theyen won't keep me over there on the little table anymore. my dad jack harbaugh won a national championship. and my brother won a super bowl. so it's good to be at the table from now on. >> couldn't be more proud or excited or happy. very gritty football team and coach. no one has it better than harbaugh. >> let's take you to campus. thousands of fans take ing to t streets in ann arbor celebrating the championship. there were some couch fires that had to be extinguished, but no major issues or injuries and no arrests. so omar, this marks the end of the college football playoff era as we know it. next season, it's at 12-team playoff for the first time with the title game in your city in atlanta. >> i coy wire, thank you so much for

being with us as always. and thanks for joining us, everybody. i'm omar jimenez, "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. so glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. it is such a big day, a historic day for donald trump and really for the country. in just a few hours trump will be in court instead of on the campaign trail as his team argues he is immune from criminal charges for his everyefforts to overturn the election. brand new cnn polling shows. united airlines has found loose bolts on a number of boeing 737 max-9 planes. that is the same plane that saw a door plug blow out this week. "cnn this morning" starts right

now. here is where we begin just hours from now three judges in washington, d.c., will take on a landmark question. is donald trump immune from being held criminally responsible for his actions to try to overturn the result os. 2020 election? the former president's lawyers will argue the answer is yes, that he is immune, and donald trump will be there to watch him do it. >> six days out, the gop front runner will not be on the trail today, and he's choosing -- choosing is a keyword today -- to bring his campaign to the courthouse. cnn's katelyn polantz leads us off. trump is voluntarily sitting in the courtroom today instead of being on the campaign trail in iowa. why? >> great question. he zrdoesn't have to be there. it's highly unusual for someone who's a criminal defendant to go

and sit and watch an appeals hearing like this today, but this really isn't just any appeals hearing. this is an appeals hearing on a question that has never been looked at before. how much protection is there around the presidency and given to people who had served in the presidency whenever they're charged with crimes related to what they were doing while holding that office. and so donald trump and his lawyers, they have this one shot today right now before the d.c. circuit court of appeals, before these three judges in washington, d.c., to make their case that trump should not have to go to trial, that he shouldn't be charged because he was president and has a level of immunity. that's their argument, and they are also making this argument that his case should be paused while the appeals court figures this out. that's going to be a major question today as well. the three judges looking at this, karen henderson, who is a republican appointee has been on the bench a long time and has had a say in a lot of questions about the executive branch of the presidency before and two

other judges who are fairly new to this circuit, michelle chields, and florence pan, but have both written quite weighty questions and opinions before for this court. we're going to be watching to see what they ask, what direction they take the lawyers today as they're arguing. they're not going to be asking donald trump any questions directly, and they also are not going to be ruling today, but how they're asking these questions and what they're looking at is really a significant thing. the supreme court, if it goes there, which it's likely to do, they don't have to take this case if it goes before them. this court is the court that makes the determinations now. they did in watergate. we're in really a significant moment today. >> it's a moment of enormous consequence for the country and how the executive branch operates but also for other cases trump is dealing with right now. trump also wants the subversion case in georgia to be dismissed arguing immunity. is that kind of a through line for his team right now? >> very much so.

it's because this is the best argument that he has. this is the biggest argument that he's able to put to the court before trial, it's this question of does he as a criminal defendant have some level of immunity. while he's arguing this in federal court, in the appeals court today in washington with his lawyers trying to hold off that trial, his lawyers also yesterday filed several filings in the state of georgia where he's facing charges in fulton county at the state level. they're arguing a very similar thing, presidential immunity. they're also claiming he shouldn't be tried because of double jeopardy and he did have a lack of due process. that all has to be worked out by the courts still. katelyn polantz, thank you. >> for more on what we can expect today cnn senior analyst elie honig is here. this is totally fascinating. walk us through what's going to happen today. >> a little law school geeking out. here's where we are today. we are at the u.s. court of appeals, federal court of appeals for the d.c. circuit. that's the mid-level court of

