Ten Americans Have Died, Putting Resorts Under Scrutiny; 249 Migrant Children to be Moved From Controversial Facility
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. Want to check the headlines for you this hour. President Trump announced new sanctions on Iran Monday. They targets Iran's Supreme Leader, military officials and the foreign minister denying them access to certain U.S. financial assets. The President said the sanctions follow weeks of aggressive behavior by Iran including the downing of a U.S. drone. The U.S. Will unveil its Palestinian prosperity plan in Bahrain on Tuesday. Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner will pitch the proposal for $50 billion of investment in the Palestinian economy as a way toward peace in the region. Palestinians have boycotted it saying without a political peace plan first an economic deal is a nonstarter. Boris Johnson says it is not fair to ask questions about his personal life as he looks to become the next British prime minister. The conservative front runners is facing new scrutiny after police were called to an alleged altercation last week at the home he shares with his girlfriend. At least ten Americans have died over the past year while vacationing in the Dominican Republic. Neither officials there nor in the U.S. have said that deaths are connected. But there are similarities between some of them. Now a number of people are coming forward to tell their stories about being sickened while on holiday there. CNN's Drew Griffin investigates.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their story sounds similar to others, a dream trip to the Dominican Republic that ends in serious illness. The trouble for Tina and John Hammell started when they were woken from a nap by a powerful chemical smell in their hotel room.</s>TINA HAMMELL, SAYS SHE WAS POISONED AT DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: It was so strong that I was burning and coughing and it was very upsetting. But just panic sets in because you don't where this smell is coming from.</s>GRIFFIN: Tina lost her voice, felt nauseous The couple moved rooms but Tina's health kept getting worse</s>T. HAMMELL: I just remember saying something's not right, something's not right. I don't -- and he said, do I call the doctor? And I said I think so and after that it just quickly, quickly progressed. I'm on -- I'm on the bed and I remember --</s>JOHN HAMMELL, WIFE FELL ILL AT DOMINICAN RESORT: It's OK.</s>T. HAMMELL: I remember my muscles, my hands all turned in and my legs came up. I just was spasming and I lost consciousness</s>GRIFFIN: She spent four nights in a hospital in the Dominican Republic where doctors found lesions on her lungs, according to hospital records.</s>J. HAMMELL: My wife still was having a hard time basically breathing and staying alive.</s>T. HAMMELL: My muscles, my muscles.</s>J. HAMMELL: She just kept having these convulsions and they just kept sticking needles into her. You don't want to lose anybody, especially your wife or your children. And there was nothing I could do.</s>T. HAMMELL: You got me there. You got me there.</s>GRIFFIN: It's been three years now but Tina says she still has lingering effects. She doesn't know what made her sick. All her doctors in Canada can tell her is something she encountered in the Dominican Republic could have poisoned her.</s>T. HAMMELL: I never had a breathing problem before. I never had asthma. I never smoked. I -- you know we were healthy.</s>J. HAMMELL: The first doctor in</s>GRIFFIN: The Grand Bahia Punta Cana Hotel where the Hammells stayed is run by the same company that operates the Grand Bahia La Romana, where the recent mysterious deaths of three American tourists are under investigation. And CNN has spoken to dozens of tourists like the Hammells who've gotten extremely sick while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. Many who spoke to CNN believe their symptoms go beyond typical travel- related illnesses, though it's unclear what caused them. Several reports smelling a strong chemical odor in their rooms before getting sick. Many say they suffered stomach cramps, diarrhea, and malaise that lasted after they returned home. CNN previously reported the case of Kaylynn Knull and her boyfriend, Tom Schwander, who both fell ill after smelling chemicals in their room at Bahia La Romana in 2017. According to medical records, their doctors in Colorado think they were exposed to organophosphates, toxic chemicals found in pesticides that poisoned them.</s>TOM SCHWANDER, BELIEVES HE WAS POISONED AT BAHIA PRINCIPE RESORT: The abdominal cramping and the GI upset lasted for a -- a few weeks.</s>GRIFFIN (on camera): And you said drooling?</s>SCHWANDER: Yes, and drooling.</s>GRIFFIN: Sweat?</s>SCHWANDER: Bad sweat, tearing.</s>GRIFFIN: Dizzy?</s>SCHWANDER: Dizzy, nauseous. Yes. And the abdominal cramping was the worst. That was the hardest symptom to deal with. There was just so much pain.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Bahia Principe Hotels and Resorts says it can't comment on specific allegations but did send a statement to CNN saying, "The safety and comfort of our guests and staff stand at the core of our company values and that we regularly audit all hotels in respect to health and safety and consistently receive high certification scores for hygiene." Drew Griffin, CNN -- Atlanta.</s>CHURCH: The U.S. government confirms to CNN that 249 migrant children will be moved from a controversial detention center by Tuesday. It comes after shocking reports about the lack of food, clothing, soap, toothbrushes, and other basic necessities. One of those who witnessed the conditions firsthand spoke to CNN's Don Lemon about the decision to relocate the children.