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(WASHINGTON) — In February 2023, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted to social media a tightly edited video with dramatic music showing thousands of men, with their heads pushed down, being transferred to the country’s newest prison: the Terrorism Confinement Center.

“Early this morning, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT),” Bukele said on X. “This will be their new home, where they will live for decades, unable to do any more harm to the population.”

Two weeks ago, Bukele posted a similar video on X in which hundreds of men in white uniforms, with their heads shaved, are seen running bent over while being moved into the mega prison. But this time, the individuals weren’t criminals who were arrested in El Salvador.

The video showed CECOT receiving over 200 Venezuelan migrants who are alleged to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The migrants were sent to El Salvador by U.S. authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, as part of a $6 million deal the Trump administration arranged in their effort to crack down on illegal immigration.

CECOT, one of Latin America’s largest prisons, was opened as part of a crackdown on criminal gangs in El Salvador, whose incarceration rate is one of the highest in the world. The mega prison, which can hold up to 40,000 detainees, has been criticized by human rights groups over alleged human rights violations.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was scheduled to visit the prison on Wednesday along with the Salvadorian minister of justice.

The move by the Trump administration to deport alleged migrant gang members to a notorious prison in another country, without due process, has sparked an outcry from relatives of some of the detainees and by immigration advocates and attorneys who say that some of those deported were not Tren de Aragua gang members.

An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week acknowledged in a sworn declaration that “many” of the noncitizens deported last week under the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States. Administration officials have not been clear about the evidence they have that shows the detainees are gang members.

In a subsequent sworn declaration, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Robert Cerna argued that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”

The declaration was included in the Trump administration’s recent motion to vacate Judge James Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking deportations pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act.

“While it is true that many of the [Tren de Aragua gang] members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat,” Cerna said.

Ivannoa Sanchez, who told ABC News that her husband, Jose Franco Caraballo Tiapa, is being held at CECOT, said that he has never been in trouble with the law.

“He has never done anything, not even a fine, absolutely nothing,” said Sanchez.

“I can’t rest, I don’t even eat, I haven’t even had juice or water because I know he isn’t eating either,” Sanchez said.

Juanita Goebertus, the director of the Americas Division of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, told ABC News that detainees in CECOT, as well as other prisons in El Salvador, are denied communication with their relatives and lawyers, and only make court appearances in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time.

“The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as ‘terrorists,’ and has said that they ‘will never leave,'” Goebertus said, adding that the Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have ever been released from CECOT.

According to human rights advocates and immigration attorneys, CECOT prisoners only leave their cell for 30 minutes a day and sleep on metal beds in overcrowded cells.

“They only have about half an hour outside of their windowless cells to be outside in a hallway of the prison,” Margaret Cargioli, an attorney for the nonprofit Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told ABC News. “They are overcrowded within each of the cells, and they’re sleeping on metal.”

For years, Amnesty International has published reports on detention centers and prisons in El Salvador, and has alleged systematic abuse of detainees and “patterns of grave human rights violations.” Those findings were acknowledged in a 2023 human rights report published by the U.S. Department of State that said there have been significant human rights issues in Salvadoran prisons.

Ana Piquer, the Americas director at Amnesty International, called the detainment in El Salvador of the Venezuelan migrants a “disregard of the U.S. human rights obligations.”

“Amnesty International has extensively documented the inhumane conditions within detention centers in El Salvador, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) where those removed are now being held, ” Piquer said in a statement. “Reports indicate extreme overcrowding, lack of access to adequate medical care, and widespread ill-treatment amounting to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.”

Attorneys representing some of the Venezuelan migrants told ABC News that the lack of communication is a special concern — as opposed to the U.S., where detainees can communicate with their families and attorneys.

“There’s no communication with family or counsel,” Cargioli said of CECOT. “The concern just raises to an entirely other level.”

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(ACWORTH, Ga.) — A Georgia mother recounted the moment she was “tug-of-warring” with a man she said tried to snatch her 2-year-old son from her while in a Walmart.

Caroline Miller was shopping at a Walmart in Acworth with her two young children last week when the incident occurred. They were in a motorized wheelchair at the time because her 4-year-old daughter wanted to ride it, she told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB.

