it is 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific, i'm josé diaz-balart in for ana cabrera. this hour on msnbc, breaking news overseas, secretary of state antony blinken antony blinken is in the middle east this morning as the u.s. makes a new and urgent call for an immediate cease fire in gaza to the u.n. also ahead, the ticking clock on capitol hill, the new plan to avoid a government shutdown before midnight tomorrow. time also running out for donald trump to pay a massive $464 million judgment. new reporting on his growing frustration that he just can't find the cash. and a dangerous inmate on the run in idaho after a daring escape, the latest on the manhunt to track him down. ♪♪ and we begin with breaking news overseas this morning, secretary of state antony blinken announcing overnight from the middle east that the

u.s. has drafted a new resolution to the u.n. for an immediate cease fire in gaza tied to the release of israeli hostages. the u.s. has vetoed three previous cease fire resolutions at the u.n. the reversal coming as the toll of the destruction in gaza grows, and amid growing tension between israel's benjamin netanyahu and president biden. nbc's raf sanchez is with us from tel aviv. also with us, nbc's white house correspondent allie raffa. blinken made this announcement in his sixth visit to the region. he'll be in israel tomorrow. how significant is the shift? >> reporter: so jose, this is significant. as you said, the u.s. has previously vetoed three u.n. security council resolutions calling for a cease fire in gaza. it's now putting forward its own resolution calling for a cease fire. this isn't a total 180 in the sense that those previous resolutions said cease fire with

or without a hostage deal, whereas this american one links the cease fire to a deal on the hostages. now, secretary of state antony blinken also saying that he is increasingly optimistic that there could be a deal. he says the gaps between israel and hamas are narrowing. qatar, who is mediating those talks also saying that they are cautiously optimistic about a potential deal. the secretary is in egypt today. he was in saudi arabia yesterday, and he will be heading here to israel tomorrow for meetings on a whole range of topics, as you can imagine. but top of the agenda will be this deep disagreement between israel and the united states over israeli plans to attack the city of rafah in southern gaza. jose. >> ali, what are we hearing from the white house? >> reporter: yeah, jose, well, the white how about hasn't commented on this latest

resolution. no doubt this was done with president biden's blessing. but it really represents more broadly this shift that we have seen over the last few months by the president and by the administration officials towards this more sharper approach, this cease fire resolution representing and quantifying really what the u.s. wants to see, which is an immediate cease fire, but on the condition of having these hostages released, and this is a sign of this increasing pressure on the u.s., on the president to do more to pressure these negotiators to reach a cease fire deal. you think of, remember, how hopeful the president was late the last month for a cease fire by the start of ramadan. u.s. officials saying that israel had agreed in principle to this six-week cease fire. they said that the ball was in hamas's court, only to have those talks in cairo dissolve after one side of that agreement. that has led to this increasing pressure by the white house on israeli officials to reach that cease fire deal. that's a large part of why we saw that phone call between

prime minister netanyahu and president biden on monday after more than a month of those two not speaking, that high stakes call, of course, leading to this agreement to have an israeli delegation head to washington in the coming days for -- to listen to u.s. officials and what they say are alternatives for israel to continue accomplishing that goal of defeating hamas, but without going into rafah to be able to do that. of course we're over 1 million palestinians have been sheltering despite that call, despite that agreement, though, we have seen prime minister netanyahu renew his pledge of invaing rafah, and the white house says they still have not seen those plans, jose. >> raf sanchez and allie raffa, thank you both. back here at home, there are just four days left for donald trump to come up with the massive $464 million civil fraud penalty against him. so far at least 30 bond companies have given him the cold shoulder according to

trump's attorneys. if trump cannot post the bond by monday's deadline, new york's attorney general letitia james has said she is going to start seizing assets, like trump tower in new york. joining us now nbc's garrett haake. also with us, msnbc's legal analyst, charles coleman, and carol lam, a former federal prosecutor. you have new reporting about donald trump's growing frustration with this issue. >> that's right, jose, my sources within the campaign and donald trump's greater sources at mar-a-lago say there is growing frustration and concern that this bond issue hasn't been solved yet, and it's not entirely clear how it will be. there simply isn't the money available to the billionaire developer to put up this bond in cash. a source that says trump allies have been calling around trying to see if perhaps some of his larger donors might guarantee the bond in some way, but they really haven't landed upon a solution yet, and the clock is ticking. one of trump's attorneys, alina