</s>WARREN BINFORD, LAW PROFESSOR, WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY: You know, on the one hand I'm really thrilled to know that these children will no longer be in this facility that was truly failing them on a fundamental level. But at the same time we received word that at least some children have been transferred to El Paso Border Station Number One and that's deeply concerning to us. It is a situation where the children maybe in a facility that's even worse than the one that they just left. When we went to do these inspections last week, we did have one of our attorneys, Clare Long from Human Rights Watch, go and visit that facility. There were almost no children there at the time. And because we have this crisis unfolding before us at the Clint facility she came back after interviewing the only child who is there. During that interview she learned that he had been hit by one of the guards at that facility. They don't really know have the infrastructure there to care for the children either. So what really needs to happen is that these children need to go to their parents, to their families here in the United States immediately.</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: I said in the opening of the show that we are living in a time now where a tent city a step up from the facilities that these children -- the conditions that these children were living in. And I know that you had been inspecting facilities like the Clint, Texas one for three years. And the team that you're on has been doing it for 20 plus years. And you say this is the first time that you ever went to the press about conditions. You say it was worse than actual prison conditions. Can you please explain that to me? And to our viewers?</s>BINFORD: Yes. So let me tell you why this visit was different. Border patrol facilities are notoriously horrendous places. They have never been suitable for children. And that is why the administration and the children's attorneys -- everyone has always agreed that there should be no children in these facilities. And so basically the child is processed at these facilities just for a few hours and then they're put into custody of Office of Refugee Resettlement where they can be for up to 20 days as that office tries to reunite these with children their families. However, what we saw with this population is not only were children in this facility but that children were being kept there for three weeks or longer. So it was not just a few you hours where the children were in these really horrific conditions. But they were there for so long that they were becoming ill from their conditions. There was a flu outbreak. There was also a lice infestation. And the children most importantly appear to be traumatized by the experiences that they were having. Having to sleep on concrete floors, having to defecate and urinate in toilets in front of one another. Having guards yelling at them because they had at one point lost a lice comb. So it was partially the number of children -- 350 children were there when we arrived. And of those children over a hundred of them were young children -- children who were in, you know, they were infants, toddlers, preschoolers, schoolchildren. And so seeing that many children kept in a border facility for that long is not something that we are used to seeing. And that was what caused us to come forward.</s>LEMON: Look, many of the children you interviewed are the same age as your own children. That's right, right?</s>BINFORD: Yes.</s>LEMON: So what was that like personally for you? I imagine that was tough.</s>BINFORD: Yes. You know, it is one of those things that you can't really think about when you're with the children because you really need to be strong for them. And so oftentimes it is after we leave these facilities that we just kind of fall apart because we've absorbed so much pain from the children that we are with. But what we're really trying to do is convey strength to them, convey hop to them, to treat them with dignity and respect and to express love towards them in one or two hours that we have with the children. But you know, there was a point when I couldn't stop. I couldn't help myself but to cry and turn away for a minutes. But then I had to pull it back together because I just -- I couldn't -- I couldn't go there.</s>LEMON: Were you just fighting back tears or there's something in your eye?</s>BINFORD: Now?</s>LEMON: Just now, yes.</s>BINFORD: It is hard. It's hard. But I will be OK I mean what -- what I'm really worried about, Don, are these kids. I mean these kids need to be with their families. They've experienced so much trauma. And we are responsible for them. We are the greatest country on earth. We have so much wealth. We have so many blessings. And these are just little innocent children who have come to us because of threats at home, because they've seen other children who have been decapitated in front of them because they are being threatened by gang rape. And many of them, most of them have family living here in the United States. And all they've come to us and ask for is that we get them to their parents. And this is what they've experienced. There was one little girl, she was taken away from her mother and her father and her younger sister. And she didn't want to go. The border patrol officers were separating her and she didn't want to be separated from her family obviously. And her dad went to her and he leaned down and he said honey, you need to go with these men, they're going to take you some place that is better for children. And this is where they took her with the Clint border patrol facility. So I feel like as a nation we are failing these children. And I know that we can do better and that we need to start to do better.</s>CHURCH: Some distressing details there. And a government spokesperson acknowledge Monday that unaccompanied migrant children are waiting to long in facilities that are not designed to care for them. We're going to take a short break here. Still to come Donald Trump responds as a 16th woman accuses him of sexual misconduct. We will hear from The President and his accuser. That's next.