both on the ground there in Chicago as officials work what the administration is calling enhanced targeted operations.

We have team coverage as this unfolds in front of us. Let's start first with Rosa Flores in Chicago. Rosa, how are migrants in that area responding to all this?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Jessica, I covered the Trump administration while I was based here in Chicago, the first time that Trump was in office. And I can tell you that at the time, there was a lot of fear in the community. I remember interviewing DACA recipients and their families. But what's happening right now is another level of fear. I've talked to contacts here in the city who tell me that the way that they describe the fear in the immigrant community is panic, is heightened anxiety and fear because of these mass deportations that, according to ICE, have already started.

So here's what we know from ICE. According to ICE, there are ICE agents, federal agents here in the city of Chicago that are conducting targeted enforcement, according to Tom Homan, telling ABC News earlier today that these are targets -- they're targeting individuals who are public safety threats, who are national security threats. Homan himself saying that is a smaller population and that is immigrants who pose national security threats or public safety threats.

Now, we do know now that ICE has been given a quota and that every ICE office in this country is to meet 75 arrests per ICE office per day. I can tell you that that's gonna put a lot of pressure on agents to go beyond those public safety threats and arrest just regular undocumented people who are going to work or going to school. Now one of the things that might complicate the situation for ICE here in Chicago with the enforcement that's going on is I check the ICE website. ICE does not have an ICE detention center here in Illinois. Now there are ICE detention centers in nearby Indiana and Wisconsin.

There are several hours drive. But that, of course, creates a difficulty for ICE. Where are they going to take these individuals quickly after the arrest has been made? Maybe they're going to buses. I've asked ICE, we're waiting to hear more about that. But what I can tell you is that all of this has created increased panic in this community. I've talked to many individuals in the immigrant community, Jessica, and I can tell you that they are trying to learn the minutiae.

I wanted to go into all the minutiae but they're trying to learn their rights, what they can and what they can't do when ICE goes to knock on their door. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Rosa Flores with the latest now from Chicago. I also want to talk with Gloria Pazmino, who's joining us now. And Gloria, Chicago migrant rights groups are suing the Trump administration in a bid to block this ICE enforcement. So what can you tell us about that piece of the story?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jessica, advocates are turning the fear that Rosa is describing that's being felt in that community and they're hoping that the courts can be a bit of help in this moment. They have filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the Trump administration and ICE of violating the First and Fourth Amendment rights of the residents of Chicago, which they say are being targeted because of the city's sanctuary city jurisdiction and their status as a sanctuary city.

We have a statement from one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, this is from Sheila Betty, and she's with Community Justice Clinic, one of the plaintiffs that filed this suit, and she said that, "The impending raids are a brazen attempt to stomp out the sanctuary city movement and run roughshod over the First Amendment. Our communities need organizers' vision and advocacy now more than ever. This lawsuit is about prohibiting the Trump administration from using law enforcement to decimate a vital social justice movement."

In reading the lawsuit, Jessica, they basically say that because Chicago is a sanctuary city, Trump has focused on them. And evidence of this is the fact that we know ICE today is carrying out these operations. They say that that's a violation of the First Amendment rights and their Fourth Amendment rights, which protects them from unreasonable and unjustified search and seizure.

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And they are hoping that the court will have an emergency hearing in order to stop these raids and these operations.

We have not yet heard back from the court, but it's what the advocates are trying to do, at least for now, in order to stop the action. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Gloria Pazmino with the latest on that piece of it, thank you very much. And right now, the United States and Colombia have started a trade fight, slapping each other with dueling 25 percent tariffs. President Trump hitting the South American country first after two U.S. military planes carrying undocumented migrants were turned away. Colombia's president then blocked those flights from landing.

Trump's threatened even higher tariffs. Then Colombia's president hit back. CNN contributor Stefano Pozzebon is live in Bogota, Colombia. We're going to start, though, with Steve Contorno, who's in Florida covering the president. Steve, let's start first with what President Trump is saying about these measures against Colombia.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: So his administration moving really quickly, Jessica, to retaliate against Colombia and really put on an international show of force for what the Trump administration can do to a country that doesn't go along with its immigration plans. And clearly the Trump administration was ready for a country to reject these migrant flights because they acted very swiftly.

Trump posting on social media just hours after this all unfolded with his threats of retaliation, blaming the president of Colombia saying, quote, "this order was given by Colombia's socialist president, Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people. Petro's denial of these flights has jeopardized the national security and public safety of the United States."

