A federal judge in Maryland will order sworn testimony by officials in President Donald Trump’s administration to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis issued her order after Trump officials to retrieve , saying they defied a “clear†.
She said the process could take two weeks and told the attorneys on both sides to cancel any vacations or appointments. “The bottom line is it was a very simple directive,†Xinis said of her own order. “I’ve got nothing. I’ve got no real response.â€
The afternoon hearing White House advisers repeated the claim that they lack the authority to bring back the Salvadoran national from his native country. The president of El Salvador also said Monday that he would not return Abrego Garcia, likening it to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.â€
Here's the latest:
Pentagon senior adviser ousted in investigation into leaks
Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been placed on administrative leave and was escorted out of the Pentagon by security Tuesday, two defense officials said.
The officials said Caldwell’s sudden downfall was tied to an ongoing investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of department information. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
They did not disclose what leaks are being investigated, but there has been a crackdown across the Pentagon and the broader Trump administration on the disclosure of sensitive or classified information.
Caldwell, who served in the Marine Corps, was one of several senior advisers who worked closely with Hegseth.
Trump might give money and airplane tickets to immigrants who leave voluntarily
said he wants to give them to any immigrant who is in the country illegally who chooses to “self-deport†and also to work to get those who are “good†back in the U.S., a break from his usual .
Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to carry out mass deportations, said in a recorded interview with Fox Noticias that his administration is focused right now on getting “murderers†out of the country. But for others in the U.S. illegally, he said, he intends to implement “a self-deportation program.â€
Trump offered few details about the plan, including timing, but he added, “We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re going to work with them — if they’re good — if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can.â€
In a bid to corral the anti-Trump resistance, Bernie Sanders and AOC visit red states
Sanders, alongside his fellow progressive champion , took his deep into territory this week and drew the same types of they got in liberal and battleground states.
Outside Boise on Monday, the Ford Idaho Center arena was , with staff forced to close the doors after admitting 12,500 people. There are just 11,902 registered Democratic voters in Canyon County, where the arena is located, according to the Idaho Secretary of State’s office.
While Idaho, Utah and Montana will almost certainly remain Republican strongholds for the near future, the events offer a glimpse of widespread Democratic anger over the direction Trump’s administration and a dose of hope to progressives living in the places where they’re most outnumbered.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are among a cadre of Trump critics venturing into potentially hostile territory as Democrats are thinking about how to reverse their fortunes in next year’s midterms and the following presidential election.
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Judge orders sworn testimony over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation
A federal judge said Tuesday that she will order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis sternly told administration attorneys that Thursday’s ruling by the Supreme Court was clear in its order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.
She also disregarded Monday’s comments by White House officials and El Salvador’s president that they were unable to bring back Abrego Garcia, calling their “two very misguided ships passing in the night.â€
“The Supreme Court has spoken,†Xinis said, adding that what was said in the Oval Office “is not before the court.â€
Judge lets Justice Department cut funding for legal education programs for people facing immigration court
A federal judge has allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to temporarily stop funding legal education programs for people facing deportation or immigration court while a lawsuit moves forward in court.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss in Washington, D.C., means a coalition of nonprofit groups that offer the education programs will lose their federal funding Wednesday, and possibly some access to potential clients inside detention centers.
Unlike criminal cases, people in immigration courts and detention centers do not have a right to an attorney if they cannot afford one themselves. Proponents of the legal education programs say they ease the burden on immigration judges and help immigrants navigate the complicated court system.
Congress allocates $29 million a year for the programs.
The Justice Department first instructed the nonprofits to stop work on the programs Jan. 22, citing an executive order targeting illegal immigration.
Judge blocks the freezing of billions in climate and infrastructure funding
A federal judge ordered several federal agencies to halt efforts to freeze billions of dollars meant to finance climate and infrastructure projects across the country.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, sided with conservation and nonprofit groups and issued a preliminary injunction until she rules on the merits of the lawsuit.
In her ruling, McElroy demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Interior and the Agriculture Department end their practice of freezing, halting or pausing funding the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump hosts Navy football
The president welcomed the team to the White House on Tuesday in recognition of its defeat of Army and Air Force to win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy last fall.
Trump introduced the Midshipmen’s coach and co-captains to deliver brief remarks, received a football and a ring from the team and invited them to tour the Oval Office.
It was the latest victory celebration hosted by Trump in recent days.
Income tax day is here, but Trump is unlikely to release his returns like most presidents before him have done
Trump interrupted that tradition in his first term, insisting he couldn’t release the returns because they were being audited. He held to that reasoning even after the IRS said taxpayers under audit are free to .
A White House spokesperson doubted that Trump would release his returns on Tuesday.
Trump’s immediate predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, released his income tax returns annually during his four-year term.