appeals below the supreme court. the way we got here, of course, is this started out in the district court. the trial level court where donald trump argued he was immune from prosecution because the conduct falls within his scope of the presidency. the district judge tanya chutkan ruled against that. there is no divine right of kings. when we go into court today, these will be the judges who are sitting. judge henderson was put on the bench by george h.w. bush in 1990. judges childs and pan were put on the bench by president biden. there's no tv broadcast of what's going to happen, but there will be a live audio feed, so we'll be able to hear the questioning and oftentimes having done a bunch of these arguments in a three-judge panel, you can tell pretty strongly where they're leaning by the number and the tone of the questions that they're asking. >> so talk to us about the argument here because trump's team is trying to essentially extend one of the nixon rulings and say, no, that immunity

extends to criminal prosecution, and then what's the other side of it? >> so this originates as many things in this area do with richard nixon. nothing to do with watergate. in 1982 a guy who had been a federal employee under nixon named fitzgerald sued the federal government and nixon for him being fired, and the courts ruled, no, you cannot sue the president for firing a federal employee. that's within the scope of what the president is supposed to do as president. so that gave us the notion of civil immunity. for today's purposes, there's two questions. first of all, is there even such thing as criminal immunity. we don't know that. the courts never ruled there even could be criminal immunity. if so, the second question was donald trump's conduct within the outer boundary of his job as president. >> those words matter a lot. why? >> if he's outside the scope of his job as president, he's out of luck, there's not going to be any immunity.

>> in terms of the defense where it all stacks up with jack smith's calendar and oh, by the way, when the election is. >> the calendar is super important. the election is on november 5th, the current trial date for this case is march 4th. that's 55 days for today, i counted and of course in the meantime we've got the hush money trial scheduled for late march and then we've got the mar-a-lago trial scheduled for may. in the ordinary course of appeals, poppy, given that we're at the court of appeals, they've got to go to the supreme court, this case, the case we're talking about today, that would move into mid-summer. that's going to be really close to the election. what jack smith is asking the court of appeals to do today, after you rule within five days, immateri i want you to send it back down here. we could see this court at the same time being argued at the supreme court level while they're getting back on track for the trial here in the district court. >> which trump's team says they shouldn't be able to proceed with preparing. >> trump's team says put it all

on hold until we're done up here. >> thank you, elie, appreciate it very much. in another story we are closely following this morning, we have new details emerging after that terrifying incident friday when a section of an alaska airlines jet blew off mid flight. federal officials are testing that detached piece of the plane for clues. after the door plug was recovered from a portland teacher's backyard technicians say they found loose hardware including bolts on a number of max-9 aircraft that have been ground firsted for inspections. pete, this has been fast moving from an investigative perspective what more have we learned about what happened inside the plane? >> remember, this investigation is focusing on what's called the door plug, that is the door only visible from the outside.

alaska airlines has been preparing its planes to comply with these inspections. it says its mechanics have found hardware that was loose. they were able to tell that with the naked eye. united airlines made a similar announcement yesterday. this means that both airlines that operate these max-9s in the u.s. have found loose hardware. that is significant. it could point to why this door came off in the first place. the national transportation safety board says the door on alaska flight 1282 essentially shot off like a rocket. the door is held in place by 12 different stops, high pressure air in the plane keeps the door pressed against those stops. that's why it's called a plug. but if these four stop bolts are not installed, then that can cause this door to wiggle out of place of those stops. now, the ntsb has recovered the door in question, came down in a backyard. but they are still looking for the bolts. >> pete, we are -- >> the exam to date has shown that the door, in fact, did

translate upward. all 12 stops became disengaged allowing it to blow out of the fuse fuselage. we have not yet recovered the four bolts that restrain it from its vertical movement, and we have not yet determined if they existed there. that will be determined when we take the plug to our lab in washington, d.c. >> that door came down in the backyard of a physics teacher named bob sour, talk about a physics lesson. he says it's the most exciting thing to ever happen on his street. only blocks away from where passengers' cell phones were found, essentially sucked out of that huge hole on alaska flight 1282. the ntsb says people on the ground are still finding things. one found a plastic window frame, another found a head set, likely one of the headsets succeed off one of the heads of the pilots. the force of that blowout so strong that the cockpit door

