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CNN International: White House Denies It Violated Court Order To Halt Deportations Under Wartime Act; Source: Deported Doctor Attended Nasrallah's Funeral; Trump Says He'll Speak With Vladimir Putin Tuesday; New Canadian PM Carney Meets With Allies On Europe Trip; Evidence Of Massacre Of Minority Community In Syria; Powerful Storm System Tears Across U.S.; Trump Tours Kennedy Center After Purging Board of Trustees. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 17, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:36]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Max Foster. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

And a hearing scheduled in a few hours as advocacy lawyers ask for clarification from the Trump administration on deportations over the weekend, hundreds of mostly Venezuelan alleged gang members were flown from the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador after the White House invoked the Alien Enemies Act. It's a little known 18th century law usually used only in wartime, and that may have violated a judge's order to halt the deportations.

Some of the key questions about the deportation. After the judges order to stop focus on the planes takeoff, transit, and landing, as well as the transfer of the migrants to officials in El Salvador. The White House insists these deportation flights left the United States before the judge issued a written order.

Here's what the press secretary told our Kaitlan Collins a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: All of the planes, subject to the written order of this judge, departed U.S. soil, U.S. territory before the judge's written order.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But what about the verbal order, which, of course, carries the same legal weight as a written order and said for the planes to turn around if they were?

LEAVITT: Well, there's actually questions about whether a verbal order carries the same weight as a legal order, as a written order. And our lawyers are -- are determined to ask and answer those questions in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Stephen Collinson joins us from Washington. There's lots of detail here, isn't there? But clearly the White House

not, you know, trying not to be seen to be defying the law. But there are parts of it, it does seem to be ignoring.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: That's right. I think they're not just pushing right up to the line, as we've seen in a number of cases, there are good reasons to question whether they deliberately did cross that line. There is no distinction in courts between an order that a judge writes down and one that he gives verbally. It's his courtroom. He rules in the courtroom, and the White House lawyers are going to have to face that question in a few hours time.

As you said, what really is at issue here is, first, as you were saying, whether the White House defied the judges order to send these flights towards El Salvador or whether they defied him in not turning the flights around after the order was given, but more broadly, the use of this law from 1798, which is supposed to only be used during wartime and the United States is not at war with Venezuela, the place where most of these gang members are said to have come from. So there are real legal questions about whether, just by using that law, they have acted in infringement of the Constitution and the law with these deportations.

FOSTER: A lot of this, you know, this is, you know, all about the illegal immigration that the Trump White House has talked about a lot and is taking on very hard, and they've got another campaigner on that issue, it seems, in the White House today as well.

COLLINSON: Yeah. Conor McGregor, the UFC fighter, the former fighter was in the White House today visiting Trump on St. Patrick's Day. Trump loves his mixed martial arts and UFC. A lot of people think that the theatrics around that code is -- does help to describe the way that he approaches politics as a contact sport. But McGregor was at the podium and he started talking about how Ireland, in his words, has an illegal immigration policy, a very Trumpian political kind of speech.

And I think the fact that he was given this forum is yet another reminder that the Trump administration is supporting some of these far right, right wing political movements and personalities in Europe that really create trouble for some of the governments. We've seen this in France and Germany. The Taoiseach was here only last week, and it's going to be very interesting to see what kind of reaction McGregor's performance today gets back in Dublin.

FOSTER: Yeah, because he's a controversial figure back there, as you know.

Stephen, thank you so much for bringing us that.

A hearing scheduled in the case of a U.S. university professor deported to Lebanon despite an order from a federal judge, has been canceled at the request of the plaintiff's lawyers. A source tells CNN, Dr. Rasha Alawieh was reported or deported rather, after federal agents found photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on her cell phone.

[15:05:10]

The Brown University professor reportedly told officers she attended Nasrallah's funeral when she was in Lebanon last month.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has been following this story very closely.

Does show, you know, how a defining, you know, what many people would say would be circumstantial evidence can be in many of these cases.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Max. I think the question going forward is whether or not the Trump administration and the federal government are going to, say that having things like a photo could determine that someone would be considered some sort of a threat and not be allowed to the country. That certainly seems to be what's happening, at least in this case. It started last week when Dr. Rasha Alawieh was traveling back to the United States from Lebanon. She arrived in Boston Logan International Airport, and while she was there, she was questioned by immigration officers.