habba was asked about perhaps some more exotic solutions that could be on the table on fox news yesterday. here's what she had to say. >> is there any effort on the part of your team to secure this money through another country, saudi arabia or russia as joy behar seems to think? >> well, there's rules and regulations that are public. i can't speak about strategy. that requires certain things and we have to follow those rules. >> excuse me, jose, that's not a no about seeking out foreign sources of money here, but obviously that would create enormous conflict of interest issues at the very least and create a political headache where only a legal headache exists at the moment. >> yeah, and garrett, we understand that trump is going to be holding a big fundraiser soon that could help with his legal bills? >> yeah, look, across the board right now, jose, trump world needs money. they need it on the legal side, and they need it on the campaign side. they're trying to scale up for a general election after this primary process, and one of the

ways in which they're doing that is a more traditional fund-raising operation like what we've seen from republican candidates past. i was past this invitation yesterday from someone who's expected to attend this event in palm beach that's coming up on april 6th, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, and you have $800,000 in your bank account, you could be a chairman of this event here. the split is interesting because some of this money will go to the trump campaign, some to the rnc, some to various republican state parties and some will go to the save america pac, which is the fund that donald trump has been using to help pay for some of his legal expenses. now, that can't go to cover that bond, but for the attorney's fees, for all the other legal costs that he is facing now and will be facing throughout the course of the summer, if and when these criminal cases get underway, that's money that he and his legal and political teams are all going to need, jose. >> thank you so much. charms, let's dive into a little bit of this. what are trump's options at that point?

he's really got a couple of days to find this extraordinary amount of money. >> that's right, jose. trump has made an appeal to judge engoron, who is the judge who, number one, presided over the case, number two, entered the judgment, and is now responsible for hearing an appeal over the bond to try and get the bond lowered. i imagine that donald trump is going to try and come up with whatever he can. ultimately, here's the problem he has, you cannot posit yourself as this ultra wealthy successful business person and parade the real property holdings that you have within your portfolio, and then say i have a bond but i can't pay it. that's why you see letitia james moving very quickly and being very prepared to seize his assets and potentially liquidate them for the purposes of at least having the cash on hand to address the bond. even if she does not necessarily liquidate them during the course of the appeals process, what she will do is have them and hold

them as her property or as the property of the state of new york in order to satisfy that judgment. it is possible that donald trump could get as much of the real cash or the property necessary in order to satisfy that bond and then come back to the court and say, look, this is what we were able to do. are you able to reconsider your decision? i do find that to be very unlikely. so at this point, as you've already talked about, the clock is ticking, and it will be interesting to see whether someone will step in at the last minute, ie, the e. jean carroll situation and put up the bond for donald trump. >> and it's so much bigger than the e. jean carroll bond. i mean, we're talking, you know, 400 million plus dollars. so carol, with your experience as a prosecutor, what does the process look like if we do reach the point where the attorney general of new york starts seizing assets? >> this reminds me very much of a situation that actually occurred here in california back in the '90s, 30 years ago where

the federal government actually came in and had to seize an entity nobody as the bicycle club in los angeles. this is well-known to federal prosecutors because it was always the warning to us, don't go and seize an ongoing business, especially one that is rife with fraud because you end up running that business. that's the way you keep the value in that business, and what happened with the federal government was they were essentially having to run a gambling casino for several years that oddly enough became the subject of an irs investigation and prosecution. so letitia james, even though i take her at her word that she will start seizing these properties if necessary, that's, you know, running a business or running keeping something like trump towers or even if she were to go to another tate and start seizing trump casinos, this isn't the business of the new york attorney general. it's not their bread and butter. they don't know really how to do that. it's not something they want to be spending their time on.