flew open, poppy, phil. >> that's astonishing in so many respects. think about, that the headset blows off one of the pilots or first officer i guess goes back to row 25 or 26 and out the door? >> yeah, essentially 26 rows ahead of where this was, the cockpit door slammed open. what is interesting is that the pilots were unaware that this was going to happen, and it is a design in the -- feature essentially in the boeing 737 max-9 that when the airplane go goes through this rapid decompression the door is forced open. the manufacturer boeing needs to tell the pilot when this kind of thing happens they need to be alerted about this. it's not in any of the checklists or manual. brand new cnn polling in new hampshire showing nikki haley closing the gap on donald trump. and the entire state of iowa under a winter storm warning,

how the snow and extreme temperatures are already impacting the caucuses. p

. this morning we have a brand new cnn poll out of new hampshire that shows nikki haley momentum is real narrowing the gap with donald trump in the state down to single digits while trump stands at 39% in new hampshire, haley now just seven

points behind him at 32%. that means trump has dropped tree points in new hampshire from 42% back in november. haley, meanwhile, has surged, a whopping 12 points up from 20%. and despite trump being the clear front runner in the race, it's haley who holds a commanding lead with moderate republicans. the polls showing she has 55% of their support while trump only has 13%. trump does still leave among conservative republicans. 60% of their support, haley only at 20%. finally, the poll shows that 80% of trump's new hampshire voters say they will definitely vote for him. that is something we're going to need to explore in the weeks ahead. let's go to cnn's eva mckend in des moines, iowa. the polls in new hampshire, does it seem like her attacks are resonating against donald trump on the trail? >> reporter: they are, phil. she seems to have landed on a sweet spot with republican primary voters, at least as

illustrated by this poll. you know, when you show up to her events, you will find folks who are never trumpers, those who are moderate and independent voters who never supported the former president, but there are also those who did support p trump in past elections who are looking for an alternative. she often says on the trail that her attacks of trump are going to be really pointed on policy, that politics are personal enough, and that seems to be resonating with at least some of the folks that she needs it to resonate with. she smoke more apoke more about town hall last night. >> just because president trump says something doesn't make it true. look, i think president trump was the right president at the right time. i agree with a lot of his policies, but rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him, and

y'all know i'm right. chaos follows him. [ applause ] and we can't be a country in disarray and the world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. we won't survive it. >> reporter: now, haley's opponents, they really have pushed back against this and argue that she speaks sort of out of both sides of her mouth here, that she's imprecise. governor desantis in an ad a airing now throughout the state says that he is the one who really embodies iowa's values and really touts that he has visited all 99 counties. so this perhaps could shake up to be a competitive contest and here are these candidates, they say don't look at the polling that shows trump far out ahead, that they are still competing here and respecting the process, phil. >> all right, eva mckend, i'm looking nostalgically at your backdrop now, which is easy to do in a temperature controlled

studio. thank you. speaking of that, more than 40 million people across the country are under the threat of severe storms after monday's whiteout conditions in the midwest shut down some major roads, created havoc in the pacific northwest and the plains and dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the northeast. severe thunderstorms brought powerful wind and rain. that is where we find our meteorologist live in new orleans for us. what are we looking at ahead? >> yeah, poppy, tens of millions of americans are feeling the brunt of this impactful storm that has alerts stretching over 2,000 miles of the eastern seaboard from blizzard conditions to severe weather, this feels like a mid-spring storm with current tornado warnings firing across the florida peninsula. have a listen. >> reporter: a massive winter storm is making its way across the country with over 40 million people under a severe storm threat. this massive winter storm is making its way to the midwest and east coast today.