In the course of that questioning, they searched her cell phone and that's when they found the photos of the Hezbollah leader. During the questioning, she also acknowledged that she had been in Lebanon and that while she was in Lebanon, she attended the funeral for the Hezbollah leader.

Now, during that conversation, according to my source, she also told them that she supported the religious ideology of the Hezbollah leader and not his political ideology. She said that she followed his religious teachings and his religious doctrine, but not his political ideology.

So when officers were unable to determine what her intentions were in coming into the country, they deported -- deported her. Now, all of this came to light because when she was deported, her friend filed a lawsuit and a judge ordered that she would not be deported, although that -- that order never made it to the airport officers on time. And today, there was supposed to be a hearing on the case.

Now, that hearing was canceled in order to give both parties more time to prepare. But we did hear from her attorneys who were in court speaking to reporters today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE MARZOUK, ATTORNEY FOR DR. RASHA ALAWIEH'S FAMILY: Our client is in Lebanon, and we're not going to stop fighting to get her back in the U.S. to see her patients. And we're also going to make sure that the government follows the rule of law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Max, Dr. Alawieh was a visa holder. She had a worker visa. As you know, there are extremely difficult to obtain these visas. They're usually requires that a U.S. institution sponsors the visa recipient. And as we know, she was a doctor at Brown University, a specialized kidney doctor. And shed been here working and using that visa.

Now, we got a statement from the Department of Homeland Security saying in part, Alawieh openly admitted to this CBP officers, as well as her support for Nasrallah. They said in part, a visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is common sense security.

So, Max, that brings me back to kind of the first question when we started our conversation is whether or not were going to be seeing more examples of this. The Trump administration determining that merely having a photo or having attended a funeral, that thousands of other people attended last month is grounds for this visa to be revoked, and for a person to not be allowed back into the United States.

FOSTER: And it's, you know, makes everyone question their position, right? So lots of students at Brown probably concerned this could happen to them. And I gather the university is actually advising international students not to travel right now, which is a huge, you know, huge thing to say. They have to stay there over the holidays and not go back home?

PAZMINO: That's exactly right. In fact, Brown University sent an email to its international community before the spring break, which we are now in the middle of, depending on which university you go to, essentially acknowledging that there was a little bit of sort of not -- not sure -- not being sure what to do as the Trump administration has been making these decisions and targeting some international students.

The letter advised the international community at Brown University to delay their travel, essentially while they get more clarity on what's going to happen. But it does seem like the university so far has at least acknowledged that its international community could be at risk of not being allowed back into the country, given some of these new policies.

[15:10:04]

FOSTER: Okay, Gloria, thank you for that.

Now, it's the conversation the world is waiting to hear. U.S. President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, are slated to speak on the phone tomorrow. Mr. Trump says the U.S. is already discussing what he calls certain assets that will be divided up between Moscow and Kyiv. Now, American officials say Ukraine will likely need to give up territory, and Mr. Putin has made it a condition of entering into a temporary truce.

So far, Vladimir Putin's response to the ceasefire proposal has been pretty ambiguous.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the view from Moscow. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Kremlin has now confirmed that U.S. President Trump is set to speak to Vladimir Putin on the phone on Tuesday. And the Russians have so far praised the U.S. president's efforts to try and end the war in Ukraine. But Vladimir Putin does say that he does still have certain reservations.

Essentially, what has happened is that the Ukrainians have signed on to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, whereas the Russians say for their part, there are still conditions that they want to see met before a ceasefire can go into place. Essentially, the Russians are saying that they want the underlying causes of the war in Ukraine, as far as they're concerned, to be addressed before the weapons can be silenced.

Now, of course, a lot of that for the Russians pertains to territory. The Russians essentially want to keep all of the territories that they've already taken from the Ukrainians, and possibly even more than that, when you look, for instance, at the administrative borders of places like the Donetsk oblast or the Zaporizhzhia oblast, where the Russians control part of it, but certainly not all of those places yet, even though they are currently on the move on the battlefield.