in this situation cash is king. cash is king for everybody, for letitia james, for donald trump, and also for the sureties that he's trying to get to post the bond. >> and charles, on another case we're following, of course, yesterday long-time mar-a-lago employee brian butler spoke to msnbc's ari melber. take a listen to some of what he had to say. >> so you had the impression from the people around that trump knew the things that went down were bad or illegal, and he didn't want that on video? >> oh, absolutely. i mean, why else would you need to know the video footage, and why were they calling and asking me, hey, why didn't you tell me that this guy was on video moving boxes. >> charles, how significant is this? >> it's significant but not mind blowing. keep in mind that this individual is who was known as mar-a-lago employee number five.

so this is information that the federal government has already had and planned for. i just can't figure out for the life of me why there's so much loyalty around donald trump for someone who does not necessarily seem like he repays that in any way, shape, form, or fashion. >> how do you see it, carol? >> well, i think that this is the kind of witness that every prosecutor loves to have. he's somebody who has never from the get-go in the investigation demonstrated a lot of loyalty to donald trump. he seems to have seen the light much earlier than others. some haven't seen the light at all, but he's gotten his own attorney. he's not -- he doesn't have an attorney who's paid for by the trump organization, and he's somebody who the jurors can probably relate to better, someone who depended on the mar-a-lago job for his livelihood, but at a certain point said things are not right here. so i think it's a very important witness for the are prosecution. they're probably not thrilled that he's gone out and given an interview prior to his testimony

on the stand. lawyers never like their witnesses to be giving statements before their testimony because it's something that inconsistenies can be brought out at trial and such, but he seems to be pretty squarely, self-recognizing what went on at the trump organization at mar-a-lago, and so he's a good witness for the prosecution. >> charles coleman and carol lam, thank you. and carol, thank you for reminding us once again that the 1990s were more than 30 years ago, boy. >> hard to believe. >> indeed it is. thank you, both. coming up, the former trump rival who appears to be gaining traction in his search for a running mate. but first, the wild story of a dangerous inmate on the run in idaho after a daring escape that let several corrections officers injured. we're back in 60 seconds. 're bas officers injured. we're back in 60 seconds. al cors officers injured we're back in 60 seconds

. 15 past the hour. the manhunt is on in idaho after an escaped inmate and his accomplice opened fire at a boise hospital injuring three police officers. police believe it was a coordinated attack and the pair could be anywhere at this point. i want to bring in nbc news's dana griffin. good morning. this is really scary. the fbi now involved asking the public to stay away, alert 911 if they spot suspects. >> exactly, jose. the fbi now involved in the search that gives you an indication of how serious this is and how dangerous these two men are. they've been on the run now for more than 24 hours, and there is no indication of where they are or where they're headed. police now warning they are considered armed and dangerous and have shown they are willing to use extreme violence. this morning 31-year-old inmate skylar meade is on the run after authorities say he pulled off a sophisticated prison break that left three corrections officers injured. >> we bereave that this was a

coordinated attack, ambush on the department of corrections officers, and certainly a planned endeavor to free him from custody. >> meade shown here handcuffed and bloodied was taken to the hospital hours earlier for self-inflicted injuries. then just as he was about to be returned to prison, police say an alleged accomplice showed up at saint alphonsus regional medical center in boise and opened fire shooting two officers. a third officer injured in the cross fire. overnight, investigators identifying the alleged accomplice as nicholas umpanhour. they fled in this civic. >> they are dangerous, they are armed and have shown a propensity for violence. >> meade had a lengthy rap sheet and had been in prison for eight years for shooting at a deputy in a 2016 high speed chase. he was eligible for parole in 2026. investigators also revealing he

is a member of a white supremacist gang. >> they could be anywhere at this point. we're following every lead and accepting every possibility. >> thankfully all three officers are expected to survive. now, authorities are urging anyone if you come across these two men, do not approach them, but call 911 immediately. jose. >> dana griffin, thank you so very much. could donald trump soon be calling a former rival his running mate? the new details we're learning about the trump veep stakes. plus, the race to avoid a partial government shutdown by midnight tomorrow, will lawmakers miss or will they make the deadline? the deadline (music) have heart failure with unresolved symptoms? it may be time to see the bigger picture. heart failure and seemingly unrelated symptoms, like carpal tunnel syndrome, shortness of breath, and irregular heartbeat could be something more serious

