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The Situation Room

College Football National Championship; Immigration Crackdown; Democratic Voters Highly Motivated For Midterms?. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 19, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:02]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Just 28 percent of Americans approve of the job that the Democratic congressional leaders are doing, right?

For Republicans, it's 35 percent. So more folks approve of congressional Republican leadership than they do of congressional Democratic leadership. Yet you see that Democrats are leading on that congressional ballot.

You go, hmm, that's very interesting. How could that be? Well, there are two reasons for why that is. Number one, Democrats are far less likely to approve of their own leaders than Republicans are, but here is the key nugget.

When we're talking about midterm elections, it's about one person really and one person only. And that is the president of the United States. And take a look here. Choice for Congress if you disapprove of Trump -- and 59 percent of voters in our poll disapprove of Trump -- look at this, 76 percent, about three in four, in fact, slightly more than three in four, say they're going to vote for the Democrats for Congress compared to just 8 percent who say they're going to vote for the Republicans for Congress.

So, yes, it is absolutely the case that congressional leadership on the Democratic side is not well liked among Democrats compared to what we see historically and not well liked compared to what we see among Republicans. But the truth is, that may not matter all that much, given that the man who's in charge of the executive branch is Donald John Trump.

And, right now,the vast majority of Americans and voters don't like the job that he's doing. It kind of reminds me of what we saw back during the 2010 cycle, when there were a lot of folks who didn't like what Republican congressional leadership was doing. And guess what, Pam?

It didn't matter because voters didn't like the job that Barack Obama was doing back then, and they punished Democrats, who lost control of the House in one of the largest waves, in fact, the largest wave of either of our lifetimes.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Yes, all right, Harry Enten, thanks for bringing us the latest with those numbers. Always appreciated, and great to see you.

ENTEN: Nice to see you.

BROWN: Well, just ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: what federal government numbers say about the first year of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:36:36]

BROWN: Happening now: Troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota as the Homeland Security Department ramps up what it calls its largest immigration enforcement operation to date.

The sweeping crackdown is part of President Trump's promise of mass deportations, but one year into his second term, is he delivering on that promise?

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez covers this issue extensively for us and joins us now.

Priscilla, good to see you.

What do these numbers actually show on Trump's immigration action so far?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with Minneapolis, because you just mentioned that operation that's been ongoing there with some 3,000 federal agents on the ground.

Well, according to the Department of Homeland Security, they have arrested around 3,000 undocumented immigrants who they say have criminal records over the last six weeks of this operation. Now, we don't have the full list of all 3,000, but they have released names and convictions that some of these individuals had in press releases.

So we do know that some of them did have some serious convictions against them, though we don't know the accounting of all 3,000 because they also arrest people who are in the United States on immigration violations.

So, zooming out here, we are talking about around 605,000 deportations in the president's first year. That's a large amount, but it includes two different agencies. So we have deportations that happen on the border. Those happen fairly quickly because someone is just getting processed in and then getting processed out.

We also have the interior deportations. So that is the biggest challenge for the Trump administration, which is getting someone in the interior of the United States and then deporting them, a process that takes a while. It's the arrest, the processing, the sending to a detention facility, and then getting the country of -- their origin country to agree.

So this has been the biggest challenge for this administration because, Pamela, the U.S.-Mexico border, is pretty quiet. They only have some 100 apprehensions a day. So people are still crossing, but, like I said, they're able to quickly deport them too.

That is a massive change from the Biden administration, certainly, but even from the first Trump administration, where the border is not really their challenge right now, which opens up more manpower to go out in the streets and do these interior arrests.

Now, what do we know about who exactly is being arrested? Well, we have a pie chart with those who have immigration violations as well as those who are convicted criminals and pending criminal charges. Now, there are around 33,000 who they've arrested who have immigration violations.

What does that mean? They're here illegally in the United States. You see the pie chart there. Convicted criminals, like I said, we get press releases that show people who are convicted for murder as well as other serious crimes that they have also arrested and deported.

Pending criminal charges can really range. In my reporting on this, sometimes, we see traffic-related offenses alongside other more serious offenses that is included in the pending charges. Of course, pending would suggest that they have not been convicted.

But, all in all, you can see there what makes up and what best we know about what makes up those who are detained by ICE, potentially facing deportation. I say potentially because there is still a process that many go through.

We shouldn't overlook how many are detained, because 68,000 is a massive number. In fact, historically, that is unprecedented for ICE to be detaining so many individuals. And many times, part of the reason for that is because they're arresting and putting them into detention, but they can't move them out of detention fast enough.

That has been the pipeline problem from the Department of Homeland Security for a very long time because origin countries don't always accept their nationals because of frosty relations or for other reasons or because they're limited in their flights.

[11:40:10]

And, again, on the country of origin, sometimes, our information on that individual from their country of origin is not very good. That's issues with information sharing between those countries and the United States. So, oftentimes, we'll hear from the Department of Homeland Security that maybe an individual who we say or we can't find a criminal record for may have a criminal record in their origin country.