Another thing that the Russians also say is that they don't want to see any foreign troops, especially NATO forces on the ground as peacekeepers in Ukraine, and they don't want Ukraine to become part of NATO in the future.

All of that, of course, very difficult to swallow for the Ukrainians. So, there are still a lot of issues that need to be addressed. Nevertheless, the U.S. president has said that he's confident that things are going in the right direction, and he says that he hopes that some sort of ceasefire could be in place in the coming weeks.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Canada's new prime minister is in the middle of his first official visit to Europe. He hasn't hung about.

Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in London a short while ago. His first stop was a meeting with King Charles. He then made a trip to Downing Street to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, earlier on Monday. Mr. Carney met with French President Emmanuel Macron, pledging that Canada would be a reliable and trustworthy partner.

Paula Newton has been watching all of this, our Canada correspondent, and he almost looks like a European leader. Is it significant that he's making this his first big visit and not to -- you know, wouldn't we expect Washington to be first?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you hit the nail on the head there. We'll get to that. But as to your other point, Carney himself called Canada the most European of non-European countries. And I think many Canadians, at this point in time, when they're at odds with their ally to the south, the United States are thinking the same thing.

Look, this is a man who has to hit the election trail pretty quickly, likely within the next few days. This is a chance to show Canadians, and quite frankly, Europe, that they do stand together and that there is resolve and there is strength in numbers when so many are trying really to figure out what the Trump administration wants in terms of the tariff threats.

But then remember, Max, Canada is dealing with another important threat, and that is of annexation to the 51st state. And I have no doubt that Justin Trudeau and I know you know better than me. They're not supposed to be discussing this during their audiences, but Justin Trudeau kind of let it slip that when he met with King Charles the other week that they did discuss Canadian sovereignty, I suspect that Mark Carney did the same thing.

I want you to listen now, though, to what he said when he was meeting with the French president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We both stand for sovereignty and security, demonstrated by our unwavering support for Ukraine under your leadership also.

(through translator): Today, we see that these principles are being rejected by more and more governments around the world. Accordingly, it is more important than ever for Canada to strengthen its bonds with our reliable allies like France.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Reliable allies.

Clearly, the United States wasn't mentioned, but everyone knew what he meant. And really, Max, this is a concerted effort on Canada, not just for campaigning purposes, but to try and reshape its alliances, something that many critics in Canada have said should have happened a long time ago. Pivot more to Europe, pivot more to Asia.

That doesn't mean he's going to save the Canadian economy, and it might actually do some damage to relations with the United States and with the Trump administration.

[15:15:06]

I will note, as you astutely noted at the beginning, that there is still no scheduled call right now. Never mind a visit between Mark Carney and Donald Trump. And that is significant. Certainly, way out of the bounds of protocol, given he was elected prime minister or I should say, appointed prime minister several days ago.

FOSTER: Well, maybe he's not in a rush because he's -- he's made pretty punchy comments, hasn't he? Whilst he was campaigning about in Canada's independence, you[d expect that from a Canadian leader, I guess. But, you know, it's certainly going to be interpreted differently in Washington because, you know, they've got this plan to take over Canada.

I'm just wondering what Donald Trump might think of this, you know, alliance that he's seeing form here. And it might happen increasingly, mightn't it, with countries that America is falling out with.

NEWTON: It will happen increasingly and certainly, Canada -- Canada would be the model going forward. I will say that the Trump administration seems not to care. The president was very clear he doesn't need anything from Canada, except that he does want to annex Canada, leave that be as it may. But the Trump administration has decided that protectionism is where it's at.

So I point out that Canada already has a trade agreement with Europe already. Now, how -- how this is going to muddle its way through in terms of actually leading to concrete material trade relationships with Europe is another thing. But Canada's already laid the groundwork for this kind of free trade. And this will continue to happen more and more, whether it's with South America, Asia or Europe.

But the United States believes it can go it alone, and that its economy will be stronger alone. The OECD is already weighed in, Max, and understanding what that's going to cost countries. It won't cost the United States too much, but Mexico and Canada expect to be especially hard hit in 2025 and 2026, as Trump really lays out his new economic doctrine.

