jacob soboroff explains. >> reporter: the danger of wildfire couldn't have been any lower when we visited here in the middle of a winter storm last week. that's why this firefighting captain wanted to bring us to southwest t washington, where h fought the tunnel 5 fire in the summer of 2023. this isn't national forest? why do you respond here? >> we're a part of our nation's promise to the public to respond to wildfire emergencies. >> reporter: that promise might be getting harder to keep. as president trump's hiring freeze has seasonal firefighters in limbo when onboarding for the next fire season should have started. by the time you made it here, this house was in flames? >> in the process of burning down. i have firefighters i should be bringing on. >> repter: you can't hire even if you want to? >> i can't. >> reporter: why are you thinking about hiring firefighters? >> this is the time of year where we are training, we are preparing, getting qualifications we need to answer the call to service when summer does come. >> reporter: the u.s. forest service, national park service employ mo

nbc's jacob soboroff explains. >> reporter: the danger of wildfire couldn't have been any lower when we visited the columbia river gorge in the middle of a winter storm last week. but that's exactly why u.s. forest service captain wanted to bring us to washington where he fought a fire in the summer of 2023. this isn't a national forest, is it? >> no, it's not. >> reporter: why do you guys show up and fight fire here? >> we're part of the promise to the public to respond to wildfire emergencies. >> reporter: that promise might be getting harder to keep. as president trump's hiring freeze has thousands of federal seasonal firefighters in limbo at a time when onboarding for the next fire season should have already started. so, by the time you made it here the house was already in flames. >> it was in the process of burning down. i have firefighters i should be bringing on and i can't. >> reporter: why are you thinking of hiring firefighters right now? >> this is the time of year we're training, preparing, getting the qualifications we need to answer the call to service when the summer

jacob soboroff joins us with that part of the story. hat is happening with firefighters and what's at stake in the short and long term? >> reporter: yeah, essentially the hiring of federal firefighters is paused at this moment. a lot of people might say i didn't know there were federal firefighters. turns out they were critical to the response here in the los angeles area in the wake of what governor newsom said was the most devastating wildfire, biggest one by cost in the history of the united states. you have firefighters from the bureau of land management, the national forest service. 15 to 20,000 in any given year. many are career officials, but more are temporary workers, seasonal workers. it requires a lengthy on boarding process because of the federal background check system. any delay in the hiring of federal firefighters who literally in some cases save neighborhoods in the eaton fire zone can jeopardize the next fire season and the fire coverage these firefighters will be able to provide. i'm specifically talking here about the

our friend and colleague jacob soboroff.er we just watched those green trucks that you just showed on your screen from the us forest service show up as part of this massive mutual aid effort, along with their colleagues from. >> the bureau of land. >> management and the national park service, in what governor gavin newsom himself told me was going to end up being one of the worst, if not the worst, natural disaster in the history of the united states of america. knowing what we know about how those firefighters played a key role in literally saving specific neighborhoods in the eaton fire, this executive order went out on january 20th. it said it exempted public safety services and officials. but the people on the front lines, the literally the ones doing the hiring engaged in hr are telling me specifically things like they're getting emails saying hold all offers related to fire positions because of this hiring freeze. and i have been speaking with all of these departments, officials and spokespeople from all these departme

jacob soboroff, thank you. >>> time for some good news. one baby seal's big-city detour.ne connecticut community and capture hearts across the country. here's nbc's emily ikeda. >> reporter: seals are no strangers to new england, but this was a sighting that connecticut won't soon forget. police responding to a stranded gray seal pup in the heart of new haven. >> hello. >> reporter: flopping more than 1,300 feet through the city streets and popping up several times in the water in the days before. >> he's right in here. >> oh my god. he's adorable. >> reporter: for the first time since the rescue, officer justin reuniting with his newfound friend, now in the care of mystic aquarium. >> you hear a lot of different radio transmissions coming across the radio as a cop, but hearing a seal walking down the street is definitely one that takes the cake. >> reporter: while many joke the seal was chasing new haven's famous clam pizza. >> i think he was trying to go inland to find a nice quiet area and found himself in the middle of the city. >> reporter: mystic aquarium is helping

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joining us now, nbc news national political correspondent jacob soboroff.and hiring at risk in the middle of a fire season? it's ongoing now in california, and right after just one of the biggest disasters this country has ever seen. >> yeah, you nailed the key. >> question, katie. that's the same question that people inside the bureau of land management. inside the us forest service and the national park service are all asking about this freeze and why, despite the executive order saying that public safety would be exempt, that firefighters. >> are not being onboarded right now. you know. >> when. >> remember when you and i. >> were in the palisades up at the high part of the palisades highlands? we're actually talking to joy reid. a green fire truck drove by, and that was the u.s. forest service. they had come as basically reinforcement in the mutual aid effort to help the los angeles city and the los angeles county fire department and all the other local jurisdictions. and those firefighters are key to fighting. >> huge. >> massive fires, not just on fed