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morning, the race to keep the lights on in washington, lawmakers releasing the text of their new spending deal early this morning, it includes funding for six critical government agencies including homeland security, which had been a big sticking point. the question now, can congress pass the bill before funding runs out friday night? nbc's ryan nobles is with us from capitol hill. ryan, good morning. so we have a about a day and a half until funding runs out. >> reporter: i don't think there's any question if there's enough votes. right now it's just procedural questions whether or not the house and senate can come up with the time agreements to get this over the finish line before that deadline on friday. and then there is the real possibility that they just can't get it done quickly enough and that it does track into the weekend. but there is optimism that they'll avoid any sort of

catastrophic government shutdown, and this is what we're talking about in this $1.2 trillion bill. it has more than a thousand pages that need to be read before lawmakers can vote on it, includes a billion dollars in child care and head start. $120 million for the nih and their cancer research, 100 million for alzheimer's research and dementia research. the dod's going to get a billion dollars in climate change activities that are going to be added to this bill. $30 million for the small business administration, and tsa is going to get a billion dollars for equity and workers' rights investments. so there's a lot in this package. it was a lot of back and forth between republicans and democrats. one of the big holdups that took so long for it to go to this point was the funding over the department of homeland security, specifically as it relates to the situation at the border. they seem to have ironed out all those issues, and it's just a matter of time right now, jose, for them to get this over the finish line. >> ryan nobles on capitol hill, thank you so very much. appreciate it. it looks as though donald

trump may be eyeing a former rival in his search for a running mate. trump is considering florida senator marco rubio to join his ticket according to six people familiar with the search. he's now on the short list, which could still be a crowded field of potential picks, around 15 people according to trump. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent dasha burns in palm beach, florida, former republican congressman from florida, carlos curbelo, biden 2020 campaign senior adviser alencia johnson. dasha, what can you tell us about rubio possibly joining this ticket? >> reporter: well, look, he is moving on up into the short list, jose. look, he's young. he's telegenic, and he is the miami-born son of cuban immigrants at a time when former president trump is bullish about winning over latino voters, which means he looks pretty good on paper and on tv, which is, as

we all know a powerful combination for former president trump. there's just one wrinkle, and rubio did address this back in january in an interview, take a listen. >> would you be interested in being vice president? >> well, we're both in the same state, so that's probably not going to work that way. ultimately i believe he's going to win. he's going to be our next president. >> reporter: so the constitution prohibits electors from electing a vice president and president from the same state. there are ways around this, though, and it's happened before. rubio could resign his senate seat and move to a different state. that adds another little wrinkle here, jose, which would mean that governor desantis, a more recent rival of trump's would be able to appoint a senator for that seat. but this could be a good option for the former president. he, i'm told by his sources that he will be sort of auditioning top contenders, which also includes senator tim scott, congresswoman elise stefanik,

and some other folks that you had on your list up there. former retired neurosurgeon ben carson as well. he's going to be auditioning them on the campaign trail. they'll be holding events, holding rallies. another critical component for a potential pick is their ability to raise money at a time when we're talking a lot about the former president's finances, and rubio has shown his prowess with that. he raised about 50 million when he was running back in 2016, so a lot of factors to consider here, but we are also hearing from two sources that the time line for an announcement, there's growing consensus that around june about a month before the convention would be a good time to announce. no decisions have been made yet, but that is some consensus around the june time line there, jose. >> dasha burns in palm beach. >> former trump counselor

kellyanne conway pitched rubio in an op-ed in february. what's your reaction to this? you know the senator well. >> in large part this is about the hispanic vote. for years republicans have been satisfied with losing the hispanic vote by a smaller margin every time to try to make up that advantage that democrats have had. now they believe, jose, that they can win the hispanic vote, and someone like rubio who comes from a state with a heavy hispanic population, who is himself cuban american could potentially deliver or help deliver that vote for donald trump, and maybe compete to a tie with democrats or perhaps win the hispanic vote. and remember, republicans have to make up for a lot of those suburban voters that donald trump can't win, so they're looking to hispanics, maybe to some african americans to help make up that difference. rubio would be very attractive, of course they're both from the same state. that's a big complication. >> and i want to ask you about that because there's also the added issue that he's telegenic and he's a very good fundraiser

