'Your World' on Florida condo collapse, Biden's push for his infrastructure bill

close

Video

Florida condo had issues dating back to 1990s

FIU Institute of Environment Professor Shimon Wdowinski joins 'Your World' to discuss the findings of the land study he helped conduct in the 90s: 'the city was built on wetlands'

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," June 29, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be an entire building, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 -- 12 or 13 stories. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Most of the building is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Attention all units. Attention all units. Per command advising evacuate on 88th Street and Collins Avenue. Per command, advise all units to evacuate off 88th Street and Collins Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a high priority. We're going to need TRT. We're going to need a full assignment up there to everybody.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: All right, the eerie reaction to rescuers just arriving on the scene within minutes after the collapse of this Florida condominium and wondering not only how it could have happened, but what the heck happened, and could anyone survive it?

We still don't know after all this time.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto, and this is "Your World."

Indications a few moments ago that the president United States does plan to visit this area on Thursday to see for himself what remains a rescue operation. And they're not changing their minds on that, this at a time but we have 11 confirmed dead, 150 individuals still as yet unaccounted for.

The latest right now from Phil Keating on site at Surfside -- Phil.

PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Neil.

The round-the-clock search-and-rescue mission continues. But for the past 22 hours, not a single new victim has been recovered, nor any single survivor has been found.

We are now into day six. But the total numbers, as you just mentioned, are the same as they were last night at 7:00 p.m., 11 confirmed fatalities and 150 unaccounted for.

Here's some more of that newly acquired audiotape from the first responders as they pulled up on the scene of that brown building behind me.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we're looking at an MCI, start setting up an area for the walking wounded and start setting up all your groups.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Affirmative. This is going to be an MCI, level four, level five, six.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KEATING: MCI, by the way, means mass casualty incident.

Photos taken inside the building last week 36 hours before collapse show a building needing major repairs. As the condo tower was just about to begin $16 million worth of renovations, a commercial pool contractor came by to look around and make a bid. He shared these photos with The Miami Herald in the ground level garage, as well as the pool equipment room, two days before the building collapsed, showing cracks in concrete and severely corroded rebar under the pool.

He also said there was standing water all over the parking garage. A spokesman for the condo association released this: "The board retained experts and trusted experts, and at no time were they told of imminent threat of danger or collapse."

All eight of the state's urban search-and-rescue teams are on site using cameras, dogs, sonar, robots, tunneling and looking for pockets where a resident could still be alive. One block north of the Champlain Towers South is its sister building, the Champlain Towers North, built by the same developer at the same time in the early '80s with a similar design, and all the same materials.

Well, concerned and worried residents there have decided to hire an engineering firm, which today spending hours inspecting that building thoroughly. One of the residents that was contacted who lives in the north tower says he's not scared. He feels like his building is pretty solid.

But he says about a quarter of the residents have voluntarily evacuated -- Neil.

CAVUTO: Phil, thank you very, very much, Phil Keating.

To Jose "Pepe" Diaz. You're very, very familiar with this gentleman right now. I don't know if he's gotten any sleep through this whole process, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners chairman.

Commissioner, very good to have you.

These latest tapes bring home the total confusion among rescuers arriving on site minutes after the collapse of the building. This fear that it could be a mass casualty incident.

And I know you're continuing these rescue efforts, but how is that going right now, especially at a time when we have the confirmation of 11 dead, 150 unaccounted for? Can you tell us?

JOSE DIAZ, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY COMMISSION CHAIR: Neil, we're doing everything within our midst. Everything within the ability that can be done to do to rescue these people is being done.

We have -- it just happened that this disaster occurred in the area where you saw Team 1 to Florida, which is one of the most renowned known teams in the world of search-and-rescue. And they were on the building immediately.

When that call went out, basically, a part when -- they asked and send everybody. At that moment, when police arrived, and they saw the destruction, it was incredible. And we have had the very best working, and 35 people immediately accounted for and worked and rescued.

And it was an incredible scene, as it still persists to be an incredible scene. And these guys are incredible heroes. They don't stop working 24 hours a day, and, I'm telling you, in the worst conditions. We had a fire there. We had a constant fire with the smoke, the inhalation, the -- trying to put it out with water.

And then the rain has not seized. We have between 50 and 60 percent chance of rain almost every day, and we have had rain. And then when it's not raining, it's incredible heat. So every condition that could be possible negative to these men and women that are working so hard had -- they have endured them.

