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Immigration Crackdown Ramps Up in Cities Across the U.S.; U.S., Colombia Reach Deal On Migrant Flights After Trump Threats; Trump Fires Inspectors General From More Than Dozen Agencies; Oath Keepers Founder Gets VIP Seat At Trump Rally. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 27, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today, on Inside Politics, a global wake up call. Donald Trump is putting the world on notice by threatening a trade war with Colombia until that country agreed to work with him to deport migrants from the U.S. His strong-arm tactics worked. Will they next time?

Plus, reporting for duty. On Pete Hegseth's first official day at the Pentagon. We're expecting multiple executive orders reshaping the military, including a ban on transgender troops.

And market freak out. Tech stocks are plunging after a surprise advancement from a Chinese AI startup that appears to threaten companies here in the U.S. and has national security experts on edge.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with the raids on undocumented immigrants, ramping up across the country. We saw dramatic scenes in Colorado, Illinois, Arizona and Florida, just to name a few. Officials say they arrested almost one thousand people on Sunday alone.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is on the leading edge of all of this reporting. Priscilla, give us kind of the top line view. And if you could put it in the context of what we saw during the Biden administration.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Dana. On Sunday, the Trump administration launched its immigration enforcement blitz, which is means that they essentially brought on more federal agencies, especially Justice Department agencies, to bolster their ICE teams as they went across the country looking for their targets. This was especially true in Chicago. You see a photo there of White House border czar Tom Homan, who was on the ground for that.

Now, ICE later reported that there were about 956 arrests yesterday. If you look at the numbers during the Biden administration in the last year? Well, they were around three hundred arrests. So, this is certainly an increase from where we have been. Though, of course, there is a question of sustainability here. All the same, though, officials I have been speaking with say that this is part of their plan moving forward. This is what they're calling those enhanced operations, by having all of these agencies assist in the arrest and the detention of undocumented immigrants.

And I also spoke, Dana, last night with White House border czar Tom Homan, who called yesterday a quote, game changer. And said that all of these agencies are serving as what he calls a quote, force multiplier. He maintained again that they are targeting public safety and national security threats, though we know that it is not off the table if they also encounter other undocumented immigrants over the course of these operations.

Some of those stories appear to be bubbling up of others who may not have had a criminal record but were arrested, but certainly we're looking into the details of each of these cases as best we can, Dana.

BASH: Priscilla, thank you so much for your amazing reporting. Here at the table are three other terrific journalists, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Laura Barron-Lopez of the PBS NewsHour, and Leigh Ann Caldwell now of Puck. You have done also extensive reporting on this issue throughout the campaign, the politics of it, the policy of it. Can you just give us your top line view of what we saw over the weekend?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what we're seeing, as Priscilla was saying, is this all of government approach essentially, a lot of other agencies being involved, including the Justice Department, in carrying out these deportations.

And yes, Tom Homan is saying, it is just being focused on public security threats, national security threats, but there are other migrants getting looped in here, and he said that they're definitely not going to stop arrests if migrants are -- if migrants who have no criminal record are caught up in these. So, there's that front.

There's also this other big story when it comes to immigration, in terms of shutting down all legal pathways, essentially, effectively, all legal pathways have been shut down. And when Tom Homan gave an interview with ABC over the weekend, he said, people just need to come here legally, come here to the port of entry. Well, that's what people were doing through the CBP One app and other pathways. And yet, this administration so far has shut down almost every single avenue.

BASH: That app and other ways that they were trying to get in through the ports of entry was seeking asylum, right? And he's saying, no more.

BARRON-LOPEZ: No more.

BASH: He's saying, yeah. One other difference -- one of the many differences, you named a few, is that the Trump administration has done away with the practice of in doing raids, avoiding churches, of schools, of hospitals.

[12:05:00] You mentioned Tom Homan was out over the weekend on ABC. He was asked about that, particularly the question of schools of children and whether they are really criminals who deserve to be deported.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: How many MS-13 are the age 14 to 17? Many of them. So, look, if it's a national security threat, public safety threat, and what you need to understand is that it's case by case. Name another agency, another law enforcement agency that has those type of requirements, that they can't walk into a school or doctor's office or a medical campus. No other agency is held to those standards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, this is one of the first proposed changes last week, and when it came across, it seemed like it certainly could be significant, and now we're seeing it obviously play out. I mean, I guess he's not wrong in the sense of other agencies, if it's the FBI or if it's someone else, but the level of threat is different. I mean, it's not necessarily a criminal on the run or someone who's possessing a gun or whatnot. So, I'm not sure that that's the best comparison.