The suspect first approached the family and asked for help finding Tylenol, she told the station.

“When I pointed my arm out this way to point to the direction of where it was, that is when he reached down, put both of his hands on Jude, and grabbed him out of my lap,” Miller told WSB this week.

“I’m like, ‘No, no, no, what are you doing? What are you doing?'” she told the station. “He pulled him. I pulled him back. We’re tug-of-warring.”

The mother was able to break away with her son and the suspect fled the store, according to police.

“I’m just glad that he’s still home with us,” Miller told WSB.

Officers responded to the Walmart on March 18 “after receiving a call of a male who attempted to snatch a juvenile away from their mother,” the Acworth Police Department said in a press release.

The child was not injured in the incident, police said.

Detectives spoke to witnesses and reviewed surveillance cameras and Flock safety surveillance cameras installed in the area, Acworth police said. They subsequently identified a suspect and secured a warrant, police said.

“We were able to see the car he got into, and followed the cameras, and used our Flock cameras in the city and was able to get a tag number and track him down,” Sgt. Eric Mistretta with the Acworth Police Department told WSB.

Mahendra Patel, 56, of Kennesaw, was arrested on Friday and has been charged with kidnapping, simple battery and simple assault, police said.

He remains in custody at the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office with no bond, online jail records show. Online records do not list any attorney information.

Miller said her children now know how to respond in dangerous situations.

“As much as we would think it would never happen, it will and does, and to be prepared for when it does,” she told WSB.

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(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — The family of former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber, who was found dead on Saturday at a home in Virginia, said the 43-year-old suffered from epilepsy, calling her sudden death a “tremendous sorrow” in a statement Wednesday.

Aber, 43, died in her sleep, her family said.

Police in Alexandria, Virginia, said in an update amid the investigation on Tuesday that “detectives have found no evidence suggesting that her death was caused by anything other than natural causes.”

Her family reiterated that it is believed Aber died from natural causes and said she “suffered from epilepsy and epileptic seizures for many years.”

The case will remain open until the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner rules on the manner and cause of death, police said.

“We expect more information from the medical examiner in the coming weeks,” her family said. “Our family is in shock and grieving deeply and we respectfully request privacy as we attempt to navigate through our unspeakable loss.”

Police in Alexandria, Virginia, said they were called to a home in Alexandria, a suburb of Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning for the report of an unresponsive woman and found Aber dead inside.

A friend of the family told ABC News on Sunday that police believe the death was the result of a longstanding medical issue.

Aber, who served as U.S. attorney in Virginia for most of the Biden administration, took office in October 2021 after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate and stepped down in January, shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

As U.S. attorney, Aber oversaw a staff of some 300 prosecutors and other staff and handled federal prosecutions in the state.

ABC News’ Jack Moore contributed to this report.

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(SAN DIEGO) — Sea lions on the California coast are reportedly displaying strange behavior, likely due to a harmful algae bloom impacting the region, according to marine researchers.

There have been reports of the marine mammals acting aggressively in some cases, and in others, they appear lethargic, Jeni Smith, rescue supervisor at SeaWorld San Diego, told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. Smith described one sea lion who appeared to be “star-gazing.”

“Some animals seem very, very sleepy, maybe right after having a seizure, Smith said. “They may be abnormally aggressive.”

The sea lions are likely being poisoned by domoic acid, a neurotoxin within the algae blooms, which they ingest through the fish they eat, according to marine experts. Ingesting domoic acid can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans and marine mammals, according to the Marine Mammal Care Center.

Harmful algal blooms occur when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful affects on people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some blooms produce toxins that can kill fish, mammals and birds. In some cases, the algal blooms can cause illness or death in humans, according to NOAA.

The toxic algae blooms typically only form every four to seven years, but warming temperatures and an increase of pollution can increase the growth and occurrences, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Recently, marine researchers in Southern California have witnessed consecutive years of harmful algal blooms, Dave Bader, chief operations and education officer at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, told KGTV.