Representatives for Vice President JD Vance’s office did not respond to an email request for comment on whether he’s releasing his 2024 return.
The administration has repeatedly claimed it is the most transparent in history.
Washington mayor orders hiring and overtime freezes
Washington’s mayor ordered a freeze in hiring and overtime Tuesday and told staffers to prepare for potential facility closures.
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s wide-ranging order comes as the capital looks to reconcile a $1.1 billion hole left in its budget last week when the House adjourned without addressing it.
The order also gives the city administrator until April 25 to present a plan for furloughing employees and closing facilities. Public schools and Department of Human Services shelters are listed as exempt, but police and fire stations are not.
“We’re concerned when people call 911, they won’t get the same level of help that they see now,†said David Hoagland, president of the D.C. firefighters union.
Agencies can seek waivers on a case-by-case basis.
Bowser said Monday that she notified Congress that the city was using federal law to increase its budget by 6%, which it can do without lawmakers’ approval.
Tariff confusion, rapid-fire orders and potential cuts are troubling Alaska Sen. Murkowski
The confusion over tariffs in the first months of the Trump administration, along with a head-spinning rash of executive orders and potential cuts to safety-net social programs, are exceptionally concerning, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.
“We are all afraid,†Murkowski said Monday at a leadership seminar for nonprofit and tribal representatives, the . “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.â€
The has been one of the both her party and the president when she felt it necessary, such as voting against , Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
Murkowski criticized some of the administration’s approaches to implementing policy measures and service cuts, saying some were “unlawful.â€
“It is as hard as anything I have been engaged in, in the 20-plus years I’ve been in the Senate,†Murkowski said.
Lawyers for Harvard in Trump administration dispute are no strangers to high-profile legal matters
The two attorneys representing Harvard University in a are no strangers to the spotlight or to Washington investigations that reach into the White House.
One of them, Robert Hur, was a senior Justice Department official during President Donald Trump’s first term and served for a time as the top federal prosecutor in Maryland. But he’s perhaps best known as the President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information and produced a report that painted a damaging assessment of Biden’s mental acuity months before the Democrat dropped his bid for reelection.
The other, William Burck, has been a dating back years. A former lawyer in President George W. Bush’s White House, he represented multiple Trump associates during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and has more recently in a corruption case that was brought, and later dropped, by the Justice Department.
The involvement of the lawyers — both well-known in conservative legal circles and both selected in the past for prominent Trump orbit positions — is an interesting wrinkle to a hugely consequential dispute between the federal government and the country’s oldest and wealthiest university. The clash is shaping up to be a seminal moment in Trump’s ongoing to his will by threatening to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding if they don’t agree to major campus policy reforms.
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‘The framers of our constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power’
A federal judge on Tuesday placed a hold on much of Trump’s order forbidding the federal government from doing business with anyone who hires the law firm Susman Godfrey, making it the fourth time a judge has found the president’s targeting of law firms is likely unconstitutional.
“The framers of our constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power,†District Court Judge Loren AliKhan said as she entered the temporary restraining order on behalf of Susman, which represented a voting machine firm that won a $787 billion settlement from Fox News over its airing of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
Trump’s order cited the firm’s election work as a reason it was targeted. Several other firms that have been targeted by Trump entered into , promising to provide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free legal work for the president’s favored causes.
Susman and at least three others have chosen to fight and all have so far won in court.
Trump border czar not ready to comment on legality of sending Americans to El Salvador prison
Tom Homan told reporters he’d only gotten back to Washington on Monday and had yet to discuss the issue with the president.
Homan said he didn’t want to be “opining on something I really don’t have the information on.â€
When he met in the Oval Office on Monday with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, Trump reiterated that he’d like . Such a move likely would be illegal.
Key vaccine committee meets for the first time under RFK Jr.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a leading voice in the U.S. .
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ two-day meeting is taking up policy questions that had been put on hold when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the panel’s February meeting.
The committee is slated to vote Wednesday afternoon on whether to make new recommendations regarding three kinds of vaccines, including one for meningitis and another to prevent a mosquito-borne illness.
It seems likely those recommendations would fall to Kennedy to decide on.
US judge to question Trump officials’ refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The administration has to retrieve from an El Salvador prison, even after the Supreme Court to the U.S.
The 4 p.m. hearing in a U.S. District Court White House advisers repeated the claim that they lack the authority to bring back the Salvadoran national from his native country. The president of El Salvador also said Monday that he would not return Abrego Garcia, likening it to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.â€
Abrego Garcia, 29, for roughly 14 years, during which he worked construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities, according to court records.
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Federal judge bars Trump administration from taking action against student from India
The University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering student is slated to graduate in less than a month.
The order comes as the Trump administration is of foreign students across the country with little notice.
The judge granted Krish Lal Isserdasani, 21, a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from revoking his student visa or detaining him.