But look, the big picture here is this is exactly what the Trump administration Stephen Miller at the center of all of these executive orders and things, this is exactly what they wanted. I would talk to someone late Friday in the Trump administration who said that they thought it was actually playing out slower and not as dramatic as they necessarily had hoped, but it's more strategic. There's no question about that.

Like you'll remember the chaos of the travel ban eight years ago and things in that first week, in the first days of the Trump administration. But look, this is what the president talked about on the campaign trail, and this is exactly, you know, what people voted for, whether they understood the policies or not.

BASH: Exactly. People are going to get sick of us saying that, but we're going to keep saying it. This is not a surprise. If you listen for five minutes to Donald Trump on the campaign trail, this is the kind of thing that he talked about and promised and what he was voted in to do, whether people had this as a priority or not. Talk about strategy.

One of the more interesting conundrums is how Democrats deal with this, because they realize politically that many of them have been on the wrong side. And I'm using that in quotes because of how complex this immigration is, but that they need to sound tougher on undocumented immigrants than they have in the past.

JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, who, of course, is Illinois, of course, is where Chicago is, and Chicago was one of the cities that saw raids yesterday. Listen to the way he said that he is approaching this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JB PRITZKER (D-IL): When we're talking about violent criminals who have been convicted and who are undocumented. We don't want them in our state. We want them out of the country. We hope they do get deported.

They're also doing, though, and it's quite disturbing, is they're going after people who are law abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades, and they're often our neighbors and our friends, and why are we going after them?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What do you think about the way he kind of split the issue there?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah. That seems to be how Democrats are at least contemplating. Addressing this issue, we saw on Capitol Hill last week. The Democrats from swing states, swing districts, voted for the Laken Riley Act, which has to do with criminal undocumented immigrants as well.

This is an issue that, as Jeff said, that is politically popular right now, especially on the fact of people who are here illegally, who have committed crimes. President Trump knows that. Democrats know that as well, and they are having to reshift their entire frame of thinking on this issue of immigration.

Now, what JB Pritzker said was fascinating, the fact that he did separate the criminals from the non-criminals. That seems to be what Democrats are doing, although there are lots of strategy sessions, lots of conversations happening among Democrats right now about how far to go, how when to push back against Donald Trump.

And we could see that if this continues to hit more and more people who aren't criminals, if this breaks up families, et cetera, it will be fascinating to see how the public opinion changes, and then how Democrats and Republicans risk --

ZELENY: And how it affects businesses? That's the other thing that I think will be as the planting season and other things sort of take hold throughout the spring and things that is what is going to be fascinating to watch Republican business owners, et cetera. Are there going to be big impacts in the fields and things?

[12:10:00]

BARRON-LOPEZ: What's interesting also is that, I mean, politically, it is also still popular to support pathway to citizenship for the people that have been here for decades, including Dreamers. And so that's something that you're seeing some Democrats still lean into like Pritzker was. The other thing was that out this week was, you know, Donald Trump and sources close to the White House have said that they want to have surrogates out there to really sell this deportation plan. And so, you see people like Dr. Phil out there embedded with --

BASH: I'm glad that you mentioned that he was on some of the ICE raids yesterday in Chicago.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And you're going to see, I think, more. And I was told that they're going to also try to lean on Latino surrogates to really sell this, and that that's something that Democrats are going to need to respond to. And we're seeing that they're not really sure how to respond, as Leigh Ann was saying.

BASH: I do want to talk about the question that I discussed with Tom Holman here on this program last week, which is a big challenge that this administration will have, is when they deport people, where are they going to go? He said, we're going to send them back home. Some of their homes don't want them to come back Colombia.

What happened over the weekend with Colombia is case in point, the government -- and I'll just read you what happened. Basically, Donald Trump made a threat, and Donald Trump won. And that threat was 25 percent tariff on all Colombian goods. If the country of Colombia doesn't take the migrants that the U.S. was sending back to them.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned -- from the United States. Today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again.

