Impact of Operation Jump Start; Thousands Expected to Rally for Immigration Reform; Iraq Without the U.S.?
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed. I'm Tony Harris.</s>HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM on this Tuesday, May 1st. Here's what's on the rundown. Dead or alive? Nobody knows for sure, but reports say the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq has been killed. We're following those developments.</s>HARRIS: Immigration rallies launched this hour. Thousands taking it to the streets across the country today. Day-long coverage of "Immigration Nation" on</s>CNN. COLLINS: And we'll go to the Wild West, a hard-boiled sheriff with little patience for illegal immigrants. And he's a master at making his point. Meet Sheriff Joe in the CNN NEWSROOM. The frontlines of the immigration battle, the U.S.-Mexico border. One year ago, President Bush called for more National Guard troops to be deployed. So how do those efforts measure up? CNN's Chris Lawrence is in the California border town of San Ysidro. Chris, what impact is the effort having so far?</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you look at the numbers, there seems to be some evidence that fewer people are getting across. Here at San Ysidro, it is a legal port of entry, meaning more than well over 400,000 people cross through this border every single hour, making it possibly the busiest land crossing in the world. And here there's a constant cat and mouse game going on between border agents on the American side and spotters on the Mexican side who observe where the drivers are going, through which lanes, trying to help the smugglers get through the checkpoints with either drugs or sometimes even people. We have seen some simply heartbreaking photographs and pictures of men and women crammed into the dashboard of a car, sometimes children stuffed into seat covers and then covered up. Even into gas tanks, all desperately trying to get into the United States any way they can. But coming through a legal port of entry and sneaking through is just one way to get into the country illegally. Last year, President Bush announced an initiative called Operation Jump Start, which was designed to secure the border in between these legal ports of entry. What he did was deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, 40 percent of which would go to Arizona alone, which had been a very, very difficult point for the Border Patrol to secure. We looked at what impact that may have had, and it seems in certain areas it has had some. Take Yuma, Arizona, a border town, for example. Before Operation Jump Start, they were apprehending about 400 people a day for crossing into the country illegally. After Jump Start, that number is just a fraction, 140 imported people now. And when we look at those numbers, that doesn't necessarily mean that fewer people are getting through, but it does suggest that it is a possibility, depending on how you look at the numbers. Also, a number that has gone up is violent attacks. Violent attacks on Border Patrol agents have gone up in the last year. But officials are telling us that they look at that as a good sign, because as they look at that number, they say that means it's getting tougher getting across the border and the smugglers are having to use more protection and are getting more frustrated by the Border Patrol's efforts -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: OK. All right. CNN's Chris Lawrence reporting from San Ysidro, California, this morning. Chris, thank you.</s>HARRIS: Fighting to become Americans. Will numbers speak louder from words? From New York to Los Angeles, tens of thousands are expected to rally today for immigration reform. One rally set to get under way right now in Chicago. CNN's Soledad O'Brien will be there in the thick of it. There she is. She joins us from Union Park. Soledad, what are you hearing? What are organizers expecting today?</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey. You know, what organizers are saying is that they could have something like hundreds of thousands of marchers today. The numbers last year were around 400,000. Some people said there were more like 700,000. It remains to be seen how it's going to work out this year. So far, some good weather. And, of course, that always helps a march, as you well know, Tony. The actual march itself begins at 1:30 local team, which is 2:30 your time, of course. But there are rallies. And that's what you're seeing behind me now. People have kind of come for the rallies. You can probably hear the sound of the radio stations and some of the rallies as they get under way. People are beginning to just stream in. One think you'll notice, the number of Mexican flags that we're seeing this year few and far between. Mostly American flags, mostly what they're selling here now. All these feeder marches will then come here, and then at 1:30 local time everybody will march due east right into Grant Park. It's about a two, three-mile hike. What's been interesting to see is the change this year in the focus. Last year it was the Sensenbrenner bill. This year, people have been really concerned about the immigration raids and criminal raids. And I asked one woman whether this was the kind of thing that was -- was scaring her to the point where it was keeping her up at night and not allowing her to sleep, because she has got two small children who are U.S. citizens. Here's what she told me.</s>O'BRIEN: Worrying about your daughters?</s>O'BRIEN: No school for the children. No work for you.</s>O'BRIEN: And so I asked her, you know, why not go back? And she said, well -- you know, there's nothing there. There's no opportunity. All the opportunity is in the United States. And that's really the story you hear over and over again, whether you're on the Mexican side of the border or talking to illegals who are on this side of the border, that the reason they're here is there are opportunities. And their children, who in many cases are American citizens -- three to four million kids here are American citizens with parents who are illegals -- that their opportunities for their kids, that's sort of just the fact of it as it stands right now -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Hey, Soledad, we know how important the kind of fuel young people provided for the civil rights movement of the '60s. I'm wondering about young people today. Will they be taking a part in any of these rallies, these marches? And what about school-aged children? What are they being encouraged to do?