And then he went on to list some of the enforcements he is intending to put in place including as you mentioned a 25 percent tariff that he said would go up to 50 percent by next week and he is also planning a travel ban for members of Colombia's government as well as visa sanctions on certain party members. So Donald Trump clearly using tariffs here as an attempt to get what he wants out of international leaders.

We have seen this already with his actions to threaten tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well as China and now in this immigration space as well, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Steve Contorno there in Florida for us. Thank you so much. Stefano, let's go to you now in Colombia. What is the reaction there? And also, I think a lot of Americans are wondering what kind of products this might impact.

STEFANO POZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Jessica, well, the reaction here is that Colombia has been, frankly, mesmerizing. Colombia has been a staunch ally of the United States for at least the last 50 years. It's one of Washington's strongest allies in the region. Well, now it's no longer the case with the two presidents, Gustavo Petro and Donald Trump, going after each other on social media.

Of course, the goods that might be most affected in this trade war might be of course coffee if you think of Colombia, you normally think of the one of the best coffees in the world, but also flowers. Colombia is the second largest exporter of flowers to the United States. I've done that story a million times since moving here. We do a lot of flowers sending it up for Mother's Day or Valentine's Day, so maybe by February you might see your bouquet of flower might cost a little bit more.

But I think for the Colombian people, the most impacting measure is the restriction of visa. We're just outside the U.S. embassy here in Bogota, just behind my back. Of course, it's a Sunday, so we're not gonna see many people lining up here. But normally, in this building is where hundreds and hundreds of visa applications are processed every single day, because there is a lot of people going back and forth between Bogota and the rest of Colombia and the United States. There is a huge Colombian community up there in America, and you can see that this is what many people are worried about.

We've just been here for about half an hour, no more than that, and in the last 30 minutes, at least two people approached us, they saw our camera, they realized that we are foreigners here in Columbia, and they asked us if we knew anything further, if we could confirm whether this visa will be removed, revoked, what could happen with their possibility of traveling to United States, not to migrate, but maybe just to visit their friends and relatives up there in New York or Miami, where else in America.

So you can see that this is really cutting through the everyday lives of Colombian families, Jessica.

DEAN: Yeah, and it's just hours that this has been going on so far. Stefano Pozzebon there in Colombia for us. Thank you so much for that reporting. And Larry Sabato joins us now. He's the Director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and editor of "A Return to Normalcy: The 2020 Election that Almost Broke America."

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Larry, nice to see you on this Sunday. As we are seeing these real- world impacts of Trump's immigration promises happening before our eyes today, Americans voted for him knowing this is what he wanted to do. Here we are seeing it play out. What are your thoughts?

LATTY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, first of all, you have to give them credit for organization and planning because this first week of the Trump administration, part two, has been as organized as the first Trump administration was disorganized and he paid a big price for that. In this case, they have it planned out, I assume, almost hour by hour. And he's not just doing things, he's sending signals to foreign leaders and even to average immigrants about what his policies are and what he's likely to do. So that helps him a lot. It gets him off to a good start.

Now, one week does not a presidency make. And remember, Joe Biden was very popular for about the first five months of his administration. He never saw 50 percent again.

DEAN: And I'm thinking about these tariffs which we have talked about so much that Trump has talked about so much. And now for the first time we are seeing Trump putting these, you know, saying that he's gonna put these in place since he's been in office in a very specific way. What do you think about that because it does -- look it seems as if they were waiting for that moment? They knew it would come and to your point, they were ready.

SABATO: Yes, and some of them countries that we've been talking about were convinced that this was just a bluff by Trump and maybe it is for larger countries but he used this opportunity to prove that in fact he's more than willing to do it. So now, I think they have to recalculate their own response to Trump's threats. Maybe they'll change, maybe they won't, but this image of strength that Trump is projecting will help in both domestically and in foreign affairs.

DEAN: And I want to go to Washington now, as that continues to play out, another big priority of theirs, of course, getting these cabinet picks confirmed. They made some good progress with Pete Hegseth and with Kristi Noem over the weekend. We did see those three Republican senators break with their party with Trump on Pete Hegseth, Susan Collins, Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell.

What I kind of want to zoom in on is the McConnell of it all because he's no longer leader of the Senate Republicans and it is going to be interesting to see how he wants to play this moving forward because this week we have confirmation hearings for Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert Kennedy, Jr.