And their hope is still to find people alive. And you -- when you talk to them and be able to share a little time with them, they will tell you that they have a lot of hope. They really want to -- they believe in some of those crevices and stuff, they could save people.

And they're working very hard, very hard, Neil.

CAVUTO: Well, there's no doubt about that, Jose.

And I'm wondering. They're hoping to find people. I get that. Is there any sign? Do you hear any noise, anything that lead you or your men and women to believe that people are alive and under all that rumble?

DIAZ: They hear some types of noise, tapping noises and stuff like that. What that noise actually is that, they haven't really stated.

But I do know that they have that hope. And these are very professional people when they do this. And they know what you're doing. And we have people that not only our team, actually. We had teams, all the state of Florida teams, teams from abroad, the Israeli teams. I think the Mexican teams are coming in, and people that have all the experience in the world when it comes to these type of building collapses.

But I will tell you, as far as what that hope is concerned, Neil, when I went to the earthquake disaster in Haiti, when we got there, that we were taking a lot of supplies, medical supplies, and so on, as we were driving by, there was a -- we see a big commotion of people like jumping up and down and stuff.

And we stopped and looked. And that was the day that baby was rescued a week-and-a-half in. I think it was eight or nine days. And that was a baby, the most innocent little baby, and was rescued under a pile.

And so there is -- I believe God is strong. And the will and the faith that these people have, hopefully, hopefully, we could find people alive. And that's our hope. That's the hope that we have.

CAVUTO: Well, God is working through you, Jose, and your men and women. Hang in there. And keep us posted.

DIAZ: Thank you.

CAVUTO: I know it's been a Herculean effort, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, the Miami- Dade Board of County Commissioners chairman.

All of this as questions continue to abound about, could any of this have been avoided? Again, the focus quite properly is on rescuing people, finding life, trying to deal with that. But the issue keeps coming up from studies and surveys and problems that have popped up before, some dating back years.

And to this next fellow, Shimon Wdowinski, a Florida International University Institute of Environment professor there who had detected back in the 1990s that the building might have been sinking at the rate of a couple of millimeters a year. He joins us right now.

Professor, thank you very, very much.

Were you commissioned at the time to do this work, to study this particular building at the time? Was this part of a look at other buildings in the area?

SHIMON WDOWINSKI, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Good afternoon. And thanks for having me.

My study was very different in the focus and the way it's been conducted. I studied land subsidence in the entire city of Miami Beach and Surfside for a different purpose. The purpose is to understand why we have so much flooding. Since the mid-2000s, there was a significant increase in flooding in the Miami Beach.

And so we try to understand what contribute to that, how much the contribution is due to sea level rise and how much is due to land subsidence, because flooding occurred. It was these two processes together.

So, for that, we used the data that was acquired from European satellites in the 1990s. The study itself was done in the past five years, and it was published last year. So, we didn't focus on any particular building,. We studied all the buildings in that area.

And we found a different area where we had subsidence. Most of the areas were in the western part of the city, which is expected, because that part of the city was built on reclaimed wetlands. So, when you have been soil and building afterwards, there is some subsidence.

But we found one particular case in the eastern part of the city, which is supposed to be stable. So we reported about that. So we didn't -- we didn't look in a particular building. It just came out when we look at the results of the radar from space, that that building was subsiding at the rate of two millimeter per year, which is very small. And we cannot see it with our eyes, but it can be detected with certain instruments like the radar from space.

CAVUTO: So, when you had discovered this phenomena, this sinking phenomena, was it something that was going on over many years? You said it was a relatively small amount in the scheme of things. I think it represents a couple of hundreds of an inch, in layman terms here.

But was anyone notified of that?

WDOWINSKI: Well, we notified, but we notified the people who deal with sea level, sea level rise and the hazard, the sustainability about land subsidence, because that was the focus of our study.

It wasn't studies that focused on buildings. It's just a byproduct of these technologies that we can measure buildings that move. So, we notified about our study to the right community, which is the community with sea level rise.

CAVUTO: So when you heard later on, last week, that this building, this condo had collapsed, Professor, what did you think? Did you put two and two together, hey, wait a minute, this was one of the buildings we were looking at that had these issues back in the 1990s?

WDOWINSKI: No.