The Marine Mammal Care Center has taken in nearly 150 sea lions since February, Bader said. There have been reports of dolphins and seabirds falling ill as well, and this event could be worse than the bloom that occurred in 2023, which killed 1,000 sea lions, according to the marine conservation group.

RJ LaMendola said he was surfing when he was attacked at Oxnard State Beach in Ventura County, California, by a “demonic” sea lion that bit him and dragged him off his board, he wrote on Facebook on Friday.

LaMendola described the sea lion as “feral” and “almost demonic.” The decades-long surfer was struck that the mammal was “devoid of the curiosity or playfulness” he usually associates with sea lions, he wrote.

“This isn’t normal sea lion behavior — it’s something darker, something dangerous,” he wrote, saying he won’t be surfing again “anytime soon.”

Smith urged the public to do their part to create a better environment for marine life and prevent pollution.

“Throwing away their trash, not allowing anything toxic to go down the storm drain, because everything goes back to the ocean,” Smith said.

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(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione violated the “special treatment” he was afforded for his last court appearance when handwritten notes were concealed inside a pair of argyle socks he was allowed to wear, New York City prosecutors said Wednesday in a new court filing.

Mangione, who is accused of gunning down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, was given special accommodations for his “fashion needs” when he was allowed to change out of his jail-issued clothing before his Feb. 21 court appearance, according to the filing.

The defense team gave a court officer a bag of clothes, which included a new pair of argyle socks wrapped around cardboard, the filing said.

“Secreted in the cardboard were two personal heart-shaped notes, one addressed to an unknown person named ‘Joan’ and the other to Luigi stating in part ‘know there are thousands of people wishing you luck,'” the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.

“In spite of this, the defendant was permitted to wear the argyle socks, which he first changed into and later changed out of because he felt that ‘they did not look good,'” prosecutors said.

Mangione ended up appearing sock-less at the court appearance, with shackles around his ankles.

“Fortunately, the items smuggled were handwritten notes and not contraband capable of harming the transporting officers,” prosecutors noted.

The sartorial detail was included in a filing that responded to defense accusations that prosecutors withheld grand jury witness testimony and copies of electronic devices seized upon Mangione’s arrest, in violation of discovery obligations.

Prosecutors conceded they have not provided the testimony of civilian witnesses before the grand jury because they “constituted a fraction of the testimony before the Grand Jury,” comprising four of the 23 witnesses called. Otherwise, the DA’s office said there have been ample discovery disclosures to the defense.

Prosecutors also said in Wednesday’s court filing that Mangione does not need his own “specially formulated laptop” in jail because he “fails to show a necessity” to receive one.

Mangione’s attorneys asked that he be provided with a laptop “modified to the detention center’s regulations” so he can view videos, photos and other evidence.

“Without the laptop, which allows Mr. Mangione to review discovery outside the presence of counsel, there are not enough visiting hours that would allow the defense to view all discovery with the defendant (including thousands of hours of video) and also meet the Court’s current motion schedule,” the defense said.

Few inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are given laptops.

Prosecutors said Mangione “has ample access to desktop computers” that he can use to review evidence, conduct legal research, send emails and draft motions.

“Ironically, the defense repeats at every opportunity that defendant is being treated differently than other defendants similarly situated. Yet, that’s precisely what the defense seeks — special treatment for defendant, without circumstances that warrant it,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann said.

On Dec. 4, Mangione allegedly shot and killed Thompson in a premeditated attack outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan as the CEO headed to an investors conference.

According to a newly disclosed court document, the backpack Mangione was carrying when he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the murder was full of items that could suggest he intended to remain on the run and, possibly, kill again.

The backpack had a gun, a Glock magazine, 9 mm cartridges and a silencer, along with a knife, phone charger, duct tape, passport, zip ties, clothes, a computer and handwritten notes, the automatic discovery form said.

Authorities also found receipts for items purchased at a CVS and for registration at a New York City hostel under the name Mark Rosario, which matches the name on a fake New Jersey driver’s license Mangione allegedly carried.

Prosecutors extracted data from devices linked to Mangione, including a Motorola cellphone he allegedly dropped while fleeing, the document said.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges.

He has not yet entered a plea to federal charges. One of the federal charges, murder through use of a firearm, makes Mangione eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

He is due back in court on April 18.