SABATO: I think we're all waiting to see what Mitch McConnell does about Tulsi Gabbard in particular.

DEAN: Yeah.

SABATO: And maybe RFK mainly because of the polio controversy. Who knows? I don't know what he's got in mind, but he clearly sent a shot across the bow and let the Trump people know he was no longer a guaranteed vote because he's no longer in leadership. Collins and Murkowski are not surprising, and especially in Collins' case. She represents a blue state and she's coming up in two years.

Remember, there was almost a fourth one who would have killed the Hegseth nomination, and that was Tom Tillis from North Carolina. But he's also up in 2026, and Trump is particularly strong in Republican primaries in North Carolina. So Tillis has to be very careful or he could lose the primary. So all in all, I think almost all, maybe all, of his key appointees will be confirmed. And actually, Jessica, that's the norm. That's what normally happens for new presidents as they come in.

DEAN: All right, Larry Sabato, always good to see you. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Still ahead, President Trump says he may consider now rejoining the World Health Organization after cutting ties this week. We are joined by the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration, Kathleen Sebelius, to talk about what could happen to global health if the U.S. isn't at the table. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: A lot has happened in this first week since Donald Trump took office. We're going to focus now on just one of those things. Just days after signing an executive action withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, President Trump now floating the idea of maybe rejoining it after all. Trump signed that executive order during his first day in office, citing the organization's, quote, "mishandling" of the COVID-19 pandemic and accusing it of ripping off America by, quote, "unfairly demanding millions more in payments compared to countries like China."

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: So we're through from the World Health Organization where we paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year despite a much larger population. They offered me a $39 million. They said, we'll let you back in at $39 million. So we're going to reduce it from $500 million to $39 million. I turned them down because it became so popular. I didn't know if it would be well received even at $39 million. But maybe we would consider doing it again. I don't know. Maybe we would. They have to clean it up a little bit.

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DEAN: It's unclear exactly what the president will ultimately do, but what is clear is the impact withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization would not just have on global health initiatives, but on our country's own national security.

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The World Health Organization was founded right after World War II by members of the United Nations to protect the world's health, warning that having separate health systems throughout the world would put all nations in danger.

Joining us now, the former secretary of health and human services under the Obama administration, Kathleen Sebelius. Thanks so much for being here. I want to talk about this op-ed that you wrote in "The New York Times" where you said withdrawing from the World Health Organization would be disastrous, but you believe the president still has time to, as you said, come to his senses and reverse course, which it sounds like he may at this point. What do you think he might do?

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, FORMER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Jessica, I've long ago stopped trying to predict what Donald Trump may or may not do, but here's what I know. The process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization takes a year. So we are not out of the World Health Organization. If I understand it, the executive order puts WHO on notice that the United States intends to withdraw. That's step one. I am delighted to know that he may within two days of having issued the executive order, may now be reconsidering.

This isn't a discussion of how much we are or are not willing to pay and what other countries pay. It is essential to the health of Americans that we understand what's happening across the globe. We understand what's breaking out in remote countries. We have the opportunity to work with health ministers and health leaders to monitor disease to contain, control, and hopefully wipe out outbreaks before they reach our borders.

We live in a global country. We cannot stop disease from coming into the states. And Jessica, we already saw what happens when the United States backs out of global health discussions. Donald Trump, in his first term, withdrew our CDC employees who worked in China, work closely with the Chinese health minister, pulled them back, said that's really not where U.S. people should be. And by the time, COVID was identified, it was already in our country.

So, it really put us steps back from where we could have been, should have been. And I'm really hopeful that he will rethink what lots of people consider to be the best diplomacy we have, which is health collaboration and cooperation across the globe.

DEAN: It is interesting because the WHO, like other organizations, like other agencies, I'm thinking about FEMA, has been now politicized in a way. And you saw at the rally people really cheering the president on. And I wonder about making that connection between how he's explaining it, which is, I think his argument is, I'm saving America a lot of money. We're paying so much money, other countries are paying less. So there's that.

And then what you're saying, and I think what a lot of people are also worried about, which is, look, this isn't about that. This is about engaging in health around the world and protecting Americans.

SEBELIUS: That's absolutely right. It isn't really a tariff or a cost. The United States, since the end of World War II, has participated in discussions about health, monitoring health, training epidemiologists, containing and controlling disease outbreak, trying to share vaccines. Every country in the world is a member of WHO.