I -- when I heard about it, I was horrified and shocked, like most of other people or all people. So, these pictures and the video, I didn't connect it at all. It was a very smart journalist from USA Today who did find my study, and looked and he saw that it occurred -- that we marked over there that building.

So, he contact me. It was Thursday morning. And he asked me, is it correct? And I looked again in our publication, and I confirmed that. He reported it in his paper. And since then, everybody got interested.

CAVUTO: Obviously.

Professor, thank you very, very much. I did want to get the timeline on all of that. We'd love to talk to you again, sir, as you put a lot of these pieces together for us.

In the meantime, President Biden, as I indicated at the start of the hour, does plan to visit the condo collapse site himself, along with the first lady.

In the meantime, he was wrapping things up, pushing infrastructure in Wisconsin, the pressures on him not necessarily coming from Republicans, but fellow Democrats, who aren't satisfied -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, President Biden showed up in Wisconsin today to help tout that $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that now has Republicans on board. Democrats? Well, that could be another issue. We will get to that in a second.

First to the big trip and how it all went.

Matt Finn in La Crosse, Wisconsin, with more.

Hey, Matt.

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Neil.

The president spoke at a public transit facility here along the Mississippi River. He touted that bipartisan infrastructure deal, saying it's the U.S. government's biggest investment ever in roads and bridges, in public transit, and clean drinking water and many other areas of daily life, including high-speed Internet.

President Biden says this is -- quote -- "a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and will create new kinds of jobs with dignity for years to come," primarily jobs that don't require a four-year or even two-year degree.

Biden says the infrastructure plan will rebuild thousands of bridges, as more than half of the country's bridges right now are more than 50 years old. It also aims to create 35,000 electric buses, get rid of lead pipes, clean and cap old gas wells, make high-speed Internet accessible for everyone, and position America to better compete with China, who the president says is way outworking us.

Biden insists his plan will not raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hey, guys, I think it is time to give ordinary people a tax break. The wealthy are doing fine.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I mean it. I mean it.

Why is this not a tax break for working folks, when the stuff we give to the super wealthy are called tax breaks?

Look, major action on clean energy, housing, caregiving, on child and paid leave, universal pre-K, free community college.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINN: Democratic and Republican senators agreed to this infrastructure deal last Thursday.

But Democrats want more, the possibility of a second reconciliation bill that would include items that Republicans do not support, like adjustments to Medicare and climate change proposals.

And speaking of hot weather, a short while ago, the president made his customary stop for ice cream. A reporter joked, asking if he ordered rocky road ice cream because of how rocky the infrastructure agreement has been. And here's how that played out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: You're not getting rocky road for infrastructure?

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: I'll tell you -- rocky road. We're going to get it done.

OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINN: Give me a go.

The president ordered a mix of cookies and cream and strawberry ice cream, just for the record, Neil.

CAVUTO: I'm glad we now know that.

Thank you, Matthew, very much.

Matt Finn in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on all of that again.

Again, as Matt was indicating, the president's going to have a devil of a time with Democrats, it seems, more than Republicans.

Let's get the read on that with Tiana Lowe of The Washington Examiner, our own Charlie Gasparino.

Guys, thank you for joining me.

Tiana, what's the problem the president has with the left? They think he's kind of left out too much, right?

TIANA LOWE, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: So, there is the AOC wing of the left that will never be happy if it's not a $6 trillion bill with the Green New Deal and all of the socialist goodies that she wants.

But there is a case to be made that this is a very brute force bill. America has some of the best bridges and roads in the OECD, in terms of failure rate and in terms of quality. One of the most important things that Biden does have in this bill, two aspects, broadband and railways.

But the issue is, you can't just build new train lines or extend existing train lines and expect the traffic to follow. And where progressives like Ritchie Torres in Congress do get it right is that you have an affordable housing issue, and you have a land use issue.

This is something where Biden would be wise to consider tethering that federal funding to de-zoning and to allowing more housing density attached to those train lines, because, otherwise, you just have trains to nowhere.

CAVUTO: Charlie, the bigger issue, though, seems to be, whatever Democrats try to concoct in another follow-up spending package, even though it won't be attached to this and a yea or nay that the president seemed indicate last week, that would be a tough sell.

This infrastructure may be more of a sell. How do your guys that you talk to see it?