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(BOSTON) — A Tufts University PhD student on a visa was arrested by immigration authorities outside of Boston on Tuesday night, according to the school and the student’s lawyer.

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, is a Turkish national, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.

“Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national who was maintaining valid F-1 status as a PhD student at Tufts University,” Khanbabai said in a statement. “Rumeysa was heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast on the evening of March 25th when she was detained near her home in Somerville, MA by DHS agents. We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her.”

“No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of. I filed a habeas petition requesting that she not be moved out of the District of MA which was granted by Judge [Indira] Talwani last night,” according to her lawyer.

ABC News has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ozturk is listed in the ICE database as “in custody.”

In an email to students on Tuesday, the school said it was informed that her visa status was “terminated,” and is seeking to find out more information.

“The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event, and the location where this took place is not affiliated with Tufts University,” the school wrote.

“From what we have been told subsequently, the student’s visa status has been terminated, and we seek to confirm whether that information is true. The university has no additional information at this time about the cause or circumstances of the student’s apprehension and is attempting to learn more about the incident,” it continued, in part.

“Following university protocol, the Office of University Counsel will assist in connecting the student to external legal resources should the individual request our assistance,” it added.

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(PHOENIX) — Sweltering weather across the West is expected to continue on Wednesday.

Phoenix hit 99 degrees on Tuesday, setting a new daily record. The Arizona city is expected to get up to 93 on Wednesday.

Temperatures across the West are expected to be 10 to 20 degrees above normal on Wednesday, even up in the Pacific Northwest, where Seattle and Portland, Oregon, could set new daily records.

Seattle is forecast to hit 70 degrees on Wednesday, while Portland is expected to get up to 78. Elsewhere, Salt Lake City is forecast to get into the upper 70s, which would near a daily temperature record of 79; and Grand Junction, Colorado, is expecting 80-degree weather, which is nearing the 81-degree record.

Texas is forecast to see 80-degree temperatures from El Paso to Dallas.

But a slow-moving warm front forecast for southern Texas later Wednesday is expected to bring heavy rain and possible flash flooding through Friday morning.

Parts of the Texas Gulf Coast could see 5 to 10 inches of rainfall between Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning with places such as Rockport and Corpus Christi expected to get the biggest soaking, possibly up to 15 inches in some isolated spots.

The wet weather could turn dangerous due to hard soils amid drought conditions. In the last 30 days, the region, including Corpus Christi, has gotten less than 5% of normal rainfall. Houston has seen less than 50% of normal rainfall over the last month.

The weather is also expected to take a dramatic turn in the Pacific Northwest as a storm pushing ashore later Wednesday could produce large hail, damaging wind gusts and possibly spawn tornadoes west of the Cascade Mountains.

The same system is forecast to track into the Rockies on Thursday, bringing strong winds and rain, but no severe storms.

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(WASHINGTON) — Five Cabinet members are facing a federal lawsuit over the use of Signal to coordinate military strikes in Yemen, with the case presided over by the same judge handling the case against the Trump administration over its deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is overseeing the deportation case, which has led the White House to publicly attack him and call for his impeachment. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has called him a “Democrat activist” and President Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social calling him a “radical left lunatic.”

The use of the Signal group chat was revealed Monday by The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who said he was inadvertently added to the chat as top national security officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, were discussing the operation.

Transparency nonprofit American Oversight filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., alleging that the use of Signal violates the federal law that governs the preservation of government records, asking a federal judge to order the cabinet members to preserve the messages.

According to the lawsuit, emergency relief is needed “to prevent the unlawful destruction of federal records and to compel Defendants to fulfill their legal obligations to preserve and recover federal records created through unauthorized use of Signal for sensitive national security decision-making.”

The lawsuit – which names Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the National Archives as defendants – asked a federal judge to declare the use of Signal unlawful and order the cabinet members to preserve the records immediately.

According to American Oversight, the use of Signal violated the Federal Records Act, and the chat reported by The Atlantic “strongly suggests” that the Trump administration has used Signal in other settings.

“Messages in the Signal chat about official government actions, including, but not limited to, national security deliberations, are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” the lawsuit said.