That's often a challenge for us to verify, just as much as in some cases it is a challenge for the Department of Homeland Security, which is part of the reason that they say they are concerned about certain individuals in the United States whose countries do not provide enough information on them. BROWN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you for bringing us the

latest there.

Joining us now is the former acting Director of ICE under President Obama John Sandweg.

John, so we've seen these dramatic videos of masked agents questioning and detaining people on the street, even in some cases going into homes of Minneapolis. And I spoke to the DHS spokesperson on Friday and asked her about those videos.

And she said, well, they're not telling the full story and that kind of thing, and then asked her, well then why aren't ICE agents required to wear body cameras? And she said, well, we're working on that, we just got some new funding and they will be wearing body cameras.

And I'm wondering how much you think that will make a difference here?

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: Pamela, I think the body cameras are a critical step, right?

ICE is rolling those out nationwide slowly. It does not appear, from what we've seen, very many body cameras at use in Minneapolis, which is very unfortunate. Listen, in my experience, the body cameras are very valuable to the agents themselves.

I understand they're sometimes reluctant because people -- the agents sometimes are reluctant to wear them for fear that it could just foster excessive use of force claims. But, generally, I think it defends the agents more often than not.

Typically, when you see the body cameras, it gives a different perspective that makes their use of force more acceptable. But, again, Pamela, as you and I have talked about, we're seeing agents just doing things they aren't normally trying to do, they aren't normally required to do.

And a lot of these problems we're seeing are just a byproduct of them being out of position.

BROWN: Right.

And I think it's important to understand the nuance. I mean, we live in an era where people are -- want the villain and hero, the absolutism, right?

SANDWEG: Yes.

BROWN: But, I mean, both can be true, that ICE is carrying out these targeted operations, getting people with criminal charges, convictions, criminal rap sheets who are here illegally off the streets, which is what a majority of the American people want, according to the polls.

But, at the same time, there could be issues with the crowd control, right, because that's not typically part of their everyday training and what they do.

SANDWEG: Yes.

I mean, to be fair, though, Pamela, I will say a couple of things. One is that, although the administration says a lot of these operations are targeted -- and, absolutely, they have gotten some bad guys off the streets. And, as Priscilla just mentioned, a press release, right, sometimes a murderer, sometimes someone with criminal history of sex offenses, right, good cases that I think the public broadly supports.

But the targeting has been lowered, right? So we know that 73 percent of the people in ICE detention currently have no criminal convictions. A lot of those people, I can just tell you from experience, having crunched this data extensively, that you just don't find that many people with those violence criminal histories.

A lot of those criminal arrests are going to be for traffic offenses or loitering offenses. It can often be hard if you're -- for -- undocumenteds get a driver's license -- they get criminally charged with driving without a license. I'm not saying that that is not an appropriate use of ICE resources, right, or that we shouldn't be targeting that population.

But I do think it's fair to say we should have an open public debate about this. And we need to be a little more clear in saying, these are who we're targeting. And then, of course, you have your collaterals, Pamela, which I think a lot of these incidents and these questions about identifications hinge on this use of collaterals, right, where you're doing a targeted operation, you're going after one individual.

You come across a family of four, none of whom have a criminal history. This administration obviously is prioritizing the apprehension of those individuals and taking them into custody.

BROWN: I want to ask you about this new reporting we have from my colleague Evan Perez that the FBI initially opened a probe into the ICE agent involved in that shooting with Renee Good as a civil rights investigation, and then shifted away from the agent and looked at more of the assault of the agent and Renee Good and her widow and others involved.

And I wonder what you think about that. Do you think that there should be an investigation into that agent?

SANDWEG: I think there needs to be an investigation into the shooting.

There is a protocol in place that calls for an investigation into any shooting, regardless of whether or not it ends up in a lethal use of force, right, whether someone dies as a result of that. This is the traditional protocols.

And the reason that there is, for accountability purposes. The good news, Pamela, as you and I've talked about, is, in my experience, the overwhelming majority of ICE agents get up every day hoping that they can make the country a little safer, certainly aren't looking to be -- use excessive force against American citizens or anybody, including people, undocumented immigrants they may be arresting.

[11:45:03]

But the bottom line is, those measures, those mechanisms, those accountability mechanisms are important. And if -- mistakes can be made, and it's important that we identify those mistakes, even if it's not to say, hey, we're going to criminally prosecute you, but, rather, we're going to use this as a training opportunity to make sure that we're addressing issues that maybe need to be addressed writ large.

I think it's very unfortunate, and I think it's fair to say there's been a lot of criticism, saying that this idea that the administration will rush to defend anybody, regardless of the circumstances, any time anyone with DHS is alleged of using excessive force.

I think it's fair to question whether or not that might result in a culture change at the agency where people are more aggressive because they know it doesn't matter. There's never going to be accountability.