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly that, that this -- you can get some -- I mean, this infrastructure, everybody kind of likes it, until you get to the details.

By the way, when was the last time an infrastructure bill really -- we have been talking about infrastructure bills so much. We keep implementing them. And we still have allegedly lousy roads and bridges. I mean, it's just -- it's funny just how much money federally we spend on this and how and how bad the outcome is.

And there's a lot of reasons for that, namely, that it's probably not that bad to begin with. State and local localities are supposed to do most of this. Be that as it may, Republicans, it's something to talk about. They will spend money on roads and bridges.

Where I think the -- where the Republicans aren't going to go on board with any of this is the tax increases and on the Green New Deal stuff -- type stuff. And that's why it was, in my view, smart to break it up. And I can understand why AOC is and the left is that sort of tone-deaf to this thing.

If you break it up, you could probably get both things through, right? You get this one through. Then you do the stuff the Republicans aren't going to do on--

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: I don't know. They might get -- they might get this one through. I think you're right about that, Charlie.

Tiana, I don't know if there will be anything after infrastructure for the foreseeable future. What are you hearing?

LOWE: Well, yes, I mean, to his point, I think that it was a mistake that they tried to just do this omnibus. Breaking it up what it made it a lot more tenable, because now you have the progressive wing of the Democratic Party saying, we aren't going to go forward with a bipartisan bill unless we get a guaranteed massive reconciliation bill, which really puts Biden in a bind, because he either alienates the centrist Republicans who he requires to get this passed through, even in reconciliation, and the left, that it's threatening to nuke the bipartisan bill.

CAVUTO: Very good point.

LOWE: So -- yes.

CAVUTO: So, Charlie, real quickly, Wall Street doesn't seem to care.

I hate to look through that prism. They seem to think, steady as she goes, this is nothing to worry about. More money, more stimulus, they love that, whether it's paid for or not. What do you think, real quick?

GASPARINO: Yes. they only care about the Fed.

Once the Fed keeps interest rates at zero, Wall Street will be happy. They don't care about this.

CAVUTO: There you go.

But I care about you guys. Very good read on all of this. I appreciate it.

All right, in the meantime here, one of the things that was fascinating about today's Republican-only examination into the origins of COVID was that there wasn't any Democrat participation at all. That was by design. Why?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, forget stocks chasing records. Have you been looking at your home or just other homes?

In the latest period, increasing at a rate of close to 15 percent year over year. That's, like, big. What is going on?

After this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, FORMER U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: It is critical to our nation, to the American people, to the world, and to future generations that we develop a bipartisan consensus on the truth of what happened.

And I respectfully encourage the entire Congress to come together as truth seekers and truth tellers to accomplish this objective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, but that's not going to happen, no Democratic participation today, Dr. Fauci and some of the other key players not participating today.

So, was all this for naught, trying to get to the bottom how it all began with COVID?

Dr. Bob Lahita back with us, St. Joseph Health Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Diseases director.

Doctor, I'm going to take the leap here that we will never know how it all started, that the Chinese aren't cooperating. There isn't the full-force bipartisan clout to get to the bottom of it. You argued last time we were chatting that that's a problem. You weren't looking at the politics, but the fear that something like this could happen again. What do you think now?

DR. BOB LAHITA, ST. JOSEPH UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Oh, I think, Neil, that there's no question that we could have something like this happen again.

Whether it emanates from China is the real question. China seems to be the source of most of the coronavirus and the chronic SARS kinds of infections that we have seen in the last 30 years. So, most scientists believe that, being that the world is contracting somewhat, you can go from one end of the planet to the other within a day, that, yes, we are going to have another pandemic.

And the point is that we need to get to the origins of this virus and where it came from in China. It seems to be most likely the Wuhan lab. And I think, eventually, we're going to know.

CAVUTO: You know, in the meantime, Doctor, this Delta virus continues -- or variant, whatever they're calling -- is proving stubborn and sort of rattling the world. A lot of places are shutting down or cooling things down, whether you're talking Asia or Australia, and these spikes that are leading some to believe in this country, since they make up most of the or a large percentage of the new cases, that it could be a problem here.

And I know you tell me that these various vaccines address it. But if you have not been vaccinated, are you vulnerable to it?

LAHITA: Yes, if you're not vaccinated, Neil, you're definitely vulnerable to it.