Jeff, this is classic Donald Trump. I mean, this is straight from the pages of The Art of the Deal, way before he was in politics, which is, I'm going to make a threat. I'm going to make a really big threat that could impact you.

Never mind the fact that it could impact the U.S. too, when it comes to 25 percent tariff on Colombian goods. And I'm going to just sit back and wait for you to back down. It happened in this case, he won. The question is whether there's a country out there who will say, no, I'm not going to do it. Try me.

ZELENY: We will see. And this all unfolded, you know, it is like the art of the deal of the new age in terms of social media. This all was unfolding is sort of in real time, in these public displays on social media. But you're right. I mean, he did a win, I guess. I mean, the -- I think one thing we also have to keep saying, these tariffs are paid by consumers so, like we would be paying those whatever. But it is unsettling to other leaders. There's no doubt, and that's a big part of what the president's objective is to keep other leaders on their toes and make them a bit afraid of him.

BARRON-LOPEZ: It isn't even so much that the deportation flights occurred because deportation flights occurred under President Biden. It's that he used military aircraft to carry out these deportation flights, and Colombia was feeling as though they weren't being respected. And you see now Honduran president also say that they feel as though migrants being sent back to them are not being respected and threatened -- made a threat of their own to the U.S.

BASH: Yeah. And what you said about consumers is really important. We have to take a break, which is, if Colombia didn't back down, and there was a 25 percent tariff on Colombian goods, a lot of people who drink coffee would be paying a lot more for their coffee, and that would have had a questionable impact on Donald Trump.

All right, everybody, up next. We're going to talk about President Trump trying to clean house. He fired more than a dozen inspectors general, the watchdogs who look out for fraud and corruption from inside government agencies. And today, the world is marking international Holocaust Remembrance Day at a time of rising hate against Jews. I'll speak with America's former special envoy to fight antisemitism. Stay with us.

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BASH: The Friday night massacre. President Trump fired more than a dozen government watchdogs on Friday in violation of a 2022 law that requires the president to notify Congress and give 30 days' notice in doing so. Senate Republicans are big supporters of that law, sponsors of the law, but now they're responding with a bit of a shrug.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The law says that 30 days before a president fires an inspector general, which of course, is an internal watchdog for government agencies. He must tell Congress, tell you why. That didn't happen. He broke the law.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Yeah. I think, you know, yeah, he should have done that. But the question is, is it OK for him to put people in place that he thinks can carry out his agenda? Yeah. 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, and that makes sense to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Smart reporters are back. Leigh Ann, some of these inspectors general were actually appointed by him the first time he was there. Some of them have done watchdog reports, inspector general reports that Donald Trump has applauded. So, there was not necessarily a total rhyme or reason why some of them were fired and some of them were kept on, but the bottom line is, separate from the fact that he did it in a way that broke the law.

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CALDWELL: Yeah.

BASH: It's that he did it at all, given what these individuals do when it comes to good government.

CALDWELL: Inspectors general are central to government agencies and central to non-partisanship. They do not subscribe to one party or another. They work under both administrations. And that is why -- that is why this tradition has been kept, to keep most inspectors general. Now, of course, some have been fired in the past. Donald Trump fired a few in his first term. Joe Biden fired one. I believe it was.

But the fact that he did not notify Congress given the 30 days also just 10 days ago, 11 days ago, the creation of a bipartisan caucus on inspectors general to protect and uphold inspectors general was created on that is Senator Joni Ernst started it. Senator Chuck Grassley is on it, so as Senator James Lankford.

They say that inspectors general not only important for investigating agencies, but also waste, fraud and abuse, and overseeing federal governments or federal budgets as well. So, it's going to be interesting to see if Congress does anything. It sounds like not a lot.

BASH: Long time ago, but former Des Moines Register reporter Jeff Zeleny knows all too well about Chuck Grassley's obsession about this. Like, I actually think this is what helps get him up in the morning. He's so focused on this kind of thing. And he was part of, not only as a member of this new caucus, but he was a big reason this law was updated in 2022.

Here's what he said about Donald Trump's move. He said there may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so. I'd like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the 30-day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress.