FOSTER: Paula Newton, thank you so much.

Still to come, we take a closer look at Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. We'll be speaking with a former homeland security lawyer who will try to explain things for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:18]

FOSTER: Now, let's return to one of our top stories, the deportation of a Brown University doctor from the U.S. despite holding a valid visa and in defiance of a judge's order, a source familiar with the case has told CNN Dr. Rasha Alawieh was deported to Lebanon after she told customs agents she attended the funeral of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last month.

CNN has contacted her attorney for comment, but her expulsion comes amid a wider immigration crackdown by the Trump administration and reports Mr. Trump is weighing up a travel ban that could target dozens of countries. Brown University is now advising its international students and faculty members not to travel overseas.

I want to bring in Veronica Cardenas. She's an immigration attorney and former assistant chief counsel with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Thank you for joining us.

I just want to, you know, figure out what your industry is making of all of this at the moment. I mean, how unprecedented is it?

VERONICA CARDENAS, FORMER ASSISTANT CHIEF COUNSEL, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Every day, we're hit with a different decision, and we just don't know what to make sense of it. So it's been very difficult. Us, immigration lawyers, are really experiencing the lack of due process, circumventing immigration courts. And so it's been a very difficult time.

FOSTER: Now, the White House is insisting they haven't broken any laws. Its just depends on looking at what happened. When do you feel that laws have been broken by these recent cases?

CARDENAS: Right. And I think the tricky thing here is what is illegal, especially when it comes to immigration. Immigration law is so much based on policy. What's legal today can be illegal tomorrow. And that's what we're seeing in these shifts.

And so the common courtesies that had extended previous to Trump, for example, once a habeas petition is filed in federal court, the government is supposed to communicate if a removal flight is imminent. And those are things that they're not doing.

Based on some reports, it looks like there was a break in the federal court where the judge instructed the Department of Justice lawyers to call ICE to see where the planes were. And at that time, it seemed that planes kept going.

So I do think that there's some illegality here. There's definitely bad faith in the decision to continue the planes moving to El Salvador.

FOSTER: Well, the White House is clearly just fed up with all the red tape. You just, you know, the way you just went through the process there, you know, the due process. There are so many stages to it. And they're clearly just frustrated that people are not being moved on when they should be. Are they just trying to prove a point while -- while, they go through these, you know, early cases?

CARDENAS: I think so. And I think the point that they're trying to prove is that military force, these extreme measures are necessary for removal, for deportation of non-citizens.

And in that flight, we don't really know who was on it. But we are hearing reports that not everyone was a suspected gang member of Tren de Aragua. There were some Venezuelans who had removal orders, and they weren't able to be removed to Venezuela. And perhaps others had dual citizenship to other places, but they didn't attempt to remove them there. They just took them to El Salvador.

FOSTER: And in terms of the Brown Professor it was a very low bar of evidence, wasn't there? There, for, you know, for any immigration lawyer to look at, you know, saying she'd attended something and there was a photo that would normally go through a court and all be verified and stood up. But, you know, they're showing that actually the bar for evidence is much lower now.

CARDENAS: Right. And someone was -- I heard someone say circumstantial evidence. And in immigration cases, the burden is on the person trying to enter to show why they should be allowed to enter. So essentially, immigration officers really don't have a bar to prove anything. And so in cases like this where we see CBP has the ability to search anything that the person has, so they're able to search their cell phones, they're able to search their persons without any suspicion at all.

And to see a picture and have that be enough to justify the person being removed or expeditiously turned away, those are causes for concern.

FOSTER: Okay, Veronica Cardenas, I really appreciate your analysis of a really complex issue, but it's affecting a lot of people. Thank you.

[15:25:01]

U.S. President Trump is directly threatening Iran with dire consequences if Houthi rebels strike back against the U.S., claiming any retaliation will be met with great force. It comes after U.S. strikes on targets in Yemen over the weekend, which killed 53 -- at least 53 people. In retaliation, the Houthis claimed to have launched missiles and drones at an American aircraft carrier.