Now I'm not gonna tell you it is a brilliantly operating organization. Like many organizations that have existed since the end of World War II, it needs to be updated. It needs to be upgraded. We need other countries to fully participate. But withdrawing from this vital network of information monitoring, would only jeopardize American citizens. We've seen it happen before. We know it's dangerous. We basically have helped eradicate polio, for instance, in most of the parts of the world, except some very remote corners of Nigeria and Pakistan.

We now have outbreaks of polio, potential in the United States, with people being vaccine skeptic. So we may be going dramatically backwards in our public health approach, in our approach to understanding that prevention is much, much more effective and better for the Americans than trying to clear up diseases once they're here and ravaging the country.

We saw what COVID does. COVID took down our economy. This disease that spread rapidly really made a huge dent in the way Americans conduct business with one another and killed millions of Americans.

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So this is not hypothetical. It's not something could happen, might happen. Something did happen. And the further we get away from knowing what's happening in what corners of the globe, how we can provide expertise to, as I say, contain and control, identify, help it not come to our borders, the better and more secure Americans will be.

DEAN: Yeah, and you mentioned like one of the things we would lose access to, the global network that sets the flu vaccines composition every year.

SEBELIUS: You're right.

DEAN: One thing I do want to ask you more about is what you just brought up, which is that it's not a perfect organization. You're not saying it's perfect. What do you think could be done from the inside to make it a more effective organization?

SEBELIUS: Well, I think is I understand it and I'm not in government anymore, haven't been in government since mid-2014, but I understand there is a really deep dive because we've had a recent devastating pandemic, COVID, and it gives everyone an opportunity within Health and Human Services in the United States, but certainly within the World Health Organization, health ministries everywhere, to look at what went right and what went wrong.

What kind of communication could have been better shared? How could we have better responded? What practices worked, what didn't? That's underway right now and very appropriate. They need to be updated. We can probably use artificial intelligence to share information more dramatically. We can use detection systems that aren't in place yet. Jessica, what exists now and has since 2014 under the Obama administration is what's called a global health security effort, which is a number of the WHO countries joining together and actually training one another.

People are adopting countries in remote parts of the world so that we have the ability to find disease outbreaks, that we can share that information very quickly, that we have trained personnel. That effort is relatively new, but now includes, I think, 50 countries across the globe and is really effective trying to make sure that we are nor not hobbled by epidemics breaking out, by pandemics that sweep the globe.

So those are new updated efforts. And again, the United States withdrawing financial support, medical expertise, collaboration with this world organization can only be harmful to Americans.

DEAN: All right. Kathleen Sebelius, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

SEBELIUS: Sure. Good to talk to you.

DEAN: You too. When we come back, we are talking to New York's inspector general about President Trump's decision to fire more than a dozen independent government watchdogs and who she says needs to step up to limit any potential damage.

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senators on both sides of the aisle criticizing President Trump's move to fire more than a dozen inspectors general late Friday night. A new federal law that was enacted after Mr. Trump carried out a similar purge at the beginning of his first term requires the White House to provide a rationale for firing any inspector general and give 30 days-notice. But neither of those things happened here. And a number of Republicans like Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Chuck Grassley have all expressed concerns, questions over how this played out.

Lucy Lang is the Inspector General for the State of New York. She is joining us now. Lucy, thanks so much for being here with us. This is the work you do. You know what it's like to be an inspector general, what role that person has to play. What do these moves say to you?

LUCY LANG, INSPECTOR GENERAL, NEW YORK: Thank you so much for having me on, Jessica, to talk about this critically important issue. Inspectors general are the nonpartisan, independent government watchdogs who do the important work of investigating corruption, fraud, waste and abuse across government, and this move not only violates the law, but really flouts democratic norms in a way that is likely to continue to undermine public trust at a time when it is at record lows.

DEAN: Hmm. And I want to play a clip from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. He said this earlier today here on CNN. This is his response when he was asked if it bothered him that the president had broken this law that requires notice to Congress. Let's listen.

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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Yeah, I think, you know, he should have done that. But the question is, is it okay for him to put people in place that he thinks can carry out his agenda? Yeah, he won the election. What do you expect him to do? Just leave everybody in place in Washington before he got elected? This makes perfect sense to me. Get new people. He feels like the government hasn't worked very well for the American people. These watchdog folks did a pretty lousy job. He wants some new eyes on Washington. That makes sense to me.