residents across the four corners and plains region were left in blizzard conditions monday afternoon. interstates in colorado, new mexico, nebraska, and kansas closed due to low visibility and snow accumulation. here you can see in kansas roadways had little to no visibility which left state and county officials issuing dire warnings. >> snow and wind is carrying across our state and it's causing slide offs and wrecks just like this. >> reporter: in new mexico, motorists were left stranded in whiteout conditions. the new mexico department of transportation worked through the day to rescue dozens of drivers in stranded cars along a highway in the state. the youngest rescued was a 4-month-old baby. even one of the colfax county sheriff's office's deputies needed rescuing. the gulf region saw intense rainfall and high winds up to 71 miles per hour. >> the clouds were solid black, and it was like they just sat

down on us. >> reporter: in the houston area, a huge wind and rainstorm left downed trees and damaged homes. this family's carport roof was blown clear off and landed in a tree on their property. >> it looks like our tree just opened its arms and held that metal. >> reporter: the roof at the nrg stadium even started leaking ahead of the national championship game. you can see michigan and washington's players warming up on the field as the water came in, and in louisiana the storm left buildings collapsed and flash flooding in parts of the coastal regions of the state. we've good a lot of weather to cover across the country. there is only one state in the u.s. that does not have weather alerts. that's north dakota focusing in on the immediate threat, it is the severe weather and the heavy rain across the gulf coast states. currently we have a atornado watch through this morning

through the florida panhandle. there have been tornado warnings issued north of the santa rosa beach. rainfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour across this area, severe weather threats going to continue from the florida peninsula right through the coastal areas of the carolinas. heads-up, savannah, charleston all the way to wilmington today. then we focus that rain threat, the potential of flooding all the way up the east coast as heavy rain falls on top of the recent snow pack across the northeast. heads-up new york all the way to the nation's capital. bobby. >> pretty much everywhere unless you're in fargo, thank you very much. there's a review now underway at the defense secretary's office after lloyd austin was hospitalized and didn't tell his deputy or the president. we're going to have the details next. and what officials believe caused a sudden explosion at a hotel in fort worth, texas. just l look at that. wewe've learnened more detetail ovovernight.

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i don't think there's any question that secretary austin knows he made a mistake here. we come from a culture of accountability, and he's taken full responsibility for the mistake. and he's committed to ensure that it doesn't happen again, and i believe him in that regard. >> that was former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mike mullen telling cnn the defense secretary lloyd austin knows he made a mistake in not informing president biden

and key pentagon officials about his hospitalization. austin's office is ordering a 30 day review of the pentagon's notification policy for when the defense secretary needs to transfer authority to his deputy. there are shortfalls in the process that can definitely be improved. natasha bertrand is live at the pentagon. in terms of this review, what do we expect to come from it? >> well, phil, this is really going to be a review of the processes surrounding the notifications that are sent to senior national security and military leaders as well as the white house when the secretary of defense needs to transfer his authorities to the deputy secretary of defense. it's also going to involve a review of how the deputy is notified because we first reported that secretary austin's office did not notify the deputy secretary that he was actually in the hospital when they asked her to assume his responsibilities until days after he had actually been admitted to walter reed. so what we are learning from this memo is that, quote, this review will help to ensure one,

clarity and transparency when a determination has been made that certain authorities have been transferred, and two, that proper and timely notification has been made to the president and white house and as appropriate the united states congress and the american public. as y'all ou recall the u.s. con and the public were not notified until four days after he was admitted to walter reed. this process is going to help ensure that all relevant parties are notified when the secretary of defense is otherwise indisposed. importantly, this memo makes no mention of the fact that the pentagon did not also notify the white house of the secretary's december 22nd elective medical procedure that he underwent at walter reed, and that was a one-night hospital stay that also involved the transfer of his authorities to his deputy secretary, kathleen hicks. and so the memo asks the pentagon's general counsel as well as other senior officials to examine the events stemming

from his january 1st hospitalization, makes no mention of that december 22nd stay, which of course we all have questions about why the pentagon did not also notify the white house and the president when the secretary was in the hospital overnight. guys. >> natasha, you've been doing great reporting on this, so many unanswered questions still, which is remarkable. thank you. this morning investigators believe it was a gas explosion that caused the blast at a hotel in fort worth, texas. just look at that devastation. 21 people were hurt, some critically. thankfully no deaths have been reported, but this blast sent debris into the street downtown as firefighters rushed to rescue people who were actually trapped in the basement. the fire department says 26 of the rooms there were occupied. overnight crews went room to room trying to make sure no one else was trapped. officials say the 104-year-old building was renovated recently and some work was going on at the time of the explosion. a federal law enforcement source tells cnn there's no indication that there is any criminal involvement here. the state of south carolina

catapulted then candidate joe biden to the top of the democratic primary in 2020. he returned to the state to try and lock in a crucial voting block. we're going to have takeaways from that event next. p