ZELENY: And let's see what he says after that. I mean, that certainly is a very clear statement. It's in violation of the law. So, let's see if Senator Grassley will hold the Trump administration accountable for this.

But I think the bigger picture is, if this administration is wants to focus on government spending through dojo's general (Ph) reports, lay out a pretty good pathway funds, I'm thinking back to the stimulus funds back in '09 and '10. Some of these reports were actually very essential to sort of shining a light on abuse and things.

So, to me, it is not a serious form of governing to get rid of everyone carte blanche, but it's easy. That's the easy thing to do that gets a headline firing inspectors general, as opposed to seeing, you know if some are good or not or whatnot, but it's just, I think, in search of a headline, rather than actually in search of government issues.

BARRON-LOPEZ: But to me, it also fits with what Trump's campaign Heritage Foundation Project 2025 and others made clear that Trump wanted to do when he came into office, which is essentially his loyalists across the board, people that wouldn't necessarily provide that check and balance.

And another thing an inspector general does is that they also make sure that the administration is doling out funds as they're supposed to, based on congressional allocation. And that's something that Trump has made clear he wants to fight. He wants to essentially take back the power of the purse from Congress. He and his incoming OMB director have made that very clear, and an inspector general would keep an eye on that that is like primo project 2025 stuff.

BASH: Just real quick. I do want you to listen to what Mark Greenblatt, who was fired as the inspector general for the interior department said on CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK GREENBLATT: FORMER INTERIOR DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR GENERAL: These removals should be sending off alarm bells for a number of different reasons, but the primary one, in my view, is the independence of these positions. The whole construct of inspectors general, it's based on us being independent, that were not beholden to a political party of any stripe. What will President Trump do with these positions? Is he going to nominate watchdogs, or is he going to nominate lap dogs? That's the key question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK. Another key question that I don't want to lose sight of is the pardons that President Trump issued a week ago on day one of his administration, and that included people who were convicted of more than hundred, people who were convicted of violence against police officers against law enforcement. This is something that a lot of Republicans said they didn't want him to do. He did it anyway.

Listen to what Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump said about that.

[12:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: No, I've always said that. I think when you pardon people who attack police officers, you're sending the wrong signal to the public at large, and it's not what you want to do to protect cops. But he has that power. I don't like this. I don't like it on either side, and I, think the public doesn't like it either. So, if this continues, if this is the norm, there may be an effort to reign in the pardon power of the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, we'll see that would take a constitutional amendment, because it is pretty basic in the constitution, but some people are really upset about it. And Leigh Ann, I do want you to also look at an image that we saw over the weekend. Saturday night in particular, he was in Las Vegas, and President Trump was on stage.

On that stage also was Stewart Rhodes, who is the head of the Oath Keepers, and he was pardoned. He had -- there you can see it. He was pardoned. He had been convicted of almost 20 years, I believe, in prison for seditious conspiracy.

Can you talk about this from a political perspective, from a reporter perspective, and Leigh Ann, you were in the Capitol on January 6.

CALDWELL: Yeah. And there's still a lot of Capitol police officers who were attacked that day, who are still in the Capitol that day serving, doing their work something that was very tough for them in the days after having to defend some of these members of Congress, who also some of them at the time, very few, but defended, and eventually defended Donald Trump.

I kept hearing that a lot over the past few years, about -- from some of these Capitol police officers. But from a political perspective, Donald Trump did campaign on this, perhaps not on the expansiveness of this.

And so, politically speaking, Donald Trump doesn't see that think that there's any negative impact from it. There is something we were talking the other day, actually. This is something that Kamala Harris campaigned on democracy, you know, rule of law at the end of her campaign, and she didn't win.

Now, it's something interesting that you said, Jeff, when about the firings of the inspectors general. How easy just to fire them all. Donald Trump insinuated that too, that going through these cases individually was going to take a lot of time and is going to be difficult, and so they just pardoned them all. But Lindsey Graham's response to that, who is an ally of Donald Trump, was quite interesting.

BASH: Yeah. Sure was. Don't go anywhere. Stay with us, up next. Pete Hegseth is reporting for work at the Pentagon today as President Trump prepares to sign new executive orders that could reshape the U.S. military. That's after a quick break.

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