U.S. officials say there were no injuries or damage. The Houthis are promising to respond to any American strikes. President Trump warned Iran, the Houthis main backer, to immediately end its support for the group. Here's what a Pentagon spokesperson said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN PARNELL, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: He will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. With that said, and this is a very important point, this is also not an endless offensive. This is not about regime change in the Middle East. This is about putting American interests first.

As I said over the weekend, there is a very clear end state to this operation and that begins the moment that the Houthis pledge to stop attacking our ships and putting American lives at risk.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, in Syria, a recent wave of attacks marked the worst outbreak of violence since the ousting of longtime President Bashar al-Assad has seen. An investigation zeroes in on the events at a town of several thousand members of Syria's minority Alawite community.

Tamara Qiblawi reports now, and a warning some of the video you're about to see is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIONS WRITER (voice-over): It's a sunny day in the Syrian coastal village, named after its pine groves. A fighter sings, and it seems to be a cheerful tune.

But this is a song that celebrates death. Behind him, dead people are strewn along the sides of the street. Hundreds of people were killed in scenes like this in coastal Syria this month. Loyalists of the recently deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad had ambushed the country's new security forces in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. This triggered a killing spree against the Alawites, Assad's minority sect. Syria's new Sunni Islamist government blamed the mass killings on rogue elements, calling the incidents violations.

According to rights groups, the carnage played out across 25 Alawite areas and in the village of al-Sanobar, or the Pine Village, CNN found evidence of a massacre.

Here, factions loyal to Syria's new government went house to house, dragging men out to be executed.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu akbar.

QIBLAWI: Homes were torched, fighters screamed sectarian slurs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Shia dogs. The Alawites, the pigs of the regime.

QIBLAWI: Survivors spoke to us about their still fresh memories.

ALAWITE SURVIVOR: They entered the house and demanded that all the men step outside. My father, and my two brothers. They made them stand outside and they executed them.

They shot my father in the head. They shot my brother in the heart. And my second brother, the bullet hit his right side.

QIBLAWI: Our visual investigation reveals the scale of the horror. We counted over 80 bodies and verified videos strewn along the main street, lying in shallow graves wrapped in shrouds.

Satellite images showed mounds of dirt and soil disturbances consistent with mass graves in the area. Locals say they counted over 200 bodies.

And armed men published evidence of the atrocities, like this video filmed at the entrance of the pine village.

Ethnic cleansing, ethnic cleansing, he cheers. We see him in the ransacked home of the Khalil family. The corpse of an elderly relative splayed out on the sofa, father and son dead at the fighters' feet.

We traced the video back to this Facebook page. In this photograph, the apparent owner of the profile is wearing what appears to be the insignia of HDS. That's the newly dissolved Islamist militant group led until recently by Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Whether individuals involved in the massacre have been held to account is unclear. The government has set up a committee to investigate the killings, but across coastal Syria, people say they can't feel safe until justice is served.

[15:30:02]

ALAWITE SURVIVOR: I swear we never fired a bullet. Our men have died. They killed them all.

QIBLAWI: Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: More CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Back to our top story, legal questions about the use of an American wartime power, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport selected foreign gang members to El Salvador. There's a hearing in less than two hours on the issue.

Joining us from New York is CNN Espanol anchor and correspondent Maria Santana.

Thank you for joining us.

I mean, as I understand it, this is a hearing for the Trump administration to explain itself and what happened here.

MARIA SANTANA, CNN EN ESPANOL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Max. This judge that temporarily blocked the Trump administration's ability to use this wartime authority known as the Alien Enemies Act. He has scheduled this hearing so that the Trump administration can answer some questions as to when they heard about his order, when they got his order to return these flights that were on their way to El Salvador, back to the United States. And if any of those flights were already in the air or landed in El Salvador after he issued his order.

[15:35:02]

Now, as you said, this really has raised a lot of questions as to whether the Trump administration openly defied a court order potentially bringing the United States closer to a full blown constitutional crisis. The White House defended the deportation of hundreds of what they say are Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, saying that the move was done within the confines of the law. Despite this judges order that was issued on Saturday, and this comes after a fast moving chain of events over the weekend.