</s>O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it's interesting. They did not, like other marches, encourage children to ditch school and come take place -- take part in the march, as we've seen in other cities. And yet, as you're asking that question, Tony, I'm kind of looking around, and it's, like, hmm, I see a lot of young people, I see a lot of people who are high school age and even younger, who clearly are here and going to be taking part in the march. But it's not something that's been endorsed. That's been a pretty controversial thing. A lot of people are bringing their small children as well. Again, I think, if you've got the weather, if you've got the kids, you might get the numbers that some people are expecting, which are in the high hundreds of thousands. Other numbers that we've heard about are in the low thousands.</s>HARRIS: wow.</s>O'BRIEN: Seven thousand was one number we were hearing yesterday. And I've got to tell you, I believe in that range. I could be convinced that it's going to be low, and I can be equally convinced that it's going to be very, very high. We're going to just kind of wait and see.</s>HARRIS: Yes. CNN's Soledad O'Brien for us, Union Park there in Chicago. Great to see you, Soledad. Thanks.</s>COLLINS: We are following reports of a death of a reputed terror leader in Iraq. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, said to have been killed in fighting with Sunni tribes. This has not been confirmed by the U.S. military or the Iraqi government. Iraqi security forces are trying to retrieve the body and perform DNA tests. Born in Egypt, al-Masri followed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the head of the terrorist organization. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been blamed for much of that country's insurgent activity.</s>HARRIS: Dire predictions. Some U.S. troops and Iraqi officials warn an early American exit could leave the country in worse shape than it's now. CNN's Hugh Riminton reports.</s>HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jesse Mohammed (ph) has no doubt what his country would be like without U.S. forces. "It would be like this," he says. He's seen the sectarian violence first hand. He's one of just two security guards left protecting a power station on a Sunni-Shia dividing line in northwestern Baghdad. The work so dangerous, 40 other guards have fled. He welcomes the temporary security of a passing U.S. patrol. These Iraqi soldiers are on the last day of their training. The U.S. military says the Iraqi army, despite growing in numbers and proficiency, is not yet ready to take over the fight against the insurgents. American commanders like General Dana Pittard believe that withdrawing U.S. troops too soon would leave the whole country vulnerable.</s>GEN. DANA PITTARD, U.S. ARMY: I think that it would cause a huge vacuum that enemies of the government and enemies of Iraq could take advantage of. Now's not the time.</s>RIMINTON: Among those enemies the Americans include Iran, already accused by Washington of supporting both sides of the insurgency, but especially their sectarian brothers in Iraq's Shia militias.</s>PITTARD: We cannot leave Iraq in disarray. I mean, we came here in 2003. We cannot leave here, leave this nation as a failed state.</s>RIMINTON: Iraq's oil minister, Husayn al-Shahrastani, agrees now is too early for the Americans to talk of leaving.</s>HUSAYN AL-SHAHRASTANI, IRAQI OIL MINISTER: Iraq is making good progress in building its armed forces. And by the end of this year, we should have sufficient, trained forces to be able to handle the security on our own.</s>RIMINTON (on camera): By the end of this year?</s>AL-SHAHRASTANI: Yes.</s>RIMINTON (voice over): So what might happen if U.S. troops withdraw before securing stability in Iraq?</s>JON ALTERMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: What I would expect to have is lots of warlords popping up with more and more control around the country, and the central government becoming more and more of a shell that doesn't really represent anything.</s>RIMINTON: Without U.S. support, he fears Iraq could become an established center for both local and international terrorism. Its territory, a proxy battlefield for regional powers like Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. And all of that for years to come.</s>ALTERMAN: When you have a civil war or an insurgency with lots and lots of external resources coming into it, it can go on for a very, very, very long time.</s>RIMINTON (on camera): One U.S. soldier I spoke to here says he does not believe any longer that the U.S. can win the war here, but he fears the consequences of withdrawal, it could be a catastrophe, he says, for America's friends here.</s>STAFF. SGT. MATTHEW ST. PIERRE, U.S. ARMY: We are the buffer right now, and when you pull us out, the people that support us are going to feel a wrath, and the people that were against us -- and they're the majority -- they're going to, I believe, ultimately win.</s>RIMINTON (voice over): It's only one soldier's view, but he believes whenever U.S. troops withdraw, they will leave Iraq in a worst state than they found it. Hugh Riminton, CNN, Baghdad.</s>HARRIS: And still to come this morning, a show of support for the top brass. The commander in chief heads to U.S. Central Command, may be landing in Tampa even as we speak. Details coming up for you in the</s>NEWSROOM. COLLINS: Don't ask, don't tell. A New Jersey mayor's policy makes a safe haven for immigrants. Many of them breaking the law -- in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Pet food fears, widening investigation. Will it affect what's on your dinner table? That story ahead in the NEWSROOM.