U.S. District Judge William Conley wrote that Isserdasani “was given no warning, no opportunity to explain or defend himself, and no chance to correct any potential misunderstanding before his F-1 student visa record was terminated.â€
The judge set a hearing for April 28, less than two weeks before Isserdasani is to graduate.
White House removes aging Kennedy magnolia tree from the Rose Garden due to safety concerns
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Park Service, in a statement released by the White House, said the more than 60-year-old saucer magnolia was removed from the southwest corner of the garden last Saturday because its condition had steadily declined due to underlying soil issues and root disease.
Certified arborists had confirmed the tree had “entered a state of irreversible decline and needed to be removed for safety.â€
The Kennedy magnolia was one of four planted in the corners of the Rose Garden during John F. Kennedy’s administration in March and April of 1962.
A new tree has taken its place.
Last week, a at the south entrance to the White House that dated to Andrew Jackson’s presidency was removed for similar reasons.
NAACP sues Trump administration over efforts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion at schools
The lawsuit challenges actions by the Department of Education threatening federal funding for schools that don’t end DEI programs, saying the department is prohibiting legal efforts to give equal opportunity to Black students.
“In direct conflict with its mission, the Office for Civil Rights has baselessly characterized vital efforts to advance racial equality to themselves be racially discriminatory, thus weaponizing the anti-discrimination laws against the very communities they are meant to protect,†said Michaele N. Turnage Young, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of NAACP.
Visa revocations for international students pile up, with hundreds of students fearing deportation
At least 600 students at more than 90 colleges and universities around the U.S. have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally.
Advocacy groups collecting reports from colleges say hundreds more students could be caught up in the crackdown.
The speed and scope of the visa and status terminations have alarmed students, schools and immigration lawyers, who say they’ve been flooded with calls from panicked students. Some students have begun to challenge the terminations in court, with one student in New Hampshire granted a temporary restraining order.
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White House says ‘the ball is in China’s court’ on resolving tariffs and trade issues
President Trump imposed new tariffs of as much as 145% on Chinese goods on the premise that the taxes will generate new revenues, help reduce the federal budget deficit and force China to make concessions in talks. So far, the Chinese government has shown no willingness to back down by placing 125% tariffs on U.S. goods.
“The ball is in China’s court,†White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Tuesday’s news briefing. “China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them. There’s no difference between China and any other country except they are much larger. And China wants what we have, what every country wants ... the American consumer. Or to put it another way, they need our money.â€
Trump thanks Omani leader for hosting first round of US and Iran talks
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the sultan of Oman spoke earlier Tuesday.
Trump thanked him for hosting last Saturday’s talks and stressed the need for Iran to end its nuclear program through negotiations.
Leavitt said the leaders also discussed U.S. military operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen and emphasized they’ll “pay a severe price†until attacks against ship traffic in the Red Sea are halted.
As Trump considers auto tariffs pause, parts exemptions could be key for US industry
President Trump hinted he might temporarily relieve the auto industry from “permanent†on the business. The president didn’t specify how long the potential pause would be or what it would entail, but is awaiting how rules might change on 25% tariffs based on U.S. parts, if duties remain on assembled vehicles.
Experts have said short pauses aren’t likely to give carmakers enough of an opportunity to adjust their vast global supply chains, though parts exemptions would certainly bolster the industry amid Trump’s trade war whiplash.
Trump that automakers “need a little bit of time because they’re going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I’m talking about things like that,†referring to relocating production from Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. The news drove global auto stocks up Tuesday.
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Harvard’s challenge to Trump administration could test limits of government power
On one side is Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, with a brand so powerful that its name is synonymous with prestige. On the other side is the Trump administration, than any other White House to reshape American higher education.
Both sides are digging in for a clash that could test the limits of the government’s power and the independence that’s made U.S. universities a destination for scholars around the world.
On Monday, Harvard become the first university as it demands sweeping changes . The university frames the government’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.
“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,†the university’s lawyers wrote Monday to the government. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.â€
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‘This is an all hands on deck moment,’ Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries says
His comments came ahead of former President Joe Biden’s planned speech Tuesday in Chicago about protecting Social Security.
On a call with reporters to preview the Social Security Day of Action, Jeffries accused Republicans of engaging in “cult-like behavior†as many support the Trump administration’s plans for the Social Security Administration, which include massive cuts to the agency’s workforce and in-person services.
Jeffries said the administration is “trying to jam down the throats of American people†a plan for Social Security that many Americans disagree with. “Congress has a responsibility to work for the American people.â€
“Its my hope that we sound the alarm, and over the days and weeks to come, that a handful of House Republicans will break from the most extreme elements of their party, to both protect and strengthen Social Security.â€
Federal judge puts temporary hold on removals sought by Trump under 18th century wartime law
The law is known as the Alien Enemies Act.