On Saturday, President Trump took the extraordinary -- extraordinary step of invoking this rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This gives the government tremendous authority to speed up the deportation of certain immigrants.

In this case, the migrants that the U.S. has accused of being affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. These people do not have due process. They don't need to go before a court to explain their case to a judge before being deported.

At the same time, several organizations were already in court challenging Trump's use of the act to deport certain immigrants, and that's when the judge issued this order, but oops, too late. That's what the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, posted on X as he and other administration officials celebrated the incarceration of about 200 of these deportees in a Salvadorian mega prison -- Max.

FOSTER: Okay. Maria Santana, thank you, joining us from New York.

People from Venezuela have been a target since the start of the Trump presidency. CNN sat down with the Venezuelan migrant who says he was nearly driven to suicide whilst he was in detention at Guantanamo Bay.

Gustavo Valdes reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A family reunion eight years in the making and one Jose Daniel Simancas Rodriguez thought would never happen.

JOSE DANIEL SIMANCAS RODRIGUEZ, VENEZUELAN DEPORTED FROM U.S.: I had completely given up. I thought I would never see my mother or children again.

VALDES: Simancas is one of the millions of Venezuelans who left their country looking for a better future. After six years in Ecuador, the 30-year-old decided to go to the United States in 2022, embarking on a long and dangerous journey.

RODRIGUEZ: I spent six days without food. I saw dead people along the way.

VALDES: He surrendered to immigration authorities after entering the U.S. illegally in 2024. He requested asylum. It was then that these tattoos got him in trouble.

RODRIGUEZ: They said the stars meant I was a member of Tren de Aragua. I told them I didn't know that.

VALDES: Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization of Venezuelan origin that gained attention in the U.S. after a series of high profile events. The Trump administration designated it an international terrorist organization. Simancas was also accused of reentering the United States illegally, even though he says he never crossed before. After nine months in detention, he was told they were going to Miami. He says it didn't take him long to figure out they were in Guantanamo Bay. Once they landed and were rushed to the detention facility.

RODRIGUEZ: You feel fear from the moment you step on the bus, because its as if they blindfold you. They might as well have placed a bag over our head, because all the windows in the bus were blacked out, and you don't know where you're going. They take you to a room, and I only got a pillow and a bed sheet. No mattress. I spent at least ten days with no mattress.

VALDES: He was not allowed to talk to other detainees, but he says they found a way to communicate.

RODRIGUEZ: We started to scream. We laid on the floor and screamed through the gap between the door and the floor, because it was the only way to be heard. We couldn't see each other. We could only shout.

VALDES: Harsh conditions, he says, made him contemplate taking his own life.

RODRIGUEZ: That is the torture, the confinement. You are not alive. You are there and not alive, where you don't know if its day or night. You don't really know the time.

VALDES: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities declined to comment on these allegations, citing pending litigation.

Jose Daniel Simancas Rodriguez was among the more than 170 Venezuelans deported to their country in February 2020. The emotional return to his five children is the start of a healing process, he says, hasn't been easy, because he says that he and the other deportees suffered from insomnia and fear of leaving their homes.

[15:40:01]

RODRIGUEZ: If their intention was to keep us from returning to the U.S., they've succeeded. If they wanted to traumatize us, they've succeeded.

VALDES: Now, he warns others seeking the American dream that its a dream that doesn't exist.

Gustavo Valdes, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, destructive tornadoes push across multiple U.S. states.

Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, will have the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Regions across the U.S. were ripped apart over the last couple of days by a powerful storm system. This tornado tore through Gordo, Alabama. That was on Saturday. At least 42 people died. That was as the powerful storm system swept through the central and southern regions. Some communities were hit by tornadoes, whilst others got wildfires and dust storms.

Meteorologist Kevin -- Derek -- even apologies, Derek -- Van Dam has been covering the storm system for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was a weekend of devastating storm across the Deep South and much of the East Coast.

Look at what happened out of Wayne County, Missouri. This aerial perspective just gives you an idea of the strong and powerful winds associated with the tornado that ran through this region, toppling trees like they were twigs, taking roofs off of homes. Get more of an aerial view in just one second and you can see kind of this indiscriminate nature of a tornado.