BROWN: What is the difference between the FBI investigation -- and then you heard the secretary of DHS, Kristi Noem say yesterday that there is a review of this ICE agent's tactics in the Renee Good shooting. What would that do, in your view?

SANDWEG: Well, look, I'm fine with a DHS internal investigation.

There are entities inside the department. There are criminal investigative agencies that do investigate misconduct, whether that's criminal misconduct or just violation of policies or mistakes, even if it's just an audit, right?

There's the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, which is the internal affairs, so to speak, at ICE. And then there's the DHS Office of Inspector General, which is a cadre of criminal investigative agents who do investigate employee misconduct, corruption cases, excessive use of force cases.

My understanding was originally, though, the FBI asserted jurisdiction here, was going to run the investigation. I also understand that there was a determination that there might be enough evidence here, based on reviews of the video, to suggest that a civil rights investigation was warranted to determine whether or not Ms. Good's civil rights were violated in this shooting.

Listen, I think that, traditionally -- I just worry, again, going back to the credibility issues. If the FBI wants to be part of the investigation, for better or worse, they have a brand name. The idea, however, we're going to close down that investigation, shift it over to internal DHS assets that people aren't as familiar with certainly kind of fosters, again, this -- and that goes, Pamela, this rush to judgment and this idea that, no matter what happens, we will never say that we made a mistake, right?

And, again, you're not impugning the idea of ICE as an agency. You're not impugning the officers. But you can say that we made a mistake. And good people who mean well, agents who mean well can make mistakes. And it's OK -- in my experience, it's OK and gives the agency credibility and bolsters it to sometimes admit that, if that's true.

BROWN: John Sandweg, thank you so much for coming on and offering your very important perspective here. We appreciate it.

SANDWEG: Thank you so much.

BROWN: And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:06]

BROWN: Miami's usual buzz of excitement is reaching a fever pitch, as college football's final two teams clash in the national championship game.

And their stories could not be more different. Miami, a former football powerhouse, hopes for a return to glory. And Indiana, a historically strong basketball school, is looking to cap off one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college football history.

CNN's Coy Wire is in Miami right now.

Lots of excitement there, I imagine, right, Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes.

And a lot of Indiana red running around this city. Pamela, this is incredible, as you mentioned, two remarkable turnarounds spearheaded by two remarkable leaders. Miami head coach Mario Cristobal grew up in Miami, won two titles as a Hurricanes player from '89 to '92. The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, was his teammate.

His discipline, no-nonsense approach has given Miami a shot at their first title in 24 years. They're on a mission. But coach almost went on a totally different mission, Pamela. After college, he trained, studied and was accepted as a Secret Service agent. I asked him about that decision to chase his other dream instead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO CRISTOBAL, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, MIAMI HURRICANES: It was something that I always kind of envisioned myself doing, being -- working for the federal government. I loved every aspect of it. My family's always been in law enforcement, but slept on it, woke up in a panic.

I love football. I have always loved football. Didn't really play it for anybody else or want it for anybody. I just loved it. And I wasn't willing to let that opportunity go again. So, by the grace of God, I was able to move my stuff back in my G.A. office, which, Davis, Larry Coker took me back and gave me the opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WIRE: Pretty awesome. He said he found out he had been accepted as a Secret Service agent on a pager and decided to take that job as a G.A., making about a $1.50 an hour, Pam.

Now, Indiana's coach, Curt Cignetti, grew up in locker rooms. His dad, Frank, College Football Hall of Famer, while head coach at West Virginia, he hired a young Nick Saban as his assistant. Nearly 30 years later, Saban returned the favor, hiring Curt Cignetti to his inaugural staff at Alabama in '07.

In four years there, Cignetti helped secure some of the top recruiting classes ever. And after 27 years, he finally got his chance to become an FBS head coach. Now at 64, he's instilling his wisdom into this Indiana team. He says he's seen how the media sensationalizes how closely knit they are, hugging at practice.

But he says, Pamela, he's tired of that narrative. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURT CIGNETTI, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, INDIANA UNIVERSITY: I think it's time to sharpen the saw now, throw those warm fuzzies over out the door, that sentimentalism. It's time to go play a game against a great opponent. We got to have a sharp edge going into this game. And you don't go to war with warm milk and cookies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:55:04]

(LAUGHTER)

WIRE: No milk and cookies, Pamela. Indiana will play tonight for their first ever national title.

Ticket prices mind-blowing, current get-in for the worst seats, $4,000.

BROWN: Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Coy Wire in Miami. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

WIRE: You got it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A live picture this morning from the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Today, people around the country remember and honor the life and legacy of the civil rights Leader. And, for many, his fight against injustice resonates as strongly today as it did when he was assassinated in 1968. Americans are encouraged to use today not as a day off, but as a day of service, volunteering and giving back to their community.

[12:00:08]

BROWN: Well, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

"INSIDE POLITICS," today with Audie Cornish, starts right now.

See you back here tomorrow.