and he has time in the senate already put in, won re-election a couple of times in florida, he's cuban american. he's not mexican american, and the overwhelming population of latinos in the eyes, more than 60% are mexican american. he also has the advantage that he's perfectly fluent in spanish, which is something that people underestimate, but there's issue of he lives in the same state, and does he have that national recognition in the latino community? >> well, he has been on the national stage long enough, jose, that a lot of hispanic americans regardless of whether they're cuban american or not, do know marco rubio. he's a known quantity. he has foreign policy credentials. he's always been very visible when it comes to latin american policy. he's a high ranking member of the intelligence committee in the senate. there's a lot of advantages to a rubio vice presidency. the question is rubio willing to

take that chance? is he willing to risk his place in the senate for being vice president. >> and he would have to -- the points would be he would have to i guess resign from the senate, and then he would have to literally move his family and himself -- >> well, right, because -- >> -- out of florida. >> because he could no longer with a florida resident he would have to resign and move to the state of his choice. for dick cheney it was obviously wyoming. for rubio, i guess he could move anywhere. >> president biden took a jab at trump yesterday during a campaign reception in dallas when referencing a person coming up to him and said, mr. president, i need your help, i'm being crushed with debt. i'm completely wiped out. i had to say, donald, i can't help you. trump's struggling with fund-raising. biden is not. why do you think this is? >> well, listen, i think

president biden is having the conversation letting the american people know that it is unfortunate that donald trump is taking away from the american people, right? he is fund-raising to pay his medical -- excuse me, not medical, his legal bills, right? he is taking from the backs of the american people, and i think president biden is going to continue to use this point and that interaction to expand upon his economic message. sure, he will throw jabs at donald trump and talk about their money troubles, but he will also use this as a moment to talk about why it's important to invest in the biden campaign that has overwhelmingly raised a lot of significant amount of money at this point in a re-election campaign as well as talk about the reason that you're investing in this campaign is because we have the economic plan that will work for you. >> alencia, let's talk about the kennedy family, they took a group photo with the president on st. patrick's day, not including robert f. kennedy jr., who's going to be stepping up their support for biden. how significant is this for the

rfk jr. campaign? >> oh, this is very significant, but it's something that a lot of us -- i wouldn't be surprised to see because we all know that rfk jr. has kind of been, you know, the ostracized member of the kennedy family, right? people have distanced themselves from him because of his conspiracy thetheories, his anti-vaxx stance, a lot of his extreme positions on a lot of issues that the kennedy family supports, and on contrast, they have been supporters of president biden. i was at a reception for women's history month earlier this week and met maria shriver, was there to help the biden administration announce their investments in women's health research, which is historic. not only are they signaling to rfk jr. that this isn't serious as well as that the kennedy legacy does not support what he is doing, they are also showing the american people that if this is a family that you have

trusted when it comes to policies and position, president biden and his administration and where they are going is where we're going to show our support. and so i do think it will have an impact on some of the people who don't pay attention to politics but they hear the last name kennedy and they think that he is like his uncle and all of them and jfk, but you see the majority of the kennedys that are still with us continuing to support president biden. >> carlos curbelo and alencia johnson, thank you both so very much for being with us this morning. now to breaking news from the justice department, attorney general merrick garland set to announce a landmark antitrust lawsuit against apple, accusing the tech giant of monopolizing the smartphone market by coming out with restrictive iphone features. garland will deliver a press conference at the top of the medical expense hour. nbc's ken dilanian is at the doj and joins us now by phone. what do we know about this? >> good morning, jose, this lawsuit by the justice