So this part of the roof is still intact. But you can see on the other side of the home there personal belongings just completely strewn about the entire front yard.

So this system is quickly exiting. That's the good news about what has gone on over the past 48 hours or so. Were going to say goodbye and good riddance to this powerful, strong spring storm, but it has certainly left its mark, over a thousand reports of severe weather, including numerous tornadoes, numerous wind reports that have caused damage.

In fact, look at the amount of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings that were issued by human meteorologists from the National Weather Service out of the various offices over the eastern half of the country, just incredible.

[15:45:12]

All those shades of pink there, that's actually tornado warnings, and many of them clustered across the state of Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi into Arkansas. These are the areas where we saw, unfortunately, the greatest damage.

Remember, it wasn't just tornado damage. It was also straight line wind damage. We had winds gusting over 80 to nearly 90 miles per hour.

So, again, this system quickly exiting off the East Coast. It's no longer producing severe weather over the continental United States. But now, we're going to focus and refocus our attention, I should say, on the next storm system.

This is a very active weather pattern that we're in right now, including the potential for fire weather. We have critical fire conditions across western Texas and Oklahoma, and then that becomes an extreme fire threat as we head into the day on Tuesday, as winds start to pick up and we start to impact this very, very dry environment with fire weather conditions.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Thanks to Derek.

Now, U.S. President Donald Trump has been touring the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts today, weeks after firing Democratic appointees on its board of trustees and being named chair by the new board. The president has announced a new plan to shape the center's programming, saying he'll make sure it's, quote, good and it's not going to be woke.

Joining us now, CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter.

For those outside the country, obviously this is a storied institution there, but just explain what it is.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. And this matters because it's the only thing on the president's schedule today. It's his only public event. It shows how much he cares about this. He wants not only the economic victories, he wants the victories on policy issues like immigration. He also wants cultural victories.

He wants to be able to show his voters in the United States that he is taking over the culture that he's dominating in spaces like entertainment. I think that's the context for this Kennedy center takeover. Historically, the Kennedy center has been a crown jewel in Washington, D.C., with Broadway performances, with musical productions, with opera performances, et cetera. And it has historically been a bipartisan enterprise with board members who bring in lots of money, lots of big donors who are on the board, who help bring in performances.

However, that's changed. Trump has erased all of those past board members. He's brought in his friends instead, including two Fox News host Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, who we see on stage there at this board meeting that's been set up in a very visual way, right? It's on stage at the concert hall. So he's trying to -- to have a visual performance, a spectacle today with this board meeting.

The challenge, though, for Trump and his friends, who's going to perform, who's going to show up, who's going to fill the seats? That's the question now.

We know a lot of performers that had planned to be there in the coming months have pulled out. For example, the Broadway show Hamilton was coming to Washington, but Lin-Manuel Miranda said, no, we're not coming to D.C. anymore. This place isn't for us anymore because Trump is trying to make the Kennedy Center the Trump Center.

So we'll find out what kind of performers and performances he is able to attract. But I think some of this is about the symbolism. We know one of Trump's aides recently said, we're going to have a big Christmas production at the Kennedy center. He said that as if its an unusual or novel idea, as if Christmas wasn't being celebrated before.

Of course, the Christmas performance is a staple of the Kennedy Center. It happens every year, but the idea is that Trump wants to make it seem like he is fixing this place. He's reviving it. He's making it his own. And so that work seems to be getting underway today.

FOSTER: Also, having an effect as well on international culture, you could argue, these are sort of soft power institutions. You've got, you know, Voice of America, also Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, they're all linked, aren't they? And their funding has suddenly been cut by the administration. STELTER: That's right. And Trump has not commented on this, but we

heard from the State Department spokesperson today calling this a very fluid situation. What we don't know is whether some of these networks are going to be brought back online now that they've been taken offline.

Voice of America, for example, has gone dark. No new reporting in two days. Some of the local radio stations in countries have switched over to music because there's no news to report, because there's no journalists being allowed to work right now. Some of them have been laid off.