And that's the reason, in California, they're saying, OK, now back to wearing masks in closed spaces. You can't go across the borders, for example, in Malaysia or in parts of the Far East like Thailand. And we know that Australia is having lockdown now and that New Zealand is being very, very careful with their borders.

So, this is a concern. Of course, these viruses do mutate. And they're going to continue to mutate. The question is whether these mutations will get to the point where our vaccinations will not be effective. And that's my big worry.

CAVUTO: All right, we will see what happens.

Dr. Bob Lahita, great catching up. I apologize for the truncated nature of all of this.

In the meantime, we are keeping track of these spikes in crime. Leave it to no less than former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to issue a warning to fellow Democrats: This crime thing, it's a big deal. Act like it.

He is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: So, Republicans are to blame for the latest spike in crime in this country?

Peter Doocy at the White House trying to get to the bottom of that and doing a lot of research in the process.

Peter, what did you find out?

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Neil, the White House's newest line is that Republicans voted to defund the police because they all voted against the COVID-19 stimulus package in the American Rescue Plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: That funding has been used to keep cops on the beat.

DOOCY: But, at the time, that was sold at these local police departments might have a pandemic-related budget shortfall not, we need to keep cops on the beat because there's crime wave.

PSAKI: I think that any local department would argue that keeping cops on the beat to keep communities safe when they had to because of budget shortfalls, fired police, is something that helps them address crime in their local communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: The text of the American Rescue Plan doesn't mention police. And tape of Republicans saying they want to defund the police is hard to find.

Tape of some Democrats saying that, though, easier to find.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): I am for defunding the police.

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): Yes, I support the defund movement because this is about the investment in our communities which have historically been divested.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): People, they were criticizing, like, why use the word defund? Why use the word defund? And it's like this is the word that's coming from the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: So, with all that on the record, Republicans are accusing Democrats of trying to rewrite history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): They're trying to blame Republicans now for the dumpster fire that they created. So we're going to continue to call them out on their extremist, radical agenda that included defunding the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: President Biden has not addressed this back-and-forth yet today. He is on his way back here to the White House from that infrastructure event in La Crosse, Wisconsin -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Peter, thank you very, very much.

Well, all of this defund the police talk that Democrats have been raising back and forth ever since the whole Floyd tragedy worries Michael Dukakis.

You remember him, of course, the 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, former governor of Massachusetts, who says he doesn't like what's coming out of the left's mouths right now, so much so, he said, it better stop, or we're all going to go lose.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FMR. GOV. MICHAEL DUKAKIS (D-MA): It's nuts, Neil, because we have spent the last 20 years or so, certainly when I was governor and other governors as well -- and Bill Clinton was a huge advocate of community policing.

And we have transformed policing in many, many parts of the country, maybe not all. Now, what is community policing? It's not too complicated.

But you build a relationship between police and people of mutual respect. I want to repeat that, a relationship of mutual respect. The community respects the police and the police respect the community.

And it has worked spectacularly well in those places where it's been attempted. One of them, I'm happy to say, is the city of Boston, which has the lowest homicide rate in America, Neil. I want to repeat that. Boston has the lowest homicide rate in America.

And what has it done? It strongly committed itself to a relationship between its police and the community that was positive, strong, that got police officers out of their patrol cars and into the streets and into the community with their citizens. And it's made a huge difference.

And it's not just Boston. It's lots and lots of places. An important fact, even with the pandemic and -- all the problems -- we have got a lot of it - - violence in Boston this year is down a little bit from last year.

So, this works. But you got to work at it. You have got to train police. Police themselves have got to be committed to this. And I'm happy to say that, in many, many communities in the country, they are, and it's made a huge difference.

CAVUTO: I remember well when this issue of crime became a big one in your 1988 quest for the White House, the whole Willie Horton ad and all of that, and that the irony was, if I remember at the time, you had very, very low crime in Boston, as you just stated is the -- remains the case now, where your opponent at the time, in the Austin area in Texas had much higher crime levels.

I'm not here to play politics with it. But I am curious, Governor, about whether you're sending a signal to Democrats, if you let this issue go, or you start running on the defund police movement, you're burnt. Is that what you're saying; you're going to repeat my sins?

DUKAKIS: Look, I think the refund -- the defund the police movement is already in the process of dying. I mean, just take a look at the New York elections.