District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney issued the emergency order Monday night after the American Civil Liberties Union requested it on behalf of two Venezuelan men being held in Denver who feared they would be falsely accused of belonging to .
Trump has contended the gang is invading the United States, but his critics have said he’s using the gang as the pretext for an overhyped anti-migrant narrative.
Sweeney’s order temporarily bars removal of all noncitizens who are currently in custody in the District of Colorado and who may be subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act, which last month. The act has been used only three other times in American history, most recently to intern Japanese-American citizens during World War II.
last week that anyone being deported under the declaration deserved a hearing in federal court first.
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Democratic groups like ActBlue and Indivisible prepare to be targeted by Trump
As Trump pushes the historical boundaries of executive power, some of the Democratic Party’s core political institutions are preparing for the possibility the federal government may soon launch criminal investigations against them.
The Democrats’ dominant national fundraising platform, ActBlue, and the party’s largest protest group, Indivisible, are working with their attorneys for just such a scenario, according to officials within both organizations. Trump’s top political allies have suggested both groups should face prosecution.
Other Democratic allies are planning for Trump-backed legal crackdowns as well. Wary of antagonizing the Republican president, most prefer to stay anonymous for now.
“Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,†said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates and is chaired by Marc Elias, the lawyer who has himself been a Trump target.
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Afghan children will die because of US funding cuts, aid official says
The warning Tuesday follows by , including to where more than half of the population to survive.
Action Against Hunger initially stopped all U.S.-funded activities in March after the money dried up suddenly. But it kept the most critical services going in northeastern Badakhshan province and the capital Kabul through its own budget, a measure that stopped this month.
Its therapeutic feeding unit in Kabul is empty and closing this week. There are no patients, and staff contracts are ending because of the U.S. funding cuts.
“If we don’t treat children with acute malnutrition there is a very high risk of (them) dying,†Action Against Hunger’s country director, Cobi Rietveld, told The Associated Press. “No child should die because of malnutrition. If we don’t fight hunger, people will die of hunger. If they don’t get medical care, there is a high risk of dying. They don’t get medical care, they die.â€
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Another US aircraft carrier in Mideast waters ahead of second round of Iran-US nuclear talks
That’s shown in satellite photos analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press.
The operation of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group in the Arabian Sea comes as overnight into Tuesday. American officials repeatedly have linked the monthlong U.S. campaign against the Houthis under President Trump as a means to pressure Iran in the negotiations.
Questions remain over where the weekend talks between the countries will be held after officials initially identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for . American officials so far haven’t said where the talks will be held, though Trump did call on Tuesday while the ruler was on a trip to the Netherlands.
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Judge grants Justice Department request to drop case against alleged East Coast MS-13 leader
The late March arrest of Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos in the suburbs outside Washington was celebrated by the Trump administration. But prosecutors moved to dismiss the gun case against him two weeks later, saying they planned to deport him instead.
Villatoro Santos’ lawyer, in an usual request, had urged the judge not to immediately dismiss the case, saying he feared his client would be deported to an El Salvador prison without a chance to challenge his removal.
Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick said during a court hearing Tuesday that he would grant the government’s request to dismiss the case. But the ruling won’t go into effect until Friday to give the defense a chance to explore other avenues before he’s handed over to immigration authorities.
Johnson & Johnson expects $400 million in tariff-related costs, mostly related to China
The costs will be felt primarily within the company’s medical technology unit, which makes a range of medical devices and surgical products. The most substantial impact comes from tariffs against China and retaliatory tariffs from China, said Joseph Wolk, Johnson & Johnson’s chief financial officer, in a conference call with analysts following the company’s latest earnings results.
The company’s estimate also includes the impact from tariffs on aluminum and steel, along with tariffs against key U.S. trading partners Canada and Mexico. Johnson & Johnson said contractual agreements already in place limit its leverage on price increases that could potentially soften the impact.
The cost estimate doesn’t include possible tariffs on imports of pharmaceuticals. The Trump administration has launched an investigation into imports of pharmaceuticals, which is a step towards imposing tariffs.
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Mexico officials seek to negotiate with Trump administration over taxes on tomatoes
Mexican officials said Tuesday they’re convinced they can negotiate with the Trump administration over a 21% duty on Mexican tomato exports the U.S. says it will impose in 90 days.
And they warned they could respond with taxes on chicken and pork imports.
“Mexico always has the possibility of applying sanctions in the case of the chicken or pork meat,†Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
The Trump administration has justified the tax with dumping allegations, claiming it was backing out of a 2019 agreement in order to protect domestic tomato growers from “unfair pricing.â€
Mexico, a leading tomato producer, exports billions of dollars a year in tomatoes to the U.S. and the tax could deal a blow to Mexican agricultural producers.