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DEAN: Just what's your response, first of all?

LANG: Of course, most political appointees do turn over in a new administration, but inspectors general are different and they have to be because their job is to consistently make sure that government is operating properly and that has to be done in a nonpartisan way. In fact, contrary to what the senator said, they should not be enacting anyone's agenda. Inspector's general job is to make sure that government is free from corruption and fraud, and by putting in people who are tasked with executing some sort of agenda, that core function of IGs is undermined.

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DEAN: And just to underscore for everybody out there, this is -- these IGs, people like yourself, and they -- you work independent of everybody else.

LANG: That's right. There are 74 federal I.G.s, but there are also myriad I.G.s who work for states, municipalities. Even something like the M.T.A. has its own inspector general. And there are various kinds of protections to make sure that those I.G.s are able to do their job independently.

For example, while I'm appointed by the governor of New York State, she's not able to fire me. I serve for the duration of her term because I have to be free to investigate the executive branch with which I'm charged of overseeing.

DEAN: Yeah. And I think, too, when we're listening to Senator Graham there, look, there is a law in place, as we said at the top of this interview, for this exact situation that the Senate did put into place after Trump's first term. And it's not that he can't do this. It's just that there are steps that should be taken.

LANG: That's right. It has to be given to Congress with 30 days- notice and there have to be -- there has to be a substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific examples. It has, in fact, happened in the past. The last administration did fire an IG on the grounds that there had been an investigation that that I.G. was creating a toxic workplace. And 30 days-notice was given, the cases were detailed, and that inspector general was removed.

So here, these letters were issued to at least 12 I.G.s on Friday night and they simply said that there were changing priorities and their positions were terminated immediately. It completely goes against the protections that have been put in place for these vital public servants who are making sure that our taxpayer dollars are being properly spent. Several -- over the past several years, federal inspectors general alone have saved the taxpayer over $93 billion. We are really necessary to watching government and our work has to be conducted in an independent and nonpartisan way.

DEAN: All right, New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang, thank you so much for your time.

LANG: Thank you for having me. New Yorkers who suspect fraud or corruption can reach us at 1-800-DO-WRITE.

DEAN: All right, thanks so much. Still ahead, accident or sabotage. Investigators trying to crack the mystery of how a critical undersea internet cable was cut and took CNN along on a mission to better protect those cables. We'll take you there. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: New tonight, investigators in the European country of Latvia tell Reuters a nearby undersea cable was damaged today. And while it's too early to know exactly what happened, several critical internet cables in the Baltic have been damaged lately, putting officials on high alert for possible sabotage. Power, gas, and communication pipelines in the region have also been disrupted, including two in November. So, NATO has been stepping up efforts to protect those cables, and CNN is getting an in-depth look at that new mission and what it takes to secure the critical infrastructure. International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has this report.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Sunrise around a hundred miles from Russia. The near freezing Baltic Sea. Tension mounts. NATO is retooling for a new war, a hybrid war. Ultra-modern sophisticated tech is being prepped for underwater action. Specialized subsea drones designed to dive deep below the surface.

This is the sharp end of the mission, protecting our internet. It's not up there in the sky, it's under the sea.

(Voice-over): NATO's mission, Baltic Sentry, is a rapid response to an escalating new threat. Multiple cables cut in recent months.

And this is what the undersea internet cables look like. This size. They're tiny, they're vulnerable, they're easily cut.

(Voice-over): In these waters, between Estonia and Finland and beyond, an unseen enemy is believed to have been targeting internet and power cables. The subsea drones and the battleships getting eyes on the threat.

ARJEN WARNAAR, COMMANDER, NATO MARITIME GROUP 1: A lot of the ships that we found are acting strangely, originate in a Russian port or are going to a Russian port.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): This ship anchor suspected of being dragged on the seabed, intentionally damaging cables Christmas Day.

How far have these anchors been dragged to the sea?

WARNAAR: I understand a couple of hundred miles.

ROBERTSON: Is that normal?

WARNAAR: No.

ROBERTSON: How does that happen? Can a captain not notice?

WARNAAR: Very good question. And my guess is no. A captain does know that, and that's probably intentional.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Repairs can be complicated, costly, and take months. Worst case, an entire nation can be cut off from the internet.

[17:45:00]

Under the sea here, there are multiple cables linking Estonia with Finland. In the Baltic Sea, dozens more. The numbers keep growing across the globe. There are hundreds of cables.