. nikki haley is having a good morning, a boost of momentum for her campaign. a new cnn and university of new hampshire poll shows her up 12

points in that state since november. she's now within seven point os of donald trump in the granite state. trump had dominated republican polls there for much of the year. new hampshire's primary is two weeks from today. with us cnn political analyst, sarah fineburg, and cnn political commentator errol lewis. i guess i was surprised more than you at how close this is, 7 points, you know, 39% for trump, 32% for nikki haley, but the amount she jumped, she jumped from 20% in november whereas donald trump is down from 42%. >> that's exactly right. look, donald trump has been at essentially the same level since about april of 2022, so people who know him like him and that's where that is. on the other hand, you get a very clear picture of a new candidate who's doing exactly what a candidate wants, which is to have a surge at the last minute, and so she's rising in the polls.

she's the alternative. she's tried to identify herself as the alternative. and very interestingly, because new hampshire allows independent voters, non-registered voters you get some insight into what a general election candidate nikki haley might look like, which happens to dovetail with one of her stronger arguments, which is that i can win in november and to the extent that people buy that in new hampshire, she's getting exactly the scenario she wanted, strong second place in iowa. somehow an upset in new hampshire, her home state of south carolina, it's the best scenario she could hope for. >> we have a piece of the poll i think that we can pull up, likely republican primary voters, first choice for nominee. registered republican trump's at 58% to haley's 21%. registered undeclared, trump's at 17, haley's at 43. that's her game right there. if you dig into first and second choice, a huge chunk of christie's supporters would go to haley likely, and yet, almost half of haley's supporters have

not said they're decided. there's room to move here. >> still needs to close the deal, and there's still the possibility of something dramatic like chris christie or somebody else saying, look, if you're not going to pick me, this is somebody you should pick. >> do you think that's a necessity at this point? >> i don't know if it's a necessity. i agree with you, it's interesting that republicans are still so strongly with trump and, you know, independents are with haley, but let's not forget about how much momentum is going to come out of iowa. if she just beats expectations in iowa, which it looks like she's going to do, comes close in new hampshire, she's going to start looking acceptable to a lot of people who haven't been paying attention to her. she's timed this perfectly. as we've talked about this before, she loves this. she's having a great time. she's feeding off this momentum. >> we heard her in this fox news town hall, chaos rightly or wrongly follows him everywhere he goes and look where trump is today. could be in iowa, could be in new hampshire, he is in the

courtroom. he is appealing in washington, d.c., saying i can basically do anything even criminal as president. just a remarkable contrast. >> that is a very remarkable contrast. not only that, i think this race has been trump's from the beginning. everybody knew that. nikki haley knows that. it's been a competition for number two for the last several months, really since all the other candidates have gotten into the race. but it's a campaign where number two really, really matters is. why? because of the instability and the chaos of the former president of the united states. so we have somebody like nikki haley who's coming out here who knows that there is a good chance that she's going to come in number two no matter what she does but saying, look, if i come in second, that's fine because i provide a stable, right, alternative to the former president of the united states. with me you'll have -- and it's actually hvery similar to the argument joe biden made.

you will have a stable, normal, boring presidency. i will not offer you criminal trials. i will not say anything outrageous. i won't be picking fights with random celebrities and things like that. i will just be your president of the united states, and i think what's really important to remember is that irrespective of, you know, what's going on with independents, although i think they matter, is that moderate and liberal republicans actually want that. so nikki haley is offering them an alternative in a way that is surpassing ron desantis in really incredible ways. the truth is, you know, stranger things have happened. the former president may end up in jail, which would open a pathway for nick kki haley to b the next president of the united states. >> the chaos, the instability a key piece of the biden campaign's pitch. clearly. second major event of 2024 yesterday down at mother emanuel church, a critical constituency for democrats. i was also struck by this

moment, take a listen. >> did you really care about the lives lost here? call for a cease fire in palestine. >> cease fire now! >> cease fire now! >> that's all right. that's all right. >> i understand their passion. and i've been quietly -- i've been quietly working with the israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of gaza. >> the reason buy -- i'm not trying to blow up protesters at an event, why they're doing it at a black church, not totally sure i would want to do that if i were them, but the idea of these are constituencies that are core to joe biden's coalition, and he has issues right now of those constituencies being soft to some degree on the polling. if you're advising the campaign, what are you saying when you watch moments like that?