But the fact of the matter is that we need police. They have got to be good police. They have got to work closely and constructively with the communities. The communities themselves have got to have a lot of respect for the police in their communities.

And if they do that, it makes a huge difference.

CAVUTO: You mentioned the New York mayoral race, where the law and order candidate, a guy with the 20 years of police department experience, appears to be the early-odds on favorite and ultimate winner.

I'm just wondering whether that race might have changed Democrats' view about how to handle this issue.

DUKAKIS: Well, first, remember, you're talking about a lot of Democrats, not just a narrow slice of them.

I'm a proud Democrat. I'm a progressive, but I'm for excellent community policing. And the same is true of Democrats all over the country. And I think the New York results will have an impact.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: What do you think of someone like an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then, Governor, someone who has made this a big cause and saying that you can't equate the two, you have still got to stand up against the police, you have still got to question how much money is committed to them?

What do you think of her and that strategy?

DUKAKIS: Well, look, and we educated her at Boston University.

(LAUGHTER)

DUKAKIS: So, funny. You may have missed that.

Look, I think the New York results will have a real impact. I think they really will. But it's more than just New York. It's a commitment to this idea of community policing, which is important, it's relevant, whether you're talking about small towns or big cities. And we have seen it work.

So, I think you're going to see a significant change in at least those folks that are arguing for defunding the police. It makes no sense to me at all.

CAVUTO: Are you worried for your party?

DUKAKIS: No, I'm not worried for my party, because I don't see anything on the other side that offers anything constructive or impressive at all. I don't know what has happened to the Republican Party. They're pretty sad.

But, in the meantime, I don't have to tell you, Democrats have to make sense. They have got to do important and good things. And I hope and expect that we will do so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAVUTO: You remember all those thousands that President Trump deported back when he was in the White House?

It looks like his successor is legally trying to bring a good many of them back -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, apparently, when you're deported, it doesn't mean forever.

We're told the Biden administration is reviewing thousands of cases of those deported back to Mexico or a points south.

Mercedes Colwin, our legal eagle, on whether they can do that and where this is going.

Mercedes, good to see you. What do you think?

MERCEDES COLWIN, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Great to see you, Neil.

Well, there are a lot of reasons why individuals that have been deported may want to return to the United States. They may have family here. They may have been the sole provider of their families as well. If they had come here illegally or overstayed their welcome, then they were deported.

But these are individuals that maybe even had children here who weren't able to petition for them to stay. And then, aside from all the others, there might actually be grounds for asylum. Maybe when they have returned to their mother country, they are now under siege, or they have political opponents in their country of origin which could pose a physical threat to their safety, which will then allow them to seek asylum in the United States.

So, there are varying, shifting sands when it comes to reasons why individuals who have been deported may be able to actually return to the United States.

CAVUTO: Has that ever happened, Mercedes?

COLWIN: It has.

I mean, it's -- so let's just say, for instance, these individuals that have been deported for a felony. Well, those individuals, if they do petition to return, most of them are not allowed back into the country.

But if they're individuals that have overstayed their welcome, and they're seeking some other reasons why to come back to the United States, it has happened.

In fact, years ago -- this is back in my college days -- I used to help individuals seeking asylum, whether they have overstayed their welcome, and they're back in their mother -- their country of origin, or they have been deported as a result of an expired visa or whatnot.

These are cases that I actually worked on. So, yes, it's absolutely possible. And it really depends on, once the paperwork is done and before - - when they come before the AOJ at the Immigration Nationalization Office what ends up happening to their petition.

CAVUTO: So, you have to remember that you -- that you live or are in a country or an environment where you feel your life or certainly your livelihood is in jeopardy.

COLWIN: Yes.

CAVUTO: Is that good enough for asylum or to be granted asylum? Because that would be about half of South American these days. But how would you define it?

COLWIN: Well, it would really be individuals that were either they had already been subject as physical violence, they have either been in prison -- these are the cases that I have worked on.

But these are the cases that I can tell you just generally are the more successful asylum cases that are permitted here. So, if their lives are threatened, if they have been -- they have already been in prison, if they have had physical assaults by members of the government or law enforcement, if they fall into categories where, in their particular country of origin, they are at particular risk, for individuals, for countries that, say, where homosexuality is criminal, and their lives are at risk as a result.

So, there are definite reasons why individuals can seek asylum, and they can do so successfully. And -- but let me -- and to your point, though, Neil, they are heavily scrutinized.