President Trump and other top administration officials have downplayed the use of the Signal to discuss the attack on the Houthis, saying classified information was not shared in the chat.

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(NEW YORK) — The Atlantic on Wednesday published a new article detailing purported information about recent American strikes in Yemen it says was accidentally shared with a journalist via Signal by senior members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

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(ANN ARBOR, MI) — One of the alleged victims in a widespread hacking scandal involving a former University of Michigan football coach said she feels “betrayed” by the school and is fearful that her personal information was further leaked online.

The woman is one of two anonymous plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed a day after the Department of Justice announced Matthew Weiss had been indicted on two dozen federal charges alleging he hacked into thousands of athlete and alumni accounts and downloaded private data, including intimate photos, over eight years.

“It never would have crossed my mind that I could have been involved, and that’s, I think, why there’s so much outrage on our end,” the woman, a former University of Michigan female athlete, told “Good Morning America.”

The Jane Doe said she was at the University of Michigan for six years as a student and employee and does not know Weiss.

“I’ve been a fan of the university my entire life,” she said. “To know that I put so much trust and so much faith into that institution, and they have betrayed me in such a significant way — I mean, it’s terrifying.”

Citing the allegations in the indictment against Weiss, the lawsuit claimed that Weiss was able to gain unauthorized access to the student-athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities maintained by Keffer Development Services, LLC, a Pennsylvania-based company, and downloaded the personally identifiable information and medical data of over 150,000 athletes.

The former coach is then accused of unlawfully gaining access to the social media, email and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 3,300 people, including the two plaintiffs, and then downloading personal, intimate photos and videos. Weiss primarily targeted female college athletes, the indictment alleged.

“I don’t think there’s really any way to know exactly what information of mine is out there,” the Jane Doe said. “It’s kind of one of those things that you can’t really shut off.”

Weiss is among the defendants in the lawsuit. ABC News has reached out to his attorney for comment on the lawsuit and federal charges and has not gotten a response.

The University of Michigan and the Regents of the University of Michigan are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleged that as a result of their “recklessness and negligence,” Weiss downloaded the women’s “personal, intimate digital photographs and videos.”

“I obviously am afraid of an individual that’s capable of doing something like this, but I’m possibly more afraid of a university that has the opportunity to prevent it from happening and doesn’t,” the Jane Doe said.

In response to the lawsuit, Kay Jarvis, the director of public affairs for the University of Michigan, said in a statement to ABC News, “We have not been served with the complaint and cannot comment on pending litigation.”

Keffer is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claimed that the company’s alleged “misconduct, negligence, and recklessness also contributed to Weiss invading the privacy of Plaintiffs and their fellow student athletes.” ABC News has reached out to the company for comment and has not gotten a response.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the two plaintiffs and as a potential class action on behalf of other alleged victims. The number of potential class members is unclear but is estimated to exceed 1,000, the lawsuit stated.

Parker Stinar, a managing partner with the Chicago-based firm Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, said he hopes to find out more about what happened to the alleged victims’ information and “to better understand how the university failed these individuals and to hold them accountable.”

“We’re talking about the University of Michigan, one of the largest, most powerful and respected academic institutions in the world, that allowed this to take place by one of their employees,” Stinar told “Good Morning America.”

Stinar said this “isn’t the first time that we have seen the University of Michigan fail their alumni and their athletes,” pointing to the case of the late Dr. Robert Anderson, who served as the school’s sports team physician for decades and was accused of molesting or sexually abusing more than 1,000 victims. In 2022, the university reached a $490 million settlement in connection with the allegations.

“We’re seeing it again, where the university has failed to protect those that give their blood, sweat and tears to the school,” Stinar said.

Weiss, 42, was arraigned Monday on 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, The Associated Press reported. His attorney, Douglas Mullkoff, declined to comment to the AP following the proceeding. ABC News also reached out to Mulkoff multiple times, but did not receive a response.

Weiss was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, ESPN reported.

If convicted, Weiss could face up to five years in prison on each count of unauthorized access and two years on each count of aggravated identity theft, according to the attorney’s office.

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