(Voice-over): According to NATO, more than 800,000 miles of cable carrying $10 trillion of international trade. The mission critical enough to have expensive fighter jets on tap. Conditions at sea level though, the biggest challenge as we saw on a relatively calm day. Each NATO warship bringing its own speciality. This one sonar less than two weeks into the mission. Commanders at sea increasingly confident who is responsible.

And who is the threat here?

ERIK KOCKX, COMMANDER, NATO MINE COUNTERMEASURE GROUP 1: Russia. That's quite clear.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Russia denies any role. But by this day's end, more NATO nations committing forces to Baltic Sentry. The flotilla growing. NATO HQ commanders facing tough choices.

NIELS MARKUSSEN, DIRECTOR, NATO SHIPPING CENTRE DIRECTOR: The proof, the smoking gun, it's very, very difficult. We have to balance between this moving into something that can become very ugly, and what I mean by that is warfare.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Nick Robertson, CNN in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Nic Robertson, thanks so much for that. Still ahead, regaining movement after being paralyzed. The story of one man who now has a piece of his life back after stem cell treatment. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: A new CNN film chronicles the life of actor Christopher Reeve, who was best known for his iconic portrayal of "Superman." But his greatest role may have come after that as he advocated for the latest technology to help spinal cord injury patients like himself. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER REEVE, ACTOR: These cells have the potential to cure diseases and conditions ranging from Parkinson's and MS to diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's, even spinal cord injuries like my own.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christopher Reeve wouldn't live to see stem cells possibly help with his own paralysis, but nearly 30 years after his accident. Spinal cord injury patients like Jake Javier are now reaping the benefits.

JAKE JAVIER, SPINAL CORD INJURY PATIENT: So, it was actually my last day of high school and I was over at a friend's house and we were swimming. I had just jumped out a little too far and ended up hitting my head where it started to get a bit shallow. I hit my head on the bottom and broke my neck.

GUPTA (voice-over): Like Reeve, Jake was also left paralyzed. Instead of walking with San Ramon Valley High School's graduating class of 2016, Jake was weighing whether or not to try an experimental treatment based on stem cells.

JAVIER: I didn't know a whole lot about it, but I knew that it could potentially help me or, you know, potentially help others. And I didn't see a lot of risk in it, so I decided to do it.

BRIAN CULLEY, CEO, LINEAGE CELL THERAPEUTIC: Stem cells can become, by definition, any of the cells of the human body. They just need the instructions and the information.

GUPTA (voice-over): Brian Culley is the CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics.

CULLEY: We convert those stem cells into the actual cells that comprise and make up the spinal cord.

GUPTA (voice-over): Think of the spinal cord as the nervous system's interstate, with these electrical impulses sending messages from your brain to other parts of your body. Now to send those messages more efficiently, a conductive sheath of fat and protein known as myelin wraps around the nerves. But when the spinal cord is injured, the myelin can become damaged as well.

When you've actually injected these cells into the spinal cord in someone like Jake, what sort of results have you been seeing?

CULLEY: To date, 30 individuals have received these cells. The initial objective was to demonstrate the safety. But the data which we collected and the conversations that we had with the surgeons really encouraged us that there was some improvement that was somewhat unexpected.

GUPTA (voice-over): Improvements for patients like Jake that now allow him to live his life, drive, and work. JAVIER: I ended up getting some return here in my right hand. So, I'm able to wiggle this index finger just a little bit, which doesn't look like much and there's not a lot of strength behind it, but it actually proves to be very functional for me because it kind of gives me a little bit more dexterity and the ability to kind of open my hand here and grab even small objects like this.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GUPTA: How big a deal was the advocacy of Christopher Reeve in all this?

CULLEY (voice-over): Christopher Reeve is synonymous with this condition and that's really important. Having someone who is connected as an individual to a condition can really help attract attention and interest in the space.

JAVIER: I knew I would one day get to a point where I felt like I was living a very fulfilled lifestyle, traveling the world, and going to school.

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Moved down to San Diego. And after getting my master's in North Carolina, I'm engaged. I have a wonderful fiancee who's very supportive.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

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DEAN: The BAFTA-nominated documentary, "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeves Story," airs next Sunday, February 2nd at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, here on CNN.

The White House is gearing up for another round of contentious confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill as three more of Trump's cabinet picks prepare to face tough questions from senators. The nominee the president's team is most concerned.

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