CAVUTO: Right.

COLWIN: Because you can imagine there are some very difficult circumstances occurring around the globe in other countries.

A passionate plea to come back to this country, where it is safe, is something that INS is used to. There are a lot of individuals that want to return to the United States or come here for different -- for a completely different experience and be safe.

CAVUTO: All right, we will watch it.

Mercedes, thank you for clarifying a lot of that. You gave me a quick education on the possibilities.

All right, and a quick education reality in Southern Florida right now. So many are looking at the collapse of that southern tower. How would you like to be in one of the other two buildings that have not been affected by this?

A resident in one is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, still a rescue mission going on in the south tower that collapsed, and already prompting Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to review all buildings across the state coastline, in the wake of this.

Probably welcome news to Luba Rosenbach, who joins me right now. Luba is a resident in the Champlain Towers East building.

I guess -- Luba, very good to have you. Thank you for taking the time.

There are three in total, right, then, the South tower, the one that obviously collapsed, the north tower, and you're an east tower resident, correct?

LUBA ROSENBACH, CHAMPLAIN TOWERS EAST RESIDENT: Yes, we're the middle tower. And we're the youngest tower as well.

CAVUTO: All right.

How are things in your building? And do you feel confident being in your building?

ROSENBACH: Well, right -- right this minute, I feel confident being in the building, because we have done -- so many inspectors came here and reassured us that we are in a good position.

We are really -- we don't have any structural damages as of now. And we're hoping that we are a very good building, which we actually have been taking care of our building for many years. And it's very well-attended, and renovation has been done. We never neglected our building, and thanks to our board of directors.

But definitely all this situation is very shaky and very unstable for everybody who lives on the coastline. We would like to have more research done. We would like to have more answers to our questions, whether it's safe our children in the future.

I don't know if anybody can answer this. But it would be nice to hear from more experts about the current situation.

CAVUTO: Sure, because I know the local authorities had said those in the north tower, a little bit closer to the south tower, that, if you feel nervous, by all means, evacuate.

But no one has issued any kind of order recommendation like that for you in the east tower; is that correct, Luba?

ROSENBACH: No, absolutely not.

CAVUTO: OK.

ROSENBACH: Well, our -- the mayor expressed something in the Channel 7 news, that we have an option, we can move out if we want to, and FEMA might be able to help us.

But when we call the town of Surfside, nobody knows anything about it. So, we kind of feel a little bit left out, you know, than we would like.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Understood?

Do you remember, what was it like for you? What did you -- did you hear anything the night of the south tower's collapse? Can you tell us anything?

ROSENBACH: It was absolutely -- it was absolutely a miracle, because I thought it was a thunderstorm.

And I don't know how we didn't hear. We slept until 7:00. And then we started being awoken by our friends telling us that this happened. So we didn't even know, unless -- until we figured out we didn't have electricity and water. And this could happen from natural disaster as well. It could be tornado. It could be some terrible storm. It happened before.

So we could -- it's unimaginable tragedy, what happened, because, immediately, of course, we have some friends there. And my little boy has a 7-year-old girl who he used to play with and so forth.

So we want to express our sympathy to all of the people in the south building. And, hopefully, they are going to still -- we live with the hope that they're going to still find some people alive, you know?

And it's very difficult.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: How is your boy putting up with all of this and everything? It's got to be scary for him as well.

ROSENBACH: You know, we're not even telling him the truth as of now.

We tell him maybe Stella is traveling, and maybe she went to Argentina. Maybe she's going to stay there. I don't know how to tell him this, because the kids are horrified. There was many kids. They were in the same class. They all knew Stella. And they all don't want to know the bad news.

So we're trying to keep them away from this. But, eventually, we're going to have to tell them, you know?

CAVUTO: Understood.

Luba, hang in there.

ROSENBACH: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You're remarkably composed and calm through this. You will get through it. So will your little boy.

But, man oh, man, but what you had to witness and endure.

ROSENBACH: Thank you. And--

CAVUTO: Luba, thank you very much, Luba Rosenbach.

Again, just to update you on the condition and then where things stand, we know of 11 known dead and 150 still unaccounted for.

But, of course, if you're in any one of those other towers not affected, you're thinking, for you, it could have been.

Content and Programming Copyright 2021 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2021 VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.