department is joined by 17 other state and district attorneys across the nation, and it's accusing apple of engaging in monopolistic behavior that hurts consumers, and it makes a variety of allegations. it says that apple prevents the successful deployment of what the doj calls super apps that would make it easier for consumers to switch between smartphone platforms. it says apple blocks the development of cloud streaming apps that would allow for high quality video game play. it alleges that apple inhibits the development of cross platform messaging apps so customers have to keep buying iphones. it's alleging that apple is engaging in a variety of behaviors that make it harder for software developers to release products that make it easier for us to shop around with different companies for phones. what's so interesting about this, this justice department has been very aggressive on the antitrust front. they have sued google. there was a trial against google, no verdict in that yet. the federal trade commission of

the biden administration has gone after amazon and facebook. these are america's greatest business success stories and the biden administration is essentially accusing them of illegal, monopolistic behavior, jose. >> ken dilanian, we will stay on this story. stay with us, thank you so much. next, humanitarian questions in texas as the state's controversial immigration law gets battered around in legal limbo with more states now eyeing similar laws. ow eyeing similar laws. it's hard to explain what this feels like. ♪♪ moving piles of earth. towing up to 4,000 lbs. cutting millions of blades of grass. nothing compares to experiencing it for yourself. you just have to get in the seat. smile! you found it. the feeling of finding psoriasis can't filter out the real you. so go ahead, live unfiltered with the one and only sotyktu, a once-daily pill for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding you're so ready

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38 past the hour, now to the legal showdown over texas's controversial new immigration law. a three-judge appeals court panel appearing skeptical of arguments from the texas solicitor general who argued the s.b. 4 law is consistent with federal law. the law would allow state officials to arrest and deport migrants. joining us from eagle pass, texas, is nbc's morgan chesky. also with us paola ramos. the law was blocked and allowed to go into effect. where do things stand today? >> reporter: yeah, jose, good morning, and the debate very much rages on. we know that that panel of three judges heard those oral arguments yesterday. there is no firm timetable on when we could expect their decision, but in the meantime, leaders here in texas are absolutely doubling down. we heard texas governor greg

abbott calling the crisis here at the southern border a catastrophe, and this is coming as the biden administration stresses time and time again that when it comes to enforcing immigration laws, this is not a state but strictly a federal responsibility. this morning on the texas border, both sides digging in over a controversial state law now on hold. that would give unprecedented powers to local and state authorities. >> texas has a right to defend ourselves, and we will use that authority to declare an invasion and fight back against that invasion. >> reporter: the measure known as s.b. 4 is under review by the fifth circuit court of appeals following a legal whiplash, after the supreme court allowed it to go into effect for mere hour before being paused yet again. the three-judge panel hearing arguments wednesday, appearing skeptical of the law. >> so what if someone enters in, let's say, from mexico into arizona and lives there for five years, then moves to texas. are they covered?

>> reporter: the state solicitor general pausing before saying -- >> i don't know the answer. >> reporter: signed last december by governor greg abbott, s.b. 4 would allow state authorities to arrest migrants suspected of crossing illegally and even empower state judges to order deportations back to mexico. texas leaders calling the law a direct result of the federal government failing to stop prior record numbers of migrants from crossing the southern border. the sheriff from zapata county supports the new law. >> what we're targeting is the violence, the cartel, people that want to -- violent offenders that want to come across not just from mexico but in different countries. >> in maverick county the sheriff says he needs more information about how his department would enforce it. >> are you equipped at this moment to put this law into practice? >> no, i think we need more time. >> reporter: adding the legal back and forths do little to help border communities like

his. >> do you feel like a pawn in a big political game? >> that's the way i feel. i'm pretty sure the other sheriff's of the border are thinking the same way. >> reporter: and within the last 24 hours, jose, we have heard from the country of mexico yet again, their president calling s.b. 4 draconian and dehumanizing, emphasizing that the country will not accept any migrants from the state of texas, in addition to those that they already receive from the u.s. federal government, and as for the potential legal path forward here as it relates to s.b. 4, we know these three judges that heard arguments yesterday are expected to hear more arguments on april 3rd, discussing the constitutionality of this law. but judging by their tepid response yesterday, legal experts believe that the legal footing that s.b. 4 sits on is shaky at best. jose. >> morgan chesky at eagle pass, thank you so very much. let's talk about a few of these