>> i mean, i think it goes back to the conversation we heard biden and his campaign trying to have with his voters for the last several weeks. at the end of the day, this is going to come down to a choice, and you know, look, i agree with you. i would not be caught dead at a protest like that. i feel like it's in horribly poor taste. we have american hostages who are still, you know, like have not been brought home yet. the president is working hard to try to address that, and you know, i think the protests are in poor taste. but at the end of the day, you know, i think that those are the kinds of folks who are going to go into a voting booth and be like am i going to vote for donald trump? am i going to vote for nikki haley? i'm going to vote for joe biden. this is far left. >> biden does not run the israeli defense forces. it's not up to him to declare a cease fire. he's going to take the positions he takes. people can get angry about that, but in the end, you have to remember this war is barely 90 days old, and it could all go away. israel is dialing back some of

its strategy. they're trying to lessen some of the immediate violence and that in the end i think is going to make this possibly a non-issue by the time the election rolls around. >> we appreciate it, thanks as always, and we do have to remind you tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. eastern, jake tapper, dana bash, they're going to moderate cnn's republican debate. it will be a must watch live from iowa. migrants from latin america, africa, and now china, that's right, china, are showing up at the southern border of the united states. hear why and how they are leaving the world's second largest economy and entering the u.s. through mexico. >> how many of you here came through ecuador?

this morning a new cnn investigation has uncovered a massive underground operation of

chinese migrants trying to enter the u.s. illegally by way of the southern border. some of them paid more than $20,000 to enter. cnn's david culver reports. >> reporter: as soon as we pull up, they rush towards us. my mic not even on, but that doesn't stop this crowd of chinese migrants from venting. they're angry having to wait in the cold for border patrol. this is just one of three makeshift border camps we stop at in eastern san diego county. alongside migrants from latin america, at each camp we meet dozens from china. the numbers reflect the surge from 2013 to 2022, cvp recorded fewer than 16,000 chinese migrants illegal crossing the u.s. southern border. this past year alone, more than 31,000. that's roughly double the prior ten years combined.

unlike those fleeing countries in turmoil like venezuela, cuba, and haiti, these migrants are leaving the world's second largest economy. what was the reason you left china? their answers vary. >> family's poor. >> most cite deepening financial hardships, despite the chinese government's narrative of a steadily rebounding economy. >> how did you get here? how did you get to southern california? >> reporter: their trek north primarily starts in one latin american country where chinese do not need visas to enter. >> how many of you here came through ecuador? . >> reporter: to really understand their journey and how it differs from other migrants, you need to see it in action. we touched down in ecuador's capital and standing outside of international arrivals we noticed this man. a hired driver scrolling through

photos and messages in chinese. a few minutes later, passengers begin stepping out. they tell us they're from china and plan to go to the u.s., but most ask we not show their faces. the driver approaches this group making sure he's got the right passengers. >> he's got a booking for them. >> reporter: we uncovered an assortment of travel packages offered specifically to chinese mig migrants. you can pay smugglers who promise to ease some of the planning stress, for 9 to $12,000, flights, hotels, transportation booked for you. for 20 or more thousand, it's a premium service getting you to the mexico side of the u.s. border skipping some of the more treacherous crossings. we drive through ecuador's capital city. he shows us private homes and airbnbs where chinese migrants stand when they arrive. he's lived here for five years. he runs a travel agency.