on thursday, i'm going to go to los angeles and i'm very excited to be talking to our own jacob soboroffor that show to the national day labor organizing network to support all the immigrant workers who are right now working to rebuild los angeles after the fire. hope to see you there. >> work. play. blink. relief. work. play. blink. relief. work. play. blink. relief. >> the only [coughing] copd is an ugly reality. do you have his medical history? i watch as his world just keeps getting smaller. but then, trelegy helped us see things a little differently. with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. once-daily trelegy also improves lung function, so he can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tong

nbc's jacob soboroff, tell us about that. >> yeah, that's right. >> the trump administration's hiring. freeze has effectively stopped the hiring of federal firefighters. all throughout the federal firefighter system. >> and you might say. >> didn't know there was a federal firefighter system. >> well, there's. >> about 15,000. >> to. >> 20,000 federal firefighters. >> depending on the season. >> many of them are. >> seasonal, either. career or temporary seasonal. >> workers. >> which means that every year that there is a significant onboarding process for these. >> federal firefighters. >> and here in los angeles, in. >> southern california. >> because of this massive mutual aid response. >> to fight. >> the devastating. >> wildfires that we had. >> here. >> those federal firefighters were critical to beat back and in. >> fact, save some neighborhoods, including in the eaton fire. >> as part of. >> that mutual aid effort. but in these agencies. >> the bureau of. >> land management, the u.s. forest. >> service, the national park service, the onboarding process is frozen, and because of

on thursday i'm going to go to los angeles and i'm very excited to be talking to our own jacob soboroffthat show just sold out, but there is a waiting list. just scan the qr code for a link. i'm also going to donate the total ticket gate for that show to the national day labor organizing network to support all the immigrant workers who are right now working to rebuild los angeles after the fire. i hope to see you there. >> hi, grandma. i played baseball today. >> oh. that's great. >> what position did you play? >> first base. >> that's a great grandpa. used to play when our hearing wouldn't allow us to use a regular phone. it made us feel isolated. >> it became difficult to communicate with our friends and family. >> clear captions was an easy solution for us. >> clear captions provides captions on a phone, like captioning on your tv so you can see what the caller is saying live as they say. >> it, making it easy to understand and respond immediately. >> there is no insurance or medicare required. clear caption service is provided at no cost to you through a federally funded program. we

kids in cages, in massive, windowless warehouses, as nbc's jacob soboroff called them, essentially incarceratedldren were forcibly separated from their parents, with no set process for ever reuniting them. the youngest child taken was four months old. even those who were reunited with their parents were deeply traumatized, according to a 2021 study, several children suffered symptoms of ptsd more than a year after being reunited with their parents. worse yet, more than 1300 children are still separated from their parents, according to a december report by human rights watch. an april 2020 report from the government's family reunification task force had a similar number, but the government is no longer working on reunifying these children with their parents. on his first day in office, trump dissolved the family reunification task force shortly after donald trump's department of homeland security issued a new directive. now, sensitive locations like schools and churches, where federal immigration authorities had been prevented from making arrests. arrests are sensitive, no longer agents, accordi

let's go right to nbc news correspondent jacob soboroff. who is the reporter on this story. what can you tell us? >> hey, mika. good morning. >> so, yeah. >> you know, one of the things i think. >> that was a. >> massive relief to people here in. >> los angeles as. >> we went through both the palisades and the eaton. >> fire, was. >> the sight. >> of those green. >> fire trucks. >> pulling up from the. >> u.s. forest. >> service. >> and what. was really a massive mutual aid effort. >> there was federal. >> there was state. >> and there were local. jurisdictions from all over california and all. >> over the country. >> that. >> came to assist in battling what. governor gavin newsom told me was potentially. >> the most. >> costly natural disaster in the history of the united states of america. there are around 15 to 20,000. federal firefighters that work for the united states government. most of them. are temporary, either career or temporary, but all are seasonal. and so every year there is a massive onboarding. process for many. >> of. >> these positions. and because it's th

but, first, she sat down with jacob soboroff. >> there are not many people that ascended to icon statusthe better part of six decades, jane fonda has been a force to be reckoned with. >> we could be better friends than that. >> in 1960 to her turn as uptight grace in "grace and frankie" some 60 years later, she's remained a hollywood powerhouse. this is an industry that, i think it's fair to say, has been derided for ageism and sexism. how do you continue to buck that trend? >> i stay healthy. i stay fit. i mean, i'm still young in my head. i feel way younger than i did when i was 20, i'll tell you. >> after multiple battles with cancer, at age 87, that youthful spirit still shows. >> it's fonda. >> she's still having fun and she's still speaking out about issues she cares about. >> it's gonna be another hot girl summer. did you know last year was the hottest year on record. >> fonda has always been all-in on what she's done. there has been so many honors and careers over your career. two oscars, seven golden globes, a prime time emmy, honorary golden lion. but the sag lifetime achievem