issues. texas solicitor general argued the state has a right to defend itself, as governor greg abbott met with sheriffs from counties across texas yesterday saying a weak border may invite terrorism, and you heard him there just a little minute ago talking about the invasion to texas. what are these arguments tend to go toward? is this a legal or is this a political argument? >> i think it's both, right? but i think that the heart right here of the story is that these arguments are flawed, right? there's the question of legality and constitutionality, right? there is the question of is s.b. 4 constitutional. all we know is that the law of the land says that only the federal government has sole power and authority over immigration matters. but then, jose, there's the question of what is the purpose of this law, right? is this a solution-based policy, or is this a fear-based policy? and i think governor abbott has given us that answer. s.b. 4 was specifically designed out of fear, right?

to your point, it was specifically designed out of this perception that there is an invasion at the southern border, that the folks that are coming in are criminals, they're members of the cartels, and they're here to threaten texans. what that means on the ground isn't more safety, right? what that means on the ground is that the governor through this policy is creating a culture of fear where latinos and immigrants will be even deterred to seek basic health care, you know, matters in their lives. it is a culture of fear where migrants and asylum seekers that already have a lot of trauma with them, will be further traumatized and all this policy does, jose, is it pushes these folks into the shadows while it emboldens dangerous actors like vigilantes. so no matter how we look at this, it is a logic that is completely flawed. >> you know, paola, i was just thinking a little while ago about your extraordinary reporting over the years on this specific issue, thinking we were just in mat morose recently mexico, speaking to the people

who are at the bottom of this discussion, the real important ones, men, women, and children who have made the most extraordinarily difficult journey just to try to get to the united states to request asylum. how is that being forgotten? why is that not being part of the most important part of any discussion? >> it used to be the case that i believe that we used to see asylum seekers and see them as humans, see them as mothers, as fathers, as children that are escaping dangerous situations and are coming to the united states not just out of desperation but that in this country we believe and we know that every human being has a legal right to seek asylum. however, we're no longer doing that. what this law implies is that if you're an asylum seeker and you step into texas -- or forget even about that, if you're a latino resident in texas, what this potentially means is that if you speak spanish, if you are

brown, if you look like an immigrant, if you have family members that are immigrants, what this means is that you can now be potentially questioned, right? all this does is it undermines the heart of that asylum seeking process that, you know, we should be very proud of. >> and the question, of course, is what is an immigrant look, right? it's to the decision -- >> exactly. >> it's such a subjective thing. always great speaking with you, thank you so much. good to see you. >> thank you. and more breaking news at this hour, the manhattan d.a. has just filed a new response about those documents that caused the month-long delay to the start of trump's hush money trial. back with us former federal prosecutor carol lam. carol, you've been reading through this filing. i understand it's quite a substantial filing. what are your takeaways so far? >> yeah, and, jose, so what this filing is is the response from the new york district attorney's office, which is prosecuting this hush money case against former president trump.

and what this pleading does is it explains to the judge the efforts that the district attorney's office made in order to comply with its what's called discovery obligations with respect to the former president. so michael cohen is going to be a big witness for the d.a.'s office in this prosecution, and recall that back in 2018, michael cohen was convicted. he pled guilty and was sentenced by the southern district of new york, which is the federal prosecutors, not the state prosecutors in new york city. now, what happens is in the course of the investigation in the federal case, they develop, of course, a lot of investigative evidence, witness interviews, phone records, bank accounts, that sort of thing, and a lot of that may be relevant to michael cohen's testimony in the hush money case in new york state court. so the manhattan d.a. has an obligation within reason to

gather and turn over to donald trump's defense team in the new york state case all relevant evidence and the new york state law provides that that's fairly wide ranging, and so what the district attorney does in this pleading is he sets forth all the efforts, all the meetings that the d.a. had with the federal prosecutors to gather this evidence and what he says is, hey, at the end of the day, there are only 270 documents out of the 30,000 some documents that they've just gotten that they hadn't already gotten or are actually relevant. so this is the d.a.'s response. >> carol lam, appreciate it. the first round of march madness matchups are set for today, is your bracket about to get busted? we texted her when we were on our way. and she could track us and see exactly when we'd arrive. >> woman: i have a few more minutes. let's go!