Some of those other outlets you mentioned, Radio Free Europe, the funding has been completely cut off. What we don't know is whether the Trump administration is going to turn it back on at some point, try to revive these networks down the road. But for now at least, they have been suspended.

And it is a dramatic, you know, kind of cutting off of American soft power. As you said, these outlets historically have been used to promote news coverage, but also Democratic values around the world during the, you know, the Soviet Union years, for example, American news was getting into the Soviet Union. This was a really important use of American soft power. But now, for now, those networks have gone silent.

[15:50:07]

FOSTER: Okay. Brian, thank you.

We'll be back in just a moment.

STELTER: Thanks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Markets are up this week. Can't keep up with 'em, can you? This is what they're doing at the end of the session. The Dow is up pretty healthy.

More than 1 percent, Anna Stewart. Are they still talking about tariffs?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are still talking about tariffs. And we had a really wild sort of ride last week.

But you know what's even wilder? You've been at CNN for 20 years.

FOSTER: Oh, stop it. This is a sort of statistic people don't need.

STEWART: And I'm sure our viewers would love to know what you're like off air. I can inform you all that Max is all sorts of fun.

FOSTER: What is going on?

STEWART: A terrible distraction in the office, gives great advice. He's very supportive of his colleagues and has a really great sneaker collection.

And while you gather yourself from this ambush and wipe away your tears --

FOSTER: It is an ambush.

STEWART: -- we have --

FOSTER: My goodness, this is a banner.

STEWART: -- greatest hits of Max.

FOSTER: I wonder why you were coming to me with such a boring story.

STEWART: Do you want to watch the greatest hits of Max?

FOSTER: Not really.

STEWARTT: Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: I'm Max foster in London.

I'm Max Foster.

I'm Max Foster. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

I came to this street festival. He ate, he drank. He even danced.

Everyone looking to that door for some sort of leadership.

Always brilliant in front of the camera. I can't remember a time when he's even said anything faulty on camera. He's never, ever been caught out.

Welcome to the BAFTA's. The biggest night of the year for the British music industry. Music.

Steve Jobs, you're always working on the next big idea, the next big thing. What's coming next?

STEVE JOBS, APPLE FOUNDER: I think we all think what's next is, is just continuing that growth in digital sales.

FOSTER: You're going to put a lot of money into defense spending. Where's the money going to come from? You know, you -- you say --

Does it always surprise you what sort of reaction you get abroad?

DOLLY PARTON, AMERICAN SINGER/SONGRWRITER: Well, I'm very happy about that. I've been around a long time.

FOSTER: The amount of -- amount -- well, I don't -- I look ridiculous.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: But that was a highlight, wasn't it? New year? You were so excited.

STEWART: That was a highlight. Is there anyone you haven't interviewed?

FOSTER: Well, I mean, I've got to have something to show for 20 years.

STEWART: I mean, obviously you joined CNN straight out of university, given how very youthful you are.

FOSTER: Yeah, well, let's just go with that. People can research it and find some fake news.

STEWART: Any of those highlights a favorite for you?

FOSTER: I mean, you know, that Donald Trump interview always sticks with me.

STEWART: Yeah?

FOSTER: Steve Jobs. Well, the Donald Trump interview was talking about building a wall between Mexico and the United States at a time when everyone thought it was utterly bizarre.

[15:55:06]

And he also talked about Ukraine and how it was Europe's problem. And it's interesting. I think if you look back at that interview, he's really stuck to many of his views in that interview. And they were so extraordinary at the time.

STEWART: Probably didn't take him seriously enough.

FOSTER: No. And Steve Jobs, I mean, just a legend to me, I guess. I mean, in your world, particularly in business.

STEWART: I would have loved to have met Steve Jobs.

FOSTER: Yeah.

STEWART: It has been such a pleasure for the team to get that together for you. To go back to 2005, they obviously had to get giant cassette tapes because that's what we used to record things on. So, kudos to your team for all of their efforts.

FOSTER: Well, I beat Richard on that because he started during film. Richard Quest, so I'm younger than him.

Anna, sort of thanks.

STEWART: Pleasure.

FOSTER: Thanks for watching me here for 20 years on CNN.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next. But it's not Richard, is it? It's Paula, another institution.