he has witnessed the recent surge in chinese migrants and with it a spike of businesses catering to them. the owner estimates there are as many as 100 hotels in keto that like hers host chinese migrants headed to the u.s. >> take a look at this, they've got essentially a how-to guide to go from here to continue north, they tell you how many days you should be preparing, vaccinations you might need, other documents you should carry with you. they even mention bringing $300 and hiding that amount of money because of presumably being robbed at some point and needing cash as a backup. >> reporter: it's advice he could have use add a few days earlier. >> your parents still think you're in china? they have no idea you left? >> reporter: we met the 28-year-old after he was robbed at gunpoint. i left china because i was not able to save any money. it was really difficult to support myself he tells me. he says some employers in china

refused to pay him even after working. even if they say the chinese economy is stlrong, it is all about the upper class he says. i wish i was never born, living feels so exhausting. after saving up enough to restart his trek, he heads to this bus station where ticket sellers hold up signs like this one in chinese. it e reads to colombian border. more than a dozen chinese migrants board the bus north. we go with them for the four-hour plus ride. on board he and the others plan their next moves. >> california? california. that's the ultimate goal. >> he plans to stay here for two nights and then hire a cab to take him over the border. >> as a lot of the chinese migrants are able to pay their way in taxi to get to the

international bridge crossing from ecuador to colombia, we've notice add a lot of folks, migrs from latin american countries like these over here not having the money to do that, so they walk. >> reporter: in the cold rain we met isabel from venezuela. he said it's really expensive to try to cross, so they have to walk. residents tell me they see hundreds if not thousands of chinese migrants passing through each week, and because they're often carrying more cash, they are now prime targets for corrupt police and cartels. but they remain determined. as we return home, he updates us on his trek. over two weeks, he travels through five central american countries, at times messaging chinese speaking smugglers who remotely coordinate with local cartels to get him and others on vans, buses, boats and flights.

it cuts his travel time down to about half that of most latino migrants, but it's costly. by the time he reaches northern mexico, he has spend more than $10,000 with one more border to go. a camera we set up facing the u.s. southern border captures weeks of crossings, thousands entering the u.s. through this gap in the wall group after group, day and night, you can hear these migrants shouting in chinese. they end up where we started, san diego county burning fires through the night to keep warm and during the day, expecting border patrol to pick them up. just before new year's, jung messages us he too has crossed into the u.s. and is waiting to be processed for asylum. joining the thousands who have crossed before him and the many more to come. david culver, cnn, los angeles. >> what a story.

>> as always, but yes. >> as always, completely fascinating, david and his producer of course thank you for that. he doesn't have to be there, but he will be there. soon, donald trump will be in a washington, d.c., courtroom for an appeals hearing on his federal election subversion case. and no matter what michigan fans like rick add lson codeman i will not say go blue. there was a football game last night, a team won it and i think we contractually have to talalk about t it next.

♪ it says, fphil, would you like me to read it? the michigan wolverines are the kings of college football after beating washington for their first national championship since 1997. phil was up until 11:00 p.m., he is dismayed and coy wire joins us from houston with more. have you slept? >> reporter: yes, keep -- 82 minutes i think i counted, but here i am for you, and you peel

phil mattingly's eyes open, you make him watch this whole thing. hot off the presses, detroit press, hail yes, michigan are your national champions. let's get to your highlights philly boy. big names in attendance, michael jordan, derek jeter and travis scott. that's about $3 billion net worth all in one box, and michigan's offensive line were money too pummelling washington, donovan edwards rung through the huskies like a bowling ball through a wet paper bag. 93 yards, two huge touchdowns all in the first half. says he plays for his mom who he lost to cancer when he was a young kid. 17-10 michigan at the half. in the second, michigan's number one ranked defense was balling. intercepting heisman candidate michael penix two times. the first was on the first play of the happen half. then it was michigan's star running back blake corum running for two touchdowns of his own. michigan are your college football playoff national champs, not ohio state.

34-13 is your final. we caught up with the champs after the game. >> what's the win mean to you, j.j.? >> everything, everything for our teammates and more importantly michigan nation. it's been too long. finally brought it back home. >> tremendous performance by our team. we're the last ones standing. that's a tremendous feeling. >> national champion, how's that sound? >> it's going to last forever, no one can ever take that away. >> reporter: now, coach jim harbaugh 38 seasons as an nfl and college player or coach, no championship titles until now. finally winning one as a head coach for his alma mater. i wanted you to take a look at the scenes back at campus, there were thousands of fans taking to the streets of ann arbor, celebrating the national title. some couch fires had to be