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now to a potential technological breakthrough that could change lives. elon musk's brain chip company neuralink posted this video yesterday, appearing to show a quadriplegic man using a computer using just his mind. the man said, quote, it is not perfect, but the device already changed his life. >> basically it was like using the force and i could get it to move wherever i wanted, just stare somewhere on the screen and it would move where i wanted it to, which was such a wild experience. >> neuralink says it is looking for people to participate in its first clinical trial. one thing everybody is talking about and thinking about today, the greatest tournament in college basketball. march madness is here. bracket busters, buzzer beaters and cinderella stories. march is promising to be one for the sports history books with the men's game starting today

and the women's tournament tipping off tomorrow. grambling state university with this win to earn their way into the tournament. joining us now is nbc's sam brock from boca raton, florida. good morning. how are you doing on your bracket? how confident are you? >> reporter: i've long since given up. it is a futile attempt to think i can master my brackets. but i will tell you this, what is not futile, i was on this campus a year ago, they were a number nine seed and i was thinking how far are they going to get. they haven't been in the tournament in two decades. they made it to the final four. one of the beautiful things about this, you have the dominant players like uconn on the men's side, south carolina undefeated on the women's side, expected to wreak havoc throughout the field. it is the faus, the upstarts that make this tournament so special. >> here's hadley on a fade. >> reporter: college basketball season is on the rise nationwide. >> buries it.

>> what a shot. >> reporter: with schools like vanderbilt and presbyterian punching their way into the big dance, as part of the first four for the women. late theatrics from grambling state in overtime -- >> and it is over here in dayton. >> reporter: -- finalized the men's field, which tips off in a matter of hours. the overwhelming favorite or big dog -- >> let's go get you number six! >> reporter: -- the uconn huskies looking to defend their national title. >> we want back-to-back rings. >> reporter: even the school's mascot jonathan the husky revealing his bracket strategy, picking all dogs to win and all cats to lose. but what about owls? florida atlantic university, from boca raton, became a household name last year, en route to a stunning final four appearance. >> we're extremely excited to advance to the ncaa tournament for the second year in a row. we don't take it for granted. we know how difficult it is. >> reporter: but make no mistake, the biggest star power

anywhere in basketball is iowa's caitlin clark. >> this for college basketball history. >> reporter: who just broke the all time ncaa scoring mark and according to tickpick is college basketball's main attraction, her sensation is causing women's final four ticket prices to reach historic levels. the company says it sold six times as many women's tickets to the final four as men's tickets, not counting the national championship. from 16th seeded drexel to the overall number one seed south carolina, undefeated and hungry after falling just short a year ago. >> south carolina will win the national title if what? >> if we don't beat ourselves. >> reporter: it is going to be another march filled with elite players, trying to become 2024's national champs. you'll recall a year ago, lsu beat iowa for the women's national title. their respective superstars are

back, caitlin clark and angel reese. the thing that is different this year, in the same region of the bracket, so they may be meeting one another in the elite eight, not the national title game. a lot of drama and they're building around that. as for the men's game, kicks off really in about an hour. so buckle your seat belt and get ready. back to you. >> absolutely. sam brock, thanks so much, good to see you. coming up in minutes, we will be hearing from the justice department about its case against apple, accusing them of monopolizing the smartphone market. more "jose diaz-balart reports" after a short break. please don't go anywhere. " after a short break. please don't go anywhere despite treatment, it's still not under control. but now i have rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema—fast. some rinvoq patients felt significant itch relief as early as 2 days. some achieved dramatic skin clearance as early as 2 weeks. and many taking rinvoq saw clear or almost-clear skin.

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my name is oluseyi and some of my favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. welcome back. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. right now we're keeping a very close eye on the justice department. any moment now we're expecting attorney general merrick garland and other justice department officials to announce a